During my late severe illness, a strong impression rested on my mind,
that I was called to participate in the last sufferings of Jesus
Christ. The language of my heart was, I am ready, O, Father, to suffer
all thy will! In thus yielding my heart, as Abraham when called to
sacrifice his beloved Isaac, I realized a new bond of alliance with
Christ, and these words, "I will betroth thee unto me forever," was the
voice of the Bridegroom to my soul.
When Paul said, "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus," he did
not refer to any external marks in the flesh, but to bearing the states
of Jesus Christ. In David are expressed all the states of Christ, with
the difference only there is between the type and the original. Job
was an eminent instance of being reduced to nothingness, and also of
exaltation by the favor of God. Those who pass through the furnace,
and suffer with Christ, are prepared to wear the white robe, which
adorns the bride, the Lamb's wife. Their souls become the
dwelling-place of the Most High.
Are not those beautiful subterranean palaces, which we read of in
fable, and which are reached after crossing deep caverns, and so hidden
that none can find them, only those to whom the secret is revealed,
representative of the interior palace of the soul, where the Lord
inhabits. "The king's daughter is all glorious within."