leprosy in the walls, and it must come down. Sin, that tyrant and ugly
monster, has rendered it necessary that it should be changed, in order to
enjoy union to the happy soul in another state. The body has sinned with
the soul, and it must suffer with it, the body was redeemed with the
soul, and it must also be saved with it. But in order to enjoy that, it
must experience a change by sickness and death. This is a painful
subject, but the Lord will make it familiar to you. I trust whenever
death comes to you, he will wear an angel’s form, that he will be only
your Lord’s porter, sent to open the gates of glory, and conduct you
through the consecrated way which our Lord has trod. As all things are
now dying with you, I humbly hope the Lord will most graciously visit
your soul with his love, shew you that your sins are forgiven through the
doing and dying of a precious Saviour. He has blotted out, done away,
hid, removed, and covered all the sins of every coming sinner; and he
says, Let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to
our God, and he will abundantly pardon; precious text. Returning to the
Lord, is the heart, mind, faith, and hope of a soul, who was chosen in
Christ, and united to Christ. Now, by the power of the spirit bending,
inclining, seeking, and desiring Christ. Coming to the Lord our God is
moving in mind to the Father, as a God of love, grace, and mercy, in
Christ to us. Yet, if the Lord is drawing you to Christ, as your only
hope, mark, he will have mercy, he will abundantly pardon. Are you, my
dear girl, seeking his favour and mercy to be manifested to your soul,
convinced of your need of it? is your heart set upon it? do you believe
that you shall be lost without it? and has God the ever blessed Spirit
shewn you that Christ is a suitable Saviour, and that he is the gift of
the Father’s love to guilty man? And do you choose him as your Saviour
and only hope, your atoning sacrifice, and your only righteousness? God
be praised, you have ever heard the gospel, which has pointed you to him,
though you know it is not enough to be pointed to Christ, but we want
bringing to him. Hence the promise, They shall come, and I will lead
them.
Let me conclude this short letter by reciting a few texts, to encourage
you in seeking the Lord. If thou seek him, he will be found of thee. If
thou seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him if thou seek him with all
thy heart, and with all thy soul. Thou Lord hast not forsaken them that
seek thee. Your heart shall live that seek God. I said not unto the
seed of Jacob, seek me in vain. Ye shall seek me, and find me when ye
search for me with all your heart. Seek ye the Lord, till he come and
rain righteousness upon you. Seek ye me, and ye shall live. The Lord is
good to them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. He that
cometh to God, must believe that he is a rewarder of them that diligently
seek him. The hand of our God is upon all them that seek him for good.
These are among the many precious promises that the Lord has given to his
people, to encourage them to seek his face, his favour, and his
friendship. May the Holy Ghost shine on his word, and shine into your
beast; to give you joy and peace in believing.
Grace be with you,
_Ruhamah_.
The dear girl is since gone home to glory, testifying as she sunk in
death, that the Saviour was very precious to her soul.
LETTER XXXIX.
_Valley of Achor_, _April_ 12, 1819.
Mr. EDMUNDS.
MY DEAR FRIEND,
It is many months ago since I saw you, but I hope you are still in the
ways of God, looking unto Jesus. You and I have been taught to see there
is nothing but misery and destruction out of Christ, nor any hope but in
his word and work. The Lord has opened to us the spirituality of his
law, and often reflected an humbling sense of his displeasure on the
mind. Sin has been felt, and guilt has laid us low—fear, dread, and
darkness has been on the soul, and bondage, enmity, rebellion, and
distance, has been most sensibly experienced. These things have
frequently beset me since I have been here, and although they have been
painful feelings, I esteem them after they are over, as to the hungry
soul, every bitter thing is sweet. But the Father not only chastens us,
but he draws us to Christ. He first teaches us our lost state. I do not
say the Lord communicates this bondage, this darkness and misery, but we
are quickened to feel our sinfulness, and all these unpleasant sensations
come on, of course; but being thus chastened, we are taught the value of
Christ, by seeing our need of a Mediator, a surety, a better
righteousness, and an intercessor in the light of the word; and by the
spirit we see the exact suitableness of Christ, and are quickened to long
for a sense of his mercy, the pardon of sin, and peace with God, in God’s
own way. This we desire above all things else; and the adorable Father
draws us out in holy, humble desires, fervent breathings, and earnest
entreaties for the joys of pardoning love, and a gracious visit from
Christ. The Father kindly guides our eyes to the promises, the
invitations, the precious declarations, and kind words of the Saviour in
the Gospel. These draw the heart; and as faith gathers sweet views, so
hope springs up, and the fears of death and hell, with a sense of God’s
anger, gradually abate. The Holy Spirit testifies of Jesus in the word,
and in our hearts; gives us blessed views of his person and love, his
infinite condescension, and his most blessed work in putting away sin,
and fulfilling the law; conquering death and subduing hell; and as living
a life of mediation in heaven for us. These things become precious, as
the mind is opened to receive these truths; and as power is felt, so the
fruits appear. His love is seen, and this sight under the spirit’s power
melts us into nothing, produces godly sorrow, sweet repentance and
humility, self loathing, and glowing love to God. _This_, _this_ my dear
friend is my past, and often is my present experience, and my conscience
can witness to it; and as to the bad opinion which good men have of me,
it once distressed me; but since I have found the good opinion of crowds
has been a snare to my soul, has puffed me up with pride, and set me down
in carnal ease, I am best without it. Applause does not agree with my
spiritual constitution, I grow best in the valley. Can the flag or the
rush grow without the mire? I wish I had never courted the applause of
man, but had been a little more anxious for the approbation of God and my
conscience. A good name was an idol, and the Devil has run away with
mine; no doubt in many cases I have justly deserved it, and now it is my
duty, privilege and mercy, to learn what God means by this trial. Hence
the command, Hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it; and the men of
wisdom shall see thy name. I have taken the highest seat in God’s house,
but the dung hill and the lowest form in the school suits me now. I have
been building my nest in the tree of creature friendship, but this storm
has blown it down, and now I am glad to embrace the rock I wet with the
showers from the mountains of trouble; but I find shelter, hope, and
solid rest in Jesus and his finished work. I shall be more fit to preach
when I return, than I was before; but I will never preach again, till the
Lord evidently calls me out. I ran once, but I ran too fast, and fell
into trouble. When God lifts me up again, I shall stand more surely and
safely, because I hope to stand in the Son, to abide in the vine, to
continue in the truth, to keep in the love of God, and all that these
expressions imply.
I trust you and your’s are growing in grace, that you still find the
Saviour precious, your helper and deliverer. The Lord is with me, and I
know it, and the good of it will be seen after many days. Kind respects
to those who still secretly esteem me for my master’s sake.
Your’s,
_Ruhamah_.
LETTER XL.
_Valley of Achor_, _June_ 1_st_, 1819.
Dear Miss SMITH,
The little Poem on Friendship which I read to you, and you was so kind as
to compliment, will be published shortly, separate from this little work.
It is a good remark I have somewhere met with, that Friendship is a plant
of too delicate a nature to grow, with any great degree of luxuriancy and
fruitfulness, in the soil of the human heart; but I ever wish to prize
its buds, its blossoms, its fruits, its very leaves, and above all, its
Divine Root; and I have a hope founded upon the doing and dying of the
adorable Friend of guilty man, that I shall enjoy this best of gifts in
its eternal bloom, in a brighter better world, when the winds of scandal
shall howl no more; the tumultuous waves and the roaring billows of
complicated grief shall distress my already tempest-tossed mind no more
for ever. I have found many acquaintance who hummed about me in the
warmth of prosperity, but like summer insects, those butterflies
disappeared, when the cold blasts of adversity, by reproach, struck a few
of my outward enjoyments; but I am more divinely led to the enjoyment of
that love which can never alter or decay. I have learned wisdom now, in
some measure, to discriminate between friends and acquaintance; and
although the latter have started back in the day of battle, yet the
former still bear me on their hearts in the right place, and _here_ they
present me, that my trials may be sanctified to me, and to the Church at
large. David had many acquaintances, but did not find a _Jonathan_ every
day. In the Church, or in the world, my trials are great; but these
would not have been so (speaking after the manner of men) if all my
acquaintance had been real friends.
I beg to conclude this note with a few jingling verses, with my most
affectionate and grateful respects to your dear father and mother, and
hope ever to bear in mind their unwearied kindness.
Had all mine acquaintance been friends,
At whose urgent request I have run,
To answer some frivolous end,
And injure me when I had done—
Had all mine acquaintance been friends,
My case before God they would lay,
And, knowing his will in his word,
Have helpt me to watch and to pray.
Had all mine acquaintance been friends,
They ne’er would have robb’d me of peace,
But comforted, cheer’d, and upheld,
And wish’d me an increase of grace.
Had all mine acquaintance been friends,
They ne’er would have wounded my name,
But covered my errors in love,
And reproved when I was to blame.
Had all my acquaintance been friends,
They’d ne’er have rejoic’d in my fall,
But pitied, and prayed, and upheld,
And for strength on my Saviour wou’d call.
Had all mine acquaintance been friends,
They ne’er would have left me in woe,
But wept in my grief and distress,
And encourag’d me onward to go.
Were all my acquaintance such friends
As Miss S— and her parents so kind,
My spirits much higher would tend,
While gratitude fir’d my mind.
_Ruhamah_.
LETTER XLI.
_Valley of Achor_, _February_ 2_nd_. 1818.
Mr. & Mrs. MARTIN.
MY VERY DEAR, FAITHFUL, and TRIED FRIENDS,
Grace and peace be to you both. I would have wrote before now, but not
knowing your direction, I waited till I had the pleasure of hearing of
you, which I did this day, from my much esteemed Friend Mrs. Brown. I
have no news to relate, I only write to assure you the Lord is very
gracious to me; and by his word, and by his spirit, he bears up my
sinking mind like pillars of marble. I am a monument of mercy indeed,
and so you would say, if you knew my broken heart and afflicted mind. I
am at times brought very low, but then I get lifted up from the dunghill,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour. I trust you will not be moved
by the things which have happened to me. There is now and ever will in
this world be a peculiar mystery in divine providence; but God is his own
interpreter—the dear Saviour is the great Head of the Church, and as he
loves us, desires our company, and wants to give some particular
expression of his love; so he brings low, empties us, chastens, tries,
and alarms us. The cup of salvation being allotted us, we must meet with
alarming providences, which are not explained to us, till he reveals
himself, as our brother, gives us a double mess, and an exchange of
raiment. The things that have befallen me, I trust are in covenant love;
the Lord is only putting on his yoke, and opening a way to manifest his
grace the clearer, and to prove the riches of his mercy. O that we may
yet praise him who is our helper, and in due time will be our deliverer.
My sun is gone ten degrees back, like Hezekiah’s, but the Lord will bring
it up. My master has given orders, and I, for shame, have taken the
lowest seat. I feel convictions of sin sharper, but I find Christ more
than ever blessed. O could every brick and book in my room speak, they
would tell what passes between God and my soul. I am grieved to be here,
on account of my friends, my family, and the cause of God, and my poor
heart is at times completely melted. I am in real sorrow, yet I have
now, and shall ever have cause to bless God for what I am learning in
this painful school.
I would now ask how is my dear afflicted companion in tribulation Mr. M.
I trust our dear Lord has appeared for him in his kind providence, and
that the Saviour is precious to his soul; I am begging the Lord to teach
me how to live a life of faith on the Son of God. Christ himself, when
here below, lived and died in faith, and the Apostle said, He lived on
Christ as crucified, as his righteousness, his intercessor, his head and
representative. This is the life I want to live; but then I find there
is no life but as it is given me daily, nor can I exercise this life of
faith, but as power is given from above. We live by virtue of being
quickened by the spirit, though we often get dead, dark, cold, carnal,
and lifeless, so that we can hardly call it a life. But the Apostle
says, Not I, but Christ liveth in me. I want my dear Mrs. M. to notice
this expression. I hope, as a Child of God, and as deeply tried, I am
alive in your mind, I _exist_, I _live_ in your mind—you often think of
me, but you cannot do for me what you would: I take the will for the
deed. Now, as we see what it is for a friend to live in us, the subject
is clear to you: Christ has an existence in your mind, as you have heard
of him; this is the difference between a worldling and a believer; the
former hears of Christ, that is enough for him; the other not only
_hears_, but Christ has a _place_ in the mind, as he is set forth in the
word: the will makes choice of him, the affections are fixed on him,
faith trusts in him, hope expects him, patience waits for him, love
enjoys him, and, as our views enlarge, and power is given to see him
taking away sin, conscience enjoys peace with God, because it is given to
faith to see God is everlastingly at peace with us. Well may the Apostle
say, Lord increase our faith; this is what I want, and I hope my
much-loved friends are favoured with it. I am at present in the furnace
but the Lord regulates the heat, and I am at times so happy I really dont
want to come out of it; but sometimes it is so hot, all the dross and tin
of my rebellion boils up, and I am astonished the Lord ever lets me live
at all. I wonder at his patience and forbearance, and when I taste his
mercy and love, my affections are led out to him again, and I long to get
to glory to praise him as I desire to do. I have much to be thankful
for; my wants are supplied, and the Lord is with me, so that it is better
with me now than the last two years of my liberty; the Lord has both
pardoned and subdued my sins, and he is leading me on in the divine
life—only the weather is cold, nights are long, my company is bad, and I
have hardly time or place for reading or writing, except what I get by
stealth. How long this trial will last, I know not, I long for it to be
over, but I fear I shall loose my sweet seasons. My heart is overcome
with grief, when I think of the poor _Packet Distress_: she is out at
sea, in the dark and in the deep. I want my heart fixed at all times,
trusting in the Lord; I know it will be well with them that fear the
Lord, and I have reason to believe the Lord has blessed me with that
grace, and keeps me in it, but we find that more sensibly at one time
than another, so David found it; how he feared the Lord when his
conscience checked him for cutting off the lappet of Saul’s coat, but
where was his fear of God in the Matter of Uriah? We want our weak
graces kept alive, maintained, and exercised on their proper object; they
must be tried, and as God tries our graces, so he gives us an opportunity
of trying him, and as we have found him faithful in times past, so we
shall again, to his own honour. He knoweth the path I take, and when he
hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold—Christ is the gold, and we are
said to be predestinated to be conformed to his image, both in spirit,
trials, and glory. The Apostle has set before us a noble army of
cross-bearers, and after he had advised the Church to notice those stars
in the 11th of Hebrews, he recommends a perpetual looking at the Son, who
for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross; and a cross is
allotted for all the saints, either in soul, body, circumstances, family,
from Satan or some sin, from saint or from sinner. This has been the Lot
of God’s family, and you cannot say that you have been exempt—many, and
deep have been your trials, but you are still the living, the living to
praise him. God be with you.
Your’s,
_Ruhamah_.
LETTER XLII.
_Valley of Achor_, _August_ 1_st_, 1819.
Mrs. HARBRO.
MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,
I trust you are well in health, with your family; it is just a year ago
since I last wrote to you, which letter being wrote under very peculiar
circumstances, and under the powerful influence of grace which I felt at
that time, which letter I have in reserve to be published at a future
period, when the Lord turns my captivity. Many, and great have been your
changes and trials since that time; we live in a world of changes and
vicissitudes, it may justly be compared to the sea, ever restless and
uneasy, exposed to many storms and dangers, but the Lord has engaged to
conduct us safe home, and will surely bring us to that haven of eternal
rest and peace; and as this is the case, we need not murmur, although our
_Ferry Boat_ is a little tossed about, and some of the passengers prove
very troublesome, we shall soon get home, eternal love has sworn to bring
us safely there; and though the mountains depart, and the hills be
removed, yet his kindness shall never depart from us, nor the covenant of
his peace ever be removed. The Lord foresaw what poor sinners we should
be, and he could have prevented it, had it been agreeable to his eternal
purposes; but if it had been prevented, what should we have known of the
boundless mercy of his heart, and how could we have known any thing of
the lovely precious Saviour and Redeemer. God had decreed that the
vessels of his glory should be vessels of his mercy first, and all he has
purposed, promised, and done, is for the riches of his grace, in kindness
towards us, by Christ Jesus; and this free unmerited favor of a covenant
God, has brought salvation of every kind to us: we have experienced some
of them, and there are thousands of salvations which we are not sensible
of, that attend us daily. I trust the Lord is leading you on to a better
acquaintance with the person and work of Jesus, and though you lament
that you do not feel so much love to him, as you did in your earlier
experience, yet you are learning wisdom—“Whom shall he teach wisdom, and
whom shall he make to understand doctrine, but those who are weaned from
the breast, and drawn from the milk.” Isaiah xxviii, 9. After this
weaning time is over, we feel our need of spiritual armour, and we are
called out to fight; but never let us forget him who hath said, My grace
is sufficient for thee.
I beg you to accept my best wishes, in the language of a favorite, now in
glory.
I wish you much increase of every grace,
I wish you strength to run your christian race,
I wish you patience under every rod,
I wish you much sweet fellowship with God,
I wish your evidences bright may shine,
I wish you joy and comfort all divine,
I wish you very strong in precious faith,
I wish you well through life, and well in death,
I wish you safe on the celestial shore,
And there I wish you well for evermore.
Kind respects to Mr. H. and family.
Your’s, truly,
_Ruhamah_.
LETTER XLIII.
_Achor’s Vale_, _June_ 1st 1819.
Mr. SWEETLAND.
MY DEAR KIND FRIEND,
I hope the Lord Jesus is precious to your soul, that your heart is fixed
on him, and that you are daily looking to him for life and salvation. I
hope every fresh feeling sense of sin, urges you to his blood and
righteousness, as the only remedy, as the serpent-bit-Israelites of old
were to look to the brazen serpent: all were to look at it; some looked
stedfastly, others feebly, some had a full, near, distinct view of it,
but others only had a feeble, distant, imperfect, confused sight, and
many, perhaps, could hardly raise their dying eyes to catch a glimpse of
it; yet, they all looked, at some rate or other, and all who looked,
lived, and were healed. This points out the various states of God’s dear
people, in the strength and weakness of their faith, as exercised on the
dear Saviour; and as it shews the diversity of their cases, so it also
points out the various frames of mind an individual soul may experience.
There are times when we are strong in faith, persuaded the work is begun,
and we can look to the Lord with stedfast eye; but there are other
seasons when faith seems to languish, love to be dead, and hope seems to
have perished, the world and its cares have carried the mind away, and
Satan has confused and perplexed us. Nothing seems left in the soul, but
perhaps a little desire, and that hardly awake or felt. Here we stumble,
till the work is again revived, and the dew descends again. This made
the prophet of old exclaim, Wilt thou not revive us again, and, Oh Lord,
revive thy work in the midst of the years. And when the Saviour draws
near, we are grieved that we should slight him so ungratefully, and as
love flows in, godly sorrow flows out. To this repentance we are called
by the Spirit, and it is a change of the mind; this change is God’s work
on us: we cannot produce it, and yet it so important, that we cannot be
saved without it, it must be wrought in us by the power of God. Christ
is exalted to give it in _his_ most blessed characters, as a Prince and a
Saviour: this is a dissolving the heart, or rather the new heart in
exercise, under the gracious operations of the Holy Spirit; the mind is
overcome with a sense of the long suffering of God towards us, and a
feeling discovery of his love to us, in Christ Jesus, with a view of our
own depravity, and base backslidings; we mourn that we ever offended such
a Saviour, or sinned against such love; we are ashamed of ourselves,
especially when we see our God sweetly pacified, and his heart full of
love towards us. This was the holy generous feeling of Mary Magdalen,
and this work must be felt in some humble degree, if ever we are saved,
for except we repent, we must perish in our sins, because this repentance
is the effect—not the cause of pardon, nor is it produced from any fear
or dread of hell, but from a sense of love, because we have had the
baseness and ingratitude, the cruelty and the bitterness to sin against a
good, a gracious, a kind, and a bountiful God: we loath ourselves in our
own sight for our abominations, and as this is the fruit of the Spirit,
so it is pleasant and acceptable to God. I hope my dear friend will be
favored with this blessing, it is an evidence of pardon, pardon is an
evidence of redemption, and that is the gift of God; and this gift is an
evidence of eternal love.
I trust you are in health, no doubt you feel your mortality, by many
attacks of pain of body. We are poor dying mortals, the creatures of a
day; we do all fade as a leaf, _not_ as a tree, but as a weak, helpless,
trembling leaf, but precious faith in our Lord, and his love, his sacred
name, and his complete work—this assures us we have a building of God,
eternal in the heavens, and that building is Christ
Yet a season, and you know
Happy entrance shall be given,
All our sorrows left below,
And earth exchang’d for heaven.
The Lord be with you, and reward you for your affectionate kindness to
the most unworthy
_Ruhamah_.
LETTER XLIV.
_Achor’s Vale_, _June_ 1st. 1819.
Mr. FARQ.
MY DEAR BROTHER,