_To Lady H――――._
_London, January 12, 1757._
_Honoured Madam_,
WILL your Ladyship be pleased to accept a few hasty lines? They come
with hearty wishes, that your Ladyship, and every branch of your
honourable family, may have a very happy new year.――This can only be
had in JESUS, and therefore I wish, from the very bottom of my heart,
that you all may be blessed with all spiritual blessings.――These
are blessings indeed. They are solid, they are lasting, commensurate
even with eternity itself. I hope we have some daily foretastes
of this. Indeed, honoured Madam, a wide door seems to be opening at
_Tottenham-Court_ chapel. The word flies like lightning in it; O that
it may prove a _Bethel_, a house of GOD, a gate of heaven! I believe
it will.――As the awakening continues, I have some hopes that we are not
to be given up. Alas! alas! We are _testing_ and _contesting_, while
the nation is bleeding to death. We are condemning this and that; but
sin, the great mischief-maker, lies unmolested, or rather encouraged by
every contending party. Well, the LORD reigns;――and therefore blessed
be the GOD of our salvation.――I hope your honoured sister, and her
noble Lord, are well. I sometimes wish that his Lordship was at the
helm, but infinite wisdom knows what is best. Happy they who can look
beyond time! The christian can; the short-sighted infidel dares not,
cannot. But I grow troublesome. I must therefore only add my most
grateful acknowledgments, and assure your Ladyship, that I am, honoured
Madam,
Your Ladyship’s most dutiful, obliged, and
ready servant for CHRIST’s sake,
_G. W._