_Gibraltar, Feb. 27, 1738._
_Dear Sir_,
EVER since I left _Gravesend_, I remember the fulness of your heart.
I have been a constant petitioner at the throne of grace for you, and
intended writing to you before, but was ♦let hitherto. However, GOD
has now brought me safe to _Gibraltar_, and as I have time, I should
think myself inexcusable, did I not send a line to dear Mr. ――――, to
assure him, I forgot not his tears, and wish him to be not only an
almost, but an altogether christian. Dear Sir, you are young and in
the bloom of youth, and it would rejoice my heart to see you triumph
over the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life,
and to become a poor despised servant of JESUS CHRIST. Others, indeed,
may wish you wealth, may wish you pomp and grandeur; but believe me,
my dear friend, these will not, these cannot, make you happy: No,
nothing but GOD can satisfy the heart of man; nothing but an assurance,
that we are born again, that we are members of CHRIST, that we are
united to him by one and the same spirit with which he himself was
actuated. Without this, if we were to have our appetites regaled with
the richest dainties, be cloathed with purple and fine linen, and
fare sumptuously every day, yet the hand-writing upon the wall, the
consideration, that all these things are quickly to be taken away,
would make our visage to change, and our knees, like _Belshazzar_’s,
to smite one against another. Strive then, my dear friend, to get
the spirit of CHRIST, who will keep close to you, when all other
comforts fail; will make you happy here, and unspeakably happy
hereafter.――Never fear the contempt you will meet with; yet a little
while, and they that call you fool, will call themselves so, and curse
that worldly wisdom, which tempted them to evade the cross of CHRIST.
Strange! that any one should let a little reproach deprive them of
an eternal crown! LORD, what is man! How blind as to the knowledge of
his true interest! How backward in the pursuit of his eternal good!
O, dear Mr. ――――, let us not be of the number of those, who desire the
honour that cometh of man; but be content with that which cometh from
GOD. In a short time, we shall have praise enough. Heaven will echo
with the applause that shall be given to the true followers of the
Lamb, and then you will see how sincerely I was, dear Sir,
Your affectionate friend and servant,
_G. W._
♦ ‘lett’ replaced with ‘let’