To _G. W._
THE large account you have given of yourself, is very affecting, and I hope God will turn all the variety of your past distress, into means of a future solid peace, and rest in his divine love.
To be weary and heavy laden, is to have the highest fitness to receive that rest, that Christ alone can give. These are the persons that he called to him, when he was upon earth. They who are content with themselves, are in the utmost danger of never knowing that happiness, for which they were created.
*For a while, consider yourself in such a solitude, as if there was only God and you in the world, free from every thought, but that of desiring to be wholly and solely his, and looking wholly to his goodness, to be delivered out of the misery of your fallen state.
Be not too eager about much reading: nor read any thing but that which nourishes, strengthens, and establishes that faith in you, of an inward Saviour, who is the life of your soul. To grow up in this faith, is taking the best means of attaining to knowledge in all divine matters.
Cast away all reflections about the world. And let all be swallowed up in this joyful thought, that you had found the Messiah, the Saviour of the world, not in books, but in your own soul. Give yourself up to this, expect all from it, let it be the humble, faithful, longing desire of your heart, and desire no knowledge, but that which proceeds from it. Stand only in this thirst of knowledge, and then all that you know will be spirit and life.
_With a heart full of good wishes to you, I am_,
Your’s, &c.
* * * * *