To Mrs. ****.
YOUR letter, my ever dear friend, has been a great blessing to me; that you should write in the style you now do, filled me with such a sense of mine own unworthiness, and of the goodness of God to me, that it melted my stony heart, and drew tears from mine eyes. Oh would the God I adore enable me to be of any help to you, how would my soul dilate in thankfulness? Blessed Redeemer, draw us both, and so will we run after thee. Oh Spirit of truth, descend on thine unworthy servants, and make us _fully_ sensible of the seal of our redemption! Convince us still more deeply of our sins, and make us still more fully to know, that they are washed away by the blood of Jesus. Thou knowest the burdens we labour under, the dissipations of our thoughts, our wandrings in prayer, our spiritual sloth, and all the hardness of our hearts. Stir us up earnestly to seek after the things of God, and fix our inconstant minds. Thou knowest that we desire (for this desire comes from thee) that the love of the Father may abide in our hearts. We beg thine assistance that we may eagerly seek after this love. Oh teach us the prayer of faith, and enable us constantly and undauntedly to press forward toward the mark of the prize of our high calling! Be thou our guide, be thou our comforter for ever and for ever. _Amen, Amen._
*What a task have you laid upon me? I watch over you! I your guide! This quite overcomes me. I cannot bear it. Oh, my love, there is no one so much wants a guide and a director as I do. Sure this letter of your’s was particularly designed by providence to humble me; but unworthy as I am, I will by the grace of God strive to do every thing you desire of me: but then you must return the same to me, and take me into the number of those you watch over. Let us go hand in hand in these paths which lead to everlasting life. What shall I say to quicken your steps? It was said to me since I saw you, by Mr. **** “I hope still to have a great deal more pleasure from you, by seeing you _press forward_.” Think these words were addressed to you by the same person. Oh what a blessing of God accompanies the words of one who is uniformly a Christian, of one who spends and is spent for the service of his master, of one who has no view but the glory of God and the salvation of souls! Who would not strive earnestly to follow so bright an example? The very sight of such a person animates the soul in its warfare. O what soul, which is the least alive to God, would not even _agonize_ to be perfectly renewed after the image of Christ? Is your heart, is my heart so dead, that this will not affect it?――Alas, I grieve for mine own――may God give me to rejoice for your’s.
I have time for no more. May the blessing and influence of the ever-adorable Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be continually with your soul.
_I am your ever-affectionate_, &c.
* * * * *
_My dear Friend_,
I THINK you are now through divine grace, strong enough to bear what I am going to say to you, that I have long seen a mixture of pride and vanity even in the best of your performances. But I could hardly allow myself to believe it. What! have I often said, shall I judge so of her, whom every body admires for her surprising modesty and humility? Is it not because she is more excellent than myself, and therefore I am seeking to find some fault in her? Then I have often prayed to God, not to suffer my soul to be deceived by any sinister views, and to perfect in you what was wanting. And this I trust he will do for us both, if we keep the longing eye of our souls steadily fixed upon him. Oh for holiness of heart! Let us labour, my dear companion, for holiness, as a dying sinner labours for life.
I had yesterday a most delightful letter from Mr. ****. It sent me to my knees so convinced of my black ingratitude to my heavenly Father, that I could neither find words nor thoughts sufficient to express my unworthiness; yet at the same time my heart was full of thanksgiving, under a sense of his unbounded mercies. O help me, my dear friend, to be more and more thankful! Such advantages――dearest Jesus, how justly great must be my condemnation, if I do not make suitable improvements. Take the latter part of Mr. ****’s letter, apply it to yourself constantly, every minute if possible. “You have need therefore to watch and pray always, and then especially when you might seem to have least need. You have reason to fear always: for your enemies are always watching. But you have reason likewise to rejoice always, because he that keepeth you never sleeps.”
* * * * *
_My dear Friend_,
I HAVE read your letter with tears, and earnest prayers to God for you, and for myself. We are both unworthy creatures; indeed, my love, we are _more_ unworthy than we can either express or conceive. O let us fly to the blood of sprinkling. There and there alone can we find help.