I THANK you for your letters, and rejoice at a great part of the account you give me. You have been very happy indeed; and it seems to me that God gave you this happiness as preparatory to the trials, which were to ensue. And if you should after this goodness of God towards you, grieve his holy Spirit, by suffering your heart to indulge any temper, which you know to be contrary to his will, what words would be strong enough to paint your black ingratitude? I will deal plainly with you. I think you are now in a most dangerous situation. Every thing around you will conspire to tempt you to the sin which most easily besets you, and therefore you must not be _one moment_ off your guard. You must pray without ceasing, even in the fullest sense of the words and constantly strive to have strongly painted in your imagination _Jesus Christ_, and him _crucified_. There is nothing I think more tends to humble us, than the consideration of the sufferings of Christ. When you find yourself going to say or do any thing with a view to praise, think, this temper, this vanity of mine added to the weight of my Saviour’s sufferings, and made more _bitter_ his cup of _bitterness_. Oh, if you had a soul capable of feeling, if you have one spark of gratitude, can you think this, and sin? Was you now standing on _Mount Calvary_ near the cross of the blessed Jesus (suppose the dreadful deed was but now performing) and you saw the Redeemer of the world just nailed to his cross, say, would you help to drive the nails still deeper? Would you press the thorns closer to his sacred temples? Would you help to increase that load, which made him cry out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Does not your soul shudder at the thought? O my friend would you not rather die, gladly die, for this your suffering Lord? Would you not gladly be cut in ten thousand pieces to save him one pang? I know you would. And will you not strive against that sin, which increased his sufferings? Will you not strive, my love?――Yes, sure you will. Is not every thing we can give up by far too small a return for what the Redeemer has done for us? And shall we not give this little? Above all shall we not give up what most of all separates us from him, our _self-love_, and _self-seeking_? Think my friend when any one is hinting to you, how extraordinary you are――“this person is ignorantly driving me from my Saviour.” And if you should, which God forbid, find yourself tempted to indulge a vain complacency in their applause, think immediately how their praise would be turned into contempt, did they know your heart as it really is, and blush for thus deceiving them. Recollect some of the mean motives which perhaps have been the springs of some of your most admired words and actions, and let your soul within you be humbled to the dust. And my dear, I beg you will be careful how you draw praise upon yourself by praising others. This is what I am very apt to fall into; and therefore I am the more sensible of its hurtfulness. And beware how you suffer yourself to attempt explaining nice points of doctrine, unless it is evident there will be good done by it, and then you may hope God will preserve you from the pride, which generally accompanies this display of the capacity. May you constantly walk in the light of God’s countenance, and go on conquering, and to conquer!
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