In regard to temporal blessings, I have now and then a little dispute with some of my religious friends, and I want your authority to strengthen my arguments.――They say, Whatever temporal blessing God gives, you are to rejoice and take a pleasure in it, as his gift. And I say, Whatever temporal blessing God bestows, the motive for your rejoicing should be _merely_ the _will_ of God: for if you rejoice in the blessing, considered as a happiness in itself (though referring it to God with a thankful heart) you are building on the sand, and your happiness will be shaken, if not overturned, by the first storm that beats upon it. But if the will of God be the motive of your rejoicing, you build your happiness on a foundation which never can be moved. The present blessing, indeed, may vanish away, but your cause of rejoicing still remaineth sure and stedfast, in time and in eternity.――Some people think the _way_ I am in at present a prodigious happiness, and the greatest of worldly blessings, and will ask me, “Are you not pleased?”――I answer, I am pleased with every thing which is the will of God; and the answer is thought an odd one: but I cannot help it, I dare not make any other.
*You want me to say something upon Christian love ripened in eternity. But this is a theme for angels; my soul is too low, too dull to attempt to write upon it; I can only wish and pray to be a partaker of it. Farewel; may the sweetest streams of redeeming love ever fill your soul.
_I am unalterably your’s_,
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_July 18._
*_Dear Sir_,
I CAN truly say, that I _would_ with joy devote all I have, and all I am to God, and gladly spend every hour in his service, But the difficulties I find in the way are _indeed insuperable_ to _me_, though not so I think to every one, at least if I may judge from some few instances I have seen since my acquaintance with _you_.――You yourself, _even outwardly_, appear to me to spend every hour to the glory of God; and for this reason I look upon you to be the happiest of mankind. When I see you spent with fatigue, your eyes half closed, and your outward man seeming to _hasten_ to its dissolution, though I would freely give my own life and strength to increase yours, I almost _envy_ you this _glorious fatigue_, and say to myself, How happy, how blessed is this man, thus to _spend_ and be _spent_ in the service of his Redeemer! Think me not presumptuous when I say, that I place you constantly before my mind, as my _living_ example. Outwardly it certainly is impossible for me to follow you, but inwardly!――Oh, Sir, that I could in every faculty of my _soul_ be a follower of you, even as _you are_ of _Christ_!――You bid me _love enough_; and doubtless if I could _love enough_, I should (as you say) do enough, for _perfect_ love is _perfect liberty_, liberty to conquer all sin, and attain to all holiness. This is the glorious privilege of the children of God; and this my soul pants after. But though I can sincerely say, that I love God above all things, yet it is very evident that I do not love enough, because the fruits of this perfect love are not produced in my soul. Sometimes my enemies seem intirely conquered, and my mind is smooth and calm, as were the waters after Christ had said to them, _Peace, be still_. But when I seem thus strong, I am (to my inexpressible shame and confusion) found to be _weakness_ itself: some trifle, which perhaps had appeared too contemptible even to be thought of, will be the means of my _inwardly_ falling. But thanks be to God I have this given me,
“Quick as the apple of an eye, The slightest touch of sin to feel.”