MISTRESS,--Remembering well what relation I had to your dear mother (now blessed and perfected with glory),[493] and being confident that yourself looketh that way (which, except I be eternally lost, is the way of peace and of life), I should be ungrateful to forget those, whom, by the covenant of the Lord, I cannot but remember to God.
[493] Marion M'Naught, her mother, died 1643.
I shall speak nothing to you of the present sad differences;[494] but if I have, or ever had, any nearness to God, that other way (which I trust I shall never follow) is the way of man. And for the present powers,[495] I suffer from them, and look for more. God hath a controversy with them; and, my soul, enter not into their secrets! Only, I would beseech, request, and obtest you in the Lord, and by your appearance before Christ, to follow the way of the Lord and the steps trod by the gracious in that place, which the Lord followed with life and power. My heart is filled with sorrow, considering what communion with God some of that country had, and how much they were in edifying and helping one another, in His way; and how little of that there is now in that country. Your mother kept in life, in that place, and quickened many about her to the seeking of God. My desire to you is, that you should succeed her in that way, and be letting a word fall to your brethren and others, that may encourage them to look toward the way of God. You will have need of it ere it be long. See how you may have a gracious minister, and no neutral there, to succeed and follow the servant of God now asleep in the Lord.[496] There is a great and wide difference between a name of godliness and the power of godliness. That is hottest when there are fewest witnesses. The deadness upon many, and the defection of the land, is great. Blessed are they who seek the Lord and His face.
[494] The differences on account of the Public Resolutions. Letter CCCXXIX., note.
[495] The Government of Cromwell.
[496] Refers probably to J. M'Lellan, who had come from Ireland, and been admitted minister in Kirkcudbright in 1638, where he continued to live and labour till his death in 1650. He was a man early acquainted with God and His ways, a most upright and zealous Protestant, and one who knew not what it was to be afraid in the cause of God. Livingstone says that he was thought by many to have had somewhat of the spirit of prophecy; he foretold many sad events that would come on England. A little before his death he composed the following epitaph on himself:--
"Come, stingless death, have o'er; lo! here's my pass, In blood character'd, by His hand who was, And is, and shall be. Jordan, cut thy stream, Make channels dry; I bear my Father's name Stamped on my brow. I'm ravished with my crown; I shine so bright, down with all glory, down, That world can give. I see the peerless Port (Rev. xxi. 21), The Golden Street, the blessed soul's Resort, The Tree of Life. Floods gushing from the Throne, Call me to joys. Begone, short woes begone; I lived to die, but now I die to live; I do enjoy more than I did believe. The Promise me into Possession sends Faith in fruition, hope in having ends."
--Livingstone's "Characteristics," and Nicholson's "Galloway," vol. ii.
I shall entreat you to remember me to your husband, and all friends. I desire to forget none who are in Christ.
Your brother in the Lord,