I

LETTER LII.

To the Rev. J. JENKINS.

MY DEAR BROTHER,

HAVE been rather impatient for tidings from the field, wishing to know what success, who have come over to the royal standard, who have bowed to the sceptre, who have taken the better yoke, and who have submitted to divine revelation; whether any have taken the oath of allegiance, kissed the heir apparent, and what gifts have been distributed among the rebellious.

But you have been in hopes of sending some better account of yourself. For my part, I expect nothing of that sort yet. I shall be able to tell you when that may be expected; but the real throes of a spiritual birth have not as yet fallen upon thee. This appears plain by your letter, wherein you inform me that you get worse and worse.' The Lord be praised for that; I would to · God thou wert dead. When the commandment came to Paul, sin revived and he died; and sorry I am that you die so hard. "Behold he whom thou lovest is sick," said Mary. Jesus takes little notice of that. But," Lazarus is dead!" Aye, that will do; then Jesus goes. And so it is now; "The

dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live." One believing view, one appropriating act of faith on Jesus, and we pass from death to life, and shall no more come into condemnation.

66

But,' say you, there is nothing in my heart but sin.' This is better news still; this comes up to God's testimony, that, Every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart is only evil, and that continually." Surely thou wilt not trust in thine own heart now, since it is deceitful above all things. For in very deed Jesus will have nothing to do with any but sinners. To save these was his errand into this world; and he who holds fast this proverb keeps a faithful saying, that is worthy of all acceptation.

When the poor leper was covered all over with scurf, the priest was to pronounce him clean; but one pimple in the forehead, one little swelling of pride, was sufficient to render him utterly unclean, with the plague in his head. God will pull down high things, high thoughts, and high looks; a proud heart he will not suffer. humility;" that is, before we adoption we must be humbled for sin, and that by a godly sorrow.

"Before honour is are honoured with

You labour with all your might to control your thoughts, to subdue sin, and to humble yourself before God; but all in vain.' I am very sorry thou hast so much might left; because the promise is, that God will give power to the faint, and to

them that have no might he will increase strength. Hence these strange sayings. "Let the weak say, I am strong;" "For my strength is made perfect

in weakness."

6

But you inform me that all your mighty struggling and labour is in vain.' It certainly is, my son; it is the Æthiopian changing his skin, and the leopard his spots; for, "Without me," says Christ,

you can do nothing." That is a hard, and it is almost the last, lesson that we learn before we are exalted to safety. I am persuaded by the Lord that he will not let thee bottom on the old lees, nor build upon the sand.

6

You labour to comfort others, and cavil at them for not receiving what thou canst not take to thyself.' It belongs to masters and rulers to find fault; this must be done to shew authority, right or wrong. Go on, my son, and be sure to magnify thine office.

At present the whole work goes on in a fog; it is the blindfolded leading the blind, the lame helping the halt, the weak upholding the faint, and the wounded nursing the sick. Never was a shepherd and his flock, a pastor and his charge better matched than you and yours. Among yourselves you speak mysteries, but to all that are out of the secret it is in parables. Your voices are not without signification to your own company, but it is barbarianism to all that are around you. Your dialect is peculiar to your own charge; you

have trained them up to your own hand, and spoiled them to the hand of every body else. Nothing will go down with them but a Welshman in the stocks and a burr in the pipe.

I wonder not at the increase of thy hearers; there is a power that attends thy word; the bread which is now cast upon the waters will be found after many days. People come to have their thoughts and feelings described and explained; and God keeps thy feet in the stocks, and thy head in the vail, that thou mayest not run out of their path, nor speak above their sensations. They get light, though you are in darkness; they get wisdom from what you suppose to be your ignorance, yea, strength from your weakness, and courage from your faintings. They that are sensible of their captivity will bless God for raising them up prophets in Babylon; no wonder, therefore, at their coming to hear thee, when they wax confident by your bonds. "Life worketh in them, but death in you."

You hope I do not get weary of praying for you.' Oh! no; I have long been employed in walking the hospitals, attending groanings, and making caudle. I am quite in my element at these things. You may depend upon all the patience, candour and sympathy, that can be expected from one so noted for a bad spirit.

But you get proud of your present state.' I am in that secret also; but, when you come to

make a meritorious matter of it, it will be removed, and a sense of love will lead you to repent of that, and discover your baseness, and wound you deeper than all that you have ever seen or felt yet. One propitious look upon poor Peter will be sufficient for this.

But your 'intended is married;' All the better; she is not the pearl of great price, nor the one thing needful. You will have plague enough without that addition. If she had been a good thing, fit for a divine, and worthy to eat of the holy things, you would have had the first choice; for, "No good thing will God withhold from them that walk uprightly." But a stubborn old man, and a crooked rib, would make you couch down between two burdens. But, "Naphtali is a hind let loose." You must court by proxy, not wed; and espouse souls to the King, and not care for the things of a wife. Two blisters on one head is not half so bad as a laborious ox and a wild ass in one yoke; these must not plough together. Plenty of heart work within, and plenty of pulpit-work without; numbers to feed, and the power and good hand of God to watch; will employ thy mind, and make thee contented with thy present state, being under no previous engageBut when these fail, and other company gains admittance, then matrimony will be the principal thing. God leaves thee not without a witness. You know your enemies, and you see

ments.