Chapter XLII: Letter XLIII: Achor’s Vale, June 1st 1819

Mr. SWEETLAND.

MY DEAR KIND FRIEND,

I hope the Lord Jesus is precious to your soul, that your heart is fixed on him, and that you are daily looking to him for life and salvation. I hope every fresh feeling sense of sin, urges you to his blood and righteousness, as the only remedy, as the serpent-bit-Israelites of old were to look to the brazen serpent: all were to look at it; some looked stedfastly, others feebly, some had a full, near, distinct view of it, but others only had a feeble, distant, imperfect, confused sight, and many, perhaps, could hardly raise their dying eyes to catch a glimpse of it; yet, they all looked, at some rate or other, and all who looked, lived, and were healed. This points out the various states of God’s dear people, in the strength and weakness of their faith, as exercised on the dear Saviour; and as it shews the diversity of their cases, so it also points out the various frames of mind an individual soul may experience. There are times when we are strong in faith, persuaded the work is begun, and we can look to the Lord with stedfast eye; but there are other seasons when faith seems to languish, love to be dead, and hope seems to have perished, the world and its cares have carried the mind away, and Satan has confused and perplexed us. Nothing seems left in the soul, but perhaps a little desire, and that hardly awake or felt. Here we stumble, till the work is again revived, and the dew descends again. This made the prophet of old exclaim, Wilt thou not revive us again, and, Oh Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years. And when the Saviour draws near, we are grieved that we should slight him so ungratefully, and as love flows in, godly sorrow flows out. To this repentance we are called by the Spirit, and it is a change of the mind; this change is God’s work on us: we cannot produce it, and yet it so important, that we cannot be saved without it, it must be wrought in us by the power of God. Christ is exalted to give it in _his_ most blessed characters, as a Prince and a Saviour: this is a dissolving the heart, or rather the new heart in exercise, under the gracious operations of the Holy Spirit; the mind is overcome with a sense of the long suffering of God towards us, and a feeling discovery of his love to us, in Christ Jesus, with a view of our own depravity, and base backslidings; we mourn that we ever offended such a Saviour, or sinned against such love; we are ashamed of ourselves, especially when we see our God sweetly pacified, and his heart full of love towards us. This was the holy generous feeling of Mary Magdalen, and this work must be felt in some humble degree, if ever we are saved, for except we repent, we must perish in our sins, because this repentance is the effect—not the cause of pardon, nor is it produced from any fear or dread of hell, but from a sense of love, because we have had the baseness and ingratitude, the cruelty and the bitterness to sin against a good, a gracious, a kind, and a bountiful God: we loath ourselves in our own sight for our abominations, and as this is the fruit of the Spirit, so it is pleasant and acceptable to God. I hope my dear friend will be favored with this blessing, it is an evidence of pardon, pardon is an evidence of redemption, and that is the gift of God; and this gift is an evidence of eternal love.

I trust you are in health, no doubt you feel your mortality, by many attacks of pain of body. We are poor dying mortals, the creatures of a day; we do all fade as a leaf, _not_ as a tree, but as a weak, helpless, trembling leaf, but precious faith in our Lord, and his love, his sacred name, and his complete work—this assures us we have a building of God, eternal in the heavens, and that building is Christ

Yet a season, and you know
Happy entrance shall be given,
All our sorrows left below,
And earth exchang’d for heaven.

The Lord be with you, and reward you for your affectionate kindness to the most unworthy

_Ruhamah_.