The Power of Faith Part 19

To Mrs. Juliet S----, New York, one of her former pupils.

"BELLEVILLE, September 16, 1808.

"MY DEAR JULIET--Since the hour I received your letter, you have been little out of my mind. You call upon me as mother, friend, counsellor. Shall conscious unworthiness, or weakness, or ignorance, prevent my answering? No; for G.o.d often chooses weak instruments to bring to pa.s.s great ends, I have been once and again to a throne of grace, for wisdom to direct me, and grace to be faithful. If your desire after spiritual knowledge be sincere, and from the Spirit of G.o.d operating on your heart, you will bear searching.

"You are a communicant, my Juliet; this presupposes that a very great and important change has taken place in your mind--that you have been made deeply sensible of what the word of G.o.d testifies of every son and daughter of Adam's race. 'As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.' Rom. 3:10. Man is born as the wild a.s.s's colt, going astray from the womb. Job. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; I the Lord search it. Having the understanding darkened, alienated from the life of G.o.d, through the ignorance that is in us, because of the blindness of our hearts. Dead in trespa.s.ses and sins. Eph. 4:18; 2:1.

"Your profession presupposes that this chapter may be addressed to you, Juliet, by name: 'You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespa.s.ses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in the l.u.s.ts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But G.o.d, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ; by grace are ye saved, through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast.'

Works there are, my Juliet, most a.s.suredly; every quickened soul will live, and bring forth fruits of righteousness; but these works are not attainable but in G.o.d's way and order. It follows, 'For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which G.o.d hath before ordained that we should walk in them.'

"My Juliet says, 'To you then I look up to teach me.' Let me then bring you to the great Teacher and Prophet of the church, without whose teaching all human instruction will be ineffectual. We read of two amiable characters coming to Christ professedly for instruction.

The first you will find in Matthew 19:16. The young man asks him, 'What good thing shall I do, that I may inherit eternal life?' Jesus answers him by referring him to the moral law: the young man, not made acquainted by the Spirit of G.o.d, either with the extent or spirituality of that law, or of the depravity of his own nature, answers, as many in like circ.u.mstances still do,' All these things have I kept from my youth up.' I do not suppose any one could contradict him. It is added that Jesus loved him, and he was a person of attractive character; but Jesus knew that the true principle was not there--supreme love to G.o.d, 'with all the heart, with all the soul, with all the strength, and with all the mind:' therefore he gave him a test which proved that the world was uppermost in his heart. He went away sorrowful, and we hear no more of him.

"Of the other person we read in that remarkable chapter, the third of John's gospel--Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, and also a teacher. Well knew he the law, as to the letter of it, both moral and ceremonial; he must also have been acquainted with all the Old Testament scripture types and prophecies, it being his office to expound; and no doubt, among others, was looking for the promised Messiah. Jesus does not send him to either the law or the prophets.

This ruler comes with a conviction and an acknowledgment that Jesus himself was a teacher immediately from G.o.d; and Jesus immediately takes upon himself his great office, and begins with urging that which is a sinner's first business--'to know himself,' what he is by nature, and the necessity of the new birth. Nicodemus, with all his learning, was a stranger to this doctrine: 'How can a man be born when he is old?' Jesus repeats his doctrine, 'He must be born of water and the Spirit;' baptized with water and the Holy Ghost. 'That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Marvel not that I said unto you, Ye must be born again.' Humble that proud reason that will believe nothing but what it can understand.

'The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit.' A mystery it is; nevertheless it is true.

"Follow out the chapter, my dear: Jesus preaches his own gospel, and brings in that beautiful type, the serpent, which he had commanded to be raised on a pole, that those who had been bitten with fiery serpents, whose bite was death, should look upon it and be healed.

Read it, my dear, in the 21st of Numbers; and in reference to this, he himself says, 'Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.' Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of G.o.d.

Quickened, renewed in the spirit, of his mind, old things pa.s.s away and all things become new--new principles, new desires, new pleasures, new ends. The work is G.o.d's. The whole plan of redemption is his from first to last. It is clearly revealed in Scripture, and there is no dispute among Christians concerning it. The fall of man, his corruption and depravity; his state under the curse of a broken covenant, and his exposure to eternal misery; his helplessness and total inability to gain acceptance with G.o.d; his ignorance of himself--'dead in trespa.s.ses and sins,' 'without G.o.d and without hope in the world:' this is his situation by nature. But there is good news proclaimed: 'G.o.d so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,' to become the surety of lost sinners. He took our nature upon him, our sins upon him, our duties upon him: he was placed in our stead; sustained the penalty of the broken law; fulfilled its utmost demands; redeemed us; gave us a new covenant, of which himself is the surety: and there is 'no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.'

"The merits of Christ, exclusive of any thing of ours, are the sole foundation of our hope. Christ is set forth, in Scripture, as the atonement, the propitiation for sins, the one sacrifice for sin; Christ is the end of the law for righteousness; all is made ours by free gift. 1 John, 5:11. All is ready, justice satisfied, G.o.d reconciled, peace proclaimed. But what is all this to a thoughtless world, insensible of their situation, danger, and need? It is an awful saying, but it is of the Holy Ghost, If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the G.o.d of this world hath blinded their minds, and darkened their understandings, and hardened their hearts, etc. Therefore the application of this grace is also of G.o.d; it is all within his plan; he has appointed means, and commanded our diligence in the use of them. We have his Bible in our hands, his ministers in our churches, who are also pastors and teachers if we apply for their aid in private; we have a throne of grace to go to, and many great and precious promises held up in G.o.d's word for us to embrace and plead for Christ's sake: we have many prayers in the Scriptures which we may adopt.

"I acknowledge we are all still dependent for the effect; that must be from G.o.d himself. But he does honor his own ordinances. He puts forth his power, and convinces of sin; this is his first work.

The soul is awakened, aroused, convinced of sin and misery; sins of the heart, sins of the tongue, sins of the life, press upon the conscience which never disturbed us before; misspent time, wasted talents, lost opportunities, neglect of G.o.d's word and ordinances, so that the soul cannot rest. O, my Juliet, this is a hopeful case. I hope you have experienced something of this. It is one of the surest marks of the operation of the Spirit of G.o.d, and a prelude to the new birth. It never takes place without it, for the whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. Only the weary and heavy laden will prize rest, and Christ is the rest they need; only a convinced sinner will or can prize the Saviour, and now the Lord opens his mind to understand the Scriptures. He sees the provision which G.o.d has made for ruined sinners, by providing a subst.i.tute to stand in his room; he perceives how G.o.d can be just and justify the sinner who takes shelter in Jesus; he falls in with G.o.d's gracious plan: receives the Lord Jesus as G.o.d's gift to sinners; trusts entirely in his merits for pardon, peace, reconciliation, and eternal life; resigns his soul into the hands of his Saviour, in the faith that he will save it, and devotes himself unreservedly to his service, in the faith that he will give him grace to live to him in all holy obedience. Now, and not till now, according to G.o.d's promise, he receives power to become his child; this is G.o.d's order, John 1:12. Now he receives life and begins to live; but there is yet a great work before him. It hath pleased G.o.d in his plan to finish at once a justifying righteousness; it is his own work, and was finished in that awful hour when he announced it in his last words on the cross. John 19:30. To this nothing of ours is to be added, with this nothing of ours mixed; it is for ever perfect, it is G.o.d's gift made ours in the hour when we first believe, receive it, rest our souls upon it.

"But it hath not pleased G.o.d in this plan to deliver the believer at once from indwelling sin. This is the subject of the Christian warfare, the race, the good fight. Now the believer receives life, and is called to work. 'Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is G.o.d that worketh in you both to will and to do.'

All the promises in this blessed Bible are his, they are yea and amen in Christ; Christ himself is his; his Spirit dwells in him. The believer is united to Jesus by as real a union as the branch to the vine, the members to the head, the building with the foundation. Yet sin dwelleth in him, and is to be expunged by constant applications to Christ in prayer; by means of watching, striving, fighting--fighting under his banner. In his blessed word we are informed where our strength lies, what our weapons, what our armor. But what can I say on those subjects? the whole word of G.o.d is on the subject of redemption; to this refer the whole labors of Christ's ministers, and the whole dispensation of G.o.d's providence.

"Are these things so? My Juliet, this is not the doctrine of any one church. About these subjects there is no dispute. Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Baptists, Independents, all agree in these great things. And are these things so indeed? O, my Juliet, where is the time to be spared for plays, a.s.semblies, and such numerous idle parties of various descriptions? I must stop; the subject is great, and we have many excellent treatises on the various parts of it, by able, pious men. It would be improper to crowd it thus into a letter, unless to instigate to further investigation.

"Farewell; I ever am, my dear Juliet,

"Yours affectionately,

"I. GRAHAM."

The delicate state of health to which one of her granddaughters was reduced in 1808, made it necessary for her to spend the summer season for five successive years at Rockaway, Long Island, for the advantage of sea-bathing. Mrs. Graham went with her, it being beneficial to her own health also. In this place she met with many strangers; the company residing there treated her with much affection and respect. She always attended to the worship of G.o.d morning and evening in her room, and was usually accompanied by some of the ladies who boarded in the house. Her fund of information, vivacity of manner, and the interest which she felt in the happiness of all around her, made her society highly valued and pleasing. Few of those ladies who stayed with her at Rockaway for any length of time, failed to express, at parting, their esteem for her, and they generally added a pressing invitation for a visit from her, if ever she should travel near where they dwelt.

The following is one of her sweet meditations while at Rockaway:

"ROCKAWAY, August, 1809.

"Sweet health again returns, which, considering the agitation of my mind, surprises me; but it is the Lord's pleasure. I did not wish to recover. I was in hopes the Lord was about to deliver me from 'this body of sin and death.' Lord, reconcile me to thy most holy will.

Health is certainly a great blessing. I feel its sweetness. O make me thankful. Great and numerous are my mercies. Every thing pleasant and every thing necessary to life, to G.o.dliness, is mine: food and raiment to the utmost desires of nature; the beauties of thy fair creation surround my ordinary dwelling; my dear little room, my Bible, and books of every virtuous kind--by grace, thy chief mercy, I desire no other--and by the kindness of my children, I possess all as if they were my own personal property. By thy wonderful loving-kindness, thou hast given me, instead of the contempt which I have merited, the love and esteem of thy people, and thou hast made the very stones of the field to be at peace with me, so that wherever I go I meet with kindness."

To Mrs. Marshall.

"NEW YORK, October, 1809.

"I find your letter dated 'Elderslie'--the very name gives a thrill to my old heart; in a moment the various scenes of my youthful days rise before me--the old mansion itself, and all its beloved inmates, every one of whom have now crossed the Jordan of death, leaving me a solitary wanderer in this weary wilderness. Ah, I can at this moment think of spots, by the burnside and the braeside, endeared to my heart by a thousand tender a.s.sociations. There have I wandered with my beloved, idolized husband, and there has he delighted my heart with professions of love. These were indeed moments of ecstasy; but hush, there are you a widow with very, very different sensations, and here am I a widow with sensations equally different. The Lord has showed us many and sore adversities, but he will bring us up from the deeps below; we are much nearer our Father's house, and I hope proportionably riper for those joys which are at his right hand; and although your letter has brought some pleasing recollections to my mind--days of love and courtship, days, some of solitude, some of disappointment, some of ecstasy--yet I find they were all days of idolatry, therefore to be mourned over, not retasted, reenjoyed with delight. No, no; Father, forgive me."

CHAPTER X.

NEW YORK BIBLE SOCIETY--a.s.sOCIATIONS FOR PRAYER--HAPPY OLD AGE--LETTERS.

"In December, 1809, a Bible Society was organized in New York, and about the same time twenty respectable persons united in a society, to wait on the Lord, to know what their hands could find to do to promote his glory, to advance his kingdom, to spread the savor of the Redeemer's name, or in any way to benefit the souls of their fellow-sinners.

"On Monday a meeting for prayer was inst.i.tuted in Hetty-street, and another in Mulberry-street, with which the Presbyterian ministers have agreed to meet in rotation. It is the Lord. We have heard of revivals all around, but feared lest the aggravated sins of New York might provoke the Lord to pa.s.s by, leaving our fleece dry, while the dew wet all around. Great have been our privileges; the gospel trumpet has sounded in every corner of our city. The Lord's servants have set before us life and death, a.s.suring us, from G.o.d's word, that 'though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not go unpunished;' beseeching us to flee from the wrath to come, and lay hold on the hope set before us. G.o.d in his providence has visited us with mercies and with judgments: stricken us, and healed us; scattered us, and gathered us: but alas, alas, we were 'eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage.' Many, very many, wasting their time, health, and substance, in all manner of immorality, and our rulers caring for none of these things; yea, many of them practising the same things; and Oh, G.o.d's own saved people sitting still, restraining testimony before men and prayer before G.o.d. What were we to expect but that G.o.d should say, Why should they be stricken any more? they will revolt more and more: they are joined to idols; let them alone. Such, O Lord, would be the case didst thou not deliver us out of our own self-destroying snares. If thou turn us not, we shall never turn; it is in our nature to backslide for ever.

"But is not the time come to pa.s.s when before thy people call thou answerest, and while they are yet speaking, thou hearest? Art thou not calling with power, 'Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings?' and hast thou not prepared their hearts to answer, Behold, we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our G.o.d?

truly, in vain is salvation looked for from the hills, and from the mult.i.tude of mountains; truly, from the Lord our G.o.d is the salvation of Israel. Hast thou not, O G.o.d, prepared the hearts of thy people to pray, and thine ear to hear? Is not this Bible Society, and are not these a.s.sociations for prayer, tokens from thee for good? More and more, Lord, may thy people give thee no rest, until thou make Zion a praise in the earth. O the Hope of Israel, and the Saviour thereof, be not as a wayfaring man, that turneth aside for a night. May thy people constrain thee to abide with us for ever, to form us a people for thyself, to show forth thy praise.

"I have just conveyed dear Mrs. A----le to the confines of the eternal world. I trust the dear Redeemer received her spirit. I have a good hope that she is now in possession of the mansion purchased and prepared for her by that dear Saviour whose name she professed, and I think, in an humble, steady, quiet way, faithfully followed. She loved the word of G.o.d, the house of G.o.d, the people of G.o.d. She spoke little, but said she had a good hope: asked me to read the Bible different times, and also to pray; said the invitations of the gospel were sweet to her: observed that the Lord had been very merciful to her in her affliction.

"A few hours before her death she desired me to read that hymn,

"'To him that loved the souls of men,' etc,

Also,

"'Come, let us join our cheerful songs,' etc.

She asked if I thought she would continue long. I said, No, my dear, you will very soon be with Jesus; and encouraged her as the Lord enabled me. She repeated the question some time after, and I gave her the same answer. She then said, 'This night?' I answered, Yes, my love, this night. She bowed her head with a sweet smile, laid it in a reclining posture, and set herself to wait with patience the Lord's time. She was very much oppressed, and breathed with much difficulty.

Some time after she asked me to pray, which I did, and begged that the Lord would increase her faith and patience, and, if according to his will, give her a gentle pa.s.sage and an abundant entrance. In a short time her breathing became short and low; she shut her eyes and gently breathed weaker and weaker, till her G.o.d delivered her without motion or groan. I was on my knees praying. I then thanked G.o.d for his goodness in this sweet dismission; prayed for the husband, the children, the two young men present, and us all, gave glory to G.o.d, and rose to watch to future duty.

"O my G.o.d, is not my own death at hand? It is a hard battle. My Jesus, thou knowest the struggle. I too must drink of this cup; mix it for me, my Redeemer. O let a full sense of free pardon, the recollection of the great and precious promises, a bright view of the joys at G.o.d's right hand, as the fruit of thy death, be applied to my soul in that awful hour. Holy Spirit, pour in the oil and wine of thy consolations in that trying hour. O let me not be straitened. Open wide to my soul the leaves of that well-ordered covenant, of which Christ himself is the sum and substance. Redeeming G.o.d, may I experience proof in that solemn hour, that 'thy flesh is meat indeed, and thy blood is drink indeed.' O feed me with this living food; may I feel life spring up in my soul, and be a.s.sured that I shall 'never die.' O my G.o.d, grant one more request. Open my lips, and let them, as well as my heart, be filled with the high praises of my redeeming G.o.d.

"I know I am unworthy; the vilest of the vile; but magnify thy grace. I have much forgiven; O let my heart burn with love and grat.i.tude in that hour, and my lips utter its effusions in songs of praise. Amen.

"When the short thick breathing comes, and the slow fetches, sealing up speech and expelling the spirit from its abode, O let me hear or understand thee saying unto me, 'It is I, be not afraid.'"

"JANUARY, 1810.

"'Come and let us return unto the Lord, for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us, in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.'

"O Lord, turn us and we shall be turned, draw us and we will run after thee. Revive us, and we shall live in thy sight. Thou must ever be first. It is in our nature to backslide for ever: and whenever we see a backslider restored, or a rebel lay down the weapons of rebellion, _there_ we may trace thy footsteps, O G.o.d of grace.

"No external providence will touch our hard, our deceitful hearts. All that goes under the name of misfortune will but drive us _from_ thee, never _to_ thee, till thou teach us to profit, and lead us by the way that we should go. Thou callest, 'Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings;' but we have been foolish, sottish children, without understanding, wise to do evil, but to do good having no knowledge.