To Mrs. R——
Questions — Unreasonable not to be holy — Danger of slighting convictions — Sad remembrances — A fearful state — Count the cost — Decision — Self-sacrifice — The martyrs — The offense of the cross not ceased — Self-distrust — The way opened to the hohest — Temptations.
Dear Sister in Christ,- — And novf, dear sister
R, how does your soul prosper? Has the
consecration of all yom* powers yet been made? and is the sacrifice accepted? Or are you still halting between two opinions? Your Redeemer demands your entire service. 0 that this may be the hour when you may fully acknowledge his claim, and render back your whole existence to him!
I know I need not say that this is but a reasonable service. Your would-be-devoted heart already assures you of the reasonableness of your Redeemer’s demand. 0 yes! you know that it is unreasonable not to be holy. Will you not act this moment upon your conviction of duty? The delay of one hour may witness a great abatement in the fervor of your desires. The very conviction of your need of holiness, and these restless aspirations after it, are talents for which you will be held responsible when you give an account of your stewardship. Yes, these are, indeed, gracious gifts from God. It is God that worketh in you.
Fearful State. Calculation. Claim settled.
Should you noTV> by delay, refuse to be a worker together with hun, and thereby grieve the Spirit, and cause the withdrawment of its operations, how fearful would be your case! Ah! I have witnessed such cases, and my heart is agonized at the remembrance. Could rivers of tears purchase the return of these gracious influences, or any sacrifice, however costly it were less fearful to trifle with, or to treat as of secondary importance, these God-wrought exercises, It is a solemn truth, that the light which is in us may become darkness; and then, 0 how great is that darkness! The light may shine afterward, but the darlcness comprehendeth it not. What a fearful state!
Now is God’s time! Will you choose any future period? If so, you take your own time. And is not this exceedingly perilous? Do you say, “It is but meet that I should count the cost?” Well, dear sister, begin just now to make the calculation, and let it be with the decision fixed irrevocably, that you will abide by the reckoning. I entreat you, in the name of the Lord Jesus, to pause, and now bring this matter to an issue. Do you find aught but what already belongs to God? Ah! the obligation, implied in the demand of your Redeemer, settles the claim with unquestionable certainty:” I^e are not your own, for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify Ood in your body and spirit which are God’s J’
A Point which must be gained.
Will you not now begin to render back your whole existence to God? I appeal to you in the name of the Lord of hosts — and in the presence of those angel spirits that encamp around about them that fear him. Will you not now begin to count all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus? There must be a point in your experience when this is done, if you are ever numbered with that blood-washed company, of whom it is said, “These are they that have come up out of great tribulation, ha-vang washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Does not this imply that a self-sacrificing spirit is necessary? Of this I am assured, that no less devotion than that which carried the martyrs through the flames, will carry us, unpolluted, through this present world. The idea that the state of the world is now such as to make but little sacrifice of public opinion necessary, in order to be a traveler in the King’s highway, is unauthorized, either from Scripture, or Scriptural experience. “The servant is not above his master. In the world ye shall have tribulation. If ye were of the world, the world would love its own; but ye are not of the world, therefore it hateth you.”
O, dear sister, fix your eye on a Bible experience, and this will lead you at once to holiness!
And now, will you not begin to carry out with entire decision those views of privilege and respon-Self-distrast. Why delay? Suggestions.
sibility which were, through the Holy Spirit’s influence, apprehended by you at the time we met?
You, doubtless, feel as if you would fain with full purpose commence. But you are distrustful of yourself. And should you not be distmstful of self? God grant that you may ever feel that you have received the sentence of death in yourself, that you may not trust in yourself, but in Eim that raiseth the dead. But, unworthy as you are, Christ is your Saviour. He has paid your debt, and purchased your entire freedom from sin. Why not this moment, then, begin to reckon yourself dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God, through our Lord Jesus Christ? Behold your present privilege — your duty! The way into the hohest is open. The Spirit and the Bride say. Come! come! for all things are ready. When Jesus bowed his head upon the cross, and said, “It is finished!” the veil of the temple was rent, and the way into the holiest made accessible for all, through the blood of the everlasting covenant. Why, then, should you delay to enter? O arise with a holy boldness! “The kingdom of heaven Buffereth ‘iolence, and the violent take it by force.” You may be assured that Satan will take every possible way to hinder you. He will tell you that “you are not yet ready for the reception of the blessing.” When you begin to venture, he will
A Present Act. God may be limited.
tell you that it is “xrresumptuous; you have not feeling enough; ’tis too much the work of imagination to be real; perhaps you have not yet given up all;” with nameless other suggestions. But, in the name of the Lord, you may say, with David, “I can run through a troop.”
Your affectionate friend.