To Mr. K——

An impression confirmed — Religious joy — Temptation succeeds Unwise inference — Holiness a state of character, not of emotion — The disciple with Jesus in the wilderness, and on the mount — The disciples on Tabor — The unwise request — The disciple as his Master — The crown coveted; not the cross.

Dear Sir, — Your letter confirms what I said to Dr. P., on the evening after I parted with you. “Brother K has, I believe, received the blessing of holiness, for my prayer has been turned to praise in his behalf.” So I said to my husband, and this persuasion your letter verifies. You observe,” During that night, I awoke with a sweet, heavenly feeling, that I was the Lord’s. I felt a perfect assurance that I was wholly his, and my

Emptiness. The Disciple with his Master.

joy tmly was unspeakable. I arose, and gave God thanks for his great mercy to me. After an hour or two, I fell asleep again; but, in the morning, these feelings had left me.” Had your faith been wholly founded on the faithfulness of God, and not dependent on your feelings, you would not in any way have lost anchorage, as a consequence of this destitution of emotion.

But it was when on your homeward journey, at a time to which you had looked forward as a season favorable for special communion, “when alone in the car,” that you were called to endure the trial of your faith more fully. It was now, you say, that you “experienced a strange feeling of emptiness, or a destitution of holiness.” Why say “a destitution of holiness,’” unless you had consciously taken your offering from off the hallowed altar? If you still had power to keep all there — to continue in the same act of presenting all through Christ — you were just as truly in a state of holiness then, as when filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Holiness is a state in which all the redeemed powers are given up to God through Christ.

The follower of Jesus may as tndy be with the Captain of his salvation, realizing close and holy fellowship when in communion with him, as the Man of sorrows, and permitted to know a fellowship with his sufferings; or, if possible, when driven

The Disciples on the Mount.

with him into the wilderness to be tempted of Satan; or in any other conceivable state, where the disciple may in this world be as his Master: “Ye are they that have been with me in my temptations.” In either of the states glanced at, may the lowly disciple be as truly conformed to the will and also to the image of his Saviour, as if permitted the enjoyment of holy fellowship with him on the mount of transfiguration, with every impulse or feeling of the heart saying, *’ Lord, it is good for us to be here,’*

If feeling were the principle commanding religious action, instead of calm, deliberate, steady faith, how often should we be led astray, even when in our most pious moods! Think of the disciples, who, from the impulse of exuberant, pious feeling, desired to have three tabernacles reared, in order that they might ever abide on the mount, alone with the Saviour and his heavenly visitants; unmindful that the work of the Redeemer in saving the world was not yet accomplished, neither the work to which they, as his disciples, were called, in establishing his kingdom. Imagine that the pious feelings with which they were at this time favored had formed the principle of action, what would have been the fate of a lost world?

A destitution of joyous emotion, then, is not a destitution of holiness. On receiving an increase of faith, or of any other grace, we ought always to

Trials succeed Joy.

expect the trial of this faith, or whatever grace we may have received, to succeed. Jesus was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of Satan, immediately after being favored with special tokens of the approval of his heavenly Father. And ought not we, who have purposed to follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth, to expect to be carried through a process somewhat similar, after having received special tokens of divine approval? Thus it was with you, dear brother; and there are reasons, of which we shall know more when knowledge is made perfect, why it is that God permits Satan to assault so powerfully his chosen ones. It is blessed to know that the veracity of our covenantkeeping God is pledged that we shall not be tempted above that we are able. And it is enough for the servant that he be as his Lord. The violent assault of which you speak, which so quickly succeeded the strong consolation consequent on your faith, was not of forty days’ continuance.

Consider the Apostle and High Priest of your profession, “forty days in the wilderness, and with the wild beasts.” Did you suffer, being tempted? Think of him: “For in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted.” I am delighted with some remarks of an old writer, which have just met my eye. They are so precisely suited to your case.

Theophylact. The Cross and the Cro-VNii.

tWv I might have substituted them in place of my own remarks, had I seen them sooner. Theophylact observes: “One grand end of our Saviour’s temptation might be to teach us that when we have consecrated ourselves to God’s serldce, and have been favored with peculiar marks of divine acceptance, and the consolations of his Spirit, we must ex2:)ect temptations; and to teach us, by our Lord’s example, how we may best and most effectually resist them, even by an unslmken faith, 1 Pet. V, 9; and by the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Eph. vi, 17.” — Benson s Comment.

“We count them happy which endure.” O may this happiness ever be yours! I do not mean to express a wish that you may be ever enduring the fires of temptation, but that you may endure as seeing the Invisible through whatever trials you may be called to pass, remembering that you “are a2)2:)ointed thereunto,” and that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren. It is true, that but few covet the blessedness of that man that endureth temptation; though many eagerly aspire after the crown, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, hath promised to give unto such. Yours, in Christian love.

Struggle. Resolve. Faith.