To Mr. M——

Mr. M aclmowledges himself unawakened — What is faith? — Interview with a Hicksite friend — Displeasure incurred — Doings and sayings at a class meeting — An unUkely subject of prayer presented — All things possible with God — Mrs. W.’s inquiry — The

sinner condemned already — The culprit C; Iiis agony when

under condemnation, the effect of his faith in man — Mr. M not

a believer in the Bible as the word of God; otherwise not unawakened — Indescribable sohcitude — Influential friends cannot save —

Mr. M under condemnation — Why the word of God has not

the same effect as a voice from heaven.

My Dear Mr. M. You acknowledge yourself

unawakened, but in this I think you are in part mistaken. In view of your inquiries after the way of life, I would hardly dare pronounce you wholly unawakened. You would not with so much sincerity desire instruction relative to that faith without which it is impossible to please God, unless you were in a degree aroused to an interest about your spiritual state.

By your inquiry, “What is faith?” I am reminded of an interesting incident in my religious history, which in all its bearings is to my mind signally illustrative of faith and its effects. As you have

Ilicksite Friend.

been religiously trained, and are not unused to rehearsals of Christian experience, you will know how to appreciate such intermixtures of my own experience as will be helpful toward illustrating the subject.

Some time since I invited a Hicksite friend to accompany me to meeting. You know of Elias Hicks — of his rejection of the atonement, the only foundation of the Christian’s hope, and also of his light estimate of the Scriptures, designating them as the dead letter, &c. So you will not be astonished when I say that I could not think of my friend as a follower of Christ. Knowing that she regarded herself as a professor of religion, and that any approach to her which failed to recognize her as such might wound her feelings, I knew not in what form of expression to give vent to my un* utterable yearnings for her. At length, after a little suspense, I said,

“Mrs., do you not sometimes feel that you

would love to forsake all and follow Christ?”

She gave an evasive answer, and by her manner most clearly indicated that she was displeased. Finding her thus guarded by a religious yofession, which, if touched, gave displeasure, I ceased approach her on the subject of her salvation.

About ten months after, in admonishing the members of my class, I said,” Too many mistake the mark, by absorbing themselves in their own

The Covenant. Dismay.

experience, whereas the design of God in redeeming us unto himself seems to be this: — That we give ourselves at once wholly and for ever away to his service, in order that we may be unto him a peculiar people, zealous of good works, not living to ourselves, as we should do were we ever absorbing ourselves in perplexities about our own experience. Who would not dismiss a servant that was ever saying, * I have about as much as I can do to serve myself?’” &c. Several members resolved to come up to the point of entire consecration, that is, to serve Christ wholly: we then covenanted together to begin at once to work for God. I suggested to them to single out some individual, not the most likely, by way of being religiously influenced, but the most unlikely, and to interest themselves, even as for their own souls, in the experience of such, until we should meet again on the coming week.

Pursuant to the advice I had given, I began to think, Who shall I take to labor for so absorbingly during the week? when it was suggested. You had better inquue of God. I did so. To my astonishment, the individual referred to, with whom my former efforts had seemingly been so fruitless, was presented. For a moment, I turned away with dismay. My thoughts ran thus: — Were the most vile, reckless sinner, suggested, or even a professed infidel, I might in some way know how to approach

An Unlikely Case.

him with hope of success, but here is one whom I cannot meet with the Bible, for she regards it only as secondary authority, neither can I approach her as an acknowledged sinner, for she is wTapped in the cloak of a profession. An “unlikely” case indeed, my heart responded. But this current of thought was arrested by the chidmgs of the Spirit. The unbelieving lord of Samaria was brought to my remembrance, and I at once said, “Lord, I will not say if thou shouldst open windows in heaven, then might such a thing be, as that this person should be powerfully awakened to a sense of her condition as a sinner. But I will say, * All things are possible with thee, and all things are possible to him that helievetJu Only teach me how to approach her, and, * behold, here am I.’”

It was suggested in return, All you are at present required to do, is to keep her continually before God in prayer. I did so, and most strikingly did God take the work into his ovn hands. He did not send me to her, but he sent her to me. An account of our interviev, will answer your question.

With a countenance which bespoke docility such as I had never before witnessed m her, she entered my room one morning, and said,

*’Mrs. P, I have heard you speak oi faith,

and I should like to have you explain it to me.”

In return I said,

“I am speaking to you, Mrs. W, and you

The Culprit C. Efforts of his Friends.

believe me.” She nodded assent. “God hath spoken, and the Bible is his word. Just as truly so, as though you heard him audibly speaking from heaven, in the voice of mighty thunderings, as from Mount Sinai. God hath said, ‘The soul that sinneth, it shall die.’” Kow, if the sinner should really beli-eve God, he would see himself already, condemned; not to mere temporal death, this were in comparison a light matter, but the condemnation passed upon the sinner extends to soid and body, to all eternity. You remember the culprit

C. He had violated the laws of his country,

and in obedience to those laws the sentence of death was passed upon him by a fellow-man.

How awful were his feelings while lying under condemnation! How were the sympathies of the public enlisted in his behalf! How energetic and ceaseless the efforts of his friends for the removal of this condemnation! But what is all the untold agony occasioned by this sentence, compared with what the distress of the sinner would be, if he only had as much faith in the word of God as this culprit had in the word of his fellow-man! He would see himself lying under a sentence which might be executed, not two or three months hence, but at any moment, “in such an hour as he thinks not,” — a sentence which extends not only to the poor perishing body, but to the immortal spirit, which, after thousands on thousands of ages have

Mr. M/s Hazardous ConditJon.

past, will yet have not one day less to exist, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

I think, my dear Mr. M, yon may now apprehend the kind of faith which the unawakened sinner is required to exercise. You have been hi the habit of thinking that you believe the word of God. Should I tell you that you but partially believe it, and that you re in part infidel in principle, you would with abhorrence start from the suggestion, and doubtless would think me unkind. But you say you are unawahened. Could you reremain so, if you verily believed that the sentence of eternal death had already been passed upon you — a sentence which may be executed even before you lay this paper from your hand?

Other inquiries connected with the awakening of my Hicksite friend were equally interesting and profitable; but my mind at present is so concerned about your perishing condition, that I cannot con sent to say more, until you assm-e me that you are indeed aroused to a conviction of the wrath that abideth upon the sinner. “God ofut of Christ is a consuming fire.” You are out of Christ! Do you imagine that your condition may not be so awful, so hazardous, as the foregoing conclusions imply?

Ah, my dear Mr. M, the Bible is the book

from which, on examination, you will find these conclusions have been legitimately drawn. You say you believe the Bible. How can you believe

Indescribable Solicitude.

itp and yet regard your condition as one of less peril than the Bible declares it to be?

And now, my dear friend, my feelings for you are those of indescribable solicitude. Shall I apologize for this inexpressible concern? No! As

well might the friends of the poor culprit C

have ceremoniously accosted him thus: “Pardon the interest manifested by us in endeavoring to free you from the sentence which has been passed upon you by the laws of your comitry; this sentence we know must inevitably and speedily be executed, only as faint hopes are left that the strength of our influence and most energetic efforts may possibly prevail.” But you will remember that neither the respectability nor most energetic efforts of his friends prevailed in his behalf; they only seemed to increase public indignation. “One with such a training, such associations, (fee, ought to have known better,” was the response of the popular voice. Just so, I

fear with you, dear Mr. M. If the prayerful

sympathies and energetic efforts of your deeply pious friends could have been instrumental in the removal of the awful condemnation which now rests upon you, long since would it have been removed. Will the fact of your advantages for religious improvement stand in mitigation, when at the last it shall be asked, why sentence should not be executed?

O my dear friend, though circumstances forbid

Bible the Voice of God.

my further pleading with you at this time, it relieves my oppressed heart to know that I may go to my closet, and plead with God for the continued influences of that Spirit, which, alas! you have so much grieved by your delays. With yet another word of admonition, which I hope you will now take to your closet, I must leave you for the present. You have said, “The time does not seem to have come for me to begin in earnest to seek the Lord.” If God should speak audibly from heaven to you, saying, “Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation:” “To-day if ye will hear my voice, harden not your heart” — would you not conclude that the time had indeed come for you to begin in earnest?. What is the reason that the voice of God, as sounding throusfh the Bible, has not the same effect which you imagine a voice pealing from the heavens would produce? Is it not because you do not in heart receive the Bible as the word op God?

From what has been said, I think you now apprehend something more about “faith and its effects.”

Yours, with most prayerful solicitude.

Mr. M inquires the Way.