To Mr. K——

Solicitude — A twenty years’ seeker — The longer and the shortei way — Remarkable experience in the steam cars — A meetingestablished for the promotion of holiness — How holiness sustains in the hour of trial, exemplified — The difference between willingness and obedience — A quotation from Mr. Wesley.

Your omission to write, lest my reply should make an unnecessary draft upon my time, has cost me more time in perplexing inquiries after the reasons of your strange silence, than would have been consumed in a long response.

I have felt most affectionately and prayerfully solicitous for your spiritual welfare. I hoped that ere this your goings had been established in the way of holiness. I am sure, dear brother, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, you

Why not now? A Twenty Years’ Seeker.

would have done it. But now, when it is only to cease your endeavors to save yourself, and by an act of faith cast yourself wholly on Christ, believing that (d fulfills his promises to you, you shrink, and linger, just at the base of the fountain, unwilling to make the venture.

My dear brother, why do you not now

“Plunge into the purple flood.
And rise in all the life of God V

By waiting thus you grieve your Saviour, for you ouo;ht loner since to have been a witness of the full power of saving grace. This you may prove at any moment when you will, with your whole heart, trust in Christ as your present Saviour,

A beloved brother, who, for many years, had been earnestly longing for the witness of holiness, said to me, “I think I have not as deep and painful conviction on this subject as I ought to have, preparatory to the immediate reception of it. Mr. Wesley says, that often deeper and more painful conviction precedes it, than is experienced previous to justification.” In retuni I observed “If all the deep feeling and earnestness of desire which you have felt during the past twenty years were gathered up within the compass of a few weeks, or a few days, would not the amount be great indeed V* He readily acknowledged it would. “Imagine,” said I, “that you were to die within two minutes, what would you do?” With much solemnity he

What I without any more conviction. Regret.

said, “I would cast myself upon the merits of my Saviour /” “Do you think he would save you from all your sins?” “I believe he would.” “What! without any mo)’e conviction .^” With emotion he acknowledged the conclusion to which he had brought himself, and yielded the point. He has since made the venture, and cast himself behevingly on Christ, resolved to rest upon the authority of the word of God, as the evidence of his entire acceptance. As an able minister of the New Testament, he is now, in turn, proclaiming to others the excellency of that Word, upon which, as an immovable foundation, his faith is based.

I regret that you are not redeeming the time relative to this subject. If you were clear in the experience of this grace, how much more successful might you be in your endeavors to help others into its enjoyment! You say you now perceive, that you had reason to conclude you were in the enjoyment of the blessing at the time referred to in your last. Then why did you not at once, on perceiving this, again resume the confidence which you had cast away. If you have not yet resumed it, why may you not do so this moment? It is wonderful how the adversary gets the advantage of some, by keeping them lingering on the borders of the promised land, while others, at a single bound, leap over, and then exultingly gather its fruits, and tell of its blessedness to others.

Remarkable Experience in the Cars.

Let me tell of one who was not twenty years in getting into the way. He had, for some time previous, known the joys of pardoned sin. But he had not been much in communion with those, whose absorbing employ was to “praise the beauty of holiness,” and on being thrown into the company of such, his heart became greatly enamored with its beauties, and earnestly did he long to enter upon its enjoyment. Just in this simple manner he obtained the desire of his heart. We were about to respond to an invitation to visit his residence, in order to spend a little season in communing on the subject; and while on the way in the steam cars, I said, “Brother J., are you sinning now?”” “No, I believe I am not.” “How are you saved from sin?” “I do not know, unless Christ saves me.” “Do you think he would save you another moment, if you should continue to rely;^ upon him?” “I believe he would.” “Will you do it?” “By the help of the Lord, / will.’’’ And that help was granted. He continued, with every moment, to gather fresh strength. I soon said, “I will not ask you what you will do to-morrow, nor what you will do five minutes hence; but, if you should now have the opportunity, would you be willing to say, Jesus now saves me from all sin: ‘For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation?’ “By the help of the Lord, I will.” He was an in-Meeting for Holiness established. A Fiery Trial.

fluential man, and both Presbyterian and Methodist ministers were in habits of intimacy at his house. That afternoon, I have reason to believe, that numbers were made acquainted with his interest on the subject. He shortly afterward established a meeting at his house for the promotion of holiness, ministers of different denominations have there met, with members of their charge, and ever since it has been kept up for the diffusion of light, and the edification of the lovers of holiness. Yesterday he visited us. He seems to be most truly going on from strength to strength, evidencing the power of Christ as a full Saviour before the world, amid the toils and perils of an extensive business.

Several weeks after he thus began to rest upon Jesus to save him under every diversity of circumstances, he was aroused one night to behold his extensive printing estabhshment in flames. He had had a similar calamity some time previous, which made this seem doubly disastrous. But the Saviour even here assured him, that there might be reasons why it were not better for him to lay up treasure on earth, and with sweet placidity of mind he was enabled, while yet beholding the devouring element, to sink down more closely into the bosom of love, with the inspiring assiu-ance, “All things work togethe:^ for good to them that love God.”

Dear brother, why will you not now rest upon

Cast yourself upon Christ as you are.

Christ to save you? If you do not expect to save yourself in any degree, but depend wholly on the merits of Christ for salvation, why should you not this moment begin to trust him, to cleanse you from all your uncleanness. He now says to you, “I will, be thou clean;” but you do not manifest yom* willingness to be made clean, until you cast yourself as you are upon Christ, believing that he now fulfills his promises to you. You can no more be saved the present moment for the future than you can breathe for the future. You grieve the Holy Spirit while you stay away, and instead of getting a greater fitness, are every moment rendering yourself more unworthy; inasmuch as the Spirit has, for months past, been urging you to the open fountain, and Christ has been saying, “Come, for all things are now ready.” Months since, you ought to have added your testimony to those who are already cleansed, and kept clean, and with them have said, “We are his witnesses of these things; and so also is the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him.”

I would not seem causelessly to upbraid a dear brother for whom I feel so affectionately desirous, but I am sure, if you linger after this hour, that the Saviour will upbraid you for your unbelief. It is not only the ivilUny, but the obedient, that shall eat the good of the land, that is, they who show

Willing but not doing. The Blessing sought by Works.

their willingness by their obedience. Your child may assure you of his willingness to obey your commands, but how lightly would these repeated assurances tell on your heart, unless he demonstrate it by doing what you require. Your mere willingness to believe will not itself bring you into

“The land of rest from inbred sin,
The land of perfect holiness,”

If Israel had for a long time stood upon the borders of their promised inheritance, continually saying, in obedience to the command, “Go over and possess the good land,” “We are willing, and stand here all ready to go over;” — would this expression of willingness have brought them any nearer the point? Rather, would not their lingering have grieved their gracious God, who had led them through the wilderness, and brought them to this point, just in order that they might now enter in?

0 may our dear brother never be doomed to wander back into the wilderness of unbelief!

Mr. Wesley says,” Certainly you may look for it now, if you believe it is by faith. And by this token you may know whether you seek it by faith or by works. If by works you want something to be done Jlrst, before you are sanctified. You think

1 must first be, or do thus or thus. Then you are seeking it by works unto .this day. If you seek it* by faith, you must expect it as you are; and if as you are, then expect it now. It is of importance

#

Expect it by Faith. Expect it as you are. Expect it now,

to observe that there is an inseparable connection between these three things. Expect it by faith. Expect it as you are. Expect it now. To allow one is to allow them all. Do you believe that we are sanctified by faith? Be true then to your principle, and look for the blessing just as you are, neither better nor worse, as a poor sinner that has still nothing to pay, nothing to plead, but

* Christ died’ And if you look for it as you are, then expect it now. Stay for nothing, why should you? Christ is ready and he is all you want.” In another place, he adds, “To this confidence, that God is both able and willing to do it now, there needs to be added one thing more, a divine evidence and conviction that he doeth it. In that hour it is done, God says to the inmost soul, * According to thy faith be it done unto thee!’ Then the soul is pure from every spot of sin; it is clear from all unrighteousness. The believer then experiences the deep meaning of these solemn words,

* If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us from all unrighteousness.’”

I hope my long letter may not prevent you from writing quickly in return, if it at all consist with your other duties. If your usag of Henry Clay, as a correspondent, is given as a ‘sample of what I may expect from you, I shall regret* it. I love’

Reference to the Experience of Mrs. U and Mrs. L,

to receive long letters, but I think I shall never again presume to send so long a talk as this in return. I so much desire to hear that you have entered into the rest of faith, that I am prone to forget myself while urging you on this point. The last experience in the ‘* Riches of Grace,” is from the

pen of Mrs. Professor U, of B k, Maine.

There is also another in that work to which I would refer you, on page 115, expeiience 19; you will find it also in the Guide, vol. 3, page 8. This is

the experience of my beloved sister, Mrs. L,

the reading of which, I think, may be confirming to your faith. My dear husband, and all the members of my family still remember you most afi’ectionately. My Christian salutations to Mrs. K. Yours, (fee.