To Mr. C——

Impelled to activity by the Word — An enthusiastic doctrine — A nice point — Quietism — Abraham pleading for Sodom — Moses pleading for Israel — Christ in the person of his saints.

In answer to your inquiry I will say, I do not think I have less faith in praying for the unconverted than formerly. “If so,” you ask, “how has it been nourished and retained?” I answer, not generally by what may in one sense be termed impelling influences, but from the obvious requirements of the Yf ouD,” Be ye steadfast, immovable.

Talents must be used. God wills the Sinner’s Salvation.

always abounding in the work of the Lord;” — “Instant in season, out of season;” — with kindred passages implying the utmost vigilance, and requiring the most skillful management in the employment of talents intrusted for usefulness. Otherwise, how can we, as faithful stewards, return his own with usury?

Mr. Wesley, in accordance with these Scripture enjoinments, says in his rules for the Methodist Societies, “Casting aside that enthusiastic doctrine, that we are not to do good unless our hearts are free to it.” The greater the good to be accomplished, the more powerful and subtil will be the dissuasives which Satan will interpose. It is the will of God that sinners should be saved, and that the most energetic and unremitting efforts should be made in warning, entreating, and even compelhng them to close in with the offers of mercy. So when we pray for the unconverted, whether we feel like it or not, we may have this confidence, that we ask that which is according to the will of God, and di’ine influences will descend upon them in answer to the prayer of faith, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear — it is thus that we are workers together with God — a sweet savor of Christ in them that are saved, and in them that perish. The manner, then, in which I have been enabled through grace to retain and nourish this “sympathy with Christ,” is by continuing to labor

Labor. Shrinkings. God’s Purpose changed by Prayer.

with him in saving the souls for whom his most precious blood was spilt; and this I endeavor to do on the same principle upon which I would perform other duties, and oftentimes amid the shrinkings of nature and powerful temptations to unbelief. Perhaps you say, Is it not the Spirit that makes intercession, and can I, without this moving of the Divinity within me, present acceptable prayer? This is a nice point, and only by comparing Scripture with Scripture can we resolve the matter. Had Abraham been disposed to lean toward Quietism, he had been less importunate in pleading for the Sodomites, and possibly righteous Lot might not have been delivered, yet God did not reprove him for unsubmissiveness. God had declared his purpose to Moses, and rebellious Israel was doomed to destruction; had Moses carried out the principles of the sect referred to, and calmly awaited the event in fancied submission, may we not presume that the sentence of divine justice would have been fulfilled? But was it not the Spirit of the divine Intercessor working mightily within Moses, that thus moved him to importune for the forgiveness of the rebels? Just so Justice may doom the sinner, but the Word assures us, “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” And notwithstanding the many exceeding great and precious promises given unto us, yet God hath

Sum of Religion. Conformity to the Will of God.

declared, “For these things will I be inquired of by the house of Israel.”

“The life of God in the soul of man,” is said to be the sum of religion. “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” If Christ is our life, will not our lives be an exhibition of what his was when here below? His whole life was one continuous effort for the salvation of man, and to the degree we partake of his nature, we will exhibit before the world what he was when on earth. It is thus I am ever prone to measure my own attainments in grace. It is blessed indeed to sink into the will of God; but in order to know that we are in his will, we need a revelation of it, so that we may measure ourselves by its standard. This revelation we have fully exhibited in the life of Christ, and now it is for us to sink down” into the purple flood, then shall we rise moulded in his image, and present a glorious pattern, before men, of conformity to the will of GodT

Yours truly.

Led by a Right Waj’. Domestic Cares