66 deals out: These the impostor tries to imitate. them of all men their state is the most perilous. UNPUBLISHED LETTERS OF THE LATE Dear Brother in Christ, I was not a little surprised at your undeserved kindness to me who am so universally despised: "But better is he that is despised and hath a servant, than he that honoureth himself and lacketh bread," Prov. xii. 9. Despised every one must be that hath a servant. Christ took on him the form of a servant: " Behold my servant whom I uphold." He was bound under the law, and all that are under the law are servants. Thirty pieces of silver was the price of a bond-servant, that had been gored to death by the horns of a beast (Exod. xxi. 32). Fat bulls of Bashan and the horns of unicorns gored the Saviour (read Ps.xxii), and his price was thirty pieces of silver. But what is most strange is, that he is our servant: " Thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities." Yea, take it from his own mouth, "I came not to be ministered unto, but to minister : which is greater, he that serveth, or he that sitteth at meat? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth." And what is the work of a servant? nothing meaner than to wash the feet; and he washes us all or we should never be clean. And who cooked the cakes for Elijah? the Angel of the Covenant, the same that baked the bread and broiled the fish at the sea of Tiberias, and that provided every morning and evening's provision which the ravens carried in the days of old. And what says the Lord to this? "I was as one that drew them with cords of love, and I took the yoke (of unbelief) from their jaws, and laid meat before them." And is it not wisdom that kills her beast, mingles her wine, P 106 on our clothes too: and spreads her table? yes, and puts The Lord hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, (says Zion,) he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness; as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels." Yea, he puts the robe on our back, the ring on our hand, and the shoes on our feet. Nor will this service be finished till the last day. Blessed are those servants, who when their Lord cometh he shall find watching. Verily, I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and come forth and serve them." Luke xii. 37. And now he that is despised and hath this servant, is better than the pharisee that honoureth himself and lacketh the bread of eternal life. Come eat of my bread, (says wisdom,) and drink the wine which I have mingled." Aye, but says my brother, how are we to get this bread? Take another proverb, and that will tell thee: "Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread," (Prov. xx. 13). This cannot be taken literally, for loving sleep will not bring a rich man to poverty, nor will opening the eyes fill a hungry man with bread. Soul sleep is what is meant, when the eyes of the understanding are closed, and the heart asleep in carnal security. "Awake thou that sleepest, (saith Paul,) and Christ shall give thee light." Now he that loves this sleep hates to be disturbed, either by conscience, by judgments that are abroad in the earth, or by the ministry of the word : these love sleep but hate the light, nor will they come to it, but shut their eyes against it, as the rich man did, until in hell he lift up his eyes, and then fell to begging water, being come to the worst sort of poverty. Open thine eyes and thou shalt be satished with bread."-Come to the light, expose thy life and conscience, and receive every conviction and reproof that the word of God gives, and stick to the truth, and come to the light, that their deeds may be made manifest. Opening the eyes is the first work as it appears by what follows: " Paul, I send thee to open blind eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may re ceive an inheritance among them that are sanctified, by faith that is in me.” And now are such souls satisfied with bread. Brother, God bless thee. Many thanks for your undeserved favour. My hands are so cold I can hardly hold the pen. My kind love to Sister M-, your brother and his spouse, and pray accept the same from your willing servant 2 Cor. i. 21.-Jesus has conquered hell, sin, and death, and conquered the sinner. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God: speak ye comfortably unto Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is par doned, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins." “And our hope of you is steadfast.” Although the Corinthians could not at this time claim their sonship. But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver, in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us." A sinner sooner or later feels this sentence of death passed upon him. When the Lord begins a work of grace upon the sinner's heart, he feels himself in the valley of Achor; the Lord in his time in this valley opens a door of hope: then the sinner falls down when there is no more strength; he feels his hard heart relent, melt, break in pieces; his sins seem gone, affections drawn heavenward, longs for the object of his soul's delight-here is a change indeed. Ye must be born again." When the sinner is quickened there is a cry in his heart to the Lord. Have you ever cried to the Lord, poor sinner, and had a sweet answer to prayer? This cry may be in the heart for years before the sinner feels his interest in a covenant of grace. If you have, it is because you are born again. In a natural sense did you ever hear a dead child cry? Some may set up a standard for a poor sinner to be delivered in such a way, because he was; another person who had been delivered another way might say he was a standard; this will not do,-" To the word and to the testimony,"-I will tell you what is essential, Unto you that believe he is precious." Is Jesus precious to your soul? is He the altogether lovely, and the chiefest among ten thousand? If he is precious to you, you believe: and if you believe you are saved, if you love Jesus, it is because he first loved you; "Love is of God." 46 One way the Lord establishes a sinner is by answering prayer: we are commanded to look to our father Abraham-whenever he moved "there he erected an altar and called upon the name of the Lord:" can you not say, poor soul, you have prayed and the Lord hath answered? have you not set up some Ebenezers now have you not found these things establishing to the soul? Another way the Lord establishes the soul, is by giving or applying the promises to the soul, such as these Fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee, yea I will help thee, yea I will uphold thee with the righthand of my righteousness:" No weapon that is formed against the shall prosper," &c. and I will be 66 66 Ir is unnecessary for me to say, as every line of this scrawl will prove that I am a poor ignorant man, and that instead of dictating to your correspondent Gad, it would more become me to sit at his feet for instruction: however, as I trust by sovereign and eternal mercy I have been made wise, by the power of the Holy Spirit, unto eternal salvation, I feel anxious to say a word on behalf of Him who hath said " Men ought always to pray and not to faint." It is now upwards of twenty years since I first knew the preciousness of the adorable name of Jesus, the great Captain of Salvation, who gave himself to the church, that he might redeem it from all iniquity," and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” The means employed to communicate this unspeakable blessing, were cross and stripping dispensations in the providence of God, through which was made known to my heart the freeness of his love, the greatness of his mercy, and the glory of that righteousness which is "unto all and upon all them that believe." As my means have been small, accompanied with repeated affliction in my family, I have been deprived of the instruction arising from the perusal of the publications of the day, and have been obliged for many years to content myself as a constant reader of your small but valuable work, and would gratefully acknowledge that it has often proved a channel of consolation and instruction to my mind. However, as one that feels interested in the circulation of the truths with which it abounds, I am sorry to say my mind was greatly pained by the remarks that have been made upon family prayer. I have said it was in the furnace of affliction that the Lord Jesus was made manifest to my soul, according to that most gracious promise, "I will bring the third part through the fire; and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried they shall call on my name, and I will hear them; I will say it is my people, and they shall say the Lord is my God." From this period I trust I have known the comfort and blessedness of family prayer, although at times I have felt its loss, occasioned either by the providence of God, or by a spirit of coldness and indifference in the exercise: and I am sure, that if under many of my trials I had met with Gad's remarks on family prayer, I should have taken advantage of them, and that instead of being in stant in season and out of season, should have sat down contented under them, as a covering for my neglect of one of the sweetest privileges belonging to the household of faith. Many have been the stripping dispensations of my Father's hand: afflictions in my family; the want of employment, through which I have been brought to my wit's end; as well as the hand of death rudely snatching from my embrace one of the objects of my warmest affection: but under them all have found the throne of grace the sacred spot where the Lord has promised the blessing, even life for evermore. I admit all this can be done without any of our fellow creatures being witnesses to the same; yet what exercise can be more blessed, and I would add acceptable, in the sight of Him who judgeth not after the sight of his eyes, but who judgeth righteously, as when the head of a family calls his household together for the solemn act of communion with the Father and with his Son Christ Jesus. It is here we can acknowledge, and that before our unconverted children, the source from whence flow all our mercies, and our entire dependance upon him for all the blessings of the life that now is, as well as that which is to come. It is true it was under a great struggle of conflicting feelings, arising from shame and a consciousness of my own inability that I commenced family devotion; and although since then I have been tempted to give it up, yet to the praise and honour of my covenant-keeping God, that amidst all the storms of life, the consolations of the gospel have been imparted through the medium of family prayer, and the strength of the Lord made perfect in my weakness: so that I am sure Gad himself will not censure me for thus speaking, seeing that the heavens have been opened to receive my supplications, to the praise and the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made me accepted in the Beloved." Will you allow, Messrs. Editors, a poor ignorant creature like myself, to suggest to your correspondent Gad, that I humbly presume his time and talents would have been better employed, and the glory of God in the church more visibly promoted, had some precious revealed truth been the subject of his meditations and pen. I beg also to state, that the present condition of the church could have well spared his remarks, as there are hindrances enough to keep the child of God away from the enjoyment of the privilege of family prayer, without his furnishing any more. Nay, 1 feel warranted to go further and say, that had the same time been consumed in attempting to remove some of the difficulties that stand in the way this exercise, many of the timid followers of the Lamb, I have no doubt, of would have had occasion to bless the Lord for employing him as an instrument in leading them highly to appreciate a service so sacred and divine. However, allow me to inform your correspondent, that one injurious effect it appears to me is sure to follow, and that is, that those of the children of light who have not as yet commenced this delightful employ in the midst of their families, may now, upon his testimony be relieved from all uncomfortableness in the neglect of it, as it is a "matter purely of christian discretion," and not one of divine authority. I would also add, that my connection with the church of the living God has given me many opportunities of witnessing the approbation of the God of Israel to family prayer; and could refer to persons by name, who have become members of the church to which I belong, who in giving in their experience, have plainly declared their first impressions of the evil of sin, and the preciousness of the way of life and salvation through the blood-shedding of the Lord Jesus Christ, were made upon their tender minds in the exercise of family prayer. With these facts before me I would most affectionately entreat of my brethren to commence the delightful and instructive exercise, feeling assured that the blessing of the God of Jacob will ever rest upon it, although it only be matter purely of christian dis 66 a cretion." Gad Shewn to be Contrary to the Scriptures of God;" but he has not stated my opinion, nor has he shewn it to be contrary to the scriptures. My opinion is not that the practice of what is called family prayer is wrong: but that the word of God nowhere commands it, either by precept or example, as a practice to be followed by all the saints of God, but is left to circumstances and christian discretion (Prov. ii. 11). That if a man whom I can receive as a brother in the Lord, bring up his children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; that is, he aims to guide them by the precepts of the Bible, at the same time necessarily feeling concerned for their eternal welfare; I have no Bible (and in these matters I own no other) authority to judge or decide upon that man's character, by the discretionary rule of a piece of family formality. Also, if we have no better rule than mere formalities by which to know the real children of God from others, then the poor and needy would indeed be forgotten, and the whole herd of dead formalists pass for trees of the Lord's right-hand planting. But the living sons of Zion know that these formalists are the briars and thorns which Jehovah will pass through, and burn them up, and leave them neither root nor branch. Joshua has certainly, in the title he has given to his piece, made great profession; but he has not kept to it, for if he had shewn my opinion to be contrary to the scriptures of God, I should consider that he had written something worth reading: but neither Joshua nor Jonathan has touched my opinion, there it is in your February number, firm as a rock, sheltered by the word of God, substantiated and confirmed by external circumstances, and by the experience of the living in Jerusalem. Some ministers have had the good sense and honesty, being convinced of the soundness of Gad's opinion, to recommend to their hearers |