IV. AUCHMELVICH, 28th July, 1871.
MY DEAR FRIEND,—I received your letter in due course, and indeed it was a sore stroke to my feelings to hear of the death of my dear and faithful friend, F. M’K. He has been taken away from the evil to come; but I feel it in the very bottom of my heart, for the like of him was not easy to be found anywhere.
I sympathise with you in that village, but the Lord is able to help in time of need, and He can make up the loss in some measure in another channel; and see that you seek Him for that and at a throne of grace. The removal of the Lord’s people, although good for them, is a dark sign to the generation—the most of whom care not what will become of them in an eternal world. May the Lord pity them; and surely any one who got the least drop of spiritual life would pity them also. Our land is full of unconcerned professors of religion; may we be kept from their snares. And may we be made of the brokenhearted, penitent sinners who know they have a fallen nature, and who learn by experience that they have a corrupt and deceitful heart, and that nothing will do for them but a saving interest by faith in the work of Christ, “the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.” And may He be made so precious to us that we can say in sincerity and truth that He is our portion for time and eternity.
I now give up hope of seeing you and the friends in C—this year. I am sorry I cannot fulfil my promise as to this, but besides the continued illness of my wife, one of the boys got a fall, and put his arm out of joint at the elbow, and cannot do the least turn about the house—and oh! how the rebellion of my evil nature rises against the frowns of Providence. But although my poor purposes and promises cannot be fulfilled, there is One whose purposes and promises will all be fulfilled in His own time towards every one of His redeemed people, for they were given to them in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world.
Write soon, hoping you are all well, your sincere friend,
ALEX. KERR.
V. AUCHMELVICH, 26th September, 1871.
MY DEAR FRIEND,—I should have answered your last letter sooner, but was not feeling well in body or mind since receiving it. And I may be plain to tell you that the chief cause of my trouble was how much I was cast down in my mind because of my continual shortcoming in every duty. Indeed, I may say I was confounded and ashamed in spirit before Him who knows all our hearts because of the sin and shortcoming I saw mingled with everything I attempted in the way of duty private or public. Will you not pity me, an old man coming on to the brink of the grave, and so unprepared for the inheritance of the saints in light. No man is fit for the enjoyment of that inheritance but he who has a conscience cleansed by faith in the precious atoning blood of Christ. But as for me I am a poor, blind, hard-hearted sinner, ever provoking the Lord to cast me off; and if sin and corruption could do it, I would have been cast off long ago. But blessed be His holy name, the everlasting covenant stands sure, in which it is promised that although they will be chastised for their iniquities (and the hardness and deadness they bring on themselves is not the least part of their chastising), yet His love He will not utterly take from them nor suffer His faithfulness to fail.
They had the Sacrament at Stoer last week, and Mr. Aird was there. He called me to speak on the Friday, and poor as I was I endeavoured to say some broken words in accordance—so far as I know—with the Scriptures, which are the only safe guide in such solemn work as speaking to immortal souls concerning their eternal interests. . . .—Yours very sincerely, ALEX. KERR.
VI. ACHMELVICH, 14th November, 1871.
MY DEAR FRIEND,—I thank you for your last, and for the note that you gave from Mr. — about the letter that came from heaven from the Son of the Great King. It is when His own Word is dropped with life and power in the mind that it is felt to be indeed a message from heaven—“good tidings of great joy” to the poor weary soul. Then the Word will be the support of the soul, and its power will melt the hard heart like wax before the fire.
I wish you to read at your leisure the 2nd chapter of the Song of Solomon, and you will see there what thoughts the Church and the believers in every age had concerning Christ. And you will see at the 16th verse what was the conclusion of it all—“My Beloved is mine and I am His.”
Now nothing less than this will stand when it comes to be tried at last where we are. Are we in Christ by a living faith, or are we not? And in order to come to a point on this, we ought to ponder much on the work of Christ—what He did for the salvation of lost sinners, what price He paid for their redemption, what love was in His heart toward them: and we should seek out a throne of grace that He would enlighten us in the knowledge of Himself, so that our souls would be drawn out after him. There will be “a few names even in Sardis” to the end of time. “Few” compared with the bulk of the generation, and with the bulk too of the professors of religion in the generation. May we be of them. Write soon to your sincere friend, ALEX. KERR.