STRATHY POINT, May 16, 1904.
DEAR FRIEND,—It is a long time since I got your letter. I was in your house in W—for a few nights; I was at the Sacrament. When we see Mr. Macdonald (Shieldaig), we see what it makes a man when he lives near God. It is a great privilege to be in the land where there are a few who bear His image in some measure, and it is a great thing that the Lord has not left Himself without a witness. There is no witnessing for the truth, but what there is of God in man. That is to say, no man does witness for Christ’s sake, except it come from above. Fellowship with the Lord is a great thing. It would be better for us to have a little fellowship with God than to have all the world. Yet it is to experience this nearness that would make us count it so. There are durable riches and honour with Him, and the Holy Spirit can reveal these things to the soul. O how desirable would it be to come to nearness to God, and a forgetfulness of the world! I speak of this as a thing only desired by me, not as a thing obtained. Let me know how are the party that stand for the truth coming on in Glasgow. . . . They ought to be very highly esteemed, those the Lord has given to stand for Him in such dark days. When you think of them as Christ’s, bought with His blood, how precious are they! They are not of the world as He is not of the world.
Be sure and write soon. May the Lord pour upon you of His Spirit very abundantly. Give yourself more and more over to Him, for He is the only good portion for time and eternity. Mr. — hopes that you will be found a witness on the side of truth when it is trampled under foot. . . . I desire your prayers, wishing you the love of God.—I am, your dear friend,
DONALD MACKAY.
Reason—Its Proper Place.
Some say their reason declares certain doctrines of revelation to be untrue, and that is enough. Your reason! And what, pray, is your reason? How much is its dictum worth? What weighs your reason in the great scale of minds? Who made it a judge of what its Maker ought to reveal, and ought to be, and ought to do; and to affirm that this may be true, and that may not be true? Do you say that God enkindled this light within you? True; but He meant it to illuminate its own little sphere, and not to boast itself a sun, and plant itself in the heavens, in its Maker’s place and stead.—From “Casket of Odds and Ends.”