*Letter by late Rev. William C. Burns to his sister, written at the close of that period when he was studying for the ministry.
MY DEAR JANE,
Wednesday, 26th September, 1838.
I hope you will not misinterpret my conduct in not answering your note on Saturday. The subject to which it referred was of too important and solemn a nature to be lightly and hastily noticed, and I desired, first, to give special thanks to the Lord for his inviting us to correspondence on such topics; and, next, to seek by prayer and fasting to obtain light from His Word, expounded by the Holy Spirit, to guide me in regard to them. The time to write you has arrived, and my conscious deadness and spiritual blindness form a new argument to convince me of the need I have of using more vigorous and regular means for obtaining that advancement in the knowledge of Christ which can alone fit me to be an instrument in His hand for the advancement of His kingdom in the world.
I am almost afraid to speak of some things, which, I believe in common with yourself, my convictions have for some time approved of as indispensable means of our growth in grace—my practice of these has been so irregular, and, at best, so far behind even my own dark and partial views regarding them. Yet it is the spirit of pride and legal hope, I am aware, that makes me shrink from these as if from a broken covenant, instead of casting myself again as an undone transgressor on the free covenant of promise; that in me henceforth Christ may live, and regulate all things according to His own good pleasure, and for His own glory!
The great fundamental error then, as far as I can see, in the economy of the Christian life, which many, and alas! I for one commit, is that of having too few and too short periods of solemn retirement with our gracious Father and His adorable Son Jesus Christ. It is, we well know, when meditating in secret on His Word, when examining our hearts in His holy and omniscient but fatherly and gracious presence, when pouring out our complaint before Him, and seeking to utter the praises of His glorious character and works—it is in these exercises that we come to know, through the teaching of the Spirit, our natural darkness, depravity, and vileness, and that the glorious Sun of Righteousness arises upon our souls with healing in his wings, giving light to us who sit in darkness and in the region and shadow of death. The communion of the saints in Christian converse is indeed important, nay, indispensable to the growth of the new man when it can be obtained, but when is it sweet and soul-reviving but when each brings out into the common store something of the heavenly food which he has been gathering in the closet? Whenever the holy, heavenly light of a Christian deportment is seen in any one, when we hear him bringing forth from a full heart some of the glorious things of the kingdom, we ought then to learn the lesson that “he has been with Jesus,” and to go in like manner to Him that we too may obtain this living water to be in us as a well of water springing up unto everlasting life. I have alluded to this subject in connection with your proposal, which I would hail with joy, for “united prayer,” because it strikes me from what I have felt that our object will be best attained by our stimulating each other to greatly increased fidelity in these regular and acknowledged means, instead of first adopting any special measure, which is only a burden and an impediment, except when it is like an additional channel dug for the conveyance of the waters which are overflowing their ordinary banks. O that our private and personal covenanting with the Lord were more frequent and regular! This would form some basis for united efforts in His service; but without it I fear we are in danger of neglecting the Lord’s own ordinance for means of our own devising. For myself then, dear Jane, I intend to-morrow, D.V., solemnly to review my duty in the private exercises of God’s worship, in the light of His Word; and may He grant it, of His Holy Spirit, that I may, by His promised grace, be humbled before Him for past neglect of His blessed appointments, and resolve, in His strength, henceforth “to keep His statutes,” not as a servant for his wages, but as a son from love to his Father’s presence and his Father’s laws. It will serve the end of these lines, dear sister, if they be a link in a chain of correspondence between us regarding the work of God in our own hearts, and around us. Such a correspondence I much desire, and much more need; and I am satisfied that had I been earlier thus engaged, I would have been more fruitful in the glorious work of the Lord, and have written, not as now I do to my shame, about the things of God with so ignorant a mind and so cold a heart. O may the love of Christ constrain us to live no more as our own, but as manifestly His! This is the motive that will carry us with a rejoicing heart through tribulations and distresses for His name’s sake; and make us count all things but loss that we may win Christ and be found in Him, clothed upon with His spotless righteousness, and filled with His Holy Spirit. And now, desiring that the Lord Jesus may manifest Himself to you in His surpassing beauty and matchless grace and love, I remain your affectionate brother,
WM. C. BURNS.