Montrose, 15th April, 1877
My Dear Friend,—I hope this will find you well. My own health is fairly good at present, at least, as the Scotch say — “I canna’ complain.”
I have been, for the last hour or two, revising the proof sheets of a small treatise I am writing on the “Inspiration of Scripture,” and of which I hope to send you a copy shortly; and, as a relief from the strain of thinking, I now take up my pen to have a quiet talk with you. And if we at times find that it is a relief to unbosom our minds to a friend, what ought it to be to us to have the privilege of drawing near to a throne of grace, there to unbosom all our wants, our cares and our griefs, aye, and our poor praises? We would not be presumptuous with the Lord, but holy familiarity is not presumption. People that live together in family have intercourse and communing that those outside do not know anything about; and does not our living in family as redeemed, adopted children, with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost suggest and warrant a holy liberty and intimacy of communion with God which the world knows nothing of? “Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.”
For example, when we pray for our children, are we not ourselves to speak to God as children to a Father able and ready to help us? Are we not to be earnest and importunate in asking from Him what we most of all desire for them, and that is their salvation? And can we contemplate seriously the possibility of not getting an answer in peace regarding them, and not be stirred up to further solicitude and importunity on their behalf? Can we bear the thought that any one of them should be an enemy of God, and in a state of guilty and irrecoverable rebellion against Him to all eternity? We cannot. And are we not in our prayers to tell this to God? We are. Are we not to tell Him that we cannot and dare not anticipate anything less at His hands than the salvation of each one of them? Will He be offended if we tell Him that we cannot endure the thought of their everlasting perdition — of their being left to be blasphemers of His name to all eternity? Will He be displeased if, in our infirmity and agony of feeling, we thus bring before His grace and power the case of their immortal souls? I do not believe that He will. Has He not said that from those who walk uprightly He will withhold no good thing (walking uprightly does not mean, as some foolishly imagine, walking in celestial perfection on earth, but walking within the bounds of the covenant of grace), and is not the salvation of the children whom God has committed to my care a “good thing?” It may be true that in this matter I know not what spirit I am of, when I tell God that I cannot bear to think of any one of them being shut out for ever from His favour. But whatsoever spirit I am of in the matter, I shall tell the Lord of it fully and unreservedly, and He will know. And I will ask Him, what did He give me the example of Jacob for, who wrestled for the blessing? What did He give me the promise of His word for, “a seed shall serve him that shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation?” And what did He give me the name of Christ for, of whose name it is written that “men shall be blessed in Him, and all nations shall call Him blessed?” And what did Christ leave the promise of the Holy Spirit with His church for, who, “when He is come, reproves or convinces the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment?”
Also, when we pray for the church of God, for the cause of Christ and for the advancement of His kingdom in the earth, are we not to use holy boldness? Have we not the Lord’s own words — “The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force?” Do we give Christ credit for the loving kindness and condescension manifested in such a prediction — “The kingdom suffers violence, and the violent take it by force?” Christ is there evidently contemplating with satisfaction His children importunate on behalf of the kingdom; He is contemplating some of such wrestling as He had seen done in the past, as to be done still, and again in the future. It is our supposed vindication of ourselves in getting quit of a troublesome beggar. “O, the man was getting quite violent.” But it is Christ’s vindication of Himself for granting the victory and for bestowing the blessing — “O, the poor beggars are getting quite violent, I must suffer myself to yield, to be “taken by them.” “And he blessed him there!” And if Christ and His poor beggars understand one another, is not that enough? If He and they are of one mind — they not content without the blessing, and He not content without bestowing it — who else has any business or right to interfere? The devil, does he gainsay them? Ah, but Christ and His children are standing together in the heart of the promise — “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed” — and are thus railed in within an impregnable barrier which has been placed there by God’s almighty hand. And, while Christ and His children stand together there within the fortress of the promise transacting their love-matches, Satan has been cursed off the ground with the beastliness of a creeping thing, awaiting in helpless rage and enmity the day when he and his seed shall be for ever shut out into the outer darkness.
This reminds me that I have a question to answer your A____, “Is Satan glad at people’s troubles?” God bless the boy and teach him, and lead him early into the paths of His salvation. What can I answer? I hope he doesn’t think I have any special means of knowing the mind of the arch-enemy! Well, tell him from me that Satan is a being — a person — of pure unmingled malignity and venom, without a single good point to mitigate the unalleviated fulness that is in him of sin, and nothing but sin; not a single redeeming point about him to make him even pitiable or deserving of anything but the unrelieved eternity of woe that is before him. Perhaps this is not a direct answer, but, as I have told A____ what sort of a being Satan is, let him answer his own question himself. And tell him from me, moreover, that to incur Satan’s hatred for fleeing to Jesus Christ — who is unmingled love and holiness, and who has in His cross triumphed over Satan and is blessed for ever, and blessed specially in blessing — to incur Satan’s hatred for fleeing to Jesus is nothing to speak of, cruel and fearful though his hatred be. Yea, rather, if his hatred is incurred for Christ’s sake it is something not only not to be dreaded but something we should be glad and thankful for having got grace to do.
But I have given you enough “talk” to-night. With affectionate interest in you and yours — I am, &.,
HUGH MARTIN.