LYNEDALE LODGE, BY PORTREE.
I RECEIVED your very kind and welcome letter last week. It is some time now since I came to this place. There are some very excellent people here. I find it good sometimes to be here, though I am often very dry.
You seem to think I will not enjoy myself without the presence of Jesus. I wish I had a heart like the church, for her Beloved was to her the chiefest among ten thousand. The question, Where is my Beloved gone? seems to have gone deeper into her heart than any other question. But what He said to them was this, that He would not leave them comfortless, “I will come to you.” By this we may learn that they were comfortless when He was away. Through the fall we have lost all comfort, therefore all the comfort which we enjoy is through Christ Jesus. Even all outward comforts, which all people enjoy, are through Him. But as sure as He was the chiefest among ten thousand to the church, so will He be to every soul which will be brought to the same nearness as the church. But it is to the spiritual mind He is precious, and not to the carnal mind, and He will be no more precious to the carnal mind in a believer, than He will be to the same in another. Dr. Kennedy, in writing of the stones and filthy rubbish taken from the island (Leper Isle), says that the saviour it gave quite sickened him, but he says that in course of time he learned that it served the part of ballast. He says, the more the rubbish disgusted him, the more it made him long for the farther shore.
“The troubles that afflict the just
In number many be;
But yet at length out of them all,
The Lord doth set him free.”
How precious will the Hand, which has taken you from the broad way, appear to you at a judgment day, when you will see your fellow-creatures going to the lake that burneth for ever and ever with no hope of ever returning, or of ever hearing of mercy to be shown them! O that He would not keep silent, that He would be like a roe or a young hart until the day break and the shadows flee away! I think I heard J— saying something like this, “that nothing will make the day but the rising of the sun.” So nothing will give real comfort to a spiritual soul but the Sun to rise. O to taste as much of the sweetness of Jesus as would keep us from doing with any other thing in His stead! We ought to be thankful for the jealousy that would keep us from doing with other things in His stead! O that I had such a jealousy! Will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? O that we would come to the knowledge of Jesus!
Satan will be often saying that there is no such refuge as is in Christ, but greater is He that is in you than He that is in the world, and when the word comes with heavenly power, and light, and love, Satan is not able to stand before it. He cannot stand the Holy Spirit in the word. But it is the duty of the living soul to use the sword of the word, although we would feel quite dry, for Satan does not like the word at any rate. He will be saying that there is no hope for the soul, but he has his own ends in view; he would like the soul to give up all hope and get quite careless, for he knows well that the hand of the diligent maketh rich . . .
Death in itself is a fearful thing. Who would get safe over the Jordan if it was not for the mighty Lord, who is with His people in it? So it will be a fearful thing to enter death without His presence. But He is the life of every soul who waits on Him, and believe me, He will not leave any soul who counts the time long without Him on the earth. O to taste with the soul that said, “My sure and all-sufficient help is in his name.” Pray that the Spirit may take me in to the sufferings of Jesus for His Church that I may see the fearfulness of sin. O that this would be the beginning of days with me, to walk with Him from this time forth, and that the time past would do for me to walk according to the course of this world! O to be dead to the world, that we might live to Him who is raised from the dead, and so to be living in truth! There is life eternal in believing that Jesus is the Son of God, for no one can say that Jesus is the Christ but by the Holy Ghost. But remember this:—
“He from the dust doth raise the poor,
• That very low doth lie;
And from the dunghill lifts the man
Oppress’d with poverty.”
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after His love, and are never right without it. Be sure and pray for us.
I am, your dear friend,
DONALD MACKAY.
LYNEDALE LODGE, BY PORTREE.
I received your very kind and welcome letter some time ago.
I think, if I am not mistaken, my trouble was revealed to you, but pray more that I may be made holy than anything else, for without holiness no one will see His face. I wish I had twenty times a stronger thirst for holiness than I have. This is not despising at all your counsel in seeking grace to support us when going through the place of refinement. But I know not anything that I have more need of than the power of the truth, that is, to behold the glory of God in the truth, and to be changed thereby. I know my heart is grieved for my sins, but for progress in inward holiness where is it? It is this progress I have need of. How precious it would be to gain a little in that way! But I know if I am united to Jesus as the branch is in the vine, and in that way drink in the love of Jesus, I will one day be made holy. I think a soul that is, in truth, in Christ has reason to leap for joy at the thought of such a day, for in that case, though this body is sown in corruption it will be raised in incorruption, and though it is sown in dishonour it will be raised in glory. Who can understand the depth of the love of God to a people that He has redeemed from the curse of the holy law? He revealed His love to them in washing their feet with water, but who can understand the depth of His love in washing them in His own blood? And although they have to taste bitterness going through the wilderness of their own corruption and sin, yet His love is unchangeable towards them. On the other hand, who can understand the joy of the soul at death, leaving this sinful body? Little wonder though Paul said that to depart and to be with Jesus was far better. How the body will rejoice at the resurrection, when it will be raised in incorruption! The state of a sinner brought to Jesus by the drawing of the Father may be compared to gold that would be put into the fire oftentimes, and at first you would scarcely see gold in it at all, but He who created the eye saw some gold in it (I do not mean by nature). And although some have gone through places of refinement on earth—not only some, but all of them have been refined on earth—yet their bodies go down to the grave in corruption. Who can understand the depth of the wisdom and the love of God, even towards their bodies, in changing them so much after death, their bodies being united to their Saviour all the while in the grave? O for the joy of the body that will be raised in incorruption, and O, the fearfulness of the body that will be raised to enter the second death, to fall into the hands of the living God as a consuming fire! Who can understand the joy of the elect of God on that day, and the misery of all who will not be in Him who is true, for the Church are in Him who is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ?
But the question may be asked—What are the fires that they now go through to make them holy? Tell me if you think I am wrong in this. As they are living creatures, and not dead as gold is, they need meat and drink to support them in the fires. The meat and drink of the kingdom of heaven is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. A great fire may be made up of more than one kind of stuff. So this fire may be made up partly of the troubles of this life, partly of the sins of our own nature, partly of the sins that prevail against us, partly of backslidings; and to some a part of it has come from false professors, a part from the world, and, I am not saying, but a part of it may come from the true Church of God, and another part from the holy law. An angry word from a loving father enters a child deeply, and makes him learn more obedience in the future. And even supposing he would not utter an angry word at all, if he would only keep silent and not utter words of love, the child would be grieved. So this may be a part of the fire. But if I know anything of the work of the Spirit, I do not know anything that makes them thirst more for the day of their deliverance than the sin of their own nature. The sins of the world also go to make up the fire which troubles them.
I am, your friend,
DONALD MACKAY.