XVI.
ACHMELVICH, June 5th, 1876.
MY DEAR FRIEND,—I am in your debt now a long time, but the reason was my state of health. I was telling you about the palpitation and weakness I had, and this spring it was increased, so that the whole month of March I was confined to bed. I am now better and going about, but there is a swelling left more or less in all my body, which I believe is occasioned by the weakness of my heart. Dear friend, you said in your former letter that you were too much in the company of one “Doubt-the-truth.” I approve of your confessing that, and I hope it is a burden to you. Now it is quite certain that every one in their natural state does not only doubt the truth, but actually disbelieves it; and they will do so until it is revealed to them as the truth of God by the Holy Spirit. Every soul that is still under the broken covenant and in an unregenerate state is ignorant of the gracious power of the Holy Ghost discovering to him the truth as it is in Jesus. You cannot change your own heart nor give yourself the saving knowledge of the truth, but at the same time see that you do not give willing quarter to your natural unbelief, or give willing place to the doubts that beset you, for Satan seeks no better than that poor pilgrims should be harassed by doubts and fears in their journey to Zion. Many thousand arrows has he in his bow, with which he is ever ready to vex and distress the poor soul that is seeking to know Christ and Him crucified as its own Saviour. So take you special care not to give heed to what comes from Satan or from your own unbelief.
I hope to hear from you soon, for I am weak and poorly, and may you get a sure standing on the foundation laid in Zion against which earth nor hell will prevail, however hot the battle may be for a time.
Hoping you are all well and my acquaintances among you,—
Your sincere friend, A. KERR.
XVII.
ACHMELVICH, 15th February, 1877.
MY DEAR FRIEND,—I got your last welcome letter in due course, by which I understand that you and yours are in health—a great blessing from the hand of the Most High. Oh! that we could improve our time in this world to the glory of God and the good of our never-dying souls. For myself I can see that my race is nearly run. I am sometimes so weak that I do not wish to speak above my breath.
I hope you make it your chief concern to seek evidence of your interest in Christ. Nothing but that will stand at last. The means of grace and the fellowship of the Lord’s true broken-hearted people are a great blessing, for if we were deprived of these the world would be a wilderness indeed; but we must not rest in these outward privileges; we must apply by faith at a throne of grace for an interest in the finished work of Christ, which only and alone is acceptable before God. Poor guilty sinners should wonder—as they will wonder to all eternity—that such a salvation was accomplished and is now held forth in the gospel of the grace of God. Oh! the loveliness of Him who underwent all that was required to accomplish eternal salvation for lost, guilty hell-deserving creatures, and to whom the Father points us when he says, “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.”
Our boy Angus would tell you how feeble I am, and his mother still a prisoner also.—No more from your affectionate friend,
A. KERR.