ST. JUDE’S, GLASGOW.
(Continued from page 26.)
GLASGOW, 8th December, 1899.
MY DEAR —, —Your letter came yesterday, bearing the good news of your being in your usual health. We are under the good hand of Providence enjoying the same blessing.
I see by your letter that you have not got a heaven on earth, and your weakness in the faith has made me strong, and that because I thought nobody was in the condition you have described, but myself. What makes my misery more terrible is, that I cannot blame Satan, and I cannot blame the world, but it all dwells in my own bosom; but every one who desires to live a holy life in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. I think I will have to do as Mr. D. Mackay did—stop telling any one about it. It is an awful thing when the soul abhors every kind of meat, and is drawing nigh to the gates of death, and when they will have to force their meat down their throat as it were. We never saw a dead man pressing food down his own throat; but living men, although they have a bad stomach, their sense tells them that they must die except they take their food, and this makes them take it against their inclination. But I am not in a good mood to speak of any thing at present, and I am not going to enlarge. Surely, although the night is so very dark, you can say the sun shined yesterday, or you can say it will shine to-morrow; for blessed be the Lord of hosts that, although the night is dark, yet He will leave a ray of hope to His own that the Sun of Righteousness shall yet arise with healing in His wings. May the Lord of glory shine upon your heart with the light of His countenance, so that you could say with the Apostle—”It was God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, that shined in our hearts giving us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus.” Although the power of darkness prevails, yet your desire is that you would see the King in His beauty, and see a glimpse of the land that is very far off by the eye of faith. God will satisfy this desire wherever it is, in His own good time.
Dear D., I will expect a letter from you as soon as possible.
I had a letter from M. M., in which he says that F. endeavours to stop them in building the church, if it is true, I think, that should urge them on with it. I am not at all on the top of the hills myself just now, so you will excuse this letter, and I hope if I wrote any thing wrong that you will put me right. . . . May the Lord uphold you in His love.—Your loving friend,
J. MACLEOD.
GLASGOW, 28th December, 1899.
MY DEAR—,—I was favoured by your letter on Thursday night, which I longed to receive, and, though I am not a good correspondent, I will endeavour to give an answer. You have given a very discouraging description of the state of the land in which you live. Well, the first truth that comes before me is—”To you it is commanded, O people, that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, &c., ye shall fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up.” Who knows but there are three men in Southampton, bad as it is, who would rather be cast into the burning fiery furnace, although it should be heated seven times, than worship the gods set up in our day. You might well conclude that it was the broad way to destruction when you saw so many running after it. We have only heard of three in the whole Empire of Babylon who protested against the command of the king—Daniel could not have been present.
But it seems the ungodly will have sometimes such prickings in their consciences—yea, fiery indignation—that they are compelled to believe that there is a God, who is a consuming fire. If this be not the way King Nebuchadnezzar knew the Son of God, I don’t know how could he know Him: for it is said that the form of the fourth was like the Son of God. But, it is a mark of those who have been called, by the effectual call of the gospel by the Spirit, that they desire above all things that the glory of the Most High would fill the whole earth from the one end of it to the other, and that the power of darkness should be destroyed out of themselves and out of their fellow-sinners. Such a desire does not belong to the natural man, and never was in any unconverted man. The Most High does not draw any sinner to Himself against the sinner’s will; for it is written: “For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure,” and “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.” Now, if we had a desire by nature to come to God, these Scriptures would lose their meaning, because it would be meaningless to make a people willing who are willing already. If we have this willingness God says in His word that He will never leave nor forsake His people to whom he gave this desire, and however destitute they may be in their own experience, yet God will hear the desire of the humble, and he shall regard their cry in His own time. He loved them with an everlasting love, and has drawn them with loving kindness. It is with loving kindness, and not against their will, that he draws them. They love to be in the company of the godly; they love to see them when they are awake, yes, even in their sleep. I believe they will be often conversing with them when they are absent from them in the body. I heard a godly man once say, “When Mary came to Elizabeth, and when she heard her salutation, the Babe leaped in her womb, and when Christ revealed himself to you, no wonder though the new creature leaped in the womb of your soul.” Dear D., when you will meet with a godly man among the ungodly, no wonder though the new creature in you should leap for joy. I think this is true of the people of God, when they meet each other. We know that we love God, when we love him that is begotten of Him. Another mark of the Lord’s people is, they shall mourn at seeing the wickedness of the world. “Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted.” When the world rejoice in their own wickedness; they shall mourn—”Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice; and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy, . . . but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.” Now dear D., I was pleased with your meditations on the prayer—”Carest Thou not that we perish?” and indeed there is tenderness in this—”And He arose and rebuked the wind and the waves.”
May He uphold you in His love, so that you will be enabled to stand steadfast against all the temptations of the evil one. This is my daily prayer for you, knowing that I am myself as weak as a grasshopper before the temptations of Satan. . . . May God bless you in soul and body.—Yours, JOHN MACLEOD.