ST. JUDE’S, GLASGOW.
(Continued from page 236.)
GLASGOW, 14th January, 1902.
MY DEAR D.,—I received your letter on Saturday, and was glad you were in fairly good bodily health when you wrote. I cannot complain of my own health in the meantime. We are all as you saw us, only my father is failing very much. He cannot put on his own clothes now, and we can hardly understand a word he says. I have sent your coat on yesterday, and I hope you got it all right. . . .
Now do you think is that not enough said about the things of the world? What comes before my mind in the meantime is, that God is invisible, and that He cannot be seen by any human eye. No wonder then though natural men say in their heart—”There is no God.” But you may say, they see His works. Yes; but they ascribe it to Nature; for they say that Nature accounts for the works of creation, so they put Nature in the place of God. Every man by nature is a fool towards the things of God, and the fool says in his heart, there is no God—not with his tongue, but in his heart. Who can see God? The eye of faith alone can see Him. It is written of Moses that he saw the invisible God. Now, what I desire to aim at is—”Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah, that I am God.” Are you a witness on “The Goth” to natural men, that there is a God? I have no doubt, if you will be true to your profession, but they will put you into very hot places sometimes. You remember when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, put the three godly men into the furnace (and that was a very hot place), and when he saw they came out of it without any harm, the king was convinced that they were witnesses for God, and that their God only was able to save from death. It may be truly said of them all, “Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah, that I am God.” The witnesses of God are His people, not of themselves, but of God that is witnesses in them. “He that
believeth hath the witness in himself,” that is, the Spirit beareth witness in God’s people. “The works that I do in my Father’s name, the same beareth witness of me.” . . .
All send love.—Yours affectionately, J. MACLEOD.
SANATORIUM,
NEW ZEALAND, 23rd June, 1905.
MY DEAR SISTER,—I received your letter of the 9th May, and was glad to hear that you were all well.
I have not done so well this last week. The amount of milk and food we are almost compelled to take, has brought on indigestion so bad that sometimes I can hardly look at food, and I lost three pounds last week. My breathing is very bad if I walk any distance. I have been here two months first Saturday, and I don’t expect to stay much longer. The doctor desires me to keep on the treatment after I leave the Sanatorium. My cough is very troublesome, and I expectorate much in the morning.
I am sorry to see that the enemies of the Sabbath in Glasgow are doing their best to have the Arts Galleries open on the Sabbath day. Some of these men, who have got a high position in the Church, have gone so far in their blind ignorance as to say, that those who would keep them closed, have got neither Scripture nor antiquity on their side. It would be well if these men would give up all thoughts of religion; for then they would not be deluding the people. They are the greatest fools of all men, dreaming of happiness in eternity while having no relish for the things which belong to the glory of God. We read in the Confession of Faith—”This Sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord, when men, after a due preparing of their hearts, and ordaining of their common affairs before hand, do not only observe an holy rest all the day from their own works, words, and thoughts about their worldly employments and recreations; but also are taken up the whole time in the publick and private exercises of his worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy.” Or if we take Scripture without any comment—”If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasures, nor speaking thine own words. Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord” (Is. lviii. 13). But it is quite clear that these men have not faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore they make provision for the flesh to fulfil lusts thereof. . . .
Remember me kindly to all friends in St. Jude’s. There is no Church at all here to which I can go. I think, if at any time in the history of the world, it could be said—”That some have degenerated so as to become no churches of Christ, but synagogues of Satan,” it may be said in our day. . . .—Your affectionate brother,
JOHN MACLEOD.
(To be Continued.)