BY THE LATE REV. FRANCIS M’BEAN, FREE CHURCH,
FORT-AUGUSTUS.
(Continued from page 236.)
LETTERS FROM BETSY LINDSAY.
“EDINBURGH, 28th September, 1839.
MY EVER DEAR MISS G.,—Grace, mercy, and peace, be multiplied unto you. Your very kind and welcome letter found me again in my old habitation. What praise and thanks are due from me unto the Lord, for bringing me again in safety to my father’s house. Well may I say, that the Lord has been with me in my going out and coming in, and hath caused His face to shine upon me. Oh pray, my dear Christian friend, that I may be enabled to glorify God more than I have ever yet done, in the increase of health and strength which He has seen meet to bestow upon me. Surely He has an end in restoring me thus far; and when the chief end of our creation at first was for His glory, it is easy to see that every deliverance from trouble, or increase of it, is for His glory also. May I therefore live no more unto myself, but unto Him who died for me; and may you also, for ‘we are bought with a price.’ Oh that my heart would ever meditate on His love and goodness, then would my tongue proclaim aloud His praise. Oh how I long to get free from this ‘evil heart of unbelief,’ that I might serve Jesus without sin, and be for ever with Him! I am sure, my dearly beloved friend, you both wondered and greatly rejoiced when you heard that the Lord had permitted me once more to worship in His house of prayer. What I that day experienced, while sitting there, of the love of a three-one God, I cannot convey you any idea of. My dear Miss G., I rejoice to hear that it hath pleased your heavenly Father, who is the ‘health of your countenance,’ to increase your health and strength. May it indeed and in truth be devoted to the work and service of your heavenly Master. May your faith also be increased and established, that you, ‘being rooted and grounded in love,’ may be prepared to do or to suffer all the will of God concerning you, whether prosperous or adverse. We know that our covenant God cannot, and will not, do us wrong.
2nd October.—It has again seemed good unto Him who has said that He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, to heat the furnace; but He will not allow it to be too hot. How comforting to know that while the rod is in His hand, there is love in His heart.
‘Parents may err, but He is wise,
Nor lifts the rod in vain;
His chastenings serve to cure the soul
By salutary pain.’
On Monday morning I was seized with another attack of convulsions, which weakened me much, but having been bled in the arm, God was again pleased to bless the means for giving relief. While tracing the dealings of God in His inscrutable yet adorable providence towards me, sense would say, ‘All these things are against me;’ but faith says, ‘All things work together for good to them that love God.’ Oh pray for me, my dear Miss G., that the Lord may be glorified in me, and by me. This is all I desire to live for; just that I may be anything or nothing, that Jesus may be all in all. Favour me with another letter if you can find it convenient. I long very much to see you, and hope soon to be refreshed with your company. Now, my dear Miss G., grace be with you, and with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.
My mother joins me in grateful love to you; and I remain
your humble and obedient servant,
ELIZABETH LINDSAY.
“29th October, 1839.
MY DEAR MISS C. E.,—May grace, mercy, and peace, be multiplied unto you, through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord. I was exceedingly happy at the receipt of both your letters. I indeed think it very kind of you to take the trouble to write to one so unworthy of your notice or regard. You do not blame me in your last for not writing to you. No: You seem to have remembered the injunction, Rebuke with love; ‘and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.’ I trust, my dear Miss C., you have now more ‘peace and joy in believing;’ yet I believe you will often find that prayer of the disciples needful, ‘Increase our faith;’ as also, ‘Lord, save us: we perish.’ As surely as these words were breathed forth, so were they answered. He delivered them from the wind and the waves, which were like to overwhelm them; and He is still the same compassionate Jehovah Jesus to all His people. He still delivers them from the winds and waves of temptation, which they meet with in passing through the wilderness of this world to the ‘desired haven.’ Let us, therefore, take encouragement, and rejoice in God. He hath not only provided the covenant of grace, but He has made such a provision in that covenant as will meet our every want. Are we weak and faint? He says, ‘They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary, and they shall walk, and not faint.’ ‘Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.’
30th October.—May you, my dear friend, often climb the mountain of heavenly mindedness, and so get the world under your feet. View Jesus as exalted on His holy throne, and behold Him saying, ‘I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.’ Oh, Miss C., trust Him for this, by virtue of His own promise! Trust Him at all times, for ‘the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent.’ Take all your deadness, and all your hardness of heart, with all your pollution, to Him, that it may be washed away:—’I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean.’ Go with those fetters wherever sin has bound you, that He may set you free; for He was anointed to set at ‘liberty them that were bound.’ For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.’ ‘Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.’ Do not fret; none perish, none ever did or ever will perish, that trust in Him. May we be ashamed ever to suspect the solemn declaration of Him who is ‘the faithful and true Witness.’ Give Him the glory of His own work in your heart; for God never begets a desire in the heart of any sinner that He does not fulfil.
I rejoice, my dear Miss C., that you are so comfortable. The Lord is the chooser of His people’s lot, and the fixer of the bounds of their habitation. He either suits the circumstances to them, or them to the circumstances. He knows well what they can bear. In your last letter you say, ‘The temptations of the world are so great, and the deceit of your own heart such, that you are continually straying from the right path.’ I am glad, however, that God is giving you to feel the plague of your heart; but oh, the world is indeed an ensnaring enemy to the Christian! But does not this fear, my dearly beloved Miss C., lead you nearer, and keep you nearer, to Him who is the Fountain of life, and who hath said, ‘My grace shall be sufficient for you?’ May ‘the Lord preserve you in your going out and in your coming in,’ from all evil. Oh may you be kept loose to the world! We are necessitated to take the world in our way to heaven; but let us ‘lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race which is set before us.’
1st November.—You will be glad to hear that my health continues much better; yet my pain and weakness daily teach me that here I have ‘no continuing city;’ and I would not have it otherwise, even if I might. Yesterday, being the Fast Day, I was out in the afternoon, and heard a most precious sermon from these words:—’In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.’ I do not think I ever heard the fountain set forth in its fulness in the way I did then. I feel quite ashamed of the low and narrow views I have of Christ. You say, ‘You trust that I still remember you at a throne of grace.’ I do not remember the day that ever I forgot you, since the first when you were led, in the kind providence of God, to visit me. But ah, what are my poor feeble prayers? What an unspeakable comfort it is for us to know that we have an Advocate within the vail, even Jesus, who presents our prayers in the censer of His love, perfumed with the incense of His own merits.
5th November.—I am sure, my dear Miss C., you will rejoice with me when you hear that God has allowed me the high and exalted privilege of having a seat at His table, which he hath prepared for the strengthening of His people in the wilderness. Oh what a day of the Gospel it was! ‘What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits!’ Oh help me to praise our ‘altogether lovely’ Lord Jesus, for His truth, and for the kindness of His love to unworthy me. Never was I so happy. Nor do I expect again to enjoy such a day on this side of eternity. My paper will not allow me to give you much account of it, but let it suffice you for the present when I say, ‘I sat down under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to my taste.’ I send you the texts. The morning one was the 19th verse of the 89th Psalm; the evening one, the 20th verse of the 2nd chapter of Galatians: it was all upon faith. Oh to learn to live this life of faith! Pray, oh pray much for me! I need your prayers more than ever. Having vowed unto the Lord, I need strength to perform it. I long very much for Christmas, when I shall expect to see you, if spared; but should we never meet on earth again, oh may we meet to celebrate the praises of redeeming love through all eternity! Grace be with you.—I remain, my dear Miss C., your humble and obedient servant,
ELIZABETH LINDSAY.”
(To be Continued.)