BY THE LATE REV. PROF. JOHN DUNCAN, LL.D., EDINBURGH.*
THE following valuable letters were addressed by the godly Dr. Duncan to his daughters, Annie and Maria, respectively. We trust they may be read with serious care by all our young people, for they are well fitted to instruct, warn and encourage sons as well as daughters—yea, old people as well as young.
When we think of and feel the tender endearments of the domestic affections, we ought to reflect with deep gratitude on Him who has placed us in these endearing relations, and has implanted the parental and filial affections which, fallen and sinful as they are, are the source of much good and happiness. When brought by the renewing of the Holy Spirit into union with the Son and Lamb of God, and through that union into the family of the “Father in heaven,” how sweetly are “the hearts of the fathers turned to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers.” There is, my dear child, an inconceivable beauty and sweetness, when the affections implanted by the Creator are set free from the bondage of corruption, purified by grace, subordinated to the supreme love of God, and under its reigning influence, tied more closely in the power of a new life which, though begun on earth, is to endure for ever. One God, one Lord, one Spirit, one faith, one baptism, one calling, one hope of the calling. Oh, my dear Annie, I cannot make you a Christian, but Christ can, and while I cry to Him to “remember” you, oh let me entreat you—not by my poor love only, but by His rich love (how rich we shall never know, I think, even in heaven)—by that love which passeth knowledge, let me entreat you to remember Him. Oh, take ten minutes at least, every evening before going to bed, or every morning (I would say both, but I do not like to burden you), just to remember Christ (or, it may be, to remember sin), and cry to the Lord to show you somewhat of Divine things—God, His holy, just, and good law; sin in its exceeding sinfulness, death and judgment; Christ, the Holy Spirit of promise, the sweet promise of the covenant of Jehovah’s grace, the inestimable privilege of access to the mercy-seat through the Intercessor, who hath entered into the holiest of all by His own blood, the awfulness of that eternal, unholy, wretched hell which you deserve; the rapturous blessedness of that eternal, holy, happy heaven, which Christ has purchased with His own blood, the only ground of a sinner’s hope (and oh, you are a sinner, Annie!), for which He can, by renewing and sanctifying grace, prepare you, and then most surely introduce you, to be with Him where He is, to behold His glory. Precious Jesus! Precious Jesus! Words cannot tell the value, power, and blessedness of a believer’s hope in Him “whom not having seen we love, in whom, though now we see Him not, yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory,” especially at times—though the Fountain is exhaustless, and the union when formed is abiding.
Annie, you were baptized into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. It is a holy name that is named upon you. Let it point you evermore to Jehovah, who sanctifieth Israel, and remind you of the call, “Be ye holy.” Remember the Saviour’s petition, “Father, sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy Word is truth.” Say, with earnest, lowly mind, “Grant unto me according to the request of His lips.”
My heart has been filled with gratitude by a sight of your letter to our kind friend Miss Sandeman. The Lord gave you to me, and I gave you back to Him before and in baptism. Though I have deep cause to be humble and repent before Him for sad deficiency in fulfilling the solemn engagements which I then came under, I have just the more cause to admire the wondrous kindness of our gracious God. Fear God, my dear child. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Thank Him that He has made Christ precious to you. How immensely does your esteem fall short of His preciousness! It must always do so, for His preciousness is infinite. But how far short does it fall of what you owe, of what through grace others have attained, and you by the same grace may attain, and are warranted to desire, seek, hope for, trust for, and strive after. Beware of backsliding. It greatly grieves the Holy Ghost, provokes God, and brings forth the bitterest fruit (Proverbs xiv. 14). With regard to convictions, do not stifle them, do not bury them (amidst employments, amusements, or vain hopes); seek them, cherish them. Set no limit to the Holy Spirit of power. If sinners at all, we need Christ. A bitten Israelite would not have acted wisely to say, “When I am more severely bitten, when the poison has wrought more deeply, and I feel the agony more intensely, and I am as nearly dead as such a one, then I will look.” Who would not look till the moment he was about to expire? Convictions are not needed to make us welcome to Christ, but to make Him welcome to us. In many cases the agony of convictions, and their protraction, come not simply from the depth of conviction, but from unbelief of the Gospel and a proud unwillingness to be saved by grace, freely, yet in that costly way of redemption, by the blood of the Lamb. Convictions are not lost by our coming to Christ. The deepest convictions (I do not say terrors of wrath, oh no, but), convictions of sin and sinfulness, are obtained after coming. The more progress in the divine life the deeper conviction of abounding sin, as well as the sweeter experience of the grace which much more abounds. Come as you are, dear child, but suspect that comfort which does not maintain and tend at least to deepen conviction. When the Holy Spirit sows convictions, Satan seeks (and too often successfully) to mingle unbelief, doubts, and discouragements. When the Spirit says, “You are a sinner, a great sinner, the chief of sinners—you therefore need Christ, come to Him,” Satan says, “You are not such a sinner, and need not come.” If that be rejected, he says, “Well, true enough you are a sinner, a great sinner, the chief of sinners, and worse than that, and so you need not come, you can never find reception.” If baffled, then he says, “Yes, convinced sinners will be welcome, but you are not convinced,” or “you are not sufficiently convinced,” or “you are not spiritually convinced.” If you have conviction enough to bring you to Christ, however little it may be, it is quite enough (for this purpose He will give more).
* See Dr. Duncan’s “Pulpit and Communion Table”—Biographical Supplement by Dr. David Brown, pp. 135-9.