TO MRS. AULD, OLRIG, CAITHNESS.
Bower,
13th May, 1865.
Dear Friend,
I was not worse either in body or in spirits for being at Olrig. If not deluded, my bodily frame is better when I get any warmth of spirit. I have nothing at any time when speaking publicly but confused matter, being an unlearned man. But as for recommending Christ to others to cast all their burdens on Him, I would desire when expedient to do so, and also to say that the Lord is not a God afar off to those who seek Him. I had a storm of temptation before going to see you; but the stork, that unclean bird, makes her nest in the fir tree. That thought encouraged me. O! to fly to the clefts of the Rock that is higher than we, there to taste the love of God in Christ; otherwise, we cannot have true rest or enjoyment here or hereafter.
In thinking that you run to broken cisterns in wishing others to pray for you, it is not so at all; it is just going to the one Fountain, seeking there to obtain communion with God and with fellow-believers. I am far behind in this; far behind the fathers and mothers I was acquainted with. Although the Lord has a small remnant yet in our land, what a poor generation of professors we are! We are like a few coals lying scattered on a hearth covered with ashes, hardly any signs of life in them. The vital spark of true godliness, as it appears in a spirit of prayer wrestling for ourselves and others at a throne of grace, is away. There are some ministers and others angry with us for speaking about the fathers and mothers we saw; but we cannot but do so, when we see and feel how far we are behind them in this and other exercises of grace. O! wonderful that we are left on His footstool, bearing His name, and yet trampling on His goodness and long-suffering.
And that bright star in our Church has set—the Rev. Archibald Cook—one of deeper acquaintance with divine things than has appeared for many a day. The Lord be with you and yours.
Yours with much regard,
DAVID STEVEN.