Dear Madam,
I infer from your letter that you are much troubled in body and mind. That is the case with God’s people at times. As the great Dr. Love says, “Whoever enjoys peace in this world, God’s people will not have peace; the devil, the world, and the flesh will not allow them to have it.” Satan is a roaring lion going about to afflict God’s people, and as he cannot deprive them of Christ and heaven, he will try to make their journey thither as painful as possible (Eph. vi. 12). Read the following verses prayerfully: I Peter iv. 12-19. I have suffered very great trials this summer from inward corruption and temptations. I was much afraid that I would become useless in the world, as my trial continued for some time. I was really envying the brute creation; but the Lord in His mercy returned to my weary soul, and made me happy beyond measure.
I met with a godly minister the other day, and he told me his inward anguish was so intense that he was afraid he would lose his reason. It is a most trying thing to be shut out from God, and to be tossed to and fro on the sea of trials, ready to be swallowed up in the abyss of despair. That was the case with Job (vii. 3, 14-16).
The Lord saw that His dear children should be very much tried in this world, and for their comfort has dispensed so many promises throughout His inspired Word (Isa. liv. 6, 7, 8, 9, 11; xliv. 15, 16; Zech. xiii. 9: “I will bring the third part through the fire,” etc.). Read prayerfully all these precious promises, and if you are not able to do so, let a friend read them for you, in the hope that the blessed Lord may draw near to you, and bring you out of the fiery furnace into which you have been mysteriously permitted to sink for a time. For your comforting I will quote the following from Dr. Love’s letters:—”My soul is passing through mountains of darkness which I do not understand until the light of heaven shall let me know the mystery.”
Kindly let me know how you feel when you find it convenient. With our united kind regards.—Yours very truly,
Donald MacDonald.
18th August, 1896.
CONTENDING FOR CHRIST.
Covenant with Him and contend for Him to the utmost of your power; for I have found more of His sweet love in contending for Him than ever I got in prayer or hearing the Word. O His sweet work! Let it not slip through your fingers. It is like ye will have sad days of it when I am gone . . . O it is sweet to be a sufferer for truth!
(From the Testimony of Andrew Pitiloch, the Covenanter, on the scaffold. He and Lawrence Hay and Adam Philip, all from Fife, were executed on 13th of July, 1681. After their execution their heads were affixed to the Tolbooth of Coupar.)