(EDWARD BLACKSTOCK, 1833.)
There are especially two things which I know and feel this day—viz., my spiritual malady and the preciousness of the blood of Christ. In self I am guilty, dark, deserted, polluted, dull, cold, insipid, unbelieving, treacherous, wandering, rebellious, light, vain, inconstant, frothy, unclean, corrupt, envious, murmuring, carnal, and full of enmity. But blessed be my God! I feel that I greatly need the fountain. I have a strong desire that the Holy Spirit would condescend to baptize me or, in other words, take and put me, polluted as I am, into the sea of the rich blood of Jesus, that I may come out spotless as snow and as white; and that I may have the answer of a good conscience towards God and enjoy, under the precious power and witnessings of the Holy Comforter, a sense of divine forgiveness, the peace of God, justification, acceptance, sweet communion with God, the light of His countenance, the delights of my Redeemer’s presence, grace superabounding, and divine love shed abroad in my heart, that I might serve in newness of spirit, take my old harp down from the willows, sweep its strings, or weep a silent flood to the praise of that astonishing mercy which has often dissolved my hard heart by its sweet sunshine.—Ed. Blackstock.