by Rev. Hugh Martin, D.D.
MONTROSE, 22nd April, 1880.
My Beloved Friend,* — I want to come in spirit beside you, for I would fain turn aside and see the voice that speaks with us, even although I should fall at His feet as dead; for He lays His right hand upon us and says — “Fear not, I am He that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of the unseen world and of death.”
We have all heard the sound of these “keys,” as they hang at the golden girdle of our risen, ascended Lord, and which have been the means, I believe, of bringing to dear ______ the first ecstasy of perfect love, perfect certainty, and perfect bliss, and of calling forth the first rapturous cry — “Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father, to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever, amen.” And we shall all soon need the use of these “keys” for our own poor weary souls, and sweet music shall they be to those who have already heard the sound of the “golden bells” that adorn the hem of the garments of our great High Priest, as from within His holy place He is the minister of peace to His sin-stricken people — that peace from which spring true humility, holiness, and love, and which springs itself from forgiveness of sin, even from redemption through the blood of the Lamb.
I cannot write to you, but I have wept sore with you and for you these days. What did the Lord mean by making me — a blind, ignorant creature — give you warning that He was coming? — coming, as I said, to break down the secret fortresses in which you were hiding, and to bring you out to meet with Himself. And now that He has come, I trust it is in order to His enabling you to fall down before Him and to say — “Thy will be done. Be it unto me even as Thou wilt.” Seize, then, the opportunity of His coming very nigh, and seek by grace to make an absolute and complete surrender of yourself, and of all that concerns you, into the Lord’s hands. O! it is a sweet sight — a sight that even Jehovah delights in — when a humbled sinner is brought to lie low at the feet of the sovereign Lord, at the feet of infinite love, at the feet of crucified grace, and, while recognising His holy smiting hand, yet looks up, even amid breaking heart-strings, and says — “Thy will be done.” For, in a love that hath been from everlasting, are there never to come moments of rapture? — moments giving token of the time when, the flesh being abolished, that which is born of the spirit and is spirit shall look forth through creation and providence with an eye like unto God’s own eye, and in response to His “I am the Lord thy God, worship thou Me,” shall reply in deepest, lowliest adoration, “Thou art the Lord my God.” Ah! a broken-hearted sinner at Christ’s feet has a keen scent and a tender feeling, though it may have poor logic, and then is the time when one may be trusted not to abuse grace but to welcome it, and to rejoice in it, and in it alone.
I shall not intrude further. It may be a little while before you can write to me, but never mind, I shall get a letter by-and-bye, when it will be no effort. Remember David’s gracious meekness, how he arose and anointed himself and went into the house of the Lord and worshipped. Grace and peace be with you. — Your smitten brother,
Hugh Martin.
* Written on getting notice of a bereavement.