A Letter by Edward Blackstock, 1841.
I feel very sorry for the dark and trying state of mind of which you complain in both your last letters, and wonder at it, because it used to be so different. Surely we have taken sweet counsel together, and have walked to the house of God in company. I grant it is indeed awful (as you say) to be deceived in soul matters; and if you were trusting to free will and free agency, to human merit, or sound gospel notions in the head — being a stranger to heart-work, and the life and power of true godliness — I should see it necessary to change my voice, as Paul says.
But have I not seen you walking in the light of God’s countenance? Has not Jesus revealed Himself unto you many a time, and has He not often in seasons of trouble delivered you? Has he not applied many a promise with divine power to your heart? Has He not granted you many a time of sweet and holy enlargement in prayer? Has He not impressed your heart in private with such and such truths, and then brought you into His house, and confirmed these things from the mouth of His servants? Has he not manifested His love to your soul, so that you thought you never could doubt His goodness any more, or call in question your soul’s interest in Him? Did He ever fail you, or forsake you? I trow not. Then stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved!
O, remember, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever! Whatever clouds may veil His face, or darken your sky, He rests in His love. “Cast not away your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For yet a little while and he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But ye are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them who believe to the saving of the soul. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh.”
O, my dear friend, unbelief is the cruel spear that pierces Him! You and I do not wish to cause His wounds to bleed afresh. No, no, let us catch Him by the feet, and say, “My Lord, my God!”
You are undergoing a long captive state; by and by, He will turn your captivity, and then you will be like them that dream! Then your mouth shall be filled with laughter, and your tongue with singing, and you shall say, “The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad!” Now, you are in the dark; anon, you shall say, “The darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.” He bringeth deep things out of darkness, and light out of the shadow of death. Now, “the good man” is gone a long
journey, and he hath taken his bag of money with him, but he will come home at the time appointed. Now, you are tempted, but thy God will make the tempter flee; now, you see nothing, and feel nothing, but a body of sin and death, but this is only the strife raised by the law in the members against the law of the mind.
Here is the trial of faith, and the patience of the saints. Trust in, and plead the blood of Jesus. “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.” Now, though you are locked up in unbelief, coldness, deadness, etc., your life is still in the root, and shall ere long ascend into the branch: “Because I live, ye shall live also.” Blessed be God, our unbelief cannot make the faith of God of none effect. “God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, principalities nor powers, things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Sometimes God gives Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers. Little-faith fell among thieves, but the good Samaritan came in with his oil and wine, etc., etc. When the priest and the Levite have passed by, look out for Him. “He will surely turn and smile again, nor shalt thou seek his face in vain.”
Dear daughter in the faith, fare you well. The Lord lift up the light of His countenance, and give you peace. So desires and prays, your sincere, obliged, and ever faithful friend.
Ed. Blackstock