done. And, O my friend, great will be the wisdom and happy the acquisition, if every new bereavement would enlarge the room for divine love in the heart, and be filled up with that most noble, most blessed of principles. Seek not, my friend, to replace friendship with any mere worldling; beg of God to fill up the vacuum, then will you be a great gainer.

Why hesitate to join the church? Let not a sense of unworthiness keep you back-a deep sense of unworthiness is one grand part of due preparation; and no worthiness of yours can give you any title to that New Testament in Christ's blood, which was shed for the remission of sins.' Worthless, vile, empty, helpless, is every son and daughter of Adam's race: but it was for the ungodly that Christ died; it was while we were without strength: his name was called Jesus, because he should save his people from their sins. In that day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood among a mixed multitude, and cried, if any man thirst let him come to me and drink— whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of life freely.'

If conscious at the time that it is the supreme desire of your soul to be washed in his blood, clothed with his righteousness, sanctified by his Spirit,-go-and take this water of life freely; go as a sinner to a Saviour; go at his command, put honour on his appointment, and repeat the dedication of all that you are, have or can have, over the symbols of his body broken for you,' his blood shed for you;' go, trusting in his mercy, and leave all to his management, believing that he will shed abroad his love in your heart, order your footsteps in his ways, and in due time perfect his image in your soul. Keep close to him in the use of means, but look beyond the means for life and power. I commit you to our God and Saviour, and pray that he may be to you' wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,' and 'complete redemption.' I am, my dear Miss M. your ever affectionate,

I. G.

January 4, 1801.

WELL! let us bless the Lord together for

what he has done for you, for me, and for many dear to None ever sought him in vain, or found him worse than his promise. 'If any man will do his will, he shall

us.

know of the doctrine whether it be of God. So shalt thou know the Lord, if thou follow on to know him.' If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?' Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you.' Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters,' &c.

My friend, did I say too much of this kind, compas. sionate, loving, life-giving Saviour, or of the fulness and freeness of the gift of God? You have tasted it, you have witnessed it, you have seen a recent proof of it— you may trace mercy through all this dispensation; his lengthened out illness, his preserved judgment and strength of mind to the last, all concurred to manifest to himself, to you, and to all who would look on, the reality of that joy and peace which is the fruit of believing and acquiescing in that remedy of God's own providing for poor, wandering, erring, miserable sinners. He had wandered from the fountain of living waters; his broken cisterns could yield him no refreshment-like the poor starving prodigal, he desired to return to his father, and asked the way to Zion with his face thitherwards. Was

not the sequel realized to him? his father met him, embraced him, brought him home, and filled his heart with peace and gladness. O, is it not all of a piece with what he has revealed of his own name and character?

The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, slow to anger, of great kindness, showing mercy to thousands, pardoning iniquity, transgression, and sin-who will by no means clear the guilty :' seeing he has found a method of magnifying his own law, and justifying the ungodly, by substituting another in their room. God is merciful to all the extent he hath said; but still it is by his own method; for he has declared, that ' out of Christ he is a consuming fire;' and that there is no other name given, by which men must be saved, but the name of Christ Jesus.' But men, even me

moral, benevolent, good in the common acceptation of the word in the world, going about to establish their own righteousness, will not submit to the righteousness of God's own providing: this is the madness, this is the folly, this, I fear, is the ruin of thousands; what did I say? I fear; dare I doubt ? no, I dare not, for God has said it. O my friend, let us cleave to the only Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus, and let us be jealous among those whom we love, and over whom we have influence, to bring them off from every sandy foundation, to the Rock, Christ. You say true, that I was interested, personally, in this dear brother; never mother watched over the darling of her heart, with more unwearied attention, than he did over my Jessy. He, by the blessing of God. restored her for a time-now they are met; soon shall we follow; many friends have gone before. O that every bereavement may be blessed to us, that we may be weaned from the things of time, and made familiar with the prospects held out to us beyond the grave!

141

TO MRS. JULIET S-, New-York.

MY DEAR JULIET,

Belville, September 16, 1808.

SINCE the hour I received your letter, you have been little out of my mind. You call upon me as mother, friend, counsellor. Shall conscious unworthiness, or weakness, or ignorance, prevent my answering, knowing that God often chooses weak instruments to bring to pass great ends? I have been once and again at a throne of Grace, for wisdom to direct me, and grace to be faithful. If your desire after spiritual knowledge, be sincere, and from the Spirit of God operating on your heart, you will bear searching.

You are a communicant, my Juliet; this presupposes that a very great, and an important change has taken place in your mind, that you have been made deeply sensible of what the word of God testifies of every son and daughter of Adam's race. Romans iii. 9. 'As it is writ

ten, there is none righteous, no not one.' Man is born as the wild asses colt, going astray from the womb.' Job. 'The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; I the Lord search it.' 'Having the understanding darkened, alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in us, because of the blindness of our hearts.' Ephesians iv. 18. 'Dead in trespasses and sins'-Chapter ii. 1. Presupposes, that this chapter may be addressed to you, Juliet, by name. You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins. Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience; among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh, and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he hath loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By Grace are ye saved through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast.' Works there are, my Juliet, most assuredly; every quickened soul will live, and bring forth fruits of righteousness; but these works are not attainable but in God's way and order. It follows, For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them.' My Juliet says, "To you then I look up to teach me." Let me then bring you to the great Teacher and Prophet of the Church, without whose teaching all human instruction will be ineffectual. We read of two amiable characters coming to Christ, professedly for instruction. The first you will find in Matthew xix. 16. The young man asks him, 'What good thing shall I do, that I may inherit eternal life?' Jesus answers him, by referring him to the moral law; the young man, not made acquainted, by the Spirit of God, either with the extent or spirituality of that law, or of the depravity of his own nature, answers, as many in like circumstances still do: 'All these things have I kept from my youth up.' I do not suppose any one could contradict him. It is added

that Jesus loved him, and he was a loveable character; but Jesus knew that the true principle was not theresupreme love to God, with all the heart, with all the soul, with all the strength, and with all the mind:' therefore he gave him a test which proved that the world was uppermost in his heart. He went away sorrowful, and we hear no more of him. The other character you will find in that remarkable chapter, the third of John's Gospel-Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, and also a teacher. Well knew he the law, as to the letter of it, both moral and ceremonial; he must also have been acquainted with all the old Testament Scripture, types, and prophecies, it being his office to expound; and no doubt, among others, was looking for the promised Messiah. Jesus does not send him to either the law or the prophets. This ruler comes with a conviction and an acknowledgment, that Jesus himself was a teacher immediately from God; and Jesus immediately takes upon himself his great office, and begins with that which is a sinner's first business: to know himself,' what he is by nature, and the necessity of the new birth. Nicodemus, with all his learning, was a stranger to this doctrine : 'How can a man be born when he is old?' Jesus repeats his doctrine, He must be born of water and the Spirit;' baptized with water and the Holy Ghost. • That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Marvel not that I said unto you, ye must be born again.' Humble that proud reason that will believe nothing but what it can understand. • The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, or whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit'— a mystery it is; nevertheless, it is true. Follow out the chapter, my dear. Jesus preaches his own Gospel, and brings in that beautiful type, the serpent, which He had commanded to be raised on a pole, that those who had been bitten with fiery serpents, whose bite was death, should look upon it and be healed. Read it my dear, in the 21st of Numbers: and in reference to this, He himself says, 'Look unto me all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved.' Except a man be born again, he can