Cricklewood, Edgeware Road.
Dear Friend in Christ Jesus,I WAS glad to see a few lines from you, which last night were brought to me by your son-in-law. I hear continually, and that from different quarters, that the darkness begins to pass away, and that the true light spreads itself, and gains ground; and so it is written, when the heart of the poor sinner is turned to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing, Isa. x. 27. Light discovers the darling object, and love dissolves the stony heart, bursts the legal bands, and sets the prisoner of hope at large. Nothing so perilous as a blind watchman groping on the dark mountains of Horeb, and Crying, Lo here, to blackness, darkness, the tempest, and the voice of words: "O my soul come not thou into their secret, unto their assembly mine honour be not thou united," for in a broken law God is a consuming fire, in a killing commandment an inexorable creditor, in unappeased wrath terrible in majesty, in Unsatisfied justice an angry judge; but in the face of his dear Son a propitious father, in a covenant of grace a fountain of living waters, and in an unconditional promise in Christ our exceeding great reward.
The hearts of all believers open and shut, rise or sink, conceive or discharge, harden or melt, according to the above views; hence the charge, "Look unto me;" "Run the race set before you, looking to Jesus," Heb. xii. 2; and Chile we look we " ate changed into the same image, from glory to glory." "Have I been so long with you and hast thou not seen me, Philip? He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father." But God, as a father, is never seen or known but in the face of Christ Jesus; God hath shined into our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus, 2 Cor. iv. 6; and it is the light of his countenance that casts up and points out the path of the just, and the heat of the sun of righteousness that warms the heart, and woos it to walk in that charity which is the snore excellent way.
Hagar and Sarah, says Paul, are the two covenants, and the two Jerusalems; and how many citizens of this country have we got? Citizens of the Jerusalem that now is, and is in bondage; these are the enemies of the poor prodigals who feed with husks. And under such the wise man's saying is verified, "The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city," Ecc. x. 15. Christ is the way, and we walk by faith, and faith believeth the love of God in Christ, and charity never fails. "Cursed be he that causeth the blind to wander out of the way," for he counteracts the purpose of God, who brings the blind by a way that they know not. But the light of his countenance makes darkness light before us, and when all things work for our good, then, and not till then, are crooked things made straight.
Tender my respects to Dame, and to your son, and should God permit and spare the Coalheaver, we may see each other once more, when the winter is past, when the rains are over and gone, when the flowers appear on the earth, and when the singing of birds is come, and when the voice of the turtle is heard, and the vultures are screaming against her.
Ever your's,
W. H., S. S.
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