LETTER CCCLXVIII.
To the Right Honourable the Lord L.
My Lord, Edinburgh, October 26, 1741.
IT is now past eleven at night; all is wrapt in awful silence. My soul is in a quiet composed frame. I have been giving your Lordship's letter a second reading, with aspirations to God whilst I perused it. Surely God has not let me wrestle with him in vain. The Holy Spirit seems to be moving upon the face of your soul. I trust God hath said, "Let there be light," and therefore there is light. O that the work may be carried on, till you enter into that rest which remains for the people of God. I trust your Lordship will now awake into a new world, and know what it is to live by faith. Did I not know the power of Christ's blood, I should fear for you. But I commend you to a glorious Redeemer, that will certainly take care of you. As I left your Lordship's house, I was thinking, that the narrow escape your Lordship had between the stones, foreboded something good. Jesus has taken care of you when in your blood. I hope he is now passing by you, and saying unto you, "Live." O that the stone of infidelity, which before lay at the door of your heart, may be now rolled away! O that you may rise, be loosed from your corruptions, and go about doing good! Satan will not let you go without much opposition. He will desire to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But if Jesus prays for you, all will be well. The comfort which you had with him in reading the psalms, is a taste of the food believers daily eat, and which the carnal world knows nothing of. My Lord, if you could be brought once to love secret prayer, and to converse feelingly with God in his word, your heaven will begin on earth; you will enjoy more pleasure than in all manner of riches. What will those avail, if you are not rich towards God? Be, therefore, my Lord, much in secret retirement. Commune with your own heart in your chamber, and be still, and you will then hear the secret whispers of the Holy Ghost. As for praying in your family, I intreat you, my Lord, not to neglect it. You are bound to do it. Apply to Christ for strength to overcome your present fears. They are the effects of pride, or infidelity, or of both. After once
