GRACE FOR GRACE.
LETTERS
OF
REV. WILLIAIM   f AMES.
And of His fulness rhave all we received, and grace for grace."-JoHN i: xvi.
NEW YORK:
DODD & MEAD, PUBLISHERS,
762 BROADWAY.




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by
DODD & MEAD,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.




" Lovest thou me I" I hear my Saviour say.
Would that my heart had power to answer, " Yea,
Thou knowest all things Lord, in heaven above
And earth beneath, Thou knowest that I love."
But'tis not so, in word, ill deed, in thought;
I do not, cannot love Thee as I ought.
Thy love must give the power, Thy love alone,
There's nothing worthy of Thee but Thine oval.
Lord, with the love wherewith Thou Iwvest me,
Reflected on Thyself, I would love Thee.
]MONTGOMaERY.








PREFACE.
THE theme of these letters is the life of God in
the soul, as it is imparted, nourished, strengthened,
and perfected, by His abounding grace. They treat
of the most intimate and vital relations of the
believer with Christ; of the reception of the Redeemer into the heart by a simple and appropriating faith; of His sufficiency and power, when thus
received, to free the soul from the sense of condemnation, and from the intolerable and hopeless
struggle for self-deliverance, and to establish it in
the peace, joy, and victory of an assured and realized salvation. The mission of sorrow, especially
of spiritual trial, in the accomplishment of this
Divine purpose, is most clearly illustrated and unfolded, as are also those profound views of the
nature of sin, and of holiness, which the depth
and intensity of Mr. James's convictions rendered
peculiarly vivid.




6                 PREFA CE.
The letters have been selected from the private
correspondence which Mr. James held with many
friends, and which he often continued through a
long series of years, with wonderful persistency of
sympathy and fullness of blessing. As it is supposed that the reader will be more interested in
the thoughts communicated than in the extreme
personality often associated with their expression,
passages harmonious in substance and aim have
sometimes been combined, and thus are not always
given in the exact connection in which they were
written.
Yet as very much of Mr. James's personal experience is interwoven with all of his free and informal correspondence, it should be remembered
that his deeper inward and individual life was
always thus revealed, not in egotism, but in generous response to the solicitations of those to
whom he wrote. Animated by the desire, which
with him was so absorbing, to do his utmost for
the encouragement and welfare of others, he hesitated not to record, not only his victories, but his
errors and defeats, if he might hope, by pointing
out their causes and their meaning, to sustain or
rescue some struggling soul passing through similar dangers and trials.




PREFA CE.                7
If any desire to know more of his rare characteristics and varied gifts, they will find, in an appendix,
extracts from a brief but most appreciative memorial prepared by Rev. Henry Neill, soon after Mr.
James's death in I868, which was published more
especially for circulation among his personal
friends, in connection with two sermons written
by him, one of which gave the title to the book,
" The Marriage of the King's Son." It contained
also two of his letters, and quotations from others,
which, together with the selections from the memorial, are included (with the kind consent of the
biographer, and of the publisher, A. D. F Randolph) in this volume.
The present collection of letters is mainly due to
the numerous and earnest requests which those
holding them in their possession have received,
that they would give them a fuller and more extended publication. Another strong incentive has
arisen from the fact that Mr. James was engaged
with intense enthusiasm, during his later years,
upon a work to which he brought all the treasures
gathered in a lifetime from devout study, from rare
spiritual discovery, and from the practical experience of a nature rich in feeling and profoundly re



8                 PREFA CE.
ceptive of Divine communications. The subject
of this work was that which also runs through
nearly all of his personal correspondence, viz.:
What Christ does for the fallen soul in the way of
redemption and conquest, and how the soul can
obtain the sanctifying effects that flow from His
salvation.
Mr. James often alludes to this as the crowning
interest of his life, in writing to his friends, and in
connection with it says: "Certainly no sojourner
in the desert of Sinai was ever more exercised
about setting his foot upon the land of promise
than I have been, I might almost say for forty
years, about leading a chosen band out of the wilderness of legal and worldly temptation to that
glorious inheritance which is described by the term
Sanctification."
But the Master's call summoned him, as it did
the noble! leader of the Israelites, to the glories and
rewards of the Heavenly Canaan before he saw the
accomplishment of his cherished hope in the way
he had looked for. Yet may we not believe that
the same blessed truths to which he so ardently
desired to give abundant utterance, will, through
these letters, reach and deliver many a wanderer




PREFA CE.                 g
in the desert and in the wilderness, the more effectually, it may be, because they were written, not so
much to establish a doctrine as to meet the wants
of individual souls, with the advantage, also, of
being warmed and lighted by personal experience.
The letters have been classified as definitely as
the nature of their contents would allow. The
brief quotations from  Mr. James's own words,
together with a few confirming texts of Scripture,
which precede the different sections, will give an
idea of their subjects, though they are all attuned
to the same inspiring strain which underlies and
unites them all in its Divine harmony-the free,
unbounded, changeless love of God, which saves,
purifies, sanctifies, and glorifies the soul. Indeed,
the key-note of Mr. James's instruction, and hope,
and holiest living, may be expressed in one of his
own comprehensive sentences: " I am a firm
believer in the Omnipotence of Love."
May many who are thirsting for the living waters
drawn from "the wells of salvation," find these
letters very rich and deep channels of blessing.
S. W. H.








SECTION, I.
THE GIFT OF GRACE.
FREE JUSTIFICATION AND FULL SALVATION
THROUGH CHRIST THE REDEEMER.




"FOR by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves: it is the gift of God."-Ephesians ii. 8.
*  -I *  *  *  The first real conception of grace is the germ
of your deliverance. " The gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord." The first practical apprehension of this
truth is the believer's starting point, its growth and confirmation
is the main end of the Divine discipline, and our progress, perseverance, and final victory depend simply on keeping hold of it.
"Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by
faith into this grace wherein we stand."-Romans v. I, 2
X*       *  *  *  Justification is absolute and free. It is simply
an act of grace which rescues us at once and forever from all the
penalties of law, and insures the Divine mercy through all the
changes of our everlasting being. Less than this would not be an
adequate expression of Infinite love, nor an adequate exponent of
the value of Christ's sacrifice.
"Where sin abounded grace did much more abound: that as
sin reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord." —Romans
v. 21, 22.




GRACE FOR GRACE.
SECTION I.
THE GIFT OF GRACE.
FREE JUSTIFICATION AND FULL SALVATION FOR
THE SOUL THROUGH CHRIST THE REDEEMER
YOUR last call pierces even to the seat of tears.
That ceaseless plaint " How long, how long,"
is always in my ears, and compels me to write,
hoping that I may give you some new strength.
My Saviour will not suffer me to be deceived, nor
to deceive you in this matter. All you want is
strength, and that is coming-only in a way quite
contrary to that in which you are probably looking
for it. I had better have said, perhaps, that what
you radically need is a stronger evangelical illumination. It seems too simple to say and yet there




14          TTH  GIFT OF GRACE.
cannot be a doubt that what you want above
everything, and as inclusive of everything, is more
faith in Christ.
I feel certain that you have a very true and living conviction of the spirituality of the law of God,
and consequently of the strength of indwelling sin.
I wish I could say that you are as sound and thorough
in your evangelical experience as you are in your
legal. But here lies your great difficulty,-the
source, in my apprehension, of all your spiritual
weakness. While you can say with as much moral
earnestness as any one, " wretched man that I am,
who shall deliver me,-" you cannot say with any
perfect assurance, "I thank God through Jesus
Christ."
You tell me, " I want to believe in Jesus Christ
just as the Holy Spirit who dictated the command
would have me." I cannot but think from this
expression, connected with my general knowledge
of our nature (not of yours in particular), that it
is one of your great faults, as it is one of mine,
to look more at yourself than at Christ,-to rely
more on some quality in your own faith than on
His love and faithfulness and power. To believe
in Christ just as the Holy Spirit would have you,




THE~ GIFT OF GRACE.           I5
is to trust in Him absolutely, and without reference
to anything in yourself but your wants, weaknesses, sins, and miseries. If you do not find that
answer to your faith which you were looking for,
this should only determine you to trust more
simply, and to trust forever, leaving it to God to
give you at present just what He pleases, but
never doubting that He will give you at last all
that He has promised. I have lived in this way
now for a good while, and I can testify that it
makes a difference. I find that what hurts me in
any state is an expectation of something in it or
from it which I should expect only in and from
God. I have no more expectation of being better
from anything I find in myself, but my expectations enlarge and become firmer constantly as the
result of trusting only and wholly in Him. No
language can tell the depth of my misery and
helplessness on any other principle. I am entirely
bankrupt, but I have a Surety. There is no reason why we should not be just as certain of our
salvation as we are of our ruin. Christ is a perfect
Redeemer. His work is a unit. The love which
carried Him  to the cross, where He stood between us and eternal condemnation, secures every




I6           THE GIFT OF GRA CE.
spiritual influence which is needful to complete
our deliverance.
The only condition of justification is faith; and
this is a condition only in the sense that trusting,
in all our lower relations, is the condition of harmony in those relations. There is no merit in it. In
the nature of things the love of God can be of no
benefit to us unless we believe it,-the great sacrifice of no advantage unless we rely upon it.
Faith is the necessary action of the soul that
wants life, and that believes, though conscious of
utter demerit, on God's testimony in the Scriptures alone, that He for Christ's sake can and will
give it. I am very anxious to guard your mind
against those loose ideas of the nature of faith
which represent it as something which gives as
well as takes. There is much confounding of what
the old divines call Legal Repentance-an exercise
which, from the nature of things, precedes faith
and prepares for it, with that consecration of the
soul to God which follows faith. The former is
simply the product of self-love-an earnest desire
of deliverance from an evil which threatens our
destruction-an act to which we are constrained
not by love but by law; a very different act in its




THE GIFT OF GRACE.           I7
nature from that which fdllows a true faith, wherein by the power received from Him we yield ourselves wholly and joyfully to God. Though these
two acts are indeed as inseparable as the two
operations by which we exhale the fetid breath of
our own system, and inhale the pure air of God's
atmosphere, yet it is a legal gospel which tells you
that you can give anything acceptable to God until you have first received from Him. The disposition to give, or to consecrate one's self to God
is no part of the essence of faith. It is the effect
of faith.
The very thing you are seeking-the whole thing
you are seeking, is the power of yielding yourself
wholly to God. There never was an expression
which more perfectly contains the pith and substance of the Gospel, than the famous one of St.
Augustine, "Give what Thou commandest, and
then command what Thou wilt." Under the law,
we are forever trying to give something to God as
a condition of receiving something from Him.
Very certainly where faith is strong, that is where
there is a very clear perception of Christ's love
and work, there cannot but be a consciously responsive action of the soul in giving all to Him;




!8           THE GIFT OF GRACE
but to talk of this last' as being an exercise of
faith, and thus a condition of life, when it is so
evidently the love which is the fruit of faith-the
love which faith works, shows a zeal for the law
which is not according to knowledge.  Depend
upon it, the fullness and entireness of your consecration to God, will always be in proportion to
the freeness and fullness with which you first receive from Him.
I am very earnest on this subject, because that
the mixing of giving and receiving in the act of
faith was my great error for a long period, and
the very error from  the influence of which I
am extremely anxious to deliver you. Nothing
is more obstructive to the life of the soul, and
nothing that I have ever learned so greatly helps
its progress as to be in this matter so clearly delivered. Salvation in all its parts has already been
purchased for you-made legally yours-willed to
you by the testament of your dying Lord-and
you have nothing to do but to appropriate it. This
and this only is faith.
"As many as received Him to them gave He
power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on His name."  We may say that




THE GIFT OF GRACE            I9
as far as spiritual strength or freedom is concerned, that is the cardinal doctrine of Christian.
ity.
My dear friend, all that you need is simply an
inward light which shall reveal to you the fullness
of Christ, and the relations of perfect freedom in
which you stand to it-a taking the veil from your
mind which prevents your clearly understanding,
or strongly grasping the meaning of the Scriptures,
by which you will see in a moment, that you have
been like Hagar in the wilderness, perishing with
thirst, while by a single touch of the angel an exhaustless fountain was within reach of her eye.
II.
YOUR letter has reached me safely-a precious
letter to me, making me much better acquainted
with your religious feelings, and both by the natural and the Christian traits which it displays
greatly increasing the interest you had before
awakened. I loved you from the first as Christ
loved the young man, before the test had been
applied by which they were separated. I love
you now as He loved the Mary who had " chosen




20           THE GIFT OF GRACE.
the good part which could not be taken from her."
How many spiritually disposed young persons
there are on the outer circle of the great worldly
vortex, who might be saved the saddest experiences of life, if one strong friend, fully understanding their situation, would devote himself to their
rescue.
You want to be saved from a vain and worldly life,
of which all persons at your age and with your
ardent temperament are in great danger. You
feel that you will find a help in my friendship in
proportion as it serves to defend you against those
tides of secularizing care and excitement which
were drifting you away from the end of your
highest aspirations. You are sick of the hollowness of a worldly or a merely natural life, and you
aie charmed with the idea of a state of purity in
which your affectionas will find just what they were
made for. This is the idea of the salvation which
through Christ is attainable by all who desire it,
however conscious at present of their destitution
of every other qualification. The greatest obstruction to your progress (supposing real earnestness),
will arise from the tendency of your mind-not
peculiar to you —to be forever looking within to




THE GIFT OF GRACE.            2I
see what has been gained. I wish you could see
that this in Christians can proceed from nothing
but distrust of the Saviour. This is unbelief, and
will prove the source of all your discouragement
and perplexity. On the contrary, if you can only
get the habit of constantly meditating on, or referring to the perfection of Christ as a Saviour,
thinking of those Scriptures which relate to this
point, and using them in prayer with application
to yourself; if you can get the habit of making
all your barrenness and backwardness but a
stronger reason for trusting Him (for which the
Scriptures give you the most abundant warrant),
you will find the greatest advantage in it. Learn
to feel that your salvation in all its parts is already
secured by His love, and you have nothing to do
but always simply and entirely to trust Him, no
matter what objections an evil conscience may
raise. You have heard much of union with Christ,
from which everything good flows. It is by the
exercise of this habit of trusting alone that this
union becomes after a while a matter of consciousness,-and then, when we have been so thoroughly
tried that no danger can result from the discovery
of good in ourselves, such good begins to appear




22           THE GIFT OF GRACE.
without our looking for it. You never will find it
in any other way.
The want of faith or confidence in Christ is the
root of all our difficulties. In every genuine work
of grace this confidence is a principle of slow
growth, and its increase can come only from God.
The basis of such a work is a thorough knowledge
of ourselves, and in this there is everything to
weaken and perplex us. Health, (where there is
latent disease), can only come through feeling our
sickness; knowledge, through a consciousness of
ignorance; holiness, through a sense of sinfulness.
As the invalid, greatly diseased, is often distressed
by the fear that he can never recover, at least to
perfect soundness, and the mind toiling with its
rudeness that it can never reach a high degree of
culture-so it is, and much more so, with the soul'
that seeks after a perfect union with God. I
would not think much of a Christian life of which
a consciousness of great difficulty was not a principal element: and yet, I confess, there is another
view of the matter which makes it wonderful that
there should ever be any difficulty at all. When
we consider the freeness and abundance of the
Divine promises, their source in the unchanging




THlE GIFT OF GRACE.         23
goodness of the Divine nature, and the additional
security for their fulfillment which we have in the
work which Christ has done for us, and in the love,
the special love which He has for the weak and
ruined and miserable, it is amazing that we should
have any doubt at all.
I have got upon a theme which I might pursue
without end. But God only by His Spirit can
make you apprehend it,-and therefore I shall only
commend you to Him, and advise you to pray and
wait, and wait and pray, till He shall show this
glorious mystery. If I can only be the means of
leading you to Christ, or of putting you in the way
of finding Him, the end of all my desires and all
my efforts for you will be fully answered. The
ideas which I present may not be new to you, but
the Spirit of God may bring them home to your
heart, and will, whenever your necessities demand
it, with such an increase of life and power as may
make you think you never knew before what it was
to believe in Christ. A single passage of Scripture
may be blessed to make you learn more in an hour
than you have learned in all your life before.
While you are engaged in prayer, or engaged in
any way (only inwardly waiting on God), a thought




24          THE GIFT OF GRA CE.
may occur to you which will give you the power at
once and forever to overcome all difficulties. You
may be sure you will not have to wait too long.
Your Saviour is infinitely more interested in your
success than you are yourself. He will not fail to
make that manifest to you at the proper time.
You have nothing to do but to cling to Him. Your
whole success in the Christian life depends on the
clearness and strength with which you are enabled
to apprehend that Christ loved you, and having
given Himself for you, will give you everything
else which you need for complete deliverance.
Suffer nothing then to diminish your desire, or to
embarrass your expectation.  "Hope unto the
end for the grace that is to be brought unto you
at the revelation of Jesus Christ," and stake all
on His promises.
Above all) seek constantly those secret comrn
munications of light and strength which are given
in answer to humble persevering prayer. There
is nothing that I ask for in your behalf with so
much earnestness, as that you may be enabled to
continue in prayer. f know it to be the sole condition of your spiritual growth and fruitfulness.
Two things are alternately working to make us




THE GIFT OF GRACE.           25
negligent here,-despondency, and presumption.
" What is the use of such prayers as mine," is the
suggestion of despondency,-" where is the need,"
is the suggestion of presumption. Be influenced
by neither. No matter how low your state,-how
overwhelming your consciousness of unfitness for
communion with the Holy One, let the thought of
His mercy so infinite, as much above our conceptions of it as the heavens are above the earth,
sweetly constrain you to cast all your cares upon
Him. You will often find-you will generally find
Him most near to you when you think Him most
distant. On the other hand, be not deceived by
any appearances of security. You may fall as suddenly and strangely as you may rise. Trust in the
Lord alone-trust Him alike in all circumstances.
Let prayer become the one only indispensable
habit of your life. Before it gets to be so, you
will probably have to overcome a number of delusory ideas, more than I have time now even to
enumerate. But be sure there is no delusion, nor
uncertainty, in the idea that " prayer is the Christian's vital breath."  Thus continue in prayer, and
I have no more faith in the Gospel than I have
that in a little while you will be going forward,
2




26           THE GIFT OF GRACE.
your path all sunshine, and your soul all joy with
its bright manifestation.
III.
You doubtless remember how strongly you
affirmed in a late conversation which we had together, that there was a real difference between us
in respect to soul matters. Though I felt myself
the difference at the time, I was not prepared then
to go fully into its nature; but in reflecting since
upon many things which I have heard you say, I
am strongly impressed with the belief that I may
do you some service by defining the difference as
it strikes my own mind.
I trust you will pardon the boldness of my
speech if I say that I have no doubt our whole
real difference arises from the fact that your natural
stock of self-confidence is not quite so nearly exhausted as mine is, and the consequence is, that
you are yet workinzg for your life-I am more simply believing for mine.
Of course, I mean comparatively, My faith is
far enough from being as simple as it may be, nor
do I mean to say that your working is simply legal




THE GIFT OF GRAGE.           27
But, do you depend entirely on the sufficiency of
Christ?  Do you not still feel that you can do
something, and that you have something yet to do,
before you can be assured of your final and everlasting salvation,-and hence are you not constantly looking for evidence in your Christian character
to sustain your hope of that glorious consummation?
Without saying at present to what extent I have
such assurance, I can say with certainty that what
I have rests upon quite another foundation. Our
young friend is quite wrong, whom you represent
as saying, that I depend on evidences for the support of my hope as much as he and you do, the
only difference between us being that while-he regards the whole sphere of duty as furnishing the
evidence of Christian character, I depend entirely
on the evidence which arises out of my secret
transactions with Christ. If he had said, that in
virtue of my secret transactions with Christ, I had
discovered another and more certain way of obtaining assurance, it would have been nearer the
truth.
And now let me explain to you what doubtless
you are most interested to know, viz., what this




28           THE GIFT OF GRAACE.
better method is, and how I came to it. For a
great part of my religious life I have walked, if
not in darkness, in a most uncomfortable twilight.
I am not sure whether at any particular time the
love of Christ or the fear of personal loss was the
principal element of the burden; for deficient as
I have always felt myself to be, I have seldom
been without certain emotions which have appeared like love to Christ and desire for holiness.
Still however the hope of doing something which
would clear away this disastrous twilight and
establish my title to the full enjoyment of Christian privileges, was for a long time the animating
principle of my religious life; and all its troubles
on the other hand have arisen from my failures to
do that thing, or to acquire that character, upon
which as I supposed my title, or the assurance of
it rather, depended. After trying this way for a,much longer time than I hope you will have to do,
I was compelled at last to the conclusion that
neither assurance nor any other kind of spiritual
growth was in that way attainable. My conscience
acquitted me on one point. It told me distinctly
enough that I had done everything which mortal
strength could do, and yet it told me just as




THE GIFT OF GRA CE.         29
clearly that I was not one whit a better man than
I was when the struggle began. My intellect had
been expanded, and my emotions perhaps had
become deeper, but the spirit of self-denying
obedience was not more steady, and my temptations were as invincible as ever. At any time I
would have been most willing to terminate the
conflict by giving up the world if I knew how to
do it,-how to get it out of my heart. The things
which I would, I did not, and the things which I
hated, those I did. I felt myself a miserable
captive sold under sin. I saw no way of deliverance but by some Divine manifestation which
would completely win my affections. But I had
the idea also that this manifestation was in some
way conditional upon some act of my own will, —
upon an entire self-surrender. How often and
long have I labored to do that thing —hoping that
the happy hour was not distant when I should do
it so thoroughly that God would withhold Himself
no longer, and then I should be free! But that
hour never came. I never became conscious of
surrendering all to God until some time after I had
become perfectly assured that God had freely
given Himself to me. But understand what I




30          zTHE GIFT OF GRACE.
mean by this. I do not mean until God had revealed Himself to me in a personal manner, but I
had become practically convinced and settled in
the doctrine that the love of God was a fountain
for humanity; free in all its fullness, to every one
who desired it; that nothing at all was required
to make it mine; that it was mine now in virtue
of what Christ had done for me, to which nothing
could be added by any act of mine whatever. It
was simply the principle of justification by faith
alone, which means, when fully understood, that
God's love is always wholly irrespective of our
character or of our love to Him.
But what is the effect of this view of the freeness of salvation? It compels me to do as a matter
of delight, what I never could do as a matter of
duty. I surrender all to God as naturally as I
breathe, not as condition of receiving something
from Him, for in Christ, and with Christ, I am
now persuaded, He has given me everything.
This is the doctrine which brought me out of my
first bondage; and every step which I have taken
since towards a higher freedom, has been impelled
by a fresh sense of it, coming to me, for the most
part, not when conscious of fidelity to Him, but




THE GIFT OF GRACE.             31
when most conscious of incurable faithlessness
incurable by any efforts of mine. The utter failure of all my own efforts to do anything for my
own cure, and the repeated experience of God's
forgiving mercy and tender interest in me notwithstanding, have, at length, broken the power of
legality entirely. I see plainly that I shall be
saved in spite of myself. The love of God in
freely justifying me through the merits of Christ,
the love of Christ in dying for me, awakens the
strongest desires for holiness, leads to the most
earnest, importunate prayers for a better life, works
in me resolutions and endeavors which the lawmixture never has done, nor could do.'-' *,
In view of the Scripture testimonies concerning
the way of salvation by Christ, " In whom we have
redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sins according to the riches of His grace," it
seems as hard to believe that God will'condemn a
soul that trusts in Him, as it is under the power
of a raging conscience to believe that He will not
do it.
My dear brother, let us appropriate Christ's redemption with simplicity. Let every fear lead us
to more earnest prayer; that will certainly lead to




32           T-EE GIFT OF GRACE.
more illumination, and that to a clearer faith, and
a higher consciousness of love, and to a purer
life. *  *  *  *  - I have much to say to you
intensively. You are my brother in a deep sense.
Our time relations are dear, but our spiritual relations are much more so. You are one of those of
whom I think as eternal companions. In the
sense of the ideas of Paul, you are indeed " my
beloved and longed for."
IV.
WITH what delight and joy I read your last
letter; and I am made still happier by the conviction that all that is important in that joyful experience will, after a little farther agitation (an agitation constantly diminishing not as to strength,
perhaps, but as to the length of its cycles), become
your permanent possession. It was not any confidence in your own love to Christ, but a confidence in the unmeasurableness of God's love, and
of Christ's all-sufficiency for impotent humanity,
and thus for a little " mote" like yourself, that
made you so happy. Under your former views
you always supposed that such revelations could




THIE GIFT OF GRA ACE.          33
not be made to you, except on a condition of personal attainment-some voluntary self-sacrifice.
You began with a violent assault upon self (such,
at least, was your theory), expecting by a most
laborious process, if even possible at that, to get
yourself thawed into some flexibility. But under
a different instruction you have learned that the
real condition of vitality, the whole secret of it
lies in a passive receptivity; that the sun in infinite volume is already shining on you, and around
you, and will shine in you with his divinest rays,
if you will but open your senses to admit him.
Now, will you believe it, you have only to get
that doctrine (of passive receptivity) firmly settled
in your understaneding, to have all that was important in your late happy experience, a permanent
thing. For the truth is, that doctrine, though it
may seem otherwise, is still rather a nebulosity in
your heavens. It is only a little sunny fringe on
the edge of the cloud which has awakened you to
transport; but after a little more agitation the
clouds will be dispersed forever, or become about
as infrequent and transient as the sunshine has
hitherto been, aud then your peace will be as a
river, and joy will be the law of your being. Still




34           THE GIFT OF GRACE.
dissatisfied with yourself, and all the more, perhaps, from finding how little permanent improvement your late happy experience has wrought, the
struggle with self will be renewed with even a
stronger tendency, it may be, to a self-righteous
confidence than you felt before, for it will appear
but reasonable that, having received such a special
blessing, your future progress in joy will depend
on a special improvement; and when you find
yourself doing no more than you have done hitherto, and not a whit better in yourself for all you
have received, your agitation or your dejection
may, for a while, be deeper than ever. I am describing an experience which may be possible. It
is possible also, however, and I trust it may prove
to be the fact, that you have already got beyond it.
At any rate, it can last but a little while. The
principle of passive receptivity has been inaugurated; the incorruptible seed has been deeply
rooted. Every farther agitation by these trials of
heart and conscience, to which you have so long
been subject, will make it strike still deeper, and
after a little farther disciDline of sorrow, your sun
of joy will rise and shine to God's glory, with
scarcely a cloud, forever. Do not ask for any




THE GIFT OF GRACE.             35
otlher fruit than this. It is Inspiration which tells
us that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace;
and our Saviour says that the end of all His instructions is, " that your joy may be full."
Let this doctrine, then, of doing nothing but receiving, which experience as well as Scripture
shows us to be the real Gospel, be recommended
to you still farther by its being the only doctrine
which can produce the fruit that God desires.    " * * X    I wish I knew how to rectify
your mind fully on the subject of sanctification.
The only danger of your steadfastness in the doctrine of passive receptivity, upon which I know
your final faithfulness depends, arises from the
restlessness of your mind upon the subject of
sanctification,-and that arises from your still imperfect conceptions not of the nature of sanctification, in which I think you are just right, but of
the method by which we reach and grow in it. I
wish you could trust Christ's all-sufficiency here,His love, and wisdom, and power, and faithfulness,
just as you trust Him for justification. Just leave
the matter in His hands, persuaded that all your
regrets for being no better, and all your trying by
such regrets, or any active efforts to mend your



36           THE GIFT OF GRACE.
self will but complicate your difficulties. My dear
child, I promise you-speaking from a thorough
experience-that if you will learn to commit all
your interests into Christ's hands with the same
simplicity which you would feel in trusting them
to the dearest earthly friend, the true theory and
secret of overcoming the world and self will gradually develop itself. He asks nothing of you but
to continue presenting your sincere petitions to
Him, whatever your frame may be, and then to
trust Him to fulfill them. You have nothing else
to do in the matter, and when you come really to
do nothing else, matters will become wonderfully
clear. It is your faith that He wants and nothing
besides. That is the only form in which, for a
time, He would have you manifest your love.
When you have learned to do that well, He will
give you the ability, through that faith, to mani.fest it in other ways. *  *  *  * *  I am full
of earnestness to have you read Robertson's sermons. I have a number of sets purchased for
distribution, one of which I shall express to you
to-day. I am sure they will give you great delight. Never did you read such exquisite portraitures of the human heart. They rank in my




THE GIFT OF GRACE.            37
mind with the choicest gems of art. Byron himself had not more of artistic beauty. Here are
truths and modes of presenting them, which will
make you forget your individual sorrows in a sense
of the glorious universe of which you are a part.
He sometimes speaks more from his feelings than
from his understanding, which betrays him occasionally into an error of expression, which one can
hardly think was his real sentiment, and there is
by no means a full representation of many important truths; but what wondrous insight he
shows into the spirit of the Christian revelation:
and what a man for variety in a sermon! See the
one on the healing of Jairus' daughter,-see them
all in fact.
V.
I WISH I could tell you how great was the benefit which I received from your words of kindness
to myself,,and much more from the report which
you give of your own inward relations to the
Friend whose love to us gives our own love to
each other so much of its significance.  I am
learning, with you, to think infinitely more of Him
than of myself. I am willing to fail if He drops




38           THE GIFT OF GRACE.
me. He cannot do wrong. I have no faithfulness
but what is inspired by my belief in His. I wish
no success, not even spiritual, but such as will make
me reflect His radiance. I am overwhelmed with
horror when I fall into a legal state, as I do occasionally for a small moment,-but from the very grave
His voice raises me. That voice never rebukes,
except as the " Lovest thou me " rebuked Peter.
It never commands, but in a manner which implies
that even failure to fulfill will but make me the
object of his deeper sympathy. "Only trust metrust me at the worst. All shall be well at last."
This is the word which penetrates to the marrow
of selfishness and kills it.
Such, dear brother, is our Saviour. Last Sabbath, at the communion, which I administered to
a poor congregation a few miles from the city, I
had a real taste of the heavenly vintage-a sight
of Canaan's goodly land, not beyond what I had
hoped for, but quite equal to my hopes of what it
might be in this life. I had a glimpse of the fullness of Chkrist, and together with that, I saw, as I
scarcely ever saw before, the element of freeness,
which makes the Gospel so appropriate to sinners,
by which it was manifest that even I might get all




THE GIFT OF GRACE             39C
its blessings for myself, and by preaching which, I
might even be an instrument of good to others.
Since that, a new view of the Gospel has been
coming over me, and yet not new, but the old
Gospel which gave me my first hope. The old
doctrine of salvation by Grace alone, sovereign
Grace, which makes eternal life and all its antecedents the simple- gift of God, bestowed wholly
for the sake of Christ, and received by faith alone.
I see, for example, with heavenly. certainty, that
what God demands of you and me, especially with
reference to the honor of the Gospel, of which we
are ministers, and the welfare of souls., so many of
which are dependent on us, to say nothing of our
own peace and progress, is nothing, really nothing
at all, but to give uzp that tremendous effort which
we are always making to be something in His
sight-and to be so infinitely satisfied with Christ
(God's gift to us), as to be incapable of a care
about ourselves-though not, therefore, of a care
for Him, or for His honor. For myself, dear
brother, I feel that even sin —the strength of the
temptations to which I never felt more pressingly
than now-is utterly harmless, such a sense have I
of - what shall I call it?  God's truth in Christ




40           THE GIFT OF GRACE.
God's fidelity to the vilest-my first and only duty
being to trust in Christ forever. This is the truth
which has brought me light, the old Gospel indeed, but so stripped of encumbering wrappings
which hindered its highest efficacy, that I feel as
if I had emerged from the gray dawn in which I
have often only tremblingly rejoiced, into the
glowing daylight of full deliverance.
Christ has redeemed us from the Law, and thus
does he redeem us from sin, and death, and hell.
Our immortal life, our eternal amaranthine crown,
are just as secure as if we had been laboring for
them for ten thousand years. This, just this,
nothing less than this is the news, the glad tidings
of great joy which the Gospel has brought to us.
We just so far deny the Lord that bought us as
we do not enter into it continually, and maintain
as free a communion with God, as if we were conscious of a perfect personal righteousness; if we do
not daily ask Him for whatever we want —for
temporal things, with a child's submission to the
parent's wisdom, and for whatever concerns our
salvation, and the salvation of others, without a
doubt of receiving, in due season, above our
thoughts.




THE GIFT OF GRACE.           41
I have faith to believe that light and blessedness and glory will come out of all my past
miseries, and whether the perfect day shall shine
on earth or not, is a matter, personally, of little
consequence. I have no preference of one way of
doing God's will to another. I want only the consciousness of doing the work to which God has
appointed me, and for which He has fitted me, to
make me the happiest of all creatures; though
long and earnestly have I hoped that God would
enable me yet to do something more than I have
ever done for others, that by some outward fruit it
might be made apparent that my life, in which has
been such waywardness, has, nevertheless, been
directed and overruled by Him.
Of one thing I am sure: our whole sanctification
and fruitfulness proceeds from nothing else but
that spirit of love and gratitude which grows out
of the apprehension of the perfection of Christ as a
Saviour, and that we have nothing to do, if we
would attain the highest perfection as Christians,
and the highest success as Ministers of the Word,
but to make nothing of ourselves-as well of
our sanctification as of our sins; to think of




42           THE GIFT OF GRACE.
nothing, to hope for nothing, to preach nothing,
but the all-sufficiency of Christ.
For some years, as you may have surmised,
I inclined to a more philosophical, or less simple
interpretation of the method of salvation, making
everything to depend indeed on faith, but viewing
faith itself as something else than the mere hand
which receives salvation. But I feel now, glory to
God, that our salvation is perfectly accomplished,
and that we have nothing to do but to receive-resting absolutely upon the merits and power and love
of our Redeemer. The vision of Jesus! pray for it
continually. This is what gives the death-blow to
sini-takes the life out of it, by a very simple process. By simply'" looking " at the great Sacrifice,
looking at it under all its aspect, suntil our sinning
*nature has absorbed the whole of its manifold significance. * *' i K      left us this morning
with her husband and the children for their new
home-like an army with banners, so fiull of joy
and triumph, though the atmosphere was all in a
snowy rage.
I am busily engaged in my studies, with abounding hope and enjoyment.




THE GIFT OF GRACE.            43
VI.
I HAVE had a time of great peace since you
were here-not the deepest —but crumbs from the
Lord's table are worth more to me than crowns or
kingdoms. *  "  *  *  *  I wish exceedingly
that I could show' you clearly, in reply to your inquiry, the grounds of my confidence. Certainly,
if I were conscious that my life had not been one
of endeavor to do right I should quail. But
though conscious of the contrary, yet with what I
now see of the depths of selfishness and deceit
which have really mastered my good endeavor, I
should quail as much, if it were not for the blessed
revelation of God in Christ-a just God, but all
His justice satisfied in the Atonement. In the
face of the deepest self-condemnation, I feel myself
bound to believe the Word of God, and the revelation of the all-sufficiency of Christ.
I have been convinced from the Scriptures, that
just as certainly as it is God's will that we should
be holy and glorify Him in our lives, it is His will
also that we first believe in His Son, of which the
main and almost the engrossing idea is, to express
it in the language of Edwards, that " we should
hide ourselves in the ample folds of Christ's right



44           THE GIFT OF GRACE.
eousness."  I have long since learned that continuance in the love of God is not assured by a life
of holiness, and never was intended to be. It is
assured by the work of Christ for us; and trusting
in that work, or resting upon it, one may be just
as certain of His love as if he were already in
glory, " for whom He justifies them He also glorifies."
I am confident that I want holiness infinitely
more than mere assurance, in proof of which it is
sufficient to say that my ordinary prayer, which is
anything but a form, is that God would manifest
His paternal interest in me by making me the subject of discipline rather than of comfort. But I am
entirely convinced at the same time that the way
in which we commonly seek these things, making
holiness the basis of assurance, instead of assurance
the basis of holiness, is directly opposed to the
wisdom of God in the plan of salvation. The
Bible here is at variance with our best philoso.
phies. God's condescension to poor, fallen, diseased man is greater than man can give Him credit
for until compelled by extremities. The truth is,
the most of our philosophies are intended as counterparts of Grace, or as checks to Antinomianism;




THE GIFT OF GRA CE.            45
and very certainly faith is opposed to Antinomianism on the one hand as strongly as it is to legalism on the other, and about every difficulty we
have may be classed under one or the other of these
heads. But " as the law was not made for a righteous man, where the desire for holiness is supreme, no other check is needed.
Any restraint, or limitation, or qualification of
the doctrine of Grace, where a soul is conscious of
a sincere desire for holiness is from the devil. I
have no doubt, my dear brother, that you are not
only entitled by the free grant of the Gospel, but
are also qualified by your personal experience and
aspirations for the largest liberty; that it is God's
special will that you should exercise it, and that it
is not merely the influence of your former habits
of unbelief, but the peculiar power and malice of
Satan, with whose devices you are not fully acquainted, which prevents your enjoyment of this
spiritual freedom. I suspect also, that your philosophy stands in the way of your faith in the most
vitalizing doctrine of the Gospel; though I can
easily understand how it may rather help your general faith in Christianity.
Does not Coleridge, with what dear Dr. Cox




46           THE GIFT OF GRACE.
might call " the magnific wilderness of his ratiocinations," stand between you and the sincere Word?
He could not understand the idea of an "imputed righteousness," nor could Schleiermacher.
Why? Because, with all their talk of religion being a life, they were much more interested in it as
a science. For the latter, as for sundry other
Germans, there is some excuse. They cannot
maintain the claims of the Gospel against German
philosophy, which seems to be their mission, without giving up a part of it. The part which they
give up is the part which Paul, whose mission was
not to philosophers but to men, and whose concern was wholly for the " life," is most strenuous
to hold. I accept Olshausen's view of imputed
righteousness as the very best that I know. It
gave me more strength when I first read it than
anything I had seen on the subject.
Let me quote from Olshausen on Romans iv.
3-5, " If faith turns away from its proper object,
the Christ without us, as the ground, not the consequence, of redemption: and if the man only
considers himself the object of the divine favor,
because he discovers Christ in himself, and only
as long as this is the case, then faith altogether




THE GIFT OF GRACE.            47
loses its proper nature, and the man falls again
under the law." *  *  *  *  * No language can
describe the interest with which I have read Skinner's "Vinet." I would direct yo'u to certain parts
of it, if I were not certain that if you once begin
you cannot lay it down for anything else till you
have finished it. He constantly quotes Newton's
i"Cardiphonia."       *  *  *  * We are all well.
Is it not wonderful how long we are generally permitted to say this, and how sad a proof of our depravity that we generally need a stroke of the rod
to make us appreciate this and many other blessings?  We talk here as though we intended
spending the summer in Lenox. Do you expect
to leave there?  You must go where Providence
opens the way, but I am afraid that without you
we shall have to say of Lenox as Byron said of
Greece, to us at least it will be livingz Lenox no
more. For myself, I expect the cloister life of
Charles V. will be there repeated; but that too
has its charms. Will such pleasant hours as we
have spent together ever come again?  Yes, far
pleasanter. We are God's, and He will do for us
far above our low, distrustful thoughts. " We are
Christ's, and Christ is God's." What infinite joy




48          THE GIFT OF GRACE.
is before us in the world of unclouded Light and
Love!
VII.
As we are about to separate for a long time I
am glad I have something definite to say to youa very distinct direction to give you, by following
which you will, in due time, reach the New Jerusalem, our happy Home, towards which we have so
long been marching together, and where we shall
find our everlasting rest. And for this particular
stage of your earthly journeyings which you are
now about to undertake, may you be attended by
a guard unseen, a ministry of angels, and by their
care be brought safely to the end.
My direction to you in your spiritual march is,
to be patient, trustful, and joyfully expectant.
Love asks for. nothing but confidence. I do not
know whether I clearly understand your ideas of
"rejoicing with trembling; " but I think all the
difference between us is that you hold that two
and two make four. I insist that three and one
make four! I could do nothing unless I began with
joy-with an assurance of victory. The key-note
of the New Testament exhortations certainly is




THE GIFT OE GRACE.           49
not fear. Rejoicing and trusting in the Lord forever, and being sure that He will hear you in all
that you ask Him, and never wavering in your
confidence-seem to me as well the natural effect
of evangelical truth as the substance of apostolic
exhortation.
There are two ways by which the soul's activity
maybe stimulated, which are just the antipodes of
each other-the certainty of the object sought,
and its uncertainty; its certainty arising from the
infallibility of the Saviour's love, and its uncertainty arising from the fallibility of ours. Before
Christians can make any progress, their spiritual
activity must cease to be damped by any such uncertainty. In resting upon Christ alone as their
law-fulfiller, they must see that they are virtually
obeying the whole commandment of the Gospel;
for in no other way can love be generated.
Why did our Saviour address the fears of His
disciples so little, their hopes so almost wholly?
Why instead of so addressing them that their "joy
might be full," did he not aim to burden them
with care and responsibility? Was not His special
design generally-in connection with giving instruction-to encourage and strengthen the weak
3




50          THE GIFT OF GRACE.
and dejected? The idea that our Lord had it in
His mind, to lay down tests and conditions which
should throw the slightest uncertainty on the future prospects of His disciples whom He addressed,
is so incongruous with the sympathetic movements
of His soul, as in every way manifested, that it refutes itself.
Who were the persons, what was their quality,
from whom He could not separate until he had
made them as certain as He then could make them
of the glory which should succeed their temporary
darkness? (See those sublime words of tender
love: John x. 14, and chapters following.) Upon
the first trial all forsook Him, and one of them,
who was thought to love Him most, with oaths
and curses denied Him. Can you conceive then
that He should have made the glory which He
was promising them conditional upon a c/aracter
which they had yet to attain, and which possibly
they might never reach? How entirely would
such a conception, had there been any foundation
for it in their minds, have withered all the consolation of the address, and frustrated its chief design.
Take your stand with those disciples. Listen




THE GIFT OF GRACE.           5I
with them to those comforting words of the Redeemer-He who has come in the likeness of your
own sinful flesh, that He might make His soul an
expiatory offering for all your sin past and future,
in that respect, by that one offering " perfecting
you forever;" and then, before returning to His
Father, and your Father, to His heaven and your
heaven, though His soul is exceedingly sorrowful
in prospect of the sufferings before Him, as the
burden of His last address to you, to guard you
in every conceivable way against discouragement,
present or future, hear Him saying, " Let not your
heart be troubled; though I am going away, it is
to receive the reward of my sufferings-a reward
of which, in due season, you shall be a partaker
with me; I go to fulfill an office for you in my
state of glory, without which my sufferings for
you would be to no purpose; I go to prepare a
place for you in my Father's house, from which I
will soon return to take you to myself, that where
I am there you may be also, never more to be separated. And meanwhile our separation shall be
only outward-I will not leave you comfortless;
in a way of which you shall soon have an experience, I will manifest myself to you. I cannot,




52           THE GIFT OF GRACE.
indeed, promise you an exemption from worldly
trials; and that you may not be offended when
they come, I feel it necessary to impress it upon
you that from such trials, and manifold too, there
can be no discharge. Only be of good cheer; all
power is committed to me in heaven and on earth,
and be assured that no trial shall be permitted but
that-with faith in me-may be easily borne, and
shall issue in a deep and abiding peace." Tell me,
is not this the only true presentation of Christ, of
His character, and His relations to our fallen humanity?  Is not this the glad tidings?  Depend
upon it, my dear friend, and this is my farewell
word, " long-suffering with joyfulness " is the way
by which you will soon emerge from the chrysalis
state into a new world in which your sun will
never be clouded. This is the wing which will
bear you upward into the spiritual empyrean.
To help your upward flight I send you Roundell
Palmer's " Book of Praise," to which you may
have seen some references in the journals; singular from the position of its compiler, he being no
less a person than Queen Victoria's Solicitor or
Attorney General, and its intrinsic merit is considerable. It is such at least that I had to read it




THE GIFT OF GRA CE.           53
straight through without omitting one of its four
hundred hymns, and with precious effect upon my
mind.  It is far from  containing all the good
hymns, but so far as I can judge it is a good selection, from their having an equal reference to
spiritual and poetical merit. I inclose a list of
some which I liked much. See Charlotte Elliot's
in particular. I will venture to send you also
"Meditations on the Last Days of Christ," by a
German missionary, which I am reading with great
delight.
I shall pray constantly that the Lord may direct
and bless you in all your ways.
VIII.
ONCE in a while I write to you from an oasis in
the desert, but just now I am trudging it over the
sandy plain, which makes up much the larger part
of the pilgrimage of life. But I am full of courage,
for I am sure Canaan is not far off. If we can
only maintain this assurance (with full confidence
in our leader, which rely upon it is the main
thing in this world which is. ruled by the devil
and unbelief), it matters very little by what way




54           THE GIFT OF GRACE.
we reach our home, supposing of course the assurance toI be of the right kind, and on the right
basis.
With your struggle to believe, dear brother,
your hoping against hope, I fully sympathize. I
have had all the difficulties which you describe
about appropriation of the promises of the Gospel
— all those for example which arise from the long
habit of listening to and appropriating (because
deserving) the voice of condemnation, and all
those which arise from  a consciousness that sin
still has a hold on my nature, and my will, and
those which spring from what you call " the weariness of holding on."  But does not this very
trouble and anxiety which such developments
occasion reveal the existence of a Divine seed,
which, insignificant as it seems at present, is destined to triumph over all the obstructions of a
naturally uncongenial soil?  *  *  *  *  *  The
only thorough proof which we have of the truth
of our religion, of its principles as revealed in
God's Word, or of their life and reality in ourselves, is that which arises from the triumph of
simple faith over every form and kind of opposition.  Have not nearly all of our difficulties




THE GIFT OF GRACE.           55
from the beginning arisen from anr unwillingness
to walk by faith, demanding sight instead?, Thus,
for example, in matters of doctrine, we demand
that before believing the truth firmly it must be
made somewhat plainer to our reason, instead of
embracing it at once, heartily and entirely, moved
simply by the infinite condescension of God in
speaking to us at all. In matters of duty, we
wait for a farther consciousness of inherent ability,
before undertaking it, instead of depending wholly
and simply upon God's promise that strength
shall not be wanting. This, the former, is what I
mean by sight, and you see how exactly opposed
it is to the principle of faith.  We cannot but
desire sight; sight is heaven; the very end of all
our struggles. But the only way to attain it is to
begin with faith, and so to continue. In truly
believing, or in receiving the truth upon God's
testimony only, the reason of it becomes increasingly, though it may be gradually, apparent, and
our faith being thus strengthened, we are enabled
to go on still more simply. In like manner, as we
undertake duty in dependence only upon God's
promise to work in us, and for us, this strength is
made perfect in our weakness-is the greater in




56           THE GIFT OF GRACE.
proportion to that weakness. And by such experiences the principle or habit of faith is constantly increasing.
Christian progress depends wholly upon keeping
up the life of faith, and that depends upon steadfastly resisting the demand for sight. / This is
sanctification which is perfect only when self is so
far subdued that walking by faith has ceased to be
a trial. * * X'*      The root of much of our perplexity as Christians, lies in not properly estimating the comparative power of the old man and
the new, or of grace and sin; between which the
disproportion is such for a long time, and indeed
even to the end of life, that just in so far as we are
in the habit of looking into ourselves for grounds
of comfort, we must be subject to despondency.
The main difference between a weak Christian and
a strong one, is, that the latter by temptation, for
there is no other way, (James i. I2), has been
weaned from this habit entirely-has learned to
live by faith wholly. He lives, yet not he but
Christ liveth in him. There is always a two-fold
process going on in the Christian, as there are two
great mysteries, with which every regenerate soul,
in order to its perfect development, must be made




THE GIFT OF GRACE.           57
acquainted-the mystery of God's love, and that
of its own sinfulness and misery; and it seems certain that the first can only be reached through the
other.
The Israelites who felt most painfully the bite
of the serpent, and who seemed to themselves most
hopelessly wounded, were those, doubtless, who
experienced most fully and sensibly the power of
the remedy. But the trouble is we never can, in
this life, get to the bottom of ourselves, so as to be
saved from being bitten again. Often as we have
been wounded, and often as we have been recovered, the same experience has to be gone over
again, with, of course, constant modifications.
Just as in the type, God did not remove the fiery
serpents, or not all at once, but healing was to be
found in the midst of them, by looking to the brazen serpent,-so the temptations and conflicts of
sin never leave the believer, but in the midst of
them, with the eye of faith fixed on the uplifted
Son of God, he lives-he shall never perish.. At
the end of life's struggle we find, it may be, a complete personal victory, yet far from our grasp. It
is only by a constant reliance upon Him who has
gained the victory eternally for us, that we are




58           THE GIFT OF GRACE.
kept from  sinking. But there is one thing in
which, if we are really sincere, we are always gain.
ing-that is, in the firmness and tenacity of that
reliance, and this exactly in proportion as we are
losing confidence in the possibility of complacency
in personal attainments. I could not endure my
existence if I had not the hope of being able to do
more and better for Christ, but I expect no gain to
myself from it. In my personal consciousness I
shall be still poor and miserable for anything I
may yet be or do. It is only death that shall be
real and eternal gain. Then, if not in the midst
of the last struggle, yet in the state which immediately succeeds it I shall be conscious of an
immortal victory.  I believe that Christ will
give it to me as firmly as I believe that He has
gained it for me.
" *  ~  I knew you would find a feast in Dr.
Hopkins' "Moral Science." I incline strongly to his
view and yours as to the ultimate motive-that it is
the good rather than the right, and suppose that if
I ever find rest at all in reference to this disputed
question, it will be there. But generally of late I
try to stave off great philosophical or psychological
conclusions, lest they might warp my spiritual ex



THE GIFT OF GRACE.           59
perience. As to your criticism of the first question
in the catechism, that "enjoy God " should go before " glorifying Him,' I suppose you only mean
that, in the nature of things, we must enjoy God
before we can fully glorify Him. Surely this is
self-evident; but still God's glory, in distinction
from our own good, must be the final end. In the
next world we shall see that more clearly and feel
it more instinctively than we can in this, where we
are only in training for our high vocation. Let us
pray for each other without ceasing, and, after a
little more struggling here, may we enjoy together
the rest above.
IX.
You will find my text in the following sentence
of your last epistle: " I do not find my heart
drawn closer and closer to Christ in that mystic
but undoubted union for which I am ever yearning." This may be accounted for in part by your
circumstances through the summer, of which you
had previously spoken. Nevertheless, I am very
glad that you have had so much pleasure-so
much relief from the monotony of your usual life.
God gave it to you in love as a means of physical




60           THE GIFT OF GRACE.
recreation. It would indicate that autumnal maturity had arrived indeed, if you had found that
the abundance of God's outward blessings had not
a stronger tendency to withdraw your heart from
Him, than to bind it to Him. Such blessings, for
blessings they truly are, ought, indeed, to have the
opposite effect, and in the autumn time, when it
comes, they will doubtless have the opposite effect
upon you. But if for the present and for some time
to come these natural gifts of God should still have
the effect to discover your treachery to the Giver,
rather than your fidelity to Him, think it not
strange, for even a Henry Martyn, as I well remember, has told us the same story.
Any Christian, any child of God, who seeks or
expects worldly happiness out of a certain order
will assuredly be disappointed. First seek the
kingdom of God and His righteousness-the perfect reign of the love of God in the heart, and all
other things shall be added; that is the order, and
"first" there has the force of only. Seek only
inward spiritual purity, taking it for granted that
this will bring in its train whatever else is really
good. This attained, the least earthly good will
give you more earthly happiness than the greatest




THE GIFT OF GRACE.            6i
could without it; and there is no way of attaining
it in its fullness, or, in any sufficient or satisfying measure but by persevering in seeking it
only. Remember farther, that on the great principle in which I have taken such pains to establish
you, the principle of a free justification, you cannot fail to be attaining it daily; and you may
seek it to the end of life with ever-growing encouragement.  The vexation arising from  the
strength of your natural desires will be constantly
diminishing-not sensibly, perhaps, during short
intervals of time, but very sensibly in greater intervals.
But let me now express my joy that you are
still waiting for the realization of that "mystic
union" (which according to my conception of it
can hardly be called mystic), our common faith in
which is the chief bond of our spiritual fellowship.
Let me freshly assure you that I have no other
conception of "Life." Be grateful even for the
idea-much more for the- promise of a relation tc
Himself, which  I have not a doubt that the
strongest and sweetest of our natural desires were
given to us for the express purpose of foreshadt)wing-and  which besides being in such clear




62           THE GIFT OF GRACE.
analogy with nature, so perfectly corresponds to
the dominating attribute with which Christ has
invested Himself. To be filled with such an idea
and such a promise-can you conceive of a higher
favor to a human soul than this? But do you
ever conceive that it is just this favor which makes
our life on earth one protracted sigh? "We
spend our years as a sigh."  So the Syriac version
of the Old Testament (Tayler Lewis tells me),
renders the phrase which we translate " as a tale
that is told," in the ninetieth Psalm. It is the
brightness of our hope which makes the present
life such a shadow. The law which commands
the ocean never to be still, is not more inexorable
than that which must ever agitate a heart thus
divinely wooed, until this idea has become a fullorbed reality, this promise an inalienable and
conscious possession.  ~  *  *  *  ~  What
makes our life a bondage, "a sigh," is, that the
element of faith in the Saviour which is mixed
with it, is so little. It saddens us chiefly to think
what a dishonor such a life is to the Divine goodness, to the provisions of the Gospel, to the selfsacrificing love, and condescension, and faithfulness of the Good Shepherd. \Why should we be




THE GIFT OF GRACE.          63
so anxious,. and unsettled, and distrustful, and
joyless when such a Friend has died for us, lives
for us, and is ever, if there is any truth in the
Gospel, engaged to give efficacy to our prayers,
and reality to our hopes?  How can we be so
heartless, when wooed by such importunity of selfdevoting love? It is found in experience, that a
little ingenuous confidence is not enough to break
our bondage; but a little added to that, and a
little more to that, will at last do it. Suppose
Christ should reveal Himself personally to you
and should say to you, "My little one" (the
name, you know, which he gives to the least and
weakest of His people), " my little one, so unlovely and unworthy in your own eyes, you are
most precious in mine. I love you with a love
which has no dependence upon your character, but
rather has been excited by your utter helplessness,
your poverty, your meanness, your weakness,
your troubles and dangers, your bondage and
misery, of which you are so sensible; these are
your recommendations; these are the bonds by
which you will for ever hold me. Henceforth you
have nothing to do but to give me your confidence;
and that I ask, not because any deficiency in it




64           THE GIFT OF GRACE.
will turn my heart away from you, but only for
your own sake. I want "your joy to be full."
My love is free, and pure, and disinterested. It
cannot be changed, but only be made more resolute, by your infirmities and dangers; though, to
your own consciousness, until your faith is recovered, it must, of course, always appear otherwise.
But your salvation cannot fail.  My honor is
engaged for it. I have betrothed you to myself
for ever, and there is nothing which my love can
do for you, for which you may not at once command it. Begin the trial of it immediately; cast
all your care upon me, and when the enemy appears, let it be a powerful worldly affection, a
strong inducement to rest in the creature instead
of going out to seek your rest and happiness in
me; or, let it be a sense of coldness, and a want
of confidence, which you think must provoke my
displeasure, let it take what form it may, just
come to me, and if you cannot speak for your confusion, just say in sobs and sighs,iO my Jesus, my
Jesus, my Jesus! Thou seest my misery, Thou
knowest I cannot conquer this temptation.' Yet,
Thou knowest too, how I desire to conquer it,




THE GIFT OF GRACE.          65
and Thou hast told me never to doubt either Thy
power or Thy love. Allured by Thy promises of
certain victory in every conflict, I have cast away
my own strength, and now trust entirely in Thine.
And wilt Thou deceive me?  Never, never!
"Though Thou slay me, I will trust Thee-! "
You tell me, perhaps, that Christ has not yet
revealed Himself to you in the manner described.
Let it be so. But has He not thus revealed Himself tot humanity, to our nature? Is not this the
exact significance of the Gospel Revelation, taking
-it as a whole? Is not this just what is meant
by the height and depth, the length and breadth,
of the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge?
And is He not thus revealed generally, in order
that any one who will, any one who is athirst for
such a Saviour, and such a salvation, may make
a personal appropriation of Him, and of it? and
just as minute and particular an appropriation as
he pleases to make-too particular it cannot be.
And moreover, is not this just the view of Christ
which has always allured you, especially within a
few months past? Is not this the very relation to
Him which you are trying to realize? Can anything satisfy you but to have it perfected? Would




66           THE GIFT OF GRACE.
it not thrill you with joy to know assuredly that
you were right on the way to it-that it was just
before you?  Then hear the voice of Jesus saying,
"Be not afraid, only believe. In a little while I
will come. I will not tarry."
Until now you have given Him your confidence,
perhaps only in a faint and general manner; but
having learned from your past experience that
everything depends on the thoroughness of that
act, you are now trying to confide in Him fully.
Do you not see at once that a confidence produced by a personal revelation, or by a discernment of His particular affection for you would be
a very poor act.on your part, a very poor test of
the state of your heart toward Him? The true
and only foundation of confidence in Christ is the
record which is given in the Scriptures of His life
and character, of His relations to God and His relations to humanity, and the motive to confidence,
and to a personal appropriating faith, is the desire
of the soul for just such a Saviour and such a salvation-that deep and everlasting want which
only such a Saviour can relieve.
It is certainly true that the faith inspired by the
general revelation is infinitely vivified by the per



THE GIFT OF GRACE.            67
sonal. But still, the general revelation is the foundation; and it is only by suspending the whole
weight of the soul's cares, desires and hopes on
that revelation, and in proportion as we do so, that
we can reach anything special or personal.
And now, my dear child, I think you must see
just where you are, and just what you have to do.
Desire the personal expression as strongly as you
please; thirst for it as for the water of life, for it is
so; and be perfectly sure you shall obtain it;
only remember that the way to it, to its first, and
to every other degree of it, is by faith in the yet
unseen. Rejoice that your dear Lord gives you
the opportunity of showing how much you can
trust Him. Say to Him boldly, "I am now so
certain of Thy free and unmeasurable love that I
will henceforth ask for no expression from Thee
but what is necessary to Thine own glory; but this
I must have-I must serve Thee-Thou only art
worthy! Whatever is necessary to break in pieces
thi.s selfish heart, and to create an entirely new heart
within me, a heart in which Thou shalt entirely
reign, that is all I want. If it is necessary for a
farther discovery of the root of evil in me, that
Thou shouldst withhold a little longer the tokens




68          THE GIFT OF GRACE.
of Thy special regard, behold my submission.
Only let me have the privilege of calling Thee
mine. until such time as Thou pleasest to give my
hand, now outstretched in darkness, that firm
grasp which shall make it sure forever."




SECTION II.
GROWTH IN GRACE,
PROMOTED IN THE SOUL THROUGH THE
MINISTRY OF TRIAL.




"THAT the trial of your faith being much more precious than
gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be
found unto praise, and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus
Christ."-I Peter i. 7.
x*       *  *, ~No one can know the depths of grace, until he
has experienced the' depths of mortal sorrow. 54 * 45 * *
Can you not see why it is that in answer to our most earnest and
persistent prayers, it often happens that our Lord's love for us is
expressed more by rebuke than by those special manifestations for
which we pray? This is the way He fulfills His promises to those
whom He loves. By temporal sorrows He shatters their earthly
hopes that they may hope in Him alone. By spiritual trials He
reveals the strength and depth of their corruption that they may
know the power of His forgiving and sanctifying love. By
"manifold temptations " He tries their faith in His love, and in
His promise.
"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, for when he is
tried he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them  that love Him."  In proportion to your fidelity in
enduring temptation you will find your faith growing into assurance, the promise becoming a possession, the conflict culminating
in the crown.




SECTION II.
GROWTH IN GRACE,
PROMOTED IN THE SOUL THROUGH THE MINIS.
TRY OF TRIAL.
I.
T HERE was a passage in your last letter which
has been ever since as " a sword in my bones,"
but which, though suffering so much by silence, I
have not, till now, found any time to answer. The
passage was this: "I do believe that the Law, the
hard schoolmaster, has a tyrant's power over my
heart, and I fear that I never shall escape from it.
I feel that the phrase'under conviction' expresses my state better than any other; but what
a humiliating confession, after having for years
professed to be a believer in Christ."
I had no time, in writing the letter to which this
was an answer, to do any justice to the nature and
designs of the operations of the Law upon the




72     C      GRO WTH IN GRA CE.
souls of the regenerate. It is a common idea that
after a person has been really regenerated the Law
has very little to do with him as a schoolmaster;
and I fear that this is generally too true. But the
reason is very different from the one you imagine.
It is so, because people are so generally satisfied,
through the power of self-love, with the hope of
ultimate salvation-because they have not any
strong desire for sanctification. It is quite otherwise with those who have an elevated Christian
ideal, or a peculiar spiritual sensitiveness. Such
persons have often to suffer long from the operation of the Law, simply as a schoolmaster; but it is
just as certain as the truth of God, or as the operation of any natural law, that if this work is not
arrested it must issue in an extraordinary measure
of sanctification. What often arrests it in persons
of unusual susceptibility for spiritual ideas and
attainments, is the want of thorough evangelical
instruction and encouragement. For the want of
this they often diverge into some delusive form of
spirituality.
How sure I am, taught by an infallible instinct,
that in the natural course of your experience, if
you can be well sustained by the right kind of




GRO WTTH IN GRA CE.          73
sympathy and counsel, you cannot fail to attain a
high degree of Christian confidence and spiritual
illumination, The growing sense which.you have
of your own corruption and helplessness (which is
the work of the Law), which makes your case
appear to yourself so specially hopeless, fills me
with confidence that you are going to experience
in a peculiar manner the transforming power of the
Gospel. My joy for you at present is, that you
have learned what the Gospel is, and I do not believe you are going to be moved from it, nor from
the hope which it inspires. See in Col. I. 22-23,
how the Apostle connects this holding on to the hope
of the Gospel with sanctification. Let me show
what makes this so difficult. * * * " Regeneration does not arrest or suspend'the operation of
the Law, but it puts us in possession of a principle
by which we are made able to bear it. Now, if we
could only take the Law and Grace together,
(which is our great comprehensive duty), holding
with equal strength and pertinacity to both of them,
not suffering the repose given by the latter to
slacken the fiery operation of the first, nor the fiery
work of the first to impair at all the confidence inspired by the other, we should soon attain assur4




74           GRO WTH IN GRACE.
ance and a consciousness of progressive sanctification. In other words we should soon be
"rooted and grounded."  But the work of the
enemy when he cannot choke or check our aspirations for spiritual freedom  by worldly hopes
and promises, —when he cannot prevent the Law
from disturbing and agitating us, is to destroy the
hope and confidence (as to the final result) which
the Gospel produces, and which is indispensable to
the right operation of the other.
It will be a great help to you if you can only
learn to discriminate between the work of God
and the work of Satan in your present trial, for
both are concerned in it,-the former, as your physician, who means only your health, though He
has to prescribe the most disagreeable regimen
and keep you under it (the convictions of the
law); the latter as your enemy, who tries to persuade you, by very plausible reasons no doubt, that
because your medicine does not immediately heal
you, but rather makes you worse (for you seem to
yourself at present to be growing worse rather than
better), it is entirely inefficacious, and that you
never will be any better. To stifle your hope
from God's promise, to make it feeble and inopera



GRO WTH ZN GRA CE.           75
tive in prayer, to keep you in constant bondage to
an evil conscience, that, my dear brother, is only
the work of your adversary. God, you may be
sure, has nothing to do with that.
Remember, there is no way of meeting the suggestions of your enemy but as our Saviour met
them-from the Word of God. If you reason
about them, separated from the Word, you are
overwhelmed at once. 0, how I long to see you
established! *  *   * *   And now this is all
that I have to say at present as to the nature of the
blessing which is to grow out of your present trial.
It is not sanctification in the highest sense, which
can only be reached through separation by death
from all the elements of temptation; but, a strong
assurance that you are a child of God,-a strong
sense of the love of God,-a complete change in
your present habit of looking at yourself, depending on yourself, and judging of your state by what
the Law reveals. I can assure you, you will soon
realize a remarkable deliverance from the Law, and
thus acquire a new power of living unto God.
That faith which you now have, occasionally, will
become a settled abiding and effectual principle of
progress.




76           GRO WTH IN GRACE.
A distinctly new era is before you,-a bright era
of love, and faith, and peace, for which your present experience-your long " conviction " has been
the preparation. No other would have answered
as well.
How can I feel any differently about you, when'
I have been through the very same experience
myself, and when, through just such suffering of
hope deferred as you are enduring now, it at length
be.came plain to me that this very trial was God's
method of sanctification! Certainly, I can say in
view of the results, that nothing but the perpetual
succession of trials through which my path in life
has led, could have so demonstrated the Divine
faithfulness. It has been by walking through the
valley of humiliation that I have come into the
consciousness of an eternal inheritance which I
should have failed to reach in any other way.
* *"   I have only a moment mhore in which
to give you my blessing. May the Lord be with
you, giving you every blessing which you need,
and of trials only such as you are able to bear,
and in bearing which you will reach your highest
end.




GROWTH IN GRACE.             77
II.
I AM always overflowing with thoughts for you,
but cannot always write. I have longed especially
to say something more to you if I might, to encourage you in bearing your present spiritual trials.
I know so well by experience the nature and bitterness of these trials, together with what you but
partially know-the real reason and meaning of
of them in God's plan-all that they portend and
precede, that I ought to be able to say something
for your help and encouragement.
CIf the simple object of the Gospel were to give
us comfort, or to make us perfectly happy at once,
these self-revelations which bring so much humiliation and distress would not be i,.eedful. ) But then
there would be no chance for a thorough purification. And what is the real meaning of these
trials? They are a part of God's plan for our
sanctification. They are the beginning of our
glorification —-the essential means of it. They are
the plucking up of the weeds which hinder the
growth of the good seed. So far from being the
expression of God's anger on account of remaining
sin, they express His unchanging purpose to make




78            GRO WTH IN GRA CE.
us holy. He sees us in our folly still cleaving to the
world, but yet with some sincere desire towards
Him. He is determined that the desire shall not be
disappointed, and, therefore, that the folly shall be
utterly purged out; not a particle of it shall remain. It is sometimes a very long work, but not
necessarily so, and it is always a sure one.
To a little child, the conduct of the husbandman in putting his ploughshare through a field of
showy wild flowers, leaving in their place nothing
but ugly furrows, would be anything but pleasing.
It would give but little relief to see him throwing
a small seed into the furrows too insignificant to
be noticed, and then burying it entirely out of
sight by the rude operation of the harrow. And
yet, if the husbandman were his father, and should
tell him that out of this destruction should spring
up, in a little while, a world of far higher fertility
and beauty, he might be reconciled to wait that
"little while," by faith in the paternal promise.
Through me the Father tells you that the very
thing you desire, but glorious as to measure and
quality beyond any conception of it you can now
form, will in a little while be yours.
Trial continues to reveal your bondage to self



GROWTH ZN GRACE.              79
love, is the burden of your complaint. There are
two ways in which this experience may affect you
painfully:  First, by wounding your pride, and
secondly, by giving an advantage to unbelief, renewing your doubts as to the efficacy of the Gospel in which you have trusted for a cure. The
Divine reason why you are yet exercised in this
painful way, is that the evil to be cured is not sufficiently probed. (Judge for yourself how far the
pain you suffer from these failures arises from
pride, from the laceration of self-esteem, from the
sensitiveness of the diseased part-how far a different treatment would have rather tended to
heighten your self-estimation, and to hide or
cover over your weakness, than to demonstrate
that it had been mortified.. This trying or probing
work is going on in all the subjects of redemption;
but with this difference as to its effect, that at first
it scarcely does anything else but vex, and wound,
and discover the power of our self-regard. But as
it proceeds that effect becomes less and less. We
are willing it should be so; we are humbled, but
hardly dissatisfied. Since the evil is there, let it
come out. There is nothing we are so much afraid
of as spiritual self-exaltation-nothing we so much




80            GROW TH IN GRA CE.
desire as to be thoroughly humbled. We still
dread trial, and are most sensitive of failure; but
there is this consolation in it, at the worst, that it
does tend to the mortification and to the destruction of our pride and self-esteem, which we' desire
above all things, even when we are suffering the
most. At last, when we become so much set upon
the destruction of this principle that we rather
invite the probe than fear it, and are entirely patient under its operation, then, when we are so
well fortified against the evils which, in an earlier
stage of our trial, might arise from spiritual victory
and triumph, through the undiscovered subtlety of
self-love, then the battle turns, and we go upward as rapidly as before we seemed to be going
downward.
It is a great point gained when we have learned
to believe that our spiritual trials are necessary,
not arbitrary.  These trials, arising from  the
growing knowledge of our selfishness, pride, and
inconstancy, are the indirect means by which God's
promises are fulfilled to us. It is not the direct
effect of trial to sanctify us,-it sanctifies us only
by leading us to Christ. This is the design of all
our inward griefs and difficulties-to make us turn




GA OW TI IN GRA CE.          8I
our eyes to the promises of God, and find in Christ
the power which we have tried in vain to find in
ourselves. It is astonishing what an amount of
trouble we can endure before we are willing to give
up self and find our all in God-how long we can
be satisfied with partial reliefs; and, oh! what an
amazing power of deceit there must be in sin
which can so manage as to keep us through a
great part of our lives resisting God's designs of
love.   * * @ In supporting and carrying us through
this conflict there is no one agency so indispensable
as prayer. This, my dear friend, is the weapon with
which you will overcome both the world and the
devil. What you said in your letter about your
incapacity for direct, warm-hearted prayer must be
wholly altered, and will be, in the hour of trial.
It is by such prayer only that we can overcome.
~ *  It is one thing to have the heart excited
by a glorious prospect, while the difficulties connected with its realization are kept out of sight,
and a very different thing to have the heart so
fixed upon its attainment that in full view of all
trials, of every kind, it still cleaves firmly to its
object. When the Israelites were delivered from
4L




82           GR O W TH IN GRA CE.
their bondage in Egypt, with  the promise of the
bright land for their inheritance, they made nothing of the intervening toils and dangers. They
sang on the farther shore of the Red Sea as if the
land were already possessed. But the fallacy of
this calculation soon became a matter of painful
conviction. They were not steadfast in the covenant; when they were tried they murmured.
I should not be your friend if I allowed you to
think that through any other way than the one of
conflict you could reach the bright ideal either of
Christian privilege or Christian character. Does
not our Lord always thus premonish his disciples?
Do not His apostles the same? While the spiritual
desire, or taste, or hope, or passion by which the
sinful tendency might be regulated is not matured
or established enough to do its work there must
be conflict. Hence our Christian life is a figlt, the
good fight of faith, and in the earlier stages of it
there is much danger as well as trial. But after
a while we become grounded and settled. As the
things of faith become near and living to us, the
world loses it gloss and self yields. Prayer, in
which we once had much difficulty, becomes our
most delightful exercise; and at length we realize




GRO WTH I2V GRA CE.          83
that blessed friendship with God which is the beginning of heaven.
Fight then, my dear friend, on your knees, with
patience, for the work requires time; with faith,
for God is in every trial-the loving God who,
after you have been tried for a while, will stablish,
strengthen, and settle you. Depending on His
grace in Christ, you will triumph over all enemies
within and without.
III.
NIGHT and day do I carry you in my thoughts
and in my prayers, and there without a moment's
weariness it shall be one of the most sacred
privileges of my life to keep you, until in the embrace of the Chief Shepherd you have found a
perfect rest. There I know indeed you are at
this moment; it is only the consciousness of being
there that is wanting, and that I am sure you will
soon attain.
How well do I know that the aches an'd pains
hardest to bear, arise from  the predominence,
which often seems almost hopeless, of the selfish
element, and involves an almost unceasing self



84            GRO WTH IN GRA CE.
condemnation.  What, my dear child, is your
heart-felt want? You told me you "wanted a
thousand and one things." I thought, however,
that you laid a special emphasis on the one, and I
presume you would feel yourself no loser if you
could secure the one, though you had to drop the
thousand. First, to express it negatively, is it not
to get rid of a selfish heart?  Do you not find
this to be your perpetual burden? God has made
the world for your enjoyment, and given you a
very large capacity for its pleasures, and yet you
cannot enjoy it without bitterness to your conscience. You find that worldly enjoyment, even
the most innocent in itself, is so apt to feed this
moral distemper (inordinate self-love), that it is
only by the utmost carefulness that you can prevent-what has been given so freely for your happiness from becoming a snare and a pit-fall-and
thus as to natural enjoyment, your life is very
much of a bondage. You then try to regulate the
matter by your religious exercises, but the fiend pursues you still. You find selfishness to be (generally
perhaps), the predominating element in your
prayers. What you pray for has such an almost
exclusive reference to your own safety, honor, ben



GR oO WTH IN GRACE.          85
efit-to your selfish though religious wants, that you
have but little freedom in asking, and little hope
in immediately or speedily obtaining.  From
the same cause, in reading the Scriptures, even the
tenderest expressions of the Saviour's love to His
brethren, to His dear lambs, to those for whom He
gave His life, even the most glorious assurances
of present and constant victory over all enemiesall that you can hope in regard to these is that
some day or other you ~may experience their full
significance.  *  *  *  *  *  To get rid of a
selfish heart, which makes life a bondage-this is
what you want; and the only way to be rid of this,
is to have the heart filled with a new affection.
Then will you have the long-desired rest, when
you shall so feel the drawings of Christ that if you
love anything else it will be for His sake —when
He shall be your conscious all. This, and nothing
else, you feel can be Redemption for you. That
you shall reach this state, and far.more abundantly
than I have described it, I am just as certain as I
am of the love and faithfulness of the Good Shepherd. Hitherto the union between your soul and
Christ has been (to your own consciousness),
mainly a legal union. You have followed Him




86           GRO WTH IN GRA CE.
chiefly from a sense of duty-from a fear of evil,
and from a hope of final salvation.  Your union
with Him has been practically like that of a servant to a master; a good master indeed, who
pardoned your faults, and occasionally smiled upon
your efforts, provided you did the best you could.
But. you have been habitually mourning over your
own unworthiness, instead of rejoicing in the confidence of possessing His favor. And you see at
length that thus it must always be, unless the relation, which according to the New Testament is of
an entirely different character, becomes all that it
is declared to be to your own consciousness.
Through the trial which leads to this joy-this freedom, you are now passing. It is not more certain
that day shall succeed the dawn, or the dawn the
darkness, than that you, holding fast the truths
you have heard, and patiently waiting for the fulfillment of Christ's promises, shall experience fully
the redemption for which such a price has been
paid. There are many reasons why it should come
so gradually, but chiefly the danger of giving some
advantage to self by a premature liberation. It
comes gradually as every great conquest comes;
but when everything has been prepared by a




GRO WTH 2IN GRA CE.          87
thorough self-mortification there will be a revelation of love and power. I do not see how any
can ever know the power of the love of Christ, unless they have first been made to know thoroughly
the depth of their own worthlessness, nor how the
conviction of this can ever be produced but by
long-continued failures in an effort to redeem
themselves.
But guard against the idea that the revelation
of Christ's love is withheld because of your present unworthiness, or from your failure to meet
certain conditions upon which it depends. Those
conditions are wrought in us-and He is all the
while working them in you while you are expecting
and praying for redemption on the basis of Christ's
love, work and promises. Let nothing move you
from that ground. Here you will find the adversary particularly active and fertile. But remember there can be no middle ground between works
and faith. Let it be the effect of all your trials
and disappointments only to fix you more firmly
on the latter, for that is the main design of them.
Always look upon Christ as loving you already
just as much as He ever will love you. If you
fail, or seem to fail, in your returns to Him which




88           GRO WTH IN GRA CE.
you will always be trying to make, regard not such
failures as affecting in the least His relation to
you as the Good Shepherd, but rather as giving
you a new claim upon His pity. He will find
means in the end to make strength come out of
weakness, and when all hope from works is entirely destroyed, you will find that power in faith,
of which you have heard so much and realized so
little.
Meanwhile my great concern is to prevent your
mind from morbidly preying on itself, of which I am
sure you are in much danger. Against this, one of
the best remedies is reading good books-books
which give large views of the Christian life, in distinction from the narrow, into which, actuated
strongly by a single idea, we are liable to fall. As
the first want of the body is good food, so truth is
the first condition of a vigorous spiritual life. To
meet this want I send you Stier's "Words of the
Lord Jesus "-the first of six volumes. Try it,
and report. Begin with the Sermon on the Mount,
which, after reading this exposition of it, you will
say you never comprehended before. You will
find no difficulty from its criticisms on the original.
It flows on as freely as a sermon; but it is some



GRO  W TH IN GRACE.          $89
times so rich in its references that you are in danger of losing the thread, and it is a little obscure
to an English reader not familiar with the peculiarities of the German mind. But I think it is the
richest commentary upon Christ's discourses I have
ever read; and yet it is easy to see that the author
has been guided to his views far more by his
spiritual experience than by the sharpness of his
faculties.  You may keep  it just as long as
you please, as I have access to another. It will
search you, but there is enough to comfort. He
perfectly understands the Gospel as well as the
Law.
Next to good books or converse with largesouled men, as a means of mental health, is work,
which is the same as exercise to the body. Make
something for yourself to~do, especially in giving
spiritual help to those who are more needy than
yourself. The law of Christ's kingdom is "Give,
and it shall be given to you; for with what measure ye mete withal, it shall be measured to you
again." The true method of securing a blessing
to ourselves is to feel and labor for the benefit of
other souls. Life is developed within us by the
very exertion to promote it around us.




go90         GRO WTH IN GRA CE.
* * " I think I will send you also a volume of
Archdeacon Manning's Sermons; though since
they were published he has gone to Rome. On
many accounts, and particularly on account of
their high spirituality, and their very searching
character, I have valued them for the last ten
years more than almost any sermons in my library.
They are also models of every intellectual excellence. Manning is one of the most inflexible advocates for holiness of the highest standard.
Read, and report.
IV.
I HAVE not written to you, for the reason which
the elder gave to the elect lady: " Having many
things to write to you I could not write with
paper and ink, but I trust shortly to see you face
to face that your joy may be full."
A solemn joy is mine-a light from the eternal
throne amidst a world of darkness. How can I
express the various mingling colors of my soul?
Sin and holiness are no longer words, but things.
The forms breathe, they are alive. Oh, that I
had the power of painting, instead of penning, the
various states of mind, the deep and tender griefs,




GRO WTT IN GRA CE.           91
the holy and exalted joys, the struggles and surrenders, the straits and deliverances of the past
few weeks! I have told you, I think, that my
prayer for months has been that God would set
up His tribunal in my bosom-that He would
judge me now —that He would make me think of
myself just as He does; that the work of the Law
may be complete. The effect has not been death
-or rather it has been death in order to life.
God is love. Love's frown is the aspect which
love assumes for its object's benefit, and as that
is attained, love, and only love, appears. Of this
I am now so entirely satisfied, that I no longer
dread the Divine rebukes, but rather welcome
them. I see the root of past unfaithfulness so
clearly that it seems sometimes as though it would
never spring up again to trouble me; and if I can
be kept from the folly of thinking so' and feel
every day that I am nothing but a mass of sin, I
may do a little for Christ. Oh, to do something,
before I die, for Jesus Christ i, I am engaged with
an interest which I never felt before in preaching
the Gospel-particularly the Atonement, in its relations to spiritual life and holiness. You will
think it strange, perhaps, when I tell you that




92           GR0 WTH IN GRA CE.
one of my favorite points in preaching is God's
end in the permission of evil. This has become
a practical matter with me. Sin may be part of
God's plan for making the universe more deeply
holy. I can see now, how, through the Atonement,
all my bondage to sin will be overruled, to give me
stronger conceptions both of the Divine justice
and grace-of the evil and hateful nature of sin,
and of God's pure goodness, than I could have
had in any other way. * * * The great mystery
of the Christian's experience is, that often faith
and prayer fail to give the mastery over the
evils of his heart. He seems to depend only on
the Divine faithfulness, and yet the enemy is not
expelled. He perceives a difference, indeed, answering to the old promise of the expulsion of the
Canaanites, "by little and little." But why by
little and little, with such alternations of defeat,
and the victory, perhaps, at last scarcely gained?
His defect in sincerity does not solve the difficulty, for that is the enemy which he depends on
God's faithfulness to extirpate.
I think I see the solution at length pretty
clearly. A father who wishes to produce in his son
the deepest abhorrence of vice and the most per



GPRO WTH IN GRACE.           93
fect love of virtue, would not so remove him from
temptation, even if he could, as absolutely to
secure him from falling. A virtue thus gained
would hardly deserve the name. Nor, if he could
foresee (as God does in virtue of the atonement),
that the effect of his fall would be to give life and
vigor and depth to the principle of virtue, would
he put forth his whole power to prevent it, though
not for worlds would he exert a direct agency in
causing hi-m to fall.. I must add that this principle
has given me a heart-satisfying insight into the
deep mystery of moral evil as connected with the
destiny of our race, and the history of the universe,
and of the nature of' the life of God in the soul.
You will not wonder that, hearing lately a sermon
undertaking to show that for all the Gospel can do,
the redeemed will have occasion through all eternity to lament that they were sinners, "I withstood Peter to the face," thinking that " he was to
be'blamed " for so limiting the Almighty in his
power to bring good out of evil! J* i*  >   I
have come to a pretty clear conclusion that there
is a peculiarity in all genuine Christian experience
which it takes a great while to learn, and which
many, perhaps, never learn at all, the knowledge




94            GRO   TH IN GRACE.
of which is very essential to our peace. It appears
quite certain to me that God's way of bringing us
to realize our ideas of holiness is very different
from the way of our expectations. It seems indispensable to the purging of our souls from pride,
and other spiritual uncleannesses, that we should
sometimes be left apparently very much to ourselves without the consciouszess of God's support,
or any constraining spiritual power. " These many
years have I led you in the wilderness, to humble
and prove you, that ye may know what is in your
heart," or " whether," left to yourselves, "ye
would obey my commandments or not." Let us
not lose sight of the conclusion, " that I might do
you good in your latter end."
Certainly there is no avoiding a life-long struggle
with corruption. But as God has promised us the
victory in the struggle, it seems difficult to reconcile the promise with the ordinarily depressed condition of those who, in the judgment of charity, we
nevertheless recognize as Christians. The whole
difficulty arises from not giving sufficient latitude
to the promise-a latitude required by the nature
and design of the conflict. As the struggle is to
be life-long, if support enough be given to endure




GRO W TH IN GRA CE.           95
it to the end, and the victory be won at last, the
promise is fulfilled-though in the result of each
particular struggle there may be more matter for
shame than for exultation. The power of the
Spirit in us is not to be measured by our present
success —few can testify to that as the rule in their
spiritual history-but by our persevering hope
when success seemed scarcely possible; by our
continuance in faith and prayer while victory seems
far distant-the victory at least which we feel to be
necessary to the insurance of our title to the crown.
~ -X* -   And yet let us guard against the perversion of this doctrine of gradual sanctification.
While there is no doubt that it is a life-long work,
how gradual it shall be depends very much upon
the nature and strength of a person's desire for it.
How easy to impute to its gradual character what
arises from our unwillingness to be sanctified-that
is, to seek all our satisfaction in God. "' If ye
through the Spirit (with what life ye have) do mortify the affections of nature, ye shall live." Do we
not find our only life in the prospect of perfect
holiness? Are we not becoming more and more
unreconciled to sin?
Let us "stand fast in the Lord," dearly be



96           GROWTH ZN GRACE.
loved; and this is to stand fast in the great principle that salvation is of God; not merely in the
sense of His being the Author of the plan, but
especially in the sense of His being the doer of the
work.
V.
No letter I ever received from you has touched
my spiritual sympathies more deeply than your last
to me; and I cannot let another mail go without
bearing to you at least a few words for your cheer
-a poor word (cheer) to express the immeasurable
consolation to which you are entitlel.  If your
letters at present were anything but what they
are-sad complaints of self, sustained in a good
degree by hopes of a future deliverance-hopes
founded not so much on anything yet experienced,
as on the doctrine about Christ and Grace which
you have learned, I should be entirely disappointed. You never wrote a letter to me the tone
of which was more to my heart's desire than the
last; but what shall I say of the contents, evincing
how much you have yet to learn of your own
heart, of the power of sin, and of the only method
of overcoming it? You say you " cannot any lon




GI 0 WRTI rAT GPA CE.        97
ger burden (me) with these oft-repeated complaints," you " cannot keep coming with the same
old, sad story, that you are really doing nothing
but holding on," etc. The truth is, my dear child,
you are not holding on-that is the "sad story"
which these words convey to me, notwithstanding
your after-affirmation to the contrary, to prevent
my discouragement, which by the way was very
unnecessary. If you knew how much I have suffered from the same causes which make your life
(for the present) a monotone of sadness, you would
never, never be prevented from writing to me by
the idea that I could be wearied, or oppressed, or
perplexed, or discouraged, by your spiritual complaints.
Very certainly, if it were directly revealed to me
that in consequence of some constitutional weakness, or some spiritual malformation, your spiritual
life would be one of perpetual cheerlessness, it
would have no other effect but to give a life-long
tension to my sympathy: I should be all the
readier to stand by you to the bitter end. Do not
think that I am in the slightest degree discouraged
or even disappointed by the expressions quoted.
I know too much of such a frame-how much more




98            GOW 0 nTH IN GRA CE.
it springs from ignorance than from anything else
-to have much concern about it. It shows the
earnestness of your self-dissatisfaction, and of your
desires for holiness. But it shows, also, how much
you have yet to learn of your own weakness and
of the all-sufficiency of Christ, if you suppose that
you can ever attain a higher state of holiness in
this life than that which is expressed by simply
"holding on " to Him. How long it takes to learn
the simplest truths, and how often, in our discouragement, we say, " what an idle thing is this
faith "  We do, indeed, despise ourselves that
for so long a time, we can show no other proof of
being in Christ, or of Christ being in us, but the
tenacity with which we hold to this faith. And it
would be an idle faith, indeed, except for the condition of soul in which it is held-the condition of
deep legal trial, or efforts for sanctification. It is
the union of the two things which gives faith all
its value.
You have nothing to do but to hold on. Your
inward trials at present are the indications of life,
of growth; they are the growing pains of spiritual
adolescence. Do not look at yourself for any other
purpose but to learn how weak you are, and to




GRO WTIh IN GRA CE.         99
have a stronger argument for saying to Christ,
"See how entirely I depend on Thy love and Thy
work for me-and depend I will-how else can I
do Thee any honor?" Just think of Him as conducting the work of grace in your heart as he conducts the growth of things in nature, which, with
all pull-backs, is ever making progress. " How
much more shall He clothe you-of little faith "and in spite of its littleness.
I have just been reading the following sentence
in a German book: "It is in the kingdom of God as
it is in nature. In March, the green blades from
the seeds, however unassuming they appear, have a
greater future than the masses of snow by which
they are still covered. Not at once does the spring
sun obtain a victory over the snow and ice, but the
gray masses of ice in the hollow ways do not stop
the spring, —it is spring nevertheless. The sun
becomes more and more powerful, and the winter
becomes weaker and weaker;" not, observe, to
your consciousness, it may be, at present, but be
sure that God has nothing in the future for you
but blessing, if you will dismiss every care but that
of trusting Him, and doing His will. At best, you
may find the whole of life but a winter; but you




I00         GCRO WTIIr iV GRA CE.
will soon pass the solstice; spiritually speaking, the
nights will be getting less, and the days a little
longer;. soon, soon we shall hear the celestial harmonies which usher in the everlasting spring. Be
enamored of a spiritual life, and let God take His
own method of producing it. Be not weary of
your trials; look upon them all as certainly of His
ordering, and find your relief daily in pouring out
your heart to Him concerning them. Pray, my
dear child, pray simply. Life, peace, victory over
sin, success in every good work depend on prayer.
Never doubt that there may be such a union with
Christ as shall cause life to flow from Him to you
as naturally as water from a fountain. He will
always give us according to our wants when those
wants are spread before Him in faith. The first,
and indeed we may say the only condition to our
receiving the blessing, is to be able fully to cast
our burden, whatever it may be, upon the Lord
with faith that He hears us and will help us.
VI.
IN our progress through Time, what an unceasing effort there is in our souls to rise above it, and




GROC V;  A TH IT GRACE.     IOI
to breathe the atmosphere of Heaven. In this
effort we have been united for several years, and
every difficulty surmounted, every new victory
over our foes and fears is made doubly joyous
from knowing that it is ill one sense a mutual victory. Thus I have felt for a few weeks past that
you were with me on the mount, while, like Moses
on Pisgah, I have seemed to see the promised land.
I have been made to understand also that no way
could have conducted me to it but the very way of
" the wilderness," into which, in times past, I have
so often feared I had been led not in mercy, but
in judgment.
I must tell you that there is a way, as yet but
partially revealed to you, by which you will find
all that life, and freedom, and peace, and fruitfulness, you have ever hoped for. Be not dismayed
by any present perplexities. The things which
seem to be against you have all been so arranged by Divine wisdom as to work in the end
most effectually for you. /0, could I only impress
upon you the single thought, that to trust God's
love when you are most sensibly unworthy of it, is
to Him a more grateful sacrifice, an offering of a
sweeter savor, than to give your body to be burned




102          GRO WTH IN GRA CE.
under the shadow of a notion that you thereby
render yourself particularly acceptable to Him.
Never, never, have I had such a sense of the absolute freedom with which the choicest blessings
are given. Do you not see at a glance that the
thorough belief of this is the one thing essential
to the life of prayer? Once get hold of this, and
then pray on-pray ever. "  * "  * You have
indeed'been crossed in your strongest natural desires, and you are enclosed in a situation which
yields but little pleasure, and presents much difficulty; and thus has God always dealt with His
chosen. When He delivered the children of Israel
from their bondage in Egypt He might have given
them the possession of that country, and the full
enjoyment of all its dignities and treasures, and
with this they would have been better pleased than
with the course He actually adopted.
When He delivered you from the slavery of
guilt He might at the same time have opened a
path to worldly ease and affluence, and enjoyment; but instead of that, He has led you in a
way of weariness, toil, trial, and mortification, and
why? Because He designed something far better
for you than you then could even comprehend, or




GRO WTH IN GRACE.           103
than you yet perhaps dare confidently to appropriate. *  *  *  *  *  The folly of the Israelites consisted in not being wholly reconciled to the
Divine plan, in only half believing God's gracious
assurances, and hence murmuring under the disappointments of their earthly desires.  All we
want is faith to follow wholly in the new and
strange path which grace has opened before us,
however trying to nature, to be so reconciled to
our trials that they shall cease to be trials. By
meditating constantly on the nature and promises
of God, we shall get after a while such a sense of
their excellence, and such an assurance of our interest in them, that we shall not desire a single
addition to our worldly blessings.
Let it be enough that God has shown us the
vanity of earthly things, yea, their misery, as it
is difficult to possess them without being in bondage to them. He has given us an infinitely better
portion; He has made us Mis children; He has
assured us of heaven, and of His grace to conduct
us thither; and besides this, He will never leave
us to want any worldly good, which will not hinder
our progress heavenward, or which we are prepared to use for His glory.




104          GRO WTH INI GRA CE.
There is no consolation with reference to our
worldly affairs, unless we can say with simplicity,
"The Lord will provide;" and I trust that we can
say this with faith. Yet how strange it is that we
can trust God so easily with the greater concerns
of our souls, and be so doubtful of the less. Endeavor in the most simple manner to cast all your
care on the Lord. How easy for Him  to help
you; how like Him to disappoint your fears. Be
sure that God has nothing for you in the future
hut blessing, if you will dismiss every care but
that of trusting Him. Your minutest wants are
His care. If you may only grow in the spirit of
submission, trust, and prayer, throw every other
care to the winds, or rather quietly leave all with
Him.' *   *  ~  *  You probably feel nothing
but your unworthiness, and therefore fear; but
expect much from God on the score of His faithfulness to simple, trusting, self-renouncing faith.
Christian faithfulness is the free response of our
hearts to the invitations and promises of God's
grace. You can do all things in such a faith. I
have small concern for you, not because I do not
love you, or sympathize with you, but because I
know so well Him who loves you infinitely. and I
think I see something of His particular designs




GRO W TH IN GRA CE.           105
for you. Indeed after the experience which I have
reached on the subject of Providence, I have a
secret joy, as in my own trials, so in those of my
dearest friends.
I predict that your heavenly possessions will
henceforth be felt to be nearer and more real than
they were ever felt to be before. There is a kind
of certainty in regard to the love of God which we
may attain without affliction, but I refer to some.
thing very different from this. We may know (in
a sense) that we are the owners of a treasure
which is worth more than all the world beside, but
it is locked up in a casket where we never or
scarcely ever get a clear sight of it, or it may be
held for us until we come to a certain age, or it
may lie far off in a foreign land, and all the comfort we have in it may come from the belief that'
sometime or other we shall enter upon its actual
possession and full enjoyment. Affliction sweeps
away all these interposing conditions. The truth
is, they exist only in our unbelief. Our hearts are
so satisfied with the present, with our earthly possessions, that we have not felt the necessity of considering deeply either the certainty or the value
of the heavenly.
5*




.I o6        GRO WTH IN GRA CE.
I have been thinking within a few days of the
passage "God so loved the world that He gave
His only begotten Son," and it seems almost as
though I never had any heart conception of that
love before.
And now, my dear friend, remembering that
"the highest earthly happiness is still a flower that
blossoms upon thorns," let us seek for enduring
joy only in God. In bonds of tenderest, indissoluble sympathy, your friendVII.
You will think, I am afraid, that though I write
to you at "sundry times" it is certainly not in
" divers manners; " but I am constantly on a strain
to teach you a certain truth which, after all, you
can only learn by experience-a certain grace,
rather patience in trial. I once had the idea
which I suppose every novice in Christianity has,
that the great mountain which stands in the way
of spiritual progress-self-will —was to be removed
by one sufficiently bold and decisive exercise of
faith; that in some favored moment a stream of
Divine illumination, bursting on my long-strained




GR'O Wy TZ IN GRA CE.      107
and waiting vision, would dislodge the enemy forever, and make all further conflict unnecessary.
Shall I say I hold to this still? If I do, it is certainly with very important qualifications.
It was after the disciples had rowed hard the
whole night, barely escaping shipwreck by so
doing, that Jesus appeared at the fourth watch.
They would not have been saved if they had
stopped rowing, and all their rowing would not
have saved them if Jesus had not at last appeared.
Your daily exercises and efforts may seem very
unmeaning; they seem to bring you no nearer to
the great deliverance. You are tempted constantly to give up in despair; you cannot conceive how such miserable prayers can avail anything; but just continue in them, still animated,
however faintly, by the hopes of the appearance
of Jesus. What can I say more to make you certain of His coming at your fourth watch?' * * Trial means anything which discovers
our weakness-our helpless impotency to riseour apparently hopeless barrenness. I have never
had any other trial which I could not easily bear
in comparison with this. But this life-long burden
of selfishness! How we suffer "from its jeal



I os          GRO W TH IzN GRA CE.
ousies and anxieties, its exaggerations of the good
and extenuations of the evil within us, its shrinkings from the cross, its impatience under the consciousness of defects, its yearnings for perfection
without the slow process of mortification, its slowness to surrender everything to the will of God."
How partial it makes us in our beliefs. In our
early Christian life especially, how apt we are, under the blinding power of selfishness, to take a
part of the word of God for the whole-the part
which favors us. It opens our eyes wide, perhaps,
to the grace of God, but blinds us to His holiness.
It makes us think (in spite of our better judgment) that we may be happy without being holy,
entirely holy, at least. We make reserves for
some secret, selfish affection, and if we are the
children of God, we shall always be in trouble
while this is the case. Oh, the blessedness of that
state in which selfishness is no longer known!
My best direction to you in bearing these trials
is the one I have so often given you before-keep
continually applying the doctrine of a free justification. Learn to dissociate them -from all ques.
tion as to your state in the sight of God. Do not
look upon your continued wveakness and the trials




G O  W TIZ IN GRA CE:       1I09
it occasions as a proof simply of your obstinate
sinfulness, but as God's gracious method of healing you. Bear them, simply bear them, relying on
His wisdom and love to give you the victory in
His own time and way. Be sure that it is not the
attainment, but the struggle for it, by constant
faith, and hope, and patience, and prayer, which
makes you well pleasing to God.
Relief will come at last, as to some extent it has
come already, not by any direct consciousness of
sanctification, so much as by an increasing consciousness of the love of God in your free and absolute justification which will make you sure of.whatever you ask for in the way of an ever-growing
nearness and likeness to Him. Then you will not
only be reconciled to trials-you will rejoice.in
them. You will want nothing so much as that
God wvill discover more and more of vour weak.ness, and keep on purging you till you are wholly
pure. You will ask for nothing but patience to
submit more perfectly to His will, till at length
the very sense of suffering shall be absorbed in a
joyful allegiance to Him in all circumstances.
How I wish you could have heard the sermon
which I heard yesterday from the Rev. Mr. M —




I I 0        GR O WTH Ar GRCA CE.
an Englishman, on the sacrifice of Isaac, or rather
the faith and obedience of Abraham-the angelic
clearness with which the preacher illustrated all
those truths which I, like a clumsy mechanic,
have been trying to teach you-the distinction
between life as a free gift, and the crown of life as
the reward of endurance, an endurance only possible to those who receive life as a gift. How you
would have been confirmed forever in all that you
have heard from your humble teacher. And when
he talked of temptation,'its nature and design,
how it would have scattered all your concern
on the subject of sanctification, by showing you
that your present trials, arising from a consciousness of weakness, endured by faith in Christ alone,
were the very means by which God was leading
you to the crown.
For my own part, if I lived ten miles from Philadelphia, I should think it nothing to walk in every
Saturday to hear one of that man's sermons, which
are mainly expositions of Scripture. He is a real
genius, and full of natural eloquence, equally remarkable for the solidity of his thoughts, and for
the logical clearness with which he delivers them,
without a scrap of paper. But what most amazes




GR 0 H TH ZlV GRA CE.       I I I
me about him is his knowledge of Scripture. He
talks like a man who alone among men had received the Divine revelation-like a man to whom
every other book, even as a means of interpreting
this, was nonsense. I have heard two other sermons or expositions from him equally remarkable,
but I have not time for details.
Hold fast your faith then, dear child. I learn
daily that concern about sanctification is not the
way to advance in it. Let it drop out of your
cares, and be filled only with thoughts of Christ's
love to you-His mysterious love. In a little while
you will be filled with it, and that will be your
sanctification.
VIII.
GOD in His wise and holy Providence, which I
have no doubt is most merciful, too, has brought
me very near to death; and to you as one of the
earliest, and one of the truest friends I have had on
earth, to whom I have been bound as I have been
to few by a religious sympathy, and as to one especially who may receive some benefit from such
a communication, I will tell what transpired between my soul and God, after like Hezekiah, I




112          GRO  WTVTH IN GRA CE.
had "turned my face to the wall," with nothing
before me but eternity. I have a doctrine to proclaim to you which you know, which we have both
known, which more than any other lies at the
foundation of Christian experience, but which has
been brought home to me recently with a power
of which I never had any experience before. It is
only for setting this doctrine in the clearest light
that I must give you an outline of my spiritual
history for some time past. For some months,
before I had any apprehension of serious disease, I
have had a clearer conviction of sin-of the power
of sin-as an element of all my past history, and
of its ill-desert, than I have ever had before. My
former convictions have sometimes been attended
with as strong emotions, but never have the nature,
root, causes, and aggravations of sin made such a
deep impression upon my understanding. Never
has the very core of sin (self-regard instead of regard to Christ, and to man for Christ's sake, and
in imitation of His example) and its ramifications
through all my conduct, been an object of such
distinct, fearfully distinct vision. My convictions
have never before blotted out or made so completely  useless  all evidences of regeneration.




GROW TH IN GRA CE.           I13
Though I have aimed and resolved not to live to
myself, yet in all my particular means, instruments,
and methods'of action, I have been so much perverted and deceived by this principle of self-regard,
I have offended in short so habitually in particular
actions, that I cannot but consider myself as having broken the whole law-not of Sinai, but of
Calvary; the want of love runs through the whole
tissue.
About my bodily malady T have had little concern; another concern, infinitely more terrible,
took possession of me in the hours of my deep
retirement. Conscience was stirred to its lowest
depths. As by a flash of lightning from the judgment seat, I was prostrated by a clear apprehension of sin. My whole heart was laid open, and it
seemed to be nothing but a nest of vipers; my
whole life seemed nothing but one tissue of corruption. I saw all the good there was about it as
clearly as ever; my perpetual struggle with evil,
the many manifestations I have had of God's
favor, my successes over particular temptations;
but I saw that all these were very superficial and
comparatively external, as evidences of a justified
or sanctified state. All past experiences I utterly




114          GROWTH IN GRACE.
renounced. I did not want to be saved in virtue
of such miserable stuff. I wanted a real salvation,
-a salvation direct from God, in perfect harmony
with His perfections, given not merely because I
was a miserable, perishing creature, the proper
object of compassion (though I made much of that
plea), but because He could give it justly and
holily.
The only particle of light that gave me any
hope here was Christ's sacrificial suffering. I must
now prove the virtue, the full virtue, of the one
great Sacrifice. Nothing else could give me confidence in death, which seemed so near. 0, my
thirst, my thirst for the living water-for the
powerful influence of the Spirit-for one ray from
the loving countenance of God, enabling me to
perceive the all-sufficiency of the sacrifice for sin,
as I saw my desert of its penalty. Forgiveness,
forgiveness, that is what I want! Shall I obtain
it, coming as a sinner, with nothing but sin, the sin
of a whole life, peculiarly aggravated, and most
vividly apprehended? Is Christ alone a sufficient
foundation for the hope of a sinner in the hour of
death, in the moment of judgment; and shall that
be verified to me by the breathing of the Spirit of




GR 0 WTH IN GRA CE.         15
love upon my heart; by a Divine response to the
cry of my perishing spirit? These were the
questions.
What I wanted was forgiveness, but not that
alone-not merely a sure deliverance from wrath,
but some sign of the love of the Father and the
grace of the Saviour, whose frown was eternal sorrow, grief without remedy. God appeared to me
not at all as an angry despot, but as a most loving
Father, and Christ as my loving Saviour. The
dread which was upon my spirit was not of some
mysterious penalty in another world, an infliction
of evil, but of separation from the source of all
love-from the bosom of a Father, and particularly
from that blessed Being who had given His life for
man.
How clear it now became to me that Christ came
into the world, that He came especially, eminently,
above every other part of His mission, for the purpose of dying for sin-for the purpose of taking the
sinner's place in the eye of law and justice, so that
the sinner could feel that there was no moral necessity for his punishment, and that God could be just
and yet forgive him  boundlessly.  I could no
longer doubt that this is just what all those scriptu



ii6          GRO YVTH IN GRACE.
ral expressions about Christ's dying for us, mean.
I could not avoid seeing that if that is not the Gospel, it would be no more suited to one in my condition, which is at some time or other the universal condition, than a code of morals. I knew that
God was good, loving, merciful; but I just as well
knew, and at present far more impressively, that
He was just also. Of the possibility of forgiveness
in a way of righteousness, then, I had not the
slightest misgiving. It was all my comfort.
Thus planting myself anew on the Rock of
Ages, all my concern was lulled. I could not resist
the conviction that God looked upon me as a child,
an invalid child. That, though I had not been
successful in my struggle against sin, He accepted
the struzggle as the true test of my character, and
that all my personal sufferings were but his Fatherly
chastisements intended for my purification —not
for retribution. And how overwhelmingly was
this view corroborated by the Scriptures, which
now poured into me like a flood! How could I
have expected anything else from that Being who,
though the Holy One, is represented as so pitiful,
so tender, so long-suffering toward sinners, and
particularly when, by every such display of kind



GRO WTH IN GRACE.           117
ness, He honors His Son, who was our sin-bearer,
as much as He blesses us-and constrains us to
honor Him also.
I know not what is before me. My head,
though relieved, is not whole; but the sting of sin
has gone. Thanks be to God who giveth me
the victory. My peace is without interruption.
"Whom He loveth He chasteneth," satisfies every
doubt, and gives a kind of pleasure to the pain. I
love to endure what His loving hand lays upon me.
My sky seems cloudless as I advance. The everlasting love illumines alike both worlds. In my
Father's house are many mansions. *  * * *
One part of my discipline much harder than my
diet of herbs, has been to be obliged to intermit
my correspondence with you.  May the Good
Shepherd lead you in green pastures and by still
waters.
IX.
I AM deeply affected by your generosity in writing so long and so kind a letter to me while walking yourself in the shadow of God's holy Providences. It greatly cheers me to find you so calm
and submissive under such a trial. I have thought




IIS          GRO W TH IN GRA CE.
that silence might express my sympathy better
than words. Since you have permitted me, however, I am glad to speak, and particularly of the
more inward trouble under which you labor, which
seems easily explained, upon principles which of
late have taken a strong hold upon my mind, and
perhaps may have been permitted to do so for the
purpose in part of helping you in your perplexity.
*  *  * @  * I find the radical evil of my nature to be the undue love of self, an inordinate regard to my own happiness. This is my original
sin, the cause of all wrong feeling and wrong doing
in respect both to God and man. A single glance
at the moral law might teach us this truth, but it
is only the discipline of Providence that makes us
feel it. Men in general never blame themselves
for making their own happiness their end, but only
for the ways in which they seek it; and even the
Christian, until he becomes very spiritual, thinks
there can be no error in seeking his own happiness, or in making it his end, provided he seeks it
in communion with God, or in the enjoyment of
the Divine favor.  But I apprehend that the
original law of our nature goes below this, and requires us to cease from all thought about our own




GR 0 WTH IN GRACE.          II9
happiness, the end which deserves all our thoughts
being out of ourselves, in aiming at which
simply, we are happy necessarily without our
own care.
Even if I can say with truth that I find all my
happiness in the sense of God's favor, yet if that is
my end, even in part, instead of the doing and suffering God's holy will, which alone is worthy of
all my regard, then I am but imperfectly conformed to the law of my nature. I am, so far, unholy; I do not love God with all my heart, nor
render Him the glory which is His due.
It is true that we are so made that we cannot
but desire our own happiness; but God, who gave
us this constitution, gave us also all the happiness
of which we were capable, by making us His c/ildren. Think what that means. As children of
such a Father, what a wrong we should do to Him
in cherishing any concern about our own happiness; and particularly in turning aside from His
commands, whatever they might be, to take care
of ourselves. This is the whole of sin.  The
penalty immediately follows in the soul's sensible
exclusion from the privileges of a child, without
any abatement of its obligations as a subject of




120           GRO WTHI IN GRA CE.
Law. Providing for itself, which once gave it no
care, becomes now unavoidably its whole care,
and it must obey all the commandments of God
beside. In this condition the Law only aggravates the evil, turns the soul into a sink of selfishness, and makes God, if thought of at all, an object
of hatred. This is the condition in which the Gospel finds us.  Thozugh sinzlners, it reinvests us at once
with all the privileges of children. Christ undertaking to provide for our happiness, we have nothing
to do but to love. Believing in the office and
promise of Christ to this effect, we are at once
free. As to privilege, we are just where we were
before we sinned; God is our Father, so co mpletely reconciled, that we have no more reason to
question His love to us, or to expect anything but
good from Him, than the angels have. This is
our justification.
But in ourselves, we are not just what we were
before we sinned. Unbelief, and its correlate selfishness, are in us not merely as a tendency, but
as a principle-a habit, a character, which in our
present state can only be changed by degrees.
Thus to change us, gradually to bring us back to
perfect love to Him, is the end of all His dealings




GRO WTH IN GRACE.           121
with us which often " are for the present not joyous but grievous."
Now we know that God's end in all His dealings
with His people must be to make them holy. His
love obliges Him to this, for it is the only way of
making them really happy; and if holiness includes the perfect subordination of all our desires,
even our desires for spiritual enjoyment, to the
desire of doing and suffering His holy will, is it
not plain what his object is in withholding the
sense of His favor in certain cases-in those cases,
viz., where there is danger that His communications may be more valued than Himself?
Do you remember the words of Madame Guyon,
whose religious experience is one of the deepest
and richest that we have upon record?  "I did
not then understand," is her language, "that in
the progress of the inward death, I must be crucified not only to the joys of sense, and the pleasures of worldly vanity, but also, which is a more
terrible and trying crucifixion, that I must die to
the joys of God, in order that I might live to the
will of God."
Such, indeed, is God's compassion as well as
wisdom, that He will not try His people in this
6




122          CRO W TiH IN GRAACE.
way beyond what they are able to bear. His end
both in giving to the weak, and in withholding
from the strong is to advance their holiness.
Some years ago such a trial as you are now enduring would probably have destroyed you-now it
will be the means of your rapid improvement. In
a word, our holiness, as a general rule, is the
measure of our capacity for communion with God,
and of course for spiritual joy; and to make us
receptive of the highest and the most glorious
communications, God often withholds the sense of
His favor from those whom He has prepared to
bear such a discipline, that in the absence of all
joy inward and outward, they may cleave to Hiiu
by faith alone, and thus make those advances in
holiness, or in the capacity for spiritual enjoyment, which can be made in no other way.
Nothing can be plainer to me, therefore, than
that in submitting to this inward as well as to the
outward rod, as intended for the wisest and kindest purposes, and as certain to be in its result only
a rich blessing, against every kind of evidence to
the contrary, you are exercising Abram's faith,
and shlall certainly have his reward, "you shall
have a new name."




GRO WTH IN GRACE.           I23
You have nothing to do but to thirst, just as you
are now thirsting, only with increasing desire for a
manifestation of Christ to your soul, together with
perfect submission while it is withheld; that is,
when you have really died, not only to all other
joy but union with Him, but have died also even
to your desire for His special manifestation, then,
O what joy awaits you! You must so believe
that He is all goodness itself, as to be able to say
from your very heart, " His mere promise is just
as good as a personal conscious experience," all
the while, however, desiring that experience as you
desire nothing else, except His glory-that you
must desire above all personal good.
Confide in Him, my dear friend, not only that
He will give you the victory in a little while, but
that He will support you, that He is now supporting you, and will through the conflict. He cannot
fail. From the Word of God, and your own ineradicable want, the idea has been begotten in the
depths of your being of a Bridegroom of the soul.
That idea is the key which opens heaven-will
open it to you at length.




124          GRO W TH N GRACE.
X.
THOUGH my circumstances are not very favorable at present for correspondence, I cannot rest
until I have replied at least briefly to your letter.
It concerns me to hear you talk as you do about
the Atonement, as though you knew nothing about
it-had everything to learn, etc. Doubtless you
were speaking of the philosophy of the Atonement.
I wish you could act upon the impression (as I
wish I always could myself), which I have no
doubt we both have strongly enough, the really
little importance of a philosophy of religion, to say
nothing of the danger of an eager desire for it. Let
us be grateful for the teachings of the Spirit, that
is for our experience. Have we not, under a sense
of the ill desert of sin, and in our despair of help
from ally reason-taught method, joyfully rested in
the testimonlzy of God concerning  the way of
deliverance by the Propitiatory Sacrifice?  All
the light which we may ever get from study
(though useful) will do but little to establish our
understandings in comparison with- this which
comes through a spiritual experience; and even in
presenting the truth successfully to others, the




GRO WTH IN GRACE.           125
confidence inspired by this spiritual experience
will do vastly more than any clearness of statement.
I can assure you that all your difficulties of this
nature arise from expecting reason to do the work
of faith. The mysteries of the Gospel are hidden
from the wise and are revealed unto babes. The
natural man, that is, the merely intellectual man,
receiveth not the things of God —the doctrines of
the Gospel —because they are discerned by another
principle, spiritually; I mean the principle of
faith. From the first announcement of the purpose of redemption down to the present hour, the
work has been carried on by this principle alone;
and in every age, and in every heart, this work has
been slow or rapid, dubious or clear, according to
the degree in which this principle has prevailed.
Faith is at once the reproach and the glory of the
Christian system; its reproach, because to one condition of the human mind it is foolishness; its
glory, because to another condition, it is the powver
of God. Faith is simply a reliance on the Word
of God, in preference to the dictates of our natural
wisdom, and in opposition to the current of our
earthly passions.




I26          GRO WV TH ZIN GRA CE.
The more we employ our reason simply, upon
the ideas of sin, Divine justice, grace, etc., as presented in the Gospel, the more we shall get confused. But by becoming children, that is, by exercising submission and confidence (upon proper
and sufficient grounds, of course), we receive the
light gradually which makes the Divine dispensations clearer. The chief difficulty with you has
been, if I mistake not, that you want to see immediately and perfectly what is the result of a
great deal of discipline, reflection, and experience.
I doubt whether you will ever see clearly (in this
world, at least), the justice and benevolence of
God in the permission of sin, or in causing the
whole race to suffer for the offense of one individual. But you can believe that the Judge of all the
earth does right-that God is holy in all His ways,
and righteous in all His works. You can leave these
questions as not belonging to you, and employ
your mind upon the nature of sin (considered
in itself and without respect to its origin), and
upon the merciful provision which God has made
for our redemption.
In this way you will gradually acquire such powerful impressions of the Divine holiness, justice,




GRO WTH IZN GRACE.          127
and benignity, that though those other points may
still remain mysterious, they will not affect your
estimate of the Divine character, nor damp in the
slightest degree, your feelings of love and devotion. Let the matter of all your concern be, that
you found your whole hope upon the truth that
we are saved not at all by our own wisdom, or our
own righteousness, but entirely through faith in
Christ the Mediator. Your trials will all arise from
the speculative spirit, and from the legal spirit-in
other words from your own wisdom and your own
righteousness. They must be brought down and
cast out, and in proportion as they are you will
know experimentally what is meant by the "mystery" which Paul preached: "Christ in you the
hope of glory."
I am coming to rest rapidly, my brother, since I
have learned how little the understanding has to do
in attaining the true knowledge of God-in other
words, how much unrest there is and must nends
be in scientific theology. The only pure theology
is the mystical, which each soul must attain for itself through  Divine discipline.  Scientific or
church theology may be indeed an outer court, but
there is no rest or perfect union with God till we




28           GRO W TH IN GRA CE.
get throzgzh it; then we reach the Holy of Holies
which has no want left but to be absent from the
body.
I sympathize with you most deeply in what you
say of the " danger of life-barrenness." We have
great reason to be humbled for our want of those
traits of Christian character which tend directly to
the outward diffusion of Christianity. Yet it is the
absence of those deeper traits of Christian character which give to the outward life all its value in
God's sight, that we should specially lament. I
must believe that the essence of Christianity lies in
gracious affections. To grow in these should be
our chief desire-our ruling passion, so to speaka passion which should be nurtured by reading and
reflection, and, above all, by prayer. I know no
other means. How, but by the spirit of grace,
which is given to importunate prayer (and thdrefore not immediately), can we know sin and love in
their fearful contrast?
We talk, or many do, of serving Christ, and far
be it from me to discourage such, for I have no
doubt that Christ accepts and will greatly reward
the smallest service; but if I should express my
want in a word, it is that I might sympathize with




GR OW TH IN GRACE.           129
Christ-that I might have the most thorough fellowship with His sufferings-that I might see sin
and love as they can be seen only in His humiliation and suffering for our sake-that I might be
ever reading my condemnation and my deliverance
in those crimson lines: thus to be crucified with
Christ, and yet to live, is my idea of Christian perfection. Does not holiness consist in entire deadness to self, the heart having been made alive unto
God? which is just when we see that in the sacrifice of His Son, He has rendered superfluous all
our sacrifices. But shall we give Him nothing in
return? Can we help giving our whole selves to
Him?
I can give you no idea, my dear brother, of the
plentitude of my confidence for you, notwithstanding you are often a prey to doubt, and your conceptions of faith and its privileges are, in some
respects, I must believe, yet imperfect.
I am busily engaged in writing a sermon on unbelief. 0 that by this I might strike a blow which
would liberate many a soul from the power of darkness! Its commencement and its progress, indeed,
was attended with much heart-searching trial. Of
late I have been able, by reason of beginning with
6*




130          GROWTH IN GRA CE.
much higher assurance than formerly, to go far
more deeply into myself. Is there any greater
rapture on earth than the Christian experiences
when, even in the midst of the most vivid realization of his own unworthiness and unfaithfulness,
he finds that it has not estranged the heart of God
from him?
XI.
I HAVE preached all day in the hardest church
for a speaker in the city, and yet I feel impelled to
undertake a third service in replying to your most
delightful letter, trusting that love may supply the
defect of bodily vigor. " Behold how He loved
him," said the spectators of the scene at Bethany.
There are no spectators of my heart's movements,
or they might say the same. No day passes, my
dear brother, without a sweet and often a solemn
remembrance of our past intercourse, nor without
a feeling of joy in the prospect of seeing you
again.
But there was something in your last letter which
has greatly deepened my interest in you. Our
communion in Christ, which I have always felt to
be a very close one, is more perfect, I am persuad



GRO WWT/ ]N GRACE.          13 
ed, than I had hitherto supposed. Theoretic differences, which I imagine divided us a little,
appear to be thoroughly melted by the spiritual
convictions which we possess in common, and
which are ever becoming deeper in both of us.
Our experiences are modified but very little by
difference of circumstances, and not at all, I apprehend, by difference of culture. Both in our consciousness of sin as a leprosy, and of daily help
from the promise and power of Christ, producing
a determination to "know nothing else," and perpetual prayer that our union with Him may be
complete and perfect, that thus we may live wholly
unto God-in these, the main features of our experience, we are entirely one.
But the most interesting thing in your letter is
the manner in which you speak of your confidence
in salvation. No; -the most interesting thing is
of a painful kind: it relates to your trials in
preaching. I know all about it from the most
thorough experience-often bitter experience. I
was deeply touched by that passage in your letter,
in which you ask my prayers that God will give
you strength to conquer and rule your nature. It
will encourage you to know that this has for some




132          GRO WTH IN GRA CE.
time been precisely the language of my prayers
for you. Your nature, I well know, is most excitable, and it labors to realize a very high ideal in
all things. This makes it certain that your life is
to be one of stern conflict. So deeply do I sympathize with you, both in your present condition,
and in your prospect, that it seems to me I might
be willing, accustomed as I have been to endurance, to assume and appropriate a portion of your
trials, if thereby they might be made lighter to
yourself. But all I can do is to give you encouragement, and that I do on the firmest conviction
that God is speaking through me-that I am not
uttering my own hopes merely, but am in a degree inspired as Ananias was to assure Paul that
while he should suffer great things for the Gospel's
sake, he should be sustained by all the Divine love
and faithfulness.
Your " two points" have been my two points
all my life. From the beginning, the consciousness of my low spiritual attainments has been my
great burden. Nothing else has given me such
perplexity, and caused such discouragement in my
efforts to do good to others. How I have writhed
and struggled, and spent all my struggles (wasting




GR 0 WTH IN GRA CE.         133
a great deal) in the effort to get on higher ground
myself. I see now very plainly that Satan has
been in much of my earnestness on this subject, or
rather in my restiveness-for the subject demands
an earnestness, but ambition and pride made it
restiveness. I am sure you are far better guarded
against his wiles than I was at the same period of
my ministry. I hope you have also a much stronger
support than I had generally, in another kind of
consciousness, viz.: of the integrity of your heart,
and of the Divine presence and favor. My consolation in regard to all my failures (public) is that
they were all a private gain. Through such losses
I think my soul has been saved. Obliged by the
fury of the storm to throw everything overboard,
my little bark seems at length to be going straight
toward the heavenly port. Yours will go in, I
trust, with more of a cargo.
It gives me the greatest delight to notice the
trust and submission which breathe in the general
tone of your letter.. Oh, my dear brother, allow
nothing to come between you and Christ. I assure you, cares about your own qualifications and
work are more likely to mislead you than anything else. You have certainly a great trial to go




I 34          GRO W:TH IN GRA CE.
through, arising from a keen sense which you
have of your own poverty; but this very trial will
be the making of you, if you bow your neck
to it, and find your comfort in the faithfulness of
Christ.
Therefore, 0 man, greatly beloved, fear not!
Peace be unto thee! Be strong; yea, be strong
(Dan. x. I9). The very thing on which your heart
is set, a higher order of inward life, a more
thorough absorption of Christ's spirit and Christ's
truth, is the thing which your Lord is preparing for
you; and exceeding abundantly above what you
are asking for will be bestowed. Work on, in the
confidence that your present afflictions are working
for you a boundless bliss. Can there be any doubt
of it?  God will not'suffer you to fail.
I want very much to talk with you more at
length than I have time for now, on your " second
point "-the subject of your prayer-that you
may be led into more active service for Christ. It
is true that we cannot move till the pillar of glory
rises from its resting-place and goes before us.
But I apprehend that we must watch with diligence while we pray. As there is danger on the one
hand of assuming more than we have strength to




GRO WT  IN GRA CE.            35
perform, so there is on the other of shrinking
from responsibility.
After all, the great work is to grow in faith and
love. Exercise will indeed help our growth, but
aliment is the main thing. Aliment without exercise will make us indolent; but exercise without
sufficient aliment will soon wear us down. The
idea of service (regarded as a means of increasing
strength) may easily occupy too much of our
minds. The disinterested or direct desire of serving Christ cannot be too strong; but to promote
it, the main thing is to become more deeply acquainted with Christ-to see more of his glory.
This is what I mean by aliment.
I wish I had time to tell you about the meetings of thrilling interest which I have attended
since I came to New York-to one of which I
must hasten  now. The revival is increasing
rather than diminishing. I meet constantly a
great number of friends —friends of years, who
give evidence of deep and unusual feeling on religious subjects, and others of a want of feeling,
and I must- not leave till I have used what influence I have to encourage the one and awaken the
other.




I36          GRO WTH zV GRA CE.
I attended the I2 o'clock prayer-meeting in
Fulton street, yesterday, and never was in such a
scene before-such singing, such exhortations,
such prayers, I never heard. People who generally had no previous knowledge of each other,
all of them of most respectable appearance-by
far the majority assumed in all the exercises to be
impenitent, some of them earnestly entreating
prayers for themselves, some for dear relatives:
and among them, what was my emotion in discerning a young, aspiring lawyer, the youngest son
of one of the dearest friends of my former years,
for whom, on his father's account as well as his
own, I had long yearned, especially since he came
from the West- to this vortex of sin. For his
sake alone I would stay here a fortnight, if necessary. But there are other cases equally interesting, and the one on whose account I came far
more so.
Let us go on our way, my brother, in the firm
confidence, that in closely following the Divine
guidance, walking by faith every day, we shall be
saved.. We shall not fall in the wilderness, but go
forward, and get through. There is more meaning
in that word, trusting, than we commonly think.




GRO W TH N GRA CE.          I37
It is in one sense the hardest thing a creature can
do, but the thing, and the only thing, which makes
our salvation sure. And yet we must not trust in
our trust specially. Here lies a great danger and
difficulty. When we are cast out (in our own apprehension), naked, and helpless, and desperate,
and still trust Christ, though we probably shall not
have the slightest reflection on our exercise of
trusting, we then have the promise " to them that
have no might He increaseth strength."
XII.
THE night is long, but the morning cometh.
This has been the text of all my letters. I cannot alter God's ways toward you, but with His
blessing, I may be able to make you understand
them better, so that long and dark as the night
may be, you may still be animated by the hope of
awaking in Heaven.
And what is Heaven? When the love illusions
of time shall be transformed into unchanging,
eternal, and ever-shining manifestations of God's
love to the soul. Is there any conception of
Heaven more true to nature and to the Scriptures




138         G~ROW TH IN GRA CE.
than this? Let me show you then, on Scriptural
principles, which are therefore undeniable, the connection between such a state and your present
trials. How did these trials begin, and what is their
nature? Have they not their root in the unalterable normal law of your nature, that you can find
your life only in love? and in the division of your
heart, at present between two objects of desire,
without a clear and full ability of enjoying either?
The world, you believe, will prove an illusion,'
while the love of God you know, objectively at
least, to be a perfect reality; but your enjoyment
of the latter is so partial, and unsatisfying, that
you cannot entirely shake off your dependence
upon the other. How the obstacle which you call
"loving the world " has been overcome in my case,
you want to know, rightly judging that I must
have had an experience in this matter very similar to your own.
Truly, truly, for many long years the essence
and root of all my troubles lay in what seemed to
be an entirely uncontrollable love of the world.
For long, long years, I felt that nothing could divorce me from this love, but some violent catastrophe. The more I was commanded by con



GROWTH IN GRA CE.           139
science not to covet, the more absolutely I loved.
How was I delivered? The story is a very simple
one.  When  that sweet voice  came to  me,
" Neither do I condemn thee," the charm was dissolved. For many years that sweet voice has
been sounding in my heart, still so strange, that if
I should listen to any other interpretation of it
but that of my own nature and experience, it
would pass for nothing; but its effect, as well as
its scriptural basis, proves it Divine. The Gospel
which saves me, which delivers me from all my
troubles is simply this: "My child. I know your
nature, for I am the Author of it, and that nature
in all its demands shall be fully satisfied. But
you mistake in supposing that the world could
give you the satisfaction you desire, even if
you possessed all it could give.  But I will
do it.  I now give you my absolute promise,
that what you have been so long pining for
(and which, though you have mistaken its formal object, is the demand of a true nature),
you shall yet possess beyond the dreams of fiction.
I could, at once, make such a revelation of myself to you as would deliver. you from all further
uncertainty. But this would tend rather to your




I40          GRO WTHI IN GRACE.
own exaltation than mine-and, therefore, for this,
as well as for other reasons, I must do it by a
process of discipline. Guided and supported by
faith in my love, and in the promise of my coming at the proper season, I must leave you to
struggle for a while with the evils of your nature,
and, however obstinate those evils may prove, let
this be your unfailing refuge, that I am with you,
never hereafter to condemn, but only to pity and
pardon, and with every temptation to make a way
of escape." Read John xvii. from verse I8 to the
end, and wonder.
I do not mean that from total bondage I was
suddenly ushered into daylight and freedom, nor
that the Gospel, as above stated, which has given
me a perfect rest from my misery, came to me at
once by a sudden manifestation. I always had a
little of it mixed with a much larger proportion of
legalism, which neutralized its virtue, but which by
the trials of years has been purged away, leaving
between myself and Christ the simple relation of
unchanging love, and unquestioning confidence.
You feel that the great obstacle to your sanctification lies in the strength of certain natural desires, and you are forever making, or thinking you




GROWVTH IN GRACE.            I41
el:.ght to make, assaults upon your nature, to make
it fit for the indwelling of Christ, as though there
was a change to precede as well as to follow such
indwelling. Now I conceive the great peculiarity
of Christ to be, that He is exactly suited to our
nature as it is, embracing all its wants. Our most
immediate want is deliverance from penalty, and
from the fear of it, which we have been taught is
obtained gratuitously, by faith in the provisions
of the atonement. But this (by itself) is only the
lifting off of an external pressure. Deeper and
stronger than the sense of wrath is the infirmity
and corruption of the soul itself, the incessant
gravitation of the affections toward a false center,
known to be false. We want sanctification. Are
you not conscious that your deepest want is not
of affection merely, but of affection combined with
purity-the love of a nature which in loving will
purify and exalt you?  It is not peace, simply,
that you seek, but peace unto purification.
By a necessity which no power of will can
change, your affections (I speak of the natural
state), are made, as you cannot but know, to find
their alliance with the All-True, the All-Good, the
All-Fair. Here is the whole of your trouble; your




142           GRO WTH IN GRACE.
heart is perishing for love, but made distrustful by
sin of the only Being whose love can satisfy you,
it is ever tempted to seek a substitute for His affection in visions of earthly bliss, which however
warmly you may pursue, you know you can never
find in such sufficiency, and in such purity, as your
nature requires, in the world. " O, were there but a
love which could perfectly satisfy the heart, without forever disturbing the repose of the conscience!"  This is your cry. Do you not know
that  the  radical idea of Christianity  is to
meet this want, and do you not feel that if
Christianity is worth anything to you it must
meet it?
What, then, is the difficulty?  Plainly, your
supposing a condition to this attainment which
your experience makes it perfectly certain you can
never perform,-some change of nature; whereas,
the very thing which changes your nature, (that is,
gives you a power over its lower affinities,) is its
coming by faith into direct union with the object
which satisfies its highest demands. Christ received not merely as a general Benefactor, but as
a Personal Friend, just as the Scriptures tender
Him, and as your personal experience testifies that




GRO WTH IN GRACE.          I43
you need Him-Christ received into your heart, is
your sanctification.
He descends to you in your unhappy state, and
gives you the assurance that He loves you with a
love which can never change. He tells you that
He has begun to deliver you from the bondage of
corruption; that you are encircled by the arms of
His love and wisdom, of which the one shall direct,
and the other support you, through all the trials of
your pilgrimage path. You have seen God in the
face of yTesus Christ. You have beheld Him.
Love itself, a living, personal being, able and willing to meet and satisfy all your longings, both for
love and for purity. He has proved His love for
you by dying for you. "For a good man some
would even dare to die," but to love those who
are utterly unworthy of it, whom dying for them
could hardly win, and to persevere in loving
them, notwithstanding his clear and constant
perception of their unworthiness, 0, how different from the love of man! —and this is the distinguishing characteristic of your Heavenly,
Eternal Friend.
You have had an idea that the fellowship which
Christ offers you is burdened with difficult condi



144          GRO W THIN GRACE.
tions. But depend upon it, this is an entire misconception.  The primary requirement of the
Gospel is, that you should repose with unchanging confidence on Christ's love to you-the only
love or service desired or expected of you, being
such as this faith will secure, according to its
strength, spontaneously generated. The real demand is for faith in His love, under all possible
conditions.
Do you not believe that if this view, which
contains the quintessence of the Gospel, instead
of being a theory merely, were to become a vital
reality (which it will become exactly in proportion as you act upon it), you would be able to
reply, with Peter, to the question of the Saviour,
" Lovest thou me?" " Lord, Thou knowest that I
love Thee?" Answer directly from your consciousness, as Peter did, in view simply of the report
which the Gospel brings of the person of Christ,
and His love to you.  Do you suppose that
Peter's answer, which you cannot doubt was a
true one, and most acceptable to the Master, was
founded upon the proofs which he had given of his
love (a singular test for him); or that it was the
result of a particular self-examination, and of the




GRO WTH IN GRA CE.          I45
discovery of some tolerable conformity between
his life and his obligation? Is it not obvious
upon the slightest reflection that it was simply
a burst of feeling, quickened by a sense of his
miserable failures, and the amazingly manifested
love of such a superior Being to one wholly
unworthy?
And now, my dear friend, let me exhort you to
hang your whole salvation, your whole soul, with
all its interests and its needs, upon the word and
love of Him who gave His life for you, and who
has gone into Heaven to prepare a place for you
there. Though conscience may still storm, and
the devil in angelic garb try to beguile, such a faith
as that must be effectual against the world, and
Satan, and self, not by its own power, which is
nothing, but by its power to move your loying
Lord.
Be sure to ask me any questions which may
arise in your mind, and do not rest until your
heart is established in the assurance of a personal
union with your Heavenly Friend. Make up your
mind entirely, as you have the most thorough
warrant from Scripture for doing, that He is yozr
Friend, and act accordingly. Cast all your care




146         GRO WTH 1N GRA CE.
upon Him. Expect that there will be a great
change in your heart, and in your life, but depend
on Him to work it for you-to do it for you. You
cannot fail-the arms of love are around you-of
love everlasting. They must fail first.




SECTION III.
FRUITS  OF  GRACE.
THE RESPONSE OF THE SOUL IN VOLUNTARY
SELF-SACRIFICE.




"FOR the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus
judge that if one died for all then were all dead: and that He
died for all, that they which live, should not henceforth live unto
themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again."2 Corinthians v. I4.'* *. *       *  As to self-mortification distinguish always between that which is involuntary and that which is spontaneous.
It is the latter upon which growth depends, and that is entirely
the effect of faith.
*  *  *  * *  We often hear the phrase "'clinging to the
cross," meaning generally the cross of Christ, our only refuge from
the fear of death. But is there not another much deeper meaning?
When the fear of condemnation is entirely gone-gone through a
view of the loving suffering One, and we are constrained to ask
" What shall we render?" the answer comes: " Take up your cross
and bear it for Him;" and we find in bearing it the strength we
have long been praying for coming out of weakness-a fresh revelation of grace-a new development of life. 0, how dear out
own cross becomes; how we cling to it though it slays us, and
because it slays us. We have wanted to be slain that we may truly
Ave;-that is the end and substance of our best prayers.




SECTION  III.
FRUITS OF GRACE.
THE RESPONSE OF THE SOUL IN VOLUNTARY
SELF-SACRIFICE.
* * *X  "lTHE joyful consciousness of entire
devotion to God! "  How blissful is even the hope
of it, and how certainly your longing for it indicates that God Himself, by all His dealings, is
leading you toward it-your crown.
Life, and the consciousness of life, a really entire
devotion to God and the manifestation of it to the
conscience, are two wholly distinct things. The
first, the life, you have already, as certainly as any
of those saintly persons whom you desire so much
to resemble. A little more conflict with its earthly
obstructions, chiefly with the legal element, and
the seed long buried in dust will appear in all the
beauty of the full-blown flower. To direct you and




150          FR UI TS OF GRA CE.
keep you steadfast in the preliminary struggle, is
the end of all my endeavors. I shall have to be
very plain, but for this you will be all the more
grateful.
The whole difficulty in the way of God's fully manifesting His love to you, lies in the strength of your
worldly desires. You half think that if you could
be fully gratified on that point you would be permanently at rest. But, beside the doubt you have
of its being attainable by all your efforts, there is
another good you want still more, and the mere
hope of which, if you knew certainly how to command it, would stop the pursuit of the other
entirely. You. want the love of Christ vastly more
than you want the love of the world; but the very
vastness of the bliss, combined with your sense of
being so unworthy of it, makes you incredulous
about attaining it. If you knew by what means
you could give the higher good a clear ascendency,'you would gladly avail yourself of them. Hence
it is that you have rejoiced so greatly in the doctrine of faith, which gives so much more hope to
your efforts. But you find that the doctrine cannot do everything, and you are taught, by a clear
instinct, that there must be added to your faith




FR UI TS OF GRACE.          15 
"virtue," or a more vigorous self-denial. The
great question on which your mind has been laboring for some time, is: What must I, what can I
do in the way of self-denial?
And here is a point where an excited conscience,
eclipsing for a time the light of faith, often leads
to very serious mistakes, and, for a long time, to
one struggling in a half-legal state, the whole subject seems a most complex one. One great mistake is, that we are apt to begin with a mere outward sacrifice, which conscience is demanding, but
which faith will never allow. Speaking of the person whose life you have been reading with so much
interest, you say, " she seemed to begin by first
making a deliberate, solemn resolve to surrender
all." If that was really her beginning, depend
upon it her resolve would have perished in its
birth-in its early infancy, at any rate. There had
been a preparation for that resolve. What at last
brought it forth was the belief which had been, for
a longer or shorter period, forming in her mind, as
it is now in yours, that God's love and grace were
such, and her sincerity, the effect of her belief in
that love and grace, was such that she might at
length make a resolve of that kind to an effectual




152          FR UI TS OF GRACE.
purpose.  She may have made the same, or
thought of making it, often before; but now the
spirit of the law had so far died within her by the
same experience you are at present going through,
the belief in God's love had become so rooted in
her mind that she felt she might do what had long
before been her great object of desire, as it is now
of yours-that she might surrender herself so as to
be joined to God in a perpetual consciousness of
union. If she had done it under the legal notion
that God required it as the condition upon which
He would bestow something very valuable upon
her, her subsequent experience would have been
very different. Her sense of God's love and holiness had awakened the strongest desire to surrender herself to Him, and to enter into a perfect
union with Him. She felt that nothing else could
ever give her rest.
It was not that she was specially importunate for
a manifestation of God's personal love to her,
except (to use your own most appropriate expression) as " a power " by which she might be enabled
to fulfill her whole duty to Him. At length, impelled by the strength of her desire to be entirely
holy (entirely as far as it depends on the will), and




FR UI TS OF GRACE.          153
the strength of her faith that God, of whose free
and boundless love she had now a clear and firm
conviction, could and would make her so, she truly
surrendered herself; and though it was not intended
as the condition of a manifestation from God, which
had been the bane of all former attempts, that,
after a few further struggles was the result, as it
always must be. Her desire for holiness, and her
faith in God's grace, growing together, had both
become so strong, that she could not help doing
everything she could that might forward the work
of sanctification.
I cannot be mistaken in the belief that the same
dispositions of faith and love are now growing in
you, and advancing to the same result. Only two
directions are necessary to ensure and hasten it.
First, in every way head off legality, upon which I
need say no more, as I have said so much; and,
secondly, as far as you find yourself emptied of
that element, and the love of God provoking the
desire for holiness, be not timid or backward in
your response. Be passive, as against legality,
but with an earnest hope and expectation that the
way will soon be clear for your becoming active.
As far as it is clear, act now-live up to your free.




154           FRUITS OF GRA CE.
dom. Do not wait till your love is perfect, but
let it work upward now, and according to its
strength.
Beginning with the assurance that God certainly
intends giving you a complete victory, (see Sixth
Chapter of Romans,) let it be.your determination,
stronger every day, to wait upon Him, whatever
your condition may be, until He fulfills His promise and purpose. Let this be the first exercise of
your love-always first. If you can do nothing
else, be determined to expect this result, fortifying
your determination by all correspondent action,
concluding at last, as you see there is no conscious
insincerity to hinder, with giving yourself wholly
to be the Lord's; and do not suppose that your
sincerity is imperfect because you are conscious
that sin exists in great power. Without this consciousness your sincerity would be proportionably
imperfect.
It is because you feel that you never can conquer your sins while God is no nearer to you, that
you desire a closer union with Him. And, depend
upon it, that every effort you make to reach that
union, though you see not your progress, is helping
you towards it, Do not suppose that you will




FR UITS OF GRACE.          15 5
always have to struggle as you are now struggling.
When God comes by that manifestation which,
however it may be delayed, must come at last, it
will strike sin in its very heart; you will know that
you are its victor, and your relation to it, in your
consciousness, will be just the reverse of what it is
at present.
Only be guarded against the mistake of expecting this manifestation, and the sense of victory
which it inspires, to commence at any marked era.
It will probably come to your perception gradually, but the promise is, "exceeding abundantly
above all that we can ask or think."
I believe I have nothing more to say to you at
present, and shall probably not write to you hereafter except in application for counsel or sympathy, which, whenever made, I need not say it will
be my greatest happiness to meet; for of all my
earthly beatitudes there is none greater than I find
in such ministrations.
II.
I CANNOT let a week pass, nor a day, without
saying a few words in answer to your most affect



I 56          FR UITS OF GRA CE.
ing letter. I cannot rest an hour without telling
you that your views of the nature of faith, as if
you were, for a time, precluded from the most intensely joyful communion with Christ, are entirely
erroneous.
You say, " I only want to know if this (trusting
Christ) is all I am to do, or if not, what I am to
do besides," etc.-that is, between depending
simply on the promises and sympathy of the
Saviour, which is faith alone, or upon these in connection with some "heart sacrifice " to appease a
legal conscience, which is your old bane, your
mind is still hesitating.  You evidently have a
doubt whether Christ does not require of you an
4" entire surrender" of some very dear thing before He will give you the pledge of His particular
affection.  Hence, while with one eye you are
looking to Him, to His free grace, with the. other
you are looking at yourself to see that everything
is right there also-that " conscience is not lulled "
-that the sacrifice is real. You will not understand me that this state so far as expressed is not
just as it should be. It is the state of the most
thorough and simple believer-but it is the state
also of the half-legalist and half-believer. The




FRUITS OF GRACE.             157
difference is, that the first, full of love to Christ
because He has perfectly secured his salvation and
left him  nothing on that score to desire, cannot
bear that anything offensive to such goodness
should dwell within him, and is, therefore, ever
watching his heart. The other, still uncertain of
his salvation, because not knowing or believing
that Christ has fully secured it, is the subject of a
selfish anxiety to do the thing which may make it
sure, and hence his concern about the "heart sacrifice."
His idea is, that Christ having revealed His
love to the race in general, in order to make himself sure of it, in order to get a particular personal
sense of it, something is required of him which
will tax him not a little, and his great concern is
to know what that thing is. He is afraid simple
faith is not enough. Perhaps, besides this, there is
something more to be done-some great heart-sacrifice.
How plainly can I see that the immediate end
of all God's present dealings with you is to open
your eyes through the pressure of your necessities
to the perfection of His love-to the freeness and
fullness of His salvation. What can I do for you




5 8         FR UITS OF GRA CE.
but to tell you once more, yea, seventy times
seven, of the unpurchasable love of Jesus!
Suppose it true that you are not willing to
make the heart-sacrifice, or that you have doubts
about it. Can you ever do it, while you look upon
it as necessary to secure the love of Jesus, or any
manifestation of that love to your soul? Suppose
on the other hand that, in your present state, He
does not ask it, but says, "My child, I know all
your difficulties-I know what sore temptations
mean- I have. suffered them all, simply that I
might know how to succor you, or rather that you
might know how tender I can be. Now, give
yourself in your present weakness no more
trouble about sacrifices. Your sighs and groans
under a sense of your deficiencies are more acceptable to Me than anything else you can now render,
but a change is coming; you soon shall have such
a sense of My love that nothing can be a sacrifice.
Every blessing of salvation is yours now, if you
would but give Me credit for what I have done for
you. It is not a state, a something to be obtained
by painful effort and seeking. Act upon that belief through all difficulties, and in a little while
this truth will be perfectly plain to you."  Will




FR UITS OF GRACE.           I59
you not hear His voice, will you  not trust
Him?
You need not give yourself a moment's further
concern about the nature of the self-denial which
He will ask from you in the future. You will furnish the only sufficient test of the sincerity of your
desire for Him at present, by enduring His long
delays, because you have His word to sustain you.
This is thorough self-denial. There is no trial like
that which one suffers when all hope from the Law,
that is, from such outward sacrifices as he is competent to, forsakes him, entirely forsakes him, and
he sees that nothing can save him but simple
Grace, and that this will not unless he submits to
have his heart's heart, the very life of self, taken
out of him. Thus give your whole self to Christ.
Rest simply on the love of God as revealed in the
Gospel, and as you do this, you will find, without
mistake, that it is already all yours, and being
persuaded of that, self and the world will have to
relinquish their hold, and leave you free to give all
to God. The change may not be, probably will
not be, overwhelming, but it will be increasingly
clear.
O, my Master and Lord, if even the heart of the




I60           FR UI TS OF GRA CE.
earthly helper was broken, and poured itself out to
Thee in gratitude and grief, when he heard that
the prayer of this soul has been for months, " 0
Saviour, reveal Thyself, reveal Thyself! "-in
gratitude that this prayer was going up, and in
grief for the soul still sorrowing, canst Thou long
delay?
Be of good courage, the hour approaches when
your Lord will come; an hour of darkness may
intervene, but in that hour, and through it, you
will learn His love and faithfulness.
III.
I FEEL that I have obtained, through my late
conversation with you, a much clearer view of your
position, including both your infirmities and your
advantages, than I have ever had before. Perfectly
persuaded, as I am, not only of the genuineness of
your faith, but that I thoroughly understand the
most interior causes of its weakness, nothing has
restrained me from writing long ago, but the feeling that I could not compress my solution of your
difficulties within any reasonable bounds, which,
indeed, is no tax upon me; for of all earthly




FR UITS OF GRA CE.           6 I
occupations there is none which gives me such
pleasure as the endeavor to strengthen the weak,
-but I have feared you might think it was a tax.
To relieve you, then, as much as possible, of
all such feelings, let me first say, that an occasional letter of the kind I am about to write
to you, is not only necessary as satisfying the
longings of friendship, but nothing else is so important to keep up my spirit in the work with
which I ani at present mainly occupied. Writing
to you seems like the paean before sermon-a part
of the same service.
I proceed, therefore, at once, first to take an
observation for the purpose of determining exactly
where you are in your course heavenward, and then
to solve, if I may, some of the doubts and perplexities by which your aspirations are checked and
your progress impeded.
You have always shrunk from the thought of
dying to the world-of the heart's dying to those
visions of beauty which fancy is ever painting on
the cloud-curtain of the future. While you have
felt it to be impossible by any mere energy of will
to transfer yourself from the sensible to the spiritual, though convinced that the former is only an




i62          FRUITS OF GRACE.
illusion, it has almost given you the life of which
you were despairing, to learn that there was a way
by which this transfer might be effected for you,
despite your impotency; a way in which, without
any action of your own but that of simple faith in
the Divine promise, and of patience for a season
like that of the husbandman who waiteth for the
harvest, you would find yourself at length in such
sensible communion with Heaven, that separation
from the world you had loved so much would come
at last almost without a sense of pain.
You cannot depend too confidently upon God's
promises-be sure of that-His promises of justification, of sanctification, and of Heaven; but, for
that very reason, in order to fulfill the great purpose of His love in making you a "' partaker of His
holiness," you may be just as certain of His providential corrections. The promises without the
corrections, and the corrections without the promises, would be alike unavailing.  By corrections I
mean the thwarting of our worldly desires, especially at the point where we are most sensitive. It
is all-important to remember that this is never
done " willingly."  " As a Father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him."
6*




FR UITS OF GRACE.           I63
But though He afflicts not willingly, but for our
profit, we may assume, for that reason, that He
will do it firmly and thoroughly.
Suppose that, beside justifying us freely by His
grace, and giving us a renewed assurance, from
time to time, that His loving-kindness should
never fail us, or that our salvation was perfectly
secure suppose he should give us, also, the very
things which, in this world, we most coveted, preserving them, also, from corrupting on our hands,
what would be the effect of such a course? If the
only restraint upon the love of the world, in formner
days, was the fear of losing salvation, how unrestrained would it be now that the fear is wholly
removed by the promise of justification, and every
opportunity for enjoying the world is freely opened
by a providential dispensation? How, in God's
plan-God, whose ways of kindness are'as much
above ours as the heavens are above the earth-is
this entire deliverance from fear, to which the Gospel gives the largest encouragement, and which, in
so far as we are renewed, tends so mightily to holiness, prevented from  becoming, through  our
remaining corruption, as mighty an occasion of
license! Man's way, you know, is by a compro



164          FRUITS OF GRACE.
mise of Law and Grace, making our final justification depend upon our good behavior, thus
destroying the main incentive to good behavior.
God's way is by providential corrections.
Nothing has been so memorable in my own life
as the persistency with which Providence has
thwarted my deeper worldly aspirations.  Certainly for many years I have been in the habit of
returning as heartfelt thanks for the discipline of
God's Providence as for the love of His promises;
so plain it is that I have been saved by the combination. Not in a moment, nor in a month, has
this result been obtained-but I can truly say that
in the wreck and ruin of worldly ambition and
hope I have found a joy in comparison with which
their highest realization would have been an empty
shadow.
We must always remember, however, that such
passages as these-" If any man would be the
friend of the world he is the enemy of God;"
"If any man love the world, the love of the
Father is not in him;" —are not a prohibition of
earthly affections, but only of putting them in the
place of God. Enjoyed as the gifts of God, they
are important means of promoting our union with




FRUITS OF GRACE.               I65
Him. It is only as His rivals that they are to be
mortified. " Love not the world, neither the things
of the world," is an injunction which it is impossible for creatures of our constitution to obey literally; or, if we could, it would be a constitutional
imperfection. Our real virtue is in proportion to
our susceptibility of receiving pleasure from them;
for only to that extent can they be a temptation,
and thus an index of the strength of a higher
affection. We are taught in the Scriptures that
the most intimate earthly relationships are the
genuine types of that union with God, the only
ideal of true happiness-the goal towards which
all Christians are pressing.
" What if earth
Be but the shadow of heaven and things therein,
Each to the other like more than on earth is thought."
Life is love, whether in the natural or the spiritual sphere; but fallen as we are from God, the
shadow has taken the place of the substance.
Hence the very peculiarity of his constitution
which awakens in the Christian the desire for a
personal union with God, based in the affections,
creates incidentally the whole difficulty in reaching it. We find difficulty in everything, and often




i66           FR U TS OF GRACE.
the greatest of all in things innocent of themselves, which prevent the current of the heart
from flowing as fully and freely as it should towards its worthiest object.
That, in short, is a diseased state, in which the
soul is secretly longing after any form of earthly
good with the kind of interest with which it ought
to cleave to God. We were made to find our happiness in the creature as well as the Creator; but
in the former so subordinately that the exclusion
of the heart from that source of pleasure should
be no more felt than the loss of a rill by one who
is conscious of possessing the fountain. How
prone are we, knowing that God is more than
willing that we should have every worldly happiness which is consistent with a supreme love to
Him, under the pretext of a grateful appreciation
of this kindness, to indulge ourselves in every
natural desire, shunning, just as far as we can,
with any conscience at all, the work of flesh mortification. How many of our thoughts, desires,
and actions are an expression or manifestation of
love to Him, and how many of them an expression of our love to the world? There is scarcely
a day but throws some light on this question



FRUITS OF GRACE.           I67
scarcely an act which does not indicate, more or
less, the imperfection of our love to Him, and of
our trust in His promises, and the strength of our
love to the world and the things of the world.
I am not speaking of all Christians, but of those
who have not yet clearly overcome the world,
and are particularly sensible of its temptations.
Even our religious duties, in many cases, are but
attempts to lull the rebukes of conscience, that
we may enjoy the world with less anxiety and
more freedom. Even our prayers for complete
sanctification, or a perfect victory over sin, are
often more prompted by the love of ease, and an
unwillingness to endure for Christ's sake, than by
that growing love which cannot be satisfied with
anything short of a perfect conformity to His
will.
Open now the windows of the soul, and let in the
most chastening, and at the same time the most
cheering ray of Divine illumination which ever
found entrance there. Your Divine friend is ever
watching the movements of your heart with all
the sensitiveness of the most devoted human
friend. You can grieve Him by any indications
of a doubtful or divided affection; you can melt




i68          FRUITS OF GRA CE.
Him by signs of repentance; you can delight Him
by peculiar demonstrations of sincerity. This sensitiveness is the charm of your relations to Him.
Remember also, that while an earthly friend gives
you his affection because he thinks you to be truly
lovable,(Christ loves you because you are capable
of becoming so though at present in His sight it
may be as far from it as possible, and His purpose!
is to make you so accordingly.  It is His persistency in forgiving and forgetting all your ingratitude and unfaithfulness, though He perfectly
knows it, and it grieves Him sorely, that has
chiefly endeared Him to you, as it ever will in the
future; and it is your growing knowledge of His
love, as so utterly unlike the love of man, that has
at length begotten in you the desire, not so much
for any change in His dispositions toward you,
which you know are as good as they can be, as for
a change in your dispositions and exhibitions toward Him.
Depend upon it that this susceptibility to the
claims of Christ upon our supreme affection,
though painfully conscious as yet of the power of
rival affections, of which we would fain be delivered, is the kernel of the whole matter, the germ




~FRUITS OF GRACE.          169
of a perfect sanctification. If the fountain which
has been opened in the heart by "seeing the Son
and believing on Him," can be kept open-kept
living-though its streams at present scarcely flow,
being obstructed by so many obstacles, a manifestation of God's love awaits the soul, than which
there is nothing higher or greater for man. "In
that day ye shall know that I am in my Father,
and ye in me, and I in you."
IV.
WHEN I tell you that I have done nothing but
write letters since I have recovered my writing
faculty, you will understand why I have kept you
at arm's length so long. I have many friends of
from ten to thirty years' standing who are dependent upon me for a word of remembrance now
and then, and of these, every one to whom I have
been writing within the past month is in fresh
sorrow.
Meanwhile, I have never been more anxious to
communicate something to you than during these
days which have been so filled up with attentior.s
to others. There is no relaxation, nor ever can
8




170           FRUITS OF GRA CE.
be, of my care for you. The more ground you
gain, the greater is my ardor to help you to perfect victory. I see constantly a glorious crown
before you, but I see always with equal clearness
the conflicts through which you must reach it.
These, however, I have- rather kept out of view
until you were perfected in the doctrine of Christ,
the armor which makes us invincible. The object
to which I have been almost exclusively confined
has been to settle you in the belief that it is
Christ's love to us, and not at all our love to Him
on which the issue depends, and thus I have reasonably and scripturally hoped to beget in you
that love to Him which would make you ready to
take up those appointed crosses, when they should
be presented in His Providence, which constitute
the sure and direct way to the crown —meaning by
the crown, in this sense, always, the consciousness
of your high relationship to Him, which is all that
we can reach in this world.
Long have I felt that the time had come when
I should aim to make you more familiar with the
personal Cross; but my tenderness has made me
shrink from that strain as much as possible, while
your experience and reflection have doubtlcss




FRUITS OF GRACE.           I7I
in a great measure supplied my lack in that
service.
And here let me say that I want you to read a
book which I will send to you to-day-Baldwin
Brown's volime on the "Divine Life," the last
chapter of which, called "The Way Home," you
must consider as a letter from me, as furnishing
just the Directory, or Itinerary, for Zion's pilgrims, which I have so long felt myself pressed to._
prepare for you.  The book altogether is more
elaborate than and superior to the " Exodus."
The remarkable feature of the volume, indeed of
both the volumes, is that they illustrate the connection between sin and sorrow (giving therein the
most lucid view of the nature of sin), and the manner in which the one is used for the gradual destruction of the other, as no books that I know
have done; in other words, the nature of the personal Cross, and the motives which enable us to
bear it in their true connection. I trust it may
furnish to you, as it has to me, a strong staff in
weariness.
I wish I could make myself clear to you in
my ideas of the way of "dying unto sin."  I
do not think I understand what you mean by




I72           FRUITS OF GRA CE.
" the danger of fastening our thoughts and energies
on the dying," unless it is (and this I suppose it
is) self- reflection. I must say, that with me
this is much the most important part of the process; but let me explain: I do not mean by this
a deliberate chabit of self-reflection-for this habit
itself has been induced (though it seems a paradox) by the confidence in which I have lived for
years, and in which I am  perfectly established,
that all carefulness about our sanctification in
the way of studied efforts for it, unless founded
on an absolute assurance that it is already ours in
Christ, will defeat itself; that we have nothing to do but to depend on Christ for it, as we
depend on Him for justification. This absolute
dependence on Christ, and, of course, corresponding love for Him, cannot but beget the desire for
a closer and still closer union with Him, which we
know nothing can hinder but some cherished, or at
least overlooked, evil of heart or life. With such
views how can one avoid self-reflection? Arising
from such a principle self-reflection is one of the
primary means of grace. A deep self-knowledge
is one of the most fundamental distinctions between lower and higher degrees of grace-and this




FRUITS OF GRACE.             173
comes only by enduzring the cross of self-reflection.
I believe that this constitutes the essential cross of
the Christian life, the aggregate of all its trials;
outward afflictions being merely the accidents by
which this is induced. Until the Christian knows,
by the clearest intuition, that his union with God
is perfect, he is alive with the apprehension that
something is wrong, and to find out what that is,
is the chief work.
There is nothing that I am so anxious about,
that I pray for with such an agony, that I am so
afraid of missing through my impatience of trial;
or what is nearly the same thing, through the
deceitfulness of sin, as this humbling view of my
own corruption; and the chief reason why I so
seek this before everything else is, that thus only
am I compelled to (as you express it) " throw myself out of myself," " out of the dying into the
living," if I apprehend your meaning in those expressions. The "living " is Christ's fullness, " the
living bread which came down from Heaven;".the " dying" is my emptiness. I do not see that
emptiness once for all, and ever after that spontaneously throw myself on the living Christ. That
is what people sometimes think they are doing,




174           FRUI~TS OF GRA CE'.
when they are merely living on a former experience, or on a doctrine which a former experience
has taught them. The hardest of all things in the
Christian life is to avoid living in this way, by
going deeper and deeper into the needs created by
their ever active corruption, thus keeping up a
perpetual hunger for some new manifestation,
which, as Christ is true (the condition being their
self-emptiness), shall be as perpetually satisfied.
The routine of living upon a doctrinal faith
concerning Christ, instead of upon his living presence, is one of the chief impediments of Christian
progress; and this comes from not dying daily, or
being willing to do so.
Have you ever doubted that Fenelon, Madame
Guyon, and others like them, had as perfect a
sense of their dependence upon Christ, and as simple a reliance upon His sacrifice for justification as
we have, and yet have you not longed to know
how it was that they attained to such a high measure of self-sacrifice, and of the service of God?
Do not suppose that I think lightly of your selfknowledge, or that you are in particular danger of
aversion to self-reflection. I have thought just the
contrary. I want rather to encourage you in thus




FR UIS OF GRA CE.           175
bearing your cross by the assurance that you shall
yet reap from it the choicest fruit of the Christian
life-fruit which can be reached in no other way.
This dwelling in an element of suffering is one of
the most clear and frequently expressed positions
of the New  Testament as essential to sanctification.
And yet, let me say that I consider the only
healthy state of the soul that, in which it is so interested in the person and work of the Saviour,
and in the character of God as therein manifested,
as will render self-reflection for alzy other purpose
but that of avoiding sin, and taking deeper
draughts of God's grace as deeper depths of unworthiness discover themselves, almost unknown.
Keep your eye fixed upon the one great Sacrifice,
your Lord and Redeemer, and then will you pass
through the furnace with a song rather than a
plaint.
V.
I AM not content to wish you a happy New
Year. As far as I can, I must do something to
create what I wish. Earlier in our lives a happy
New Year meant simply and solely the fulfillment,




I76          FRUITS OF GRA CE.
providentially, of some earthly aspiration, and to
the end of mortal life none of us are wholly insensible, nor ought to be, to such outward favors.
These I must be content to wish you, as I can do
so little to insure them. I rejoice that your
Father knoweth how far you have need of them,
and how far you are better without them. But
our common aspiration at present is to reach that
point of spiritual development in which the earthly
allotments once most importunately desired are
felt to be outward indeed, feeling that neither their
possession nor absence can affect our substantial
happiness.
May I but be instrumental in keeping up your
faith and hope to that ideal, and in materially aiding your progress towards it. What encouragement we have in the ground already gained! For
myself, I am as happy as I can expect to be on
earth. I am conscious that no New Year's day
within my memory (and I have a very distinct remembrance of the past) has found me in such deep
repose as I enjoy at present. The radical fact
is, that the Divine life within me has outgrown and
overcome my strongest natural proclivities, which,
I am sure, were never stronger in any one. I am




FR UITS OfE GRA CE.        I 77
no longer doubtful of my heavenly inheritance, for
the foretaste of it here is a perfect antidote to the
feverish agitations of earthly passions.
It was not so but a short time ago, which, with
all above that relates to my own experience, I
mention for your encouragement, rejoicing, also,
to magnify the Lord's loving-kindness, and His
promises of grace. " I have not hid Thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared Thy faithfulness and Thy salvation."
I believe you can give something of the same
report, notwithstanding your remark, last summer,
that you "' had not grown any in two years"-that
is, there had not been much alteration in your consciousness during that time. But you have found
the Pearl, and now I want to show you how you
may and will come to a more full and perfect consciousness of its use and value.
In the childhood of the Christian life we can
bear but little. Nature (in ordinary conditions of
prosperity) is too exacting, and the world too
dear to us to allow those inward sacrifices which
are the necessary condition of a life of holiness.
God deals with us as with children-taking care
to prevent our being over-tempted by too much




I178         FR UITS OF GRA CE.
worldly indulgence on the one hand, and by too
little on the other. We must grow by degrees to
a certain capacity for spiritual sacrifices (though
some grow much faster than others)-to a state in
which they shall be spontaneous, or no sacrifices
really, before they are imperatively demanded, or
before their necessity to our progress in grace is a
matter of clear revelation.
We grow to this capacity by a thorough trial of
the Divine forbearance, gentleness, and goodness.
As we become able to trust, we become disposed
to venture, and ashamed of our former inaction.
The privilege of giving, by which I mean of spontaneous inward sacrifice, for which we once felt
ourselves unable, becomes as dear as that of receiving without the giving had been before.
There is a new tendency in this direction, and
very certainly, it is just in so far as this tendency
is encouraged and becomes a fixed habit, just in
so far as we actually give up everything else for
the sake of Christ, do we experience that personal
communion with Him which is the object of our
best aspirations.
You know how in human cases, the knowledge
that one of our own kind suffers, and staffers




FR UITS OF GRACE.          179
gladly out of love to us, how it draws our hearts
to him so that we refuse nothing that we can give.
Can you doubt, my dear child, that Christ is looking upon you just in the same way? For the
smallest of your real sacrifices for Him He is preparing for you an immortal crown. The whole
reason of His not communicating Himself in all
His beauty to your consciousness at once is, that
thus He would deprive you of the opportunity of
manifesting your love to Him in the only way in
which it can be manifested here, by endurance
for His sake, and thus of inheriting a larger
reward.
For some years past God has been teaching you
His lovableness, and His desire for your love. It
has had a great effect upon you; it has been
gradually drawing your heart to Him. You have
not been wanting in a high degree of responsive
action-let that action now be complete. Take it
for granted that He, and all He can give, are yours,
already yours, and draw from this immeasurable
wealth the motive and the power to give yourself
wholly to Him-wholly.
It gives me the highest pleasure that I can send
you such a book as Goulburn's "Thoughts on




1 80         FR UITS OF GRACE.
Personal Religion." It is only within a few days
that I have read a page of it, but there are parts
of it, (see Chapter III., Part I) which have moved
me as Peter's Pentecostal sermon did the three
thousand, owing partly, perhaps, to a peculiar
personal preparation for it. How much depends
upon the preparation of a sensitive conscience,
and a thirsty heart, to get from such books all that
they are able to give!
And now, my dear friend, in looking back upon
the past years of our pilgrimage, can we not at
least say that this New Year finds us in the enjoyment of a far stronger sense of the reality of the
love of Christ than we once had, —of its all-sufficiency for the happiness of the soul without any
addition from earth? Not, perhaps, that we have
no earthly longings left, but are they not much reduced by the much stronger belief than we once
had of the good which there is in Christ,-of His
intimate relations with the soul,-more intimate
infinitely than those of our nearest kindred; of
His love so much sweeter in its nature, to say
nothing of its depth and breadth? And yet, in
another sense, our love to Him makes our affection for each other far deeper than it could




FR UITS OF GRA CE.        I81
otherwise be; indeed, gives it its immortal
meaning.
I can only say, that loving you, as I do, in Him,
I know my love for you can never die. Many of
my friendships prove but blossoms, which the
winds of time scatter; but our friendship formed
in the "bud of our being," shall have the growth
of eternity. How overwhelming the thought that
you and I who have talked so much together of
the hidden life and of the Saviour, while knowing Him only by faith, shall resume our communion upon these subjects after that life shall
have been fully developed by the sight of Him in
glory.
VI.
I HAVE too much faith in your generosity to
fear that you ever attribute the long intervals
which sometimes come between my letters to any
intermission of interest. You know from long
experience that my interest in you is ever
green; flourishing alike in summer heats and
in winter frosts. My mind is habitually burdened with thoughts which might perhaps some



I82           FRUITS OF GRACE.
what relieve you in your inward and outward
struggles.
But there are times when my conscience binds
me to allow as few interruptions as possible to my
public vocation, and the more stringently as the
time in which I have to work dwindles into a
narrower space. It is some comfort to think that
what I feel for you is never unnoticed above, and
may be doing more for you there than any or
everything I could say to you here. It is a great
satisfaction to be assured from the general tone of
your letters, that you are so submissive to your
trials, and yet so aspiring still; so thankful for
your common blessings, however alloyed with disappointment, and so trustful even for the higher
which are promised. The Divine labor upon you
has not been wasted. I join with you in praising
Him  for the  "hunger and thirst" which you
" know " you have; and though you dare not think
yourself quite ready yet for an entire self-sacrifice,
I am well satisfied for the present that you can say
" I want to be." I am hardly more certain of the
Gospel itself than I am that all its beatitudes are
already germinally yours. For their more rapid
development into blossom and fruit, my- spirit




FRUITS OF GRA CE.           183
is habitually bowed in supplication in your
behalf.
I wish particularly in this letter to convey my
idea of the position in which you now stand
toward the object of your aspirations, and of what
you may do yourself to further the work which
God most certainly is working in you. The main
point to which you should be constantly pressing
forward is a more entire self-sacrifice, about the
nature of which your ideas are generally right, and
yet they require to be made more definite. Selfsacrifice (essentially) is the offering of the soul
unto God, which is made by the Christian daily in
his prayers. In "the saint madeperfect," in whom
self as an opponent of God is entirely destroyed,
such an offering is attended with no sacrifice. This
is predicable only of the saint in whom the love
of God-the principle of the new creature —is
still but a germ, growing side by side with an evil
heart of unbelief which acts as a constant obstruction even to its gradual development.
A never intermitted suggestion of this heart of
unbelief is, that the only self-devotion upon which
God looks with complacency is that which is impossible, except to a high degree of purity, when




I84            FR UITS OF GRA CE.
the heart, entirely loosed from its selfish fetters,
bounds upward spontaneously, as by a law of
gravitation.
Suppose this were true, where would be the
sacrifice? Certainly, to reach such a state is the
end and aim of all our efforts; and it is equally
true that until there is an element of spontaneity
in our offerings, such a state can hardly be an object of aspiration. But it is by a succession of
just such difficult and imperfect efforts that we
gradually approximate our end.
There are no saints on earth who are not more
sensible of their sin than of their holiness; for although a decided progress in the Christian life
cannot but be marked (I should think) by some
consciousness of increasing holiness, yet a still
more certain sign of it-a more common, and
equally certain at least -is a sharpened sense of the
evil which still dwells within. I question whether
any one ever attains a higher sanctification on
earth than is expressed in your declaration, with
the fullness of meaning that it might cover, "I
want to be," or in the apostolic phrase, "to will is
present with me,'. a phrase which perfectly de



FR UI TS OF GRACE.            185
scribes the state of the regenerate up to the moment of sin's final destruction.
The difference in degrees in sanctification is
simply the difference in the intensity or strength
of the "will," of this sense of want. In Christians
of a low degree, or under peculiar temptations,
the "will" or " want" to be holy may be too
feeble even to identify its subject as a Christian,
though it may have an obscure existence. In another, it may be so strenuous as to sweep all before it, to an outside view; and yet it is certain
that what distinguishes the latter from the former
quite as much as anything else, is his far quicker
sense of the strength and subtlety of indwelling
sin. While his "want to be" holy is hardly less
than perfect, his sense of another counteracting
will or want is just as strong. It is this sense of
a body of sin, cleaving to his most vital powers,
ever deepening as he advances in the knowledge
of God, which gives depth and intensity to his
daily prayers, or prompts him to even intensei
efforts of self-sacrifice.
Smitten with a sense of Divine love, and yet
oppressec with the difficulty of making a propei




i 86         F~ UI TS OF GRACE.
return for it through the power of remaining corruption, the prayer of a true saint (in his better
states at least) is mainly an effort to expose this
corruption to the burning judgment of the AllHoly and Omniscient eye,'and to hold it there
until it is consumed by the brightness of the revelation which the Gospel affords.
This is my idea of the essential nature of that
self-sacrifice which constitutes or should constitute
the daily habit of the Christian. It supposes a
strong desire for holiness, and as strong a sense of
its absence. But can you suppose that such efforts as these will be without effect, or that the
effect will always be so inward as to be invisible?
that the bitter bud will never burst into a fragrant
flower? The time may seem long, but the result
is as certain as that God lives and loves. The
truth is, it is all the while bursting into such a
flower, "a sacrifice of sweet savor unto the God
ot Heaven;" and with every such sacrifice on our
part there is a nearer approach to us on God's
part.
You will experience the consuming revelation
exactly as you make the sacrifice it demands. It
does not come as a flash of lightning, at once and




FR UITS OF GRACE.         I 87
forever dissolving our bonds of sin, but as the gray
dawn revealing for a good while more darkness
than light, and urging us onward as much by the
fear of losing, as by the expectation of enjoying,
the perfect day. All that remains then is that you
gird yourself for a more perfect self-sacrifice. You
must guard against the idea that nothing can be
done for the expulsion of sinful affections until
the new and heavenly one has been fillly matured.
It is only by determined conflict that the latter
gets its strength to expel the other. Remember,
that though your affections were given you to enjoy the creature as well as the Creator, there is no
creature enjoyment which is legitimate until you
have first been given wholly and absolutely to God.
All your enjoyment of earthly good in the past, or
in your dreams of the future, however spuriously
defended, this condition being unfulfilled, has been
simply a robbery of God.
If Christ in the desert had said, " How can I do
without bread?" or, " Surely I may possess the
kingdoms of the world, and then use all My power
over them for God's glory,' the devil would have
conquered Him. God has brought you into a
desert; there are certain things which are peculiar



I88          FR UITS OF GRA CE.
ly adapted to give you happiness, which you very
much want; you do not yet see why they should
be denied you. I will tell you why-God is allsufficient. Acknowledge this by an absolute heartsacrifice of everything else, and you will then
receive the whole blessedness for which your
nature was made.
And to help you still further, if I may, let me say
a word about the nature of the blessing you will
receive. The view which it was my special design
to give you when I commenced this letter-a view
which has given me an almost heavenly repose-is
this: the highest point of progress, I apprehend,
whatever experiences may grow out of it, which is
ever attained in this life, is an established assurance that God is ours, that we never can be separated, and that our souls shall be ever getting
nearer to Him.
Suppose you believed with as much certainty as
you believe the Gospel to be true, that, unfaithful
and unfruitful as you have been, God's purpose to
purify and make you perfect in holiness, and thus
perfect in happiness, would never change; all your
allotments in life, and especially the most painful,
even to the minutest circumstance of your history,




FRaUITS OF GRACE.           I89
being a part of His plan of grace, and as exactly
fitted to its- end as the various parts of a machine
to the purpose of its designer-could you desire
anything more than to live in such a faith continually? What a fund of joy such a faith would
supply to you in all circumstances, and how it
would prepare you for every sacrifice! Well, what
hinders such a faith? Nothing is wanted but a
perfect assurance that God is Love. You need no
special personal assurance. From God's nature,
of which the chief manifestation is the gift of His
Son, it cannot be otherwise.  Once  become
"rooted and grounded' in this blessed truth, and,
of all the desires of your bosom, the dominant one
will be that the sacrifice may be complete, entire,
and thorough. You will rejoice, I might say, in
the Divine jealousy; you will feel it to be the truest expression of Divine love. You will welcome
its consuming operation as the means of coming to
your highest joy. You will yield yourself up to
trials with the ardor of a martyr who feels that
through the stake he shall reach his blessedness,
and in a little while you will realize your idea of
self-sacrifice in all its purity.
I trust that I have not interfered with God's




I90          FW UITS OF GRACE.
work in your soul by prescriptions derived from
my own experience which may- contract the ground
of your hopes, or by premature requisitions which,
though they must come at last, may be too much
for your present strength to bear.
Ever praying the Source of all love to hold you
up " till your unwearied feet arrive where perfect
pleasure is,' I remain, your friend.




SECTION I.
TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.
THE SOUL'S CONQUEST OVER SIN, OROWTHI IN
HOLINESS, AND FINAL- PERFECTION IN GLORY.




"BUT of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto
us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption."
-- Corinthians i. 30.
a  *  *  *  A simple and determined and persevering faith
in the doctrines of grace will certainly carry us to the heights of
holy living. Justification by faith in Christ's vicarious righteousness is in its inward specific operation the principle or source of
all personal holiness-is essentially the sanctification of believers
-is the death of sin. *  * *  *  *  I am entirely convinced
that the way in which we commonly seek sanctification, making
holiness the basis of assurance, instead of assurance the basis of
holiness, is directly opposed to the wisdom of God in the plan of
salvation. The Bible here is at variance with our best philosophies.
"And whom  He justified them He also glorified."-Romans
vfii. 30.
"That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches
of His grace in His kindness towards us, through Christ Jesus."Ephesians ii. 7.
*  *  *  *  *  But who am I, that in me the assurance of the
heavenly inheritance should not be presumption?  There is
nothing to make such assurance presumptuous but the guilt of sin
-our desert of penalty in the place of reward. What means this
passage,' For He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no
sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him?'
Not to appropriate Heaven is not to believe in Christ. In believing in Christ and rejoicing with a joy full of glory even amidst all
life's uncertainties and sorrows, and in assuming my final exaltation, I am honoring Him as I can do in no other way.




SECTION IV.
TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.
THE SOUL'S CONQUEST OVER SIN, PROGRESS IN
HOLINESS, AND FINAL PERFECTION IN GLORY.
N my last letter to you I promised another
very soon, in which I proposed to answer the
great question, "What shall I do?" which continues
to agitate you. The general answer to this question
is, that you must do just what you did in your
first coming to Christ, only in a deeper manner,
corresponding to the increased depth of your legal
apprehensions. What the soul receives in its conversion will always correspond in kind with the
desires by which it has been previously exercised,
and in measure with the depth of its previous sufferings, and so ever afterwards.
What the soul generally desires in its earliest
convictions is little more, if anything, than a
sense of deliverance from the Law's penalty-a
9




194          TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.
state of justification. From the gratitude thus
awakened, from a desire to keep the liberty which
it has found, and from some sense of the beauty
of holiness (for there must be a germ-of this nature in every case of real conversion), it then begins
a struggle for sanctification-for that higher kind
or less fluctuating form of peace and freedom
which flows from a conscious union with God by
love as well as by faith. This brings it often into
a far deeper conflict than it knew before, in the
course of which, in some cases, it is scarcely possible to avoid the most serious doubts whether it
has ever been regenerated or justified at all-so
serious, that at length, instead of being a contest
for sanctification directly, it becomes a repetition
only, in a deeper way, of the first struggle for life
itself —for a state of justification-for a sense of
God's paternal favor. And hence the very same
process by which that blessing was first received
must now be gone through with again, only in a
deeper way, to recover and establish it.
Undoubtedly there are several respects in which
your case differs very much from that of one who
has never hoped at all in the Divine mercy. Any
danger from the Law's last penalty perhaps hardly




TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.          I95
crosses your thoughts. But for the very reason
that you think you have found deliverance from
that, it the more confounds you that your heart is
left to famish. If God is your God, why does He
thus deal with you? Why does He keep so reserved? Why does He so hide His face from you?
Why, while others can hardly find language to
express their joys, are you denied that constant
and delightful communion with Him, for the want
of which your affections are ever wandering after
earthly vanities, or only restrained from it by the
fear of a still deeper anger?
You have been brought to see very clearly that
the only real remedy for your wounded spirit is
sanctification-that anything short of a great
change in your ruling affection will do but little
for the establishment of your peace; and though
you are not conscious of that mighty desire for
holiness which springs from its actual enjoyment,
or-from the force of love; yet as giving you a perfect sense of your justification, as a means of conquering all the enemies of your peace, and of fixing
you in a state of unchanging fellowship with God
you do desire it as you desire nothing beside. Assured at length that this, like every other blessing




196          TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.
of salvation, is contained in Christ's infinite fullness, and derived thence by the simple process of
believing, you want to do just what you did
when you gained your first hope-come to Christ,
trust in Christ, receive from  Christ-always remembering that His love to you, not yours to Him
in the slightest degree, must be your whole dependence-in the beginning of your Christian life,
in all stages of its progress, and at its end. * *
*    * "  The spring of the Divine life in the soul
is a desire towards God, based originally upon a
sense of his perfection, but called into immediate
and lively action by the expression of His peculiar
affection for us. The measure of our inward life
will always correspond to the degree in which we
are sensible of His favor,; a sense of this such as
we never had before, though it may still be comparatively faint, always marks the era of our conversion. It is an intimation, or what is so considered of God's love to us, which first awakens the
sentiment of love to Him. It is then that in Him
whom we have hitherto regarded only as our judge
we begin to recognize the love of a Father, and in
this love we find for a time'our supreme felicity.
Of course, how to retain this love, how to entitle




TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.           197
ourselves to a fuller expression of it, how this newborn happine.s may be enlarged and perpetuated,
becomes the object of our chief solicitude.- We
feel that nothing can assure us of this but a life of
holiness, meaning by this a life in which the love of
God is perpetually triumphant over the love of
the world. But we too often find that while conscience is strongly on the side of God, and not
without a better feeling also arising from a sense
of His kindness and generosity, (the will under this
two-fold pressure making a constant and often a
most earnest effort to be faithful,) yet some of our
liveliest affections are still so much in the interest
of the world that little or nothing comes of all our
endeavors.  We make no advance. We often
question whether the heart's union with God which
we hoped would soon be perfect is even begun.
We become despondent of our ability even to attain a life of holiness. If we do not yield wholly
to the tempter, we wage but a feeble conflict;
our prayers, which ought to be full of confidence,
being chiefly confessions of shame and deprecations of Divine judgment.
I cannot conceive that any dread of a hereafter,
or the considerations which are addressed to con



I98          TRi UiUMPHS OF GRA CE.
science merely, powerful as these considerations
are to awaken attention, are ever sufficient to conquer the love of the world. Nor can I conceive
that any sense of the Divine authority and perfection, unaccompanied by a special tender of His
love to us, and a promise of the most endearing
and intimate personal fellowship could do it. The
love of God, which repels all rival affections,
springs not primarily from a sense of His perfection, however that may command our esteem and
reverence, but from a belief or sense of His infinite
affection.
The fullness of the love of God is manifested to
us; attracts and moves us in the personality of
Christ, our Saviour, so worthy of supreme love.
Love in us is, at bottom, that response of the
heart to which we are moved by a sense of the
adaptation of such condescension to our helpless
necessities.
"Ah," but you say, "the great proof of love to
Christ is, that we keep his commandments, and
herein I am conscious of a signal deficiency. I
have no evidence of this sort upon which I can
rely for a moment! "  But the " keeping" of the
commandments to which Christ promises His love




TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.           199
and blessing is primarily that posture of believingloving, or loving-believing attention and regard to
His words which is produced by the dependence
of our hearts upon him. It is the sighing to be
more conformed to him. It is that repenting,
coming, praying, hoping, believing, waiting, which
His promises have inspired. These are pre-eminently, and first of all, His commandments. The
desire to " keep" avails in the sight of grace, as
if it were the full performance.  For such as
would fain love and keep, in the fullest sense, but
cannot for the want of further strength —theirs is
the blessedness of that hunger which shall certainly be filled; of those beginnings of purity which
shall soon be perfected by the vision of God.
Come, then, and take a fresh, life-giving draught
of the love of Christ, just as when you first came
to Him, only deeper and fuller, as your necessities
are greater.
If Christ commands, He gives in the command
itself the power of fulfilling it. Thus He commands us to love. Love is the essence and end
of all His commands; but it is that love of which
faith (faith in H-is love) is the root. The whole
commandment, then, is not love alone, but faith




200          TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.
also, which gives the power to love. If love is
the end of the commandment, as Paul says (I Tim.,
i. 5), faith is its beginning; not in the order of
time, but in the order of nature. There is always
just as much love as there is faith.
As faith grows into a habit of depending, leaning upon Christ's bosom and finding His succor in
all your trials, love will grow in the same ratio,
until at length not only will the easier sayings of
Christ be fulfilled in your heart, but there will
come an increasing inward demand for self-sacrifice, and a growing consciousness of the Divine
complacency; for what you really want is His love
of complacency, not alone the love of compassion,
not merely "you in Him," which is equivalent to
a sense of justification, but above all " Him in
you," which is equivalent to sanctification. I am
a firm believer in the omnipotence of love!
II.
I AM convinced by the letter just received that
you are the subject of Divine instructions, and
that much officiousness on my part would not promote the work of grace in your soul. But as a




TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.         201
dear friend in Christ, I feel a deep pleasure in
communion with you, and therefore readily embrace the opportunity for this, afforded by your
letters. While we should not despise human instruction, I hope we shall not rest in it. It has
the same relation to the work within, that the
scaffolding has to a building itself.
I would guard you, especially, against leaning
too much upon any human descriptions of sanctification. I find that this is a matter of experience,
and that it has not been promoted in me by those
exact representations of its nature which have led
me to anticipate much about it. It is enough to
know that our privileges vastly exceed our common thoughts of them, and that God can give us
abundantly above all that we can ask or think.
For myself I regard sanctification as a gradual
work to the end of life, and I never expect to be
able to say, I am now perfectly sanctified.:: You
will inquire, however, " Is there not some special
mark which you are in the habit of pursuing yourself, and of holding forth to others, under the name
of Rest, which may be obtained by dwellers in the
flesh?" There is,-and I believe, my dear friend,
you know what it is by some experience, though
y~~~~~~n




202          TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.
that experience may not yet be complete. I mean
by this, what the Apostle calls the full assurance
of hope, and which he exhorts us to give all diligence to attain.  The same thing is expressed by
the Apostle when he prays for the Ephesians that
"Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith;"' and
again, when he speaks of himself, as " walking by
faith and not by sight."  "If ye continue in the
faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved
away from the hope of the Gospel, which you have
heard."  "For we are made partakers with Christ
if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end."  But you may still ask, what
is the specific nature of assurance, and how is it
to be obtained? I answer, faith is assurance (as
far as it goes).  Assurance is nothing more than
faith made strong by trial-or by an unremitted
adherence to Christ in a great variety of circumstances. I much suspect that kind of assurance
which is attended with an abrupt transition from
some previous state-which is based on some
strongly-marked, and sudden internal change,
which admits no further improvement.  Understand me-I believe such exercises are experienced
by many Christians, and I greatly value them as




TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.          203
helps to the attainment of assurance; but I think
I know some whose experience in this way has
been perverted to the nourishment of self-confidence, and others, whose eagerness for enjoyment
of this kind forms the greatest hindrance to their
attainment of assurance. I suppose assurance to be
that state in which a Christian can hold on his way,
however grievously his faith may be tried, because
he is so confident of his foundation. It seems to me
thlat just here is one great cause of yourperplexityyou question your foundation. You talk about
going forward to occupy "higher ground."  You
are mistaken.  You never can get upon higher
ground in this world than that on which you now
stand.  What you want is simply to be rooted
and settled in your present state-to be assured
that you need nothing in addition. I do indeed
admit the necessity of advancing-that is, of growing upward, and outward, in the fruits of holiness;
but I say further, that this will follow of itself
from your growing downward in the principle of
faith, and in no other way. This is the root of the,
tree.  Graces, duties, and enjoyments, are the
leaves-the flowers-the fruit-which will certainly
appear in their season, provided the proper care




204          TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.
be taken of the root. This then is the blessing to
be directly sought after-a perfect union with
Christ-a settled, rooted, unchanging confidence
in Him-a habit of turning to Him momently as
the needle to the pole. Thus, assurance will be
ever growing. All your care must be given to
cleaving to the vine. " As the branch cannot bear
fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more
can ye except ye abide in me." These are Christ's
own words. Our growth must all be a work'of
faith- not of self-devised and self-directed effort
for a blessing that is at best uncertain, but a cheerful and humble acquiescence in a Divinely-ordained
method for obtaining a blessing already promised
and purchased, and therefore, sure.
Let us renew our faith from day to day, by
meditation, not upon ourselves, our infirmities,
our unfaithfulness, but upon our all-sufficient
Saviour, His person, character, and offices. Let
every temptation to distrust, especially those
arising from our sins, lead us to bring our spirits
to Him in all their nakedness, to be clothed with
a righteousness of His providing. Most certain I
am that nothing but the thorough conviction
which has been wrought in me by my life-failure,




TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.          205
of the impossibility (in my case certainly) of an
inherent righteousness which can give me boldness in death, could have so settled me in the doctrine of justification, and sanctification by Grace
alone.
I may say that all my religious life has been an
effort to get upon the ground-the rock-which I
have at length reached. I had an early glimpse
of it, as the Israelites had of a rest in Canaan,
and everything else which a Christian, and especially a Christian minister, might set before himself
as an object of desire has had but a small interest
for me in comparison with this spiritual attainment. Growth in theological knowledge, and in
public influence, have never occupied my heart.
Growth in faith and love, terminating in a perfect
consciousness of union with the Divine, and thus
a perfect victory over the world (which has always
had the strongest attractions for me), this is the
only thing I have really coveted. The desire for
more nearness to God, or for a higher purity, can
no more be resisted than the impulse to breathe.
I hope soon to see you, and to find you bounding
like a deer in the Lord's pastures.




206          TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.
III.
MY skies are clear! clear beyond all former pre
cedent. The reading of Olshausen on Romans
once more, in connection with recent experiences,
has raised my faith to the highest point, I think,
it has ever known. My soul has almost broken
for the longing it has had to communicate my
feelings, or rather my faith, to you.
Two things I should like to talk with you about
could I give my thoughts utterance. First, What
is this thing called sanctification-this thing for
which so many of us so long and pertinaciously,
and yet (with reference to the end as well as the
way) so blindly struggle? Is it anything less than
the life of God in thle soul?-not merely the life
which God gives, but the life which God livesthe Divine life, "and all that life is Love! " Can
I say more?
Secondly, How is it attained? Hear Olshausen:
"According to Paul's way of thinking, the blessedness of the man is certain only because God
has promised it, and certainly intends it, and he
only who believes in this decided will of God has
this salvation wrought in him.




TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.            207
"It now becomes clear how faith is one and all
in the Christian life. The Christian has neither
before nor after his conversion to generate an independent sanctification of his own, but he has
only constantly to receive the stream of the influential powers of Christian life upon him, and this
receiving is faith itself. Just as the tree, when
the development of its germ is begun, has only to
suck in water, air, and light, in order to unfold
itself from within, and all the drawing of a stupid
gardener at the branches, all his working at the
buds to coax forth blossoms, can only disturb but
never further its development."
Have we not a higher witness to this truth than
Olshausen? But how strongly do his words confirm within us the truth of the things which we
already believe, and by the faith of which we live.
About Olshausen, I have only further to say that
his commentary on John interests me nearly in
the same degree as his Romans. You shall have
them  both, together with Muller on the " Christian Doctrine of Sin," which I am reading with
great interest and wonder, and with very great
profit.
Have I told you how the controversy concern



208          TRIUUMPHS OF GRA CE.
ing the nature of the Atonement, as conducted by
Young in his " Christ, the Life and Light of Men,"
shook me to my very soul's center? I happened
to read it at a time when spiritual disease within
me appeared, as never before, hopelessly chronic;
when I was only sustained by the belief that it was
not the malady alone which caused my pain and
weakness, but the Divine surgery which was working to heal me. But what tortured me was the
temporary eclipse of faith, the possibility of a
mistake as to the efficacious nature of the Atonement, compelling me to look more closely at the
amount of my (graciously received) inherent personal righteousness, and what might be expected
from it. But never did I have so wholesome a
discipline. While it brought into strong relief the
root of all evil in my heart, it revealed at the
same time the formal, traditional, superstitious
character of much of my faith-the faith on which
I had depended to cover the evil.  How little
should we ever know the depths of deceit within us, but for such trials; and how hopeless the
effort to rise to a full appreciation of the things
above, while ignorant and unconscious of the dark
ruin within, out. of which we shall at last see that




TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.           209
by the merest grace, God's inheritance in the
saints is constructed.
Under the new, purified assurance which has
resulted from these trials my mind is now in full
action, reasoning some, rhapsodizing some. I do
not see how it is possible that I ever can be satisfied with an Atonement which does not contain a
thorough antidote to the sense of guilt.) It is, I
think, the instinctive and ineradicable belief of
men that the principle which constrains God to
punish is as essential to His righteousness as that
which constrains Him to love; and what makes
that love and its consequences in Redemption the
theme of highest, holiest rapture, is, that it had,
by some means, to reconcile with it another principle, which was just as essential to Divine perfection.
Upon my mind the fact of an Atonement in the
sense of a satisfaction to justice is fixed more
firmly than ever. I cannot see why it was necessary that God should become man merely to induce reconciliation on man's part, by a revelation
of God's nature. I admit such revelation is the
greatest means of reconciliation on man's part;
but if that were all, or the main thing to be ac



210          TIRUMPHS OF GRACE.
complished by the Incarnation, I cannot but feel
that the means were wholly out of proportion to
the end.  But if before He could institute any
policy in our favor, or make any revelation for our
good, it was necessary that eternal justice should
be vindicated in such action to itself-if, in other
words, an eternal necessity in the Divine nature
required a vicarious sacrifice, corresponding to infinite holiness, and the infinite ill-desert of sin,
that adequately explains the necessity of the Incarnation. How this reconciliation was brought
about by the Incarnation and suffering of the Son
of God is a mystery; and all those fail who try to
solve it to the understanding. Some, in attempting it, de-humanize God; others un-deify Him.
Philosophy is incomplete to sound these depths.
"I love the incarnate mystery."
And now, in defining my belief as to what you
and I may reach in the way of communications
from  Christ, and service to Him, I should say,
it is that we may hope to attain what we call sanctification in this life, not in the sense of being
free from every motion of sin, or from occasional
lapses, it may be, by reason of sudden surprisals
co-operating with remaining weakness; but in the




TRI UMPHS OF GRA CE.         211
sense of being purified from everyprincitle of sin,
from  every way of sin; so that we may have
the abiding consciousness of serving Christ with
our whole hearts, and have a constant and serene
(though by no means ecstatic) confidence of His
love'to us-love which shall keep up a joyful sunshine within, however we may be tried externally.
This was certainly a common state among the
primitive Christians, and is but the natural effect
of a simple faith in the Gospel doctrines. A simple, and determined, and persevering faith in these
doctrines will certainly carry us to the heights of
holy living.
As to what I mean by a simple faith, I would
explain thus-though not without some exercise
of heart upon these Gospel doctrines, or, which is
the same thing, some endeavor to appropriate
their living virtue-is there not much danger that
in our profession as ministers we shall be influenced by the same motives, in studying them, and
in presenting them to others, which ordinarily
prompt to the study of the natural sciences?-that
is, that the exercise of the intellect, in the endeavor
to give them a philosophical form, or an original
expression, rather than to apply them in all the




212         TR1 UMPHS OF GRA CE.
spirituality of their meaning, will absorb us too
much; and does not this have a manifest tendency
to destroy the simplicity of Christian doctrines,
and make them unfit for our inward life? Have
we anything to do, but for ourselves to appropriate, and for the people to whom we prea"ch to
apply these life-giving truths? Let us pray more
earnestly for power to preach the Gospel-for
power to prevail in this matter against self, and
against Satan. Why should not the continuance
of faith and prayer work a perpetual deliverance
from that principle of self-regard which causes so
much of our misery, and of our want of successwe may say, the whole of it? What we want is
that the power of Satan over us (as God's servants) may be terminated by such a clear, abiding
consciousness of the identity of our personal interests with the prosperity of Christ's kingdom as
will divest our cares entirely of their selfish form,
and make them cares only for His honor. Thus,
let us trust unreservedly to the power of prayer,
casting away every other defense.
God is near you, my brother, and He will ever
be drawing nearer, nearer, nearer.




TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.          213
IV.
*  * * * ~ * " RELIEFof theheart"-yes,
this is what you want. Relief of the heart, not
merelythrough the manifested love of some superior
Being, but through the consciousness of some relation to Him which gives you a legitimate claim
to it. You want to have the consciousness that
you are giving your Heavenly Friend the same
satisfaction in kind, however less in degree, which
the sense of His love imparts to you. This is my
ideal of the inward life of a Christian. A long and
troublous experience has made it certain to me
that the higher consequences of Christ's Divine
Humanity are but poorly developed in most of
our Protestant schemes. They may be contained
in them, and doubtless are, but they have not
been distinctly, fully, and vividly developed. The
Atonement of Christ, which satisfies the conscience, needs to be supplemented by as peculiar a
doctrine respecting the Person of Christ, which
alone can satisfy the soul. It is true that latterly
we hear much more of this in the preaching of the
day, and in many of the books; and the eagerness
with which such views of Christ are received, show
the deep want which they meet.




2 4          TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.
The Roman Catholic Church, the refined portion
of it, had a right conception of this doctrine, as
you may see in Tauler and Thomas a Kempis;
but its benefits were soon lost to the multitudes
through a corruption not so much doctrinal as
practical, which virtually precluded all rest to the
conscience, and therefore to the heart.
Conscience must be entirely free, in a way glorious to God's justice-works must be utterly excluded before a true and sincere heart-relation with
God can begin. Without this, the subjective sentiment in man becomes a vigorous self-righteousness, more or less sublimated, which represents the
Roman Catholic corruption, or that polished, speculative, ineffectual nonentity which represents the
Socinian.
It is not, therefore, without the highest reason
that the Protestants have made the doctrine of a
vicarious satisfaction to justice, and its practical
consequence, justification by faith alone, their
great bulwark of defense. You said nothing to me
in your letter about the " History of Port Royal."
How did you like it? I trust it has done you no
harm-of which, however, I am not so certain, considering its strong legal and ascetic tendency.




TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.           2 I
Nevertheless the grandest and most elevating sentiment, to me, of Christianity, is recognized in the
monastic system- the sentiment that Christ is the
true and proper Bridegroom of the soul. Certainly
it was the influence of that sentiment which drove
so many both of the strong and the lovely to seek
in the cloister a shelter from the world's contamination. It was devotion to the unseen Lover of
the soul, though a superstitious and irrational devotion, which forbade them to find joy in anything
but spiritual intercourse. I do not suppose that
this was the common motive, but that it was so
in many cases. I do not admire the institution,
nor regret that we have nothing in Protestantism
that corresponds with it. It is condemned alike by
reason and Scripture; it was the natural product
of an age of ignorance and licentiousness, and its
best practical effect was to bind the conscience
without at all relieving the heart.
I have been thinking a great deal about this subject of late, as I told you in my last letter, and,
with the hope of meeting, possibly, some of the
wants of the heart, I have been writing a sermon,
in which, in brief, I show that the original relationship of the soul to God was a love relation.




216          TRITUMPrHS OF GRA CE.
Through temptation the soul has fallen into the
same relation to the world which it was made to
hold to God, and which it once actually held to
Him. It seeks its happiness in the world. But
not finding it there-having more or less of disappointment-it seeks to return. But, in doing so,
it meets all those difficulties which arise from the
law relation (the Divipe justice and holiness),
which make a reunion morally impossible. Christ
appears, and by the great work of the Atonement
puts all these law difficulties (which are the only
difficulties) out of the way. There is now nothing
wanting, absolutely nothing but faith, to reunite
the soul to God in perfect bridal beauty and joy.
Now remember, my dear brother, that faith, the
very same faith, in principle, which is now
required, was the bond of the soul's first union
with God. What else could it be?  Distrust of
God's love, occasioned by the prohibition of the
tree, broke the union. The tree, forbidden, represents the world. The soul, tried by the prohibition, fell into, doubt about God's love, then it
disobeyed-that broke the union, and since then
it has sought its happiness in the world because it
can look to no higher source for it.




TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.           217
Christ has brought back the soul to the very
posture in which it stood before it fell. God loves
you just as He then loved the soul, and has declared His love for you. You have only to believe
it-you do believe it. What you are hoping and
striving for, is a conscious love-relation between
yourself and Christ, corresponding to the words"My Beloved is mine, and I am His." You are
convinced at last that this is the privilege of every
soul-its normal condition-the best description
of what all want, and of what it is the very design
of the Gospel to give to all-every one of us,
" whosoever will." Resting short of that, we are
not really redeemed.
As to the way of attaining it, you are convinced
further, that it is altogether of Grace-not at all
of works. The great legal stumbling-block has
been taken out of the way. It is not like the first
trial, in which humanity stood for itself. Christ
stands for you; and the faith which you already
have, by which you are united to Him, makes
your final triumph an absolute certainty.
But still there is a difficulty; you do not reach
what your heart aspires to; you want special
tokens of love-of His love to confirm  yours.
10




218          TRI UMPHS OF GRA CE.
Your progress is very slow, and you cannot but
attribute your failure to receive more of Him, to
something yet lacking on your own part. You
fear that faith does not comprehend all that is required, or if it does, that there is something yet
wanting in yours. You see it must be generally
true that faith is really the only "work" we can
do, and the only condition which is required; but
there is something about the manner in which
faith affects our restoration which you may not
yet quite understand. A great deal is said in the
Gospel about "bearing the cross," etc., with our
fidelity to which, our sanctification, or our enjoyment of the highest liberty of the soul, is intimately connected. According to Paul esptcially,
the great assertor of "faith alone," the life-progress and perfection of the new man depends on
the mortification of the old. Knowing this, you
ask, What shall I do to hasten and perfect this
work of mortification? What, for the entire destruction of the body of sin, or of my selfish and
worldly desires? Anything for that deliverance
by which my Beloved shall be mine-by which I
shall know Him to be mine, and nothing remain
to obstruct our communion, or my perfect knowl



TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.            219
edge of His will, and conformity to it, and my as.
surance that He is pleased with me. Does this
depend on faith alone? Shall I reach it by still
trusting entirely in Christ's justifying righteousness, an'd assuming that everything else will follow,
putting all not only upon His love, but upon His
faithfulness?
I assure you, my dear friend, there is no mistake
about this matter at all. Sanctification (by which
we mean entire devotion to God) is nothing else
but the natural and necessary effect of a free justification-growing out of it just as the branches of
a living vine grow out of their parent stock.
But growth is, of course, a work of time; only
hold on to the root. Let nothing interfere with
the working of the doctrine of a free justification
in the conscience —that is the root. According to
the strength of the assurance which is thus imparted, your soul will gradually realize all your
ideal of holiness. That is what unites you to
Christ; there will be everything to try it, but trial
will but strengthen the bond, while it destroys
the root of selfishness.
And now, planting yourself on the Word of God
that you are freely justified, saved, loved, your final




220         PTRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.
triumph through Christ secure, are you not ready
to wind the screw upon yourself a little tighter in
the determination to hold on in prayer until you
get the blessing?  The blessing will be the consciousness that He is entirely yours. In reality
He is so now, and you are never to doubt it. That
doubt is the great temptation.
It is not an arbitrary appointment, but indispensable to our justification, and preparation for the
glory that awaits us, that our faith should be tried.
But a smile of Eternal Benignity has given you a
distinct intimation, that after the endurance of a
few farther trials, the effect of which, even while
enduring them, will be to develop God and His
love more and more in your consciousness, you
shall reach the crown of all your aspirations.
V.
I THINK that we can say that our spiritual state
is very much alike, allowing for the difference in
outward circumstances: God not only our heart's
desire but our soul's possession, so far at least as
to make His holiness as dear as (I think dearer
than) His goodness,-His moral beauty more at



TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE,          22 I
tractive than benefits,-His trials almost as welcome
as victories,- patience almost as natural (easy) as
faith, because we so desire the purity in which
they will terminate.
But while in one view I am as happy as I can
hope to be here, in another I am greatly and constantly burdened. Why is God so little known,
these perfections so little honored and esteemed,
this moral beauty, shining as it does upon our
apostate world through a medium (the Gospel) as
free and large as the atmosphere, so little enjoyed?
Not so much in contemplating the obstructions to
the Gospel as in laboring to'remove them do I
find the work of my choice.
A man who has been delivered from oppression
cannot much enjoy his freedom while his own flesh
and blood are yet in bondage, unless he is making
every effort for their deliverance.  Oh, to make
Christ transparent in everything, to be a living,
speaking image of Him!      *  * *  * * * - 
I cannot be at ease until I have started you in
" Ecce Homo," the book of books among late
publications. My enthusiasm for it arises partly
from its superb workmanship, but much more
from the new and strong humanitarian light which




222         TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.
it throws upon the work of Christ, and from the
perfect manner in which it meets what I now clearly see to be the great want of the time, a want
from which we are all suffering-all who dare to
think-though, until this remedy appeared, I, for
one, scarcely allowed myself to see or feel it.
The book does not profess to give a complete
view of the person and work of Christ. The sin
which has alienated the soul from God, and the
Redemption by which eternal life has' been recovered, are barely acknowledged. The author gives
us reason to believe that his views on these points
will appear in another volume, which is in preparation. The present work is confined to a single line of thought, the object of which is to
demonstrate the claims of Christ to the unbounded
reverence of mankind, on grounds which every
one, simply as having the common sympathies of
men, is competent to appreciate, however ignorant
of God.
For the want of some such representation more
than from any other cause, as it seems to me, the
intellect of this age is drifting away from Christianity. Certainly, the great miracle of Christianity is the character and life of its Founder, in con



TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.           223
nection with the beneficent change which they
have given to the world's history.  But these
things have been studied so long and exclusively
in connection with supernatural assumptions, and
in the interest of purely theological theses, that
they have lost their hold, or rather have never had
any hold of the natural mind. That they may be
Geen by the common sense of mankind as a moral
miracle of the highest order-seen in their absolute immeasurable superiority to all phenomena
of the same kind which have occurred in the world,
and felt as well as seen, they must be taken out
of the domain of supernatural dogma and churchly
tradition-out of the colored lights of scholasticism, and read simply as history, just as we read
the history of any other great teacher, or world
reformer.
This was just what was undertaken both by
Strauss and Renan. They both represent the
great intellectual want of the age in reference to
Christianity —the want of an intelligible human or
natural version of Christ's history and teachings,
and of the relation of those teachings to the state
of the world in His own time, and of human nature as it is always and everywhere, and how these




224         TIRIUkMPHS OF GRACE.
alone account, without any supernatural assumptions, for its supremacy. Strauss failed, because
the mythic view which he gives so violates men's
faith in history, as to be more improbable than
supernaturalism itself. Renan failed because his
exposition of the history is a mutilation of its
principal facts.
But what they failed to do this new genius has
done marvelously. Take away from Christianity
all that is supernatural, hush to silence all its dogmas, and it remains so superior to every effort of
human wisdom that it must be seen to be Divine.
All this in the hand of the author is as I suppose
only a preparation to present the theology of
Christianity in the same fresh, independent, incisive
manner in his forthcoming work, as he has in this
presented its morality.  I should certainly find
something to complain of in this volume, if it were
not for the hope that the next may furnish the
complement to many half or one-sided views which
can hardly escape your notice. We shall do him
injustice if passages in which he is merely limiting
his utterance to the requirements of a particular
class of men are considered as expressing his own
entire belief.




TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.          225
The worst omen for the next volume is contained on the twelfth page of this-the reason for
Christ being called the " Lamb of God," so
different from that which the Baptist gives, viz.,
"He taketh away the sin of the world." There
is nothing in the whole volume which really
troubles me but that, and I wait impatiently to
know if that interpretation is to give the keynote to his theology.
In looking back upon what I have written, I
find I have been assuming that the author intended his book as an argument for the truth of
Christianity. I am not sure that he had any such
intention at all. However that may be, I have
no doubt that his principal design is to divest the
Christian system  of the corruptions which have
been attached (in his judgment) both to its
morality and its spirituality, by the influence of
ecclesiasticism and scholasticism.  In this view
you will derive your chief advantage from it. I
shall send the book to you to-day.
In thinking of you this morning, I feel the most
delightful certainty in regard to the end and
design of God's dealings with you as well as with
myself. "I will betroth thee unto Me for ever,"
I O




226         TRIUiMPHS OF GRACE.
expresses it all. Though, in order to know the
grace of the Bridegroom we must be made to feel
our unworthiness, and that our blias in the end
may be perfect we must be left sometimes
desolate, yet one hour's vision of the Bridegroom-one moment's experience of His love,
with the assurance that it shall never again
be hidden, will abundantly recompense all our
sorrows.
VI.
THE apostle prays for the Ephesians that they
may comprehend what is the height, depth, etc.the fullness of God's love-that they may know
what is the hope of their calling, and what the
riches of the glory of His inheritance in the
saints, and what is the exceeding greatness
of- His power in them that believe.  Thus he
expresses the sum or end of all Christian attainments.
This is the end to which we are aspiring-after
which we are reaching.  The direct means of
attaining this end is " the spirit of wisdom and
revelation in the knowledge of Christ," which the
apostle prays may be given to the Ephesian




TRIUMPHS OF GRACEI.          227
Christians.  As it is certain that God is more
faithful in fulfilling His promises than we can be
in pleading them, it'may be asked, Why is not the
condition here described realized at once in the
experience of all Christians?
The main occasion of perplexity among Christians is, I apprehend, the same in all. "How is
it possible that such as we should be the children
of God and heirs of the promises?"  Almost
every one imagines some great defect in his
Christian experience (inferring it from the deficiency in his life) which he fears may be fatal.
Doubtless there are many who have reason for
such fears, but they are not the persons who are
commonly oppressed by them.
Let us consider then what is a proper foundation
for confidence, or what should we answer if asked
for the reason of the hope that is in us. When
wve think that the matter of our hope is nothing
less than " an eternal weight of glory," a "kingdom
prepared for us before the foundation of the
world," how plain it is that no work of ours can
be the foundation of such a hope, and how well is
the real truth expressed by the phrase; " Christ in
you the hope of glory." The incarnate God has




228         TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.
purchased it for us by His own obedience unto
death. Here is foundation enough surely. We
can easily believe that He who gave His Son, His
only Son, to die for us, will with Him also freely
give us all things. But how do we know that He
will give them to us?  Because He has already
given us " the earnest of His Spirit." How does
this appear? In all the action of the new creature.
What but the Spirit in us could give us such confidence toward God, conscious though we are of
our fearful guilt and worthlessness, such joy and
peace amidst the wreck of our earthly hopes, and,
above all, such strength in the conflict of sin?
But, you may respond, this is just the point where
my defect appears. It is just here that the promise seems to fail. A life-long struggle with sin I
indeed endure, but why is it not more successful?
The answer is, there is an order in the development of spiritual life as there is of natural life.
You might as well ask why should we have to go
through the dangers of infancy, and the trying experiences of a youthful course before we can reach
the attainments of maturity, or why the seed
should be so long buried in the earth before we
see its result in a magnificent harvest. In answer




TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.           229
to our first prayers we get the seed, and by " continuing in prayer," which is the chief exercise and
expression of faith, and the spirit of which is kept
up by opposing difficulties, the seed is gradually
developed.
You say you do not want rapture-you want
simply to live consistently. Are you perfectly
sure that the consistency which you seek is not
a meritorious personal distinction, and may you
not be depending upon Grace as merely the lhelp
which is needful to attain it?  Depend upcn it,
these incessant failures arise from erroneous views
about the nature of sanctification-an error, how.
ever, which these failures are absolutely necessary
to correct. Nothing but the very discipline which
you are now enduring can teach you the truth.
A little more patience, dear friend, and all will be
clear. You will relinquish the pursuit of consistency and cleave to Grace, looking no farther. In
proportion as you abide in Grace, you shall be
consistent-and to abide in Grace you must abide
in prayer.
I am becoming indifferent to everything else as a
means of strength, or as a source of happiness, except simple prayer. I once cherished the hope of




230          TRI UMPHS OF GRA CE.
making such attainments as would raise me above
the necessity of always confessing my wants and
begging for help; but I find that constancy in
prayer is the simple and sole condition of spiritual
life.) Many active duties must be performed, but
prayer alone can teach us their nature and teach
us to perform them aright. Christians are much
hindered in growth by mistaking the regular performance of outward duties for inward prayer and
perseverance4by depending on their duties instead
of on the promises.l Direct efforts to stir ourselves
up to spiritual and holy exercises are seldom successful, I should say, when done with a view to
meet the conditions of Divine promises. The
spirit is obtained entirely by prayer in the name of
Christ. He is granted wholly on account of Christ's
oblation and intercession.  Depending on the
righteousness of Christ we cannot fail to receive
the Spirit, and depending on the Spirit we cannot
fail to be led into the path of duty.
Thus do you not see how abiding in Christ is
necessary to our living in the Spirit, and how our
not depending on the Spirit to lead us in the way
of practical duty, involves as much unbelief as our
not depending on the righteousness of Christ to




TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.            231I
secure'our acceptance with God?  It is as much
the characteristic of a believer that he is led by
the Spirit as that he trusts in Christ.
The power of Christians' prayers for each other
has also become to me a matter of most earnest
belief. And, in this connection, may I not request
you to remember me in your prayers as much
as you can. I am constrained, especially in my
calling as a minister of Christ, to undertake duties
for which in myself I am most unequal, and my
conflict, I am well assured, shall have no end in
this life. I am enjoying the strangest mercies, but
these only increase my obligations. Need I describe to you the temptations and difficulties of
the ministry? They may be given in a sentence,an uncompromising adherence to the Word of
God, an incessant conflict with the spirit of man.
Public opinion is the Goliah which defies Israel,
and if we would do anything for Israel's deliverance we must not shrink from this encounter. Our
great danger is, that we shall be led almost unconsciously by public opinion and custom, in place of
the Bible, and this will make us powerless indeed.
(Of all deficiencies of Christians, their praying
so little or so faintly for ministers seems the




232          TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.
strangest. If they had scriptural views of the nature of the work, they would pray for us without
ceasing; and if they would only pray that we
might be filled with such views ourselves, they
would do immense service to the cause of Christ.
If I know myself, the one and only thing I
want is to be stripped, entirely stripped of every
form of pride-to die to myself, to live wholly
upon the truth, faithfulness, and power of God. I
have just one encouragement about myself, that
is, that God knows my weakness, and I know His
power.
VII.
You make rapid progress in evangelical ideas.
I was particularly edified by what you said in your
last letter upon the relations of the soul's exercises to Christ's righteousness, not as a means of
safety, but of holiness. They express' the very
kernel of my present experience. I vwant holiness so much, that I might, perhaps, say I want
nothing else. One additional grain of holiness, or
conformity to God, with a consciousness that God
was pleased with it, would outweigh a universe of
any other kind of good; and how precious is the




TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.            233
truth that Christ is made unto us sanctification
as well as justification. *  *' *  *  I agree
with you entirely in what you say in regard to
many of the books of modern type on the great
subject of sanctification. I feel, as you do, a great
lack, in some of them at least, of scriptural inspiration and confirmation of the views they express. It seems to me, for one thing, that without
allowing much more for man's original natural
similitude to God than they generally allow, no
doctrine of sanctification, however scriptural and
sacred it may appear, can be made distinct in
theory, or efficient in practice.
My own hope, since the first moment of regenerate consciousness, has been founded in God the
Father's love, of which the work of Christ has
been not merely the expression but the justification. I mean the hope of my heart, for I confess
that, for a long time, there was a variance between
my religion and my philosophy. Owing to unfortunate teachings from books, and to other religious
influences, I had received a system not only of
doctrine but of experience, so unlike what I needed
as to be a perfect incubus upon my nature. When
I interpreted the Gospel according to my own in



234          TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.
stinctive sense of what I needed, I was obliged to
believe that God stood to man in a relation of real
Paternity, and that His love, free as the air I
breathed, was the atmosphere in communication
with which my life wholly depended: but, by my
philosophy as then constructed, I had to regard
man as merely one of God's works-a Thing. I
could not understand, consistently with this philosophy, how God's love to man could be a real
love founded on something in human nature which
had an intrinsic value. According to this, I supposed that His love, as applied to the world, was
merely a metaphor —meaning that His action
toward the world, in the gift and sacrifice of Christ
(the end of which was to accomplish some purpose
of His own), was as if He loved it. This mechanical philosophy had so poisoned and stiffened my
faith that it had nearly given up the ghost, and was
almost entirely ineffective upon my moral and
emotional nature. I could not conquer the world
nor the fear of death, nor do anything, indeed, according to my ideal of Christian privilege and character. I suppose that, during all this time, there
was a little fire, which accounts for the "smoking
flax," but my life was felt to be one of miserable




TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.           235
legal bondage. There was no lack of prayer and
conscientious devotion to duty, with occasional
flashes of hope that a.better state was coming;
yet the more I labored the more sensible I became
of my bondage to sin, self, and the world, and, of
course, the more unrelenting became the tyranny
of the Law. And there I remained for a long
time, like Samson in the Philistines' mill, though
engaged in a never-ceasing struggle for freedom.
Even when my acquaintance with the Gospel,
interpreted as my own necessities would sometimes
force me to interpret it, would occasionally let me
out of prison for a brief time, it was rather as a reprieved criminal, subject to be remanded again by
my short-comings, and very certain to be so remanded; for how to avoid these short-comings
and their direful retribution, I knew  not.  I
had continual desire and continual disappointment.
But after a long and. dreary period there- began
to be, through various influences, a change produced in my philosophy, and thus a preparation
for the recovery of my faith on rational grounds.
I began now, from my intellect, to regard the soul
not simply as made of God, but as born of Him —




236          TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.
not simply as the work of His hands, but as the
offspring of His bosom-as something, therefore,
which He could not but love, both for its intrinsic
excellence and for His personal relation to it,
which was as real as the parent to the child. I
conceived now that God's love to man was one of
which all earthly relationships were faint but
genuine reflections. Thus I was brought back to
a belief which, in the first instance, had been
forced upon me by my desperate necessities, acted
upon by the simple testimony of God to my heart
in the Gospel revelation. Henceforth I had not a
doubt that God loved sinful man, just as a father
loves his prodigal son; that to reveal His love to
him was the great object of the mission of Christ,
and that faith in this love was the sole thing
which made the Gospel the power of God unto
salvation, from its first dawn in the trembling conscience, through all degrees of Christian experience, to its consummation in death and glory.
How He who is so pure that the heavens are unclean in His sight could thus love sinful humanity,
I know not, but both the fact and the method of
it were settled in the infinite Sacrifice, that vicarious Sacrifice which is everything in Christianity,




TRI UMPHS OF GRA CE.         237
as sin is everything in humanity-its whole actual
condition.
Protecting myself from the Divine holiness by
the blood of the Lamb, I had no difficulty in acting
on the general principle: " God so loved the world,
that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him might not perish, but have
everlasting life." I saw that whoever accepted
Jesus Christ as the true manifestation of God, was,
in Him, forever shielded from every principle but
that of unobstructed love.
The sun had now risen, the shadows had begun
to disperse. The love of God, long the object of
my soul's faith, had become also the cardinal
hinge of my philosophy. In various and subtle
ways these new views gave a new spring to my
spiritual powers. There was a meaning to my
desires for holiness, and a life to my prayers for it
which were quite new and glorious. I felt that I
had nothing to do forjustification, and for purification, but to be forever receiving Christ's love
and salvation, and that coming to Christ is the
effect of the Father's drawing. I saw God, in
Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, and a
vital faith -in this truth secured the thing I had




238          TRI UMPHS OF GRA CE.
always been seeking for-deliverance from bondage, legal and worldly.
Since that time, for long, long years, the trials
of life, to which there is no cessation, have been
sustained by a succession of most living experiences and manifestations of God's goodness by
revelations of God's love in Christ, coming almost
as often as I have felt any occasion for themalways when trial has been unusual-until at
length the promise is almost literally fulfilled,
"Your peace shall be like a river." Any doubts
which I may have about my state are so transient
and superficial as to be scarcely worth considering. And the same thing may be said about
worldly trials, whether of success or disappointment. Death is no longer an object of dread, and,
as to the final judgment, my princziples will not
allow any concern about that; for the basis of all
my enjoyment and hopes is the assurance that I
can never come into condemnation.
And yet this long seeking of deliverance in a
legal way was of use to me. Its effect was to
produce a thorough consciousness of corruption,
and thus to make me understand practically the
full significance of God's love, especially as ex



TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.           239
pressed through justification by Grace, through
faith alone. My relaxed hold of this doctrine was
the real cause of my troubles. I supposed, and
had no doubt, from the earliest bad symptoms,
that all my difficulties arose from the want of
sanctification; and hence how to attain it was the
only question which seemed to have any significance. I naturally wanted freedom from bondage,
and, therefore, I wanted sanctification, supposing
always that to be its essential condition or cause,
whereas it really is its effect. An eternal obstacle
prevented the attainment of freedom or holiness
on that principle, for it was only a refined method
of seeking justification by Law. Our union to
God, the soul of which is desire to serve Him,
must be the fruit of that life which comes only
from our belief in the unchanging favor of God to
us, for Christ's sake. Then sanctification follows
of course-a principle of love which makes you
work for God just as heartily (but without the
least care) as you once labored for yourself.
How happy I am in the certainty, my dear
brother, that for you, as well as for myself, everything in God's dealings with us will but swell the
manifestation of His love in the end. *  *  *




240         TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.
I should be ashamed to have written so much
about myself if I had not been writing as
brother to brother-as friend to friend; and if
I did not hope that what I have said might tend
to strengthen you. My prayer when I first knew
you was, "0 that I might not die until I have
been enabled to show him the way to the heart
of God! "
VIII.
MY special reason for sending you Olshausen
at this time is the strong impression I have that
the most important thing in order to your peace
and progress is, that the power of religious emotion
which in you is very strong, and yet not too strong,
should be balanced by a corresponding depth of
religious knowledge. The whole Christian world,
I believe, are united in pronouncing Olshausen's
as one of the best, if not the very best, commentary on the New Testament, as a whole, which we
have.
Let me say, however, that I have no faith in
your getting any good from him except by making him a long study. It will greatly tax your
attention for a while, and may even perplex you;




TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.           24 I
but after you have read and pondered a great deal,
you will find yourself beginning to get a profounder insight into the New Testament, and into
spiritual mysteries, than you ever had before. It
was by reading Olshausen on the Romans, that I
first came to a clear, perfect, loving faith in the
atonement, in which I have been growing ever since.
With wonder and joy, my dear brother, have I
been reading the book you sent to me, Faber's
" Creator and Creature." Did ever a book more
completely fulfill the promise of its title, " The
Wonders of Divine Love?"  Some other books
have given us these wonders in rills and streamlets; here is an attempt, and as successful as
words can make it, to describe the Ocean. And
yet the book has raised a conflict in my mind
between commendation and criticism-commendation of the artist and criticism of the theologian.
Fascinated by the beauty and fervor of the artist,
and finding also so much that was divinely true,
as'well as humanly beautiful, in his production, I
deliberately determined, in my first reading, to
repress the spirit of theological criticism —to believe it true while I was reading it, and if there
was a mistake to correct it afterwards.
II




242           TRIUMP1~S OF GRACE.
I must say, looking at Faber's system in the
light of a cooler judgment, it seems to me that its
power lies in its being a system of Christian
casuistry in which the heart must be the chief
dictator. In other words, as a system of theology
in which the understanding must be chief dictator, Faber's philosophy is a failure. As a view
of the Divine relations to the universe, and as a
solution of cosmical problems, it cannot be accepted.
Edwards, on " God's Chief End in Creation,"
bears the same relation to Faber's " Creator and
Creature," that Newton's " Principia," the design
of which was to demonstrate the principles or laws
of the natural universe, does to some eloquent
modern exposition of their uses. Amazingly interesting and beautiful, and helpful to the needs
of my heart, as Faber's application of the doctrine
of God's love is, I must say, I greatly feel the need
also of the other element which Edwards' treatise
furnishes. The difference is, that the one absolutely satisfies the understanding of the truth of a
principle which had already possessed the heart —
the other only intensifies the emotions which grow
out of faith in the principle.




TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.           243
Neither am- I sure whether Faber's views of the
Divine goodness can be entirely harmonized with
our necessary conceptions of the Divine holiness.
The ruling impression made upon my mind by
reading the book was, that in God's relations, to
man, we are to conceive of holiness as subordinate
to goodness; and yet I may be wrong in my impressions and judgment of its principles and assertions.
In the treatment of perfectly holy beings, Divine
love cannot be overstrained,-holiness and love,
even love to individuals, are convertible terms.
But in the education of such a being as man, even
regenerate man, though the expression of Divine
goodness cannot be too large, provided it be proportionate to the expression of holiness, the want
of the due representation of the latter detracts
just so much from the power of the other. The
general objection that I have to Faber's view (as I
understand it) of God's relation to man, is not by
any means that it makes God's love to man too
generous, which is impossible-but that he does
this in such a way that there is danger it will tend
to diminish my respect for the Creator-or, which
is the same thing, my estimate of the nature and




244-         TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.
desert of sin, and consequently of the grace, the
real grace, which appears in the Atonement.
Take, for example, the brilliant idea with which
the book opens, which so fascinated you, as by its
plausibility and ingenuity it did me; the idea that
love to the futtre man was the ruling motive of the
eternal counsels,-sin itself, with the atonement
made for it, being but parts of a plan, the sole object of which was to give that love an extraordinary field for development. I must say that
while such an idea fills me at first with rapture
unspeakable, considered as an illustration of the
power of Divine benignity and condescension, I
find in a little while that it has dimmed the luster
of the Divine holiness. I have lost a portion of
my respect for God, through the conception which
at first seemed omnipotent in securing my love to
Him. Grateful as such a view is to my natural
fe'elings, I cannot bring it into any harmony with
my reason, and it does a still worse violence to my
spiritual affections.
Above all other things I want a God whom I
can honor-honor for His greatness, for His purity,
for His immutability, for the qualities, in a word,
which command His own self-resjpect. If, in addi.




TRI UMPA S OF GRA CE.         245
tion to these, I find that He is capable also of the
tenderest affection for such a creature as I am,
then indeed my bliss is complete. But to have
Him make me, or the like of me, the end of creation, I cannot believe it, and if I could, it would
not give me the highest joy of which I am consciously capable. But beside the irrationality of
such a theory, its inhaxmoniousness with our deepest spiritual intuitions, there is an invincible difficulty in reconciling it at all with the history of the
race.
But I can go no farther-though I want very
much to show you how such a man could fall into
such a theory. It belongs to the genius of the
Roman Catholic Church, the whole aim of which
is not to present the truth as it is objectively,
but to devise every manner of subjective exhibition by which it can win human nature to its embrace. It was just this which gave rise to the
reaction of Protestantism, which is an endeavor
to bring these thousand Roman Catholic inventions to the simple standard of reason and the
Scriptures, in doing which we have undoubtedly
gone too far the other way, —in our zeal to preserve the rational and Divine element, taking too




246         TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.
little pains to associate with it the emotional and
human.
How wonderfully beautiful were the two poetical gems of Faber you so kindly transcribed for me
— the very richest of the kind I ever read, and altogether unique. Have you ever known a richer
nature than that man's?  I have also read his
" Spiritual Conferences," ahd his " Growth in Holiness," which, notwithstanding serious defects in
the latter, have increased my admiration for the
variety of his gifts. Half of his power lies in his
wonderful talent for expression, though the other
half, arising from the purity and fervor of his
thoughts, would distinguish him sufficiently.
I am going on famously with my studies, and in
perfect health, but with such a sense of sin, not
my own merely, but the sin and corruption of humanity, as would make life a terrible burden but
for the constantly developing revelation of God's
character and purposes. "Art Thou not from
everlasting, 0 Lord my God,-we shall not die."




TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.           247
IX.
WHILE nothing would give me such pleasure as
to- spend the whole day in narrating the progress
of the "Holy War" in the hidden man of the
heart, I must send you a dispatch in a few sentences, like Lord Raglan's from the field of conflict,I wish I could say like Napoleon's in one respect,
-or like Com. Perry's, " We have seen the enemy
and they are ours! " To see the enemy, by the
way, is the hardest part of it. What hours I have
spent turning my spiritual telescope in all directions, to get a just idea of his strength and his
movement. As to God's love to vie, dear friend,
your solicitude that I should be duly impressed
with it may be dismissed. That is the one thing
that is clear. It is a fire within me which I trust
no waters can ever drown. More than this, I see
the end. It cannot fail. I am not fighting uncertainly; and yet, with every advantage, it is a most
protracted business. " Ye have need of patience."
The theory, or "plan of the war," is perfectly
plain. The great point is to get the will perfectly
free-detached from every terrene sticking-place,
so that it will answer to the slightest motion of the




248          TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.
Divine Spirit, and then, as the Divine Spirit vitalizes it, to press onward and still onward, watching
always against the new and increasingly subtle
manceuvres of the enemy, until he is worn out, and
the communion of our spirit with the Divine becomes perfectly simple. How nearly I shall reach
this point while in the enemy's country, God only
knows; but my course is plain. Christ has made
me free if I will but use my freedom.
" Man," says Vinet, "in respect of good or of
God, is a living channel, personal and free. God
is the Fountain which flows through the channel."
"All strength in religion, all efficiency," says Manning, " is but the effect of the inexhaustible fullness
of the Spirit flowing through a will holy and free,
and filling the whole spirit and soul of man." To
reach this freedom, then, by faith and self-mortification, the result of faith, is all our work. The
enemy is strongly intrenched, and makes havoc
sometimes by his sorties, but.we are no longer the
besieged, but the besiegers. Our lines are narrowing every day, and, more than that, our Prince is
on the way. He will not tarry-the first glimpse
of Him will make our enemy an easy prey-then
we shall be free indeed and free forever.




TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.          249
You kindly ask God that the residue of my
years may be years of peace. " The peace of God
which keepeth the heart and the mind;" freedom
from an evil conscience-that indeed is indispensable; the want of that, in constancy and patience, was my misery for years. I trust, indeed,
that I shall never know that misery again. But
no other peace do I desire but that which is
gained by a conquest which I am sure cannot be
fully gained while in this tabernacle. The one
earthly attainment which I do want, is such
power over myself as shall make me entirely free
to labor directly and intensely for others; not pub,
licly or by preaching merely, or at all even, if I
can do as much by prayer or private. methods.
You tell me you cannot balance your account
with me in correspondence. I feel the reverse to
be the truth. Every letter which I have ever received from you has given me a heavenward impulse; and if they had contained nothing but the
assurance of your concern and prayer for my spiritual welfare, giving me an example of a man who
can pray so earnestly for another, to say nothing
of that other being myself, I should feel them to
be among my richest treasures.  "'*  *  *  *
11'




250          TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.
I have labored too much in my life to cultivate
certain subjective frames-which at best are but a
sieve that lets out the living water as fast as it
flows in, or a stream which in a little while dries
up. But -I do feel at last, that the only way of
living is to keep close to the Fountain; to trust
God's words, whatever may be your frames,- --— His
love to you, not yours to Him. He will do everything for you; not the very thing you ask, perhaps, in all cases, though sometimes even that;
and if not that, something far better.
I could tell you some strange things which have
happened to me of late, showing how low He will
descend to meet a real exigency of one of his weakest ones. How visible His Providence sometimes
is! If we would only trust Him fully, our whole
life would be a record of strength ordained out of
weakness.
Dear friend, I know your heart-you want above
all things that Christ should be glorified in you.
But trial develops a thousand other wants which
stand in the way of the realization of the great
one; these will become less and less. It takes
time to get them out of the way. Your mind is
now on the right track, most certainly. What you




TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.          25 I
want, is not the knowledge of redemption, but a
personal union with the Redeemer; not a seeking
to comprehend, but to be apprehended by Him.
*  * *  * *  My work, suspended for some
time, is renewed with the ardor of high expectation. I have moments of such assurance-days
and weeks I should rather say-after a conflict
with some great doubt or sin, when it seems to
me if it were God's will I could not but be most
sweetly resigned to death. No words can express
my conviction of the emptiness of earthly joys,
even of the dearest of them, in comparison with
growth in holiness, or that moral state in which
Divine enjoyment is the rule, and not the exception. That explains my willingness to die. What
is it to die, but to be entirely holy and perfectly
blest?
Dear brother, how my heart throbs for you.
May God give you a hundred-fold more (and I
know He will) than you can ask or think. If I
can feel such a longing for your spiritual emancipation, what must Christ feel? My own feelings
furnish the best comment on his words, " Neither
shall any pluck them out of my hands." This is
our security.




252          TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.
X.
NOTHING but the hope of more time (always a
bad calculation) has moved me to postpone my
answer to your letter. You wish me to give you
some of my ideas as to the nature of prayer; and
it is a subject upon which I have been thinking
with much more than usual interest of late.
Have you ever thought much on the relations
of prayer to the unregenerate? In one sense the
Lord is, indeed, the Saviour of all men. He is
their natural Preserver. As such, He is good to
all, and His tender mercies are over all His works.
Whether we are His people or not, and whether
we pray to Him or not, He forgiveth all our iniquities-that is, He suspends His judgments; He
healeth all our diseases; He crowneth our lives
with loving-kindness and tender mercies. But it
is common for people to look upon these blessings
as the fruit of their prayers, and to regard them as
proofs of a special interest in the favor of Goda most ungenerous sentiment in its bearings upon
the character of the Deity, and most destructive
in its final action upon the interests of those who
indulge'it.
9*




TRIUMPIHS OF GRA CE.         253
It is natural for men in any distress, whether of'
body or soul, to cry to their Maker-a circumstance which, in a vast majority of cases, merely
proves the intensity of their distress-not a prayerful mind. And the fact that they commonly
find relief, whether of conscience or body, instead
of being a proof that God has been moved by
their prayers, is just a proof, on the other hand,
that God is good even to the prayerless. God relieves them, not on account of their prayers, but
for the purpose of leading them to prayer; not
because they are penitent, but to lead them to repentence; not because they are His people, but
that they may be induced to give up their sins
and to become His people.
But the prayers of the regenerate go up froin
the depths of spiritual tribulation. The decisive
question is, Do we continue to pray, like the poor
publican-have we not exalted ourselves, or been
exalted, by the perversion of Divine favors, to an
esteem of ourselves somewhat greater than we
felt when we first beat upon our breasts, and cried
for mercy? Do we still continue that cry, amidst
all our temptations to pride, selfish ease, ungodliness, unrighteousness?




2_;4          TRIUiMPHS OF GRA CE.
"Say what is prayer, where it is prayer indeed?
The mighty utterance of a mighty need.
That man is praying, who doth press with might,
Out of his darkness into Heaven's own light."
Prayer is the cry of the people of God-a cry
which is wrung from  them  by their grievances.
This idea is brought out largely by the Apostle in
the eighth of Romans, where, after describing the
travail of the whole creation by reason of sin, he
adds; "'And not only they, but ourselves also,
which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we
ourselves groan within ourselves," etc. The " poor
widow," also (Luke xviii., 2-4), represents God's
people individually and in the aggregate; the
necessities of the regenerate-" Avenge me of my
adversary;" the perplexities of the regenerate" He would hot for a while; " the ground of their
confidence for deliverance at last-" Shall not God
avenge His own elect, who cry day and night unto
Him? "
According to the Scriptures, according to all
experience, prayer, reduced to its essence, is simply this-the groaning of a soul in bondage, its
breathing and panting after spiritual liberty. This
only is prayer; and the people who thus pray are
God's elect, and He will speedily avenge them.




TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.         2  5
Though, like little children, they only feel their
grievances, without being able to tell what they
are, that is the very thing-" They know not what
to ask for as they ought." Therefore, God has
but little regard to their words. It is their groans
that He listens to-the pantings and breathings
of His spirit within them for things which cannot
be uttered, which cannot be asked for-only in
general. They want liberty-liberty from sin,
from the devil and his temptations, enlargement
in the enjoyment and service of God; but how:they shall attain this, or what it depends on, that
is beyond their understanding. The system of relations by which they are surrounded is a mixed
system, composed both of good and evil, but they
cannot make the discrimination. Therefore their
appeal is to God-they cry to Him day and night.
Borne down by a growing accumulation of evils,
they sink and sink till they fall back at last upon
the Everlasting Arm-that Arm which from the
first was laid underneath them, but now they feel
it, and, therefore, more and more earnestly they
supplicate its direct interposition. They no longer
depend upon themselves at all. They rest upon
the Rock of Ages. God knows everything; God




2 5 6        TRITUAfPHS OF GRA CE.
can do everything, God is love; He is their light,
He also will become their salvation.
But you will ask, what is the place of faith in
prayer, and what the ground of it, of which I have
as yet said little. Our Saviour does not say of the
publican, that he dared not so much as lift his eyes
to Heaven, though that is a common interpolation
— as though it were essential to humble prayer
that the soul should not expect, or at least should
be very doubtful of obtaining the blessing which it
asks for. Is not this the idea which many associate
with the prayer of the publican? and nothing
shows in a stronger light how little the subject of
prayer, and especially of humble prayer, is understood.
If there is any one principle which is peculiarly
scriptural, it certainly is this-that in making our
requests known unto God, there is just as much
humble prayer as there is of real confidence.
"Spiritual agony in prayer," is a phrase that may
be much misunderstood and perverted. Some receive from it only the idea of a person laboring
under a deep conviction of one's ruin, connected
with a vehement desire for deliverance, and a determined resolution to obtain it, and it certainly




TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.           257
does convey this idea; but if that were all, the
agony, however great, would be very useless-indeed, it is the very evil from which we have everything to fear. The sinking fears, and the flickering hopes are the evils with which we have to
contend, and there is but one principle upon which
we can do it-that which lays hold upon the blessing, and makes it ours.,,This is faith, "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen." This is the principle especially which
agonizes or wrestles-.not in the way of vehement
cryings, nor in the way of long confessions, necessarily, but - in the way of importunately watching
for, and faithfully expecting, the hand of the Most
High. "My soul," says the Psalmist "waiteth for
the Lord, more than they that watch for the morning." This is the principle which will lead the
soul simply to wrestle, and neither sleep nor move
till the day dawn, and the Day Star arise. This is
faith. Towards our actual redemption we do absolutely nothing-no more than a man does toward making the sun shine.  Will we wait till it
coICes? That is the agony.
Our whole danger arises from two kinds of temptation. On the one hand, the invincibleness of




258         TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.
our sins fills us with despair. Our strength has
often been tried by them before, and though there
has been no lack of prayer, resolution, or any of
the common means, yet how often have our enemies overcome us. Should we listen then, only to
the dictates of experience, we might decide at once
that our case was hopeless without a struggle.
That is our first temptation.
But it may work the other way; that is, instead
of concluding from our past reverses that we had
better do nothing, but yield at once, we conclude
on the other hand that we will now do more than
we ever did before; we will now make our final
and decisive effort. As we are thus disentangled
from one temptation, we are immediately liable to
another-that of moving in our own strength at
the first beck of hope, upon the first appearance
of light, whether it be the light of a meteor which
shoots athwart the gloom, or of the Sun of Righteousness, with healing in his beams.
These are the dangers, from which we can only
be delivered by the prayer of faith. What is the
ground of this faith?  It is the Gospel. "With
the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption." What is mercy? favor to the




TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.          259
unworthy-that is to me. What is redemption?
deliverance for the captive, that is for me; and
this is " with the Lord," who knows how to apply
it, and when to apply it, infinitely better than any
creature can prescribe. This is the ground of our
confidence-that there is salvation in the Lord,
and just such a salvation as we need-pardon for
the guilty, redemption for the-enslaved, purchased
for us by the precious blood of the Redeemer,
through whose merits we may " come boldly unto
the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy,
and grace to he.lp in time of need."
This is the ground upon which we wrestle-with
unbelief, on the one hand, which tells us that our
hope shall never be realized, and with pride on the
other, which tells us it is already fulfilled. " Blessed are those servants whom their Lord, when He
cometh, shall find watching. I tell you He will
gird Himself and serve them."  The principal
source of our difficulties in prayer is the subtlety
of Satan, the end of all his devices being to make
us distrust God. Though prayer is the vital necessity of the Christian, there is, in almost all cases,
something in the aspects of Providence, inward or
outward, or both (in the condition of the atmos



260         TR TUMPHS OF GRA CE.
phere), which makes prayer (breathing) without intermission a great trial. The tendency is to faint.
This is the condition, more or less, of all prayer in
the present life. While our necessities compel us
to pray, other conditions present a constant temptation to discouragement.
Now my true yoke-fellow, my brother beloved,
I want to encourage you. You know what a
" poor widow " I have been. I never really thought
the Judge unjust, but little did I suppose He would
become amy avenger. I feel it now in the lowest
depths of my nature-not for my crying, but for
the crying of my Head, my Saviour, with whom I
am one. Only in so far as we have an identity of
interest with Him, or in so far as the language of
our deepest heart is, " Thy will, not mine, be done,"
can we offer believing prayer.
This a long letter, and yet there are other
aspects of this subject-its relations especially to
our temporal wants, to our prayers for others, etc.,which I would like to consider. But the principle
is the same-it must be believing prayer in all
cases. This is the key which opens Heaven. May
God teach us how to turn it.




TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.           26 
XI.
MY letters have happened to come to you very
much in a cluster. I trust it may be a cluster from
the brook Eshicol (see Numbers xiii. 23), designed
to help your unbelief as well as to strengthen the
Joshua who, by God's command, is leading you
into the Land of Promise.
I want to cheer you by telling you that the Lord
is with me as almost never before since the beginning of my war against " the darkness of this
world;" and how much of my comfort arises from
knowing tha.t I can conquer for others as well as
for myself. I have long enjoyed all that kind of
inward peace which the testimonies in the Scriptures respecting God's forgiving mercy and the efficacy of Christ's atoning death, are adapted to give
the agitated conscience, and for years I have been
accustomed to rest all my hopes upon them-a
hope which has prompted me to a life of prayer,
and to a sincere and cordial endeavor for the most
inward conformity to the Divine will. As far as I
know myself, my trust in and attachment to the
doctrines of Grace have arisen quite as much from
their tendency to purify as to pacify. But I have




262         TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.
wanted more than this; and God has been pleased
most graciously to grant it in a view of Himself,
which I have had for a short time past, which has
been entirely irrespective of any assumed personal
relations to Him. There have been moments in
which I have had a sense of the glory of God, not,
as some have said, as much as I could bear in the
body, but rather the lowest degree, probably, in
which such a bliss is ever imparted-enough, however, to give me a very clear idea of the nature of
Heaven, or of the manner in which, immediately
after death, the soul is perfected. In these moments self-regard, which in its supremacy I am sure
is the whole sin of my nature, is a feeling of which
I have been scarcely conscious. I want no other
Heaven than that which the continuance of such a
sense of the Divine glory would give me; though I
cannot doubt that, in order to our complete felicity,
other elements will be added to this, such as communion with holy beings, and especially as I now
strongly believe, with those whom we have loved
on earth.
That is, indeed, a wonderful joy which springs
from a sense of God's personal love to us,-to declare which to us, and reveal it in us, Christ tells




TRI UMPHS OF GRACE.           263
us in the last verse of His Intercessory prayer,
was the end of all His work here upon earth.
" That the love wherewith Thou hast loved me "
(think of that-the very love with which He loved
Christ) "may be in them, and I in them," the
last clause being explanatory of the other; for it
is just in so far as Christ dwells in our hearts by
faith, that we are " rooted and grounded " in the
assurance of God's love to us, and able to comprehend its fullness. (See Ephesians iii., I4-20.)
But we must not suppose that the joy here
promised arises only from knowing that God loves
us in particular. That would be but a poor conception of the " riches of God's inheritance in the
saints "-a rich joy indeed considered as an equivalent for our sufferings, but 0, how mean when
measured by the soul's capacity, and how much
more so when considered as the measure of Christ's
reward —the reward of His sufferings.  We are
capable of an infinitely higher joy than that which
springs from a sense of personal safety or personal
distinction. Was that, do you think, Christ's joy,
of which we are told that we shall be partakers, His
own personal glory, simply? The manifestation
of the Father's glory, the glory of God, that was




264          TRIUMIPHS OF GRA CE.
the end of Christ's sufferings, and the "joy that.
was set before Him," which enabled Him  to endure them.  And so the vision of God's glory,
which, in its bearings on our own destiny, and
that of our race, is nothing else but the vision of
His love-that is what the soul is made for-that
is the measure of its capacity; and as this is revealed to us which it can only be by being revealed in us, it becomes a source of joy unmeasurable.
As light alone is the source of all sentient enjoyment, as without it-all the other adaptations of
nature so infinite and varied for the happiness of
sentient beings would but intensify their misery,
making their capacity for happiness but a capacity
for pain, so "the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ," revealed
partially here and perfectly hereafter, is the fountain of spiritual and eternal joy. This is the joy
which Christ has promised us; the joy of -knowing
that God is love., the joy of drinking forever from
the living and exhaustless fountain of God's eternal perfection-from the "rivers of His pleasure."
But this glory to be a source of living joy must
be revealed in us, —see Romans viii. I 8,-and in our




TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE,             265
present state this can only be done through suffering. Our first joy arises from a sense of God's
kindness to us personally-in forgiving our iniquities, and healing our diseases, in hearing our
prayers, scattering our darkness, and strengthening us in the hour of our need; and pretty much
all of our joy in this world has this particular
character. In order to raise us, God first condescends to us, to our lowest conditions.  When
" the days of our mourning shall be ended," God
will be "our everlasting light," a light never intermitted. Here, beside being so limited in measure,
it is also ever alternating with darkness. Joy
grows out of sorrow.  Only through personal
suffering from a sense of sin, and personal deliverance, the result of strong crying and tears, is
this glory revealed in us, and then but partially
though sufficiently for our progress. The promise
of Christ is not that we shall never have sorrow,
or that a time will come to us in this life when
we shall not have it any more; for the present is
intended to be a state of temptation, and, therefore of affliction; but that our sorrow shall be\
ever turning into joy, until at last it shall be swallowed up in joy eternal and unchanging.
I2




266          TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.
Hold fast, then, my dear fellow-soldier of Christ,
that liberty from legal bondage with which He
has made you free. On your success in grasping
and maintaining this principle of freedom, or confidence in the word and work of Christ alone, depends the brightness of your future. All your
failures will arise from faltering here. Get round
this one point, and keep getting round it, for this
will still be the main labor, and all your way
(though you see it not to be so, but think it otherwise, perhaps,) will be a march to glory.
In a little while, a very little while (I1 see it as
distinctly as if it were right before me), you will
feel an angel touching you. " 0, child, greatly
beloved," will be his language, "you have won
the crown! " A vision of the glory to. be revealed
will put to rout your temptations. Of the power
of these temptations I am well aware; and if I am
so, and think of you constantly with such a power
of sympathy, how much more the Captain of
your salvation-He who was made perfect through
suffering, that is, perfect as a Leader. Think you
that He will always leave you in your present
perils? No; the world is not going to conquer
you. Your prayer was heard from the beginning.




TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.          267
Pray on; pray ever. The crown of purity above,
and the assurance of it here-a token of the love
of Jesus, in comparison with which what.is everything but ashes,- will soon be yours.
Of one thing be ever assured; that while he has
breath to pray, even while the lamp is flickering
in its socket, and in worlds beyond, if that be
possible, your cause shall be the cause of your
friend.
XII.
I HAVE been looking lately into several books
of the day which record the experience of a great
and happy change which occurs often to those
who have long been Christians-sometimes called
Sanctification, or Perfection, or the Higher Life,
or Assurance, or Second Conversion. I find,a
great difference in these books, some of them
being worth little or nothing, and none of them
proving (and very few of them attempting or
claiming to prove) the doctrine of entire perfection in this life. Some of them are most delightful, and I feel that whoever would criticise them
should read them many times upon his knees.




268          TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.
Where there is a fabric of precious truth, based it
may be, in part at least, on a foundation of errors,
to decompose such a structure so as clearly to distinguish the human from the Divine-the precious
and the enduring from the perishable-is a work
of no ordinary responsibility. One hardly dares
to allow a critical spirit even ordinary sway, lest
the heart may suffer by the loss of some portion
of what is valuable.
Yet I think we ought to be on our guard against
being unduly influenced by those books, where
the writers in laying out all their power in explaining the immediate and secondary agencies upon
which the spiritual life depends-the agencies of
the human will-unintentionally, to be sure, but
often too effectually impair the symmetry of the
gret scheme of Grace. I have often felt in reading these books how desirable it was to connect
more closely with such views of creature agency,
and the necessity of holiness, the doctrines of
total natural depravity, of regeneration wholly by
the Spirit (not by truth, but by power), and of
justification, entire and unchangeable, by faith in
its simplest form.
My own spiritual necessities demand on the one




TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.            269
hand holiness, as I want life; and on the other
hand I feel an equal necessity for the Pauline
principles respecting sin, justification, and redemption-purchased redemption.  It seems to
me that many, if not most, of the errors in the
views of some of the modern writers upon this
great subject of sanctification arise from an attempt to graft the peculiar truths of Revelation
on certain principles of natural reason-to bridge
the gulf which separates nature from Grace.
They virtually substitute a personal for an imputed righteousness as the basis of our communion with God.  Their views of Christian
character, or what it should be, are excellent; but
when they speak of this as a perfect state, or make
it a ground of acceptance with God, they virtually
overthrow the Gospel. They exhibit truly and
beautifully the nature of holiness-the feelings of
the  regenerate soul towards God-what faith
is, of its basis in our nature, and of its relations to
all the other acts and duties of the Christian
life; but they often fail sadly in describing the
way of life-the way in which we become
children of God-the way in which faith is produced.




270          TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.
In my earnest desire to absorb all that is good
from such books, I have frequently wondered why
it was that while my spiritual pulsations were
much accelerated, there seemed to be little gain of
real nourishment for the soul; or what the influence was which could so powerfully affect the
branches of my spiritual being, beautifying and
even quickening them for a while, while it did
nothing to invigorate, but to speak plainly, rather
tended to weaken the root.
I think it must be that the celebrated William
Law belonged to this class of authors, of whom
Mr. Wesley attests, that while his writings greatly
excited him to vigilance and effort, they at the
same time prevented him from duly appreciating
the most cardinal and life-giving truth of the
Gospel.
To those who are immovably settled in the
fundamental position of justification by righteousness imputed, and are at the same time earnestly
pursuing the righteousness inherent, no harm may
come; but upon many of the weak and unstable
there is danger that the general effect of such
works will be to depreciate still farther in their
estimation the grand doctrine of the Gospel,




TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.             27 
and lead them to substitute a subtle species
of self-righteousness for the " Righteousness of
God."
I find that the moment I lose sight of the
distinction between the general principles of my
faith, in which'I have once been settled, and the
particular improvements which come by experience
and reflection, attaching to the latter the same
importance which I give to the former, I am in
danger of studying only the barrenness of my soul.
Indeed, I am entirely opposed to all theories of
sanctification which tempt us to rest 6ur confidence in subjective changes. Aside from their
being so unscriptural, they lead us to make some
emotional experience our goal, a sure way generally
of missing it, or if successful, of beinrg misled by it
afterwards.
I need not tell you that I object also to all
theories of instantaneous sanctification as being
not only unscriptural, but contrary to the deep
and almost universal experience of the Christian
life. I should not dispute the attainableness of
entire sanctification in this life, in the sense of its
being merely a higher degree of the spirit into
which every child of God is born, and which is




272          TRI UMPHS OF GRA CE.
just as entire, in the proper or strict sense of the
word, in the babe as in the man.
My heart certainly inclines me strongly to the
belief of a state attainable in this life as different
from the one commonly rested in as it is from
absolute perfection. I believe that there is such
a thing as perfect peace, and as abiding as it is
perfect. " The God of all grace, who hath called
you to His eternal glory by Jesus Christ, after
that ye have suffered for a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you."  What does
that mean? Our sufferings arise from the power
of our earthly affections which are not in harmony
with God's law. These separate us from God,
obstruct our progress in the spiritual life, and
cause darkness, perplexity, and mourning. They
specially hinder our faith. The promise is, that
after we have suffered from these causes for
a while, long enough to give us an humbling acquaintance with ourselves, and to make us duly
appreciate the grace of God, He will by His Spirit
abate their force. He will so break their power
that they shall no more interrupt our peace and
our communion with Him  as they once did. As
for a little while (comparatively) the strength of




TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.            273
sin, or at least our difficulties with it, seemed
rather to increase, so after a while grace shall
increase, sin shall die sensibly from day to day,
and the hope of deliverance shall be so strong,
faith shall be so energetic, as gradually to raise us
above our temptations.
The truth is, there are two kinds of perfectionists-those who really want hoinzess, and those
who only want rest. The latter, tired of incessant
conflict, get rest from it by assuming that the law
does not require quite as much as they had been
taught to believe, and that perfection consists in
doing the' best they can. The other class, not so
much tired of conflict as sick of sin, without
changing their theoretic views, only make a more
thorough application of them to their own individual conditions.  They spare not the right
hand, nor the right eye. They are determined to
enter into Life. Allured by the wonderful love
of God in justifying them freely —in absolving
them  from  all. condemnation, though  at the
expense of a Saviour's blood, ashamed of receiving so much and returning so little, inflamed with
hatred to sin not so much on account of the pain
which it gives to themselves (viewed in a selfish
I 2* 




274         STRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.
way), as on account of the dishonor which it does
to God and their Saviour, they are thus prepared
to see far more in the promises of freedom than
they ever cared to see before-in short, the love
of sin having received a mortal blow from what is
called a sight of the Cross, or, expressed more
practically, from a thorough conviction of the
design of Christ's death, they are determined that
sin shall not live in them. This leads them to
discover its existence in secret, subtle, but most
powerful forms, which perhaps they had never
suspected, to which at any rate they had been so
vitally attached, that to part with them was like
parting with life. Upon the surrender of these,
they find the sanctifying process becomes a matter
of such sensible consciousness, that if the intellect
is not as clear and discriminating as the heart is
warm, they will be likely to consider it their first
experience of holiness; or, if they are very uninformed by previous reflection in the system of the
Bible-if all their knowledge of it has been by
tradition in their first attempts at theorizing for
themselves, they may adopt for a little while the
fancy of perfection, from which, however, their
experience will soon dislodge them.




TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.           275
Of all delicate and difficult things, the most
difficult is to describe to another in such a manner
that he will be really helped by it, the process of
dying to self and the law through faith in Christ.
Of one thing I am sure; I find that just in so far
as I yield to the Gospel persuasion, in spite of
every inward suggestion to the contrary, that on
God's part all is love, free and unconditional, my
selfish bonds are broken, my response to that love
becomes more distinct and certain, and whatever
there is of self-life remaining (and who can describe its tenacity), whatever of undue worldly
affection, or of duty withheld, my jealousy, like
a powerful flame, searches it out and consumes it.
I have learned at length that seeking to know how
far purity may be attained, is the same as asking
to what extent may we get rid of self-righteousness-for the two are exactly parallel. The more
we get rid of self-dependence, and really depend
upon Christ, the more purity shall we attain.
When the idol of self-righteousness has been utterly demolished, when we have nothing left in
ourselves to live upon, and live wholly upon the
grace of God in Christ, we then shall have real
purity of heart-so perfectly adapted is the Gos



276         TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.
pel method (which in theory seems to befriend
sin), when thoroughly applied, to utterly exterminate it.
For myself, I am entirely satisfied with the way
in which God is leading me. I feel the burden of
sin heavily, and no dependence upon Iny own efforts to lighten it. But I am growingly submissive to God's way of deliverance, and humbly confident of complete redemption in due season. I
have a much stronger reliance than I formerly
had on Christ-that though He may not give me
a thorough victory in this life —though my trial
may be more protracted than when I had a
stronger self-reliance I thought it would be, He
will never leave me to the dominion of sin, and
will fully satiate my spiritual desires at last.
XIII.
I WANT very much to talk with you about an
expression of yours, in our last conversation. " I
have no hope of obtaining the blessing in this life,
though I am sure of its reality," and more to the
same effect. Now, let me say, that you mnay expect "the blessing" —if by it you mean, as I sup



TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.          277
pose you do, decided progress in the Christian
life, and an assurance that your final victory is
certain. I once had grave doubts of this myselfthat is, whether sanctification on earth amounted
to anything, or whether there was any certain
progress in the Christian life. What I saw in so
many, and what I felt in myself, made me very
heart-sick and discouraged. "Wilt Thou be altogether unto me as waters that fail?" But God has
long since vindicated both His goodness and His
wisdom in my spiritual allotments. By the very
methods which I thought were going to ruin my
hopes, He has saved them. I believe if He had
given me my desires for what I prayed for as
spiritual freedom, I could not have attained to the
knowledge that I now have of sin and grace; and
imperfect as my holiness still is, it would have
been much more so.
I am sure I understand'the principle of fruitfulness, as I never could have done by any other
treatment. Let me try to explain it to you. The
pear drops when it is ripe. Until that time, all
your care and devotion, however necessary in promoting fermentation, cannot make it come, and
then it comes in a moment of itself, spontaneous



278          TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.
ly and irrepressibly. Now in the case of a Christian,
ripeness means the result of a certain experience.
What is that experience, and what is the indication of its having been completed, or of the pear
being ripe? The experience consists in a struggle,
by the care of digging, enriching, pruning, and
fencing, to bring the tree onward, and to bring
the fruit out.  The result is attained when the
struggle ceases-there can be no ripe fruit till the
struggle ceases. I am far from meaning, that by
voluntarily arresting the struggle, you can shorten
the process which leads to maturity. The struggle is just as necessary to the progress of the
Christian, as fermentation is necessary to the
ripening of the pear-but as in the one case, the
marked sign of maturity is the ceasing of fermentation, so in the other case, it is the ceasing of the
active struggle. You must come to a state of true
passivity.
What is this true passivity? Certainly nothing
but the mzaturity of faith- the perfection of the
principle, by which those who are united to Christ
receive life and strength from Him-a full consciousness of our union, or that perfect communion with Him, as our Head, which is expressed in




TRI UMIPHS OF GRA CE.        279
believing prayer. There is a perfect sympathy between the Head and the members —our life is in
the Head-it is drawn thence by ceaseless prayer.
But are not our prayers often more of a struggle
to exercise the life supposed to be in us already,
than a simple feeling of emptiness,, and reliance
on the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, to fill us? We
either do not know ourselves to be empty, or
knowing it, we are not reconciled to such a condition.  We struggle for life in ourselves.  How
plain it is, that a continuous flow of life from the
fountain, and consequently fruit-bearing, are quite,
inconsistent with the struggle to dig out a new
cistern, or to mend a broken one. Have you ever
thought of the deep meaning of the words,
"Without me ye can do nothing?"
Is not this what we want, to come into closer
communion with Him?  It is not any clearer
knowledge of God, or of Christ, or of sin, or of
duty, or of the way of salvation-it is more than
any of these, that we want.  As a member of the
body out of correspondence with the head is
dead, to rise above that death which is constantly
dragging us downward, to come into full constant
overflowing communion with our Head, is not




280          TRIUiMPHS OF GRACE'.
that all we need for life, for progress, for fruitfulness, for the spirit of self-sacrifice, for lost humanity? Then will our own desire be, through the
short remainder of our lives, to do nothing else
but think every day and every hour what we can
do to testify our love to Him.
And now as to your own case, my dear friend,
be assured it is simply this, God has chosen you to
sanctification. I know this by the double sign of
his inward, and his outward, dealings with youand by sanctification I mean the purification of
your affections.  And those new affections, which
will subjugate the old, can only be produced by
the more full revelation (through the Spirit) of
Christ's (your Head) affection for you. How full
the New Testament is of the promise of the Spirit!
It is the great promise; and what is the promise
of the Spirit?  " He shall take of the things of
Christ and show them unto us." The promise of
the Spirit, is practically a promise that Christ will
so reveal His love to us, and in us, that all wrong
affections shall be completely subjugated. You do
not doubt the promise of the blood, nor its efficiency for pardon, why doubt the promise of the
Spirit and its efficacy for purification? in the, ful



TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.          281 I
fillment of which, Christ will " manifest Himself
unto you,"' come to you," " take up His abode
with you;" in virtue of which, " you shall ask
what ye will and it shall be done unto you;" in
virtue of which you shall abide in His love as He
abides in His Father's love-and His joy shall remain in you;- in virtue of which, by the close
and constant communion with Christ, of whom we
are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His
bones, the germ of your sanctification shall grow
to perfection. *  *        It is my daily joy
and theme of thanksgiving, that you have got so
far on-that you have passed probably, I may say,
I think, certainly, the only serious difficufties. In
a little while you shall be " filled with the fullness
of God."  What a promise!  *  *  *  * 
Since I have had a being, I have never had such
unmingled, elevated, and almost ecstatic happiness
as for a week past. I am up in the highest region
of breathing mortal air-but I am drawing you
with me.
XIV.
WITH desire have I desired the time to come,
when I should once more enjoy the privilege of a




282         TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.
free hour with the man of my heart. I must write
something to you now, small as it may be, both in
bulk and weight, about Maurice's Essays, which I
have read, and re-read, and mean to read again,
thinking of you all the time, much wondering
what would be the effect of his views upon
your mind.  I wish now  to describe to you
their effect upon mine-though perhaps I ought
to postpone writing till I have thought still
farther.
I must first say that this man, Maurice, carried
me entirely away at first by his show of qualities
which among theologians are rare-his talking
always to the heart, and yet always through the
understanding; but particularly by his most ingenious, and in some instances successful, efforts to
harmonize and almost identify the dogmas of the
Church with the demands of our nature, as uttered
blindly through heathen philosophies and superstitions (of which more hereafter), to say nothing
of his powers as a writer and thinker, his affluent
yet simple diction, his masterly ease, the great
compass of his thoughts, and the fullness of his
sympathy with man.  By traits like these he
really carried me away. I was ready, and some



TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.           283
times but too happy, to cast in my lot with him.
At present, however, I am quite of another mind.
I have no doubt, indeed, but he is unsound
according to any orthodox standard. But I certainly look upon him as a Christian, and surely a
most accomplished man.
I think I have a very clear view of the root of
all his errors. The end of all his refinement is to
vindicate and magnify the love of God. But he
does this by virtually denying the Divine holiness-by shutting his eyes to the worst effect of
sin, and that in which the evil nature especially
appears, viz.: the wound which it inflicts on God's
moral sensibilities, which is the cause of his
wrath against it.  The whole evil of sin, as
Maurice views it, appears in its natural (not its
judicial) effect upon the mind of the sinner; its
only effect upon the mind of God is to excite His
pity.
Occasionally an expression may occur which
intimates more, but it is meant evidently to conciliate Orthodoxy, and in any deep sense is repudiated by his system. I cannot learn from him
that God hates sin with a perfect hatred.  It
grieves Him as the transgression of a child grieves




284          TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.
a parent, but it does not provoke Him to threaten
it in good earnest with everlasting punishment.
On the contrary, the only effect of sin on God, as
far as I can learn from Maurice, is to bring out in
all its intensity His love to man. Love, according to Maurice, is comprehensive of holiness.
They cannot be distinguished. The very holiness
of God, therefore, obliges Him to save man from
the effects of sin.
And how is this done? See Maurice, page 49,
and his doctrine expanded in that and subsequent
chapters. According to him, all are righteous in
the Rizghteous One, for all are in Him, or, which
with Maurice is the same thing, He is in all, in
one not less than another. What is the proof of
this? The flimsiest that I ever saw adduced for a
position so important, drawn from a particular interpretation, or I may say perversion of the
experience of Job, which by an assumption still
more glaring the writer asserts, p. 47, to be the
experience of universal humanity.  It rests absolutely on the amazing assumption that every man,
of every class, from the most contented Pharisee
to the miserable malefactor, possesses, and in given
circumstances always becomes conscious of a




TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.           285
righteousness which is deeper and stronger than
his sin-a righteousness derived from his union
with the Righteous One, in all whose redeeming
acts all are alike interested. On the way in which
this redemption becomes effectual he speaks only
in general. But that the result of his system, or
of his principles, is a refined universalism there can
be no doubt. In his last essay he is forced to
confess it, for what else can he mean by the middle
paragraph on page 360?
Though I have always held that the system
which makes love more prominent than wrath is
the best system for men of all classes, and though,
if I felt as Maurice does, that there was no other
ground but the one he takes, on which the dept/
and sincerity of God's love could be vindicated, I
might go ovet to his side. This is far, however,
from being my mind.
My grand objection to the system of Maurice is,
that by divesting sin of its worst aspect, it robs
the love of God of its highest and most peculiar
manifestation. If I did not believe that the holiness of God was something which could be distinguished from His love, something in virtue of
which He hated sin, and was bent upon its pun



286          TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.
ishment, with the same intense sincerity with
which, in virtue of His love, He pities the sinner,
and is bent upon his deliverance, it seems to me
that neither my misery as a subject of wrath, nor
God's love in giving His Son, nor Christ's agony
to save me, would have the same effect upon my
heart and conscience which they have now. I
should feel that my heart was defrauded, as well
as my conscience.
You will observe, that Maurice has no conception of any relation between God and man but
that of father and child. But do men-while they
are sinning, and intending to sin, look upon God
as their Father? Suppose, however, to give the
greater force to this particular view, that God is
their Father. Is He nothing but a father?  Does
not every child know that the parent is also a
man, and that, as such, he is governed by other
affections than love to his offspring-that behind
the love which beams in his paternal face, and
awakens only joy and happiness, there are other
qualities which are calculated to awaken fear?
that the love of his offspring, however strong in
the paternal breast, is not so strong as the love of
truth and honor and integrity, and that in case of




TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.            287
a conflict between the social bond and the bond
of moral principle, there is an end of the blessed
relation? And is not this what every thoroughly
convicted sinner feels, viz., that the love of the
Father has been supplanted by the workings of
the other principles of His moral nature?
I shall have to stop now rather abruptly. Accept the above as a beginning. If well, as I now
am, and other things favor, I should like to say
some things more. I do want to say one thing
now, however. I do assure you, my dear brother,
that I feel daily that there has never lived a man
on earth whose condemnation at the day of judgment is more certain than mine, if the rzg/zteousness of Clrist, in which alone I trust, is not an allsufficient protection. I am more and more reduced to the necessity of depending on Christ
alone for justification and eternal life, or yielding
entirely to despair. But I do assure you, also,
that I have now such a confidence in my being
destined in a little while to feel the embrace of
those hands which were pierced for me, that the
assaults of a doubting conscience hardly move me
-and thus, I believe, it is with you.
Let us rejoice; yea, sing for joy, as we do,




288          TRIU.MPHS OF GRA CE.
blessed be our Rock' "My soul doth magnify the
Lord, my spirit hath rejoiced in God amy Saviour."
XV.
As, in a voyage of discovery, the ship which
first comes in sight of land holds out a signal to its
comrades to cheer them on, so you will believe,
me when I tell you that, deep beyond all earthly
enjoyment is my happiness in assuring you that
the port of Heaven is in sight, and that you shall
soon certainly see it! Commonly, we are moored
to a little island, (or if unmoored for a moment
never get out of sight of it,) which to the eye of
self seems a continent at least, if not the universe.
But of late I have come very near an experience,
if I have not quite reached it, which I am sure is
the goal of all my struggles-the absorption of
self in God, rest from selfish inquietude, infinite
satisfaction in God.
Is not the great impeding element which prevents our progress heavenward our desire to think
well of ourselves? which, if there were a basis for
it in our characters, if we were angels, for example, (though I apprehend the angels are so ab



TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.             289
sorbed in thoughts of God that they do not have a
thought about themselves,) would be all right;
but, in such as we actually'are, it is simply pride.
Can you not see that your desires for sanctification,
and your efforts for it, and the pain arising from
your failures, spring, in a great degree, from the
desire to stand well in your own estimation? that
what you want is not righteousness merely, but a
self-righteousness?
Now it is certainly a great part of God's dealings
with us to destroy entirely the principle of pride
or self-esteem; and yet it is equally certain that
His purpose or desire in regard to us is, that we
shall be saints-truly exalted.  One great end in
the Gospel plan, its chief end so far as we are concorned, is our sanctification.  And the peculiarity
of the Gospel plan is that it eventually effects this
in such a way as completely precludes self-righteousness, and, of course, pride and vanity.
Sanctification may be almost defined as self-forgetfulness or self-abandonment. I do not attach
much importance to that constitutional sympathy
with beings of our own nature, which makes us in
a sense self-forgetting. This makes one amiable,
but not truly holy. Holiness is that self-forgetting
13




290          TRI1 UMPHS'OF GRA CI.
which is inspired by absorbing thoughts of God-a
rise above the plane of self by absorbing views of
His fullness of love, glory and beauty. It is our
unceasing reference to the glory of self, instead of
the glory of God-our extreme self-love, which appears even in our desires for holiness and in our
acts of duty, which constitutes the essence of our
sinfulness-the law of sin in our nature. Sanctification is the breaking up of this law —the turning
away our thoughts and affections entirely from
self, and placing them supremely, and at length
wholly, on God.
How can this be done but by God's presenting
Himself to us in such a manner that (sinners,
deeply and hopelessly sinners as we are) we shall
no more have, any occasion for a single selfish
care, desire, or emotion. Suppose HIe had told us
simply that He wanted us to be holy, and that He
never would be pleased with us until we were
holy, or only in so far as we were holy. You may
be sure that the Gospel method is just the opposite
of that, for that would make deliverance from self
hopeless.
What is the Gospel method? "Who of God "that is by God's purpose or appointment-" is made




TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.           29I
unto us sanctification." Sanctification in the case
of the angels, as well as in ours, is dependent on
justification.  The angels can keep themselves
holy, that is, untainted by self-regard and absorbed
in God, only while they feel that God has nothing
against them, but, on the contrary, entirely loves
them. Faith in God's perfect, changeless love to
them, secures their perfect and changeless love to
Him-not as a motive, which would suppose them
to be mercenary, but from the law of creaturely
dependence.
Christ, then, becomes our sanctification essentially by being our righteousness-practically or
experimentally in virtue of our trusting His righteousness, which not only relieves us from all selfish
care about sin, but fills us with the love of God.
When you have such a faith in His righteousness
as delivers you from all dread of going into the
presence of God, from all feeling that you have to
be or do something different from what you are, or
are doing, to be entitled to the right of a beloved,
accepted child, your sanctification is begun. You
have no conception now of the manner in which
God will draw you and reveal His love to you
after, by your present course of experience, you




292          TTRIUIfPHS OF GRACE.
have been humbled out of all self-estimation.
Without this previous process the other cannot be,
but it is just as certain to succeed it as the summer
to follow the winter.
I never experienced before such a rest of heart
(that tired member), a rest which is as perfect as I
can hope will be at all permanent till I pass the
swellings of Jordan; if that can be called a rest
which evokes the highest mental and spiritual
action. It will give you pleasure to know that I
have what I consider a special Divine guidance in
my work. Without this (which has long been the
subject of my prayer) I could not have gone on
at all. Providence, however, is very mysterious,
and I cannot be sure that the great help I am
receiving this winter may not be a preparation
for my departure from the world. Of one thing
I am sure, that the great condition of the successful performance of my'work lies in my making
such a real surrender of all my plans and desires
not only in reference to life in general, but particularly in reference to this the most promising
work of my life (my Isaac, I may call it), that if I
should be laid aside by disease, or summoned suddenly to the other world, I may, like Abraham,obey.




TRIUMPHS OE GRACE.           293
That the new year upon which we are entering
may be made- a happy one to both of us, living or
dying, by Christ's nearer presence, is my prayer.
XVI.
e X  * * *~ I NEVER was more earnestly engaged in my peculiar studies-all bearing upon
one object-the clearest solution for my own benefit, and the simplest description for that of others,
of the nature and method of sanctification. Relations of thought which never entered my mind
before, perfectly inspire, without in the least bewildering me. They are the harvest from a seed
long buried.
I told you in my last letter, that I would let you
know when I had reached a certain "summit" I
was trying to scale. My own state for several
years has been one of assured conviction that
everything in my salvation and sanctification depended simply on the faithfulness of God, which
was itself secured by the vicarious work of Christ
in respect to all who were truly united to Himthat is, who truly believed, trusted, and depended
on Him; and that my whole duty lay in con



294          TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.
stantly assuring myself that Christ was my Saviour, and could not fail, against all appearances
to the contrary.
The effect of this assumption (for which, though
I call it so, I had the strongest scriptural as well
as experimental warrant) is gradually, but most
indistinctly and unceasingly, opening my soul, if I
may so speak, to the embrace of Divine love, and
thus in deadening my worldly sensibilities, from the
power of which I had suffered so much, was very
marked, until at length I began to feel assured
that the great deliverance was accomplished-that
the seed which could not be destroyed was in me,
and that however imperfect my sanctification at
present, my perfect victory over all enemies and
through all trials was secured by a purpose which
could not be frustrated.
But while personally delivered, I have been enduring a great struggle for the deliverance of
others. Death, connected as it now is with an
assurance of Heaven, would be welcome, I trust,
at any time, but for the hope which I have had
of saying a word on the subject of sanctification,
which shall strike off the chains from many captive
souls. My hope of doing it is strong-the hope
11*




TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.         295
of really delivering the message which has so long
been inwardly consuming me; and yet, my real
concern is not about the issue of my labor, but
simply about my daily duty. I am thrown into an
arena of conflict where my duty is to fight, whatever may be the result; a fight not with flesh and
blood, not even with my own flesh at length, so
much as with the great enemy. My intellectual
labor, inspired first by my own deep necessities, if it
is worth anything, will penetrate one of his strongholds; and my duty is to go on though earth and
hell are moved to oppose me, which I can only do
by obtaining new strength from above. If my life
and health are preserved, I have no reason to
doubt of my success; and at length I am enabled
to pray for success simply and wholly on account
of the interest which other souls have in it. For
myself, it matters not, if I only fight on.  If
Death takes me while thus engaged, I shall be
able to say, " Thrice welcome."
My recent experience-which I call a "summit"
-differed from others which I have often had only
in the greater clearness of its revelations. The
substance of these revelations has been always the
same-the depths and breadths of Divine love.




296         TRIU1MPHS OF GRA CE.
I never received a letter from you which gave
me greater encouragement than your last, in my
efforts to guide you, as far as I have been guided
myself, into the mystery of fellowship with God.
Pray continually for a clearer vision of His love.
The truth is, the manifestation of God's love, as
contained in the Gospel, is perfect-the whole
difficulty lies in our vision. Open your eyes, open
your heart, till His love and light flood your whole
being. This, and this only, will ensure the full
development, and ultimate perfection, of the " incorruptible seed" of Grace which has surely been
planted there; and once planted, it can never be
rooted up, nor fatally obstructed. However feeble
in the beginning, it will grow and expand till (time
being allowed for the operation) it has uprooted
and cast out whatever is opposed to it. It wilt
be always gaining, while the other will be always
losing (even when it seems to be gaining), however
slowly and insensibly.
This is made sure by the relation of the regenerate soul to Christ, and the nature of the cove
nant of Grace. In this sense, the love of God is
stronger in the feeblest Christian than all worldly
affections, which often seem to be sensibly or con



TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.            297
sciously the stronger. The great proof of its existence in many cases is the ingenuous pain which
such failures cause the regenerate. Notwithstanding their failures they still fight, and mean to fight
all their days. If the enemy conquers, it is against
their will and their endeavors, and they do not relinquish the hope of ultimate sanctification, or
clear deliverance from inward evil.
Plant yourself, my dear friend, on this foundation-God's love and faithfulness to His covenant
of Grace. Hold it fast against earth and hell, and
in a little while " your enemies will be found liars
unto you, and you shall tread upon their high
places."  Keep to the Scriptures-think only of
Christ's words; never mind your actual present
inward state while you are conscious of believing
in Christ's love, and trying to obey His commands.
With a sympathy which shall ever increase till
we meet in glory. Your friend.
XVII.
I OUGHT not to write any more, for I have been
writing through the morning, until the state of my
head admonishes me to desist; and yet I have
13*




298          TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.
that to say which ought to give you great encouragement. Where sin hath abounded, Grace shall
much more abound. None but a poor undone
creature, who feels himself abandoned, or worthy
to be abandoned, by the whole creation, can know
God's real nature. I often wonder that you make
so little of the book of Psalms. I have found such
comfort in the devotional exercises of David lately
as words cannot express. In no other parts of the
Scriptures is the benignity of the Divine nature
made so apparent to me-particularly his confession.
If I ever write a book, the object of it shall be
to show that by the holiness of God, as that term
is used in the Psalms, and elsewhere generally in
the Old Testament, is meant mainly His infinite
elevation above all those human passions which
are the opposite of love. His forgiveness of sin
to such an extent, is especially the effect of His
holiness in this sense. His forgiving it through a
propitiation only illustrates the same thing-for
"herein was the love of God manifested "-herein
was its highest manifestation, " that He gave His
Son to be a propitiation for our sins.
Suppose we believe that God is Love, which is




TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.             299
the whole Gospel-believe it first in regard to all
humanity-believe, through all appearances to the
contrary, that the vindication of God's love must
be' the end of the mystery of man-believe it
especially, and every moment, with respect to ourselves, for which we know the warrant to be such
that, without this basis, there can be no duty; suppose we believe, also, that being " risen with
Christ," life is no longer in any sense a probation,
but simply a redemption, a rising higher and higher
toward the perfect stature of spiritual manhoodbelieve that it is God's end in every, even the minutest event of our daily life, to confer upon us the
true happiness which can only be found in the voluntary acceptance of God's will in place of our own,
— that this is especially the end of all His dealings
with us-the destruction of self-will-by which the
sense of a life in self shall be constantly changing
into the consciousness of a life in God. This, and
nothing short of this, is what the Gospel declares
and promises.
I take it, that the peculiar condition of Eternity
is, that the sense of self is, in that state, completely lost in the consciousness of God-not that self
is destroyed, or ceases to exist, but is forgotten,




300          TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.
lost' sight of, in the consciousness of a Higher
Presence. And may not that be our condition
now, germinally at least, and that germ constantly
expanding?  What makes our life a cold shadow,
what prevents its being all sunshine, but an obstinate self-will interposing between us and the
Father of our spirits? Is not that a Gospel indeed, which " abolishes death," the only barrier
between time and eternity, and by its doctrine of
love destroys the only barrier, self-love, which prevents our union with God? "0, the depth of the
riches of the wisdom of God!" This is the Gospel,
my child, which God has commissioned me with.
He bids me say to you, that your life is " hid with
Christ in God." Henceforth you have simply to
seek it there —no more as of old, in probationary
self- efforts, and self-corrections, from which you
have " risen."  The life is already legally ycurs,
"reserved for you in Heaven."  The knowledge
of this is the great point gained.
Perhaps you read a late account of some English travelers in the Alps, who were tied together
by the same rope, so that though some were in advance of others, the last were as sure as the first
of reaching the top. In that case, the rope broke,




TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.           301
and the weaker ones went down the precipice. But
ours cannot break for it is fastened within the vail.
If I should first ascend to God, one of my sweetest thoughts will be that you are following in the
same path, and perhaps are helped a little over
the roughnesses of the upward way by the known
experience of your humble teacher and forerunner.
Very sure am I, that if I get first to the heights
of victory (eternal), I shall, if such a thing be possible, stretch down a long arm to pull you up to
me!    *  *  *.X  *  To know that you now feel
that "not to trust Christ is presumption," instead
of the contrary, repays me for all my care. You
have no idea what a change similar to this will occur in all your conceptions of God, and His ways
with men.
XVIII.
I SEIZE the first moments of my release from a
long intellectual captivity, to say something in
reply to your kind letters. Though under some
disadvantages for writing from a state of physical
exhaustion greater, I think, than I ever knew
before, my nature will not suffer me to rest until'




3t)2         TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.
I have paid at least a small instalment upon the
debt which the free expression of your confidence
has laid upon me; and in one sense I can do it
easily, for though the flesh is weak, the spirit never
before was so willing.
After a life's struggle, I am standing now on
the same " Delectable Mountains," with the atmosphere of which your late communications are
so clearly impregnated. I am surveying, without
an intervening cloud, those everlasting possessions,
the certainty of our attaining which seems now
(after long endurance) to be equally realized by
both of us. I need not say how much it added to
my bliss to hear your voice so near me, and to
meet you again, after so long a separation by
paths hid from each other, in these suburbs of
the Celestial City.
The sole point to which I would devote my
letter is the ground of our certainty, which is
either objective or subjective. Of the first (the
love of Christ), I need say nothing.  It is unchangeable; and of the other (our love to Him),
I have only to say, it will last just as long as, by a
perfect faith in His love to us, we maintain an increasingly vigorous conflict with the selfishness of




TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.             303
our nature, or strive to be like Him. I cannot
see in particular what trials are before me, but I
know that from one cause, if from no other, such
a life as I am now enjoying must be vulnerable.
The malice of Satan will not allow me any absolute
rest. The adversary will seek to impair the sense
of union with my God, even though knowing that
he cannot entirely divide us; because it is only
in so far as we retain the sense of union with
Christ that we can glorify Him by our fruit; therefore, Satan will ever aim to weaken that, though
he can go no farther. I do feel that I have an
enemy in him, of whose power I have not always
had the same distinct impression as now.  In
other ways, however, which I have not time nor
strength at present to explain, I find this knowledge of Satan a solution of some of my worst
difficulties.  *       ~    *  Is it not plain
that all our inefficiency as Christians has arisen
from the want of assurance that Christ and we
were one —had but one interest? To come into
full, constant, overflowing communion with our
Head, particularly in the spirit of self-sacrifice for
lost humanity, is not this the consuming desire of
our hearts?




304          TRIUMAPHS OF GRA CE.
I trust that my views are entirely settled at last
in regard to the distinction between the outward
and inward life. My only dread is lest any partial
success in the outward part of the struggle (the
performance of outward duties) may make the inward life less earnest. What I am before God is,
after-all, the great question, not what I do, except
as this latter shows what I am. I have no doubt
that this is exactly according to the will of Godthat what he asks of us is the inward sacrifice.
In proportion as that is rendered the fruit will
appear in the life, but much more likely in the
manner of doing ordinary things than in any
special manifestations. My fear at present is all
directed against the indulgence of any desire not
prompted by or consistent with a consciousness
of the supremacy of Christ in my soul-the nonrealization of His presence and will in every event
that may happen to me.  This causes me to
shrink from certain possible conditions of life;
and yet I do not mean that I am at present under
any alarm, for my sense of God's immeasurable
and unchangeable love forbids it. " *  *   *  
Have you read "Ecce Deus? " I have read it, every
word consecutively, though I never spent so long




TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.         305
a time reading a book of its size, having to read
chapter after chapter and page after page several
times before I could get forward.  Of all the
books which I have read in ten years, so many
and so original, on the same subject, none bears a
comparison with it for union of intellectual depth
and comprehensive knowledge with spiritual insight and fervor; for showing up the spirit of the
age, and just where the Church stands, what her
disease is, and what the remedy is; and for a
plain, almost impromptu way of expressing his
convictions.
One thing, doubtless, which makes me such a
devotee to the book is finding that its most cardinal principle is the identical one which has interested me so peculiarly in my studies for months
past-the true idea of the Father. * * * * *
When I said to you that you ought to spend much
time in study, I did not mean that you should
give yourself to great sermons. I must frankly tell
you that I fear you will find a snare there. Above
all other things I advise you to walk humbly. Let
nothing tempt you to go beyond your measure.
0, could I live my youth over again! The difficulty with me was simply that though Christ was




306         TRM UMPHS OF GRA CE.
in my head He was not deeply enough in my
heart.'Our work is to preach Christ, and this is
an impossibility if He is not our Life. How I
prayed for you this morning!
XIX.
MONTHS ago I had a long letter for you in my
head, which was detained there by other drafts
upon that organ, and more recently, by some incapacity in the organ itself for honoring any drafts
upon it. I have felt myself your " debtor" ever
since I heard those sad words from you, to the
effect that after " twenty years " of struggle with
self, you could not see that any advantage had
been gained, except that your religion (by which,
I suppose, you meant your sense of sin) had
gained a little more reality; perhaps you meant,
that your belief in the need of redemption had
become somewhat like your sense of natural
wants.
The words did not make me sad on your accoupt.
I call them so, only because they came from a
heavy heart, and were uttered with a sad expression Qf countenance, My own thoughts were



TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.           3 o 7
here is a soul in training for a great mercy sooner
or later.  The only reason of all your sorrows,
failures, and trials is, that, as light would not be
appreciated without an experience of darkness,
so God's love in our redemption cannot be known,
that is, revealed in us-cannot be the subject of an
inward realization, but in proportion to the experience we have had of heart-misery in sin.
I have had an experience lately of sorrow being
turned into joy, which, hoping it may encourage
your hopes, and strengthen your determination to
keep "struggling on," I will tell you of.  The
trouble in my head, which when I saw you I
hoped was passing away, is now pronounced by
all physicians to be a nervous derangement, which,
to say the least, is alarming enough to make one
serious. There is certainly no natural prospect,
as far as I can see or learn, of a speedy change for
the better.
The moral effect has been, of course, to make me
generally very, very thoughtful. Prayer has been
a simple, but 0, how earnest a talk with the Preserver of men, asking him not for life, but for
lig/it, that I might see my spiritual position. Not
to be saved from temporal death, though I have




308          TRIUMIPHS OF GRACE.
had so much reason to apprehend it, but to be delivered from all spiritual disabilities has been my
cry-to be cleansed-to be saved from my prevailing sins hereafter, either by death transferring me
to another world, or by grace constraining and
governing my life in this.
And how graciously has the Lord hearkened
unto the voice of my supplications.  Direful as
has been my case in its outward aspect, it has inclosed the sweetest drop of Divine joy I have ever
received. The fiercest trial has passed over me
without leaving a singe. I have been not only
submissive, but full of joy, arising from the conviction that God's hand of love was ministering
the cup which should infuse into me a new power
of holiness.
For a long time I have been conscious of wanting holiness, but no words can express to you how
dim have been my views of what I wanted under
the name of holiness. It was an advance upon my
former state, in which the highest idea I had of
spiritual blessedness was to have the favor of God
-to have his anger (by virtue of the Atonement)
turned to favor, was about my whole desire before,
though not my whole theoretic notion of salvation.




TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.           309
Then I began to desire something else, but something of which I had a very dim perception. I
called it holiness, but it was not what I mean by
holiness now, though it might have been the germ
of it. It was a desire for the eizoymryent of God more
than for conformity to Him. Still it was much
more than a desire for His favor. What I wanted
was a principle or character which would not only
make me pleasing to God, but which would make
Him in His whole perfection (and not in His mercy
merely) pleasing to me-so that I could have perfect
communion with Him, and the enjoyment arising
from such communion. This has been my real end
for some years past. "As the hart panteth after
the water brooks," so has my soul, I may say, daily
and with growing earnestness, " panted after God."
But, still, it has not been so much to honor and
glorify God as to enjoy Him. Perhaps there is not
a great deal in this distinction. I can say now,
however, that my desire to glorify God, not before
men (desirable as that is), but in the thoughts of
my heart, is very distinctly stronger than to enjoy
Him. No passion that I have ever had has exercised me as my desire to have God's will consume
mine, which is what I now mean by holiness.




30           TR IUePHS OF GRA CE.
For some weeks previous to the beginning of
this month I had been " breathing out threatening
and slaughter" against    self. I was willing to
die a martyr's death if I could get rid of that
cursed thing that separated between me and God.
Just at that time the trouble in my head began, and
soon increased with such violence that my agony,
for many days, was extreme. Now what I want to
say is, that it was in the midst of this anguish that
I got my first thoroughly-true idea of the nature
of holiness, and my first experience of perfect bliss.
Though but a drop, it was as pure as anything ever
known in Heaven-it was just what they have in
Heaven-they can have nothing beyond it except
in measure. I have often wanted to die that I
might know something of the nature of heavenly
blessedness. I shall never have that desire again,
for that reason, at least; -but O! how willingly I
could have died at thaf moment, that the drop
might become a perennial stream! "If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me. Nevertheless, not
]My will, but Thinze, be done-not my will, but
Tzine! "
Dear friend, when you come to that, while in
the most miserable outward condition, you will




TRIUMIPHS OF GRACE.        3II
have reached the end of that dark and toilsome
way you are now traveling; and you will reach it.
If a failure had been possible, I should have
failed. No religious life has ever been retarded by
greater embarrassments, no religious experience
ever more corrupted by earthly elements; so corrupt still, that I can do right in nothing except by
an Invisible Power, which (insensibly for the most
part to myself) is according to His immutable
promise working in me.
I will not give you reason for blaming me, as I
have just been blaming my doctor, for not telling
me at the beginning, as he might have done, precisely the course which my disease would take,
and the final result of it. I xvill not leave you to
guess how your trouble is to end. The Apostle
Paul knew nothing better of his Philippian and
Thessalonian brethren than I know of you. He
knew, upon possibly less evidence than I have in
your case, that God had begun a good work in
them; how very imperfect the work was, is manifest enough from sundry of his cautions. But
with the impression which his own experience had
given him of the goodness, and gentleness, and
faithfulness of Christ, he had no hesitation in as



3           TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.
suring them that the love which had commenc,- cd
the work would surely finish it; and that they had
nothing at all to do but just in reliance upon
God's care, and certain promises of help, all sufficient in the hour of need, to go on, " rejoicing in
hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in
prayer," in everything without carefulness. This
is the only way to render a suitable and an acceptable recompense for His love and grace.
If you were just beginning the Christian life I
might be a little more cautious. But in the case
of one who has kept her face Christ-ward, or
rather God-ward, for twenty years, who, though
deploring her want of progress in that time, has
not gone back, and has no idea of doing so, the
Spirit tells me to cry, " Comfort ye, comfort ye
my people."  "Say unto her that her warfare is
accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned,"her redemption is nigh-" Behold I come quickly."
You will find a marvelous strictness of truth in
all that "quickly" means.  Our Lord's coming
seems slow to us, because we are children. Three
weeks to a child who is expecting his good things
at Christmas holidays, seems an age. But when
your days of rejoicing have come, your only won



TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.          313
der, when you consider their glory, will be how
they could have come so soon.
In respect to my health, I know not what a day
may bring forth. I have had no pain, indeed, for
nearly a week, but one constant dull pressure in
my head, scarcely intermitted for one waking moment. But 0, what peace-what joy and freedom
in prayer, —what a clear apprehension of the truths
of Grace,-what expectations of, as well as aspirations after a complete deliverance from the
power of sin, and a perfect union with Christ,what an all-conquering sense of the Divine love
and of the beatitude involved in perfected holiness: I feel almost willing.to go straight through
death in the hope of at once reaching it.
*        *      *       *       *
[The fragments of letters which follow were
written by Mr. James after his physical pain and
weakness had become very great-so extreme that
he could write but a few lines, in pencil, at a time,
and those more and more faintly and tremulously traced, as while the spirit was growing strong
for its emancipation, the earthly tabernacle was
dissolving.]
14




314          TRIZIUVMPHS OF GRA CE.
LAST WORDS.
IT was in my last letter to you, I think, that I
spoke about hardly being able to realize that I was
mortal, so established seemed my health. I can
now tell you a better story than that a great deal.
Things have occurred since that letter which make
it certain that physical suffering is to be my portion for months to come; but with it, and through
it there has come such an enlargement of spiritual
(immortal) vision, that I am blessing God for my
pains as I never did before for the highest and
choicest of His gifts.
If you will read the chapter on Prayer in Dora
Greenwell's'Essays, which I send you, you will
understand perfectly the state of my soul. The
prayer which she describes has been the character
of my prayers for some time-when I was in perfect health apparently; and I perfectly understand
how this state of suffering is intended to bring me
more thoroughly into the state of union with God,
which these prayers simply contemplated. I have
not the shadow of doubt about it, and if my doctor had said, "This condition of yours means




TRIUIMPHS OF GRACE.
death," as for a time I understood him to mean,
my faith would have only been the more exalted.
Now, my dear friend, I say these things to you
about myself, because in my experience you have
a perfect pledge of your own glorious triumph. In
your last letter, what most struck me was your
lament that you could not rise to the higher world.
I did not understand a desire to die, but to have
Heaven come down to you here. In my next, I
hope I may have strength to reveal the way of living in Heaven while here on earth, as I never could
before.
I have to write in great haste, as I cannot sit up
for an hour without great pain. My work on
sanctification is more certain than ever, if possible
-life continuing, and my enthusiasm in it is constantly rising. You will see the drift of my
thoughts, somewhat, in " Ecce Deus," which I send
you, with Dora Greenwell's book-especially in the
chapter on the cross of Christ. No book that I
ever read yet, is so much in the spirit of my
thoughts as connected with my present work.
*  * *  *  * Nothing you ever wrote made
me more thankful than what you said in your last
-of the sweetness of your late experience. I ex



3I6          TRI UMPHS OF GR.A CE.
pect, if I live, to see you so far advanced in holi.
ness, that Divine enjoyment of a higher kind than
you have ever known will be your general statea position from which you will look back with
wonder on the days when, although God was just
as near to you as He ever could be in all the beauty
and sweetness of a personal love, somethinghardly a thking-a mere illusion obscured your
vision so that you could not behold Him. How
plain it is to me, that God has been in all our past,
and is leading us to a " city of habitation." Fear
not-only believe.
X   -X- i' *   Though I carry in myself the
sentence of death I am in the enjoyment of more
peace than, as my friend Dr. Spencer, of Brooklyn,
said, in his last hours, such a sinner is worthy of.
The whole Gospel to me now is the "flesh of the
Son of God." This is the bread which sustains my
famishing soul. I see plainly that the Law dooms
me to death. I not only see it with my understanding, I feel it in all my nature. Sin has separated
me from God-this is death. That Christ died
this very death of separation from God for me,
that I might be saved from it-that He gave His
life for mine, this is the Gospel to me. This send'




TRI UMPHS OF GRA CE.         317
sation, or experience of death which I endure, is
nothing but the fellowship of His sufferings; and
as I am crucified and buried with Him, I shall also
live and reign with Him. This sense of my own
death prompts me to such a dependence upon His
death and sufferings for me, that I may be said,
without exaggeration, to " eat His flesh." I lay
hold of the flesh, the sacrifice, the sin-offering
contained in the condemned flesh of Christ, as
one famishing with hunger lays hold of bread; and
it is my faith that as certainly as I thus eat His
flesh I must partake of that life with which such
an act is connected, by the promise of God; as
certainly as through the law I die with Him, I
shall be identified with Him in His resurrection.
X* * *' *  I am in a heaven of hope, yet
never more pressed with what for want of a better
term I must call trial. By which I mean, however, anything but suffering; the trial of suspended expectation, not knowing what may
come next —possibly death, perhaps a lower deep
of suffering before reaching it.  Whatever is
God's will, I wait but the word to sink or to soar;
for height and depth are the same when assured
neither of them, nor any other created thing can




3I8.TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.
separate us from the love of God which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord.
"  *  *   * *  How  I long to communicate
myself to you, as I so often have before-but my
weakness continues very great, and of the volume
which I would like to convey to you I can give
you but a leaf. O could 1, my friend, give you,
and such as you, a tithe of the comfort and inward
peace I feel! And yet, by no language could I
give you all the sense of humiliation which I feel
in reflecting upon my own past. My assurance is
founded not at all upon " evidences," but upon
the wonderfully strong idea I have of Grace.
Seeing how plain it is, from the Scriptures, that
one of God's ends, and perhaps His highest, is to
magnify His grace, I cannot understand how one
who hangs upon it, as I find myself compelled to
do, can possibly be lost, and in this assurance " the
new son'g" is begun.
I feel daily that death will certainly be my glorification-that is, the complete development of
that union with Christ which has been begun here
by a partial, and will be finished there by a perfect
apprehension or vision of His glory.
*  * *  * *  I write from the lounge in my




TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.           319
study, on which, between sitting and lying, I
spend now the twelve hours of daylight. My
actual condition is just what it was one month
ago, but I have learned to bear it better, and that
I have sometimes mistaken for a physical improve-.
ment. But my body is the Lord's. If He has
any further use for it, in time He will find ways of
making it sound again,- or sufficiently so for those
uses. I have had a blessed meditation on Psalm
cXXXiX. 13-17.
My spirits never were better. I have yet some
hope from medical skill, though little; but the inward man waxes stronger and stronger. I am
sorry that my letter to Mr. N.      gave you
any gloomy impression, as, if I understand your
letter, it did. I'was far enough from gloom when I
wrote it, and such is my ordinary state, gathering
new strength from every indication that the time
of my sojourning here is short.
I am delighted to hear of the improvement in
your own health, and with a higher joy I think I
discover some improvement in your faith. 0, my
friend, if you can once get established in the idea
that your salvation is now certain-certain in virtue of Christ's love to you, to which all your own




320          TRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.
future efforts could never make the slightest addition, you will go forward at a very different pace
from that of past years, and I have something for
you which I think will give you this certainty, or
show you exactly how it is attained, as very few
things you have ever read have been able to do.
You will soon receive four volumes, entitled
"Waymarks in the Wilderness," a compilation
of essays, by the Rev. Mr. Inglis, the editor
of The Witness, which will put a knowledge of
the Gospel into you which you never have had
hitherto. I cannot answer for all of them, for
I have read it only in small part, but in my next
note, I will tell you what to read first.
Do you see Hours at Homne?  I sent for the
number which was advertised to contain Dr. Bushnell's article on the " Moral Uses of Physical Pain,"
a most masterly production. Tired as I am, I
must quote one passage which I know to be true.
" There is nothing in all our experience that changes
so many aspects of things and is so grandly productive and fertile of good. It is God's mute
prophet in the body, giving there its mighty oracles
to the soul."
Very sure I am, that while I trust in God's




TRI UMPHS OFI' GRACE.        32
mercy, I find even a greater satisfaction in being
submissive to his will. I feel a cheerful confidence
that whatever may be the outward event of this
trial, it is meant to answer my prayer for holiness,
and I do feel a pleasure, even in my sharpest
pains, from hoping that that is their end. How
good it is to be able to think well of God in every
affliction, and to know, that the hand that sends it
never did a wrong to the meanest creature.    *
* X  *  *  Since the day of pain of which I
wrote last, which was soon completely subdued by
God's blessing upon remedies, I have been wafted
on smooth seas and with propitious gales toward
the shining shore, as I have supposed. But a most
unexpected and unintelligible improvement has
been going on within a few days, to-day particu-,
larly, which excites the strangest thoughts. It may
amount to little in the end, but it is most noticeable at present.
The denizens of the basement were startled this
morning by what they thought a vision. But it
turned out to be the master of the house, who
went down, staff in hand, to put things in order. there, after an absence of nearly four months. I
remained there. however, only about five minutes,
14*




322          TZIUMPHS OF GRA CE.
and reascended the two flights of stairs without
difficulty or fatigue. Come, when you can, to see
me, my friend.
*  *   *  * * About the change to which I
adverted in my last, I must call upon my imagination to give it its real meaning. Well, then, —I
was being wafted, as I said, on the calmest seas, to
the shining shore-looking out to see some bright
herald waiting my arrival-when, suddenly, a voice
seemed to come from the Great Pilot from within
the vail: "Turn the helm earthward!"  Immediately, all my earthly members became obedient
to orders. Disease seemed vanishing-no painappetite keen as the air, and my voice singing Alleluia a little louder than when having nothing but
health to inspire it. I had not asked for this, nor
had I even desired it, except as a signal of high
favor; and, since weakness and pain have returned,
the sweet will of God has calmed every commotion. That has been my opiate through every hour
of suffering. I would like to live, if it were His
will, to help others in their Christian life; to understand, and to give to others, God's plan of s-anctifying His people from foundation to top-stone
has been my desire; but, for myself, I am more




TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.          323
ready than ever to take that " bound "-a bound
from all the solicitudes of earth, and from all its
corruptions, into the bosom of Infinite Love.
The certainty of that transition is just as sure to
me as the Gospel itself, or as the being of God.
" Heaven opens on my eyes —my ears with sounds
seraphic ring;" and yet I feel myself to be the
meanest, the most unworthy, of all who were ever
with propriety called by Christ's sacred name. If
you should hear, before long, that I am gone, believe, my dear friend, that while I am "resting in
glory," I shall not be without far tenderer thought
of you than I could ever have here-the friend
whom I have left in this vale of conflict. How
earnestly shall I still look forward to the time of
your glorification, and, of course, with a desire
(may I not say, a prayer?) for your deliverance
from the machinations of evil, far stronger than I
could feel here, where my knowledge was so imperfect. If I have prayed so much for you while
encumbered with the imperfections of the flesh,
how much more, when delivered from these incumbrances, shall I think of you as still bound by
earth's fetters!
What joy your letters give me! -Continue to




324         TRIU MPHS OF GRACE.
write to me. I never before was in a condition to
appreciate fully the life-giving power of human
sympathy. A thrill of pleasure runs through me
every time I hear the door-bell ring, and the word
brought up from some kind friend, to know how
the sufferer is, or the request to see me. I mention this only to give you an idea of the comforting effect of your letters.
* * * * * I mean to give you a few lines
once in a while, while I can, which I trust will be
to the last week of my waning life. How I was
cheered and revived by your visit!  Whately
inclines to the belief that the intermediate state is
one of unconsciousness. I do not. But be that as
it may, the great truth is sure. "We shall not all
sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the
twinkling of an eye, at the last trump."  Then, if
not before, our communion shall be renewed, never
again to be broken.
I want you to thank our God, my dear friend,
with me, that, in the hour of my deepest distress,
He has been nearest to me. I have been full of
spiritual comfort, even when racked with pain-and
in the midst, too, of the clearest view of sin; my;ins! my sins! But this only makes the voice of




TRIUMPHS OF G:RACE.          325
pardon more exquisitely soothing. God is making
me to realize both the terrible nature of sin and
the wondrous efficacy of atoning blood. He has
given me perfect rest through an overwhelming
expansion of the idea that Christ died-put His
sacred body between the sinner and the curse, so
that the severer the trial, the greater and surer the
blessing to any one who just believes that simple
truth. That is the light on'which I fasten my
eyes, and which fills me with hope while struggling,
but not submerged, amidst the billows of eternity's
ocean.
Good-bye, dear friend, with hope for your own
health, and love (I never knew what it was to love
before) to every friend whom I expect to meet in
the land of everlasting rest.
*' -X'       *  I write from my bed. My sufferings are very great, but my soul still rejoices in
the broad sunlight; all my former experiences have
been twilight compared with the present. While
I live my love can never quit its hold of my dear
earthly friends, and much less, I believe, after I
have ascended. I cannot doubt that God is leading you in the same way in which He has been
leading me. At the bottom of all is a desire for




326         TRIUMPHS OF GRACE.
purity, or a perfect conformity to God's will, which
will not be denied. I have long wanted nothing
else. To be such a debtor as I am to Grace, and
yet to withhold anything from Him, seems to be
the only thing I cannot endure. Therefore I just
placed myself in His hands, that He might, by any
means He chose to use, constrain the total relinquishment of self; and how has He done it? By
bringing me into a trial in which self had no choice
but to trust Him or perish, and then showing me
that I had nothing to fear-that love belonged to
Him just as light belongs to the sun-that it is all
mine.
I would not exchange my sufferings, with the
peace I have, for a diadem of stars.
*  * *  * * The simplicity of my confidence
in God at present exceeds any ideal even, which I
have had of such a state. I mention this to you
partly to assuage your painful sympathies for me,
and partly for your own encouragement. I wish I
had strength to tell you fully the ground of my
peace. For many months before this trouble came
upon me, I enjoyed a higher degree of communion
with God than ever before. To be like Him-to
have the cursed root of sin eradicated, I offered




TRRIUMPHS OF GRA CE.         327
myself up in daily sacrifice; willing to suffer everything (for I saw plainly that it was only by suffering the end could be effected).
But with the first clear and real view of
approaching judgment, all my evidences were of no
more account than the drift-wood on which the
drowning mariner tries to rest amidst the surges
of the ocean. I saw myself as the basest of mankind; "of whom I am chief," became as easy as
the alphabet.  Still I felt as a child; quite as
anxious that the Father, whom I had so injured,
should be glorified, as that I should be delivered
from His wrath; and now I fully appreciate, as I
always had pretty well understood, the meaning
of Christ's death. God glorified and my soul certainly saved by Christ's simply dying for me, without any reference to my own character, dying for
my sins-a sense of which alone is necessary to get
all the benefits of His death. I do not wonder that
the only song in the upper world is: "To Him
who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in
His own blood; to Him be glory and dominion,
forever and ever." Soon shall I join in that eter..
nal song.
I wish I could tell you of the great mercy of




328          TR~IUMPHS OF GRACE.
God to me in every respect. I suffer very little
now except from weakness-and then the bright
reflection from the world to which I am going!
Everything indicates that the hand of a Father
directs all things concerning me. Oh, the delightful repose that I had all last night! God do
abundantly above all my thoughts and prayers for
you, dear friend! * ~ *E    *  *  Since my last
to you I have been gradually sinking; and it is
evidently the impression of those around me, as it
has long been my own, that there is no exit from
my complicated malady but through the gate of
death. I do not take the sofa of late nearly as
much as formerly, and can read nothing of anyaccount. There is hardly a square inch of my
body below the small of my back which is not the
seat of pain. But I feel that it is sweet to sufferto suffer anything from One in whose love I have
such boundless confidence, and sure I am that all
suffering from His hand is meant not only for my
highest good but for my highest happiness. Anything ought to be sweet which binds us to the
cross, and to the bosom of our only-in the purest
and strongest sense-beloved, and fills the eye with
Heaven. How natural, how, I might almost say,




TRIUMPHS 0F GRA CE.           329
ultman, that Heaven seems as I approach its
shores! It seems literally like going to the land
of " green fields and still waters."
Never was there a person as low as I am, surrounded with more outward comforts; the best of
nursing; the warmest sympathy of friends; delightful letters of affection-especially from ministers who have heard of my extremity. But infinitely better still, all is sunshine within. The tree
is leafless, but the warm sun of Eternal Love is
shining around me, and the two worlds seem to
open into each other. The outward comforts I
have are a small matter compared with the trust
in my Heavenly Father, which flows on in a constant stream, no more to be shaken or changed
than one's faith in the declarations of a father's
love. God's Word, revealing his full character to
me, is the fountain at which I quench my perpetual thirst for the knowlege of His love to me. I
find this fountain not only free as water, but satisfying as water itself.
No young girl ever felt a more delightful fluttering in the prospect of a European tour, than I feel
in the prospect of soon seeing the land of neverwithering flowers, and of seeing Christ, and know



330          TR2UiTUPHS OF GRACE.
ing Him, and being known of Him. If anything
favorable occurs, you shall hear; if nothing, then
farewell till we meet on the bank of the River of
Life.       In death as in life, yours,
w.J.
Here the pen drops from the hand which, even
while faltering in death, was employed in expressing the love and faith of that great heart, and his
undying desire to help others to gain the heights
he himself had reached. Here, we will let another
(from the letters connected with whose memorial
of Mr. James we have already quoted) speak, -believing that those who have followed this struggling
yet victorious soul to the very gates of Glory, will
like to linger and catch the last words of joy and
triumph that fall from his lips as he enters in to be
forever with the Lord.




EXTRACTS FROM
"VIEW  OF  MR. JAMES'S  CHARACTER
AND LIFE."
WRITTEN BY
REV. HENRY NE I L L.
* * *  * *  * Many may desire to know
more about the natural stock, the early associations, the human traits of Mr. James. Born in
Albany, New York, in I797, his blood was a mixture of Irish and Dutch; Irish on the father's side,
and Dutch on the mother's. He carried in himself
the fire and sensibility of the one nation, with the
depth and power of endurance in the other; an
extraordinary and splendid combination. Withal
he had a most vigorous physical constitution, a fine
head, a glowing, warm, discerning, and expressive
eye, a high and expansive forehead, a movement
indicative of power and good breeding, and a presence that, by its elevation, frankness, and fearless



332,EXTRACTS FROM MR. 7AMES'S LIFE.
ness, would vitalize an assembly before he spoke a
word.
*  *  *  *  He was not self-conserving; he
sought not his own preferment; he had to be frank
by the regal type of his nature; he never assumed
a posture or a tone; his manners were the undulation of his morals, and so identical with them,
that, as with the old Romans, but one word, mores,
was necessary to express both. His manners were
the true exponent of his heart. The great organ
of his nature was his heart; and this, like the
ocean or the sun, was constantly distributing itself. *' *  *  And yet, who that saw him
often, had any doubt that he held himself singularly indifferent to every form of natural bestowment and of external advantage (in which, also, he
largely shared), by reason of a master passion of
surpassing beauty and power, constantly working
in him, even a never-ceasing desire to be in harmony with the Divine mind, in spirit and in movement? He panted after God, and assimilation to
Him, in impulse and in action, as the hart panteth
after the water-brooks. "I want holiness so much,"
he wrote, in a letter dated December, I856, " that
I might say I want nothing else. One additional




EXTRACTS FROM MR. 7yAMES'S LI~E.  3 3 3
grain of holiness or conformity to God, with a consciousness that God was pleased with it, would
outweigh a universe of every other kind of
good."
This statement contains the key-note of his life.
The desire expressed in it animated him at
Princeton; led him to Dr. Gordon rather than to
Chalmers, at Edinburgh; absorbed him at New
York on his return from Scotland, when preaching to crowded assemblies from the pulpit
made vacant by the death of Dr. John Mason;
gave direction to his thoughts at Rochester, where
he labored for many years, and since then has
been ever revealing itself, in letters, in the selection of friends, in the choice of books, in themes
for sermons, in essays, in conversations, in journeyings (for he never hesitated to travel a hundred
miles to visit one whose doubts or fears he could
not allay by his pen), in the language and tone of
his devotions, never to be forgotten by any one
who ever heard his words in prayer; until desire
merged itself into a knowledge and enjoyment of
God seldom granted in this world to the fallen
sons of men. The unrest that at times appeared
in him grew out of a sorrow often expressed and




334   EXTRACTS FR OIM MR. 7A MES'S LIFE.
painfully active, that he was not, to his consciousness, perfectly "comformed to the image" of
God's dear Son.
Greatly did many of his friends admire the type
of his piety, in its deep undertone as well as in its
strains of faith, and hope, and victory. He has
revealed, in his letters, its nature, its sources, and
its growth. "  *  *  *~ X  It is marvelous with
what industry, cheerfulness, persistence, and fidelity, he gave himself to the work of correspondence
with any one who he thought would receive and
be benefited by his counsels. The labors of many
men, on their sermons and in their parishes, were
light, compared with the epistolary toils he voluntarily imposed upon himself, and, with delight,
carried on year after year, through nearly a whole
lifetime. Indeed, he has scarcely an acquaintance
who is not in possession of many letters on progress in holiness, on the way to get rid of disturbing doubts, and to triumph over easily-besetting
sins. From no painstaking did he shrink, could
he only thus lift the burden from a suffering soul.
Never did they that watch for the morning wait
for the breaking of the day with half the anxiety
that he did to see the shadows flee away from a




EX TRA CTS FR OM  MR. yA~MES'S LIFE.  335
clouded mind. And how he rejoiced when his
hope was not disappointed! "The nbte of victorious faith, which rings in your later letters, is
more to me than the success of Solferino. Your
freedom comes nearer home to me than the freedom of Italy, much as I desire the latter," are his
words. *  *          * The knowledge which he
imparted so earnestly, eloquently and unremittingly, from his pen and voice, and from the purchase
and distribution, in uncounted numbers, of any
books which might further his iurpose, he gained
at a great cost, and by the exercise of powers of
a high philosophic order. *  *  *  *  *  Whatever might be the theme of his conversation, or
the character of the labor he was devising or executing, I felt that I was in the presence of one in
whom, although "subject to like passions as we,"
the desire to be "at one with God," not only regulated powers of vast compass, and sensibilities
charged with vitality, but organized and gave
unity to a nature of immense volume, so that it
was compelled to be constantly useful, on a
scale commensurate with its capacity, and yet, so
constrained by its own ideals to depreciate itself;
that it did the erand work it was called to with




33 6   EX TRACTS FROM MR. yAME S'S LIFE.
seldom an apprehension that it was doing anything. Hence, I have felt that, if he dodes most
for his race who reveals to his fellow-mortals most
of the true God, and in such a way that they shall
receive and rejoice in the knowledge conferred,
Mr. James must ever stand high among the benefactors of his generation. * * * * * His
pulpit labors alone were enough to consume the
vigor and time of most men. When without a
regular ministerial charge, as during the later years
of his life, he never hesitated to preach for weeks
and weeks, for churches or ministerial brethren
whose burdens were heavy. And how  did he
preach? With the truth so deeply planted, not
only in his, intellect, but in his sensibilities, it was
to be expected that Mr. James would be an impressive preacher. But when it,is remembered
that his voice was like an organ for depth and
compass, and also resonant with feeling; and his
mode of composition such that each separate sentence was full of meaning, and closely related to
that which went before and followed it-it is not
surprising that he reminded many of Robert Hall,
in his purity of diction, and in the emphasis of his
utterance. IHe was accustomed to read and medi



EX TRA C~TS FROM MR. yAME S'S LIE~.  3 37
tate much before he wrote, so that his manuscripts
contained the invincible judgments of his soul;
and his style of speech manifested this. In his
conversation, it was often rapid and enthusiastic;
from the pulpit, it was more measured. There he
spake "as one having authority." No one could
hear his discussion of such themes as he presented
in his sermons in his exhaustive manner, and not
feel that the fire of intense convictions, relating to
the life or death of the soul, burned in the breast
of him who was giving his thoughts to his
hearers.
Remarkable, however, as were his sermons, they
were excelled by his devotional exercises. They
moved the heart to tears; they rekindled its hope.
The mind that in preaching, and in conversation,
and ill meditation, opened so readily to the being
and perfections of God, seemed in prayer to be
lifted into His actual presence. Absolved from
the ordinary conditions of thought, yet never violating them, Mr. James appeared to absorb the
affection of the Creator, and to gain a vision of
the ineffable glory as he approached the throne of
the heavenly grace. Yet, in that august pavilion,
his tones were not those of a stranger, but rather




33 8  EXTRA CTS FR OM MR. 74AMES'S LIFE.
those of one to whom the Lord had been and
would be a dwelling-place in all generations. What
tenderness, what faith, what adoration were there!
What a hiding under the shadow of the Almighty,
what communion of the finite with the Infinite,
what earnestness of intercession, what a venturing
upon the promises! Then it was that he " endured
as seeing One who is invisible, and talked with
God as a man talketh with his friend."
-*  *  *      *  It was a splendid sight to see
him from I852 to I856, as I did, every summer in
Lenox, with his vigorous intellect, his wealth of
feeling, his firmly knit frame, his eye that kindled
and expanded so immediately as ideal themes
were introduced; but it was sublime to know him
from I862 to I868, after his theology was adjusted,
after doubts had ceased to make their appearance,
after nature had yielded to the spirit, when every
material symbol and every human relationship constantly reminded him of his counterpart in spiritual bonds or Christian joys; when he began to
view the things of time from very much the same
stand-point that it is supposed redeemed men look
at them'after they have left the body; when his
union with or absorption in God seemed to gain




EXTRACTS FROM MR. 7AMES'S LIFE.  339
rapid increase from month to month; and when,
without losing a particle of his manly charity and
prodigal generosity, and intellectual intrepidity,
he seemed ready at any moment (save for that
never-satisfied and aching thirst for greater
conformity to the Divine mind) to enter upon
the employments and enjoyments of immortality.:*- * * *  *  And what shall we say of his
friendships? They were formed, in later years especially, somewhat with reference to capacity or
need, as he thought, in the subject of them, for
spiritual relief and advancement. Was it a soul
dark for the want of an apprehension of the mercy
of God in Christ, he could not withdraw his affection from it, or his labors.
We need not say that his more intimate friendships were permanent. They could not change
nor abate. The fiber of them was eternal; the
place for their exercise chiefly beyond the grave.
In not a few the memory of him is like the refrain
of some great anthem, which increases as it comes
back in echoes from the scenes amidst which its
notes were struck, and often after the hand which
gave them is taken away.




34n0 EXTRAy CnTS FOTl MRe. 7ArES'S IrE.
On Saturday night, the I 5th of February,
I868, he entered into his -rest. Though his sickness had been long, and his sufferings severe, his
joy was deep and full. "It is all joy, joy, joy! "
were among his last conscious words. Three days
before he departed, he said, " My faith is perfect.
As I have not produced it I may speak of it thus:
It is like the sun, or rather," he continued, " it is
like the natural sense we have of the sunlightquite adequate to reveal the things it is designed
to reveal."  At another time, when his departure
seemed full in view, he said, " The other side is
sunny. I call it sunny, because I see only God in
the unclouded heavens."  "  *  * "I expect
neither surprise nor disappointment in the future.
Whatever may be in it, I know that the same God
is there whom  I have known here, and I trust
Him."   *   -X  "My mind is all ready for a
shout at the vision of the exceeding glory." * * 
" Nothing is so precious to me as that Christ died
for us. I hear a voice, saying,'These are they
which have washed their robes and made them
white in the blood of the Lamb."'  With such
words as these, spontaneously uttered, he was
frequently refreshing those who were permitted to




EXTCACTS FR01M1V M  Ir. AMES'S LIFE.  34I
watch the shadows departing, while his soul
entered more clearly into the dawning and into
the day.
Thus he, that in his early days, and in his mature manhood, "tlhirsted " for holiness, came to
the fountain of the River of Life, and to the
Paradise of God, where they thirst no more.
"  si nit aiaima mea caUn te."