The following extracts from the letters of a brother in a distant land would not have been made public did they not bear so decidedly on a point of the utmost importance at present. Whilst they evidence the craving of a mind desirous of the communion of the saints, they so simply, yet clearly state the only principle on which it can subsist, that we cannot but look on it as another evidence of the movement of God’s Spirit in the hearts of His children to a common object. And this too is from one at so great a distance, and so little aware of what is passing in Europe, that the coincidence of testimony to the same principle, from so many quarters, is altogether remarkable. It affords the strongest proof that wheresoever, from circumstances or situation, the Spirit of God is Unhindered, He leads by the simple teaching of His own word, to conclusions practically the same. Of all situations, perhaps that of England is the least favorable for forming a righteous judgment on the important subject of the communion of saints. The real question is so completely lost sight of in the struggle for preeminence among the various religious parties, that the possibility and practibility as well as duty of such union is rarely presented to the mind.
It may be well to add, that as the extracts are made verbatim the thoughts are those of the writer, and as to any expectation of glory to be restored to the Church, it is to be considered solely his own.
The extracts are as follow:—
“Oh! there is a preciousness in Jesus, that if we saw it fully, would put our eyes out for discerning glory in external things; we should be unable to distinguish the great from the small, the bright from the dark. The remaining rays of Christ’s glory lingering on the eye balls, would extinguish the light of other things, that they would become to us a general confusion. Do you feel what I mean? that if Christ were apprehended, we should cease to know what the world calls little or great. The pursuit of an empire or of a butterfly, would be to us alike little.”
“How great a thing it is to have really felt that all the world has, is what a child of God may part from and yet be richer without; how many steps it frees the soul for the Lord, which no other principle could effect. I thought little of the world when I left England, but since I have more fully entered on a pilgrim’s life, the hope of my happy peaceful heaven alone affords rue a comfort. Had I known a thousand worlds instead of the portions I have, the Lord enables me to feel assured, I would give them for that cause, the glory and excellency of which He has enabled me to see. Oh! may I be as willing to crucify self in every other way; may every unsanctified temper and every unheavenly desire be laid as a victim at the foot of the cross, and Christ’s will alone be mine.”
“I do not regret any of the trials I have had. Pilgrims must expect trials in a long journey, we cannot expect either good roads or good weather all the way, but the Lord Jesus has sanctified it all—foul and fair, and made all to work together for our good. Whatever purposes are in your heart let them be high and heavenly ones for Christ and His kingdom: the world will soon pass away and all its glories, but that kingdom shall endure. Keep close to the simplicity of Christ; nothing will keep us from extravagancies but walking with Him. He always moved so seriously to the object He had in hand—the fulfillment of His Father’s will. I seem just setting out in the divine life; may the Lord take me by the hand and lead me, till by His grace upon me, I be a savor of His precious name. All my desire is to live with my heart fixed on Him—to be led of Him in His own right way. We have all one great work in hand, it is to glorify Jesus. It matters very little what face external things may wear, so that the Lord does but smile.”
“How hard it is to have the heart alive to all God’s truth equally; however let this be our aim, and as we advance in these blessed attainments, may the Spirit bless us with a spirit of meekness and forbearance towards those who exclude us, or embracing us would exclude others. Let us minister on all hands to the union of God’s dear family; not by keeping out of sight the value of any portion of truth, or ceasing to act for ourselves on what we know; but let them feel by our union with them, where ever we can, that in anything to differ is pain and grief to us.”
“I feel more and more convinced of the truth that we are only under that dispensation revealed to us by the Lord of life and glory. And I think there never will be an end to the confusion in the minds of professing Christians or in the true Church, until it be admitted that for us Christ is the only lawgiver, and His message from heaven the was rule. When I see the perplexity and difficulty which confuse the minds of many of the clearest heads, oh! how I bless God that He should have led me into a definite comprehensible path. May His goodness make us very thankful and very humble, lest some cloud of darkness envelope us, and we are led to grope about as blind men at noon-day; for it is by God the Spirit only, that we can see the sufficiency of Christ for all His offices.”
“We have been full of joy in our God, mingled with sorrowing recollections of our dear neglected Lord’s honor; and I think the Holy Ghost has given us very earnest prayer and supplications unto our glorious and gracious head, to heal these our backslidings, that henceforth self with all its low and hateful desires, may not have place to live. May we all have grace to cry mightily to the Lord for a single eye to His glory, that He may be able to use us in raising His beautiful lovely bride—the Church, from her present low estate; for indeed she is the chosen of the Lord, the queen in gold of Ophir, with raiment of needlework of divers colors; for believe me she is all beautiful within, and it is only that we have heaped defilement upon her by putting upon her as a garment, all the ungodly of the land, because they are named by the name of Christ, that really her golden feathers and silver wings are become dim by reason of the dust of the earth with which she is mingled. Have you faith to pray for her, and a heart to love her?”
“Oh that our dear brethren and sisters in England would unite with us in holding up holy hands without wrath against her, and without a doubt that she may arise and shake off the dust from her and put on her beautiful garments; let us do all we can to induce her to lay aside those false companions and false principles with which she is allied, and watch over herself as the espoused virgin of Christ. Oh! that with the most holy truth, we may in every action of our future lives, seek simply that the Lord be glorified; and oh! may we all have grace to pray that every service done to Jesus, may not be ascribed individually to us, but be named upon the name of the bride of the Lamb, that her glory may fill all the earth.”
“The more the sense of my Lord’s love presses upon me, the more does it make my heart mourn, to think He should have been served so much from cold principles, instead of that holy service of the heart He so desires and values. I have been taught that the Lord’s end to me in all my trials has been to empty me of self. He has shown us that without the utter abasement of self, it was impossible He could ever bless me. Of this we are all deeply convinced, and I think are willing (made so by His grace and love) to act on principle the most self-renouncing; only seeking that His espoused may have the glory, as being her whom it was the will of our Lord to adorn with beauty.”
“Oh! that every wish for individual glory may be crucified; that we may really pray to be willing to be ministers, servants to all, in the holiest, meekest, and simplest spirit; yea, though we be the offscouring of all things, and the refuse of the world for Christ; yet let it be with the holiest meekness, yea, I say, and the sweetest spirit that we bear it, that all may see it is not in wrath, but in simple obedience we both do and suffer.”
“I have learned much of the powerlessness of man to direct his own ways when in difficulty and perplexity, I know no resource, nor do I desire any except to throw off my trials upon God, leaving it with Him to bring light out of darkness, and awaiting His time to do it. It is not that our Father has pleasure in our being in straits and difficulties that He thus permits them to try us, but He knows that our real life is hid with Christ in Himself, and whatever makes us feel this connection with Jesus necessary to our comfort, and constrains us to more close intercourse with Him, and makes the hope of final deliverance and rest more precious, is clearly to the happiness of our spiritual life however mortifying it may be to the natural man.”
“In connection with these views, the state in which the Church is, is particularly affecting; for while the heart has individual experience of the need it has of these very trials of the cross, to pull it out of the snare of the world, it has to mourn over the Church, not only as fallen in the dust, but as being more than ever reluctant to be raised up; and instead of following the revelation of God in all doctrine and practice, she gets rid of her difficulties in carrying them out, by weaving to herself various little texts of doctrine suited to the various sects of the day, and puts zeal for them in the place of zeal for God’s holy and blessed truths, as His, without exception or innovation. Oh! who does not long that the warfare was accomplished, and the Church glorified together?”
“So few think with us where we are right, and of those few a remnant only walk uprightly, being hindered in various ways from carrying out their principles; but when we remember what the Lord has really done for many, we never can despair. While we expect nothing from man, let us expect much from God, O! how blessed a thing it is, that the soul is made willing to be subject to the will of Christ; but how much more blessed to seize upon that will as our very happiness and joy, glorying in tribulations, in afflictions and distresses, for His dear sake.”
“For myself, it is not sufferings that alarm me, for to these I think, we are appointed; but it is lest, in following out principle, we should in anything seek our own glory, and not that of our adorable Lord. May the Lord give us grace to bear meekly the honor of standing out, even in the simplest thing, for the will of our beloved Lord, that all may see it is not to gratify any secret spring of that many-headed monster-self, but simply as a part of our holy allegiance and fealty to our Lord and King.”
“Oh! may the Lord so abundantly pour down His Holy Spirit on those He has freed from the trammels of all systems, that they may be enabled to show forth the truth and power of the principles round which they rally, and that too without falling into any system.”
“We have an immense advantage at least, that if we are weak and low it soon must appear; and then those that are alive and strong, can go and pray for power on the weak; but, in England, routine and systems shut out this active help and sympathy from each other.”
“But after all, let our hearts and thoughts be directed to one simple end; following Christ, and living in the Spirit of His kingdom; this, I am sure, is our work here, and out of this spirit will arise as much external order as is really valuable; if we really seek the Lord’s glory, and serve Him, He will make use of us.”
“I feel the Church must be united into a body to be what Christ intended it; and we do not recommend the character of our mystic holy union, while alone as sparrows upon the housetop. ‘The body (the apostle says) is not one member, but many.’”
“We need, for our spiritual edification, as well as for the true manifestation of Christ’s body to the unbelievers, the continual uniting aid of the other various members of the body; for instance, Christ says— ‘By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another.’ How can this be shown if the body is separated? Whatever dangers there are, therefore, and whatever difficulties connected with uniting many together, still I feel it is the right way to proceed. I am strengthening in my purpose to know none but in Christ. Whatever their denominations are among men it matters little; if they have felt the power of Christ’s and are living under that power, we must bear all other things for His dear sake.”
“Let us not for a moment do otherwise than embrace them with all our hearts, and forget all but this—that they are Christ’s. In fact, I never wish to bear the designation of any man living again after the name of man, or any other term that tends to divide the mystical body of Christ into little portions of man’s fencing off. I assure you, I feel it one of the greatest privileges of my situation, that though exclusively joined to none, I am also separated from none, and feel free to take from all what appears to me to be the mind of Christ, and to leave what appears to me contrary. May the Lord make plain paths for your feet, so that amidst the quick sands of the world, and the still greater treacheries of the heart, you may run the bright and shining course with even steps, forgetting the things behind, and reaching forth to the things which are before.”