I was very glad to hear from you, as I always am, and of the beloved brethren too. It is a comfort to think that God, in sovereign grace, will have His beloved redeemed perfected and in peace with Him. Our part here is faithfulness in walk, under His care and by His will on the way. You will desire to know something of England.... All is not yet clear, but when God works we look for full result. And through it all I never was so happy within, and scripture and what is unseen more real and blessed than ever. I trust Australia will go on quietly and earnestly seeking the Lord and the good of souls for His glory. It is what I seek in England, to drop all this, and seek to minister Christ. It is what souls want, both for quietness, and forming them in His image. It is those who are not with Him who are restless.
I have heard that brethren out in your world have been exercised about dear—'s teaching, that souls are not Christ's till they are sealed. Now I agree with him, the authority for it being Rom. 8:99But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. (Romans 8:9). The prodigal son shows what the force of it is; as converted and in the right road, he at best hoped to be treated as a mercenary, had not on the best robe which fitted him to go into the house, nor knew in any way his place as son. But we have to be guarded as to dealing with souls as to this, because they may cry, "Abba, Father" really, yet be kept down by the teaching they are under; and we must not quite confound the "perfect"—that is, those who know their new place in Christ—and one who being forgiven, and being sealed can cry, "Abba, Father," but does not yet know what he is brought into: he may be, like the Corinthians, carnal though a Christian. But I am very glad the question is before brethren. The fact of the Spirit being given besides a man being born again by the Spirit, has been so lost sight of, that a Christian's place has been lost sight of with it. And God blesses this truth of the Spirit's presence now; He would have it before the saints. But the knowledge of the liberty wherewith. Christ has made us free, is different from that into which He has brought us so as to say, "As he is so are we in this world." The latter is more John's doctrine than Paul's (Paul's more the liberty), though you may get the groundwork of it in Paul.
The Lord guide you, dear brother, about your marriage, if still in abeyance: it is ever good to wait on Him, and not be in a hurry, or let our own will work. "I waited patiently for the Lord" is a word of Christ's Himself, and He cares for us and directs in everything.
[1879.]