Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
My Dear Brother And Sister In The Lord,-I and my daughter, and a sister in the Lord who travels with us, came on here from New York on the 12th of December I had paid a seven weeks' visit there, and after our brother J. N. D. came, and had stayed three weeks with us in our lodging, I thought it well to come on hither so as to make the most of what little we may have to use in His service.
The dear M—-'s were well; for him, well; she as usual. I speak of the body. The Lord seems to be " lessoning " him (as the poor people in, England say), and I think if he could but make up his mind to leave himself as a dead man in the hands of the Lord, and to look up more simply and entirely to the Lord in heaven, he would be more steadily in peace and joy, and perhaps his body be less in his way. I know how the doctor thinks bad things about said body, but doctors know very little about how far the Lord may out of weakness make strong, or how He may make His strength perfect in weakness.
Your sympathy and your wife's to me, beloved brother, was gracious and of the Lord. But I have felt from the first, as to my companion leaving me at Montreal (to me so unlooked-for a close of fellowship in labor and toil), " Thou didst it," and I have added from the first, " Therefore I am dumb " Probably I have been put through deeper exercises in some things than others, and can walk quietly therefore when I have learned my lesson, as others who have not learned it could not. And what really is there to make lengthened residence here on earth desirable to a child of God? Cross, conflict, watching, fighting, are the present experiences of each one who is a soldier of Christ down here; armor never off in war time, and in an enemy's land. And patient as she was, she felt the incessancy of the pilgrim journey, and the weariness of her own weak self too; but rest and presence with the Lord were near. Had they been offered to her she would have hesitated to take them for my sake. Had I been consulted, I could not have answered more wisely than, " Thou, Lord, shalt answer for me." He did not consult me, but took her and left me, and in so doing made an appeal to me-Would I bow to Him? would I rejoice in her gain? The lonely path I am in He looks down upon me in, and reminds me of the glory to come, and of being forever with the Lord. Surely " our Jesus hath done all things well," and all the weaknesses which this trial exposes me to feel and to realize have their answer in Himself, a very present answer. And if humiliation and
conscious weakness be mine, and a needs-be to repress the expression of affections to others, which her presence enabled me safely to do, the life He has given me He can guide skillfully with His own hand, and keep me to His praise and glory. The being poured from vessel to vessel, if not pleasant, is good for our souls, and hinders formality and sleepiness.
I have been brought into contact of war with annihilationists, &c., of this land, and am trying my hand at a poor man's view of the case. The path is plain to a way-faring man, but the wickedness of the heretic and his dishonesty makes the difficulty. Still, if the Lord will condescend to give me a wayfaring man's view of the great white throne. I think it may kelp some of His own children. To pull to pieces the tracts which uphold the heresy were easy enough, I think; for they are all the expression of the busy diligence of man's mind, trying to make God to be what will suit better an unrepentant sinner than will the God of Scripture.
Universalism is another form of evil here; so is spiritualism, which (dropping the Bible) makes man's thoughts to be all from God, vile and filthy as the results are of this system in every vile license to the flesh.
How blessed it is to remember the changelessness of Him who is the eternal Lover of our souls! And oh, what a love He has shown and does show to each of us! We need not wait for the glory to come if we really have been walking in the light, as He is in the light, to set to our seal that God is love, as Christ our portion, and we His, are thought of by us.
Our kindest salutation to one and all of ours. God's best blessing be upon and with you.
G. V. W.