I rejoice that you are helped and happy in your work—I trust very constantly dependent too. That is the secret of a work wrought with God, and that, though it may seem quiet, lasts, and lays the ground for progress. I can only write a line now, though, thank God, much better.
It is not that there are not deep things in the word of God, but if we search it with His grace and Spirit it is always plain for us on the top; then we have it from Him. The cream is on the surface, not that we do not search and study, but that when we get it from God it is plain and on the surface. Till then we must wait till He teaches us. The passage you refer to is quite general. You must expect in a great house all sorts of vessels, precious and vile. Christendom has become such, and hence we must expect such. False doctrine, when it characterizes a man, is a vessel to dishonor; sound and exalted doctrine accompanied with un-holiness, makes a man a vessel to dishonor; he who builds up sacramental corruptions, as Puseyites, Romanists, Greeks, are—at any rate as teachers -vessels to dishonor. I give these merely as examples; but it is left to spiritual discernment, according to the word, to judge what is, and then to purge oneself from them...
The Lord keep you humble and near Himself.
London, February 9th.