24. - To Mr. Alexander Mather.

we may give Christ all the glory of our redemption and salvation, without excusing ourselves from the performance of what he enjoins, and, of his own free, undeserved grace, gives us both will and power to do. I rejoice that your soul prospers: you need not look back any more. When you are tempted to hurry or inward impatience, remember you are not obliged to give way to it. Take up these little crosses patiently, by believing, looking inward, and finding Jesus in the midst of business. “He is here, he is here, as my all,” will break many, yea, ten thousand snares. May the peace of God be with you and yours! Farewell.

J. FLETCHER.

24. - TO MR. ALEXANDER MATHER.

MY DEAR BROTHER, - I thank you for your last favour. If I answered not your former letter, it was because I was in expectation of seeing you, and not from the least disregard. I am glad you enjoy peace at Wellington, and I hope you will do so at the Trench when you go there. My reasons for stepping there myself were not to seize upon the spot first, (as the accuser of the brethren may have insinuated,) but to fulfil a promise I made to the people of visiting them, if they would not countenance a lying wretch who went to them from the Bank: all this was previous to my knowledge of the invitation they gave you. I desire you will call there as often as you have opportunity. An occasional exhortation from you, or your companion, at the Bank, Dale, &c, will be esteemed a favour; and I hope that my stepping, as Providence directs, to any of your places (leaving to you the management of the societies) will be deemed no encroachment. In short, we need not make two parties; I know but one heaven below, and that is Jesus’ love; let us both go and abide in it, and when we have gathered as many as we can to go with us, too many will still stay behind. I find there are in the ministry, as in the common experience of Christians, times which may be compared to winter: no great stir is made in the world of grace beside that of storms and offences, and the growth of the trees of the Lord is not showy; but when the tender buds of brotherly and redeeming love begin to fill, spring is at hand. The Lord give us a harvest after seed time. Let us wait for fruit as the husbandman, and remember that he who believes does not make haste. The love of Christ be with us all. Pray for J. FLETCHER.

25. - TO MISS HATTON.

MADELEY, May, 1776.

MY DEAR FRIEND, - I am sorry, after the manner of men, that you are ill, but glad in the spirit that the will of God takes place in you, and that he purges you, that you may bring forth more fruit. Now is the time for you to begin to be a Christian in good earnest; I mean, to follow the “Man of sorrows;” and to do it as a lamb who goes to the slaughter, and opens not his mouth by way of complaint; though as a Christian, I apprehend you may and ought to open it by way of praise.

One advice I will venture to give you, or rather to transcribe for you, out of Isaiah: “The believer does not make haste,” to doubt, to hurry, to forecast, to reason after the manner of men: “If I am a child of God, why am not I thus and thus?” Let Christ, either suffering for you, or ordering your sufferings, be so eyed that you may in a manner forget and lose yourself in him; or if a weak and pained body makes you think of wretched self, let it be to lay it down with composure at Jesus’ feet, or to take up the burden of the cross with cheerful resignation. I hope to hear soon of your being recovered in body, and strengthened in soul by thus affliction. “Is any prayer acceptable to God, which is not the dictates of his own Spirit?” If you mean by the dictates of the Spirit, his influence on the mind to show us our wants, and upon the heart to make us desire a supply of them: I answer, no; for a prayer which hath not, at least, the above mentioned qualities, is only a vain babbling.

“Does a believer always pray with the Spirit’s assistance?” Yes, when he prays as a believer and not as a parrot; for at his lowest times he has, more or less, a sight of his wants, and a desire to have them supplied; and this he could not have, did not the Spirit work upon his mind and heart. I hope you sink inwardly into nothing, and through nothing into the immensity of God. I see a little, through mercy, into the beauty of humiliation; I find the ministry of condemnation glorious; and I love to take, every moment, the curse out of Moses’ hand, as well as the blessing out of Christ’s. The Lord grant that you and I, and all our friends, may do it more feelingly and constantly every hour!