Glory to thy name for the grace in which they stand, and that thou hast enabled them to keep these lambs out of the world. Oh! let this be a heart-searching time with us all; humble us, and exalt thy name, and magnify thy Grace.

July 17, 1814.

preached from

Sacrament Sabbath. Mr. Rfirst Peter i. 8, 9. 'Whom having not seen ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory; receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.'

I had requested to be brought to my Lord's banqueting house, and to be feasted with love this day. I ate the bread and drank the wine in the faith, that I ate the flesh and drank the blood of the Son of man, and dwelt in him and he in me. Took close view of my familiar friend Death, accompanied with the presence of my Saviour, his sensible presence. I cannot look at it without this; it is my only petition concerning it. I have had desires and wishes of certain circumstances, but they are nearly gone. It is my sincere desire that God may be glorified, and he knows best how and by what circumstances. I retain my one petition,

"Only to me thy count'nance show,

I ask no more the Jordan through."

9

LETTER

TO MISS VAN WYCK NEW-YORK.

MY DEAR, MY BELOVED ELIZA,

Rockaway, 1810

MR. and Mrs. B. are here on a visit for one night. I did not expect to see them so soon, or I would have had a letter ready. I expect another opportunity in the course of a few days, when I will send you a long letter, from my heart, and, I hope, dictated by your and my Teacher.

I learn by my children that you continue much in the same way in which I left you. It is your own God who mixes your cup, and it is to you a cup of blessing; there is no curse in it. Your Jesus drank that cup to the very dregs, that bitter as well as sweet might be to you a cup of blessing.

O, then, my darling, hold fast by your Redeemer, He is the Lord your Righteousness, and the Lord your strength: He connects your profit with his own glory. You shall in this protracted affliction manifest it, and hold out the word of life to those around you. You shall witness for him that He is the Lord, and besides Him there is no Saviour that 'He gathers the lambs in his arms, and carries them in his bosom-that he is to them

*

*This prediction was remarkably fulfilled in the experience of this dear young saint; an interesting account of whose illness and death has been published in the Christian's Magazine.

a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest-as rivers of water in a dry place, and as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.' That it is he that teacheth them to profit, and leadeth them by the way that they should go, and that in due time he will perfect all that concerns them.

Farewell! Yours with affection,

I. GRAHAM.

TO THE SAME.

Rockaway, Sabbath, 1810.

MY DEAR, MY BELOVED ELIZA,

I wrote you a few lines yesterday by Mr. B. I now propose to fulfil my promise. I expect an opportunity to-morrow or next day, for I saw a great many carriages pass this way to the tavern, as I suppose, from New-York. It is a common thing with some to come here on Saturday, and return on Monday, to spend this blessed day in frolic. You would not, I know, exchange situations with them; you would rather be suffering than sinning.

It is your own observation that God does all in wisdom; in this wisdom he is pleased to lengthen your day of affliction. Sin, my darling, is the cause of all suffering; but is not always the immediate cause. Beside particular chastisement for particular sins, there are afflictions to be filled up in the body of Christ, (his church,) a measure of which in kind and degree, is appointed by un

1

erring wisdom to each individual member. Col. i. 24. These sufferings bear no part in atoning for sin, nor in redeeming our forfeited inheritance. Christ 'trode the wine-press alone, and of the people there was none to help him.' 'He was made sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him; who when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.' Heb. i. 3. Again, chapter x. 11. And every Priest (in the Levitical law) standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God; for by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified, whereof the Holy Ghost is also a witness to us, for after he had said before,' (see from verse 5.) 'This is the covenant which I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord-I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.' Paul says the Holy Ghost is a witness, because he copies from the ancient scriptures the prophecies of Jeremiah, chap. xxxi. 31, and Ezek. xxxvi. 25, and from the Psalms lx. 7. Your mother will read to you also the 8th chapter of Hebrews, containing the same things, the new covenant, in consequence of Christ as the surety of sinners, having made full atonement,

magnified the law, and made it honourable: therefore there is now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. It has pleased God, my darling, in the adorable plan of reconciling sinners to himself by Jesus Christ, to perfect at once a justifying righteousness for them, and to bestow it upon them as a free gift. This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son' 1 John v. 11. But it has not pleased him to deliver us at once from depravity; provision is made for final deliverance by the same covenant, and is affected by the same power, but in this beNevers are called to work. It is evident from Scripture, and the experience of Christians answers to it, that in the hour of believing they pass from death to life, considered as a state. This is the hour of the new birth-they then receive life for the time, and it is their privilege, by the constitution of the new covenant, to ask and receive, from day to day, grace to help in every time of need. To them, and not to the unregenerate, the exhortation is addressed: Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to do, of his good pleasure.' The means are of God's appointing, in the diligent use of which they go from strength to strength. The grand mean is faith in God's promises, of which there are very many in the Scriptures. Believers are to put forth their own exertions, as the children of Israel were called to go out against their enemies, in the faith that