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On the Lord’s Chastening
The Lord loves his children too well either to let them sin at ease or live at ease; and though free-willers say that the discriminating grace of God leads to licentiousness, God's quickened family know better; and no others are capable of judging or being witnesses, for they know nothing about it. It is to the glory of grace that the Lord will chasten his people for their sins; not in vindictive wrath, but in love; for as many as the Lord loves, he rebukes and chastens—Revelations 3:19: “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.” When the dear child of God is under his chastening hand, he is often ready to say, “I cannot be a real Christian,…
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One of the Highest Insults
About sixteen years ago, I heard a young man from Hoxton (Association Baptist) Academy make the following remarks: “I now offer you Christ, and Christ stands with open arms ready to receive you. Yea, he begs, and prays, and beseeches you all to come unto him and have life; and yet some of you will not come. Nay, it is as if God the Father came and fell upon his knees before you, begging and beseeching you to receive Christ, and come and be reconciled to him; and yet you will not come.” In this way he proceeded for a considerable length of time; and this he called “preaching the gospel to every creature.” From a professed Arminian such remarks might be expected; but for…
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Last Letter to Mr. H. Fowler
Minister of Gower Street Chapel, London 11 July 1838 My dear Brother, I was truly sorry to hear of your affliction, and I do hope by this time you are better. O my dear brother, what poor dying worms we are, and what a wretched wilderness this is. But, adored be the name of our dear Lord, he has been, and still is, and ever will be, a very present help in trouble. Both you and I have proved him so thousands of times, and I hope you prove him so now. I have of late been in very deep waters, in more respects than one; but here I am, the spared monument of the Lord's discriminating grace. When you and I arrive at home,…
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Hope Maketh Not Ashamed
Manchester, 20 February 1835 I am glad to find that the Lord now and then affords you a few moments' sweet intercourse with himself. This is one of the greatest blessings we can enjoy. The comforts of this life are great blessings; but to enjoy the Lord Jesus Christ as our Lord and our God, our Portion, and our eternal All, is a blessing indeed. O my dear friend, what an indescribable mercy it is for such poor sinners as we to be raised up to the sweet enjoyment of Christ! This is entering blessedly into the solemn truth contained in that portion of the Word of God: “The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the…
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Thy Love Is Better Than Wine
Manchester, November 1830 My dear Friends,—I received your very kind letter, for which I am thankful. I assure you it often affords me pleasure to find that I have a place in the hearts of God's dear family; for, next to union with my dear Lord and Master, I esteem union to his blood-bought, heaven bound family. Among the blessings in which your soul delights you have also your sorrows; for both of which may you be thankful, since they are all tokens of our dear Lord's love, and a proof that he has not forgotten you. “The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposal thereof is of the Lord.” These are eventful times, but the dear children of God have no…
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Christ Only
Manchester, August 14, 1834 Dear Brother in Jesus, the Lord of Zion,—I wish to have nothing to do with party spirit; but I cannot, I dare not, sacrifice truth and a good conscience; and I hope no one will wish me to do so. Through the matchless riches of God's grace, I have been taught a little of the glorious importance of divine truth in all its bearings; and as far as I know my own heart, I had rather die than shrink back from the truth of God. The Lord keep me! When I visit you I wish to know nothing among you but Christ and his cross, as couching in it all the glorious gospel of God from the springhead of electing love,…
