Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

admiration in our right minds at Christ's feet, than Lydia did. Yet I feel comfort in speaking to a Christian on this subject, since we can both, like David, enter in the Sanctuary in order to clear up our doubts, and behold the end of those who will not follow us thither. We have the witness in ourselves, when a mist, like that which lately overspread your mind, does not rise to obscure it. For, whether the world will believe it or not, we know there is such a thing as a Common Sense among the real disciples of Christ-a heart-felt conviction and experience of the truth of the Gospel. We know that nothing did us good till we received that Gospel:-that, till then, we had no well-grounded hope in view of affliction, death, and judgment. I must repeat the term wellgrounded, because an ill-grounded confidence is worse than none at all.

With a mind fully made up on the subject, all the days of my appointed time I hope to wait till my change come. Such a change we all know must soon take place in every one of us; but a strange infatuation leads fallen man, like one walking in his sleep towards a precipice, to plunge into the abyss before him, without so much as inquiring whither he is going, or how he may go safely. On the contrary, as one awake, I would anticipate the change before it takes place: I would provide against it: I would descend to the grave, taking hold of the Almighty Hand

stretched out for my help; crying, as I descend, Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which Thou hast caused me to hope.

Till then, as we cannot but we cannot but pity such as slight these Results of our Inquiry, so let us also pray for them; endeavouring, by every step in our conduct, still further to demonstrate the more excellent way. And, permit me to add, that, till then,

I must, remain, Dear Madam,

Your affectionate Friend,

And faithful Servant,

R. C.

A

FRAGMENT,

WRITTEN IN

AN ILLNESS, IN THE YEAR 1799.

A

FRAGMENT,

&c.

As S a traveller, who has left his house but a few hours, finds himself in an entirely new situation; so, shut up for a few hours in a sick bed, and with a prospect of death, I look backward and forward, and seem in a new world. I feel the truths which I have taught, in a way I never before felt them. I marvel at the stupidity of man, and most of all at my own stupidity. I desire to live, only that I may live and act under the impressions which I now have, as I clearly perceive nothing else worth living for.

I just now called for one to help me, who would go through fire and water to do it; but received no answer. What a mercy that He, who always can help me, always hears me when I call!

I feel many sweet and strong ties to the present life, in my family and in my Church, to which all earthly possessions bear no comparison; yet to

« ZurückWeiter »