A Letter To Two Sisters In Christ – October 20th, 1869
My dear Friends in the Lord, Mrs. Peake and Miss Morris — You will perceive from the handwriting that I have got back my junior secretary, and very glad we all are to welcome her home after her long absence; nor could I have spared her so long had it not been for the sake of my poor invalid sister, to whom she was a great comfort in reading to her out of the Word of God, Bourne’s Letters, etc. She is quite confined to her bed, and says that she has little wish to live. She has at times been much favored with the presence of the Lord, and taking her experience throughout, has known more of His gracious visitations, applications of the Word with power, marked answers to prayer, etc. than many have enjoyed. She has not indeed much to live for, though much attached to her relatives and taking great interest in their welfare.
I have just finished my G. S. work and revising the sermon, and generally feel for two or three days afterwards a need of almost absolute rest. The mind, and its organ the brain, will not endure more than a certain amount of labor, and to go beyond that sooner or later is sure to wear upon it. I have, so to speak, conserved my mind for many years, never pushing it beyond a certain point, and then by exercise, or rest, or sleep, endeavoring to fit it anew for fresh labor. By doing this, and the blessing of God resting upon it, I have been enabled to do a great deal of work, and to do what I have done carefully and thoughtfully, without which nothing can be really well done. I am sure, my dear friend, you can sympathize with me in this, as your own mind being so much occupied is often jaded and worn out and needs rest.
But of all rest the best is that when we can rest where God rests — in His dear Son; to cease from our own works and rest wholly and solely in the blood and righteousness and finished work of the blessed Lord. And how graciously and tenderly He invites us to do so! (Matt. 11:28, 29). We are often poor restless creatures, looking here, and there, and everywhere, but to Him who has said—”O Israel, you have destroyed yourself, but in Me is your help!” And we well know that all the rest and peace that we ever have got in times past, or get now, is by believing our interest in Him, and in what He has done and suffered to save poor sinners from death and hell. How suitable He is to all who from sheer necessity cleave to Him, and find at times a blessed sweetness in looking to Him and leaning and hanging upon Him!
There often is, for a long time, a contention in the soul against God’s way of salvation, either from self-righteousness or gloomy despondency. We are unwilling sometimes to see the worst of ourselves, or to believe we are as bad as Scripture and conscience tell us; and then again, when some light shines into the mind to show us what we are, the greatness of our sins, and the dreadful nature of sin generally, then it seems as if there was scarcely ground for hope. Sometimes unbelief, or infidelity, or impenitency, or rebelliousness, and various other startings-up of the carnal mind stand as obstacles to salvation, which nothing can remove but the power of the Lord subduing the heart into faith and repentance. When then we can come out of our wretched selves and receive God’s salvation as a free gift of His unspeakable and superabounding grace, then, and then alone, is there rest and peace.
I have been obliged rather to curtail my Meditations, as I wished to finish the chapter by the end of the year, and shall therefore have to pass over much that otherwise I should like to unfold at greater length. But it is not well to tire readers, for long meditations are like long sermons, which weary when they should edify.
My little work on Popery is, on the whole, going off pretty well. There have been some favorable reviews of it, one of which, in the Morning Advertiser, I send herewith, and as I think you do not see the Gospel Magazine, I will also send that.
Yours very affectionately in the Lord,
J. C. P.
Jesus is LORD! 
Leave a comment