A Letter To Joseph Tanner – Febraury 19th, 1864

My dear Friend, Joseph Tanner,

I see more and more what an afflicted people the Lord’s people, or at least the best of them are. What sufferings in body, what trials in mind, what afflictions in family, what perplexity in circumstance, what trials in the church, what foes without, what fears within, are the most spiritual of the Lord’s people exercised with. But how, by these afflictions, they are separated from the great mass of dead and worldly professors with which the visible church is filled; and how through these tribulations the work of grace is deepened and strengthened in their soul! We can look back to ourselves, and we can see in others how many wares were taken into the ship, which in the storm had only to be thrown overboard. I can see, even in those gracious friends to whom my heart is knit, that many things were cleaved to, if not actually indulged in, from which the furnace of a later period in life has purged them.

The Scripture well and wisely speaks of grace in our heart, as gold; but this gold gets mixed with dross and tin; not that gold is dross and tin, but as in the natural ore, the gold lies as if in streaks and in veins embedded as it were in worthless matter, so the grace of God in a Christian heart lies as it were in thin veins, surrounded with the mass of nature’s corruptions. This is why we so need the furnace, for its hot fires discover and separate everything in us which is opposed to the grace of God.

Thus I have observed in those Christians who have passed through the deepest trials, and been most exercised in their own souls, more simplicity, sincerity, uprightness, godly fear, consistency, and fruitfulness; and yet with all this we find them continually lamenting their barrenness, deadness, and unprofitableness. Why so? Because the light which shines into their mind reveals, and because the life which is moving in their heart makes them feel, those deep and abiding corruptions which are never purged away in their being, though they may be in their power and prevalence.

I was much pleased with what you said about having your mind more fixed upon our blessed Lord, as having died and risen from the dead, and gone up on high. I have long seen and felt that our faith, if it is to work by love and purify our heart, must have an object—a divine and heavenly Object to whom it can look, on whom it can hang, and with whom it may have to do. There is a great tendency in the mind, and one, I must add, often encouraged by the ministry of the day, to look too much at our evidences instead of looking to Christ. It is a delicate subject to handle, and I should much like to talk it over with you in the fear of the Lord, and in that exercise of our enlightened judgment and spiritual experience which makes conversation profitable; and I believe, as we see eye to eye in these matters, we would not differ nor dispute. The great difficulty is to avoid getting on one wrong ground, in our anxiety to get off another. We see, for instance, many preachers speaking in very bold language of always looking to Christ, and shooting arrows of contempt against the poor tried children of God for being so much bowed down with doubt and fear, and against the ministers who, they say, encourage them in them. Now, how grievous it would be to join, even in appearance, with such men, for we feel confident that the faith of which they speak is for the most part presumption.

But then, on the other hand, there may be an error in leading the poor child of God to look too much to the work within instead of the work without, and make his feelings to be his Christ. Now we know that all our hope centers in the blood and righteousness of the Son of God; and we know that our faith, if it brings any peace or consolation with it, only does so as it receives the Son of God as made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. To take Christ out of our sight is like taking the sun out of the sky; and to look to one’s self for light is like substituting a match for the light of day. What we need is for the blessed Lord to come into our soul in His dying love, in His risen power, in His free, rich, superabounding grace, in the manifestations of His glorious Person, and in the sweet assurance that He loved us and gave Himself for us. This is the doctrine—the heavenly doctrine which Paul preached, and which he prayed that the saints might enjoy (Eph. 1:12-23; 3:8-21), and this was his own experience (Gal. 2:19, 20). Though so deeply favoured and so richly blessed, he was not looking to nor leaning upon his own experience, even though he had been in the third heaven, but was looking to and leaning upon his blessed Lord. How this shines, as with a ray of light, through his blessed Epistles, and oh that we might be taught by the same Spirit, have in measure the same experience, and preach to others the same glorious Gospel, holding forth the Word of life that we may rejoice in the day of Christ that we have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain!

You complain of your want of ability &c.; but all our ability is of the Lord, and not of ourselves. One man may have greater natural ability, more clearness of thought, and power of expression, or his spiritual gift may be larger; as one servant in the parable had five talents given to him, and another two. But “Well done, you good and faithful servant”, was said to both. The great thing is to labour with a single eye to God’s glory, according to the ability which the Lord gives us. It is the Lord’s Word, not our own, which we have to preach, and what the Lord blesses is not what we speak, but what the Lord speaks in and by us.

How mysterious are the Lord’s dealings with His people, and often how inexplicable; but it almost seems as if the Lord had a controversy with Zion in taking away or laying aside His servants, and raising up so few to fill up their place. It will soon be with us, time no longer. Oh that we might be enabled to say when the time comes—”I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course, I have kept the faith!”

Yours very affectionately in the truth,
J. C. P.