Vol 16 - TO THE VISCOUNTESS OF KENMURE,

TO THE VISCOUNTESS OF KENMURE,
MADAM,
GRACE, mercy, and peace, be to your Ladyship! I would not omit to write a line by this Christian bearer, one in your Ladyship's own case, driven near to CHRIST in and by her affliction. I wish that my friends in Galloway forget me not; but however it be, CHRIST 1S so good, that I will have no other tutor, suppose I could have ten thousand beside. I now think five hundred heavy hearts for him too little. I wish that CHRIST, now weeping, suffering, and contemned of men, were more dear and desirable to many souls, than he is. I am sure, if the saints wanted CHRIST'S cross, so profitable and so sweet, they might, for the gain and glory of it, wish it were lawful either to buy or borrow his cross: but it is a mercy that the saints have it for nothing; for I know no sweeter way to heaven, than through free grace and hard trials together; and one of these cannot well want the other. O that time would post faster, and hasten our long looked-for communion with the fairest among the sons of men! O that the day would favor us, and come, and put CHRIST and us in each other's arms! I am sure a few years will do our turn, and the soldier's hour-glass will soon run out. Madam, look to your lamp, and look to your LORD'S coming, and let your heart dwell aloof from that sweet child. CHRIST'S jealousy will not admit two equal loves in your Ladyship's. heart. He must have • one, and that the greatest; a little one to a creature may, and must, suffice a soul married to him: " Your Maker is your husband." (Isaiah 54:1-17 :) I would. wish you well, and my, obligations these many years speak no less to me; but more I neither wish, nor pray, nor desire for your Lady-ship, than CHRIST singled out from all created good things; or CHRIST, although wet in his own blood, and wearing a crown of thorns. I am sure, the saints, at their best, are but strangers to the incomparable sweetness of CHRIST. He is so new, so fresh in excellency, every day, to those that search more and more in him, as if heaven could furnish us as many new CHRISTS (if I may speak so) as there are days between him and us; and yet he is one and the same. O, we love an unknown lover, when we love CHRIST. Grace for evermore, even while glory perfects it, be with your Ladyship!
Yours in JESUS,
S.R