Vol 16 - TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE LORD LINDSAY.

TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE LORD LINDSAY.
Right honorable and my very good Lord,
GRACE, mercy, and peace, be to your Lordship! Pardon my boldness to express myself to your Lordship, at this so needful a time. Blessed are they who will come out, and help CHRIST against the mighty. The shields of the earth, and the nobles, are debtors to CHRIST for their honor, and should bring their glory and honor to the New Jerusalem. (Revelation 21:24.) Alas, that great men should be so far from subjecting themselves to the sweet yoke of CHRIST, that they burst his bonds asunder! I am sure, when you leave this perishing life, and depart hence, and take shipping, and make over for eternity, which is the yonder side of time, and look over your shoulder then to that which ye have done, spoken, and suffered for CHRIST, your' accounts shall more sweetly smile upon you, than if you had two worlds of gold to leave to your posterity. O my dear Lord, consider that our Master, eternity, judgment, and the last reckoning, will be upon us in' the twinkling of an eye. The blast of the last trumpet, now hard at hand, will cry down all Acts of Parliament against CHRIST! There will be shortly a proclamation by one standing in the clouds, " that time shall be! no more," and: that Kings of clay shall be no more," and that prisons, confinements, forfeitures of nobles, or hazard of lands, houses, and name for CHRIST, shall be no more! This world's span length of time is drawn now to less than half an inch, and to the point of the evening of the day of this old and gray haired world; and therefore be fixed and fast for CHRIST and his truth, for a time; and fear not him, whose life go out at his nostrils, and who shall die as a man. Losses for CHRIST are but our goods given out in bank, in CHRIST'S hand. Kings are time's idols; but a sight of our invisible King shall decry and darken all the glory of this world. At the day of CHRIST, truth shall be truth, and not treason.
Alas! it is pitiful, that silence, and to cast a covering over a good profession, (as if it. blushed at light) are thought a sure way through this life: but the safest way, I am persuaded, is to suffer with CHRIST, and to hazard fairly for him for heaven is but a company of noble venturers for CHRIST. CHRIST shall grow green, and blossom, as the Rose of Sharon, yet in Scotland; although now his leaf seems to wither, and his root to dry up. Your noble ancestors have been enrolled amongst the worthies of this nation, as the sure friends of the Bridegroom, and valiant for CHRIST. I hope ye will follow on, to come to the streets for the same Lord: it shall be your glory, and the sure foundation of your house, (now when houses are tumbling down, and birds building their nests, and thorns and briers growing up, where nobles did spread a table,) if you engage your estate and nobility for this noble King JESUS. All the world shall fall before Him; and as Got, liveth) every arm lifted up to take the crown from his royal head, shall be broken from the shoulder blade. The eyes that behold CItRIST weep` in sackcloth, and wallow in his blood, and will not help, even these eyes shall rot away in their eyeholes. O that ye, and the nobles of this land, saw the' beauty of • that world's wonder, JESUS our King! O what would men count of clay estates, of time eaten life, or of motheaten worldly glory, in comparison of that fairest of GOD’s creation, the SON of the FATHER'S delights! I have but small experience of suffering for him; but let my Judge and Witness in heaven lay my soul in the balance of justice, if I find not a young heaven, and a little paradise of glorious comforts here beneath the moon, in suffering for him in his truth. O it is my sorrow, my daily pain, that men will not come and see. I should be ashamed to believe, that it should be possible for any soul to think he could be a loser for CHRIST, suppose he should lend CHRIST the Lordship of Lindsay; or some such great worldly estate. Therefore, my worthy and dear Lord, set your face against the opposites of JESUS; let your soul take courage to come under his banner, and to appear as a soldier for him; and the prayers of the " Prisoners of Hope " shall be with you. To his saving grace I recommend your Lordship wad your house; and am still CHRIST'S prisoner, and Your Lordship's obliged servant,
S. R.