Vol 16 - TO THE LAIRD GAITGIRTH.

TO THE LAIRD GAITGIRTH.
MUCH HONORED SIR,
GRACE, mercy, and peace, be to you! I can do no more but thank you in paper, and remember you to Him whom I serve, for your kindness and care of a prisoner. I bless the LORD, that the cause for which I suffer, needeth not to blush before Kings. CHRIST's white, honest, and fair truth needeth neither wax pale for fear, nor blush for shame. I bless the Lord, who has given you the grace to own CHRIST now, when so many are afraid to profess him. Alas! that so many in these days are carried with the times; as if their conscience rolled upon oiled wheels, so do they go any way in which the wind bloweth them. Sir, go on to own CHRIST, and his oppressed truth. The end of sufferings for the Gospel is rest and gladness. Light and joy are sown for the mourners in Zion; and the harvest (which is of GOD's making for time and manner) is near. Crosses have right to CHRIST in his members, till the whole mystical CHRIST be in heaven. There will be rain, and hail, and storm, in the saints' clouds, till Go]) cleanse with fire the works of creation, and till he burn the house of heaven and earth, which men's sin has subjected unto vanity. They are blessed, who suffer and sin not; for suffering is the badge that CHRIST has put upon his followers. Take what way we can to heaven, the way is hedged up with crosses; there is no way but to break through them. Wit and wiles will not find out a way about the cross of CHRIST; but we must go through. One. thing by experience my LORD has taught me, that the waters between this and heaven may all be ridden, if we be well horsed; I mean, if we be in CHRIST; and not one shall drown by the way, but such as love their own destruction. O that we could wait on for a time, and believe in the dark the salvation of God!’ At least we are to believe good of CHRIST, till he give us the slip; (which is impossible;) and to take his word for security, that he will fill up all the blanks in his promises, and give what we want. But to the unbeliever CHRIST'S testament is white, blank, unwritten paper. Worthy and dear Sir, set your face to heaven; and receive the kingdom as a child: without this, he that knew the way said, there is no entry into it. But CHRIST will be willing to lead a poor sinner. O what love my poor soul has found in him, in the house of my pilgrimage! Suppose love were lost in heaven and earth, I dare swear it may be found in CHRIST.' Now the very God of peace establish you, till the day of the glorious appearance of CHRIST!
Aberdeen,
Yours in JESUS
Sept 7, 1637
S. R.
Much honored and Christian Lady!
GRACE, mercy, and peace, be to you! I long to hear how it go with you and your children. I exhort_ you, not to faint in your journey': the way is not so long to your home, as it was; ye shall come ere long to be within your arm length of the glorious crown. Your LORD JESUS did sweat and pant before he got up that mount; he cried, a Father save me; " it was he who said, (Psal. 22:14, 15) " I am poured out like water: all my bones are. out of joint;" (CHRIST was as if they had broken him upon the wheel;) a my heart is like wax, it is melted in. the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd." I am sure, ye love the way the better, because his holy feet trod it before you. I know ye have sad hours, when the COMFORTER is hid under a veil, and when the seeker misseth Him whom the soul loves: but even his unkindness is kind, his absence lovely, till GOD send CHRIST himself. in his own sweet' presence. Make his comforts your own, and be not strange and shamefaced with CHRIST. Free dealing is best for him; it is his liking. When your winter storms are over, the summer of your Lone shall come. Your sadness is pregnant with joy; he will do you good in the latter end. Take no heavier lift of your children than your Lord alloweth; give them room beside your heart, but not in the yolk of your heart, where CHRIST should be;—for then they are your idols. If your LORD take any of them home before the storm come on, take it well; the owner of the orchard may take down two or three apples from his own tree before Midsummer; and it would not be seemly that his servant should chide him for it. Let our LORD pluck his own fruit at any season he pleases. They are not lost, where our LORD'S best jewels lie. They are all free goods that are there; Death can have no law to arrest any thing that is within the walls of the New Jerusalem.
Now the great Shepherd of the sheep, and the very GOD of peace, confirm and establish you to the day of the appearance of CHRIST our LORD!
Aberdeen,
Yours in his LORD JESUS,
Sept. 7, 1637. S. R.