1.A 16. LETTER XVI

LETTER XVI. Its indirect evidence The fruits of the Spirit Love to God and man Poetry Joy The nature of holy joy Not always rapturous But submits to God’s will Rejoices in tribulation- Sentiment sustained by poetry All things work for good- Nothing will separate such a soul from God Poetry quoted. MY DEAR M : In addition to the direct witness of the Holy Spirit to the heart, which always accompanies the work of sanctification, there is inseparably connected with this the fruits of the Spirit. These fruits cannot appear unless the Spirit itself be present to produce them, any more than there can be a stream of water issuing from a dried-up fountain, or fruit upon a dead tree. If, therefore, we have the fruits, we may take it for granted that we have the Spirit, as this is the cause of those, and the effect cannot be unless its cause be present to produce it.

These fruits are enumerated in Galatians 5:22-23 : " But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance," and such is the excellence of these fruits, that the apostle says, " Against such there is no law," either human or divine.

Let us examine these fruits. LOVE to God and man. Love assimilates us into the likeness of God, for " God is love/ and he that " dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." This lovely fruit adorns the sanctified soul throughout, and makes him appear like God, as his visible representative among men. And is not love one of the most pleasant passions of the human soul? " Love worketh no ill to his neighbour." If I truly love my neighbour I cannot designedly do him an injury; on the contrary, I shall do him all the good in my power. Love also knits all those hearts together which possess it, and creates an indescribable union of spirit, which is more sensibly felt than easily expressed. So likewise those who have this love to God, cannot violate his commandments, nor do anything with a design to injure his cause, or to sully the glory of his holy character. Hence the poet teaches us to sing, " O grant that nothing in my soul May dwell but thy pure love alone; O may thy love possess me whole, My joy, my treasure, and my crown; Strange flames far from my heart remove : My every act, word, thought, be LOVE.

" O LOVE, how cheering is thy ray!

All pain before thy presence flies; Care, anguish, sorrow, melt away, Where er thy healing beams arise. O Jesus, nothing may I see Nothing desire or seek, but the " The poet identifies Jesus and love, declaring that he who has the one has the other also, for " JESUS AND LOVE ARE ONE." And this love is begotten in the soul by the direct operation of the Holy Spirit, for the " love of God is spread abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost." The next fruit is JOY. "Ask," says the Saviour, "that your joy may be full." This joy, which is a fruit of the Spirit, is of the purest kind, comes from the purest source, and mingles with the purest minds. It is not always of that ecstatic, transporting character which carries its possessor away into the " third heavens," and makes him almost forget, for the time being, that he is in the body; for though sometimes his soul is thus elevated and elated, yet at other times he is oppressed with sorrow, burdened with crosses and disappointment, and is " in heaviness, through temptation." His joy arises principally from a belief that the will of God is accomplished, or is accomplishing in him. To this will he bows down with calm submission, knowing that, as he is God’s child, nothing, great nor little, shall befall him but what is under the direction of infinite wisdom and goodness, and that, consequently, " all things shall work together for his good."

While in this frame of mind he can " count it all joy when he falls into divers temptations, knowing that the trial of his faith worketh patience." It requires, indeed, some experience in Divine things an experience acquired by learning many lessons in the school of Christ to enable us to " rejoice in tribulation;" yet the sanctified Christian will find, as he perseveres in the way, that even these temptations, from whatever source they may arise, and with what ever malignity they may be hurled at him, will all tend to test and purify his faith, to try his grace and improve his patience, and to pare off the rough edges of " peevish nature," and thus to make him shine the brighter in the kingdom of God. In this, therefore, he rejoices, not indeed on account of the pain he feels for " pain," under any circumstances, " is perfect misery," but because of the happy results of the fiery trial through which he is called to pass. He can therefore sing with a joyful heart,

" Though friends should all fail, and foos all unite, Yet one thing assures me, whatever betide, The promise assures me the Lord will provide." The poet has expressed this state of mind most admirably in the following verse :

" Yes, Lord, I shall see the bliss of thine own , Thy secret to me shall soon be made known , For SORROW and sadness I JOY shall receive, And share in the GLADNESS of all that believe."

Yes, " While in AFFLICTION’s FURNACE. And PASSING through the FIRE, Thy LOVE we PRAISE which knows no days, And ever brings us nigher; We clap our HANDS EXULTING, In thine Almighty favour, The LOVE DIVINE, which made us thine, Can keep us thine forever."

Read, my dear M., the two hymns from which I have quoted, the first on the 246th page, and the second beginning on the 239th page, old edition, and see if you will not be tempted to sing them with a joyful heart and a triumphant faith, as expressive of your own experience, at least in some stages of its progress in the way of holiness. Have you not often felt, even since your emancipation from the galling yoke of in bred sin, your heart penetrated with sorrow, your spirit pierced with grief, and your whole soul oppressed with a burden for which you could hardly account; and yet, in the midst of all these clouds which hovered around you, and for the moment darkened your sky, you would inwardly rejoice in God your Saviour, and sing with our deeply experienced poet, " By faith we see the glory To which thou shall restore us, The cross despise for that high prize Which thou hast set before us!" And when the Lord had brought you through the furnace, placed your feet on a broad place, dispersed the clouds which hung lowering in your spiritual horizon, by the rising of the bright beams of the "Sun of righteousness," did you not look back with joyful gratitude to God for giving you grace to sustain you under the pressure you felt; and do you not even now feel a glow of unutterable pleasure spring up and overflow your heart at the remembrance of " all the way in which the Lord hath led you?" I know you do. And not only so you feel your faith strengthened, your courage invigorated, your love expanded, and your hope con firmed, and even your joy increased, by this very conriict; and you can now trust in God with a firmer purpose than before, while you look forward with the most exquisite delight, anticipating an "abundant entrance into the ever lasting kingdom of God." Faith now says, with unwavering confidence,

" Peace, troubled soul, thou needst not fear, Thy great Provider still is Who fed thee last will feed thee still, Be CALM, and sink into His WILL."

Thus you can " rejoice in the Lord always," because you know you " love God," and there-fore "all things," all your crosses and disappointments, temptations, even your own infirmities, not excluding the sins of your enemies, and much more all your blessings, the society of the friends of Jesus, their prayers, preaching, and conversation, and ten thousand nameless blessings, which come upon you daily, from moment to moment, and often unasked for" God is able to give you abundantly more than you can ask or think," all these things " shall work TOGETHER /or your food /"

What a catalogue of blessings we have enumerated! They come, all couched together in this ample promise of God, like a cluster of golden coins, and fill the coffer of the heart with the richest gems of God’s spiritual kingdom. With such a comprehensive promise as this on which to hang our faith, I am sure we can joy and rejoice evermore in God our Saviour, and " Praise him for all that is past, And trust him for all that’s to come."

If ALL these things shall work TOGETHER, shall co-operate one with another, and mutually assist each other in " working out our salvation," then most assuredly we have the most abundant reason to rejoice and be glad all the days of our lives. If " not a hair of our head shall fall to the ground without our heavenly Father’s notice," so that nothing great or small shall hap pen to us but what is under the direction of his all-wise, all-powerful, all-loving, beneficent hand how can we repine how can we be discontented with our lot how can we complain of any of his dealings how, in a word, can we refrain from REJOICING that we are in the hands of such a benevolent " Father of our spirits?" With this view of the subject, is it any wonder that the Apostle Paul adopted that triumphant language which is found in Romans 8:33-39, in which he says, among other words of the strongest faith, "Nay, in all these things we are MORE than conquerors THROUGH HIM THAT LOVED us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to SEPARATE us from the LOVE OF GOD WHICH is IN CHRIST JESUS." With such a persuasion as this, founded as it is upon the immutable promise of God, and confirmed in the hands of such a Mediator as is Jesus Christ, and assured to the heart of the sanctified believer by the sealing testimony of the Holy Spirit, of which the apostle had spoken in the previous part of this chapter, I say, with such a persuasion, founded upon such a promise, namely, that " all things shall work together for our good," we certainly can, nay, must " REJOICE in hope of the glory of God." With a well-founded persuasion that none of the things enumerated by the apostle shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, we may patiently bear all things, however grievous to flesh and blood; we may, believing, hope for all things, and joyfully anticipate a happy issue to all the events of God’s providence, whether adverse or prosperous, and calmly submit ourselves to his guidance in every state of our lives, knowing that they are all directed by a hand that cannot err. This subject is so copious, and my heart so full of it, that I hardly know how to stop; but the length of this letter admonishes me that I must bring it to a close, which I will endeavour to do by asking you, my dear M., to sing the following well-known and often repeated lines of Charles Wesley, which are so applicable to the subject under consideration :

" REJOICING NOW in earnest hope, I STAND, and from the MOUNTAIN TOP See all the land BELOW; Rivers of milk and honey rise, And all the fruits of paradise In endless plenty grow." With this triumphant song trembling upon your lips, you may lie down to rest in peace, and rise up in the morning with the following words issuing from your glad heart, and flowing from your joyful tongue :

" Rising to sing my Saviour’s prayer Thee may I publish all day long , And let thy precious word of grace Flow from my heart and fill my tongue . Fill aU my life with PUREST LOVE, And join me to the Church above."