1.A 26. LETTER XXVI

LETTER XXVI.

Duty of the sanctified To confess it Proved from the Psalmist From St. Pau] When a man speaks of what he knows, his words carry conviction An appeal to M. Example of the leper This confession commits us Mr. Wesley’s practice quoted Concluding remarks Poetry quoted in favour of the doctrine. My DEAR M : I cannot, consistently with my sense of duty, conclude these letters with out endeavouring to point out the duty of those who have come into the possession of sanctification. In the first place, it is the unquestionable duty of all such, on all suitable occasions, to proclaim it; for though it may be good to " hide the secrets of a king, it is right to proclaim the loving-kindness of God." While it is said that " with the heart man believeth unto righteousness," it is added, " with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." It is therefore as much our duty to make a " confession with the mouth" of what God has done for us, as it is to " believe with the heart" in Jesus Christ " unto righteousness."

Read over the Scriptures, and advert particularly to those parts where the saints of God are represented as " declaring what God had done for their souls." The Psalms especially are full of these declarations. " Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free Spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee." Psalms 51:12-13. And then in the sixty-sixth Psalm, sixteenth verse, he says : " Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul." And this declaration of what God had done for his soul was the most effectual way of teaching transgressors the ways of God, because by so doing his ways of saving sinners were more fully explained than otherwise they could be, and hence became the most efficient means of converting sinners to God. And when St. Paul was arrested by the fury of the mob, and brought before the rulers at Jerusalem to answer for himself, instead of entering into a laboured argument in his justification, he simply related his experience of Divine things how the Lord had appeared to him on his way to Damascus, and how he was delivered from his blindness by the ministry of Ananias. And this narration of facts carried such conviction to the heart of his judge that he exclaimed : " Almost thou persuadest me to be A Christian!" When ,1 man speaks of the things that he has seen nnH frit, and eperinlly when the hearers have confidence in his honesty, intelligence, and veracity, it is hardly possible to resist the conviction which his words carry to the understanding and heart; and, indeed, there is something in the language of truth, when uttered from an honest heart, and with a sincere tongue, which bespeaks for it a candid attention; the very intonations of the voice, as well as the expressions of the countenance, indicate that the speaker designs to lead you into truth. Hence a certain, undefinable sobriety marks every feature of the countenance, and sits prominently upon the words of the lips of that man who utters the real sentiments of his heart. And a sanctified soul hath this honesty of heart, so that the words of truth dwell on his lips; and though the superficial hearer may suspect him for a time, and the Pharisee may affect to despise him, yet he will gradually gain the confidence of all, and finally win the affections and command the esteem of the good and pious of all ranks of Christians :

" For honesty hath many gains, and well the wise have known This will prosper to the end, and fill their house with gold."

Tupper. Had you, my dear M, declined to tell your experience of the love of God, do you think you could have enjoyed it so fully as you now do? Could you have retained it for any length of time? I very much doubt it. " He that is ashamed of me, and of my words, before this wicked and adulterous generation, of him will I be ashamed before my Father and his holy angels," says Jesus Christ. And among the many gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth, are the following : " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." And the ten lepers that were cleansed by the word of Jesus Christ, the account of which is recorded in Luke 17:12-19, only one of whom, and he a Samaritan, "returned to give glory to God;" and to him the Saviour said, " Arise " for he had prostrated himself " at his feet, giving him thanks," " go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole." What became of the others we cannot tell, but the probability is, that they again mingled with their brethren, the unbelieving Jews, and ultimately deprived themselves of the healing efficacy of Jesus Christ’s powerful word, by not acknowledging his healing authority.

There is an instructive lesson to be derived from this narrative. The grateful leper, feeling his indebtedness to the Lord Jesus, "turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God." Glorified God! In whatever other way we may glorify God, we learn from this, that by an humble acknowledgment of our dependence on him for his blessings, and more particularly for the healing efficacy of his cleansing blood, we thereby glorify his name, for this is an ac knowledgment of his power, goodness and veracity. Nor is it enough to acknowledge these attributes in general terms, but we must, if we would benefit ourselves and others, be particular and definite in the relation of our experience of Divine things. And though we may not be able to dive into the depths of the ocean of Divine love, and fully explain the manner of His work ing, yet we may be sufficiently particular to give an intelligible account of the working of the Spirit may explain with sufficient particularity the dealings of God with our souls, to make it profitable to all those who are earnestly seeking after the same blessing.

Besides, this acknowledgment of the love of God commits us to the cause in a way from which we cannot well retreat. As Whitefield said to Charles Wesley, soon after the conversion of the latter, when, the former urging him to go into the fields and preach, he objected, on ac count of his weakness of faith; "That is the very way to strengthen your faith; for you will have taken a stand from which you cannot well retreat." Charles Wesley went, and found the words of Whitefield verified. And so all those whom the Lord has blessed with perfect love will find, that by an humble confession of what God has done for them, on all suitable occasions, their faith will be increased, their hope and love confirmed, and their courage greatly invigorated, for they will have taken a stand from which they cannot well go back; and it will, moreover, be a means of guarding them against any inconsistency of con duct, for they will instinctively say, " We have taken the vows of our God upon us, and we must now guard against charging God foolishly, or sinning with our lips, lest we bring a reproach upon his name, and a disgrace upon ourselves." This will also encourage others who are seeking after the same blessing, to pursue after it, as well as point out the way in which they are to obtain it.

I say they are to do this on all suitable occasions. They need not blab it out at all times, before all companies, and never in a boasting way, as if anxious to proclaim their own righteousness, or to exhibit themselves as infallible examples of holiness. This would be to defeat the very object they ought to have in view. This object is not to exalt themselves by proclaiming their own righteousness, but to exalt the grace of God in Christ Jesus, and to encourage others to seek it with full purpose of heart. In exact conformity with this Scriptural view of the subject, Mr. Wesley exhorted his people to make known the goodness of God to their souls; and hence the establishment of class and band-meetings, love-feasts, and other religious associations, in which select meetings they might freely express their religious experience, and more especially make known the loving-kindness of God in redeeming them "from all iniquity."

I cannot, indeed, hardly conceive how a soul, filled with the fire of Divine love, can refrain from making it known. His intense desire to proclaim the goodness of God will impel him to open his mouth, that he may give expression to the feelings of his heart. Hence he says,

" Then will I tell to sinners round What a dear Saviour I have found; I ll point to thy redeeming blood, And say, Behold the way to God!"

It is time that I bring these letters to a close, though I have much matter yet in my heart on this most delightful theme, which, if life and health permit, I may express at some future time.* * Thus far was written for the Christian Advocate and Journal, and the Letters which follow have been composed since. In closing these remarks, permit me to say, that I am truly thankful to Almighty God for enabling me thus to express my most mature thoughts upon this deeply interesting subject. And if you, my dear M , and any others of my readers, have received benefit from what I have written, give God the glory, and pray for the writer, that the remainder of his days may be sacredly devoted to the cause of Christian holiness, and that he may exemplify its purity and excellence in his spirit and practice. May we say with the poet I have so often quoted, and the re-perusal of whose hymns, while com posing these letters, has heightened much, in my estimation, their unrivalled excellence, as well as more indelibly impressed their deep, experimental and spiritual meaning upon my heart, and thereby created a fresh glow of gratitude to God for raising up such a man as Charles Wesley, and giving him ability to furnish the Church with such inimitable productions of his evangelical heart and pen may we, I say, adopt the following lines with a sincere faith and joyful hope :

" Come, and all our sorrows chase, Wipe the tears from every face; Gladness let UH now obtain, Partners of thy endless reign.

Death, the latest foe, destroy; Sorrow then shall yield to joy; Gloomy grief shall flee away, Swallow d up in endless day." In the mean time, I trust you, my dear M- will join with me in the following prayer :- " Our friendship SANCTIFY and BLESS, Unmix d with SELFISHNESS and PRIDE; THY glory be our SINGLE AIM! In all OUR intercourse below, Still let us in THY footsteps go, And never MEET but in THY NAME.

Fix on THYSELF our single eye;

Still let us on THYSELF RELY, For all the help that each conveys; The help as from THY HAND receive, And still to thee all GLORY GIVE, All THANKS, all MIGHT, all LOVE, all PRAISE."