|
Who makes you differ from thousands?
(Anne Dutton's Letters on
Spiritual Subjects)
Permit me to ask, my dear sister--who taught
you that you were miserable, wretched, blind,
and naked, sin-ruined, and law-condemned--and
must perish forever without a saving interest
in precious Jesus? Who showed you the worth of
your immortal soul, that if your soul was safe for
eternity, it did not much matter how things were
as to your body, during this momentary state of
your little inch of time? Who gave you such a
high esteem of Christ, the Friend of sinners?
Have you always had such a living sensation of
these things? If not, how did you come by this?
Who gave it to you? Who makes you differ from
thousands, on your right hand and on your left,
who, insensible of their own misery as sinners,
and of the excellency of Christ as the Savior, seek
no higher happiness than the empty enjoyments
of this perishing life?
Oh, dear sister, have not you cause to adore
the rich, free, distinguishing grace of God to
you--which opened your eyes, while numbers
round about you are blinded by sin and Satan?
You have seen your unspeakable misery without
Christ, and His immense and eternal excellency to
make you incomparably happy unto endless glory!
You have been drawn by His all-conquering love,
and changed in some measure into His image, and
have given yourself up to Him, to be entirely and
forever His. The altogether lovely Jesus is your
beloved, and He is your friend--and in Him you
have, and shall have, a well of life, and ocean
of inexhaustible and eternal bliss!
"By the grace of God I am what I am." 1 Cor. 15:10
|