"Listen to me, O royal daughter; take to heart what I
say. Forget your people and your homeland far away. For your royal husband
delights in your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord." Psalm 45:10-11
"The king has brought me into his chambers." Song 1:4.
"Never again will you be called the Godforsaken City or
the Desolate Land. Your new name will be the City of God's Delight and the
Bride of God, for the Lord delights in you and will claim you as his own."
Isaiah 62:4
"Let us be glad, rejoice, and give Him glory, because the
marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has prepared herself. She was
permitted to wear fine linen, bright and pure." Revelation 19:7-8
"And this is the name whereby He shall be called--the
Lord our righteousness." Jer. 33:16.
"And you are complete in Him." Colossians 2:10
To Mrs. H., February 26, 1848.
All hail my precious sister,
I greet you with a sincere heart; welcome to the unspeakable delights of
union with the King of kings, the most high and mighty Prince, Emmanuel, the
Lord of Hosts, the King of Glory! Your song of love has made my heart as an
open fountain, so that I have wept abundantly, in sincere joy, to find
another love-stricken soul who, separated from all besides, shall know the
blissfulness of absorption in the Beloved. Surely this Well-Beloved has "put
in his hand by the hole of the door," and my affections are moved for Him
and for you; so that I must respond, though in feeble strains, to love's own
language, which my heart knows right well, triumphantly exclaiming, "It is
the voice of my Beloved, He is "white and ruddy, the chief among ten
thousand," "Yes, he is altogether lovely!" (Song 5:10, 16) He has borne away
my heart and my heart's affections; and, now, love and the Beloved are my
most delightful theme.
I had not time, my dearest Amelia, to pour out all my
heart's fullness this morning, and whether there will be a renewal of it is
known to Him who opens and no man shuts, who shuts and no man opens, who can
turn water into wine, and poverty into plenty. This has been a blissful day
to me, heaven begun, and glory antedated. At times you have been very near
me, and perhaps, if I knew more of spirit blending with spirit, and
soul communing with soul, we might have enjoyed it more fully. I wish to
wait quietly upon the Lord for the further unfolding of His blissful
secrets, and revealing of His glorious Person. And here my heart bounds with
delight, for it is the Person of Christ that ravishes my soul, and has
made me a willing captive to His matchless charms!
"All human beauties, all divine,
In my Beloved meet and shine."
Perfect humanity, ineffable divinity, one glorious
Person, our all-lovely Emmanuel. The union between this matchless One and
ourselves is double: we are joined to Him by one Spirit, so that when born
of the Spirit we partake of His nature, and He for very love took a body
like our own. "Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
he also himself likewise took part of the same," and thus "we are members of
his body, of his flesh, and of his bones," and it is blessedly written,
"They are no more two—but one flesh." "This is a great mystery—but I speak
concerning Christ and the Church."
This morning I had not heard your letter to dear Anne.
She has this evening read it to me. It is delicious to my spiritual taste,
savory meat, such as my soul loves. The Lord your God brought it unto you
and me, to Him therefore be all the glory. Fear not the loss of joyous
sensations, my very dear friend; your precious Husband and His love will be
ever the same, and you will come in sweet reciprocal love to such
devotedness to Himself, that you will, as it were, lay down His smile, and
His shine, and His kiss, and His benefits at His dear feet, and seek His
glory above them, and say--Honor Yourself by me, rather than please me with
these. When you have thus left them for Him, you will find them most
richly and continuously in Him. To take Christ for His own sake is
a secret worth worlds, and has in it that other secret, "rejoicing in
the Lord always." I know not whether I am clear to you—but must finish.
Accept warm love from the warmed heart of your dearly
affectionate,
Ruth, the happy gleaner.
P.S.—I should tell you, my beloved Amelia, that I
have had rich enjoyment in dear Madame Guyon. I do not think her views quite
correct in some points; but in others I have been astonished to find her
speak my very secrets, known only between the beloved and my soul. She was a
kindred spirit, and drank deeply of Love's pure stream; yes, she at length
lived at the Fountainhead. After going quite through, I regaled myself with
delight here and there among her precious things. At times I was enraptured
to find one in mortality pouring forth such pure strains of divine love,
until at length one evening, while thus engaged, it was as if the Beloved of
my soul gently beckoned me away from her, saying--Come to Me, and receive it
first hand. You will be sure the invitation was welcome. I immediately
closed the book, and have not opened it since; for "His lips are like
lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh;" "the law of his mouth is better to
me than thousands of gold and silver," and to hear of Himself from Himself
is better than any instrumentality whatever.
Do you know, beloved friend, this is the way the Lord has
ever dealt with me--He Himself has been my dear instructor; most frequently
without any creature. Gal. 1:12, is my very own verse, "For I neither
received it of man, neither was I taught it—but by the revelation of Jesus
Christ." He has powerfully spoken to me, too, from 2 Sam. 9:7, "You shall
eat bread at my table continually." How blessed to sit at the King's table,
to see Him, to hear Him, to learn of Him. Oh! indeed, I would rather be a
doorkeeper in the house of my God, than dwell and fare sumptuously in the
tents of wickedness. My heart says, "Let your handmaid be a servant to wash
the feet of the servants of my Lord."
I have thought of you in your last bereavement; you now
know a little of my anguish—the lonely bed, the lonely meal, the vacant
chair, etc. But Jesus makes up for all these, does He not? To His dear heart
of love, and arm of power, I now commend you, and in Him rest in bonds
indissoluble.
Your ever-affectionate,
Ruth