Anne Dutton's
Letters on Spiritual Subjects
Dear Madam,
Permit me to ask, my dear sister—who told 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 Madam, 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!