Anne Dutton's
Letters on Spiritual Subjects
My very Dear Sister in our precious Lord,
I rejoice to hear of your soul's prosperity under those afflictions
which have attended your body. I have again been visited with illness, and
am weak. The hand—the heart of our own God—our God of love—is in everything
to us. In all, let us love, bless, and adore His name, for honorable
and glorious are all His works, and most worthy is He of praise from us in
all. Under the sweet, enlarging influence of God's free love, we love Him
and as much when He frowns as when He smiles.
A believing, loving, adoring spirit, under divine
chastisement, is an excellent spirit—a God-glorifying frame of soul.
Our afflictions, light as they are, as being laid upon us and we supported
under them by the Lord's all-gracious and almighty hand, are made blessings
to us. They may well be borne by us, not only as they are designed for, and
shall end in, our soul's present and eternal advantage, but also, and
chiefly, in that our God is and will be glorified thereby His displaying the
glory of His infinite love, grace, mercy, wisdom, power, faithfulness, and
fatherly goodness towards us in them—and by our ascribing all honor in
filial duty unto Him.
Our God is infinitely concerned for our good in
every affliction. So let us be earnestly, yes only, concerned about His
glory as to our duty therein, casting all our care upon Him who cares
for us.
We shall bless God, when we come to heaven, for every
kind and degree of affliction that we passed through on earth—for every
trial, and for every circumstance attending it, wherein we are enabled to
glorify God.
After this heavenly temper, and an increase therein, let
us labor while pilgrims on this earth. A submissive, patient, cheerful,
thankful frame of spirit, under the afflicting hand of God, is that
honor, that reverence which we owe to Him as a Father—and ineffably sweet,
and exceedingly profitable is this unto us as His children. In a little,
little while, sin and sorrow shall be no more. A fullness, an eternity
of joy and glory in the immediate presence of God and the Lamb awaits us.
Our afflictions are given to us as a fruit of the
Father's grace, of the Son's purchase and intercession, and as a
season of the Spirit's preparing us below for that glory which is
prepared for us above. Oh, my dear sister, all things are ours, whether
life, or death, or things present, or things to come. Time with all
its changes, its comforts and crosses, and eternity with all its
great and unchangeable glories, are ours! Christ is ours, and all things in
and with Him, and we are His, and shall shortly be with Him where He is, to
behold His glory! We shall be like Him, perfectly so—for we shall see Him as
He is! We shall not be long absent from, but shall shortly be forever with
the Lord—to see, to love, to praise Him perfectly and eternally. Oh, blessed
day! It hastens upon us. A day without clouds, without decline, without end!
A magnificent, bright day, that will spread its glories over all, when the
Lord will be our everlasting light, and our God our glory!
Then farewell forever! Farewell trials! Farewell
sin! Farewell sorrow! Farewell death! Farewell darkness! Farewell pain!
Farewell weakness! Mortality shall be swallowed in life! And in the
meantime, my dear sister, let us go on in faith and hope of that eternal
life which God, who cannot lie, has promised; and loving and adoring the
Lord in all things, let us follow the Lamb, even wherever He goes, until we
reach immortal glory with Him. And now, my dear child, unto the tender care
of your everlasting Father I commit you. May His presence be with you, and
His blessing be upon you continually.