Anne Dutton's
Letters on Spiritual Subjects
Dear Madam,
Do not fear because you see so little grace in you
that you have not the truth of grace; and because you see so much sin that
you are all sin. For consider, grace is yet but in its infant state;
and corruption, that makes against it such great opposition, is like an
enraged, mighty giant. And is it any wonder to see an infant knocked down
frequently, and laid for dead sensibly, by the wrathful hand of a giant, and
especially by a giant, an irreconcilable enemy, that dwells with the infant,
and seeks its destruction continually? No! A marvelous wonder it is that the
power of sin, influenced by Satan, has not long since utterly slain the life
of grace in you, in me, in all the called of God, and left it neither root
nor branch!
And whence is this? Oh, it is because that little spark
of the life of grace in us is in an inseparable union to an immense fullness
of ever-flaming grace—life in Christ! So that, until sin and Satan can pluck
Christ down from His high Throne in Heaven, they can never totally destroy
the life of grace which is His life in us! Attempt it they will, and prevail
against us in part, and for a time they may; but we, like Gad, though
overcome by a troop, will be overcomers at last, and made more than
conquerors through the love and blood of our incarnate God, our
all-triumphant Head!
Therefore, dear Madam, in the Lord's name let us set up
our banner against sin and Satan, and go forth to the fight as those that
are already blessed with a complete victory in Christ. And to cheer our
spirits, let us consider that stronger is the Lord who is in us than all the
force of the enemy that can possibly be against us; that 'infant grace' is
and shall be maintained in life, and raised to its perfection by an Almighty
arm; and that by the omnipotence of an Infinite God, the 'giant sin' shall
have a full and eternal destruction! And then to Him we will forever shout
Salvation! Mercy and peace be with you.