Dealing Responsibly With Anxious Souls-#6

Letters to a soul seeking Jesus – No. V

Be found in Christ

December 8, 1841

Dear friend,

I send you another line to tell you of Him who is altogether lovely. I have a very dear boy in my parish who is dying just now. He said to me the other day, “I have just been feeding for some days upon the words you gave me: ‘His legs are like pillars of marble set upon sockets of fine gold’ (Song v. 15); for (said he) I am sure He is able to carry me and all my sins.”

You may say the same, if your eyes have been opened to see the beauty, fulness, freeness, and compassion of the Lord Jesus. Nothing but the hand of God can open your eyes to see your lost condition as it truly is. Flesh and blood cannot reveal Him unto you, but my Father.

Oh, call upon Him to do this for you! A spiritual discovery of yourself and of Jesus is better than a million of worlds to you, and to me also. Remember, you cannot be fair in yourself before God. Song i. 6 must be all your prayer: “Look not upon me.” Take yourself at your best moments, you are but a vile worm in Jehovah’s sight, and so am I. Remember you may be “perfect in Christ Jesus.” Allow yourself to be found in Christ.

Oh, what will come of you if you are found in yourself? Where will you appear? You will shrink back, and call on rocks and mountains to fall upon you and cover you. But if you are hiding in Jesus—if your eye and heart are fixed upon His wounds made by our sins—if you are willing to be righteous in His righteousness, to lie down under the stream of His blood, and to be clothed upon with the snowy fleece of the Lamb of God—then God will love you with His whole soul exceedingly.

The pure, full love of God streams through the blood and obedience of Jesus to every soul that is lying under them, however vile and wretched in themselves. Have you tried—have you tasted the holy love of a holy God? Thy love is better than wine. It is better than all creature love or creature enjoyments.

Oh, do not love—oh, do not die, out of this sweet, sweet, sin-pardoning, soul-comforting love of God! Remember, Jesus is quite willing to gather you under His wings (Matt. xxiii. 37). Put that beyond all doubt. Remember, also, the present is your only time to be saved (Eccles. ix. 10). There is no believing, no repenting, no conversion in the grave—no minister will speak you there. This is the time of conversion. We must either gain you now, or lose you for ever. Oh that you would use this little time! Every moment of it is worth a world.

Your soul is very dear to me—dearer far to Jesus. Look to Him and you will be saved.—Ever yours, etc.

Memoir and Remains, pp. 301-2.