XXVI.

Downham, 1800. Beloved in the "Lord,

WE arrived here safe last night soon after six o'clock, and were very kindly received. Many of the people round the country have made great inquiries when I should come, and therefore I have hope of a good company to hear me, and of some success among the hearers; but this work lies with the Lord.
I am at present in myself rather low and flat; much more in the valley than on the mount; more darkness than light; more rough paths than plain; and more appetite than food. But it ill becomes me to complain, knowing that nothing but sovereign grace makes the difference between the heir of promise and the son of perdition. I do long to see the word run and be glorified; but ours are not days of great success; we labour much for little fruit; much ploughing and sowing, but little crops, little reaping, and a small harvest: we labour; but the time will come when others will enter into our labours, and reap what we have sown. The Arminians have built a place at Littleport, and now they have opened a house at Downham.

"Wherever God erects an house of prayer,
The devil's sure to build a temple there.
And true it is, on strictest observation,
The latter has the greatest congregation."

But still their end will be according to their works. We must have a daily cross, and daily opposition; yet this we know, that no vessel, except a vessel of mercy, can sail both against wind and tide. It is not the first, but the last, in the heavenly race that wins the prize; and this no Arminian ever saw. I am now on my watch tower, hoping, begging, and expecting, that the master will come at the second or the third watch; at least at the cock-crowing, or in the morning; for sure I am that, unless the master bless the sacrifice, the guests that are bidden cannot be satisfied. There is bread enough in our father's house, and wines plenty on the lees, but the feasts are too, too, seldom; the, master is rich, but all the servants are poor. When first he woos and wins, and draws his hands to the plow, how kind, how liberal, how bountiful he cloth appear. So tender, so indulgent, so sympathetic, that he comes leaping upon the mountains, and skipping upon the hills, as soon as his promised aid is sought. But, when your hands are fast on the plow handles, then there is a suspension of these soul-dissolving visits: smiles are exchanged for frowns, embraces for refrains, visits for desertions, and kisses for strokes: then the time is come that we desire again to see one of the days of the Son of man, and we desire in vain. Nevertheless faith holds her own. Ever yours, the heir at law,

W. H. S. S.

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