God seems to have stripped
a dependent creature of all that renders life desirable, and then to
have answered his complaints from the whirlwind; and instead of
showing mercy and pity, to have overwhelmed him by a display of his
power and justice. . . . With the view I received from you, I should
have expected that a being who sympathizes with his guilty, afflicted
creatures would not have spoken thus. Yet, after all, I do believe
that God is such a being as you represent Him to be, and in the New
Testament I find in the character of Jesus Christ a revelation of God
as merciful and compassionate; in fact, just such a God as I need.
"Somehow or another you have such a reasonable sort of way of saying
things that when I come to reflect I almost always go over to your
side. . . . My mind is often perplexed, and such thoughts arise in it
that I cannot pray, and I become bewildered. The wonder to me is, how
all ministers and all Christians can feel themselves so inexcusably
sinful, when it seems to me we all come into the world in such a way
that it would be miraculous if we did not sin. Mr. Hawes always says
in prayer, 'We have nothing to offer in extenuation of any of our
sins,' and I always think when he says it, that we have everything to
offer in extenuation. The case seems to me exactly as if I had been
brought into the world with such a thirst for ardent spirits that
there was just a possibility, though no hope, that I should resist,
and then my eternal happiness made dependent on my being temperate.
Pages:
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71