Anne Dutton's Letters on Spiritual Subjects
My Dear Brother in Christ—our Life, our Love, our All,
You desire a line from me. What shall I write? Methinks you want to hear of your Beloved; and if His Spirit, sent from the Father and the Son, will please to take of the things of Christ, and show them unto you by so weak, so unworthy a worm, it will be to our mutual joy, and the Lord shall have all the glory. It is grace unknown, my dear brother—free, rich, superabounding grace, that gave you a saving acquaintance with Christ in love—in that infinite love which is in His heart toward poor lost sinners who are enabled to look unto Him for all salvation.
Christ is a fountain of all supplies. You cannot need more than Christ has to give, is willing to bestow, and will enrich you with in your every time of need. It has pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. All fullness dwells in Christ, to supply us in all our emptiness. Do you see your nakedness? Christ's name is, "The Lord our Righteousness." Do you groan under your unholiness of heart and life? Christ is made of God unto us sanctification, to present such defiled worms as us, perfectly holy before God in His own personal purity now, and to maintain, increase, and perfect that purity of heart which is begun in us by His Holy Spirit, until we are perfectly conformed to the image of Christ, our holy Head. Does your folly, your inability to know the things of God in their greatness and glory, grieve you? Christ of God is made unto us wisdom. It is His office, as our prophet, to teach the most ignorant souls who come to Him. He will teach the meek his way. It is His joy to teach us, and His teachings are efficacious to those who humbly wait upon Him for the same.
Does your spiritual poverty distress, and your spiritual enemies afflict you? Christ is made of God unto us redemption. Our Redeemer is great and strong. His redemption by price and power is and shall be perfect. Your Redeemer has paid all your debts; He has bought you and your inheritance.
Your whole person, made perfect, shall be taken by Him into His own embrace to enjoy the most intimate communion with Him and His Father—in love, life, and glory—to a blessed eternity! And can your heart conceive, my dear brother, the one-half, the thousandth part of that bliss, that vast inheritance of God, of which, by Christ, as a believer in Him, you are now made an heir, and of which, by Him, you shall shortly be a possessor? I tell you no! Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man, in a mortal state, to conceive of those great things, according to their greatness, which God has prepared for those who love Him, to be enjoyed by them in immortal glory!
Come then, my dear brother, come by faith, and lie down in the bosom of Christ, in His Person and fullness, as made yours by infinite love. For, this, this Jesus, is the rest, and this the refreshing with which the weary soul may rest. The love of Christ to you, and your salvation in Him, are unchangeable amid all the changes of your frames. The good work of God, begun in your soul, shall be performed until the day of Christ. Abide in Him by faith, and cleave unto him by love. In every path of duty follow on to know the Lord, and you shall know Him to your full and endless joy and glory!
