Anne Dutton's Letters on Spiritual Subjects
Dear Sir,
It is well for us that Jesus, our elder Brother, now appears in the presence of God for us—of God our Father, who loves us—that God's first-born Son—His holy, His beloved Son, exalted at the right-hand of the Majesty in heaven—is not ashamed to call us brethren, who are so much unlike Him on the earth! How great is the wonder that He, who is surrounded with myriads of angels and archangels—those 'bright flames of love to Him' who incessantly warble out His praises—should ever cast one kind thought upon such dull, cold, lifeless pieces of earth as we sometimes feel ourselves to be!
But our Lord loves us—loves us freely. Loves us infinitely— notwithstanding all our unloveliness, and ingratitude, and evil requitings of Him, for all His manifest kindness! And love binds His heart to us, and fixes His kind thoughts upon us. Loved by Him—freely, greatly, unchangeably, and eternally—we shall be remembered by Him perpetually in an infinity of flowing compassions, under all our sicknesses, our griefs, our miseries—from which by an infinite, an all-producing resolve, He will save us unto full and endless glory with Him hereafter!
That love of Christ, which was strong enough to engage Him to die for us when enemies, as sinners, as ungodly—will never fail towards us, because of that remaining enmity, sin, and ungodliness, which abides and works to our grief—in the corrupt, unregenerate part of our souls, and sadly at times produces backslidings in our lives. The love of Christ will go on with its great design—to save us from all sin and misery—unto all grace and glory—with Him, unto ages without end!
His love to us is infinitely great for the accomplishment of His great design—to bring us all up to be with Him where He is, to behold His glory, to be one in Him and in the Father, as He and the Father are one, by love-union and glory-communion—unto our full joy and ineffable and endless bliss!
Let us lift up our heads in faith—and with stretched-out necks in hope, let us look and long for the glory of that day. I wish you rich times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, who, having loved His own who are in the world, loves them unto the end!
