TWO LETTERS TO YOUNG DISCIPLES OF THE LORD EMMANUEL-Burns, William Chalmers
Mr. Burns is constantly urging upon the people at home the great call for prayer on his behalf, and in his letters says:
“I desire a continued interest in the prayers of God’s people that my faith may not fail amid the difficulties of this arduous and honorable mission …. It is my desire and prayer that you may be countenanced by the gracious presence of Him, ‘who dwelt in the bush,’ and especially may be condescend to give light, quickening, and strength in all your prayers and plans for the generalization of China . . . Oh! that it might please Him speedily to send forth many into this field, full of the Holy Ghost and faith, and that he might sanctify to his service, and increasingly prosper the labours of those who are already in the field.
May the Spirit of grace and supplication be granted to the churches at home in connection with this work, so that they ‘who make mention of the Lord may not keep silence, and give him no rest till he arise,’ and make his kingdom a praise and a glory in these vast and densely populated regions! May the Divine Spirit rest upon many among you, and fill every soul with love to Immanuel, with zeal for the advancement of his
glory, and with compassion for China’s benighted and dying millions … I know that fuller details of what I have seen and met with, will be desired by some among you; but I think it better only to add, that the people
of God have not only much cause, but also much encouragement from what is past, to continue in prayer for us and the people among whom we go. Let them do so, abounding therein with thanksgiving, and I doubt
not that, from time to time, accounts will reach them from me, or from others, showing that a day of gospel light is beginning to dawn upon these so long benighted shores.
LETTER 1
One of the most critical periods in the religious history of a people, and of individual souls, is that which immediately succeeds a season of spiritual awakening. At such a time the impression of eternal things on
the public mind is subsiding, the blessed time of grace, which has wafted many to the shores of Emmanuel’s land, is setting back again, and society is returning to its wonted order and quietness – to multitudes, alas!
the order of rebellion, the quietness of death!In this state of things, the young disciple has often a deep and fearful struggle to keep his ground. His feelings are now become more calm, his sense of danger is less acute and piercing; perhaps the fire edge has been taken off from his conscience, unbelief is working within, and old habits of sin struggle to regain their power. The world around is moving on again as if God’s threatening were an empty sound, and Christ’s salvation a shadow, or a dream; while one and another of those who were seeking God are seen basely and madly deserting to the Devil’s camp. Satan struggles hard, by his temptations, to trip up the sinner’s heels, and give him suddenly a deadly fall. Even the Lord himself frequently, at such a time, as it were, leaves the sinner to stand upon his own feet that he may learn his weakness, — live by faith and not by feelings, —
endure hardness as a good soldier, — lay siege to the Kingdom of Heaven, and take it by violence. At this crisis, if ever, dear fellow sinner, you must live near to God, be filled with the Spirit, abound in the love of
Jesus; resist the Devil, keep your feet above the world, nail the old man without mercy to the cross, and set your heart on Heaven. This is the time to make God’s service your business, Christ’s presence your society,
the Bible your study, the mercy-seat your dwelling-place. Common efforts, ordinary prayers, will not meet the case. You must watch, you must wrestle, you must fight, you must fear, you must make Emmanuel your fortress and refuge, if you wish to stand fast. An easier hold may support the drowning seaman when the wave is heaving to the shore; but when it turns, and sucks him back, a death-grasp, and a death-grasp only,
of the rope, or of the jutting rock, will save him! Let each one, at such a time, look to his own soul, and cast himself with all his weight into the everlasting arms of Jesus. Thus will you ride out the storm, and make the
port of Heaven, while many around you part from their moorings, are driven among the breakers, and go down! I am often in an agony; God is witness, on account of many of you in different places, whom I suppose to
be at present in these circumstances of trial and danger. I have therefore thought of penning these hurried lines, to accompany the following letter, which I have been asked to reprint, and which I send forth the more
gladly, because I am prevented by manifold daily engagements from writing anything more suitable to your state. This letter was sent to Perth a year ago, at the time when that ever memorable season with which the
Lord visited that place in the beginning of 1840, had come to a close, and when all things had to outward view resumed their former position, — a multitude, alas! going forward heedless on the broad road to
destruction, as before! some, who had been arrested for a time in their downward career, beginning again to ride post to hell! and not a few, I hope, having come out of the world, and beginning to learn the lesson that they must bear a cross on earth, if they would wear a crown in Heaven! Oh! I wonder whether the Lord’s people in Perth, Dundee, Aberdeen, &c. are following him fully; and whether the lambs of the flock, in those places were the work of the Lord has been more lately witnessed, are keeping near the Shepherd’s tents. What do you say to this, dearly-beloved?Look to yourselves; for behold! the Judge standeth before the door! Again would I commend you all to him who keepeth Israel, and leadeth Joseph like a flock; and entreating your prayers that I, when I have preached to others, may not be myself a castaway,
I am ever yours in the Lord,
Wm. C. Burns Glasgow, August 4, 1841
LETTER 2
MY DEAR FRIENDS IN THE LORD,
I have felt the deepest anxiety about the state of your precious souls since we last parted, and have often wished to write to you; but, when I thought of doing so, I always felt your case so very weighty, that I was
obliged to give it over, having no power to speak to you as I could wish. I cannot, however, delay longer to let you know my continual care for you in the Lord. Now we live if ye stand fast in the Lord.” “But I fear,
lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from
the simplicity that is in Christ.”
When I consider our Lord’s wonderful and most affecting parable of the Sower, of the Tares and the Wheat, and of the Ten Virgins, with many other parts of his heart-searching word; when I look around me
and see one and another going back to the world, and walking no more with Jesus; and above all, when I hear of some among yourselves who walk disorderly, and by their open vanities and sins, bring dishonour
on the holy and blessed name of Jesus, I feel my heart almost ready to break with concern about you all, and would indeed be utterly cast down, where it not that I have the Lord Jesus saying, “My sheep shall never
perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand.” They are in his hand, — the hand of Jehovah, and yet the hand which was nailed to the cross, to redeem them; and neither the devil, with all his malice and
cunning wiles; nor the world with its seductive smiles and bitter frowns; nor the old man, with his deceitful lusts and passions, can take them from him. But ah! my dearly beloved and longed for, how many of those
who seem for a time to be Christ’s sheep, listening to his voice and following him, turn out afterwards to be wolves in sheep’s clothing! Christ’s true sheep hear his voice, and follow him, they follow him willingly, they follow him fully, and they follow him constantly; whereas many that walk for a time among the sheep soon being again to listen to the voice of strangers, and follow them rather than the Good Shepherd, when they come to a point where they must make a choice, and either part with others for Christ, or part with Christ for others. When we begin to set our faces Zionward, we are often like a dog following two men who are going together upon the same road. You cannot tell, so long as the men go on in company, to which of the two the dog belongs; but when they come to a point where they must separate and go opposite ways, the dog will follow the one who is his master. Thus, have you not seen some around you who seemed to follow Christ while the crowd followed him, but who now, alas! when these have gone back to their old ways, desert
Christ and go with the world? Oh! dear friends, is it not so with some of you? When you must sacrifice a lust or sacrifice Christ, which do you crucify? When you must part with a companion, or a lover, or a
relative, in order to serve the Lord, which do you abandon – your friend or your Savior? I am sure you are beginning to understand somewhat better than you did, why the Christian life in this world is called a
warfare. You are no doubt feeling that you have enemies without and enemies within, who seek your downfall and your destruction night and day. Do not be deluded with the idea that the way to heaven is
everywhere strewed with roses, and that the enemies you have to contend with are either few or weak. The Lord has said, “they are many, and they are strong, and they hate us with cruel hatred.”
How powerful and deceitful an enemy has each of you in your own heart\ “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.” “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?” Oh, how it can paint
the most hideous sins in the colours of innocence! how it can honey over with unhallowed pleasure pills of the most deadly soul-slaying poison! This enemy, dear friends, is far more than a match for all the saints
that ever lived on earth, and it will assuredly ruin both you and me, unless the Lord make us by his spirit to detect its wiles, and enable us by his almighty power to overcome them. If you would overcome in the
Lord’s battle, oh! study deeply your own hearts, and flee to the infinite grace and power of Emmanuel, for refuge from them. And remember this must be a daily and an hourly work. The old man is not easily made
to lay down his arms to Christ; he will fight after he has got many a fall, and many a severe wound; and even after he seems to be lying dead, he will rise again and renew the combat.The world also is the irreconcilable and deadly enemy of the Lord’s ransomed ones. It overcomes many by its
ungodly example, and its ungodly spirit; and when the influence neither of its spirit nor example will prevail against us, it will try to win us by smiles, or terrify us by frowns – to attract us by a blooming rose, or daunt
us by an unsheathed dagger. You will generally find that its smiles, and fawning, and flattering, are more to be dreaded than its scoffs, and jeers, and bitter calumnies. No one is so dangerous to the Christian as a
companion or friend, who is unconverted, but has many amiable qualities, and treats him with kindness and respect. Satan will tempt you to believe, in such a case, that there may be something really good in an
unregenerate heart, and that you need not be so anxious as you may have been about a new heart, and a new, Christ-exalting, world-condemning, God-glorifying, flesh-crucifying life! Oh! beware of the wolf in sheep’s
clothing. Abandon the unconverted as your companions, if you do not wish to abandon the well grounded hope of escaping eternal perdition, and reaching eternal glory. In almost every case of open backsliding
which I have heard of in this place (Kilsyth), I have found that the poor backslider never fully renounced his or her former associates, and thus was gradually drawn away by them again into former habits of
ungodliness; and I have no doubt you have noticed the same thing among yourselves. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but the companion of fools shall be destroyed.” “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”
What shall I say, my dearly-beloved friends, of the wiles and malice of the devil, the god of this world? Alas! I am myself but little acquainted with these, through my own carnal blindness and security, and I am
therefore little able to warn and direct you, from experience. But the Lord hath said, “Satan goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” “Take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able
to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Woe to them that are ignorant of Satan’s devices against the Lord Jesus, and all who truly follow him! Their ignorance is the surest proof that they are led captive by him at his
will. Believer, he will watch his opportunity against you; and, when you are off your guard – perhaps when alone, or when in the company of those from whom you think you have not much to fear, he will labour to
prevail against you by some of his manifold devices. I might say much more of these things, beloved, but my time is nearly gone; and I am afraid that, while I have been seeking to put you on your guard, and to beat
to pieces a false, and awfully dangerous, security, it may be needful to add a word of encouragement to anxious and desponding souls.
Are there any of you who have got such a view of your spiritual enemies, and of the dangers and difficulties that beset you on the road to Zion, that you are cast down, and ready to give up the contest? To such an one I would say, While you have good reason to despair of help from yourself, or from any other creature on earth, or in heaven, you have infinite reasons for looking unto Jesus as the author and finisher of your faith. As the Captain of Salvation, he has already overcome, in the name of all his people, the devil and the world; and he has promised to give them the victory, yea, to make them more than conquerors! The thought of our guilt, and depravity, and misery, ought not to lead us to despair of Emmanuel, but only to despair of ourselves. It ought to drive us to the throne of Jehovah’s grace, instead of driving us away from it. Presumptuous fleshly confidence is a soul-ruining sin; but unbelieving distrust of Jehovah-Jesus, is a sin unspeakably more heinous
and hell-filling. It is precious to be taught that without Christ we can do nothing; but it is far, far more precious, to be led by the Spirit, with Paul, to glory even in our infirmities that the power of Christ may rest
upon us. The first Gospel-lesson is to look for nothing connected with salvation in ourselves; but the second and the greatest lesson is to see Christ as “all and in all.” When we are weak, then we are strong – weak as
the worm Jacob in ourselves, but mighty as he was in Jehovah, to thrash the mountains and beat them small, and to make the hills as chaff. It was Jacob’s sense of weakness that was his strength, when he wrestled with
the Angel of the Covenant at Peniel and prevailed. We are told that he wept and made supplication. His tears and prayers prevailed with Jehovah, whose compassions are most deeply and tenderly moved in our behalf, when, like poor worms, we are lying helpless in the dust at his feet! When prostrate there, the weakest child of God may say, with David (Psalm 18:29),
“By thee, thro’ troops of men I break,
And them discomfit all’
And, by my God assisting me,
I overleap a wall.”
If you want to fight, and overcome, and receive the crown of life in the day of the Lord, which is at hand, oh! study his Word much, and, as far as you can, alone, and upon your kneesl Watch and pray without ceasing.
But, above all, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Behold the Lamb of God. Live by faith upon the Son of God. Behold him as your only righteousness, to atone for your guilt, and give you a right to eternal glory. Behold him as your only life, raising you from the grave of your trespasses to walk with him in newness of life, and to glorify God in your bodies and spirits, which are God’s. Behold him as your only strength, saying, “Fear not, thou worm Jacob,” &c. (Isaiah 41:14), and teaching you to say, “Thou art my King, O God! command deliverances for Jacob. Through thee will we push down our enemies,” &c. (Psalm 44). Oh! let us think of Jesus, until our hearts are filled with adoring love to his glorious person, and with ardent humble zeal for his glory; until we hate sin with a perfect hatred, and have our whole hearts set on that holiness without which no one shall see the Lord.Time would fail me, my dear friends, were I to try to say a hundredth part of what is in my heart. I must
draw to a close. I would press upon you to study the concluding chapters of the Epistles, as your divine and blessed rule of life in the hands of the merciful and righteous Mediator. Pray over these for the illumination
of the Holy Ghost, and for his almighty power to sanctify your hearts through the truth. Be much alone with God. Grieve not the Spirit. Rejoice in the Lord, and again I say, rejoice. Walk wisely toward them that are
without, redeeming the time. See that you fall not out among yourselves by the way. Warn the unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men; and the very God of peace sanctify
you wholly; and I pray God your bodies, souls, and spirits, be preserved blameless to the day of his coming. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it. Brethren, remember me in your prayers that I may open my mouth boldly, to declare the mystery of Christ, as I ought to speak. I cannot write more, but I trust to come to you again, and see you face to face, when the Lord will, which, perhaps, may not be long. The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his; and let everyone that nameth the
name of Christ depart from iniquity. He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved. May grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, be with you all. Amen.
Your humble and affectionate Servant in the Lord,
Wm. C.Burns Kilsyth, August 11, 1840