COMFORT AND ENCOURAGEMENT - Burns, William Chalmers

A LETTER TO THOSE AT EVEN WHO ARE SETTING THEIR FACES ZION WARD – 1843

DEAR FELLOW-SINNERS,

Now that I am removed from you I cannot forbear to send you a few lines of comfort and encouragement; and it has been my prayer that the God of salvation may enable me to speak a word in season.Fix it in your hearts that you have been made to glorify God; that, by the entrance of sin, you have become incapable of doing so; that God’s Holy Law condemns you; and that you might be righteously left by Him to perish forever under the overwhelming weight of His holy wrath on account of sin! These things you no doubt think of, but oh! I beseech you take hold of them with an doubting, settled faith, and seek to have them written on the conscience by the Holy Spirit of God. Consider also that Jehovah has sent into this
world His only begotten Son to seek and save the lost. The lost are condemned to the second death; they are the slaves of sin, and the children of their father the devil; — and such we all are by nature, whether we know it or not. To save such Emmanuel came into the world. He shed his precious blood to take away sin, and He gives His Holy Spirit to destroy its power in the heart, to cast out the Devil, and to make us holy as God is holy, and pure as He is pure. If than any of you feel, or really believe, that you need a Saviour, consider that Jesus is a Saviour divinely suited to your very case – to the case of the lost, and that God hath given Him to this world as His unspeakable gift. Are you willing that He should be yours? Are you willing that He should save you in His own way and for His own glory? If so, you may be assured that the covenant of life is even already sealed between your soul and God. He will not fail in His promise. He saith “Hear and your soul shall live, and / will make with you an everlasting covenant even the sure mercies of David.” — this is of
Christ. Remember dear friends that salvation is Christ’s work. Christ for us, as our righteousness to justify us, and Christ in us, as our life to quicken, sanctify, and comfort us, is the sum of the Gospel. Do not try to save yourselves, or think of trusting in Jesus after you have done what you can in your own strength. Trust in Him now, trust in Him as you are, even as a lost, undone, helpless, hopeless, sinner, and according to this your faith, it will be unto you. Hold fast Christ’s promise, “I will in no wise cast out,” and He will in due time make it evident to your blessed consciousness that your faith hath saved you – that you ever at peace with
God by the shedding of His blood and that by Him you have access into that grace wherein you should stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God; and this hope shall not make ashamed, the love of God be shred
abroad in your heart by the Holy Ghost given unto you.” Oh! what a prospect! How rich and glorious is this thread of promise! who among you will refuse to go up and possess the land? Remember Caleb and Joshua, who believed the Lord fully and entered in! Remember the hundreds of thousands who feared the giants, and lusted for the flesh pots of Egypt, and whose carcasses fell in the wilderness! Have faith in God! Look unto Him, and be saved! Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world! Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved! Reject every other confidence as false and delusive, but have no doubts regarding the security of this foundation which God Himself hath laid in Zion. It is a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation and he that trusteth on it shall never be confounded world without end! It is the foundation of that kingdom which cannot be shaken. It is Emmanuel the Rock of Ages on whom the church of the Redeemed is built – the church against which the gates of Hell cannot prevail! Trusting simply and confidently on this foundation your condition and character will quickly and marvelously change.

You will be like the woman, who touched the garments of Jesus; — she had been diseased twelve years, and tried all other physicians in vain, but when she heard of Jesus she came in the press behind Him saying “If I may but touch His clothes I shall be made whole! Oh! what a view she took of His fullness. Even His clothes would heal her – a touch would be enough – a touch from behind, when He did not look at her! she did put
forth her finger, she touched Him, and immediately she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague! Thus dear fellow-sinner it will be with you in your soul and for eternity, if you simply trust in Jesus as a savior –
in Him alone. Yes! if we could persuade even the vilest in your Town – the atheist, the drunkard, the infidel, the unclean, the sin-breeders and soul murderers – could such be persuaded to try the effect of faith in JESUS
as the saviour of the lost, they would soon be so changed that the world would hardly know them, yea that they would hardly know themselves! Oh! “Come and see” we would say with Philip. “Taste and see that the
Lord is good” we would say with David. Make the trial, and you will be made to exclaim with the Queen of Sheba when she came to Solomon to hear his wisdom, “The half was not told me.

A word more and I am done. See that your desire for salvation be strongest and uppermost. Let is swallow up all other desires, like the shafts of your coal pits which dry up all the wells around. See also that
you reach the very point of a true turning to God in Christ. You may come near it and yet not reach it. Water has its boiling point; but if the heart is a few degrees below this it will not boil. Iron has its point of
fusion, when it runs like water, but the heart may come near this and it will not run, but soon become harder than before! So with many hearts, — they are warmed but they do not melt! But oh! precious change when
the heart gives way under the heat of Christ’s love, the Spirit of God blowing on it! Then it flows into the mold of the Gospel and is fashioned as a vessel of mercy prepared for glory – a vessel of honor sanctified
and meet for the master’s use. That this may be the case with all to whom these lines may come is and shall be the prayer of their servant in the Gospel.

Wm. C. Burns Abbot shall Manse, Kirkland, February V 1843