My Dear Friend,
How is it, above everything else, with thy soul, that better part, that must live for ever? And yet, though we know this, how much more are our thoughts engaged with this present evil world, and our poor decaying bodies, than concerned to know what awaits us in an endless eternity.
Is this not one of Satan's devices? He will endeavour to engage our thoughts with often the veriest trifles that would shame a child, in order to hide from us the eternal realities of the glory that awaits the believer. Oh, let us beware of Satan's devices! Many hard conflicts have I had with him through my long and chequered life; and, had I not been upheld by Jesus, the sinner's Friend, I should have made shipwreck of my faith long since. But this dear Friend stands ready to help you too. Recollect, He is a present help in every time of need. You are now in a wilderness; but a wealthy land awaits you. Make your calling and election sure. Make sure your acceptance in Christ. Is there, or can there be, anything on earth of equal consequence to this? A soul saved, or a soul lost! Come, just as you are, to Jesus. The prayer, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” springing from a real sense of our need, and breathed from a heart feeling its awful sinfulness, and the utter impossibility of salvation in any other way, will, in due time, be responded to by the Holy Spirit. We cannot utter one real prayer but by the Holy Ghost. He it is who shows us our iniquity and helplessness, teaches us how to pray, and what to ask for, and then responds to our prayer.
Oh, dear friend, pray over your Bible, that this same blessed Spirit (the third Person in the blessed Trinity) may unfold to your mind the precious truths it contains. You do not know how anxious I am for your soul's welfare. I long to see you going on your way rejoicing. Never rest until you can say, “I have found Jesus, and my soul is saved!” You can go to Jesus the same as did the disciples when He walked the streets of Jerusalem. He is the same loving, tender, condescending Jesus that he was then, and will never deny Himself to any who feel their need of Him. I am looking forward to my great change. Absent from the body, present with the Lord.
The only thing worth living for is to be prepared for the full enjoyment of the glory that is now prepared for all who come to Jesus. Come, just as you are. Be assured of this, if you have one wish in your heart to love Jesus, it is because he has first loved you: and the Holy Spirit is giving you the desire to wish to love Him.
Excuse all blunders. Make allowance for poor old eighty. I am not far from my happy home, and it looks so inviting. Oh, the welcomes! Oh, the joy! Oh, the meetings with those who have gone before! We meet to part no more for ever!
* Mary Winslow, a woman of considerable Christian character and ability; mother of Octavius Winslow who wrote the biography from which the above letter is taken. “Life in Jesus. A memoir of Mrs Mary Winslow, by her son, O. Winslow, D.D.”
The letter was written in her eighty-first year to a lady of her acquaintance.