April 26th. -- Last night I preached my farewell sermon in Queen Street Chapel, Huddersfield. The crowd was immense. It was with the greatest difficulty I could get away from the new converts, -- dear souls, their emotions were overwhelming! I finally, through the ingenuity of one or two of the brethren, escaped by the basement. Such tenderness is harder to be endured than persecution!
I omitted to notice we had previously the usual meeting for the new converts, similar to that at Buxton Road Chapel, -- when they received "hearty counsel." May these sentiments be written upon their memory and heart as with a diamond:-- Hearken to conscience, consult the Bible as your living oracle, be much alone with God in secret prayer. Endeavor to learn the Spirit's voice, and obey it; but, remember, it will never direct you contrary to the written word. Forsake not the public and private means of grace. Be holy, useful, happy. Let God steer your little barks in storms as well as in calms; he loves to be trusted. Live upon Jesus, -- draw succor from him as the branch from the vine. Love the brotherhood. Be not ready to take offense; avoid giving offense as far as possible. Detest backbiting. Grow in KNOWLEDGE, as well as in grace and holiness. In order to this, provide yourselves with suitable books. Consult your pastors and leaders as to your reading.
Be active; do something for God. Methodism has work for every member, if he will do it, -- in Sabbath schools, tract distribution, visiting the sick, missionary collectors, Bible-classes, etc. etc. If you would be warm and happy, work. Above all, aspire after holiness.
Bear with what I am going to say: for my motives are perfectly disinterested and pure. Take an interest in the constant expenses of the society. Bear your part in them. Never be a mere sponge, -- a hanger-on, as they say, -- enjoying the privileges of the house of God, while others pay for them. That is dishonest, and brings a curse instead of a blessing. Bear your part according to your ability. Let no man prevent you; otherwise you may bring the frowns of Providence upon your own temporal affairs. It is possible, as Solomon hints, to withhold more than is meet, and it tendeth to poverty. But, he added, there are those that SCATTER and yet INCREASE -- scatter their increase in works of charity and benevolence, and yet they increase; their means to do good are increased, instead of being diminished by their liberality.
These hints I have thrown out freely, because, you know, I ask nothing from you but your earnest prayers. But I want to have the principle of helping to bear the expenses of the church planted in you, as a part of your religion, to grow with its growth, and to be strengthened with its strength. Hearken again! Should you fall into temptation, -- which may you never! -- lie not there, nor wallow in the sin; but up, and forsake it forever, repenting in dust and ashes! Run not away from Christ, nor his people; forsake not your class. Fly back to Christ by repentance, faith, and earnest cries for forgiveness. Try not to forget it, and to feel better, before you are pardoned. No, no! Fly directly to Christ, saying:
"To the blest fountain of thy blood, Incarnate God, I fly! Here let me wash my guilty soul From crimes of deepest die."
HOLINESS, also, may be lost and regained. Should the evidence of it become dim or lost entirely, reason not with the enemy; return to the blood instantly; renew your entire consecration as at the first; desire the blessing, pray for it, offer the blood of Christ as the price, -- the full equivalent which God accepts; believe this, and believe that He doeth it; and, if one act of faith is not enough, keep on believing, obstinately, that he doeth it, -- ay, though it should be a thousand times, -- nor cease till you KNOW that he has re-established the dominion of holiness in your soul.
The blood of Christ! HOLINESS cannot dissolve your dependence upon it. You will need its merit and cleansing efficacy from moment to moment, while in these bodies of clay. The standard of our perfection is love. That of Adamic and angelic perfection is almost infinitely higher, excluding errors of judgment and other infirmities, -- demanding, in fact, sinless obedience. But we are constantly liable to unavoidable mistakes and involuntary infirmities, though the single eye of the soul be steadily intent upon pleasing God. These, in view of the holiness of God, and of the higher standard which that holiness demands, need to be covered with the merits of Christ. Faith appropriates that covering, and the soul is accounted holy through the merits and perfect obedience of Him. "Love is the fulfilling of the law." -- Rom. 13:10. You are young in religion, and you may not fully comprehend my meaning in these deep things of God. But, as you grow in grace and knowledge, both of Christ and yourselves, you will more clearly understand. Though your heart may be pure and full of love, and every thought, word and work, may spring from pure love to God, yet your liability to make mistake, and yield involuntarily, so to speak, to many infirmities, will ever necessitate you pray
"Forgive us our trespasses,"
and to say, with the poet:
"Every moment, Lord, I need The merit of thy death."
None makes more constant use of the blood of Christ than he who is truly sanctified and cleansed from all sin.
And now may the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you. May you never forget the saying of one now with God, -- that your life is a race; eternal glory is the prize, grace and corruption the antagonists; and accordingly as either finally prevails, eternal life is lost or won! Amen.
The Secretary of the Revival informs me that about eighteen hundred and seventy-nine souls have been justified, and seven hundred and fifty-five sanctified, -- 1 Thess. 5:23, -- during this great work of God, making a total of two thousand six hundred and thirty-four!
To God be all the glory. He has said, "My glory I will not give to another." -- Is. 48:11. My soul says, Amen; and will be as conscientious as sterling honesty itself, not to appropriate any of it to myself. Such an intimation as this should sound in every preacher's ears like the voice of a trumpet from heaven. God will give us health, honor, if need be, and love, and friendship, and happiness, and as much of the world as will be good for us to possess; and pardon, and joy, and holiness, and will even share his heaven with us; but he will not give us his glory. Pharaoh, I have been reminded, took off his ring from his hand and put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck, and gave him a chariot, and much honor, with this reservation, "Only in the throne will I be greater than thou." -- Gen. 41:40. God reserves his "GLORY," and let all that is within me, and without me, say, Amen and Amen! His glory and our good! O, how delicately and sweetly has the hand of our God twisted and woven these together!
In journalizing the conflicts of truth and its victories, through the power of the Holy Ghost, the glory of God has not been forgotten; has not, I trust, been misappropriated. My soul would tremble at the thought; would detest and abhor the word, or line, or sentence, that would rob him of a single particle or ray of his glory. Huddersfield has a noble population, -- citizens generally, and the Wesleyans in particular. Christ our Lord has diamonds in veins of gold in Huddersfield, -which an old author pronounced a miracle, -- Christians abounding in the good things of this world, and yet sparkling with the glory of Christ. It is not with Christians generally as with a certain jewel I once read of, which lost its virtue unless it was set in gold. Alas! many lose both their virtue and religion by being encased with much of that metal. What is called precious among men, becomes precious to them. They rise in the world to sink from God. Huddersfield presents many noble exceptions. Glory be to our God for this also. Among the most devoted and zealous are families of high respectability, intelligence, and influence. These, and the people generally, showed me much kindness, as also the three Wesleyan ministers. My heart is full of gratitude. May they all, and the excellent families who entertained me so many months, be rewarded greatly while they live, and at the resurrection of the just. Amen.
