divine guest; set it totally free from all earthly solicitude; and make it a fit habitation for the ever-glorious Trinity. O thou, who standest knocking at the door, with joy to thee I open; come in and sup with me; come in, and take up thine eternal abode, and let me ever dwell in thee, and thou in me. XX. GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENTS FOR RENEW ING GRACE, AND AN ASCRIPTION OF EVERY WHAT has God wrought?-O! my soul, look, and look, and love, and wonder! How am I changed!-How different are my thoughts, my views, my pursuits, to what they were, and, blessed be God that I can say, how different is my practice! I now love what I hated, and abhor what was my former delight. Adored be grace. Not unto me, O Lord! not unto me, but to thy free and unmerited goodness, be all the glory of my salvation. I had neither power nor inclination, to part with earth, or seek for heaven but grace has done the work, convinced me of sin, and made me in love with holiness. It has shewn me my own inability to every good thing, and my need of so all-sufficient a Saviour as Jesus is. Grace! 'tis a sweet, a charming theme, Ye heavens reflect it to the ground. I was quickened by grace when dead in trespasses and sins; by grace, alone, I stand; by grace only do I make my attainments; and without grace I am nothing, can do nothing, but sin. The building was begun by grace, and the topstone shall be raised with shouting, grace, grace unto it! Through time and eternity, grace shall be still my theme: now, in time, I can only lisp its praises-then, in eternity, when my stammering tongue is unloosed in a nobler, sweeter song, I will sing its power to save, and join with all the nations of the ransomed, in echoing, and re-echoing through the vast expanse of heaven, the wonders of redeeming grace, and in ascribing to the Lamb, the blessing, honour, and glory due unto his name. O what immortal joys I felt, And raptures all divine, And my beloved mine. Blessed Saviour! I adore thy wonderful goodness, to so undeserving a sinner, to so vile a rebel-any hope of pardon, any interval of peace, was more than I possibly could merit or expect at thy hands: and yet, thou hast given me a full assurance of forgiveness, and often refreshed me with sensible manifestations of thy good will towards me. Praised be thy Name. 1 charge you all, you earthly toys, APPENDIX, No. V. EXTRACTS FROM MRS. RAMSAY'S DIARY. Saturday, July, 16th, 1791. My feet had well nigh slipped, through the prevalence of my easily besetting sin; nevertheless, I laid me down to sleep, rejoicing that I had not utterly fallen. Lord, make me at all times watchful. 17th. Lord, may this be a sanctified Sabbath; a day to be remembered for holy resolutions and enabling grace. I am weak-O! when shall the time of full strength come. In all the great trials and lesser vexations of life, may patience have its perfect work, till I lie down where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest. 19th. I thank God, for the ease and cheerfulness of this day; and that in spite of secret griefs, and spiritual conflicts, my soul and body do both sweetly repose themselves in the God of my salvation. 20th. O day, blackened with sin, and spotted by transgression !-How long, O Lord! how long-when shall I advance in the spiritual life, and not thus wound my peace, and disgrace my profession ? I thank God, that my heart aches. O let it never be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Oh, my God! how lately hath thine afflictive Providence been wringing my heart, with a twofold anguish the loss of my sweet baby, and the consideration of those sins, which required this chastisement-and yet, how prone am I to return to folly. Oh! for the grace of true repentance, and of unfeigned resignation. 27th. The two last days have been days of mournful walking. Oh! how does the remembrance of my sweet Fanny press upon my memory; and how good is God, that though cast down, yet my heart is kept from murmuring, and aches more for my sorrow causing sins, than for the sorrow itself: thanks be to Christ, who has purchased a heaven for us, where we shall be without sin, and of course without sorrow. 28th. Lord, make me ashamed of my sins, and give me a holy fortitude to resist; and let me be making continual war against them, till grace shall conquer, and death set me beyond. their reach. 29th. Oh power of sin, how great art thou ! Lord, give me strength. 30th. My heart is ready to break under a sense of sin, and to cry out, I shall one day fall by the hands of these mine enemies. Oh thou |