COMMUNION AND FELLOWSHIP

Dear Friend:

I wonder if it occurred to your mind the anniversary of my wedding day in the last week, on the 4th, many years ago, and that on the 5th, as I have told you, of last year, I was blessed experimentally with the knowledge that Jesus Christ, the seed of the woman, Immanuel, God with us, was my Husband; so that my soul was made greatly to rejoice in the Lord my God, for I understood he was married unto me in eternity; but I had been unfaithful, and transgressed. But to have me, he came in my nature to redeem me with his own precious blood, and so wrought out a garment of salvation, and clothed me; and he rose again from the dead, and brought in an everlasting righteousness, and that robe he put upon me, so that I felt covered in the righteousness of Jesus Christ; and the blessed graces of the Lord my righteousness, are such jewels that delight my soul; so you will understand my thinking of the time of this blessed marriage; and I must say the past year is the best of my life. I have never felt the blessed book, the Bible, so precious, for I find it to be the book that reveals the love and grace of the Father, and that he first chose me to be for his Son; and it tells me of the Son’s love, and delight in the will of the Father, and likewise tells me of the Holy Spirit having the same interest in this match, and it is this Holy Spirit that lets me into the secrets of these blessed truths that delight my soul. I know you will understand me, for you have experienced similar things yourself; for your ‘Maker is your Husband, the Lord of hosts is his name.’

Now I must tell you of the past week, and must say it has been a good time to me, though I have not had the powerful presence of my Lord and Saviour, so to rejoice and sing with dancing and mirth, as I did twelve months ago. No, but I have felt like one that has an everlasting home, and by faith I have been favoured to feed upon that which is so nourishing and strengthening, and causes a growth in knowledge; and the words which the Holy Spirit has worked in my heart and blessed me with, and blessed me with good thoughts upon, are in the first of John’s Gospel, and the fourteenth verse. I have felt it good as my thoughts have been gathered up to the Holy Child Jesus, for this is the only way for sinful creatures to know God enjoyable; for God out of him is a consuming fire. But as God shines in our hearts, and gives us the light of the knowledge of his glory, in our measure, in the face of Jesus Christ, this will make one to bless, and praise, and thank God the Father, God the Son, and Holy Spirit; ‘Three in person, One in essence.’ But it will make one to hate sinful self, and cause a feeling, “Why me?” and there is no other reason, but because He would; for it is ‘not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.’ You may imagine my agreeable surprise when I opened dear Hawker on the fifth, and read my ‘Morning Portion.’ O that dear man was greatly favoured, and enabled to write for the benefit of the church! How he, in this ‘portion,’ described what I know by experience, in a small measure; and it so affected me, just as he says, to speak of it, to tell to saints and sinners; and when you can find one that knows what ‘the chambers’* are, by being in them, love, grace, redemption, sweet mercy, felt communion, one feels to say, ‘O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.’ May the good Lord bless you and yours is the desire of yours in Christian love,

T. T. P.

*The ‘Morning Portion’ alluded to, by Dr. Hawker, is Song of S. 1:4—’The King hath brought me into his chambers,’ and reads thus:

Yes, he who is King of nations, King of saints, is my God and King also; for he hath a universal empire, being one with the Father over all, blessed for ever. Amen. To him I bow the knee, and humbly and gratefully desire to put the crown of my salvation on his adorable head. And what hath this Sovereign done for thee, my soul? Oh, record his praise; tell it to saints and sinners all around. This great, and glorious, and condescending King, hath not only brought thee out of darkness and the shadow of death, but brought thee into his chambers. What chambers? Chambers of sweet communion and fellowship; chambers of love, of grace, of mercy, of redemption, of ordinances, and of all covenant blessings. He hath taught me of his love, and my privileges in him, and so assured me of my everlasting safety in him, and his finished salvation, that by-and-by, when from those outward chambers of grace, he hath accomplished all his blessed purposes concerning me, he will bring me home into his inner chambers of light and glory, whence I shall go out no more, but dwell in them, and in the presence of God and the Lamb, for ever and ever. Hallelujah.

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