CORRESPONDENCE 12 (Coulter)

Oak Lane, Philadelphia, Pa.

Dear Editors: – We send this letter from brother and sister Coulter because it is good in itself, and not because of any expressions of personal regard to ourselves, though these expressions are dear to us.

FRANKLIN AND MARY TERRY.

Philadelphia, Pa., Jan. 11, 1908.

Dear Brother And Sister Terry: – Annie has suggested that I write to you and express our thankfulness and appreciation of your many acts of kindness to us, and the constant manifestation of your love and fellowship for us. We can say truly, It is of the Lord. His goodness and mercy extendeth even to us, and we feel to be the least in the Father’s family, therefore the least deserving. But daily we learn the sweet lesson that he does not bestow his benefits because we deserve them, but in tender love and gracious mercy he sends his ministering angels (and you are both numbered among them) to cause us to rejoice in his love and to wonder at his wondrous grace. The pure, uncontaminated love that was displayed here last Sunday evening melted my hard heart to tenderness, and as love flowed from heart to heart, I could joyfully say: “The Lord is good,” and he is right here among us. I sometimes think we can view the tender watchcare of the Lord and his loving-kindness more clearly when we look back over all the way the Lord God has led us, and remember all the days of old; how he has kept us, restrained us and filled our hearts with heavenly desires, shown us his matchless beauty, healed our aching, bleeding hearts, set us among kings and priests, giving us as a “balm in Gilead” his precious Son, in whom dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, displaying in him all the rich treasures of his grace. When we were in darkness he made darkness light before us; being filled with the leprosy of sin, he touched us and we were clean every whit.

As you see, my mind is now dwelling on the display of his wondrous grace. Moses desired to see his face, (and his face is his glory) but He said, “Thou canst not see my face; for there shall no man see me, and live. And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: and I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts; but my face shall not be seen.” Moses represented the law, and under the law the gospel was hid, and that which we beheld was a reflected glory. The “rock” is Christ Jesus; the “clift,” his protecting grace; the covering of the hand, his decrees of sovereignty and love; the “back parts,” his work of grace, which his presence in passing has wrought in us, and which is shown unto us in experience. These are parts of his ways, but his judgments are unsearchable, and his ways past finding out. The display of God’s grace cometh out of Zion, and is seen in the assemblies of the saints, in acts of charity and love, in the manifest breathings of a broken and contrite spirit. When under the law we look upon the face of God we die (as God said); that is, die to sin, for we were living in sin and dead to all holiness and righteousness, but now Christ is risen from the dead, and this is the glory of his face which we behold, “The only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” We are raised with him from the dead to newness of life, to behold his glory and his beauteous face in all the things of the gospel, which were hidden under the law, but now revealed by his Spirit, in which we behold his beauty and glory for evermore. Now we look back in remembrance and behold the display of his “back parts,” not unlike the night display of the natural heavens, the glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars, each star differing from every other star in glory, showing the beauteous face of the firmament of God; so the spiritual heavens show the reflected light of the Sun of righteousness upon the broken law of God (the moon), and the myriads of twinkling stars of God’s right hand placing, each showing forth and brightly displaying the wondrous handiwork of God in the hearts of the creatures of earth. Heart searchings of the creature display their attitude to their God and the gracious Redeemer, for in the searching they bring out the hidden things of the wisdom of God. By the same wisdom the prophet Obadiah asks, “How are the things of Esau searched out! how are his hidden things sought up!” Inspiration answers, “But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.” Here is the secret revealed, we have come to Mt. Zion, where there is light and where all secret or hidden things are revealed. Now, dear brother and sister, we want you to be assured that we have you in our hearts, to live with you and to die with you; you are in our sweet fellowship, and you have our love. May the rich blessings of God’s grace continue to rain upon you, is our prayer for Jesus’ sake.

Affectionately your brother and sister,
B. F. AND ANNIE C. COULTER,

Signs Of The Times
Volume 76., No. 6
MARCH 15, 1908.