CORRESPONDENCE 7 (Coulter)

PHILADELPHIA, Pa., Nov. 11, 1902.

Dear Brother and Sister Emory: – Your encouraging and welcome epistle came a few days ago. How wonderfully does the fellowship of our brethren build us up in our most holy faith. It shows us how necessary we are to one another. As each member of our own body depends upon all the other members, so also the members of Christ’s body. In Christ, they “are built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.” They hold up one another’s hands, and so fulfill the law of Christ; and since these things are done unto Christ’s little ones, they are done also unto him. We cannot always realize how much of the life of Christ we live each succeeding day. When we confess our own frailties and infirmities, and write bitter things against ourselves, we are confessing Christ, because only the Spirit of Christ could cause us to lay bare our hearts before our brethren. We want to be righteous and holy in Christ Jesus, and the desire for divine perfections is the Spirit of Christ, which reveals unto us the things of his kingdom, and they are more precious unto us than the things of time and sense.

We had a short visit, and a good sermon from brother Ker on his way to the Corresponding Meeting. He is a very precious brother to me. The Lord has not only raised him up as a faithful watchman on the walls of Zion, but he continues with him to strengthen and guide him.

I am hungry to see you all again at Middletown; you are all in my heart all the time, and in my mind much of the time. I would love to visit you often than I do, if I had opportunity to do so. The Spirit of our gracious Redeemer is manifestly present with you, according to my observation. I have had a desire for many years that we might have a visit from you both. We have some precious brethren here. The membership of our church is small (twenty-two), yet we have a good congregation, and all interested in our meetings; many of them, like the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda, waiting for the troubling of the water.

Now, dear brother and sister, you perceive that my mind is at a standstill, and I cannot come forth, and I feel about it as the bride in the “Song,” when she said, “I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up nor awake my love, until he please.” I want to be patient. So you will please accept this, not for its worth, but for the Christian love and esteem I have for you both. We both send love.

Affectionately, your brother,
B. F. COULTER.

Signs Of The Times
Volume 70., No. 23
DECEMBER 1, 1902.