For the Signs of the Times. North Berwick, Me. Jan. 23d, 1837.

 For the Signs of the Times.

North Berwick, Me. Jan. 23d, 1837.

DEAR BROTHER BEEBE: I herewith send you $5 for the 2d Volume of the Signs of the Times. I should have written before had I not been prevented by sickness; I have been sick nigh unto death, insomuch that my life was despaired of by my friends and brethren, and verily, according to all human appearances, there was but a step between me and the grave. But it appears to that my time was not yet come; I felt as though I had no work to do in the vineyard of the Lord; never did the cause of Christ lay near my heart than while I was sick; never did the doctrine of Christ look more precious, and never did I feel more the importance of contending earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints; of preaching the truth in its purity; of preaching the truth; the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Truth, my brother, is precious in all its branches, and if I am not deceived of late, I have been made to rejoice that the Lord has not left himself without witness, even in this dark day—this day of rebuke and blasphemy; it is a time when the love of many waxes cold, and the way of truth is evil spoken of; yet there seems to stand up in defence of truth. Oh, may the Lord make them faithful in his cause. But alas! I have to confess that I am unfaithful; if many things I have intended, but alas, I come short. But I have to say, as said St. Paul (who evidently was the Old School) “For the good I would I do not; but the evil which I would not that I do. And again, when I see all the imperfections of my heart and depravity, I am constrained to say, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death. But there are times (when my faith I have a discovery of what Christ is made unto me and to my brethren,) when I can say, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, for then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. There are many that will continue between the flesh and spirit, as long as we are in the body; the same is true of all the saints, yet they are just as secure in the hands of Christ as they will be when they get home. There is no more danger of their falling from grace while on earth, than there will be of their falling after they are received into Heaven. And no more danger of the weakest saint falling finally, than there is danger of Christ’s falling, for Christ and his church are one and were in eternity; for Christ tells us in his prayer to his Father, that the Father has loved them, even as he has loved him; and surely we have loved the Son with an eternal love, and if so, he has loved them with an eternal love also.

And Christ has said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all; and none is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.” John x. 27–29. These, together with very many other passages has Christ left on record for the comfort of his children—of a shelter for hypocrites or false professors, with which the churches are crowded at the present day; they have no part nor lot in these blessed declarations, consequently they rejoice in this blessed doctrine of final perseverance of every saint, and often express great fears in relation to—lest the dear children of God will take liberty to sin, seeing their salvation is secure, and that there is no possibility of their ever being cast off by the God Shepherd. But poor things, they know nothing about the Christian’s feelings: the Christian is drawn by love—yea, the Hypocrite, he will try and for sin, and nothing but that grace caused them to perform any external thing in relation to religion, and they perform even those as a task as something that is irksome, they wait through dry places, seeking rest and find none. That soul that can say in truth, that if he believed the doctrine of perseverance, he would go on in sin and take his fill; I say such a soul is destitute of saving grace as the devil is, let his profession be ever so great. The Christian from pure principle of love desires to honor God, and he mourns that he is no more active in the service of God, and when he steps aside from the paths of duty, his heart is filled with sorrow; the christian has Christ formed in him the hope of Glory, and it is Christ in him that labors, and he is one mind and one care unto him.

The Lord is able to keep me in a comfortable state of health and enable me to serve. I desire to be remembered in your prayers.

Yours in hope of eternal life,

PHILANDER HARTWELL.