“Since God has put His work in your weak hands, look not for long case here: you must feel the full weight of your calling: a weak man with a strong God. The pain is but a moment, the pleasure is everlasting….”
A remarkable piece of Scottish history for Pentecost
I love this woman and her letters. Meet if you do not know her Lady Culross (aka Elizabeth Melville cc. 1578-1640)
[Quoted by yours truly in yesterday’s Pentecost sermon]
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It was now winter with John Livingstone. The persecution had overtaken him, and this is how her ladyship writes to him:
‘My very worthy and dear brother: Courage, dear brother: it is all in love, all works together for the best. You must be hewn and hammered and drest and prepared before you can be a Leiving-ston fit for His building. And if He is minded to make you meet to help others, you must look for another manner of strokes than you have yet felt, . . . but when you are laid low, and are vile in your own eyes, then He will raise you up and refresh you with some blinks of His favourable countenance, that you may be able to comfort others with those consolations wherewith you have been comforted of Him. . . . Since God has put His work in your weak hands, look not for long case here: you must feel the full weight of your calling: a weak man with a strong God. The pain is but a moment, the pleasure is everlasting, . . . cross upon cross. the end of one with me is but the beginning of another: but guiltiness in me and in mine is my greatest cross.’ And after midnight one Sabbath she writes again to Livingstone: ‘You cannot but say that the Lord was with you to-day; therefore, not only be content, but bless His name who put His word in your heart and in your mouth, and has overcome you with mercy when you deserved nothing but wrath, and has not only forgiven your many sins, but has saved you from breaking out, as it may be better men have done; but He has covered you and restrained you; has loved you freely and has made His saints to love you; who will guide you also with His counsel, and afterwards receive you to His glory.’
It’s a beautiful sunny day! I’ve spent my morning visiting Culross Abbey and the West Kirk ruins. pic.twitter.com/BUMstz3BfB
— Madison Dunn (@OfficialMadiD) October 15, 2021