“The Saviour said, ’Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.  No man can come to the Father but by me.  I am the way, the truth, and the life.’  ’Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me.’  The Scripture testifies what our own hearts must assent to, that human nature is depraved and corrupt; broken off from God; at a distance from him by sin; enmity against him in his true character; opposed to his holy law, in its extent and spirituality:  we are also helpless, dead in trespasses and sins.  ’O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself’—­blessed be God for what follows—­’but in me is thy help.’

“The same Scripture which testifies the misery of man, reveals also his remedy—­a remedy of God’s own providing, by which man may be restored to the image and favor of God, and to that communion with him which is life and bliss.  ’God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him might not perish, but have everlasting life:  for God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.  And this is life eternal, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.’  When man becomes convinced that he is lost, helpless, wretched, lying at mercy, and submits to the method of God’s own providing; casts himself on the mercy of God in Christ, and coming to him, rests on his free promise, ’Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast-out;’ disclaiming all confidence in himself, or in his own works, he accepts of God’s offered grace, in God’s own way, a free and finished salvation.  This is the record of God, that he giveth unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son; who, of God, is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and complete redemption.  Believing this, according to his faith it shall be.  Christ shall be in him, ’a well of water springing up to everlasting life.’  He will shed abroad his love in his heart, and according to his promise, give him power to become a child of God.  The Holy Ghost, the Comforter, shall be given unto him, to teach him the knowledge of the Scriptures, and to become a principle of holiness in his heart.  Then shall he find that wisdom’s ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths peace; then shall he experience the blessedness of that man whose God is the Lord; then is the way open for communion and converse with God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

“If, my dear Miss M——­, I have made myself understood, you have my view of God’s method of making his creatures happy; and I believe he will make us to know that he is a sovereign God, and that there is no other name, or method, by which men can be saved, but the name of Christ Jesus.  But, take nothing on my word, nor the word of any creature; search the Scriptures; read the first eight chapters of the Romans, the whole of the Ephesians:  stumble not at mysteries—­pass them over, and take the milk for babes; pray for the teaching of the Spirit; and let me recommend to you the advice of Mr. Newton, in his Omicron’s Letters, a book well worth your reading.  ’Lay not too much stress on detached texts, but seek for the sense which is most agreeable to the general strain of Scripture.’