Monday, June 2, 2008

If He Was Ever Of Us

A selection from a letter by Augusta Toplady to a friend, about a mutual acquaintance who had departed from the faith, written on September 6, 1768:

If he was ever of us in reality, God will, in due time, bring him to us again. A truly gracious man, like a thorough good watch, may deviate, and point wrong, for a season; but, like the machine just mentioned, will after a time come round, and point right as before. In the mean while, let such instances teach us to be jealous over our own corrupt hearts; make us dependent on the power and faithfulness of the Holy Ghost; stir us up to prayer, that we may be kept from being carried away with the error of the wicked; and put a song of thanksgiving into our mouths, to that God whose free, invincible grace hath enabled us to stand, when others (in appearance stronger than we) have fallen, and become as water that runneth apace.

The Works of Augustus Toplady, Bookshelf Publications, reprint from the 1794 edition, p. 832.

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