Page:The Works of the Reverend George Whitefield, M.A., late of Pembroke-College, Oxford, and Chaplain to the Rt. Hon. the Countess of Huntingdon (1771 Volume 2).djvu/205

 LETTER DCCV.

To Lady Mary H.

Honoured Madam,     London, Nov. 10, 1748.

THOUGH absent from, yet I am not unmindful of you. The regard your Ladyship has been pleased to shew to a poor unworthy worm, calls for and claims my sincerest and most repeated acknowledgments. This letter brings them, and shall be followed, honoured Madam, as the enables, with fervent prayers for your temporal and eternal welfare. O that you may be enabled to make a stand this winter for the, and not in the least countenance any of those diversions that have already brought religion so low in poor Scotland! I need not inform your Ladyship, what a blessed thing it is to be singularly good, and to be consistent in our whole walk and conversation. To be uniform, and all of a piece, is the very life of a christian. It is this, and not a compliance with the polite world in any of their fooleries, that will gain proselytes to. I could enlarge on this head, but I am persuaded it is needless for your Ladyship. The glorious hath let you see too much of his love, for you ever to be taken up with any thing short of his own eternal life! That he may knit your heart yet closer to himself, he is pleased to visit you with crosses. They are the christian's portion, honoured madam: They are the believer's birthright. "In the world you shall have tribulation;" but what follows? "Be not afraid, I have overcome the world." Look, therefore, to Him, honoured madam, who, as he hath been the author, will also be the finisher of your faith. That you may increase with all the increase of, is the earnest prayer of, honoured madam,

Your Ladyship's most obliged humble servant, G. W.