Early in the summer of 1765 she was at Taymouth. While there, she was seized with a dangerous putrid fever, and confined to her bed in the melancholy state of mind to which reference has already been made. On her convalescence, by a singular circumstance in Providence, a train of serious thoughts and reasonings was produced, and was followed by convictions and purposes which ended in a complete renovation of heart and conduct. To this she beautifully adverts in her Journal.

Lady Glenorchy was not yet twenty-four, and Miss Hill was about her own age, perhaps somewhat older. They had before been intimate, but from this time they became bosom friends. The goodness of God was very evident in providing for Lady Glenorchy an adviser so well informed, so wise and prudent, so faithful and affectionate. The judicious and pious reader will be struck with wonder and admiration at the religious knowledge and experience of so young a person, and at the ease and clearness, as well as decision, with which she in her letters conveys her ideas; and at the integrity and truth, the simplicity, fervour, and good sense, with which she expresses herself on various, and even mysterious subjects.*

The correspondence between these friends, from 1765 to 1768, was frequent, and did it exist entire on both sides, would be very valuable. Miss Hill survived Lady Glenorchy only a few years, having died about 1793, and most probably had destroyed the letters of her friend, as they contained much delicate communication; for her niece, to whom her papers were committed, could find no vestige of them. The original letters of Miss Hill, the author of these Annals thinks, were also restored to her by Lady Maxwell, Lady Glenorchy's executrix, soon after Lady Glenorchy's death; for he is in the possession of a letter from Miss Hill, requesting him to apply to Lady Maxwell to restore them. However, a very considerable number of them has been preserved, in a very neat and

1765.

HER DEEP DISTRESS OF MIND.

Whilst Lady Glenorchy was sinking in the deep waters of conviction of sin, and her strength and hope were about to perish, she received the following letter from her friend Miss Hill.

"July, 1765.

"It gives me great pleasure to hear that your illness has been so sanctified to you, as to shew you in any measure that in yourself, to which before you confess you were a stranger; that is, that you had too great an attachment to this vain unsatisfying world, the most pleasing appearances of which are nothing more than transparent baubles, which present gay colours that will soon fade. Allow me to congratulate you on this discovery; and may He, in whose hand our breath is, shew you more and more of the uncertainty of all earthly happiness, and convince you more of the substantial joys that are to be found in him alone. It is a common and no less dangerous prejudice which many entertain against the ways of true evangelical holiness, that they are dull, forbidding, and melancholy, and that to live godly in Christ Jesus is to exchange every enjoyment for austerities and mortifications; whereas, on the contrary, none enjoy so much inward peace and security, none have so much cause for cheerfulness and joy, as those who seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. It is indeed the interest of the grand enemy of our salvation to pervert the good ways of the Lord, to frighten us from pursuing them by lying suggestions, and, like the spies who went to view the promised land, to

clean copy, written by Lady Glenorchy's own hand, which has been found among her papers, and from which we shall be able to gather some idea of the state of her Ladyship's mind during this period.

bring against it an evil report; and to insinuate, that instead of flowing with milk and honey, it devoured the inhabitants thereof. But surely God never intended that religion should lessen our enjoyments, or make over to a world living in rebellion against himself, a happiness greater than his own children should possess. No; the ways of religion are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. You say. you wish to overcome the fear of death. In order to this, I would advise you to examine whether you are really building upon the only sure foundation of hope; and what that hope is, the apostle expressly declares in the following words: Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.' Try then, whether, as lost and undone in yourself— deeply sensible of the natural apostasy of your heart from God-weary and heavy laden with the burden of sin-and renouncing all hope and help in your own righteousness, repentance, resolutions, &c.-try if you really rest upon Christ as your only Saviour, relying solely upon his blood applied by the Spirit to pardon you, his righteousness imputed to justify you, and his grace to be given to sanctify you. It was He who came to seek and to save that which was lost, and we must see and feel ourselves thus lost without him, before we can in earnest seek an interest in that salvation which he hath purchased, for they that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.' long as, either in whole or in part, we cleave to our own doings, and are not brought off from all dependance on the covenant of works, one or other of these two things must happen; either we shall have so high a conceit of ourselves as to think lightly of, and greatly undervalue the redemption that is in Jesus, or else we shall walk in continual darkness and want of comfort,

So

1765.

FIRST LETTER.

9

under a slavish dread of wrath, whereby all our endeavours to avoid sin will proceed from a wrong principle, a principle of fear, instead of love and gratitude, and all our obedience will be the forced drudgery of a slave, and not the effect of the filial disposition of a child. This, I am convinced, is the case with many sincere people, and it is wholly owing to a lurking spirit of self-righteousness and unbelief, which prevents them from submitting to the righteousness of God, and closing with that full, free, all-sufficient salvation which the Gospel holds forth to guilty, helpless sinners, shewing them, that by the obedience of Christ unto death, the law is fulfilled, and Infinite Justice satisfied to the uttermost-that by his resurrection from the dead, God accepted the payment which he had made for his people, and discharged him from the prison of the grave in token of their full acquittal, and that he is now at the right hand of God, having entered the holy place as their head and forerunner, dispensing his gifts according to their various necessities, and making intercession for them, that where he is they may be also. Well, then, may we say with the apostle, Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword-in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of

God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.' Many, I know, object against thus living wholly upon the blessed Redeemer, making him our all in all, our Alpha and Omega, as a doctrine that tends to licentiousness, and to the prejudice of morality and good works; and this is sometimes done even by those who pretend to mighty zeal for the interests of holiness, whilst they themselves are living after the course of this world. Whoever makes this objection, hereby plainly shews himself to have never received the grace of God in truth, and to be a stranger to the nature of justifying faith, and to the constraining power of Christ's love; for how is it possible that we should be one with Christ, and not endeavour to be like him? If we partake of his Spirit, will not the fruits of that Spirit appear in our lives and conversation? Can he that is brought into the marvellous light of God's dear Son, have any longer fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness? Can the head be holy, and the members unholy? Can he who is united to Christ be employed in the service of Satan? Can the new creature delight in the works of the old man? Certainly not. It is true, (as the Church of England observes in her 11th article), we are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by faith, and not for our own works or deservings. Wherefore, that we are justified by faith only, is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort;' but then it is as true, that there can be no real faith which does not produce good works, for the tree is known by its fruits, and as faith is the root of works, so works are the fruit of faith. We do not then make void the law through faith. God forbid: but we establish the law; for although through our weakness we cannot be justified by it, yet it still