I can’t tell you how much I continue to enjoy reading Faith Cook’s account of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon who was so greatly used of God during the 18th century revival.
I’ll write a full review of this excellent book soon but here’s another excerpt. It’s from a letter the Countess wrote to Henry Venn, who was to become one of the influential preachers of his day.
“O, my friend! we can make no atonement to a violated law – we have no inward holiness of our own; the Lord Jesus Christ is the Lord our righteousness. Cling not to such beggarly elements, such filthy rags – mere cobwebs of Pharisaical pride – but look to him who hath wrought out a perfect righteousness for his people. You find it a hard task to come naked and miserable to Christ, to come, divested of every recommendation but that of abject wretchedness and misery, and receive from the outstretched hand of our divine Immanuel the riches, the super-abounding riches of redeeming grace. But if you come at all, you must come thus, and like the dying thief, the cry of your heart must be, ‘Lord, remember me.’ There must be no conditions – Christ, and Christ alone, must be the only Mediator between God and sinful men – no miserable performances can be placed between the sinner and the Saviour. Let the eye of faith ever be directed to the Lord Jesus Christ…And now, my dear friend, no longer let false doctrine disgrace your pulpit. Preach Christ crucified as the only foundation of the sinner’s hope. Preach him as the Autor and Finisher, as well as the sole object of faith – that faith which is the gift of God. Exhort Christless impenitent sinners to fly to this city of refuge – to look to him who is exalted as Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance and the remission of sins. Go on thus, and may your bow abide in strength.” (pp164-165)