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Letter by Rev John Love



".... I am just returned from a public service , wherein a minister from the country has given us a display of privileges , glaring and overloaded , with little of the spirituality of those privileges , and nothing at all of the difficulty or conflict connected with them , and without calling us to almost any account , excepting gross despisers who may be presumed to be absent . How often , and with how many different notes , is the lullaby sung , the result of which is a sleeping sanctuary , joined with the silly simpering smile of an assumed enjoyment of things really unknown and unfelt , and joined with ill-nature and malignity against any untoward wight (i.e. person ) who may be hardy enough to attempt to break in upon the sweet dream ! But there is One who walks with fiery eyes in the midst of the candlesticks , and who though a Lamb is also a Lion , able to sound an awakening alarm in his own holy mountain , and who can , when he pleases , bring to view the spectacle of sinners in Zion afraid in earnest , and of hypocrites surprised in spite of shame with a fearfulness which mocks every false attempt to soothe and plaster it over . Of him may we catch a sight , that we may be daunted or seduced with no multitude of the criers of a false and ill scented proclamation of peace ...........

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