William Hone to John Childs, 28 January, 1838

1.1.1.

Your expressions of feeling respecting poor Robert occasion in me sympathy of no ordinary kind, and reflexions more various than I can relate: especially when I reflect upon the lesson you deduce to yourself, which seems to be this—"Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." Well, may not you and I stand? I think we may. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him." Have we that secret? "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom." In that fear begins our self-knowledge, issuing in our discovery, that "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." Can such a heart be a "Living Temple," for Him who claims it as His abode? The Holy Spirit can make it so. "Take not thy Holy Spirit from us!" How often do we, through the deceitfulness of the heart, say, and not pray this. If we yield our hearts—submit them implicitly—exercise submission, acknowledge subjection—willingly enlist—take up our Cross—deny ourselves—crucify ourselves—suffer, for His sake, who suffered for us—follow Him when declared he was "meek and lowly of heart"—we are his: but "he that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of His," and "without Him no flesh shall see God." He is all things to them that put their trust in Him—through Him, and only through Him can we stand—stand before the Throne of God.

This day thou shall surely die! Are we prepared to hear this? Why not? Our life is but a long day given to us to die in. Our birth-day is our death-day.

What solemn obligations are upon us. "Let your light so shine before men &c." Here the old heart rises and says, shine—you shine—and then we begin to shine, and not our light—and so "we deceive ourselves."

Our obligations are tremendous—But of ourselves they begin in our Families. May the Holy Spirit shine upon the word, and illuminate us to see our duties there, towards our own flesh and blood. May the awful dispensation—the chasm it has left in your family—lead you, my dear Friend, to "a closer walk with God" there. How our children eye us, and how the world eyes them, and us in relation to them, and how the Eye of Heaven is upon us, beholding our walk and conversation before them. Do we culture them for Heaven, or for the world? Are they to be wheat, or chaff? Do we sew the wind—are they to trap the whirlwind?

I have been unable to write this until now. (Sunday Evening) I do it as a religious service before going to bed, beseeching God to be your and my helper in our families, to give each of us a contined sense of our obligations to our children, that we may be faithful in well-doing, in love instructing them to ask Him who is Love itself—who in love to man took our nature—veiled his glory in our flesh—"God in Christ reconciling the World unto Himself."

"Lord have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep they Law!" To this supplication, will you not respond Amen!