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s,
ivi]en they expressed a wish
it in their paper—and that I should re
quest you to re-publish it.
You will find it in year JB4G —VoI. 14, No. 28.
Perhaps when that brother learns that he has ma
ny sisters in ludiana, who are interested in his
letters, he will write again, and tell us of his where
abouts at this time.
We claim him as a dear brother in the Lord—
and the Hill Country of Judea, which he describes
as having vallies as weil as hills, we think we have
seen, and aie willing to testify with him that he
has described the country correctly and edifyingly.
Yours, in full fellowship,
ANN JOHNSON.
Hill Country of Judea, Nov., 1846.
To tiie Editor — l have understood that at this
season of the year, when the volume of the Signs
is drawing to a close you are not apt to be crowd
ed with as many communications for publication,
as in the earlier part of the volume. If my infor
mation be correct, perhaps you can find a spare
corner for this communication, without excluding
something of more importance.
You will perceive by the place of my date that
I write from the hill country of Judea, but 1 beg
you not to conclude that I am high upon the moun
tain, for such is not the case: you are sufficiently
acquainted with geography to know that where
there are hills, there are also vallies which lay
along between them : it is certainly so in the land
of Judea, as eve'v well taught Israelite can testify.
For my own part lam neither peimanently locat
ed on the hill, nor in the valley ; and sometimes I
have entertained serious misgivings whether 1 have
not mistaken the country altogether. But if in the
couutry at all my present place is in the Valley of
Kidron, hard bv the Wilderness, and in one of
the most barren parts of the country. It is now
many y'ears since I trust the mark of circumcision
was made in my heart without hands, and I ad
mitted to mingle with the congregation of the
Lord ; but it is but seldom that I am permitted to
go up to Jerusalem to worship, or to witness the
presence of the Lord in his Holy Temple. But
when, even from the low grounds where I spend
the greater portion of iny time, I am enabled to
pray, with my face toward the Temple, although
from the lowness of my position I have to look up
ward, jet it the Temple be in sight, I always find
deliverance from my distress and relief from all my
burdens. And 1 have even sometimes thought that
1 could most gladly glory in mine infirmities, if I
might only ei j .y a full view of the city and the
Temple. But there are seasons when the sight is
hidden by intervening mountains, and then instead
of contemplating the delightful privileges I have
Hi other times enjoyed, I am very prone to mur
mur and complain of such inconveniences as I find
ppPWi 1 cannot
seems such a
although Rome parts of it are in
sight of the Temple and not very remote from the
Tower of David, which was builded for an armory,
whereon there Langa thousand bucklers, all shields
of mighty men ; yet, from other parts, more obscure,
I have often bad to cry out, I am like a pelican of
the wilderness; I am like an owl of tire desert: I
w T atch, and am as a sparrow upon the housetop.—
I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my
drink with weeping. My days are like a shadow
that declineth ; and I am withered like grass.”—
So lonely and depressed do I sometimes feel, that
I can hardly think myself suitable company for any
sociely. Too unclean for the congregation of the
Lord, and vet the vanities of the Gentiles have no
chaims for me.
But another affliction attends me, away down
here in this gloomy place, I sometimes experience
such chilling damps, and log*, that freeze my zeal
for God, and love for my brethren. If I would sing
a song of Zion, I am admonished, that I am in a
strange land ; if I would call upon the name of the
Lord, the fog is so dense in this valley that I loose
the points of the compass, and hardly know which
way to look for the Temple: and for me to prajq
without some assurance that my face is toward the
Temple, is sorry work indeed.
But it is not meet that I should dwell altogether
on the disadvantages of my situation, although I
am very prone to do so, especially when in certain
moods and temperaments of mind. There are ad
vantages here which should also be duly consider
ed. lam amazing heady, high-minded and much
inclined to vanity, and should I be permitted to
have my own way, perhaps I might soon think
even Jerusalem itself hardly good enough for me.
There have been times since I came into this val
ley, that before I was away my soul made me like
. the chariots of Aminadab. I have sometimes mount
. 6d up with wings, like an eagle, have run without
weariness, and have walked without fainting. But
these exercises, few and far between, as they bav&,
been, have generally raised me up quite out of the
valley and set me on Mount Ojivet where I have
enjoyed a most commanding view of the city of
my God. And O, how transporting, to see her
foundations and gates, to mark her bulwarks, aud
tell her tow'ers, to consider her palaces and report
her generations to come. I have sometimes thought
I could judge of the emotions of Peter and John,
when they said, “It is good to be here,” and like
them, I have longed for permission to prepare for a
lasting residence upon the mount. But my Lord,
who knows infinitely better, what I can bear of
prosperity and of tribulation, what is for my good
and for his declarative glory, causes the vision of
the mountain to pass, and 1 at once settle again
into the valley below.
I have spent so much of my time for the last
thirty four years in the valley, if it were not that I
am a most unaccountable dull scholar, I might
mis
I have spent in to teach
others, I need myself to be taught more perfectly
the first principles of the faith of God’s elect.
It is consoling sometimes to remember that Je
sus used, in the days of his incarnation, frequently
to visit this valley ; and often, when he would im
part to the saints some special lessons, he took
them out of Jeiusalem, led them into this vallev,
crossed over the Brook Kedron, and ascended with
them into the Mount of Olives, where he was wont
to sit and teach those things which his Spirit,
winch he promised to send after his ascension
should bring again to their remembrance.
And when I remember that on the very night in
which he was betrayed, he selected this spot for
his agony ; here he entered the garden ; poured out
his supplications with bitter groans and crying ;
that here he sweat, as it were, great drops of*blood
falling clown to the ground, I feel mortified and
ashamed that I cannot watch with him here one
hour. I find it profitable, however trying to spend
my time in this consecrated spot; for here my
proud spirit is reproved, my heart is melted with
in me, and here l am led to rejoice in the assur
ance that Jesus, the High Priest of our profession,
has been tempted in all points as we are, and that
he knows how to succor them that are tempted.—
But then again, how soon my unstable mind for
gets all the advantages of my situation, and I be
come again dissatisfied and my soul is disquieted
within me. In my low estate, in this valley, I have
sometimes been permitted to “Drink of the brook
in the way, and my Head (Christ) has been ex
alted.” Psa. cx. 7. For the Brook Kedron runs
through this valley; but there are seasons of drought
when this brook yields no supply to my thirsting
soul. In my solitude such visions slitter athwart
my mind, as to lead me to doubt the reality of my
hope in God; my interest in the blood and right
eousness of the RedeemerTof sinners, and of my
having ever been in reality born again. These
trials sometimes overwhelm me with lamentation
and wo. And then there are other times when the
evidences of my adoption by grace are no brighter,
but instead of sorrow and grief, I seem to be as in
sensible as steel; so easy, stupid and careless, that
I shudder to think that I cannot shudder! and I
mourn because I do not mourn.
But I have in this valley many serious conflicts;
and the most potent adversary that 1 ever encoun
tered, is known to every Israelite by the name of
UNBELIEF. I have often been astonished at my
own weakness to resist his crafty insinuations. —
Many a time after I have enjoyed a banqueting
season with my Lord, when he has strengthened
my confidence in him as my Lord and my God,
and when my faith has arisen so as to triumph
over all my doubts and fears, old Unbelief has
dropped in, with such sleight and deception as has
led me to regard him as an angel of light; all my
powers of resistance have been at once paralyzed :
and I have been led by him a captive at his will. —