Guernsey - Adam Clarke (1789)



The date is "Jersey, July 15, 1789."

MY REVEREND FATHER IN CHRIST, In my last I gave you a short account of the prosperity of the work of God among us, and the prospect we had of an increase. Since that time the Lord has indeed wrought wonderfully. You perhaps remember the account I gave you of the select prayer-meeting I had just then established for those only who had either attained or were groaning after, full redemption. I thought that, as we were all with one accord in the same place, we had reason to expect a glorious descent of the purifying flame. It was even so. Soon five or six were able to testify that God had cleansed their souls from all sin. This coming abroad, for it could not be long hid, (the change being so palpable in those who professed it,) several others were stirred up to seek the same blessing, and many were literally provoked to jealousy, among whom one of the principal was Mr De Quetcville. He questioned me at large concerning our little meeting, and the good done. I satisfied him in every particular; and, being much affected, he said, “Tis a lamentable thing that those who began to seek God since I did should have left me so far behind. Through the grace of Christ, I will begin to seek the same blessing more earnestly, and never rest until I overtake and outstrip them, if possible”. For two or three days he wrestled with God almost incessantly. On the 30th of June he came into my room with great apparent depression of spirit, with the earnest inquiry, “How shall I receive the blessing, and what are its evidences” I gave him all the directions I could, exhorted him to look for it in the present moment, and assured him of his nearness to the kingdom of God. He returned to his room, and after a few minutes, spent in wrestling faith, his soul was fully and gloriously delivered. He set off for the country, and like a flame of fire went over all the societies in the island, carrying the glorious news wherever he went. God accompanied him by the mightily demonstrative power of his Spirit, and numbers were stirred up to seek, and several soon entered into, the promised rest. I now appointed a love-feast on the 5th inst. Such a heaven opened on earth my soul never felt before. Several were filled with pure love; and some then and since have, together with a clean heart, found the removal of inveterate bodily disorders under which they had laboured for a long time. This is an absolute fact, of which I have had every proof which rationality can demand. One thing was remarkable there was no false fire; no, not a spark that I would not wish to have lighted up in my own soul to all eternity ; and, though God wrought both in bodies and souls, yet everything was under the regulation of his own Spirit, and fully proclaimed his operation alone. To speak within compass, there are not less than fifty or sixty souls who, in the space of less than a fortnight, have entered into the good land, and many of them established, strengthened, and settled in it; and still the blessed work goes daily on. "This speedy work has given a severe blow to the squalid doctrine of sanctification through suffering, which was before received by many, to the great prejudice of their souls. Several of your particular acquaintances, my dear sir, have had a large share in this blessing; and, among others, Mrs Guilliaume, Madam De Saumarez, and Miss Lempriere. The former is one of the greatest monuments of God s power to sanctify that I have seen. The latter are blessedly brought out of [their former] dreary state. Several, who had long been adepts in making Procrustes bed, are now redeemed from every particle of sour godliness." The divine blessing on the labours of Brackenbury, Clarke, and their colleagues in the islands, was seen in the numerical and moral strength which the cause has thus already attained. Mr Clarke left two hundred and forty-eight members in Jersey, and one hundred and five in Guernsey.

From, ‘The life of the Rev Adam Clarke’, by J W Etheridge, 1859, p130/1 http://www.archive.org/details/liferevadamclar01ethegoog

 

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