Sunderland April 11th/49.
My Dear Niece,
We were glad to hear of your welfare, but disappointed that you cannot spend your vacation with us.
It is very interesting here, especially among the young. Many we hope have given their hearts to Christ, and that others will do so.
I am glad to know that you are not indifferent to this greatest of all concerns.
Did you know before that your heart was so hard or sinful? Do you see more & more the darkness of your past life as guilty in the sight of God? Have you ever loved him more than, anything else for an hour or moment?
If not, then in your heart there has been constant disobedience to God - i.e. sin without an instant's interuption [sic] all your life long.
Then how many sinful acts & words & thoughts - can you remember? Yet perhaps you have forgotten, ten thousand times more than you can remember - but got remembers them all. Surely if the sentence of eternal condemnation has fallen upon your soul with every sin - and if this is going on still every moment - it is time, you will feel, to stop.
Do you ask what you shall ought to do. I answer you ought instantly to excise sinning repent, believe in & obey Christ - & the guilt of rejecting the gospel is added to every all other guilt every moment you delay.
Do you say you have tried - but cannot make your heart feel as you know it should. Remember that this state of heart is not your misfortune but your guilt - what can be guilty if not a wrong wicked disposition?
But still so perverse is your heart that if left to yourself - you will love & choose sin. Your heart will grow harder, your life more & more guilty - till the measure of your iniquities is full & you are cut down suddenly, & hopeless forever.
Still then you ask - is there any hope - any escape? None in yourself. But there is help only in Christ. You need pardon. You can receive it only through him. You need a new heart. You can be helped, in your own guilty helplessness only by him.
If you were very sick - you would commit yourself entirely to a physician in whom you had confidence - for him to do with you what he pleased. And you would do it at once, lest neglecting you would grow worse [&] die speedily. Christ is the Great Physician. You are perishing in sin. You have tried to make yourself better but only grow worse. And so you will, until you commit yourself, wholly to Christ.
But when? I answer Now, when would you give yourself to the hands of the physician? Now at once - because you are so sick & dying. This, the [...] badness of your condition will be a reason why you should not wait a moment.
So - give yourself to Xst. Do you ask what you shall do first - I answer this - commit yourself to Xst At Once - Now. Your condition will only grow worse & worse until you do it. Soon it may be hopeless.
O listen then my dear girl at once to the saviour's voice "Come unto me .. I will give you rest.["] Do not delay another hour - come to Christ.
Your Aff. Uncle
A. [Austin] Cary.
P.S. We shall not be able to go to Foxboro for the present. Cannot you come this way - & stop a few days either as you go home or return?
