Letters: A schoolboy in London (1)
By Andrew Bonar

      GLASGOW, 20 INDIA STREET, 21st October 1873.
      MY DEAR WALTER,
      -I wonder how your soul prospers? You know we can go on busily with work, and all the more busily, when enjoying the sunshine round us-it makes all so cheerful. It is even thus with us in our souls when realising the presence of God in Christ, when we know that He is 'beholding us with a pleasant countenance' (Ps. 11:7, the metre version), whether we are sitting in the house, or walking by the way, or studying a lesson, or writing a letter.
      'Continue ye in My love '(John xv. 9); 'Keep yourselves in the love of God' (Jude 21). And if you say 'How am I to keep myself in His love?' the answer is, by keeping near the Cross, never suffering anything to intercept the view of that glorious, gracious, infinitely great manifestation of God's holy love to sinners. And again, it is said in John 15:10, 'If ye keep My commandments ye shall abide in My love.' The Holy Spirit will assuredly keep you in that sunshine if you are in the path of duty, though you may not be directly meditating on divine things. When you are giving diligence to get on in study, and are very busy writing exercises or the like, this is 'keeping His commandments' if done as part of duty, and so you go on from hour to hour of your work with a light and happy heart, 'continuing in His love.' 'May the God of peace give you peace always by all means.' dia pantos en panti tropoi (2 Thess.3: 16).
      -Yours truly in the Lord,
      ANDREW A. BONAR.