Witsius Sacred Dissertations on the Lord’s Prayer
DEARLY-BELOVED YOUTHS, WHO HAVE BEEN CONSECRATED TO THE SERVICE OF GOD, AND WHOM I WARMLY ESTEEM AND LOVE, as I am employed every day in addressing you personally, so I take the present opportunity of addressing you by a written communication. All my prayers, desires, anxieties, and labours are directed to this one object, that you may be properly instructed in Divine truth, and somewhat prepared for conveying it to others. You will not, I trust, be displeased at being again requested to accept from my hand a small literary gift. I wrote to you formerly, and dedicated to you my Dissertations on the Apostle’s Creed. That “labour,” I have had abundant opportunities of knowing, was “not in vain in the Lord.” There were, and still are some persons who acknowledge that they derived from it some little assistance in explaining to the Christian people the most important mysteries of our religion, and in applying them to the practice of true virtue and ardent piety. These considerations, I am free to confess, gave me great comfort. No one was ever more deeply convinced than I am that very little proceeds from me which is fitted to advance the glory of God, or the increase of the Redeemer’s kingdom. For this reason I am delighted to see other persons of higher ability devoting their utmost exertions, with remarkable success, to an object of surpassing worth. And whenever I perceive among those eminent persons some who had been placed under my own tuition, I feel myself excited to earnest gratitude and lively joy. Nor can I avoid regarding them as auxiliaries kindly granted to supply my weakness.
