My dear Friend, Mr. Crake, I am much obliged to you for the very interesting letter of Mr. M___ which you have kindly sent me. I have read it with much pleasure and interest, and would much like to insert it in the Gospel Standard, if Mr. M___ has no objection. I have not yet been able to look over the obituary sent me at the same time, but shall hope to… Read More

My dear Friend, Mr. Grace, My time this evening is limited, and I can therefore only send you a few lines to express my affectionate sympathy with you in your trials and afflictions, and my hope that at evening time there will be light. It is indeed truly distressing to see those who are near and dear to us fading like a leaf, and to have daily before the eyes such a… Read More

My dear Friend, William Brown. I think that your obituary of Mr. Crouch will be read with much pleasure and interest in the forthcoming Standard. When I was younger in years and more favoured in health, I used sometimes to preach for him at Pell Green, but we never had much conversation upon the things of God. I have indeed rarely met with a gracious man and minister who seemed more bound… Read More

My dear Friend, Mr. Godwin, I just drop you a line before I start for Oakham, as you will perhaps want to make your arrangements (D.V.) for the coming year. If the Lord gives me health and strength I am likely to be out from home a good deal next year. . . . I received a letter the other day from the deacon of a church at —, giving a dreadful… Read More

My dear friend, Mr. Tips, I am truly sorry to hear from your kind and affectionate letter that you have been and still are sick. The Lord, my dear friend, has seen good to take this way of afflicting you, and to lay upon you His chastising rod. It must have been a very great trial both for yourself and your dear wife; but I am truly glad to find that the… Read More

My dear Friend, An unknown friend in Australia has sent me a little money to distribute among the poor and needy of the Lord’s family; and as you have come upon my mind, I send you herewith a P.O. order for £2 as a part of the spoil. The difficulty with me is how to distribute the money in the best possible way; for I know so many of the Lord’s people… Read More

My dear Friend, John Grace, I sincerely desire to sympathize with you and Mrs. Grace in the trying affliction and painful bereavement which you have just sustained, in the removal of your beloved daughter. From what you have named of her experience, particularly toward the last, I think there is every ground for a good hope that she was among the number of those favoured souls who were redeemed by the blood… Read More

My dear Friend, Joseph Parry. I believe that the Address (Gospel Standard) is generally very well liked. If I may be a judge of my own composition, I have written better and worse; I therefore consider it about an average; but if I may say so, I think it is written in a good spirit. One thing I am very sure of—that whether it be preaching or writing, I have no power… Read More

My dear Friend and Brother in one Common Hope, Mr. Leigh, I would be very glad if I could give you any counsel upon the point concerning which you have written to me; but I have no doubt that you have long proved, as I have had to do, that in all matters connected with the things of God, “vain is the help of man.” Nor do I know, for the most… Read More

Dear Friend, Mr. Hoadley. Amid all my labors for the profit of the church of God, the various trials and temptations with which I am exercised, and the numerous enemies, internal and external, against whom I have to contend, it is a sweet satisfaction to find that the Lord is pleased to bless to any of His people what I send forth in His holy name. However the Lord’s people may differ… Read More

My dear Friend, Joseph Parry. I am glad to find that in your illness you have not been altogether left of the gracious Lord. It is but rarely that we can see at the time itself, what benefit there is to spring out of sickness and affliction. Our coward flesh cries out for ease, we want to get better, and dread being worse; and as illness usually fluctuates, we are raised up… Read More

My dear Friend, Joseph Parry. Mr. Godwin would tell you how I am as regards the poor body—just helped through day by day, without any reserve of strength to fall back upon, like the balance of a rich man at his banker’s. He would also tell you of the congregations which we had at Godmanchester. There certainly is an increased spirit of hearing in that place and neighborhood, which I have now… Read More

My dear Friend, Joseph Tanner. How time slips away with rapid wing! Revolving months have brought me against the eve of my summer campaign, when I leave my quiet home, my wife, family, and my books, to sojourn for a while in the busy metropolis, and then turn my face towards the swelling hills and green downs of Wilts. But before I once more (D.V.) see their broad backs and undulating line,… Read More

My dear Friend, Mrs. Peake, I need not tell you how disappointed I was at not being able to come to Oakham for last Lord’s-day, especially after so long an absence, but my voice was almost wholly gone, and therefore even if I had come and got into the pulpit I could not have made myself heard by the congregation. How true it is that disappointment and vexation attend all our earthly… Read More

My dear Friend, Mrs. Tanner, I desire very sincerely to sympathize with you and your family in the heavy trial through which you are all now passing, in the severe illness which it has pleased the Lord to lay upon my dear friend Mr. Tanner. I truly hope that the persuasion which you have that he will be still spared to yourself, his family, and the church, will be realized; but after… Read More

My dear Friend, William Brown, I was sorry to hear that you were suffering from the effects of your painful gouty arthritis, and had not the free use of your lower limbs. You must feel it much, being so often called from home, and having to travel by such various conveyances. We must all have our daily cross. My tender chest has long been one to me, and deprivation of the free… Read More

Dear Madam, I am sorry to find from your letter that your friend has suffered so much in mind from that most unhappy circumstance which you have mentioned—the suicide of a minister who she believes was made instrumental for the good of her soul. I am not surprised that she has been, and still continues to be, much exercised upon that point; but I hope that the Lord, in due time, may… Read More

My dear Friend, Mr. Tanner, I have often thought of you during your long and heavy affliction, and have endeavored to put up my poor prayers on your behalf, that the Lord would be pleased to spare your valuable life for the sake of your dear wife and family, and the Church of God. And I do trust that the Lord will go on to strengthen your poor weak body until He… Read More

My dear Friend, Joseph Tanner, I am sorry to learn that you are still suffering from your old illness. I greatly fear that you will never be free from it, and that it is one of those crosses which the Lord sometimes binds fast round the shoulders of His people, that they may carry it to their dying day. My best wish is that it may be richly blessed and truly sanctified… Read More

My dear Friend, Jacob Blake, Not having heard of you or from you for so long a period, and having forgotten your address, I hardly knew whether you were still a sojourner in this valley of tears. This was the reason why I put the notice on the wrapper of the Gospel Standard, and I am very glad to find that you are still spared to be a witness for truth in… Read More

My dear Friend, John Grace, I believe that the truth is never really known, valued, or prized, except as we feel the desperate state into which sin has cast us, and feel something of the liberating, comforting, sanctifying power and influence of truth upon the heart. Every truth connected with the Person and work, love and blood, grace and truth, power and glory of our blessed Lord, becomes sweet and precious as… Read More

My dear Friend, John Grace, I believe that the truth is never really known, valued, or prized, except as we feel the desperate state into which sin has cast us, and feel something of the liberating, comforting, sanctifying power and influence of truth upon the heart. Every truth connected with the Person and work, love and blood, grace and truth, power and glory of our blessed Lord, becomes sweet and precious as… Read More

My dear Friend, Mrs. Peake, I take it very kind of you sending me some account of Mr. Grace’s sermon and of your visit to our two afflicted friends. I hope it may please the Lord to bless the word which Mr. G. was enabled to speak. I fully believe that he loves the Lord, His truth, His people, and His ways; and what he speaks, he speaks out of an exercised… Read More

My dear Friend, Mr. Crake, As I send this from a sick bed, to which I am almost wholly confined, by a severe attack of one of my usual chest illness, and am forbidden much exertion of mind or body, I can only acknowledge very briefly your kind communication and its enclosure. I have the pleasure of personally knowing Mr. L., as some years ago, when I was at Brighton, he wished… Read More

My dear afflicted Friend, Mrs. Pinnell, I desire to sympathize both with yourself and your bereaved children in the great and irreparable loss which you have sustained in the removal of your beloved and lamented husband, and their most tender, thoughtful and affectionate father. Nor should I have delayed to write to you immediately on the receipt of the distressing intelligence, had I not been so very unwell as to be prohibited… Read More

My dear Friend, Mr. Tanner, I am much obliged to you for your kind and affectionate inquiries about my health, and though I am forbidden to dictate too much, I cannot forbear sending you a few lines just to tell you how I am. We can sympathize with each other in these heavy trials, though you have been a greater sufferer in body than I. But we know not only the weight… Read More

My dear Friend, Mrs. Peake, As I am sure you will be very desirous to know how I am progressing, I will send you a few hasty lines, and am happy to say, then, that with the blessing of God I am much better. My medical man much wishes me to go somewhere for choange of air; but I cannot at present see my way to do so. If all had been… Read More

My dear Friends, I cannot forbear sending you a few lines written in my own hand to acknowledge your most unexpected and undeserved kindness and liberality. I am afraid, however, of saying too much or too little; but let me assure you I much feel your kindness and the Christian love and affection which I am sure prompted it. I do not often speak of the Lord’s providential dealings with me, but… Read More

My dear Friend, Mr. Brown, Various circumstances have prevented my answering your kind and affectionate letter at an earlier period. My time, you know, is generally much occupied, and I have had of late the additional hindrance of illness and bodily weakness. I cannot, however, leave home without sending you a few lines just to keep up our friendly and brotherly communion, which is apt to drop if all correspondence be suspended…. Read More

My dear Friend, Mr. Grace, Will you kindly thank Mr. L____ for his donation of £1 for publishing works of truth in Holland, as I have not time to write to him. I have just heard from Mr. Los, Gz. He tells me that through the aid of the donations of English friends he is bringing out a cheap edition of Huntington’s “History of Little Faith,” and intends from time to time,… Read More

My dear Friend, John Grace, I reached here last Friday evening after a month’s sojourn in London, where I had a very comfortable, and I hope profitable visit. I was with my dear friends Mr. and Mrs. Clowes, whom the more I know, the more I value. I was favored for the most part with liberty in the pulpit, and my health, instead of suffering, was improved up to the end. Indeed,… Read More

Dear David Beattie, I sincerely wish that I could, with the blessing of God, write you anything that might afford relief to your troubled mind, but I feel how helpless I am in this matter. Your case, as you describe it, is truly pitiable; but it is what many have passed through before you, who afterwards had reason to bless God for the fiery trial. We have all by nature a great… Read More

My dear Friend, Mr. Grace, Circumstances are always occurring to prevent that free and frequent communication with our friends which we desire in order to maintain with them friendly and brotherly communion. Sometimes we lack the time and sometimes the inclination; sometimes engagements to preach or traveling, with its various hindrances, prevent our sending the intended letter, and I for my part am sometimes deprived of the ready aid of my secretary,… Read More

My dear Friend, Mr. J. Blake, Your post office order came safely to hand, and will be paid to the secretary at the end of this month. I see so much good done by the Aged Pilgrims’ Friend Society, and so much thankfulness manifested by the poor old pilgrims, that I am very glad to support it myself, and to see others doing the same. Satan will always oppose that which is… Read More