My dear Friend, Mrs. Peake. We have been both, and still are, in the furnace of affliction, and it is this whereby we learn to sympathize with those who are afflicted. The blessed Lord Himself, as the great High Priest over the house of God had to learn sympathy with His afflicted people by being Himself “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;” and there is no other way whereby we… Read More

My dear Friend, Mrs. Pinnell. I was very sorry to hear through a letter, received today from Mr. Tiptaft, that my dear friend Mr. Pinnell did not improve in health so much as his friends could desire; but I was very much pleased to hear through the same channel that he is very happy in his mind, and bore his illness with much submission and patience, and was otherwise favoured in his… Read More

My dear friend, William Brown, The Lord has hitherto appeared for you in opening doors for you to preach, and giving you acceptance among His people. This must very much relieve your mind, and convince you that you are not yet thrown over the wall, like a weed plucked out of the bed of a garden, which is perhaps one of the most painful feelings that a minister, as a minister, can… Read More

Dear friend, You are no doubt expecting a line from me in reply to your last kind letter, wishing me to come over to B. some time in the summer, to obtain a collection for the Aged Pilgrims’ Friend Society. I am sorry however to say that I cannot make any engagement of the kind, for it has pleased the Lord to lay upon me His afflicting hand, and to lay me… Read More

My Dear Friend, Mr. Godwin. Through mercy, I hope I can say I am progressing in health, and, for the first time since the end of November, went today out of my garden-gate, and took a turn up and down the Terrace. I feel also stronger in walking than I expected I would after my long confinement, and I hope now, with God’s blessing, if I get no relapse that I may… Read More

My dear friend, John Grace. I received your parcel quite safely, and much prize Miss V.’s kind present. Have the kindness, when you see her, to present her with my Christian regards and thanks. I have no doubt I shall find it very useful as a book of reference, and a good companion to his invaluable commentary. The advantage of such books is that they lead us to the Scriptures, the fountain-head… Read More

My dear Mr. Tips. I am glad that the Lord was pleased to give you and your friend a favourable voyage home, and that you found your dear wife and family in the enjoyment of that greatest of all temporal mercies. It gives me pleasure also to learn from your friendly and affectionate letter, that you bear in remembrance the days which you spent at my house. There is no bond like… Read More

My dear friend, Mrs. Pinnell. I much regret that I shall not be able this time to accept your kind invitation to come to Westwell, as I must reach home by August 10th. I would otherwise have had much pleasure in once more visiting you all, and renewing our friendship and spiritual communion. The time of the year naturally reminds you of that solemn scene which I witnessed when poor John passed… Read More

My dear Friend Mr. Tanner, I have been glad that you have been able in some measure to overcome the restraint which you have felt, I think I may say without reason, in writing to or conversing with me. I am sure there is no reason why you should feel it, though I believe there may be something in my natural manner which prevents people whom I really esteem and love from… Read More

My dear friend, John Grace I am much obliged to Mr ____ for his kind message. I have always held him in honour for his steadfast maintenance of sound doctrine. If we view religion as a body, may we not say that the doctrines of the Gospel are the bones, experience the flesh, and the blessed Spirit the life of both bones and flesh? The doctrines of the Gospel support all sound… Read More

My dear friend, Joseph Tanner. You will not expect me to write you a long letter, but will be waiting to learn whether I object to preaching in the Temperance Hall, instead of your little chapel. As a rule I generally feel more comfortable when I speak to the people in their usual place of worship, as a strange place and a mixed congregation often seem to rob me of that life… Read More

My dear friend, Joseph Parry. I need not tell you what a trial and exercise of mind this affliction has given me, and how sorry I have been to be obliged to disappoint the people at Bath and Leicester. It would be a very gladdening sight to see men raised up by the power and grace of God, able to preach the Gospel with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. But… Read More

My dear William Tiptaft. I have reason to hope that my illness last winter was blessed to me, and to others through me; for I certainly had more life and feeling in my soul, and I believe in my ministry, as the fruit of it. But though we prize spiritual blessings above all others, yet our coward flesh shrinks from the trial of affliction through which the blessing comes. God however has… Read More

My dear friend, John Grace, Trials, sufferings, afflictions, vexations, and disappointments are our appointed lot; and though grievous to the flesh, yet when they are sanctified to the soul’s good, are made to be some of our choicest blessings. But when we are in the furnace, we rarely see what benefit it is producing, or what profit is likely to arise to ourselves or to others out of it. Our coward flesh… Read More

Dear friend, “Love is of God, and he who loves is born of God”; nor is there any sweeter feeling in a Christian’s bosom than to love the Lord and the Lord’s people, because they belong to Him, and because he sees the mind and image of Christ in them. The Lord knows that I have many bitter enemies, therefore He has given me, by way of recompense, many warm and attached… Read More

My dear friend, Joseph Tanner. I hope that by this time both you and your dear wife are in some measure reconciled to the departure of your dear son to a foreign shore, and are enabled in some measure to see the Lord’s hand in it. Time has a wonderful effect in healing grief and soothing sorrow, at least where that sorrow does not arise from sin and guilt; for that is… Read More

My dear Mr. Tyrrell. I am obliged to you for your kind letter, and your liberal offer to take twenty copies of a sermon from Isaiah 17:10, 11, if I could bring it out in a similar way to Winter before Harvest. My time is so much occupied with The Gospel Standard, and a little work which I hope soon to bring out upon The Eternal Sonship of our Blessed Lord, that… Read More

My dear friend, Joseph Parry. You will probably have seen by The Gospel Standard that I have been in some measure restored from my late illness; but it is a great trial to me, and no doubt to the people also, that I should be so weak and tender; for it makes my preaching so uncertain, and has such a tendency to scatter the congregation. Were I in the full enjoyment of… Read More

My dear friend, John Grace, The Address (Gospel Standard) too requires some thought and labor, as not only must it be in great degree original, that is to say, not a repetition of former addresses, but in some way adapted to the readers of the work. It is more easy to see how such things should be done, or to criticize them after they are done, than to do them. The difficulty… Read More

Dear Friends I am glad to find that you are enabled still to hang together as a few people that are united in the love and fear of the Lord; and though you may be despised of men, it is far better to have the witness of God in your heart, than to enjoy all the smiles of mortals. I consider it a favour that God is pleased to make use of… Read More

My dear Friend, Mr. Parry. You will be desirous, I have no doubt, to hear how I am this severe weather. I may well call it severe, for we have not had a winter for some years during which the thermometer has been so low; and at present there does not seem much prospect of an alteration. I am thankful, then, to say, that though I feel the cold, yet I am… Read More

My dear Friend, Joseph Tanner. I have sometimes wished that it had pleased the Lord to take me to Himself thirty years ago, when I was laid aside with a serious illness, from which indeed I have never fully recovered. How many sins and sorrows I would have been spared! But such was not God’s will; and if He has been pleased to make any use of me by tongue or pen… Read More

Dear Mr. Jacob. I was sorry to learn from your letter that the Lord has been pleased to visit you and your family with such heavy strokes. [Mr. Jacob lost a son and two daughters by scarlet fever.] There are few things more heart-rending to a parent than to have his children torn from him by death; but we see that this was the appointed lot of some of God’s most eminent… Read More

My dear Friend, Mr. Grace. I am sure that the friends at Oakham will have great pleasure in receiving the word of grace and truth from your lips, and may the God of all grace come with you there to bless your own soul, both out of the pulpit and in it, and to make the word a blessing to His people. There are remarkable instances sometimes of the Lord’s special grace… Read More

My dear Friend, Mr. Grace. We shall be happy to see you to dine with us, and I hope we may have the sweet presence of the Lord in our mutual communication. There is a meeting together for the better and a meeting together for the worse, and usually when it is not for the one it is for the other. There is such a thing as carnalising each other’s mind, and… Read More

My dear Friend, Mr. Tanner. I have no doubt that you have been expecting for some time an answer to your kind and affectionate letter. Indeed, my own conscience has not been slow in reminding me of my neglect. But in this, as in many other instances, to will has been present with me, but how to perform that which was good I found not. You are well aware how much occupied… Read More

My dear Tiptaft, It is not often that you have been at Allington at this season of the year. I hope that these warm sunny days, and the green leaves spreading themselves over the trees, are emblems of a better season, and represent the springing up of life and feeling in your soul and in your ministry in Wilts. Winter is no pleasant season either for body or soul, and though I… Read More

My dear Friend, Mrs. Peake, I think I never came to London weaker in body and soul than this time. I much dreaded yesterday, and would have almost written to Mr. Brown to take my place. But I never found the promise more true, “As your day, so shall your strength be,” for I was brought through most comfortably in body and soul, and preached to a large and most attentive congregation… Read More

My dear Friend, Mr. Tanner, Once more am I in this great metropolis, being, through infinite and most undeserved mercy, spared to proclaim again salvation by grace in Gower Street pulpit. It is about twenty-five years since I first opened my mouth in London, and I have but once or twice since then failed to come up every year; but I think I never in all those years so much felt my… Read More

My dear Friend, Thomas Godwin. Being as usual almost overwhelmed with work, I can only send you a few lines, in order to obviate any mistake about my engagement for Leicester. I have sent word to the Standard that I am engaged there for September 15th and 22nd, and that you will be here (D.V.) the first of those Lord’s days (15th), and at Oakham on the 22nd. I would be glad… Read More

My dear Friend, Joseph Tanner. I certainly have been much favored this summer with a measure of health and strength in going about to preach the Gospel; and I have found not only natural strength given according to my day, but I trust also my spiritual needs supplied, both for myself and the people, out of the fullness that is in Christ. But now I seem drooping, not being so well in… Read More

My dear Friend, Mr. Crake, The obituary, concerning which you have written to me in your usual kind and affectionate way, has just been forwarded to me. When I first cast my eye over it I thought it would do for the wrapper, but when I came to examine it a little more carefully, and especially when I read the closing scene, I felt that the body of the work was a… Read More

My dear Friend, Thomas Godwin, It is a good thing that spiritual union does not depend upon letter-writing, though one is always glad to receive a few lines from those with whom we are united in heart and spirit. It is some time since I have either heard from or written to you, but our union remains the same, as being, I trust, based upon a better foundation than pen and ink…. Read More

My dear Friend, Joseph Tanner, Our coward flesh shrinks from every affliction and trial, and even though we may have proved in times past that there has been a blessing couched in them, yet our heart murmurs and frets under the weight of the cross. But the Lord, like a wise parent, does not consult us as to where, when, or how He may lay on the chastising stroke. It is best… Read More

Dear Friend, Mr. Hoadley. I am glad that you still bear in affectionate remembrance, and I trust in some measure in soul profit, what I was enabled to deliver in your hearing at Gower Street Chapel. I always think that it is a sign of hearing to profit when there is an abiding of the word in the heart. Our blessed Lord says, “Abide in me and I in you;” and again,… Read More