My dear friend, John Grace, I cannot call to mind any distinct promise to review (my usual way of noticing) Huntington’s letters. I may possibly do so, but much must depend on how I am led in the matter. I cannot write a review, unless the subject be one which I feel I can handle in a manner edifying to the church of God. I take a book more as a peg,… Read More

To The Deacons and Members of the Church of Christ Assembling themselves for the worship of God at Gower Street Chapel, London, mercy, peace, and love be multiplied: My dear friends, Having taken into serious and prayerful consideration the expression of your desire that I should come among you for a season, with a view to a settlement as pastor over you in the Lord, if approved of by you, I have… Read More

My dear friend, Jesse Crake, I hope this illness has not altogether been unprofitable to me, as during it I have had many seasons of prayer, meditation, and reading the Word with sweetness and feeling. There must be times, especially in a minister, for laying up, as well as laying out. There is a trading in divine matters, whereby the soul becomes enriched with heavenly treasure. Seclusion and solitude, of which I… Read More

Dear Mr. Tips, friend and Brother in the Lord of Life and Glory, I received and read with much interest and pleasure your gratifying letter, the whole of which I was able to make out with tolerable facility. But though I understand enough of the Dutch language to be able to read it, I am not sufficiently conversant with that tongue, as regards its idioms and grammar, to be able to write… Read More

My dear Richard Healy. I was glad to receive a few lines from you, and still more pleased to learn that you were once more enabled to set up your Ebenezer to the love and faithfulness of a covenant God. Amid all our miserable departures and wanderings from the only real object of our soul’s desire, and amid all our temptations and trials, He remains still “the same yesterday, today, and forever.”… Read More

My dear Friend Mr. Tips, I hope that the blessed Lord, who has called you by His distinguishing grace, who has planted His fear in your heart—a precious new covenant blessing (Jer. 32:40), who has convinced you of your lost and ruined state by nature, and given unto you to believe in the Son of His love (Phil. 1:29; Eph. 2:8), is also carrying on His divine work in your heart (Phil…. Read More

My dear friend, I fear that you will almost think that I have forgotten you by not writing before; but you know how much I am usually engaged in writing until I have got the month’s Standard off my hands. I take then the opportunity of a few days’ quiet and rest down here in this retired spot, to send you a few lines to encourage you, I hope, to look unto… Read More

Dear Mr. Copcutt. I am much obliged to you for the interesting account which you have given of the removal from this valley of tears of both your parents, and hope the God of all grace will give you power to follow them as they followed Christ. Your deceased mother was one of the most remarkable women of whose experience I ever heard or read. I was much struck with one expression… Read More

Dear friend, For such I call you, though personally unknown; yet I trust we know by grace the same things, and therefore in that sense are known to each other in the things of God. From your letter, you seem to have passed through a great deal of trial and temptation, but it has all been for the good of your soul—and I doubt not that you would not have one thing… Read More

My dear Mr. Parks, I am much obliged to you for your kindness and courtesy in sending me your pamphlet upon Chastisement. I like it very much, and think it is a very clear and faithful testimony against that error which I fear is making great and fearful progress. Controversial writing is at times as needful for the church of God as that which is more purely doctrinal and experimental. Each has… Read More

My dear friend, Joseph Parry. Since I last wrote to you I have been very unwell; indeed, I have been confined to my bed for the last ten days. One thing is certain, that all who are journeying heavenward are passing more or less through a path of trial, suffering, and exercise; and I need not tell you how the weak and coward flesh shrinks from the weight of so heavy a… Read More

My dear friend, John Grace, We shall be glad to see you if you can contrive to give us a look-in by the way; but should have been better pleased if you could have contrived to have given us a week evening at the chapel. I believe our friends love real experimental truth. In fact, what else can really satisfy a soul which has been made alive unto God? How many, alas!… Read More

My dear Friend, I was glad to receive a few lines from you, and to find that your poor body was so far strengthened as to be enabled to use your pen. When I saw you at R.’s so brought down in body, I hardly expected that the Lord would raise you up to your present state of health. But He kills and makes alive both body and soul, and can and… Read More

My dear friend, John Grace, It is a great pity that those who are opposed to ‘believer’s baptism’ should have taken such high ground. It is very rarely that I feel my mind led to say anything upon the subject. Not that I do not hold it with a firm hand, but because my mind seems taken up in preaching with matters so much more important, and in which the life and… Read More

My dear afflicted friend Mrs. Peake, I sincerely desire to sympathize with you under your truly distressing bereavement, and hope that the Lord may support your soul in this season of grief and sorrow. When I saw your poor dear husband in town, I could scarcely indulge a hope that his life would be spared. Still I could not have anticipated his removal from this valley of tears so suddenly as it… Read More

My dear bereaved Friend Mrs. Peake, Nothing but extreme pressure of writing has prevented me dropping you a few lines of sympathy and affection. Pardon the unintentional neglect. The Review and Sermon have demanded much time, even to the suffering of health. My intention is for the Obituary of your beloved husband, and my dear and valued friend, to go into the body of the Gospel Standard, and not on the wrapper…. Read More

My dear friend, John Grace. I thank you for your kind letter and offer to take a number of copies of my meditated little work on The Eternal Sonship of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am sorry to say that my mind has been so much taken up with preaching and traveling, that I have not been able to give it that attention which it requires before I can send it forth…. Read More

My dear friend, William Brown. I desire sincerely to sympathize with you under your present heavy trial, especially as I have had myself some experience, both of bodily affliction, and also of being laid aside from the ministry. At the same time I cannot but concur in the prudence, and I might add, in the necessity, of the step which you have taken. Both you and Mrs. Brown have long suffered from… Read More

My dear friend, William Brown. I still desire to sympathize with you in your present painful trial, and if I can do so better than some others, it is because I have had some experience of it, both in body and in mind. I remember feeling once so much the cares and anxieties of the ministry, as to wish I had never opened my mouth in the Lord’s name. But soon after… Read More

My dear Friend Mr. Parry, I was intending to write to you soon, even if I had not received your kind and friendly letter, but I have been much occupied with the Standard, &c., and, indeed, have hardly been adequate for much mental exertion. I took cold at Oakham, and I rather neglected it, instead of sending for my medical attendant, who now knows pretty well the nature of my attacks. This… Read More

My dear Friend Mr. Brown, I was glad to receive your kind and friendly letter, and to learn from it that you had safely arrived at Brighton, and were comfortably accommodated. To be released for a time from the strife of tongues is a sensible relief to the mind that is worn and jaded by struggling under a load of contention. It is to the mind almost like the pure breeze that… Read More

My dear friend, Joseph Parry. I was very sorry to hear of Mrs ____’s alarming illness. I do hope that it may please the gracious Lord to raise her up, for she would be very much missed among you, from her kindness and liberality; but if such be not the will of God, I do hope that the Lord may be pleased to reveal a sense of His love and mercy to… Read More

My dear friend, Mr. Tips, Trials and afflictions are the appointed lot of the family of God, and if we belong to that favoured number, we shall certainly have our share of them. Some of these afflictions are of the body, others of the mind; some are connected with the family, others with our circumstances in life; some come from the temptations of Satan, and others from our own evil hearts. The… Read More

My dear William Tiptaft. Many people think that illness is the best time for religion, and for being prayerful and spiritually-minded but this is a great mistake. When the illness is severe, it takes such possession of the whole mind, and at the same time so enfeebles it, that it has not power to act as in health. I have often found that, when the main force of the illness is over,… Read More

My dear friend, William Brown. I am glad to find that, through the rich mercy of the Lord, you have derived benefit from your sojourn at Brighton, and I hope that it may be permanent when, in the providence of God, you shall have turned your back upon that bracing air. We are strange creatures, and body and mind have so close and intimate a connection, that the very blowing of the… Read More

My dear William Tiptaft. I am very glad that you have felt led to render us some assistance in our time of need; I have no doubt that the friends both here and at Oakham will be much pleased to see and hear you again. Mr. Keal was here last evening, and brought over your last letter. What you say in it about despair, I can well go along with. To be… Read More

Dear Friend, Mrs. Oyler, I am much obliged to you for your kind and affectionate letter, and the interest which you express in my health and welfare. I am thankful to say, through mercy, that the illness under which I was labouring has been very much subdued, and I hope, with God’s blessing, I may after a little time be restored to my usual health. But at present I am suffering under… Read More

My dear Friends, I write to you both, for I feel that I must, with my own hand, acknowledge your most kind and liberal present; and I trust it has produced in my heart thankfulness to the God of all my mercies, as well as real gratitude and affection to yourselves. I am almost ashamed to confess it, and yet as your most unlooked-for present has come as a secret yet sweet… Read More