Thursday, 1813. To my young Friends, of Mr. Edmonds's con gregation: My dear young Friends, I feel greatly obliged to you for your very affectionate testimony of your esteem, and rejoice to find my feeble attempts to impress religious sentiments were not altogether without effect. Your letter breathes a spirit of unaffected piety, which it is impossible to witness without emotion. I hope the Lord will enable you to persevere, and that, being planted in the house of the Lord, you will flourish in the courts of your God, and bring forth fruit even to old age." Be sober, be vigilant; watch closely over your own hearts, and be much in earnest supplication to the Fountain of grace. Bless God, for having inclined your hearts to seek him; and doubt not that he will most graciously afford all the succour necessary to enable you to finish your course with joy. That you may very greatly profit by the means of grace with which you are favoured, and become the joy of your parents, the hope of your minister, and great examples of pure and undefiled religion, is the earnest prayer of, My dear young Friends, Your affectionate Brother, XXXIX. EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO THE REV. W. Dear Sir, BUTTON. Leicester, Oct. 25, 1813. I have taken into consideration the proposal you have made. I know not what to say to it. If I shall part with the copyright of the little tracts, it may be, possibly, an injury to my family, and put it out of their power to publish a complete edition. Your proposal is very handsome; but this is one of my objections to it. Another is, it is so long since the tracts made their appearance, and several so short, and their subjects so miscellaneous, that I am afraid it will have an osten tatious appearance. I hate the appearance of vanity: I have so much of it in my heart, that I am ashamed it should display itself to the eyes of the world. As to my sermon, I am doing something to it at intervals. I have, indeed, nearly written it out in the rough, but I am so much disgusted with it, as usual, that I can by no means let it appear, unless it is in my power greatly to improve it.* *The Sermon here alluded to was never published. XL. TO THE REV. JAMES PHILLIPS, CLAPHAM. ON OCCASION OF THE DEATH OF HIS OWN SON. My dear Friend, Leicester, Feb. 28, 1814. I am greatly obliged to you for your kind and consolatory letter, replete with those topics whence alone true consolation can be deduced. The stroke has been very severely felt by us both, but certainly most by dear Mrs. Hall. She was doatingly fond of our lovely boy. For my own part, I was not at all aware my affection for him was so strong, until he was removed from us: my anguish was then great. It seemed to me as if I felt more on this occasion than I should at the loss of either of my others. This feeling, I suspect, was delusive, and arises from our being incapable of estimating the strength of our attachment to any object till it is removed. I was disappointed in his being a boy; for, [recollecting] my own extreme and portentous wickedness, I fancied there was something in the constitution of boys peculiarly tending to vice, and adverse to their spiritual interests. I had also remarked that females seemed much more susceptible of religious impressions than men. On these accounts I trembled for his salvation, and did not feel that gratitude for the blessing vouchsafed me which I ought. I suspect I greatly displeased God by my distrust of his goodness, and that he saw it meet to adopt this method of chastising me. May it be sanctified as a means of making me humble, heavenly, and submissive. It is a very solemn consideration, that a part of myself is in eternity; in the presence, I trust, of the Saviour. How awful will it be, should the branch be saved, and the stock perish! Pray for me, my dear friend, that this may not be the case; but that I may be truly sanctified, and permitted to walk in the fear of the Lord, and in the consolations of the Holy Ghost. Mrs. Hall has been very ill, occasioned in a good measure by the shock she has received, but is better. She is looking forward, with considerable anxiety, to her confinement, which she expects in less than three months. She is so extremely weak and delicate, that I have very painful apprehensions respecting the issue. My wish and endeavour is, to leave her, myself, and my dear children, in the hands of God. But how difficult it is to do so! Let me, once more, entreat an interest in your prayers. XLI. TO THE REV. W. BUTTON. My dear Sir, Leicester, Feb. 3, 1815. I am much concerned to hear of your disorder in your eyes it is, indeed, a great affliction, and demands the exercise of much submission to the wise Disposer of all events. I am afraid it has had, and will have, a great effect in depressing your spirits. Remember, my dear brother, the Lord means to do you good by all his several dispensations. He has already given you his Son; and how "shall he not with him freely give you all things?" He has conferred upon you spiritual discernment and heavenly light: how infinitely more important than the "light of the body," which in all eyes must soon be darkened! I hope, however, if it is a cataract, you may get relief: that is a disease which, I understand, has frequently been cured. Say, then, my dear friend, with David, "Why art thou thus disquieted within me? I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance, and my God." It will be, and has been, my habitual prayer, that you may be strengthened, comforted, and relieved. With respect to the reviewing Mr. 's sermon, I must be excused. I have entirely done with reviewing: it is an occupation, of all others, I dislike, and shall entirely give it up. If you wish me to publish, you should never wish me to review; for you are not aware what a serious interruption it is. I compose very slowly; and what I have written in the Review has been a very great interruption. I have read Mr. — -'s sermon with much pleasure; it is judicious, serious, and affecting but I am well aware how extravagantly his friends at have always overrated his talents; and were I to review, and express myself |