LETTERS of J. C. Philpot (1861)
January 2, 1861
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 is,
to write with some sweet savor upon the spirit, and while all appearance
of teaching is laid aside, yet to speak with that degree of authority and
power, which becomes those who stand forward to instruct or admonish others.
I have no doubt you understand my meaning, as it is so analogous to
preaching. If a man cannot preach with some authority and savor, he seems
little qualified for such an office; and yet the assumption of any undue
authority would be felt by the people as unbecoming his position. But it is
the Lord, and the Lord alone, who can commend, both what we speak and what
we write, to the consciences of His people; and there is in truth, as
applied to the heart by the power of God, a weight and an authority, which
is not to be found in any assumption of the priestly office.
I am more and more convinced what error there is in the
professing church, and how we seem fallen on those evil days when perilous
times were to come. I used some years ago, in reading Mr. Huntington's
writings, to wonder at two things—(1) The erroneous men that he had to deal
with; (2) His severe language against them. But I can now see that we have
just the same men in our day, and just the same errors; and though I
would not use Mr. Huntington's language, because I have not his
experience, his discernment, or his authority, yet I can see that such
language was in a measure deserved, and that it was zeal for his Master and
for the truth that made him so denounce error and erroneous men.
I preached here on Christmas day and did not suffer any
injury, though the thermometer was lower than it has been for many years. I
feel it to be a mercy not to be wholly laid aside, as it keeps the people
together, and I trust is sometimes made profitable to their souls, as well
as giving me the opportunity to preach what extends to a wider circle than
my own congregation. How very differently the Lord, for He is the
author of all good, deals with different instruments; and yet how His
wisdom is displayed in the various circumstances of His all-wise arrangement.
You, for instance, are favored with a good measure of health and strength,
and have a regular and large congregation; while I am for the most part but
a poor invalid shut up in a narrow corner of the land. And yet we hope we
are both filling up the exact position which the Lord has designed; and so
far as He is making use of us, are qualified to do the work which He has
appointed us to do. It is a blessed thing when we can feel nothing in
ourselves, but all in Him, and are blessed with a single eye to His glory,
and His people's good.
We have just entered upon a new year, and who can tell
whether we shall see its close? I wish for myself that I may live more to
the Lord's praise during the year now present, if my life be spared, than I
did through the year just passed. And yet I am very sure, if I am left to
myself, I shall spend a worse year as regards living to the Lord, than I
did during that now forever gone. We have seen in one sense the best of our
days, for youth is departed from us; and though you enjoy a larger measure
of health and strength than myself, yet every coming year will rob you more
and more of both. I do earnestly desire for myself that my last days may be
my best days, and that when my sun sets, it may not go down in a cloud, but
shine the brighter before it passes altogether out of sight. But this,
like every other gift, must be all of superabounding grace, for indeed
nothing short of that can bless us in life or death.
I have read the sermon which Mr. — lately preached at
your chapel. It is not marked by any great depth of experience, nor does it
bear the stamp of great ability of mind; but there is something very sound,
savory, and sweet in it, and in many points I could see with it very nicely
eye to eye, and feel with it, I trust, heart to heart. Among the men of
experimental truth, how few we have who are gifted with any great ability to
set it forth. Sermons sometimes come across me which are preached by men
ignorant experimentally of the truth, and scarcely sound indeed even in the
letter; but as regards clearness and force of language, and ability in
putting forth their views, they seem to me far to outshine the experimental
ministers of our day. This cannot be because the subject of experience is
not calculated for clear and vigorous expression, for where do we find more
beautiful writing than in the works of Mr. Huntington and the poetry of
Joseph Hart, not to mention The Pilgrim of the immortal tinker? With
what power too our esteemed friend Mr. W. Gadsby used to preach! So that
there is nothing in experimental preaching which is unsuitable to clearness
of thought, vigor of language, and force of expression. Besides which,
there is in it a sweet savor and a blessed unction, when God speaks through
the lips, which is true eloquence; for it reaches the heart and produces an
abiding effect upon the soul. It is true that God by the "foolishness of
preaching saves those who believe"—but the Apostle does not mean that the
preaching itself is foolish, but that the effect is so far beyond the cause,
that it may be considered in that sense a foolish, because in itself a weak,
instrument. Please excuse my running on at this rate, but very often in
dictating letters I think aloud instead of writing, and thus sometimes may
burden my friends with unprofitable thoughts.
Yours very affectionately,
J. C. P.
January 9, 1861
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 favor that God is pleased to make use of my poor instrumentality to feed
His people in various parts of the country; as there are many little places
scattered up and down the land where they read, in the absence of
ministers who preach the truth, the sermons which I have been enabled
from time to time to send forth in His most blessed Name. And as I cannot
doubt, from the many testimonies which I have received, that the Lord has
condescended to bless them, I must thankfully acknowledge that His gracious
hand is in it. He will work by whom He will work, for He is a mighty
Sovereign, and has therefore power and will combined to execute His eternal
purposes without consulting the will of man. And generally His ways are
so in the deep waters, and His footsteps are so unknown to fleshly reason,
that they are only seen by the event. This often tries the faith of the
Lord's exercised family; for they would rather walk by sight than believe
in the dark. But when the Lord is pleased to make darkness light and
crooked things straight, then they can admire His divine sovereignty and
see, feel, and gratefully acknowledge that He does all things well.
I hope the Lord will keep you together in a spirit of
love and union, for without this all is misery and confusion. There is
nothing worse than a root of bitterness springing up among those who love
and fear God. The Lord preserve you from it, and knit your hearts
together in love. I am, through mercy, pretty well, considering the severity
of the weather. My love to all the friends.
Yours in the best bonds,
J. C. P.
January 11, 1861
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 quite as well as I could possibly expect, and, indeed, I may say, much
better than when I saw you last at Cirencester. I preached last Lord's-day
in the morning, and think that I could have stayed for the afternoon had I
not made arrangements to come home. The weather was so extremely severe that
we had not our usual congregation; still there were quite as many as could
be expected, considering that very many of our friends come out of the
country, and no doubt they felt a little uncertainty whether I would be out
to preach in consequence of the extreme severity of the weather. . . .
You know that for many years I have taken an interest in
agricultural matters, not only as having friends among the tillers of the
soil, but as feeling its general importance to the whole country. It has
struck me, therefore, that this severe frost may be mercifully sent to dry
and pulverize the hard clays after they have been so saturated with last
year's continual dripping; so that if the Lord be pleased to give us a
suitable spring, and a warn and dry summer, we may see the benefit of what
now pinches our frames, chills our blood, and nips our fingers.
What a deep fund of unbelief and infidelity there
is in the heart of man, ever ready to start up like a wild beast from its
lair and seize hold of any coming forth of the life of God in the actings of
faith! I have sometimes thought that it is scarcely possible for any among
the living family of God to have a heart so full of unbelief and infidelity
as I carry in my bosom. But I know this, that the grace of God, and the
grace of God alone, is able to subdue it. My wonder is, not that all do not
believe, but that any do; it is not the multitude of unbelievers which
surprises me, for this I know all men are, but that any should, by the power
of God, have their unbelief subdued and overthrown, and the grace of faith
communicated and kept alive in their bosom.
We are entered upon another year. The last, as you will
remember I said in the pulpit when I was at Allington, was an eventful one,
and we do not know what circumstances lie hidden in the bosom of 1861 to
make it even more eventful than 1860. We are no longer young. Our
families are growing up around us; they are the generation that is pushing
us out of our place, as a young healthy shoot pushes off and displaces a
decaying one. We feel, and that more deeply and more sensibly every day,
that we are passing away out of this time state; and when we look around,
what is there abiding? for we all seem like the passengers by a railway, all
of whom are journeying by the same means of conveyance, and though each
drops off from the train at different stations, yet all eventually come to a
terminus where they leave the line. As then we see and feel that all is
passing away, what a mercy it is if we can look beyond this vain scene to
that which abides forever and ever! "We have no abiding city here," is a
lesson which the Lord writes upon the heart of all His pilgrims; and as it
is more deeply engraved upon their bosom, and cut into more legible
characters, they look up and out of themselves to that City which has
foundations, of which the maker and builder is God.
You, no doubt, feel something of this from day to day,
and so far as you do, it will keep you from looking forward too anxiously
to, or thinking too much of, the house which they are building for you at
Allington. It is very blessed when we can use the favors of God in
providence without abusing them; can see His kind hand in the gift and not
make an idol of it; can bless Him for His providential mercies, and yet feel
that without Himself they are not only worthless but miserable. How many
have lived all their lives in beautiful houses, have never known a day's
hunger, have eaten of the fat and drunk of the sweet all the days of their
life, have lain down at night in a luxurious bed, where they have felt
neither cold nor frost; and yet at last when their mortal existence has come
to a close, have made their bed in hell!
When I say this, I may add that I sincerely hope that you
may have a comfortable house, that your life may be spared long to live in
it, and health be granted that neither house nor life may be a burden. But
with all that, I wish for you, and I wish for myself, a house not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens, with which we may be clothed when the earthly
house of this tabernacle is dissolved and reduced to its native dust. Even
the troubles and trials which we meet with in the way are so far made
blessings as they become thorns to prevent us settling down in our nest
and counting our days as the sand. How often the very circumstance on which
we most set our heart is made to be the source of the keenest trial! And how
many have built houses, and either not lived to go into them, or have soon
yielded up their breath when they have taken possession of them.
Poor Mr. M—, no doubt, promised himself many years of
enjoyment in his new house; but the Almighty Disposer of events had
ordered it otherwise, and while He allows a Sally Durnford, and a Nanny
Benger to creep on to the extreme verge of life, mows down in the prime of
his years the father of a family, and the possessor of the finest farm,
perhaps, in your county. What lessons such things would teach us if our eyes
were more open to see, our ears to hear, and our hearts to feel their solemn
import! But I am well convinced that however enlightened our judgments may
be, it must be the immediate power of God to lay these things with any real
weight and profitable influence upon the heart.
I am sorry to hear so unfavorable an account of poor Mrs.
T—. May the gracious Lord condescend to support her mind under her bodily
affliction, and, above all, to give her a blessed token for good, and a
sweet testimony of her interest in the love and blood of the Lamb. This may
be delayed, as it was with poor Mrs. C—; but delays are not denials,
and God is faithful to His promises, as well as to His own work of grace
upon the heart. He will never despise the work of His own hands, but will
graciously perfect that which concerns His people. And what can concern them
so deeply as the salvation of their immortal soul? What are all concerns to
this grand concern? If that be right, how can anything else be wrong? If
that be wrong, how can anything else be right? She has lived to an advanced
period of life, has no anxiety about leaving children behind her to battle
with a rough, ungodly world; and her only earthly tie, besides the natural
clinging to life which all have, is a kind and affectionate husband. So that
if the Lord be but once pleased to smile upon her soul, and give her a
testimony of His pardoning love, she may look up out of her affliction and
say, "Lord, now let you your servant depart in peace, for my eyes have seen
your salvation."
You will find more and more, if your life be spared, that
there will be a gradual dropping off of your members; and you may expect
well-known faces gradually to disappear from the pews. But the Lord is able
to give you fresh accessions, both of members and hearers, and thus fill up
your number, and, it in yes be, put fresh life and feeling into your midst.
May He do this if it be His will for His great name's sake.
In speaking about the future, I feel myself compelled to
do so with a great degree of hesitation. Still, it is necessary, for the
sake of others as well as one's self, to make arrangements for the coming
summer. I think, then, if life be spared, and health be given, of going to
London for the last three Lord's-days in June; and in that case I would
like, if spared, to come on to Allington for the first three in July. I
would be glad to give you four Lord's-days, but I fear I shall not be able,
as having been so often laid aside, I feel it necessary not to be away so
much from home.
Yours very affectionately,
J. C. P.
January 31, 1861
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 since that period, I have every reason to adore His
inscrutable wisdom and His matchless mercy. I little thought then that I
would have to occupy the position which the Lord seems to have assigned me
in His providence and grace. I never sought it, and have only been
maintained in it by a connection of circumstances which seem to have
combined, not only to put, but to keep me in a position from which many a
time I would have gladly escaped.
Some people seem naturally fond of pushing themselves
before men, which makes quiet and obscurity to be their torment; and others
appear animated with a spirit of strife and contention, so that, like a
sea-gull, they never seem so happy as in a storm. But I can say for myself,
that peace and quiet have always been to me naturally an object of greater
desire, than to occupy any prominent position, or to be engaged in
contention and strife. But the fact is, that if a man, from the dictates of
an honest conscience, and from the teaching of the blessed Spirit in the
heart, is led to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the
saints, he necessarily becomes a man of strife. This was just the case with
the prophet Jeremiah. Because he was compelled to declare what God showed
him, and what he knew to be true, he therefore became a man of strife to the
whole earth. He did not seek war; but it was thrust upon him by those who
hated him for the truth that was in him.
I hope, my dear friend, that the Lord has led both of us
to know and to believe, as well as to love, His precious truth. Having
therefore this knowledge, this faith in, this love to His truth, we cannot
frame to ourselves the enmity which is felt by those who are ignorant of it
in its power and preciousness. It is this which stirs up the enmity of their
heart; and this being the case, need we wonder at the enmity manifested by
them against all who know and love the truth, and in a more especial manner
against those who proclaim it by tongue or pen? I ought to be by this time
pretty well seasoned to the attacks of men who oppose the truth from an
ignorance of its power as experimentally felt. I do not know whether you
have seen any of the late pamphlets which have been written against me by
the opponents of the true and proper Sonship of our blessed Lord. As regards
myself, I pay but little heed to them. The truth of God is far beyond and
far above us all, whether we defend it, or whether we oppose it. The Son
of God is like the natural sun, to which He is compared, as being called the
Sun of Righteousness. The rays of the glorious orb of day are not impaired
by the bats and owls, which hate it and flee from it into their dark
caverns; nor are they heightened by the thousands of gladdened eyes to whom
they are a guiding and a warning light.
In a few years, those who have advocated, and those who
have opposed the highest title and most glorious name of our blessed Lord
will alike have passed away; but He will still be what He ever was—the Son
of the Father in truth and love. He does not need our advocacy to those who
see Him by the eye of faith, any more than the literal sun needs our praise
when, after a cloudy or inclement season, it shines forth brightly once
more, as it has done this day. Yet are we glad, as opportunity serves, to
set forth His worthy praise; and indeed cannot but do so when our heart is
in any measure softened with His grace, and our lips touched with a live
coal from off the altar. The tongue of mortals, and indeed of immortals, can
but faintly show forth His praise; but it is our mercy to be on the side
of His friends, and not be ranked among the number of His foes.
Yours very affectionately,
J. C. P.
March 1, 1861
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 at such opportunities. Often a servant of God has gone
in His providence to a strange place, and the Lord has directed a special
word on such an occasion to someone's heart, who then either for the first
time heard the truth, or, if not so in the letter, heard it for the first
time then with power. Our dear friends Gadsby and Warburton were much
blessed in this way, going as they did from place to place. A blessing often
rests upon the servants of God in this way, of which they never hear.
Indeed, the Lord in mercy often hides from them the good they do, lest
they should be puffed up by it and think themselves something when they are
nothing.
It would seem a great blessing if the Lord would raise up
more ministers to feed the churches; for, indeed we may say "the harvest is
great and the laborers few." Everything looks very dark and gloomy just now.
This sad error has infected very many, and its advocates seem more and more
bold and daring. But the Lord reigns. He can and will maintain His own
truth. It has always met with the greatest opposition, and yet it has come
out triumphant over all. Grace be with you and peace from God the Father and
our Lord Jesus Christ.
Yours very affectionately,
J. C. P.
April 12, 1861
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
with God's help and blessing there is also a spiritualising of it. Paul
desired to come to Rome that he might impart unto the people a spiritual
gift, not only to the end that they might be established, but that he also
might be comforted together with them by the exercise of their mutual faith.
Those who feared the Lord in ancient times "spoke often one to another;" and
the Lord graciously heard and put them down in the book of His remembrance.
There is very little real spiritual conversation in our day; and one
would hardly think that people had heaven much in their hearts who have the
things of heaven so little in their lips. It is a sad mark of the cold and
lifeless state into which the Church of God has sunk, that while there is so
much bitterness and strife there is so little real union and love. It is
said of Naphtali that "he gives goodly words;" but why? Because he was
"satisfied with favor and full with the blessing of the Lord;" for though
many years separated the blessings pronounced upon him by Jacob and Moses,
yet he was the same character in the eyes of each, as instructed and
inspired by the Holy Spirit. I hope that you may come up from Brighton with
Naphtali's experience as "a deer let loose," and may give goodly words both
at Oakham and Grantham.
Yours very affectionately,
J. C. P.
February 6, 1861
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 saints. Look for instance at poor Jacob, whose
grey hairs he felt would be brought down in sorrow to the grave by the loss
of his beloved Joseph; for though he was not really dead, yet he was such as
much in his father's feelings, as if he had actually seen his dead body torn
to pieces. And look also at David. How deeply he felt the loss of
Absalom, so that he would in his feelings gladly have died for him. There
is only one way whereby one who fears God can be reconciled to such painful
dispensations, and that is by submission to the sovereignty of Him who
cannot err. This will not indeed heal the wound, but it will prevent it
from rankling, and from what is worse than any affliction, that is,
rebelling in our feelings against so kind and gracious a God as has watched
over us with such care and tenderness for so many years.
It is a great mercy that the Lord has so constituted us
that time has a great effect in softening the grief that is felt under
family bereavements; and thus by degrees the heavy weight of the affliction
passes off the mind. I hope that it has pleased the Lord, not only to give
you submission, and your wife also, under these afflicting strokes, but also
to make them in some good measure a blessing to your soul. From whatever
quarter affliction comes it has a voice; and if we have but ears to hear, we
shall find God speaking in it. This is the grand difference between
those who fear God and those who fear Him not, that the former see God in
everything, and the latter see God in nothing. Thus affliction brings no
benefit whatever to the one, but often yields the greatest blessing to the
other; and even if the child of grace does feel at times much rebellion
under the stroke, yet usually sooner or later, when the soul has been
humbled thereby, the Lord appears and sanctifies the affliction.
I am glad to learn that you are so comfortable under Mr.
Gunner's ministry, and hope that you may find more and more reason to bless
God that you have been brought under it. There is nothing so precious to
a believing heart as the truth, when applied to the soul by the power of
God. The Lord ever will bless His own truth; but how can we expect Him
to bless error, or that He will make a lie to be profitable?
I believe that the end will show that there will be no
reason to regret the controversy which has been so warmly carried on about
the Sonship of Christ, especially in the metropolis. The effect will be to
draw a clearer and sharper line of distinction between the men who hold the
truth, and those who have drunk in the error. You probably have heard or
seen some of the pamphlets which have been launched against me on the
subject. I have just looked at them, but no more, as I soon saw enough of
their spirit to throw them aside. When men manifest such carnality and
such bitterness, we need no other proof that they are not taught of God.
They cannot see it themselves, nor can their admirers see it in them, but
those who know the truth by divine teaching and by divine testimony see at a
glance where such men are, and know that they are not under that holy
anointing which teaches all things, and is truth and no lie. But as I have
sent forth my little book on the subject, I shall not take the trouble to
answer the various pamphlets that erroneous men may write against me.
My love to, and sympathy with, yourself and your wife
under your afflictions and trials.
Yours affectionately in the Lord,
J. C. P.
May 3rd, 1861
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 my time is, and what a hindrance
in the way of work is a weak tabernacle. Thus the combination of these two
things—much to do and little strength to do it, has a great tendency to
throw one's work sadly into arrear.
I am sorry to say that just now I am laboring under one
of my chest attacks which prevented me preaching here last Lord's-day, and
will prevent me preaching on the one now approaching. Still, as I am
mending, I hope it may please the Lord soon to restore me to my former work.
I sometimes think I will make no more engagements to go from home, as it is
often a matter of uncertainty whether I shall be able to fulfill them.
Still, hitherto, the Lord has helped me, and though occasionally I have been
obliged to disappoint expecting friends, yet upon the whole I have been
strengthened in my work far beyond all my expectations; and this encourages
me not to give up until absolutely compelled. . . . I hope that our mind
when we are under any sweet influence from above, is led up into higher and
more blessed things than anything which time and sense can afford.
There is something very peculiar and very distinct in the
operations of the blessed Spirit upon the heart. Those who know nothing of
divine things by divine teaching are easily satisfied with a name to live
and a mere form of godliness; but this will not and cannot satisfy any one
who really possesses the life and power of God in his soul. But what
different people we are– according to the influence of the flesh and the
influence of the Spirit! and how we find these two principles ever opposing
and conflicting one with another! But how totally different they are in
their origin, nature, and end! How I look around sometimes and see how
people are lost and buried in the poor vanities of this earthly scene,
without perhaps one desire heavenward! How they all seem to live as if man
were but like a beast whose life was forever finished when death cut the
thread! How totally thoughtless about their eternal state and their fitness
to stand before a holy, just, and righteous God!
On the other hand how exercised is a Christian, sometimes
nearly all day long, with divine realities—sometimes up and sometimes down,
sometimes full of unbelief, and sometimes able to believe with a loving
heart; sometimes as dark as midnight, and sometimes favored with divine
light in his soul; sometimes as dead and lifeless as though he were
altogether dead in sin, and sometimes feeling the springing up of divine
life like a brook. But there is one thing which I seem to see and feel, that
is—how little any one, even the most highly favored, really sees or knows of
the kingdom of God. No doubt in this time state very little can be really
seen or known of it; but even so far as faith is privileged to enter into
the things revealed in the word of truth, how little comparatively is seen,
felt, and known. What deep mines of truth there are in the word of God which
seem at present not broken up or brought to view, I mean so as to become
coined into money for the enriching of the soul. And how we need the blessed
Spirit to break up for us these rich mines, and thus to dive us an
inheritance of these deep treasures!
But I am sure that we require a spiritual mind to
understand and enjoy the word of God, and that is the reason why it is so
little prized, believed in, and loved. We need a subjection of mind to the
word of truth, what the Scripture calls the "obedience of faith," that we
may take it, in the simplicity of a childlike spirit, as our guide and rule,
as our instruction and consolation, as bringing eternal realities near to
our minds, and lifting us up into a vital apprehension of them. But as we
attempt to do this, there ensues a conflict, so that we cannot do the things
that we would. Unbelief, infidelity, reasoning objections, strong
suspicions, subtle questionings, spring up in the mind; and sometimes
rebellion, blasphemy, hardness of heart, and desperate enmity against what
is revealed, so that in the dust of battle all believing views seem lost,
and all the soul can say is, "I am full of confusion." My friend, I believe,
is no stranger to these conflicts, and no doubt finds them a maul upon
the head of pride and self-righteousness, as well as giving him the
tongue of the learned and enabling him to speak a word in season to him who
is weary.
I do think that an unexercised minister is little else
but a plague and a burden to the living family of God. The people want their
exercises entered into and the work of the Spirit traced out upon their
heart; and not only so, but with that life, power, and freshness which alone
spring from the soul of the minister being kept alive in the path of trial
and temptation. When we were together we used sometimes to exchange thoughts
upon these subjects, and I believe we saw for the most part eye to eye upon
them.
Illness has often been made a profitable season to my
soul. The Lord knows best how to deal with us, what burdens to lay upon our
back, and through what afflictions to lead us to His heavenly kingdom.
Yours very affectionately,
J. C. P.
May 15, 1861
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 have written a sermon to prove that it comes
before harvest, yet I cannot say that it is a season which I like, either in
nature or in grace. But as in nature it is necessary to break the hard clods
and prepare the earth for spring showers and May sunshine, so, I believe, it
is necessary in grace to break to pieces the hard clods of the heart that
there may be a suitable soil for the seed of life to spring up and grow. Few
things are more mysterious to a Christian than the revivings of the work of
grace upon his soul. Judging from myself at times all feeling religion seems
lost and gone. At such seasons one wonders how the scene will end. But the
Lord does from time to time revive and renew His work upon the heart, and
there is a fresh acting of faith, hope, and love, with every other grace and
fruit of the Spirit. I believe it to be a very good and a very needful thing
to have the soul well and continually exercised on the things of God. I hope
I can say for my part that eternal things are ever uppermost in my mind,
either in a way of exercise or else in some actings of faith upon the
blessed Lord.
You have, perhaps, heard that I was not able to preach
for two Lord's-days; but, through mercy, I was permitted to get out again
last Lord's-day. I preached twice, and administered the ordinance
afterwards, and did not feel worse, except a little extra fatigue. I hope,
therefore (D.V.), to go to Leicester on Friday. As I disappointed them last
September I would have been sorry to be obliged again to fail in keeping my
engagement. . . .
We live to see great changes, not only in men's
affections but in men's opinions. It is good amid all changes, without or
within, to have the heart established by grace, and not like children to be
tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine. It is a
mercy to be in any way delivered from looking to man and to be enabled to
look to the Lord as our all in all. I am very sure that I never got any
good from looking to man, whether saint or sinner. If we expect much from
our friends we are almost sure to be disappointed. In our greatest straits
they can do us no good, for they cannot give us the light of God's
countenance, or apply any sweet promise to the soul.
Thus, though I wish ever to walk in love and affection
with my friends in the Lord, yet I never want to put them in the place of
Christ or to look to them for what I know they cannot give me. And, as
regards my enemies, I desire to bear all their attacks and their calumnies,
knowing that it is my contending for the truth that stirs up their enmity.
I had a few lines the other day from my sister. She names
in it that a minister, with whom you were preaching in Devon thirty years
ago, was breaking up in constitution, and says of himself that he is looking
for his 'great change'. She says that when she heard him preach last she
felt convinced that if she were taught of the Spirit so was he, and she
believed that it would be well with him when called away. . . . People look
to us as leaders in the same way as the soldiers look to their officers. And
if they see us wavering and undecided, what a discouragement it is to them,
and what confusion it is likely to create! So, for my own comfort, and for
the sake of others, I feel myself obliged to stand separate from many people
who I dare not say are destitute of the life of God in their souls. It seems
very plausible to be united to all who love the Lord Jesus Christ, and so,
in fact, we internally are if we have any measure of His love in our heart.
But as to walking in outward union with some, how is it possible to do so
with any degree of consistency? But this they consider so narrow-minded, so
bigoted, so exclusive, and to manifest such a proud and self-righteous
spirit. Unless the trumpet gives a certain sound, who is to prepare himself
for the battle?
I want no new doctrines, nor any new religion, as I want
no fresh Bible and no new Lord; all I want is to live more daily in the
sweet enjoyment of them, and to manifest more of their power in heart, lip,
and life. We are no longer young; life is, as it were, slipping from
under our feet; and, therefore, I desire to spend the rest of my days, be
they few or many, in serving the Lord, walking in His fear, enjoying His
presence, preaching His gospel, contending for His truth, and living to His
glory. It is a poor life to live to sin, self, and the world; but it is a
blessed life to live unto the Lord. I only wish that I could do so more and
more; but I have to find that the good I would I do not, and the evil I
would not that I do.
You will see the new house at Allington rising upon the
ruins of that which you saw burning. I hope, when our dear friends move into
it, it may be consecrated by the Lord's presence.
Yours very affectionately,
J. C. P.
June 17, 1861
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 with a strength of voice surprising to
myself, and in the morning had sweet liberty of soul. On Saturday I could
scarcely, from lumbago, walk round Mr. C—'s garden, and yet stood up for
nearly three hours, at two periods yesterday, without much pain or
inconvenience. As there were a great many strangers and friends from the
country my non-appearance would have been a disappointment. "Bless the Lord,
O my soul."
I hope you are enjoying not only the refreshing
sea-breezes, but a sweet gale of heavenly grace from off the everlasting
hills. Poor Mrs. — has much felt this painful dispensation. May it be
sanctified to the sufferers. It is sad when the pruning knife gives the
branch no fruitfulness. But we need all our afflictions. You are not the
only sufferer among the family of God. 1 Tim. 5:5 well describes "a
widow indeed."
Yours very affectionately,
J. C. P.
June 20, 1861
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 weakness in body and soul as on the
present occasion. When the train which brought me up was passing through the
last tunnel, I could have wished it was taking me out of London instead of
bringing me to it. But the Lord was better to me than all my fears, for I
was scarcely ever brought more comfortably through. "Strength made
perfect in weakness" has long been my experience, and so I found it
then.
I had been suffering for more than a week with an attack
much as that I had at your house, so that I could scarcely walk a hundred
yards without pain and labor; yet I was enabled to stand up in the pulpit,
so that few would have seen that anything ailed me. Is not this wonderful?
and to whom does the praise belong but to the Lord? I never expect to
be free from trial, temptation, pain, and suffering of one kind or another
while in this valley of tears. It will be my mercy if these
things are sanctified to my soul's eternal good, and the benefit of the
Church of God. I cannot choose my own path, nor would I wish to do so, as I
am sure it would be a wrong one. I desire to be led of the Lord Himself into
the way of peace, and truth, and righteousness, to walk in His fear, live to
His praise, and die in the sweet experience of His love. I have many
enemies, but fear none so much as myself. O may I be kept from all
evil and all error, and do the things which are pleasing in God's sight,
walk in the light of His countenance, be blessed and be made a blessing. Our
days are hastening away swifter than a runner; soon with us it will be time
no longer, and therefore how we should desire to live to the Lord, and not
to self!
My dear friend, I do not feel able to preach twice at
Cirencester on July 25th, and should prefer 6:30 p.m., as I think we should
have more people in the evening, and I rather prefer that time of day. The
Lord's-day at Abingdon generally much tires me, and so do my labors at
Allington; then there is (D.V.) the Calne anniversary on the 30th. I shall
be pleased to stay at your house (D.V.) from the Tuesday until the Friday,
and renew our friendly and affectionate communion.
Yours affectionately in the truth,
J. C. P.
August 19, 1861
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 if you could drop me a line, or else send word to the Standard
if this arrangement is not correct.
I returned home on Thursday, leaving Abingdon in time to
get to Stamford by 4 o'clock, so that I was enabled to preach here that
evening. I left our kind friends at Allington on Tuesday, and spoke that
evening at Abingdon, where we had a large congregation, though just in the
middle of harvest. I thought our friend was looking pale and thin, though he
seemed pretty well and cheerful. He buried at South Moreton, on Tuesday, a
young farmer who had heard me when last at Abingdon. He made a good end. I
think I never saw Allington Chapel so crammed as it was the last Lord's day
I was there.
Mr. Joseph thought that, if spared to come another year,
it would be better for the people if I could preach in his new cart shed.
But that is a long time to look forward to. I must say, however, to the
praise and glory of God, that I came home much better and stronger than when
I went out; and I can hardly recollect having had upon the whole, a more
pleasant journey, or been more favored with help in speaking. The weather
for the most part has been very suitable to my health. We had three fine
Lord's days at Allington, though some of the intervening ones were cold and
wet. I left them just commencing harvest, with a good prospect of crops;
indeed far better than any I have seen since I left Wilts. Our friend Mr. P.
was but weak and poorly—more so, I think, than he was last year, and a good
deal tried with various circumstances. I hope it may be proved that my visit
was not in vain. I only wish that the Lord would give me a larger share of
health and strength, and that I could labor more in His most blessed
service.
I go (D.V.) to Nottingham tomorrow, returning here on
Friday, and going next day to Oakham. Our united love to Mrs. Godwin and
yourself.
Yours very affectionately,
J. C. P.
September 12, 1861
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 body, and but lean and barren in soul, so that I am
somewhat like the poor harvest laborer, who has had strength given him to
cut down and gather in the corn, but feels wearied with so much harvest
work. Ministers are laborers, and according to the Lord's own figure,
harvest laborers; for he bade His disciples pray that the Lord of the
harvest would send laborers into the harvest. But in the spiritual as in the
natural field, laborers not loiterers are needed; and when the
crop is heavy, the sun hot, and the day long, the laborer must needs feel
weary and worn. But as he will not grudge his labors if they have gathered
the corn well in, and he has received his harvest wages; so the spiritual
laborers must not repine, if their labors are blessed to the gathering in of
immortal souls, and they receive the rewarding testimony of the Lord's
approbation in their own bosom.
As a nation we have been highly favored this harvest. You
will recollect your drive one evening to hear poor Mr. Shorter, when you had
to pass through flooded lanes, and saw the corn drenched with water in the
fields. But had I come among you this year, all your crops would long ago
have been safely secured before the anniversary of my former visit. Many
hearts were trembling, and many anxious eyes were scanning the appearance of
the clouds of heaven when I was in Wilts, as all bore in remembrance the
harvest of 1860, and would have sunk at the recurrence of such a calamitous
season.
It is often so in grace as in nature. The trials and
afflictions of the past make us dread a recurrence of them. Our coward flesh
shrinks from the cross, and though we cannot deny that we have received
benefit from the suffering, yet we dread to be put again into the same
furnace. Besides our usual trials, we had heavy ones last year—I in my
affliction under your roof, and you shortly afterwards in Seymour's leaving
you for a foreign shore. Could we wish to have a recurrence of these trials,
even though we hope they were in a measure overruled and sanctified to our
soul's good, and perhaps to the good of others? But the Lord does not
consult us, either as to the nature or the time of those trials and
afflictions which He is pleased, in sovereign wisdom, to lay upon us. It is
our mercy when we can see His hand, not only bringing them on, but
supporting us under them, and carrying us through them. If we had no
personal trials, temptations, or afflictions, we would not do to stand up
before the Lord's people, for they for the most part are painfully tried,
and many of them severely afflicted. It would be therefore impossible for us
to enter with any feeling into their tried cases, unless we ourselves knew
something experimentally of the path of tribulation.
It is a great mercy if the Lord be pleased by His
dealings with us in providence or in grace to keep our souls, not only
alive, but lively. There is such a tendency in us to slide down into a
state of carnality and ease, to get away, as it were, from the burden of the
cross, and as Job speaks, to swallow down our spittle—alluding, I
presume, to the difference between doing so at ease in the cool shade, and
having a throat parched with traveling through the hot wilderness. How
needful it is, with the Lord's help and blessing, to have our loins girt
about and our lights burning! How soon we sink down into carnality and
death, and like a rower plying against the stream, at once fall down with
the current when we cease to ply our oars. These oars are prayer, reading,
meditation, and heart examination, and without them, too soon we slip away
from the harbor to which we hope we are bending our course. And yet we daily
find that we cannot use these oars to purpose, except the Lord be pleased to
put strength into us. We may indeed attempt to use them, and should not
cease to do so. But alas! of how little avail are they, unless He who
teaches the hands to war and the fingers to fight, teach us also their use,
and give us power to use them in His strength, not our own. . . .
Yours very affectionately,
J. C. P.
September 19, 1861
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 more fitting place. Most of our readers much prefer a good obituary to
be placed in the body of the work than put upon the wrapper, as the type
being smaller and the paper less clear, there is often some difficulty in
reading it; besides which, the wrappers are lost when the work is bound. But
if placed in the body of the work some delay must occur before it can
appear. Perhaps you will explain this to the aunt of the deceased,
intimating at the same time that we shall hope to insert it as soon as our
space admits.
I would be very sorry if you thought that the union in
heart and spirit which, I trust, has existed between us for so many years,
were weakened by time or distance. There are not many, speaking
comparatively, with whom I have a real union of spirit; but where it has
been once formed, it is not with me lightly broken. Of course lack of
communion will to a certain extent diminish, but it never will break asunder
a union which the Spirit has once created, and at my time of life new
friends are not easily made, nor new friendships entered into. I hope, among
the evidences which I possess of being a partaker of the grace of God, is
love to those who love the Lord, and, opposed as I am by so many enemies, I
feel to cleave all the more earnestly to real friends. I have long felt
that, with all the minor differences which often divide the living family of
God, that their union is far deeper than any circumstances which can arise
to cause disunion. No doubt Satan is continually at work to separate even
chief friends by working upon the corruptions of our nature, and filling the
mind either with suspicions or stirring up miserable jealousies. May we have
grace to resist Satan in this matter, and to cleave in affection to those
with whom we have felt any spiritual union, or with whose religion we have
found any inward satisfaction!
Yours very affectionately,
J. C. P.
October 29, 1861
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. Holy John was glad sometimes to avail himself of this means of
communion with the elect lady, whom he loved in the Lord, but he preferred
to commune with her face to face. Indeed, there are many things which we
cannot altogether communicate by pen and ink, and which only can be unfolded
when we are brought together in person as well as in heart.
You will be glad to hear that I continue, through
undeserved mercy, still pretty well in health, and am enabled at present to
take my daily walks and attend to the labors of the ministry. I feel it to
be a mercy that I have been enabled this year to fulfill all my engagements
from home, and I trust I have, in some measure, felt the power and presence
of the Lord in them. I had a much more pleasant and comfortable visit to
Leicester this autumn than in the spring. Then I was much bound and shut up
in soul, but enjoyed more life and liberty in my late visit. We had a
crowded house, and I hope some of the friends were blessed in hearing. I
dined with Mr. H. at Belgrave, and had a good deal of conversation with him;
not indeed very close, but still very comfortable. I endeavored to show a
kind and friendly spirit towards him, and I think he met me in a similar
way. He is, I believe, a good man, though he has a great deal to learn,
especially of himself. He has never been much rolled in Job's ditch, nor
been in the furnace of affliction, or passed through deep trials and cutting
temptations. The lack of this experience makes him to the exercised family
of God but a dry bosom. But if he lives, and if the Lord exercises him well
with afflictions and trials, breaks up the depths within, and leads him down
more into the valley, he will preach with more acceptance to the flock of
slaughter.
A friend of mine, a man of very good discernment in the
things of God, said, after hearing him, that he was sure of one thing that,
whatever he might be, he had not yet taken the lowest room; and as before
honor is humility, and the Lord never exalts any man who is not abased, he
will have to go a deal lower before he can rise in the estimation of those
who know the plague of their heart and who are chastened every morning. I
wish him well however, with all my heart, and would be glad if the Lord were
to lead him into those things which, when preached with unction and power,
are made acceptable to the saints of God. He was, I understand, not very
fully attended at Allington, which he named to our friend; but I believe he
was well heard by the people there.
I am glad to tell you that our friends here heard you
with much sweetness and power during your last visit. I don't think I ever
heard the Stamford friends speak more warmly of your ministry than this last
time. I have not felt, I must say, very comfortable here since I came back;
but I cannot now enter into all the reasons. In one instance I acted under a
wrong impression, which caused some little painful feeling in the church;
but as I explained it and expressed my sorrow for having acted under a wrong
impression, I trust the unpleasant feeling has passed away. I am sure
that, except the breaking out of error or of evil in a church, there is
nothing to be so much dreaded as a party spirit. It is the death of all
that is good; it sours the mind, hardens the heart, embitters the spirit,
defiles the conscience, and brings with it nothing but misery, confusion,
and death. It hardly seems much to matter which side is, in the first
instance, right or wrong; for as the party spirit goes on, it inflames both
sides alike, until each is full of bitterness and enmity. How Satan does
rejoice in separating chief friends, and what darkness and death are brought
into the soul under his suggestions! It seems at times almost to shut both
my heart and mouth, and to put into my hand rather a rod than to fill my
soul with the spirit of meekness.
I hope you find yourself pretty comfortable, both in the
parlour and in the pulpit, where your lot is now cast. You have never been
at any place since I have known you where you have not had trials, and I
expect that you will have them at Godmanchester.
Yours affectionately,
J. C. P.
November 22, 1861
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 therefore to
fall into His hands, and to lie at His feet begging that He will sanctify to
us every afflicting stroke, not lay upon us more than we can bear, and
remove the trial when it has done its appointed work.
Of one thing I am very sure, that it is far better to
suffer from the Lord, than to sin against the Lord. There is no evil
which we need really fear except sin; and though the Lord in tender
mercy forgives His erring wandering children, yet He makes them all deeply
feel that indeed it is an evil and a bitter thing to sin against Him. I
myself have no opinion of that religion, let it be called by what name it
may, which does not make the conscience alive and tender in the fear of God.
The blessed Lord gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from
this present evil world; and the fountain which was opened in His bleeding
hands, and feet, and side was to wash away not only guilt and filth from the
conscience, but to sanctify the soul. Holy John saw blood and water gush
from the Redeemer's side when it was pierced with the Roman spear; and thus
blood to wash away sin, and water to purify the heart, lip, and life, flowed
together from the wounds of the pure humanity of the Son of God. I only wish
that I could live more in the enjoyment of those two rich and unspeakable
blessings—salvation and sanctification.
But we shall always find it to be a fight of faith, a
struggle against the power of temptation and corruption, a conflict between
the spirit and the flesh, and one in which by strength no man can prevail;
for the weak take the prey, and the race is not to the swift, nor the battle
to the strong. In myself I can truly say I have neither help nor hope, but
am obliged every day of my life to look outside of myself to the blessed
Lord, that He would manifest Himself to my soul, and shed abroad His love in
my heart by the Holy Spirit. I am not one bit stronger in myself with all my
long profession and, I hope, possession of the life of God; but on the
contrary have a more sensible feeling of my weakness, sinfulness, and
helplessness than ever I had before. At the same time I hope I have
learned more deeply and thoroughly whence all my strength, wisdom,
righteousness, and sanctification are to come, and thus to look more to the
Lord and less to self.
I hope you find the Lord with you in your attempts to
exalt His worthy name, and that you find yourself encouraged in the work.
Sometimes it is most going on when we see it least, and when we feel most
desponding as to any good being done, that is often the very season when the
Lord is most at work. To be blessed with signs following, is the greatest
encouragement that a minister can have.
Yours very affectionately,
J. C. P.
November 26, 1861
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, "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you," John 15. Now this
shows that there is no real fruit unless there be an abiding in Christ, as
His words abide in us. It is this abiding of the word in the heart which
makes it take root downwards and bear fruit upward. It is indeed very
blessed when, as the apostle speaks, "The word of Christ dwells in us richly
in all wisdom," Col. 3:16; for it is through His word applied with power to
the heart that Christ makes Himself known and precious.
I wish I could give you any information or any counsel
concerning which you have written to me. Mr. W— is quite a stranger to me
both personally and by report, and therefore I am not able to say one word
about him, good or bad. But this I know, that the true servants of God are
very scarce, and that it is very easy for a man to profess a certain line of
truth, just to serve a purpose of his own, when he is not acquainted with it
experimentally, or indeed may be secretly opposed to the power of those very
truths which he professes to hold. Nor do I know any servant of the Lord
whom I could recommend. Perhaps, however, Mr. Brown, an old friend of mine,
formerly of Godmanchester, but now residing at Brighton, might be enabled to
come for a Lord's-day or so, as he has no fixed place at present, and
supplies sometimes at Pell Green and the Lower Dicker.
I do not see that you need condemn yourself for taking a
part in the service of God when you have no preaching. Somebody must do so,
who fears the Lord and who can in public call upon His name. As long as you
do this with a single eye to the glory of God, and with a desire for your
own soul's profit and that of the people, there can be no just ground of
accusation against you; and if you find reading the sermons
profitable to your own soul, and the people feel the same, I would not
advise you to give it up, but go on with it, as the Lord gives you grace and
strength. I cannot now add more. The Lord guide and keep you.
Yours affectionately in the truth,
J. C. P.
November 27, 1861
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 do so when I can get a little quiet
leisure. I believe Mr. Gadsby intends to enlarge the Gospel Standard
wrapper in the coming year; and in that case there will be more room for
various things which seem hardly worth a place in the body of the work. I
find it to be a matter of great difficulty, and one that requires both much
grace and much judgment, how to carry on the Gospel Standard most for
the glory of God and the profit of His people. I am well convinced that its
influence has been great, and I have no doubt for much good. It has opened a
way for bringing before the Church of God much that otherwise would have
been altogether lost. Many sweet and savory letters of departed saints, and
many obituaries of those who lived and died in the fear and love of God,
have been preserved and brought before the saints of God; and we may well
hope that the blessing of God has rested upon such testimonies. It affords
also a kind of rallying point for the scattered saints of God throughout the
land, who from time to time find their experience described and their views
of truth which have been taught them by the Holy Spirit sweetly confirmed.
We live, too, in a day full of error and evil, so that we need some one to
lift up the voice for truth in its purity and power. I feel myself indeed
very unfit and very unworthy to conduct such a work; but, as hitherto the
Lord I trust has helped me and given me strength according to my day, I hope
to go on still in His name if the Lord spare my life and give me the needful
grace and strength.
I desire to sympathize with you and your wife in all your
troubles and afflictions. You have found the benefit of them and a blessing
in them, and I trust are still realizing the power of God to support you
under them and the grace and presence of the Lord to bless you in them.
Yours affectionately,
J. C. P.
November 27, 1861
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 sad and solemn testimony to the Adam fall. What but
the grace of God which brings salvation can gild with light the pillow of
death, and cast a ray through the dark valley of that shadow through which
all must pass! I hope it may please the Lord to give you some token that
poor Lydia's soul is safe before she is called to resign her last breath. O
how vain and fleeting are all things here below! What is the pride and
fashion and all the worldly gaiety of that town in which the Lord has fixed
your abode, when viewed in the solemn light of a dying hour?
What a description has the Holy Spirit given to us of
God's view of these matters in Isaiah 2, 3, and how His hand is put forth in
anger against all who are found exalting themselves against Him. May our
lot, living and dying, be with the saints of God whom He has redeemed with
the precious blood of His dear Son, whom He has called and quickened by His
grace, and to whom He has made known the blessed mysteries of His kingdom as
set up in the heart by the power of the Holy Spirit. Time and life are
fast passing away with us; but we hope that through distinguishing grace we
have not lived altogether to sin and self, but have endeavored, very
weakly, indeed, and imperfectly, yet in the main sincerely, to serve God in
our day and generation, to seek the good of His people, to be blessed and be
made a blessing. To live a life of faith upon the Son of God is indeed a
blessing beyond all price; and such a life here will prepare for a life of
eternal and unalloyed enjoyment hereafter.
I was glad to learn that upon the whole you enjoyed your
visit at Leicester. I had a few lines the other day from our friend Mrs. S—,
who speaks warmly and affectionately of your visit. She is one of those who
are looking for the power, the dew, the unction, and savor of truth in the
heart, and she is not satisfied as hundreds are with the bare letter.
I can only now add our united love and sympathy to Mrs.
Grace and yourself.
Yours very affectionately,
J. C. P.
November 29, 1861
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 favored 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 up in conversation. It was
not from lack of divine matter in his heart, and probably arose either from
natural shyness, or from being at the time much bound in spirit.
Ministers are sometimes afraid of one another, as I have often felt
myself; and where this feeling prevails, it shuts up that free communication
in the things of God which is so sweet and refreshing. At the time, I took
the fault more to myself than ascribed it to him; but I have since heard
from our friend Mr. Grace that he was often bound up in spirit, or at least
had not that door of utterance with which some are favored. But he was a
man deeply led into a knowledge of self, and when he took his pen was
able to express himself with a freedom as well as an originality of thought
and language which seemed to be denied him in conversation. My going down to
Pell Green arose from my connection with one of his deacons, old Mr. Walter,
who was in the habit of coming up to London to hear me on my annual visit to
the metropolis. I do not think that I have often met in my life with a man
so deeply and continually exercised about his state and standing as good old
Mr. Walter. He has at various times much opened his mind to me, and I
believe was blessed on one or two occasions under my ministry.
One of the most painful, and I might almost say alarming
features of the present day, is the removal of the servants of God, and that
so few are raised up in their place. On every side error seems to
prevail, and were we to believe their own testimony, there is no lack of
ministers of the Gospel. But where are those to be found who preach it
with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven? Where are those who can set
forth the truth with the sweet savor, unction, and dew of the blessed Spirit
attending it to the hearts of the hearers? I would be glad indeed to see
the Lord raising up men after His own heart, pastors who can feed the church
of God, and ministers who need not to be ashamed, as rightly dividing the
word of truth. But I much fear that things will go on from worse to worse,
and though the Lord will always have a seed to serve Him, and servants of
His own equipping and sending forth, yet their number may be very scanty,
and their gifts and graces very limited. What makes the matter to my
mind more perplexing is that there is a spirit of hearing in the churches,
if there were ministers raised up to feed the people with sound Gospel food.
Our race will soon be run; may it be our earnest desire to spend the rest of
our appointed days here below to the glory of God and the good of His
people. This world has done little for us, and must every day do less and
less. We owe it no thanks, and desire to live separate from it, and heed
neither its smiles nor its favors. The Lord make us faithful unto death,
that we may inherit a crown of life. I hope that, as long as the Lord gives
me a tongue to speak or a pen to write, I may use both to His glory.
Yours affectionately in the Lord,
J. C. P.
November 30, 1861
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 account of the conduct of a minister there.
He wrote to me to ask my advice whether he should withdraw from his
ministry, and my advice was that he had better do so under the
circumstances, and had better meet together with a few friends by
themselves for reading the word and prayer, than stand a deacon and lead
the singing under such error and such evil as had come to light. I have
received letters from other places expressing how the poor children of God
are robbed and spoiled under these letter ministers, and bidding me still to
go on to lift up my voice and pen against them. My own conviction is that
very few of them have had the fear of God planted in their hearts, or know
anything of Jesus Christ by any personal discovery of His person and work to
their consciences. They are, for the most part, bitter enemies of
experimental truth, and hate those who contend for it with a great hatred.
The letter, which I will send you some day, mentions the
wrath of these men against the Gospel Standard and the editor. But I
hope I can say that none of these things move me. I see where the men are,
that they have a name to live when they are dead, a form of godliness while
they deny the power thereof; and many of them I firmly believe are held fast
in some sin, either covetousness or drunkenness, or something worse, not to
speak of their enmity and malice against the saints and servants of God. It
is a mercy of mercies to be separate, not only in person but in heart and
conscience, from such men, and to cleave in love and affection to the real
saints of God, and to all who know divine realities by divine teaching and
divine testimony. I only wish that I could live more in the sweet enjoyment
of the truth of God, and make it more manifest by my lips and by my life
that I am in vital and unctuous possession of that truth which indeed makes
free.
But I have to lament a body of sin and death which is
ever striving for the mastery, and the painful recollection of many
departings from the Lord makes the chariot wheels run heavily. But still I
struggle on as I best can, looking up to the Lord for continual supplies of
grace and strength, and having no hope nor help but in His mercy and love as
made known to the soul by the power of God.
We have just lost Mrs. C., one of my hearers ever since I
have been at Stamford. I did not know much of her, but Mrs. B—, was very
intimate with her, and has no doubt of her safety.
Yours affectionately,
J. C. P.
December 9, 1861
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 affliction
is working in you the peaceful fruits of righteousness. Good King Hezekiah
was laid upon a sick bed, and, as it appeared, a bed of death. But he cried
unto the Lord; the Lord heard his prayer and, by giving him a blessed
manifestation of pardoning love, cast all his sins behind his back, and thus
healed his soul as well as his body. This made the good old king say—"O
Lord! by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my
spirit—so will you recover me, and make me to live" (Isa. 38:16). Illness
is often made use of by the Lord as a furnace in which He tries the faith of
His children. Job could say when he was tried—"I shall come forth as gold"
(Job 23:10). And I hope that my dear friend will find it so. The refiner of
gold does not keep the metal in the furnace longer than is absolutely
necessary. He knows exactly when the dross is separated, and when it is time
to remove the pure metal out of the fire. So, I trust, the Lord will deal
with you.
You will find it good to be much engaged in prayer and
supplication at a throne of grace; to read, study, and meditate over God's
holy Word; and to examine His gracious dealings with your soul. It is a
great blessing to be spiritually-minded, for that indeed is life and peace.
When a Christian man is taken aside from his worldly business, and has to
spend much of his time in the quiet solitude of a sick room, it separates
him in heart and spirit, as well as in body, from the world. He meditates on
the solemn realities of eternity—the salvation of his soul is felt to be his
chief concern; and if the Lord is graciously pleased to draw him near unto
Himself, and to commune with him from off the mercy-seat, he has a sacred
pleasure which none can know but those who have experienced it. He sees and
feels how time is passing away, how soon he must stand before the bar of his
righteous Judge; and this makes him feel that nothing is worthy of a
moment's comparison with being saved in the Lord Jesus Christ with an
everlasting salvation. It is in these seasons that we learn lessons which we
have never learned before, or at least not so deeply or effectually. It is a
good thing to see and feel how short we come of being what we should be, and
how little we really know of the grace and glory, love and blood, beauty and
blessedness, suitability and preciousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. "He is
the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes unto the Father but by
Him" (John 14:6). "He is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30). But we cannot believe in Him to the saving of
our soul, nor receive Him into our heart and affections, unless the Holy
Spirit takes of the things of Christ, and reveals them unto us. We should
therefore be ever praying to the Lord to send forth His Holy Spirit into our
hearts, that He may reveal Christ in us, intercede in and for us, and enable
us to cry, "Abba, Father".
Your affectionate Friend in the Gospel,
J. C. P.
December 20, 1861
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 to whom a
little help would be acceptable, that the difficulty is to make the
selection. But you, my dear friend, certainly seem to have some claim upon
me, both from the length and peculiar nature of your distressing affliction,
and because I feel that you are indeed through grace a member of the
mystical body of the Lord the Lamb. It is but a small part of the
afflictions of a saint of God which money can alleviate; and yet the lack of
it much adds to the weight of their other trials.
Yours has been a life of dependence upon the Lord, both
as a God in providence and as a God in grace; and no doubt often seeing His
kind hand in the former, has much strengthened your faith in the latter. To
have had all your temporal needs supplied for so many years, has no doubt
often raised up a sweet feeling of gratitude in your bosom. It has given you
a gracious conviction that the Lord thinks upon you, and cares for you; and
where this faith is given, it often blends itself, at it were, with that
faith which deals with the love and goodness of God as manifested in the
face of Jesus Christ.
Yours has been indeed a path of tribulation; but through
it you have already entered into that kingdom of God which is present as
well as future, which is a kingdom of present grace, as well as of future
glory. Every day of affliction, and every night of pain and restlessness,
shorten the number of your appointed days. You have nothing to live for
but to glorify God by submission to His will in doing and suffering.
Our dear friends at Oakham are much as usual. As regards
myself, I am at present favored with sufficient health and strength to
fulfill my ministerial labors. With every desire that the blessing of God
may rest upon you, I am, my dear friend,
Yours affectionately in the bonds of the Gospel,
J. C. P.
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