LETTERS of J. C. Philpot (1862)
January 10, 1862
My dear Friend, John Grace—I sincerely desire to sympathize with you
and Mrs. Grace in the trying affliction and painful bereavement which you
have just sustained, in the removal of your beloved daughter. From what
you have named of her experience, particularly toward the last, I think
there is every ground for a good hope that she was among the number of those
favored souls who were redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, and made alive
unto God by regenerating grace. Considering her age, mode of bringing up,
and natural disposition, there was hardly reason to expect a very marked and
conspicuous work of grace upon her soul. We hardly know how feeble and faint
may be the measure of saving grace in a truly quickened soul, especially if
there be great fears of making an insincere profession. It was not as if she
had the way of truth to learn for the first time; or any self-righteous
profession which had to be pulled down with a strong hand. There could
hardly be therefore that clear, marked, and decided work which we see in
people who have been brought out of the world by a mighty hand and an
outstretched arm; nor was there, so to speak, that necessity of being
taught terrible things in righteousness, which in some cases seem to be
almost necessary to burn up the wood, hay, and stubble of a legal
righteousness. She was evidently sensible of her danger, had often heard the
way of salvation pointed out, and the blessed Lord ever held up as the only
hope and help for the people of God. We cannot say then how secretly or
mysteriously the Lord might have begun or carried on the work of grace upon
her soul.
Last evening I happened to open the Bible in the chapel
upon Mark 4:26, and following. I just glanced my eye over the parable, and
as I saw something sweet and experimental in it, I expounded it before
prayer and preaching. While doing so, I was struck with the expression of "a
man sleeping and rising night and day, and the seed springing and growing up
he knows not how." Whether "a man" be a minister, the sower who sows the
seed, or whether he be a believer in general, it seems plain that the lesson
which the Lord meant to teach was that man had nothing to do with the
matter, and that whether he slept or whether he awoke, he could not
contribute one atom to the germination of the seed or the growth of the
plant. The earth, by which I presume is meant the heart of man, or rather
the new heart promised, brings forth fruit of itself, independent of the
care of man, but wholly dependent upon the rain and sun which come from God.
But the blessed Lord goes on to tell us that the work of grace upon the
heart resembles the growth of wheat in having first the tender blade, then
the ear, then the full corn in the ear.
Now I am not going to give you a sermon upon that text,
or even to say what I understand by it, but the parable strikes my mind as
having some bearing upon poor Lydia's case. You could hardly tell when the
seed was first sown in her heart. Most probably it was sown by your own
hand. But you slept, and you rose night and day, and the seed sprang and
grew up you knew not how. You might and did supplicate the Lord on her
behalf, and many others did the same; but neither you nor they could
contribute one mite to the germination of the seed, or the growth of the
plant. Her heart, made honest and sincere, we hope by the grace of God,
brought forth fruit of itself. You were watching to see the seed spring up
and grow, and in due time you saw a little tender blade, which grew
up you knew not how. I much love tenderness in the things of God. Josiah's
heart was tender, and the Lord took blessed notice of it.
From all I have heard about poor Lydia, there was a
tenderness in her religious feelings. She was afraid of presumption,
hypocrisy, and making a profession without the power. All this looked well
as far as it went. But as long as there is only the blade, you can scarcely
tell a wheat field from a grass field. Something more is needed to prove it
to be corn, and not grass. There is the ear, which seems to be some
formation of Christ in the heart; for as in the literal figure, the corn is
formed in the ear, though still green and milky, so in grace, when the
blessed Lord is in any measure revealed to the soul and embraced by faith,
He is then in substance all He ever will be. It is true the corn has to be
ripened, but this has little to do with the shape of the grain.
So I trust your poor dear girl had a sufficient discovery
of the Lord Jesus Christ to give her a saving faith in His blood and
obedience, and a love to His name. I like what she said to her mother about
the passage from Micah, and we would hope that as the Lord "delights in
mercy", and she "delighted in mercy" too, her will was melted into the
Lord's, and that being joined to Him, through faith in the promise, she was
one spirit. I think also that the words which were made sweet to her at the
beginning of her illness were very suitable, and we know if they came from
the Lord He will be faithful to His own word of promise. . . .
Yours very affectionately,
J. C. P.
January 22, 1862
My dear Friend, Joseph Parry. . . I believe that the Address (Gospel
Standard) is generally very well liked. If I may be a judge of my own
composition, I have written better and worse; I therefore consider it about
an average; but if I may say so, I think it is written in a good spirit. One
thing I am very sure of—that whether it be preaching or writing, I have no
power to do either to any purpose, except as I am specially enabled by God.
It is surprising what a difference I feel in the power of conceiving
gracious thoughts, or giving them spiritual utterance by tongue or pen. It
is easy enough to use words, but what are words if the life-giving power of
the Spirit be not in them? There is almost as much difference between a
living man and a corpse, as between words animated by the Spirit and words
in which there is only the breath of man.
But in this, as in everything else, the Lord is a
sovereign, not only as to those on whom He bestows the unction of His
Spirit, but also as to the times and seasons when He grants it. Private
Christians know this from the difference of their feelings in prayer,
hearing, reading the Scriptures, meditation, and Christian conversation; and
if called upon to pray in public, they know it also from the different way
in which they are enabled to exercise their spiritual gift. I have often
thought and said that, though from education and long practice I may be able
to speak or write so as not to be altogether confounded, yet as regards
liberty, life, power, or feeling—I am as dependent upon the Lord in the
exercise of my ministry as any of my poorer and less educated brethren.
Indeed, sometimes every gracious thought and feeling, with every good word
and work, seem utterly gone, just as if I had never known any one divine
truth, or as if the Bible had never come before my eyes or with any power
into my heart.
I think you have done well upon the whole in establishing
a prayer meeting; but like most other things, it is easier to begin than
to go on. I was very much struck with an expression made by a gracious
friend of mine some time ago. Speaking of a minister whom you do not know,
but who stands high in the professing church, he said—"He has no prayer in
him." Well, it struck me in a moment—"Where or what must a man be if there
be no prayer in him!" I almost fear that his judgment was correct, for he
had often heard him pray and preach, and judged him from the feelings of his
own soul. So I would say of those who pray at a prayer meeting, if there be
no prayer in them it will be but a poor dead lifeless service, but if there
be prayer in them it will come out of them, to their own refreshment and to
that of the hearers. But you well know, my dear friend, that the Holy
Spirit alone can bestow the spirit of grace and of supplication, and that
this blessed Intercessor intercedes in and for the saints with groanings
which cannot be uttered. Mr. Huntington was against prayer meetings, I
suppose from seeing how they became preaching nurseries; but surely if
prayer be good in private, it should be good in public, and there is no more
reason why a gracious man should not pray spiritually in the pew, as well as
a godly preacher in the pulpit.
We have been spared to see the beginning of another year;
the Lord knows whether we shall be permitted to see its close. This time
thirty-one years ago, I was staying under the roof of our friend William
Tiptaft, then Vicar of Sutton Courtney, and so weak and poorly was I at that
time, that I did not go out of doors for the months of December and January.
Most probably those who knew me then did not think that my life would be
prolonged up to this time. Poor Mrs. C., for one, used to think that I was
doomed to an early grave; but I have lived to see her, and her sister too,
taken away before me. Truly could David say—"My times are in Your hand." The
blessed Lord holds the keys of death and hell; and as He has thus far
preserved my life, He can, if He will, prolong it still. My desire is,
whether it be long or short, that I may walk in His fear and live to His
praise, enjoy in my own soul His manifested favor, and be made a blessing to
the church of God. I have had many persecutions and many enemies, but
here I stand at this day, unharmed by them and much more afraid of myself
than I am of them. It is a mercy that, though I have never been strong
in body, and now begin to feel the infirmities of advancing years, my mental
faculties have been preserved. I cannot indeed study and read as I once did,
but am still enabled to get through the work that lies before me, both in
preaching and writing.
I am glad that the testimony of poor Edward Wild was well
received in your parts. I think it has been generally liked as a simple
narrative of the Lord's work, and one stamped with sincerity, if not with
any great depth.
No doubt you and yours, in common with us all, have
sympathized with our poor afflicted Queen. You know that I have always been
what is called a loyal subject, having no sympathy with radicals and
republicans, but I believe that the whole country has felt for her, from the
palace to the cottage. What a mercy it would be for her if the grace of
God would but sanctify the afflicting stroke to her soul's immortal good!
I continue, through mercy, much as usual, though this
last frost has rather pinched me. I preached however twice on Lord's day.
Time is advancing with us all. O that when it shall be said to us, "Time no
longer", it may bear us into a blessed eternity!
I am, yours very affectionately,
J. C. P.
February 14, 1862
My dear Friend and Brother in one Common Hope, Mr. Leigh—I would be
very glad if I could give you any counsel upon the point concerning which
you have written to me; but I have no doubt that you have long proved, as I
have had to do, that in all matters connected with the things of God,
"vain is the help of man." Nor do I know, for the most part, a more
difficult point as regards acting in the fear and love of the Lord, than how
and when to join one's self to the visible church of Christ. Not that I mean
that to my mind there is any difficulty as to what a church of Christ is,
for according to my view, that is clearly laid down in the New Testament;
the difficulty is in forming a personal connection with a church. For there
are so many things to consider, even when the question is fully settled in
one's own mind as to what a Gospel church is.
There is, first, the consideration whether it be the will
of God that I should join a church at all. Some of the best Christians whom
I ever knew either did not see the ordinance of baptism, or did not see
their way to be baptized. Then, secondly, one has to consider the church
which presents itself to our view, upon which the question arises—do I feel
a spiritual union and communion with the members of it? Then, thirdly, there
is the ministry in that church, which might not altogether be commended to
my conscience, or be made a blessing to my soul. Then, fourthly, there is
the question whether I am of such a natural temper and disposition, or
whether grace has so subdued my carnal mind, that I am fit to be a member of
a Gospel church.
I know at this present moment, several people, both male
and female, undoubtedly partakers of grace, and some of them well taught in
the things of God, who from infirmity of temper or a contentious spirit, are
not fit to be members of any church. I once saw a church torn to pieces and
almost broken up by one member, but in a remarkable way the Lord appeared,
and the member resigned. Since then they have had peace, and it is a church
as much favored with the power and presence of God as any that I know. Now
all these things have to be well considered, to be spread before the Lord,
and not taken up except as He is pleased to guide and lead. The privilege of
being a member of a Gospel church is great indeed. It is a high honor to
make a public profession of the name of Christ, to sit down at His table,
and to be joined in fellowship with those who fear God and walk before Him
in the light of His countenance. But in proportion to the greatness of the
privilege is the necessity of being led every step by the Lord Himself.
Nothing is more easy than to be baptized and join a church. It is done by
hundreds, the whole of whose religion stands in the flesh. But a spiritual
man cannot move forward in such a carnal way, for if he does, he will find
afterwards nothing but bondage and condemnation.
You will think, and that justly, that I have given you
very little help in this matter. And the reason is, because I wish you to
be led by the Lord alone. From what I have said in the former part of
this letter, some might think that I consider it a matter of indifference
what a church of Christ is, or whether it be right in a Christian to become
a member of it. But to think so would be a great misapprehension of my
meaning. Indeed it lies just the other way. It is because I have such a view
of what a church is, and of the blessedness of being a member of it under
divine teaching, that I have written as I have done. It is not from
indifference, but from seeing the spiritual character of the whole matter,
that so many difficulties arise in my mind. As a proof of this, in my
ministry I scarcely ever touch upon baptism or a Gospel church; not that I
do not hold both with as firm a hand as those ministers who are always
bringing it forward, but because I wish for the Lord Himself to lead His
people to see it for themselves, and to be persuaded by His own sweet and
invincible power. . . .
The Gospel Standard is not what I could wish it to
be. Like its editor, it falls very short of his own standard of real vital
godliness. But his desire and aim are the glory of God and the good of His
people, and that the sweet and sacred unction of the Holy Spirit may spread
itself through what is written and what is inserted. It is quite a fight of
faith, for there are many adversaries, but the Lord still holds up my hands.
. . . It is a mercy that the Lord did not allow your foes to triumph. The
Lord will fight for His redeemed. I was reading this morning 2 Kings 9, and
could not but see from it what a dreadful thing it is to sin against God.
I am pretty well, through mercy, in health, but not
likely again to visit Liverpool. I thank you however for your kind
invitation.
Yours affectionately in the Lord,
J. C. P.
March 4, 1862
Dear Friend, Mr. Hoadley—Amid all my labors for the profit of the
church of God, the various trials and temptations with which I am exercised,
and the numerous enemies, internal and external, against whom I have to
contend, it is a sweet satisfaction to find that the Lord is pleased to
bless to any of His people what I send forth in His holy name. However the
Lord's people may differ from each other in station, education, abilities,
and other mere natural circumstances, yet are they all blessedly united in
one Spirit to the Son of God. Therefore they love the same truth, feel the
same power, live the same life of faith, and eventually die to enjoy in
substance what they have tasted in shadow. In writing the Address for this
year, (Gospel Standard) my desire was to edify and profit the church
of the living God. This I knew could only be done by the power of God
resting upon my pen; for in myself I am a poor, blind, ignorant, destitute,
and unfeeling wretch, who cannot even think a good thought, much less write
a good word or perform a good action. It is a mercy then that, not only
you, but others also, have felt a measure of sweetness and savor in what
then dropped from my pen. To the Lord be ascribed all the glory.
I was sure that you would find Mr. Brown an honest,
gracious, and experimental man. In giving him out to preach here, or
speaking of him, I have called him sometimes "Good Mr. Brown." He has
gone through a good deal of trial and trouble, and this, by the grace of
God, has softened and meekened his spirit.
I have often thought that those who are placed at the
head of a little Cause in the country are put into a very trying situation,
when they are brought to see the emptiness of all profession and preaching
which do not stand in the power of God. It is to me a grievous sign in the
present day, that there are so few men raised up who preach the Gospel with
the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. There is no lack of ministers,
such as they are, and men too who hold the truth, at least in the letter.
But some hold it merely in the head, and others, it is to be feared, in
unrighteousness. But oh, how few are enabled to preach it feelingly and
experimentally under the savor and blessed unction of God the Holy Spirit.
The Lord seems taking away His servants. You have lost within about a year
four in your own county—Mr. Vinall, Mr. Crouch, Mr. Cowper, and poor old Mr.
Pitcher. Oh that the Lord would raise up men who know the truth, love the
truth, preach the truth, and live the truth!. . . .
The Lord bless you and keep you.
Yours in Gospel bonds,
J. C. P.
March 19, 1862
My dear Friend, Joseph Parry. . . I am glad to find that in your
illness you have not been altogether left of the gracious Lord. It is
but rarely that we can see at the time itself, what benefit there is to
spring out of sickness and affliction. Our coward flesh cries out for ease,
we want to get better, and dread being worse; and as illness usually
fluctuates, we are raised up or depressed according to circumstances. But
indeed it is an unspeakable mercy when the affliction is truly sanctified to
our soul's good, when we can submit to the Lord's will, lie passive in His
hand, and know no will but His. When too, a little measure of meekness and
softness is communicated, with faith and hope in exercise upon the blessed
Lord, it seems to reconcile the mind to the affliction. When too we can read
the Word of truth with sweetness and pleasure, are enabled to call upon the
Lord with a believing heart, and are in any way blessed with that
spirituality of mind which is life and peace, then we can say—"It is good
for me to have been afflicted".
All the saints of God have ever acknowledged that it was
in the furnace of affliction that they learned their deepest lessons, and
got their greatest blessings. Some, if not many, of the usual trials of
the Lord's people, you are in good measure exempt from; but as each must
bear his cross, yours, and I may add mine also, has been bodily affliction.
People who are healthy and strong may think lightly of it; but those who
know what it is by painful experience, feel that it is no small an
affliction, especially when it is more or less permanent. It is a good
thing however, to be thus daily reminded of our latter end, and as the
Apostle says, thus to die daily. It has a good effect in loosening the heart
and affections from the poor perishing things of time and sense, and
impressing deeply upon our minds that this polluted world is not our rest or
home. We take much to uproot us, for our carnal heart strikes deep root into
earthly objects—much deeper than we are aware of, until we find how closely
we cleave to things which we thought had scarcely any hold upon us. James
gives good advice where he says—"Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray."
You will find it a great mercy if you are enabled in your affliction to call
upon the Lord; for though He may seem to hide His face and delay to answer,
yet He puts the tears of His saints in His bottle, and writes their prayers
in His book.
The operation of truth upon the heart is like the light
of day, gradual and yet effective; or like dew and rain, which soften and
fertilize the ground, we can scarcely tell how. So divine truth in the
lips, or written by the pen of a servant of God, often has a very gradual
influence upon the mind; but this influence, though imperceptible, is not
less real, for it is due not to the man but to the truth which he
proclaims, and which the blessed Spirit seals with power upon the
conscience. The Lord has placed me in a position which I never sought or
desired; but being in it, I do not see my way to retire from it as long as I
have grace and strength to execute it. It costs me at times a great deal of
mental labor, as you would see from the writing which I have monthly to
produce for the Gospel Standard, and all this in addition to my ministerial
labors. I wonder sometimes that my poor brain can sustain so much work, for
sometimes on the Lord's day, after two laborious services, I write a good
part of the evening. Still, as strength is given me, I go on, desiring not
to live to myself, but to the glory of God and the good of His people. I
only wish that I could enjoy more myself of the precious truth of God, and
feel more of its liberating, sanctifying influence upon my own heart, lip,
and life.
Yours very affectionately,
J. C. P.
May 23, 1862
My dear Friend, Joseph Parry. . . Mr. Godwin would tell you how I am
as regards the poor body—just helped through day by day, without any reserve
of strength to fall back upon, like the balance of a rich man at his
banker's. He would also tell you of the congregations which we had at
Godmanchester. There certainly is an increased spirit of hearing in that
place and neighborhood, which I have now known for some years past; and I
trust from what I saw and heard, that our friend Thomas Godwin is where the
Lord would have him to be, and is blessing his labors among the people. I
suppose such a congregation was never before seen in the chapel. Some said
there were 1,000 people present, and others 1,300. It took more than half an
hour in the afternoon to get them seated. It is a large commodious chapel,
without galleries, and very easy to speak in. I cannot say that I felt much
at liberty on the Lord's day, but on the Tuesday evening was more indulged,
and I hope we had a profitable time.
The period is rapidly drawing near when I shall be
leaving home (D.V.) for what I call my London campaign. Hitherto I have
found the promise good—"As your day is, so shall your strength be." I trust
therefore that once more I may be enabled to raise up my Ebenezer. Most
probably I shall have large congregations, and I shall need all the bodily
strength which the Lord may give me. But this, though most desirable, falls
very short of being blessed in my soul, and blessed also to the souls of
others. Next to the salvation and sanctification of one's own soul, there
can hardly be a greater blessing than being made an instrument of good to
the Lord's family. But oh how we need the special power and blessing of the
Spirit, that any good may be effected by the words of our mouth! What
strongholds of Satan we have to pull down; what arrows of conviction to
launch; what balm of consolation to administer; what strong hearts to break;
what broken hearts to bind up! And who is sufficient for these things? How
the whole, first and last, is of the Lord! So that if the least good be
done, or the least blessing imparted, the praise and honor of it must all be
freely given to the God of all grace.
I was never more convinced of this in all my life than I
now am. Ever since you have known me you can bear witness that I never
gave any strength to the creature, but ascribed the whole of our salvation,
first and last, to the God of all our mercies; and the longer I live, the
more I know of myself, and the more I see of others, the more am I convinced
that the Lord must have the glory of the whole. Indeed I do see so much
of the fall of man, and what I am as a poor, vile, filthy, guilty, and
helpless sinner, that I am too glad and too willing to be saved wholly by
sovereign grace, and wonder sometimes whether that amazing grace can ever
indeed have reached my bosom. At one time of our lives we may, perhaps,
think that it is very easy to be saved; but when we have been well drilled
in the school of temptation, then we begin to see that it is the hardest
thing in the world, so hard indeed, that nothing short of a miracle of
free grace can work in us that religion which shall save the soul.
When I have, with God's help and blessing, finished my
London labors, I hope to set my face towards Wilts, taking in my way
Abingdon and Cirencester. Should the Lord permit me once more to come into
Wilts I hope it may be under the teaching and testimony, work and witness,
of His most blessed Spirit. If I think of myself, and myself alone, I could
not dare to entertain such a hope; but in spite of all my weakness and
worthlessness, we have now had the experience of nearly twenty-seven years
to afford us some little testimony that the Lord has condescended to meet
with us in our attempts to worship Him in spirit and in truth, as well as to
preach and fear His holy Word. We know that there are those now dead, of
whom we have no doubt that they were blessed in the house of prayer, and who
will be raised up one day out of their lowly tomb in which they rest in
hope, so that your little graveyard will send forth a company of glorified
bodies when the great trumpet sounds.
As then you pass by their sleeping dust and look upon
their graves with affectionate remembrance, it gives you to hope that they
have not borne away all the blessings, but that there are living souls yet
who come in for a share too of the same grace which was richly bestowed upon
them. How often you pass by the graves of poor old Farmer Wild, our dear
friend Dredge, the two sisters, poor Ed Wild, and others, of whom you have a
well-grounded hope that their souls have passed into rest and peace. And we
too, my dear friend, must one day follow them and be laid as low in the
grave as they are now. Oh that the Lord would smile upon our souls and bless
us with a sweet manifestation of His love, that when our time comes, we may
lay down our head in peace, with a blessed testimony that the Lord is our
God. It sometimes seems as if it were too great a blessing to expect. How
base have been our backslidings—at least I may say so of my own! How little
we have lived to the glory and honor of God! And still how weak our faith,
and hope, and love! How many years have I preached and written, and I may
say, considering my health and strength, how much have I labored! And yet
how little, how poor, how insignificant it all seems. And yet I hope at
times I have not labored in vain nor spent my strength for nothing.
Yours very affectionately,
J. C. P.
May 29, 1862
My dear Friend, Joseph Tanner. . . How time slips away with rapid
wing! Revolving months have brought me against the eve of my summer
campaign, when I leave my quiet home, my wife, family, and my books, to
sojourn for a while in the busy metropolis, and then turn my face towards
the swelling hills and green downs of Wilts. But before I once more (D.V.)
see their broad backs and undulating line, I hope to visit that ancient town
where He who fixes the bounds of our habitation has cast your earthly lot,
and there, with the Lord's help and blessing, renew those ties of friendship
and affection, all laid, we trust, beforehand on a right basis, and cemented
during that eventful season which I spent under your roof in the autumn of
1860. In our day, there is but little union or communion between those who
profess the same truths and who preach the same Gospel. The reason of this
is that there is so little union and communion with the blessed Lord; for
wherever there is union and communion with Him, there must be the same with
His people. Where too humility is lacking, and where pride, ambition, or
covetousness prevail, there cannot be real union and communion, for that
monster Self steps in between to intercept it.
But when we are made willing to take the lowest place,
and to esteem others better than ourselves, there seems to be some
foundation laid for Christian union. Such is, I trust, my feeling wherever I
see real grace. Gifts may be useful in their way; but it is grace, and grace
alone, which unites the soul to Christ, and to those who are Christ's. If
ministers, instead of seeking after gifts and popularity, were hungering
and thirsting after larger communications of grace for their own souls'
present and future benefit, and for their people's, there would be more
union among them. But we are poor, fallen creatures, and I have no right to
censure others where I am so deficient myself.
I cannot at present fix the exact day when I shall hope
to see you, but most probably it will be either Tuesday, July 22nd, or
Wednesday, July 23rd, if the Lord grant me health and strength to carry out
my London and Abingdon engagements. I should not object to speaking on the
evening of the Thursday in the same hall as before, if you think there would
be a sufficient congregation to warrant our meeting there instead of the
chapel. I still carry about with me a weak tabernacle, having often much
cough to try both body and mind. Still, hitherto I have found strength equal
to my day, and been helped through my labors so as not to break down, though
often very weak before, and in, and after them. No doubt I need all the
ballast I carry, to steady my ship, for there is no safe sailing without it.
You too have your cares and trials; bodily cares, family
anxieties, business perplexities, ministerial troubles, and no doubt
besides, and beyond all these, that most pressing and most present of
all—the heavy weight of a body of sin and death hampering and clogging every
movement of the soul Godwards and heavenward. Under the pressure of all
these trials and temptations, what a poor empty thing does the world appear,
how transitory and vain our present earthly life; and indeed all things
within and without with which we are surrounded. Sin and death seem visibly
stamped upon them all. But though we thus seem to get sick of earth, sin,
and self, yet we feel the need of divine communications of life, light,
liberty, and love, to raise up the heart and draw the affections heavenward.
Hunger is not food, weariness not rest, and sickness not cure.
How we need the blessed Lord to appear for us, and in us,
that we may find in Him that rest and peace, that happiness and consolation,
which none but He can bestow. How poor, how empty, how needy am I without
His grace; how unable to think, say, or do any one good thing! How dark
my mind, how cold my heart, how earthly my affections, unless He is pleased
to move and stir my soul toward Himself. Thus I daily find and feel that,
without Him I can do nothing, and that He must be my All in all. In private,
in public, whatever I do or wherever I am, from Him is all my fruit found.
Among the professors of the day how few know and love the truth, and
among the preachers how few preach it from any sweet experience of its
power! I am afraid of myself, and I am afraid of others; so powerful is
unbelief, and so deceitful the heart, so strong is Satan, and so mighty
is sin. May the Lord Himself teach and guide us, bless us, and hold us
up, for then, and then only, shall we be safe.
I have written a sad stupid letter, but it will show you
how dark, barren, and unprofitable I am without the Lord's especial help.
Yours affectionately in the Lord,
J. C. P.
September 11, 1862
My dear Friend, Mrs. Peake—I need not tell you how
disappointed I was at not being able to come to Oakham for last Lord's-day,
especially after so long an absence, but my voice was almost wholly gone,
and therefore even if I had come and got into the pulpit I could not have
made myself heard by the congregation. How true it is that disappointment
and vexation attend all our earthly steps. I have not been better in
health I think for many years than during my absence from home, and have
labored harder in the ministry than since the year 1847. Just then, as I was
hoping to give my friends at home a little of my renewed strength, this
stroke has come upon me which seems to bring back all my old feelings of
tenderness and weakness. . . . I feel very unworthy that any of the dear
family of God should be looking to me for instruction and edification when I
need so much for myself, and daily feel my own deficiency in everything
spiritually good. Still, if the Lord be pleased in any way to make use of me
for the building up of the Church on its most holy faith, to Him must be
ascribed all the praise, for I cannot take an atom of it to myself.
I return you Mr. Grace's letter. You probably know that
we met in Wilts at the Calne anniversary, and that I got him to preach there
to the satisfaction of a large number of spiritual hearers. As I expected to
find him much pulled down by his illness he did not seem to me to be looking
at all more poorly than I expected to see him. He had come that morning more
than twenty miles in an open vehicle, had risen at four o'clock, and had not
slept all night. But in spite of all this he seemed to be strengthened in
body, soul, and spirit, to preach to a very large and attentive
congregation, and did not seem to suffer much afterwards.
Yours very affectionately,
J. C. P.
September 15, 1862
My dear Friend, Mrs. Tanner—I desire very sincerely to sympathize
with you and your family in the heavy trial through which you are all now
passing, in the severe illness which it has pleased the Lord to lay upon my
dear friend Mr. Tanner. I truly hope that the persuasion which you have that
he will be still spared to yourself, his family, and the church, will be
realized; but after so severe and prolonged an attack, recovery, if the Lord
be graciously pleased to grant it, must be slow. I am sure that he has the
desires and prayers of all who know him in the Lord, that he may be spared.
Prayer is a powerful weapon in the hands of the Lord's family, and
thus we hope that it may please the Lord to hear prayer on his and your
behalf, and to spare his valuable life.
We felt it very kind in Mary giving us so accurate and
detailed an account, keeping back nothing, and yet at the same time giving
us some good ground of hope that he might still be raised up from his bed of
sickness and affliction. There seems now some reason why you should have
been lately so much favored. The Lord saw the trial which was coming upon
you, and He therefore prepared you for it. I am sure that you must need all
the faith that He may have given you, and all the support which may be
granted for both body and soul. It must indeed be a most anxious time with
you all, and you no doubt see now the mercy of your son's return. Thus you
see mercy mingled with judgment, and strength and support graciously given
when most needed. We all have to learn that it is through much tribulation
that we must enter the kingdom. Trial after trial, like wave after wave,
rolls over the family of God; and the more that the Lord favors and blesses
them in His grace, the deeper and heavier for the most part do their trials
become. The day of adversity is ever set against the day of prosperity; and
wisely so, that we may learn our dependence upon the Lord and know more of
His goodness and grace.
I shall be very anxious to have fresh news how your dear
husband really is. May the gracious Lord of His infinite mercy spare my dear
friend's life, support and bless his soul under the affliction, and comfort
and support your heart. My love to him if he can receive the message. Two
years ago, just at this time, I was under your kind and hospitable roof. Had
it been this year, what an additional load it would have been to your mind.
How wisely, how kindly does the Lord dispose all events!
Believe me to be, my dear Friend,
Yours with much sympathy and affection,
J. C. P.
October 29, 1862
My dear Friend, William Brown—I was sorry to hear that you were
suffering from the effects of your painful gouty arthritis, and had not the
free use of your lower limbs. You must feel it much, being so often called
from home, and having to travel by such various conveyances. We must all
have our daily cross. My tender chest has long been one to me, and
deprivation of the free use of your hands and feet has been and is still one
to you. But we trust that this cross has not been without its profit. The
Lord saw that we could not be trusted with health. Like an unbroken
steed, full of high courage and spirits, it might have run away with us had
we been placed upon its back; and what might have been the consequence? A
broken neck or a fractured limb.
I was sitting some time ago by the bedside of a woman who
has been more or less confined to her bed for thirty years. I said to her,
"You don't know what sins you have been kept from by being confined here."
The thought seemed to strike her as one with which she had not been
conversant, and she named it afterwards as an unseen benefit of her
affliction. So lame feet may keep a man from running into evil, and make him
walk, if not more easily and comfortably, more in the strait and narrow
path.
Our unseen mercies may be greater than our seen mercies.
The prophet's servant did not see the horses and chariots of fire round
about the mountain; but they were there, though he saw them not. We need
many trials, and a long course of them, to meeken our spirit and give us
patience; for tribulation works patience, as patience works an
experience of the mercy and goodness of the Lord, and as an experience of
past and present support works a hope of support for the future. Trial of
some kind or other is indispensable to a Christian, and especially to a
Christian minister. The Lord's people are a tried people, and therefore need
a tried experimental ministry.
I feel much for the appalling distress in Lancashire, and
look forward to the coming winter with great apprehension, knowing the
general sequel of previous famines. I have been apprehensive from the
very first, lest there should be a breaking out of fever, which now seems to
be the case at Preston. I traveled from Leicester to Oakham with Dr. S., and
I put the question to him whether such a fear might not be justly
entertained. He was clearly of that opinion; and I would not be surprised if
we had a repetition, at least on a smaller scale, of the Irish Famine in
1847. I am doing what I can to help the brethren, and obtained at Oakham a
collection of £41 when I was last there. But my lack of local knowledge is a
hindrance to my satisfactory distribution of the money sent me or collected
by my own exertions. I am therefore obliged to let Mr. Gadsby take that part
of the good work upon himself. You would probably hear from Mr. Grace his
account of his northern visit, but a mere passing view cannot give an
adequate idea of the depth and extent of the calamity. Its physical evils
are and will be increasingly dreadful, but I much fear that its moral evils
will be even greater and more permanent. It has already reduced to the same
level the provident and the improvident, the industrious and the indolent.
This is one moral bank already swept away; and if it pauperizes Lancashire,
it may next sweep away that other noble bank—the stout-hearted independence
of Lancashire men.
Still He who sits upon the waterflood can keep back the
waves; and He whose prerogative it is to bring good out of evil can make
even this calamity a blessing. The two greatest public calamities which we
have known, the Irish Famine and the Indian Mutiny, have been made of the
most signal service to both those countries. We may add to this perhaps,
that other third calamity, the Crimean War, which swept away a whole host of
abuses. We may hope therefore that a blessing will come out of this cotton
famine; and indeed I understand a more dreadful crash, if possible, must
soon have come from over-production, had the present cause of suffering not
intervened. I greatly fear, from all I have seen and heard, that the
northern churches are at a very low ebb in vital godliness. Who knows but
that this heavy affliction may be a means of stirring up the suffering
people of God in the north. . . .
Yours affectionately in the Lord,
J. C. P.
December 17, 1862
Dear Madam—I am sorry to find from your letter that your friend has suffered
so much in mind from that most unhappy circumstance which you have
mentioned—the suicide of a minister who she believes was made
instrumental for the good of her soul. I am not surprised that she has been,
and still continues to be, much exercised upon that point; but I hope that
the Lord, in due time, may give relief.
I admit that it is a mysterious circumstance; but I
cannot say how far the Lord does not make use of the ministry of men who
themselves are not partakers of His grace. Balaam preached precious Gospel
truths; and no doubt some of the truths which he preached, as recorded in
the Book of Numbers, have at various times been blessed to the souls of
God's people. Caiaphas, when high priest, prophesied grand Gospel truths
(John 11:49-52). So we see the Lord may make use of unconverted men to
lead His people into truth; though they themselves may not be partakers of
it.
I know at this present moment a very gracious woman—one
who has been at times much favored of the Lord, who sat for some years under
the ministry of a man who, after a long profession, unhappily committed
suicide. I have not spoken with her on the subject since, as I did not wish
to bring to her mind so painful a circumstance; but I have not the least
doubt of her state before God, and that she would say, if she were asked,
that the poor man's ministry had been made useful to her.
I think perhaps we might make a distinction of this kind.
A ministry might be made useful in opening up the Scriptures or leading the
mind to see the truth, where it was not blessed in the same way as the
ministry of the Lord's sent servants, that is, to bring liberty and love
into the soul. Besides which, it is often very hard to distinguish,
especially in early days, between light in the understanding and gracious
power in the soul.
But I trust your friend will not be left to cast away her
hope, nor yield to the suggestions of despair. Let her still, as far as she
can, look to the Lord, who is able to save to the uttermost all who come
unto God by Him; and she will not look in vain. The Lord can deliver her out
of all her temptations, and her being exercised with them shows that she has
a tender conscience and a fear of the Lord's great and glorious name.
I am, dear Madam,
Yours very sincerely for the truth's sake,
J. C. P.
December 19, 1862
My dear Friend, Mr. Tanner—I have often thought of you
during your long and heavy affliction, and have endeavored to put up my poor
prayers on your behalf, that the Lord would be pleased to spare your
valuable life for the sake of your dear wife and family, and the Church of
God. And I do trust that the Lord will go on to strengthen your poor weak
body until He restores you to a good measure of your former health. I can
well sympathize with you, for I know full well what a deep and heavy trial
bodily affliction is. But what a rich and unspeakable mercy it is when the
affliction, though so painful and trying to the flesh, is sanctified
to the soul's profit. We need something powerful to pull us out of our
carnal besetments. It is not a little thing which will bring down our proud
heart; and heavy and repeated blows seem needful to knock us down and
keep us down. But, oh, how kindly and graciously does the Lord make the
bed in all time of sickness—not laying upon us more than He gives us
strength to bear; and, as we have proved, surrounding our bed with the
kindest and tenderest of nurses, and providing every earthly means of
relieving the poor body. Mary was kind enough to tell me of a sweet view
which you had of the adorable Lord at the right hand of the Father, ready as
it were to receive your ransomed spirit had it been His holy will to have
called you unto Himself. It is these views of Jesus by faith which raise up
the tried and exercised soul to see Him as all its salvation and all its
desire; and such gracious visitations of His presence, and such believing
views of His person and glory, have a most blessed and sanctifying effect
upon the soul and make most durable impressions.
Should the Lord, as I hope and trust, restore you again
to the work of the ministry, it will give a power and a force to your
testimony on behalf of the crucified, risen, and glorified Son of God. Oh,
may we believe in Him more firmly, love Him more strongly, and cleave to Him
more closely.
Yours very affectionately,
J. C. P.
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