Affliction

Manchester, 20 February 1835

I am glad to find that the Lord now and then affords you a few moments’ sweet intercourse with himself. This is one of the greatest blessings we can enjoy. The comforts of this life are great blessings; but to enjoy the Lord Jesus Christ as our Lord and our God, our Portion, and our eternal All, is a blessing indeed. O my dear friend, what an indescribable mercy it is for such poor sinners as we to be raised up to…

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Manchester, November 1830

My dear Friends,—I received your very kind letter, for which I am thankful. I assure you it often affords me pleasure to find that I have a place in the hearts of God’s dear family; for, next to union with my dear Lord and Master, I esteem union to his blood-bought, heaven bound family.

Among the blessings in which your soul delights you have also your sorrows; for both of which may you be thankful, since they are all tokens of our dear Lord’s love, and a proof that he has not forgotten you. “The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposal thereof is of the Lord.” These are eventful times, but the dear children of God have no just cause to fear; for they are the special care of a covenant God, and he is too wise to err, and too good to be unkind. All things must work together for their real good. We enjoy a sweet and solemn frame of mind when we…

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Preached, on Lord’s Day Morning, Nov. 1st, 1840, in Manchester.

“I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving.”—Ps. 116:17.

Under the Jewish dispensation, God had appointed a variety of offerings and sacrifices for the Jews, under certain circumstances, to be attended to; and if you turn to Leviticus 7, you will find that the offering of the sacrifice of thanksgiving was to be accompanied with unleavened bread, mingled with oil, with wafers anointed with oil, and with cakes fried in oil. Now in reality, beloved, there is no sacrifice of thanksgiving without this oil; and it is…

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The few lines now sent were written after visiting two poor distressed aged females, who lived in a garret in Doctor’s Commons, and who complained much of the roughness of the path through which they were called to pass. On my second visit I read these verses to them, which, from their own statement, was made a blessing to them. They have long since been called into an eternal world, and though poor and destitute in this world, in temporal matters, they were rich in faith, and I have no doubt they are now singing the high praises of a covenant God—where all sorrow and sighing, is for ever done away.

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“Heaviness in the heart of a man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh him glad.”—Prov. 12:25

I believe all natural men are the subject of heaviness in the heart, and sadness of heart, at times, to a greater or less degree, produced by disappointment and vexation, blasted hopes and blighted affections; and I believe that all natural men are, at times the subjects of gladness, produced by worldly ad­vantages, prosperous circumstances, and smiling prospects; but the diversity of feel­ing expressed . . .

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