• William Gadsby's Fragments (Complete)

    The Fear Of Death

    I do not know that death ever appears to me more terrific than when I feel a fear that I shall die in darkness; I do not want such a death as that. But I can tell you what the Lord has brought me to know a little of, and to feel a little satisfaction in; and that is, that if God should see good that I should be in darkness, I am but level with the Lord Jesus Christ. He was in darkness, and cried out in darkness, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

  • William Gadsby's Letters (Complete)

    The Malady And The Remedy

    Dear Friend,—I have no doubt you think it long before I reply to yours; but the fact is, I have felt quite fast in my mind, and have not known what answer to give, for I am not very fit to travel yet. If I possibly can, I should like to comply with your request. If you ask me how I am, I can assure you that I am heartily sick of myself and almost of everybody else. There is so much self-importance, and self-seeking, and flesh and blood working under a covert of truth, and I feel so much of the stinking oozings up of it in my own cursed old man, that, as I said before, I am heartily sick; and yet, strange…

  • William Gadsby's Letters (Complete)

    The Voice Of The Turtle Is Heard In The Land

    My dear Brother in the glorious Head of the Church,—We have buried three of our members within the last few weeks, and we have seven or eight others very ill. Well; “blessed are the dead that die in the Lord; yea, saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labor.” Thanks be to our dear Lord, there is a sweet and an eternal rest awaits all the dear blood-bought, heaven-born family of God. Here we have to labor under a great variety of burdens; namely, lust, pride, envy, unbelief, carnal reason, worldly cares, darkness of soul, hardness of heart, deadness in prayer, and coldness in all the branches of the worship of our adorable Lord and Saviour; we are also oppressed with the dreadful temptations…

  • William Gadsby's Letters (Complete)

    Only Gone Before

    My dear Friends in the glorious Head of the Church,—Your kind letter came to hand, with the tidings of the death of our dear brother Martin. Well; all his storms are over, ours cannot last long, and each one leaves the number less. Our blessed Lord will not let us have one trouble too many; no, nor let them be too boisterous or last too long; and he will see to it that all shall work together for good. Our dear covenant God cannot make any mistakes, nor suffer anything to do his blood-bought family any real harm. From self and self-dependence he will deliver us, although flesh and blood will often sigh and groan, yea, and kick and rebel, too, under and at the…