Live For God and All Will Be Well

A portion of a letter from Edmund Botsford, pastor of Georgetown Baptist Church, Georgetown, South Carolina, to a young pastor friend, John Roberts. Botsford exhorted John and his new wife to talk freely to one another on spiritual subjects and to form the habit of praying together. With a bit of humor he told Mrs. Roberts if John was too backwards to converse with her, to let him know and he would scold him soundly! The letter was written November 24, 1802.

I sincerely wish you and the dear young lady with which you are connected, the best of blessings. Do, my dear young friend, from the first, make free to talk with the wife of your bosom, and that frequently, on divine subjects. Get her to pray with you; often be on your knees together, and do tell her from me, from your real friend, I beg her, I entreat her, not only to join you in prayer, but pray herself with you. O my young friends, do be praying husband and wife. Do not let shame prevent. O Mrs. Roberts, I earnestly entreat you to pray in secret with your husband; do my dear child get into the habit of praying with your husband; and if you find him backward to converse with you on spiritual subjects, let me know, and I will scold him soundly. I tell you both, live for God, and all will be well.

Memoirs of Elder Edmund Botsford, compiled and edited by Charles D. Mallary, first printed in 1832, now printed by Particular Baptist Press, Springfield, Missouri, 2004, p. 119.