The Summit of Ambition

A selection from a letter by Andrew Fuller, to Mr. and Mrs. James Chater and Mr. and Mrs. William Robinson, who were following in the train of William Carey, off to do mission work in India. Fuller exhorted each couple regarding their relations to the unconverted, as man and wife, and in regards to one another. He also challenged them to "be very conversant with your Bibles" and to "often think of the dying love of Christ." But above all, he entreated them to focus on Christ. The letter was written April 5, 1806.

My dear Brethren, know nothing but 'Jesus Christ and him crucified' [1 Cor. 2:2]. Be this the summit of your ambition. For you to live must be Christ [Phil. 1:21]. You may never be of that literary consequence which some are; but if you possess a savour of Christ, you will be blessings in your generation; and when you die, your names will be precious, not only in India and Britain, but in the sight of the Lord.

The Armies of the Lamb: The Spirituality of Andrew Fuller, edited and introduced by Michael A. G. Haykin, Joshua Press, p. 209.

Peace With God

A portion of a letter from Thomas Charles to a friend, Mr. John Walker. Napoleon Bonaparte was the new Emperor of France and Britain feared a French invasion. Charles wrote to his friend, "I pray that the time may speedily arrive, when they shall learn war no more." He then spoke wonderfully of the peace that Christians have with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. The letter was written January 11, 1805.

Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ is to us sinners a blessing, which in value, and in its happy efforts, passeth all understanding. Jesus is our peace – our peace-purchaser, our peace-maker, our peace-ratifier, and our peace-preserver forever. He himself is everything to us.

Thomas Charles’ Spiritual Counsels: Selected from his Letters and Papers, by Edward Morgan, first published in 1836, reprinted by the Banner of Truth, 1993, p. 326.

It Is Best to Fall Into His Hands

A selection from a letter by J. C. Philpot to his friend, Mr. Tanner. Philpot was a Strict Baptist pastor and editor of the Gospel Standard magazine. His letters are filled with spiritual counsel of a high quality. He began this letter by reminding his friend that it is better "to suffer from the Lord than to sin against the Lord." The letter was written November 22, 1861.

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.

Letters by the Late Joseph Charles Philpot with a Brief Memoir of His Life and Labours, London, 1871, p. 338.