Hope the Best

A selection from a letter by John Newton to John Ryland, Jr. Newton made reference to Ryland's son, John Tyler Ryland, who was about one year old at the time, who was gravely ill. Mr. Newton expressed his hope that all might be well with the lad and exhorted his father to do the same. The letter was written October 26, 1787.

I hope your little boy will live to be a comfort to you; perhaps he may preach the gospel, when you can no longer speak. However this may be, devote and entrust him to the Lord, and he will take care of him. Sufficient to the present day is the evil thereof [Matthew 6:34]. Why should you burden yourself by looking a great while forward to peradventures and possibilities? Hope the best; and when you meet with a dark cloud, wait and expect to see, in due time, a rainbow painted upon it, or a light and glory springing out of it.

Wise Counsel: John Newton’s Letter to John Ryland, Jr., edited by Grant Gordon, The Banner of Truth Trust, 2009, letter #40, pp. 194-95.

The Life of Faith is a Wonderful Life

A letter by Mary Winslow (1774-1854). The date the letter was written is not given nor the name of the person to whom she wrote. Her letter is about faith, in particular, the trial of faith. If anyone knew by experience how to walk by faith during difficult times, it was Mary Winslow. At forty years of age, she was widowed and left to raise nine children in her newly adopted country, America. She truly learned to walk by faith in times of suffering. Her counsel is wise and tried.

But you must look above and beyond these earthly disappointments, to Jesus as our only Friend. We only want more faith to ask at His hands what we will, and to be satisfied with what He gives, believing that if more were for our good, our dearest and best Friend would give more.

The life of faith is a wonderful life. Honoured is the Christian who is called to live it. He is trained in this life to know more of himself, and more of the unchanging character, love, and tender, watchful care of his heavenly Father. Has God so loved us as to give His only and well-beloved Son to die for us, and is it probably that He will withhold anything that is absolutely needful for us? The trial of faith is the sure way of increasing it. We ask for more faith, and God tries what we have, and that is His way of answering our prayer for its increase. He brings us into trials, so that we are compelled to look only to Him for help. He knocks from beneath us every human and earthly prop; for (to our shame be it spoken) we are for ever hewing out creature cisterns, and constructing earthly supports, instead of going without ceasing to our sure and faithful Friend for all we need.

I sometimes think it were a greater trial to be rich than to be poor. Of this I am quite sure, that riches to the Christian are a great snare, as well as a great trouble, and entails more anxiety and sorrow than real pleasure and enjoyment. If ever I have wished for affluence, it has been to help others. Yet in so doing, what losers might the objects of my charity be in this experimental acquaintance with the Saviour's love! Why did our all-wise God lead the children of Israel through the wilderness, and feed them day by day with manna from heaven and water from the rock, but to shew them what was in them, and what was in Him?

And so He feeds and cares for His sheep now. He is unchanged and unchangeable. He took care of Elisha, and He takes care of us; so let us be of good courage, and trust fully in the Lord our God.

Heaven Opened: A Selection from the Correspondence of Mrs. Mary Winslow, edited by her son, Octavius Winslow, 1864, reprinted by Reformation Heritage Books, 2001, pp. 222-223 (the letter has been broken up into paragraphs in order to make it more readable).

Depend Upon His Promises

A selection from a letter by John Newton to Sarah Pearce, on hearing of the death of her husband. Sarah was married to Samuel Pearce, pastor of Cannon Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, England, from 1790 to 1799. He was only 33 years old when he died but he was a tremendous preacher and more importantly, a godly man. Very near his death, Sarah repeated to him the final verse of Newton’s hymn, “Begone, Unbelief.” Grant Gordon says, “Upon hearing of his death, Newton sent his widow a letter of condolence. He identified with her loss as he shared how God had helped him through the painful loss of his spouse. Then he expressed strong words of encouragement filled with scriptural allusions.” Pearce died October 10, 1799. The letter was written in November of that year.

You are a widow, yet not strictly so, for your maker, your redeemer, the Lord of hosts is still your husband… he is unchangeably the same, and because he lives, you shall live also. My friend Ryland informs me that you have five children, but your living husband knows their number and the names of them all. I doubt not but you and your husband, who has lately exchanged earth for heaven and a bed of languishing for a seat near the throne, offered up many prayers for them both jointly and separately. And you know the Lord our God is a hearer of prayer. Has he not said, ‘Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let your widows trust in me’ [Jer. 49:11].


Depend upon his promises, madam, they will bear you up. He has not bid his people seek his face in vain. All hearts and means are in his hands and he could as easily provide for fifty children, if you had so many, as for five, as for one.

Wise Counsel: John Newton’s Letter to John Ryland, Jr., edited by Grant Gordon, The Banner of Truth Trust, 2009, p. 367.

A Very Sweet View of Affliction

A selection from a letter by Rev. Thomas Boston, to his friend James Hog. Boston’s wife suffered from depression. She had gotten better but then turned worse again. The letter is full of faith and trust in the Lord even in the midst of afflictions. It was written August 8, 1724.

There is no appearance of the dissolution of the cloud that for several years now has been over my wife. We have made a new essay this season in the use of means for her help; but all hitherto serves for nothing, but to discover that vain is the help of man in the case.

She has not wanted seasonable supports from a higher hand; and when several coals were by wise and holy Providence cast in together into our furnace, she who behooved to be waited on and served before, was even helped to wait on, and be very helpful to others in distress; and then the clouds returned after the rain, and now she comes little out of the bed at all.

But all is necessary, and He is infinitely wise who has the managing of all in His hand. It is a very sweet view of affliction, to view it as the discipline of the covenant; and so it is indeed; and nothing else to the children of our Father’s family. In that respect it is medicinal; it shines with many gracious purposes about it; and, end as it will, one may have the confidence of faith, that it shall end well. And O how happy would we be if we could always maintain the confidence of faith! The soul in that case would be like that babe in the shipwrecked woman’s arms on the plank, smiling amidst the waves, unconcerned with the hazard.

Memoirs of Thomas Boston, first published in 1899, reprinted by the Banner of Truth, 1988, p. 499.

The Lord Was Very Gracious

A selection from a letter by Thomas Boston, to his friend James Hog. Both of them were “Marrow men,” holding the freeness of the gospel to all men in the midst of religious culture of hyper-Calvinism. Boston’s family was going through “the furnace of affliction” due to serious sickness. After he related their particular troubles, Boston appealed to his friend for prayer and spoke of his trust in the Lord. The letter was written in June, 1724.

I have given you this particular account, as making no doubt of your sympathy, and that you will join with us in the deliverance wrought for us, and in seeking pity and help in the continued affliction, and grace rightly to improve both the one and the other. The Lord was very gracious according to His word, and I felt Him to be the lifter up of mine head, while carried through the deep waters; and my soul blesseth His holy name for this dispensation in the this trial, in which He made me inwardly to rejoice when nothing of that kind appeared about me. O that I could praise and trust Him! He is a skilful pilot, and one might be very easy in doubtful events, trusting and relying on Him, believing that what is good He will give.

Memoirs of Thomas Boston, first published in 1899, reprinted by the Banner of Truth, 1988, p. 500.

Realities

A selection from a letter by Rev. Charles Colcock Jones, to Rev. George Howe, informing him of his father’s death. The elder Mr. Jones knew that death was soon to come, and had great peace till the very end. His son recounted a conversation between his father and mother shortly before his death. The letter was written March 19, 1863, three days after the passing of his father.

My mother repeated some of the promises of the Saviour that He would be present with those who trust in Him, even when called to pass through the dark valley of the shadow of death. To which he responded: “In health we repeat these promises, but now they are realities.” My mother replied: “I feel assured the Saviour is present with you.” His answer was: “Yes. I am nothing but a poor sinner. I renounce myself and all self-justification, trusting only in the free and unmerited righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Mother then asked if he had any word for his sons. He replied: “Tell them both to lead the lives of godly men in Christ Jesus, in uprightness and integrity.”

The Children of Pride: A True Story of Georgia and the Civil War, edited by Robert Manson Myers, Yale University Press, 1972, p. 1041. Iain Murray makes reference to this book of letters in a chapter on the Charles and Marry Jones in his excellent book, Heroes (published by The Banner of Truth Trust).