The Voice of Faith in the Valley of Achor: Vol. 1 [of 2]: being a series of letters to several friends on religious subjectsChurch, J. (John)
Religion
The Voice of Faith in the Valley of Achor: Vol. 1 [of 2]: being a series of letters to several friends on religious subjects
Church, J. (John)
Christian life; Church, J. (John), approximately 1780-approximately 1825 -- Correspondence; Clergy -- England -- Correspondence
With grief of heart I have to inform you, that poor Dean is appointed to
die on Thursday morning. This is a most distressing circumstance, as I
know the poor fellow entertained a hope that it would be proved an act of
insanity. My feelings will be sorely distressed, as I shall have the
pain to hear his poor trembling footsteps on the scaffold. May God
prepare his soul, and assure him of his interest in Christ. May he feel
the pardoning love of God—this will be as pillars of marble, to support
his sinking heart. Oh that he may be washed in the dear Redeemer’s
blood, and clothed with his righteousness, that he may be accepted of the
Father the moment the soul quits the body. Glad should I be to visit
him, and pray with him, but that is not allowed. Last night I was very
low about him, and suddenly opened upon the 37th Psalm, The Lord will not
leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged. If his last
letter to me was genuine, he is saved in the Lord, with an everlasting
salvation. His soul is every thing now, the body will soon be lifeless.
Solemn thought, affecting idea—to be cut off by an untimely death, in the
height of health and manhood! How truly awful; what has sin done, and Oh
how great is the power of Satan. The Lord will put an end to the empire
of Satan, and confine him down to darkness, fire, and chains, and we
shall say Amen to Satan’s sentence. I trust poor Dean has found mercy at
the hands of God. Various letters I have sent him, and glad I am the
Lord enabled me to point him to the bleeding cross. His first letter to
me, was a proof his mind was very dark, and his last letter proves his
increase in light and faith; if the Lord has thus blessed my poor letters
to him, you and I can see that I was not sent here in vain. It is well,
the Lord has many means to bring his children to the knowledge of the
truth. What God did to Pharaoh, and his host, reached the ear of Rahab
the harlot, in Jericho, and she was converted. The fame of Solomon’s
wisdom was heard in the country of the Sabeans, and proved the conversion
of the queen of Sheba. The wonderful destruction of the Assyrian army,
reached to Babylon, from thence came the wise men to worship Christ, and
a church was formed there. A famine drove Naomi from Bethlehem, and she
carried the knowledge of the true God to the country of Moab, which
proved the conversion of Ruth. The Syrians invaded Israel, and took a
little maid captive, which terminated in the conversion of Namaan. A
famine drove Elijah to a widow at Zidon, and Elisha’s passing by a house
at Shunem, proved their conversion. Paul and Silas were taken up, and
put in prison, and Onesimus was confined in the same place for felony,
and Paul was the means of his conversion there. A person swore that
against me which I knew nothing about, and I was doomed to this place for
a time. I dread the approach of Thursday, the shock will be great, but
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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