will long be a source of deep regret; for where shall I find a friend equally amiable, tender, and constant ?*

I beg to be most affectionately remembered to each of your dear children, earnestly praying that their father's God may be their God. Wishing and praying that you may be favoured with the richest consolations of religion,

I remain, my dearest Madam,
Your affectionate Friend,

LXXN.

ROBERT HALL

TO J. B. WILLIAMS, ESQ., SHREWSBURY.

Dear Sir Leicester, March 29, 1825. Some apology is necessary for not having sooner acknowledged your very kind present of your new and highly improved edition of the admirable Philip Henry, whom you have the honour, I find, of enumerating among your ancestors. It is a descent with which you have more reason to be satisfied than if you could trace your pedigree from the Plantagenets. I waited only until I had time to renew my acquaintance with the Life of that amiable man, and to form an estimate of the improvements it has derived from diligent researches. I have not yet entirely completed the volume; but I am now busy in doing so, and have read enough to satisfy myself of the great obligations you have conferred on the public by this excellent work. The additional documents and letters by which you have enriched and enlarged the original narrative, constitute a treasure of wisdom and piety, for which you are entitled to the warm acknowledgments of every Christian reader, and especially of every dissenter. May a double portion of his spirit descend on the rising generation of ministers!

The labour and research requisite for furnishing such a repast must have been great; but not more so, I dare say, than the pleasure you derived from the consciousness of conferring so important a benefit on the public. Permit me to thank you, most sincerely, for the favour you have done me by the bestowment of so valuable a present. It were highly desirable that more such biographies of the illustrious dead, improved and enlarged as this, might be given to the public: if it had no other fruit than to withdraw their attention a little from that farrago of periodical trifles, by which the public mind is dissipated, and its taste corrupted.

I remain, dear Sir,

Your highly obliged Friend and Servant,
ROBERT HALL.

Mr. Langdon and Mr. Hall had been fellow-students at Bristol; and ever after cherished for each other the warmest esteein and affection.-ED.

LXXIII

TO MR. J. E. RYLAND.

Leicester, May 21, 1825.

My dear Sir, I am ex.remely concerned to hear the melancholy account your letter contains of the situation of your dear and honoured father, at the same time that I feel grateful to you for the communication. I had heard previously that he was supposed to be in a declining state; but, little imagining he was so ill, your letter gave me a violent shock. With God all things are possible; and who can tell but the Lord may yet raise him up, and assign him more work to do before he is taken to his eternal reward? It is my earnest wish and prayer that such may be the result. His loss will be most deeply felt, not only by his afflicted family, but by a very numerous circle of friends, and by the church of God at large. For himself, all is and will be well; nothing can possibly befall him but what will be highly to his advantage. A man of a more eminently holy and devoted spirit than that of your dear father it has never been my lot to witness, and very, very few who made any approach to him. I feel, in the prospect of his removal, much for the family, the academy, and the church. You, my dear sir, together with your very excellent mother and sisters, will be the objects of a deep and extensive sympathy: but God, whose ways, though mysterious, are always gracious and merciful towards them that fear nim, will, I doubt not, sustain and support you under this afflicting stroke, and cause it afterward to work the peaceable fruits of righteousness. His prayers will draw down innumerable blessings on those who were nearest and dearest to him; for who can doubt that the prayers of such a man must avail much? The impression of his example and the memory of his virtues will suggest a most powerful motive to constancy, patience, and perseverance in the ways of God. You will never cease to bless God for having bestowed upon you such a parent. His humility, meekness, tenderness, devotedness to God, and zeal for the interests of truth and holiness, will long endear him to the Christian world, and make his name like the odour of precious ointment. What, in the event of your dear father's removal, will become of the academy and the church; I tremble to think of the consequences: never, surely, could he have been spared with more serious injury to the most important interests! May the eyes of all of us be [turned] to God for his direction and blessing! I should have written to your dear father himself, but feared it might agitate and disturb him. I beg you to remember me to him in the most earnest, respectful, and affectionate terms, and assure him of a deep interest in my feeble prayers. I beg, also, to be most affectionately remembered to your dear mother, sisters, and every part of the family. That the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob take your may dear father under the cover of his wings,-and

should he walk through the valley and shadow of death, afford him his rod and his staff, and that this most affecting visitation may be sanctified for the eternal benefit of all the parties concerned, is, my dear sir, the earnest prayer of

Your most affectionate and sympathizing Friend,

ROBERT HALL.

LXXIV.

TO MR. J. E. RYLAND. (Extract.)

Leicester, May 29, 1825.

It gives me much pleasure, but no surprise, to hear that the end of your dear father was emphatically peace. What else, or what less, could be expected from such a life? As he was one of the brightest examples of holiness on earth, no doubt great is his reward in heaven. May it be your happiness, my dear sir, and mine, to follow, though at an humble distance, so bright a pattern. May we not be slothful, but followers of them who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises. I need not repeat how much I feel for your dear mother, and the whole bereaved family. It is, indeed, an irreparable loss; but such is the tenure of all earthly bliss. May we be enabled to lay hold on eternal life!

*

*

LXXV.

TO MRS. RYLAND.

ON THE DEATH OF DR. RYLAND.

Permit me, my dear madam, to express the deep sympathy I, in common with innumerable others, feel for you under your irreparable loss. The magnitude of it none can adequately estimate but yourself: but it is consoling to reflect, that you are not called to sorrow as those that have no hope; that, on the contrary, our loss is his unspeakable gain. And the time is short: a very few years will put an end to all our sorrows; and, if we are the Lord's, will reunite us to all those whom we have most loved upon earth.

As you have been highly distinguished by the blessing of possessing such a companion for life, so it is no inconsiderable honour to have contributed so essentially and so long to the felicity of the best of men. All who know you will ever respect you, not only as the relict of Dr. Ryland, but as the distinguished individual who entitled herself to his gratitude by such a series of unremitting attentions and kind offices

(the remembrance of which must be a source of melancholy pleasure) as will doubtless draw down a blessing from Him to whom he was dear. It is my earnest prayer, that the God who reveals himself as the father of the fatherless and the husband of the widow, may take you under his especial protection, and supply you with those rich and ineffable consolations which are neither few nor small. We have the word of Him that cannot lie, to assure us that "all things shall work together for good to them that love God," That you may feel more of his sustaining hand, and of his blissful presence, is, dear madam. the earnest prayer of

Your affectionate and sympathizing_Friend,

ROBERT HALL.

LXXVI.

TO MR. ARTHUR TOZER,* BRISTOL.

IN REFERENCE TO MR. HALL'S REMOVAL TO BROADMEAD.

My dear Friend,

Leicester, July 19, 1825, I am very sorry your kind letters have remained unanswered so long: it was the consequence of their arriving while I was absent from home. I did not arrive at Leicester till last Saturday, having staid at Kettering, in order to preach for the mission, which I did morning and evening.

The letters from you ought, in all reason, to have been sent forward; but this was impracticable, because my whole family were, at the same time, on an excursion for their health. I hope you will be so good as to accept this as a sufficient apology for my apparent neglect. Had I been guilty of any voluntary one towards a friend whom I so highly esteem, I should never forgive myself.

It is impossible for me to hear the favourable opinion which you and the rest of my friends entertain of me, without being deeply sensible of their kindness. I feel myself most unworthy of such an expression of their regard; the consciousness of which, while it enhances my gratitude, impairs my pleasure. Could I see my way clear to leave Leicester, I should still tremble at the thought of being placed in a situation in which I must necessarily sustain a comparison with your late beloved and lamented pastor.

In an affair of so much magnitude, I should wish to avoid whatever might wear the appearance of precipitance; and on that account, should the church at Broadmead see fit to give me an invitation to the pastoral office, I should wish to be allowed some time before I give a decisive answer. On some very obvious accounts I should prefer Bristol, perhaps, to any other situation; and the state of the church at Leicester

* Mr. Tozer was one of the deacons of the church at Broadmead

is far from being precisely as I could wish. Still the aspect of things is brightening; the clouds I trust are beginning to disperse; and an important step has already been taken towards the restoration of mutual confidence and affection. I feel at present inclined to believe it is my duty to stay at Leicester. I wish most earnestly to be directed from above, and that the few remaining years of my life (if any are allotted me) may be passed where they may best subserve the best of causes. I am not at all given to change: I have long fixed it in my mind that it was the design of Heaven that I shall finish my days here; and had nothing occurred to disturb our tranquillity, I should not have indulged a thought to the contrary. I do most earnestly bespeak an interest in your prayers, that my way may be directed of the Lord; and that "for me to live may be Christ, and to die gain."

Pecuniary considerations, as you suspect, will have little influence in guiding my determination. I beg to be most affectionately remembered to all inquiring friends, and remain, dear sir,

Your affectionate Friend and Brother,

LXXVII.

TO THE SAME.

ROBERT HALL.

My very dear Friend, Leicester, August 11, 1825. I should have sooner written to you but on two accounts; first, the almost ceaseless interruptions I have met with since my return from London, which have kept me in a perpetual hurry; and second, my inability, even at present, to give you the satisfaction you wish by a decisive answer. Sensible as I deeply am of the unmerited tokens of respect shown me by my Bristol friends, and solicitous if possible to comply with all their wishes, I still feel difficulties in the way, which I know not how to surmount. The church at Leicester is much agitated on the occasion, and have evinced great unanimity in their resolution to adopt the speediest and most effectual measures in order to remove the principal source of my uneasiness. There appears to be but one feeling pervading the church and congregation. What success may attend their efforts to restore peace God only knows; but should they be successful, I shall find it very difficult to separate myself from them. To inflict the pain it would occasion to many excellent persons and kind friends would cost me a conflict for which I feel myself little prepared. In truth, the motives for staying in my present situation, and the motives for relinquishing it, are so equally balanced, that I am kept still in a state of suspense; and am habitually under some appre→ hension, that whatever choice I make, I shall be apt to repent not having made an opposite one. It is certainly an humbling consideration, not to be able to come to a speedier decision; but I feel the weight of the affair, and that the consequences of it, both to myself and others.