Friday October 2, 2015

A Letter From Dr. Doudney

D. A. Doudney

St. Luke’s Vicarage, Totterdown, Bristol, July 31st, 1890.

    My dear Friend, – I have been looking anxiously for the “Christian’s Monthly Record,” with the hope of learning therefrom how you are.  I find you are still a sufferer.  May the Lord still strengthen and support.

    I was much disappointed at not seeing you when I called.  But for the hope of having a few minutes with you, I don’t think I should have gone to Brighton upon that occasion.  I shall never forget the effect of your call upon me that forenoon when I was so sadly, and had left word, when I went to my study, that I was not to be disturbed.  The few minutes, however, that I had with you and your dear wife had a much happier effect upon me than any medicine I could have taken would have had, and this simply upon the ground of brotherly love and the healing of any little breach that might have existed.  And how sweet is this, my dear friend, down here, in this poor changing world, where we shall never see eye to eye in all the details and ministries.  It is by-and-bye, up there, we shall be all of one heart and one mind.  I often think of your dear father and dear old John Warburton, and their standing aloof from each other for some three or four days, the one at length going to the other with, “Brother, what fools we have been;” the other replying with, “Brother, what fools we are.”  How that saying has spoken to my heart hundreds of times; for I suppose few are more familiar with inward conviction and vexed feelings than I.  But, O, to what bondage and captivity does such a state of mind lead.

My dear wife and I have been so wonderfully refreshed to-day in reading your dear father’s sermon in the August “Standard.”  What simplicity!  What honesty!  What depth of teaching!  How sound and scriptural!  O!  Where have we such a testimony in our day?  How is such preaching despised and set at nought.  How anxious was your dear father to promote “the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”  How well do I recollect that I once heard him state, in Gower Street pulpit, about a little difference between him and your mother causing him to retire to bed without prayer or speaking to one another.  In the night they were aroused by a knocking at the door, to state that the house had been broken into.  At once your dear father felt condemned for the spirit in which he had retired to rest; but the Lord was so pitiful and so gracious that the stolen articles were all recovered.  The thief or thieves had left them in the next street.

    My dear friend, do forgive me for saying I wish you had given us some remembrance of past scenes or present experiences than enter upon controversial matters again.  Let it drop.  You and those with whom you now differ upon minor points will soon meet before the throne; and if regret could be felt in that happy region, it would be that there had been the semblance of falling out by the way.  With warmest Christian love to yourself and dear Mrs. Gadsby,

Affectionately yours,

D. A. Doudney.

Wednesday June 22, 2016

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By Lachlan Macenzie

Monday May 2, 2016

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By Katharina von Schlegel, b. 1697

Saturday March 12, 2016

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By WILLIAM WILEMAN

Wednesday March 2, 2016

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Wednesday March 2, 2016

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Wednesday March 2, 2016

Cheerful Piety – Letter II

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Wednesday March 2, 2016

Cheerful Piety – Letter III

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Wednesday March 2, 2016

Cheerful Piety – Letter IV

By John Berridge