London, December 17, 1793

DEAR SIR,

IF I do not thank you immediately, I shall perhaps have to double my apology. The truth is, that before I can write one letter, I receive two, some of which must be answered directly. So that I am likely always to be sadly behind hand; and my promptness and agility in despatching business does not increase with my years. I believe I have now more than fifty unanswered by me; so that if I am more tardy than I could wish in paying what I owe to you, I must beg you to accept the will for the deed.

You thank me for sending Mr. A*** and Mr. F***, and I thank you for the kindness you shewed them at my recommendation. I did not doubt but they would recommend themselves when once introduced. I take the liberty to constitute you my agent at Edinburgh, and shall not scruple to make you more remittances in this way, when in my power. I hope I shall send you none but what will be worth your acceptance. I likewise solicit your agency in return, and shall gladly receive all whom you recommend. My love to Mr. S***; I shall be glad to see him again: but he must tell me his name, for I have already lost the idea of his person. I see many people, and my head is more than 68 years old.

My heart went a little pit-a.pat when I read about your famous convention. I am thankful they are dispersed. If sin does not give success to their designs, they are too wild and visionary to succeed. But the Lord when displeased can execute his judgments by improbable means. Sin can fan a small spark into a fierce and wide spreading flame. But as his gospel is spreading, as the number of his praying people are not few, and as he has lately appeared for us more than once, I hope that though we may be chastened, we shall not be destroyed. At the worst, they who trust in him have no just cause to fear, “though the earth were shaken, and the mountains should sink into the sea” — and he expressly tells us not to be terrified “when we hear of wars and tumults.” Psal. xlvi. 1, 2. rxii. 7. Luke xxi. 9.

When we really feel our need of a revival, it is a sign that we are already in a measure revived. The grand symptom of a decline is insensibility. When Ephraim has gray hairs (the mark of the leprosy, Lev. xiii. 20 — 25.) here and there upon him, and knoweth it not, Hosea vii. 9. But indeed we all need reviving in our persons, families, religious societies, and in the nations. We pray for it, and perhaps the Lord is about to answer our prayers, by the very things which we are afraid of. The building of the wall may be carried on most prosperously, in ti’oublous times. And whatever report flesh and sense may make, faith will allow, that those must be the best times, when the best cause flourishes most. It is to be hoped that many have been taught by famine, sword or pestilence, after they had long heard the gospel in vain.

I could tattle on, but my time will not permit.

My love to Mr. A*** and to Mr. F***. I thank the latter for his letter, and hope to write? to him before it comes in his turn; but I cannot yet.

The 15th December falling this year on the Lord’s day, I preached a sort of second funeral sermon from 1 Pet. i. 24, 25. O that word of the Lord! It is a balm for every wound, a substitute for every loss! But for this word, I had sunk and perished in my affliction. But though I was happy with her, I am not unhappy without her. Praise the Lord on my behalf, and continue to pray for me; I will, as I am enabled, repay you in the same way.

The Lord bless you in body, soul, and spirit, and in your affairs and connexions. Amen. I am

Your assured and obliged friend,
J. N.