A Letter To Mrs Peake – January 2nd, 1865

My dear Friend, Mrs. Peake,

As the Lord, we hope, has brought Mr. Knill among you, you will now have, as a church and people, to watch and wait for what He may speak to your hearts by His servant. You and all our dear friends who know something experimentally of the kingdom of God, which is not in word but in power, will be looking out and feeling for the power which may rest upon his Word; and if he feels the power and blessing of God in his soul and ministry, and the Lord’s people find and feel the same, it will be a confirming evidence that the Lord has sent him among you. I do hope that he may be more blessed in the calling and comforting of the Lord’s people than I was, and that there may be a union of esteem, love, and affection between him and the people. No doubt there will be trials, and you will have to bear and forbear with one another’s infirmities; but if the blessing of God be in your midst, everything else will be of little account. May the Lord keep you as a church and people from any root of bitterness which, springing up, may trouble you. . . . It is not for us, if we are oppressed, to fight our own battles. It is best to leave these matters with the Lord, who has promised to make every crooked thing straight. . . .

In my long observation of the people of God, and I may add, also in my own experience, I have seen that the Lord does not usually or often thus lead His people. It is, I know, a very delicate and difficult point, as your late dear husband has often felt and said, to distinguish between real divine leadings and impressions upon the mind. All these circumstances teach us to watch and wait, and see what the outcome of such things may be. I see that, in Scripture, much is said of a sober and sound mind (See 1 Thess. 5:6-8; 1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:8; 2:4; 1 Pet. 1:13; 4:7; 5:8; 2 Tim. 1:7). This sobriety of mind, especially when it springs from being sobered by afflictions, trials, and temptations, and by the solemn dealings of the Lord with the soul, is a blessed preservative, not only from levity and frivolity in the things of God, but also from delusion and enthusiasm.

We see sometimes how easily some who, we hope, fear God are lifted up and cast down by some transient impulse. There is nothing weighty, spiritual, or broken in their communication; but a wildness, and very often a vain, confident, presumptuous assurance, which finds no entry into a heart exercised with divine teaching. How narrow is the path that lies between truth and error, the teaching of the Spirit and the delusions of the flesh. We may well say of it, in the language of Hart—”The distinction is too fine for man to discern; therefore let the Christian ask direction of his God.” How continually, at all times and under all circumstances, we need to be looking up to the Lord Himself to teach, guide, and lead us. And have we not His own gracious promise that, if we acknowledge Him in all our ways, He will direct our paths? “I will guide you with My eye.”

You were not the only person who has objected to my answer on the wrapper of the Gospel Standard; but I think perhaps it has been a little misunderstood. It has been thought from it, that I hold with the practice of what is called ‘blessing children’. This is not the case, for I see many evils attending it, though not wrong in itself could it be done in the fear of the Lord. But my main object was to testify against that spirit which will not allow the least deviation from our own path. For instance, Mr. Covell does two things which I never have done, and which, I dare say, if I had attempted to do at Oakham, it would have caused a stir. 1. He returns thanks for women after childbirth, and asks for a blessing upon mother and offspring. 2. He prays, and often at some length, for our children, begging of the Lord to bless them, and if it be His will, manifest them as His.

Now this does not offend my ear, though I never do it myself, and have often refused to do the first in London. Now suppose that without any public ceremony, for my remarks were more addressed to private than public prayer—but suppose that a gracious couple, having had a child born to them, should in simplicity and godly sincerity kneel down before the Lord, and ask Him to bless the babe, mentioning it by its new name, could that be condemned? And suppose that their pastor were to kneel down with them, thank the Lord for His mercy unto them, and call the babe by the name which its parents had given it, with a petition for the Lord’s blessing upon it—must that be summarily cut off and cut down as a work of the flesh? It is what I never did myself, but it was rather my carnality than my spirituality to which it might be attributed. This then was the point at which I aimed—not to tie up matters of this kind with our own string; but to allow good men a liberty of action where the Scripture did not condemn it. All this is quite different from infant sprinkling.

Yours very affectionately in the Lord,
J. C. P.