A Letter To Joseph Tanner – August 22nd, 1860
My dear Friend Mr. Tanner,
I have been glad that you have been able in some measure to overcome the restraint which you have felt, I think I may say without reason, in writing to or conversing with me. I am sure there is no reason why you should feel it, though I believe there may be something in my natural manner which prevents people whom I really esteem and love from speaking to me as freely as they do to others. I have seen for many years so much profession in people and so little vital godliness that it has made me suspicious of nearly all, and I have received so many wounds from professing friends that it has made me very cautious in what I say, as I have found my words caught up and turned against me. The only thing that I want to see in persons who make a profession is the fear and grace of God; and though there are great differences in my feeling for and affection towards such, yet I hope I can say that I truly desire to esteem and love all who fear and love God.
In the very first teachings which I had of the wisdom from above, the value and blessedness of the grace of God as a felt experimental reality were deeply impressed upon my heart; and as the necessary consequence of this the real emptiness of everything else. Thus I do not value people on account of what they may possess of natural gifts or abilities, but what they possess by the teaching of God in their soul. I cannot express in the limits of a letter what my feelings are upon this subject, and upon one very closely allied to it, that is, the indispensable qualifications of a minister of Christ; and what I must see in and feel towards a man before I can recognize him in my own conscience as a Christian or as a minister. From having read my writings in the Gospel Standard and elsewhere, you know more of my mind in these matters than I can know of yours; but I must say that all I have seen in or heard of you has led me much to esteem you, and that I felt much union of spirit with you in the little conversation that we had the other day at Calne.
Yours in the best bonds,
J. C. P.
Jesus is LORD! 
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