A Letter To John Grace – September 6th, 1859
My dear friend, John Grace.
I thank you for your kind letter and offer to take a number of copies of my meditated little work on The Eternal Sonship of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I am sorry to say that my mind has been so much taken up with preaching and traveling, that I have not been able to give it that attention which it requires before I can send it forth. A subject of such importance requires great quietness of mind, seclusion, prayer, and meditation, which I cannot give it when wandering about on the King’s errands. I must return to the quietness of my own home, and get my mind, with God’s help and blessing, into a frame suitable to the subject, as I wish to enlarge what I have already written, to digest the materials more thoroughly, and to arrange them more orderly than I have yet done. Writing is not altogether like preaching. I often take my pen in my hand and cannot write a single line. The spring does not rise, and if this be not the case, the stream cannot flow. There is no use forcing the subject. It must come freely into the mind, and flow freely from the pen. Unless some savour or unction attends what is written, it will never touch the hearts of God’s saints, and there will be a lack of freedom in the communication itself. On such sacred subjects, great caution and holy wisdom are needful, and a close adherence to the very words of inspired truth, or some expression may be dropped contrary to the mind of the Holy Spirit.
I was glad to learn that you had been so well heard in Berks and Oxon. There are many gracious people in that neighbourhood, and I think that I had on the 28th, at Abingdon, one of the choicest congregations that met together anywhere that day, for we had a gathering of the Lord’s people for many miles in all directions. I have been a long time from home, all July and August; have seen many people, and preached to large congregations. There certainly is a great spirit of hearing in many places, but I fear that vital godliness is, for the most part, at a low ebb. It is rather difficult to reconcile the two things, as a spirit of hearing is generally connected with life and feeling in the soul; and I cannot doubt that there are many saints of God up and down the land, though one finds few whose souls are much favored and blessed.
Yours affectionately,
J. C. P.
Jesus is LORD! 
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