A Letter To William Brown – October 31st, 1859
My dear friend, William Brown.
I still desire to sympathize with you in your present painful trial, and if I can do so better than some others, it is because I have had some experience of it, both in body and in mind. I remember feeling once so much the cares and anxieties of the ministry, as to wish I had never opened my mouth in the Lord’s name. But soon after this I was laid aside for some months by illness and great bodily weakness, and then I felt that the cares and burdens of the ministry were preferable to being laid aside from it; for if there were trials in it, there were also secret blessings. But in all these matters the Lord is a Sovereign, and does not consult our wishes or feelings, but His own glory, though at the same time, with all that wisdom and grace which shine forth so conspicuously in His blessed character, He overrules these trials to our eventual good. To use Mr. Newton’s figure, the mower is not idle when he is sharpening his scythe, though he is not cutting down the grass; and so the Lord may be sharpening your scythe, though at present you are not mowing the field.
It is with the soul as with the body. When we are asleep, and even resting after dinner, we are only gathering up strength for renewed exertions; and we know that our success and power in the pulpit depend much upon what we are out of it. If there be no prayer, no reading, no meditation, no exercise of mind upon the things of God, there is nothing gathered up which may be drawn out of the heart and mouth when standing up before the people. A rainwater tub, a tank, a pond soon become exhausted; but a brook, a river, a springing well, ever keep flowing on. And so, where the life of God is in the heart of a minister, it will not run itself out, but like the well of water spoken of by the blessed Lord, will spring up into everlasting life.
You must not think then and I hope that Satan will not tempt you to believe, either that all your work is done, or that you are doing nothing by being laid aside, I sincerely hope only for awhile. As you sit upon the shore, looking out on the ever restless sea, and inhaling the breeze which you find so beneficial, you may be secretly lifting up your heart to the God of all your mercies, and be deriving strength and consolation out of the fullness of the incarnate Son of God at the right hand of the Father. His eyes are ever upon the righteous, and His ears open to their cry; and He knows the way that you take. I need not recommend you to cast all your care upon Him, as He enables you to do, and beg of Him to do that which seems good in His sight. He can raise you up and strengthen your frame, which no doubt has been much debilitated by your long, long residence in the malaria of Godmanchester; and though the effects of the present change may be slow, they may not be less sure. I believe the damp air and soil of Stadham, where I was for nearly seven years in the Church of England, has affected my health up to the present hour, and therefore I know what injury a bad climate may work in undermining strength, or rather weakening the body so as to lay it open to the attack of other diseases.
I hope the Lord may guide you in this matter, and give you the wisdom which comes from above. I am, through mercy, pretty well, and still hobbling on in the work of the ministry.
Yours very affectionately,
J. C. P.
Jesus is LORD! 
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