Caleb Evans, Bristol, to Mary Steele, Broughton, [Saturday] 12 December 1778.

  Bristol Dec:r 12. 1778.

      I am more oblig’d to my amiable friend for her acceptable letter than I can easily tell her. It gave me unspeakable pleasure.  For tho’ you tell me I have too high an opin:n of your relig:s charact:r, I can assure you y.r letter did not make me have a lower.  Don’t think I flatter you, I am sure I do not mean to do it, for relig:s  flattery is surely ye worst of all, it adds impiety to mean:s.  But my D.r Friend, you must not forget that ’tis as probable, at least, that you may have too low an opin:n of your relig:s state, as that I should have too high an one.  All I wish is to call forth y.r every power to lay hold of him who alone can support and comfort you, not only under your present sorrow, but under every afflic:n you can feel or fear, mak:g you amidst all, as y.r dear deceased Aunt emin:y was, a conquer:r, and more than a conqueror.  I was much pleas’d with ye follow:g sentence in ye lett:r of a persecuted imprison’d Minister – “We are too ready to tremble at the tho’t of the worst that may befall us, rather than to rej:e at the prospect of the part that God can do for us.”  We don’t know what God can do for us, till we are put to the trial.  Sylvia – give thy mind sea room – weigh Anchor – make ye port of heaven.  There y.r best frds & kindred dwell – & there sh:d you, in hope & strong des:r, dwell also.  Don’t wander up & down in this world, in infidel distr:s, as tho’ you imagin’d this w.s to h.v been y.r rest,  & y.t here you & y.r beloved friends were to have found a perman:t abode---but remem:r – noth:g is dead but y.t which wish’d to die – and let this rej:e you – tho’ y.r Theodos: shall no more come to you, you shall go to her.  But you doubt this? Don’t indulge ye doubt for a moment.  If it be just, enquire into ye ground of it, and O my Sylvia, rest not till it is removed.  Can there be any room for doubt, when you view the extens:v rich grace y.t shines forth in the promis:s of ye gospel – unl:s it be, from y.r own disesteem of th:s  promis:, and indiff:e ab:t an int: in y.m?  And will you own such a disesteem, such an indiffer:e?  You cann:t. Your own heart would reproach you if you did.  Say, did you not adm:r not only ye Genius of y.r beloved Aunt, but also her devotion? Don’t you emul:t her relig:s charac:r, as y.t which would be your great:r hon.r & felic:y?  Don’t you long to be a follower of her, & with her & all ye redeemed, at length to inherit ye promis:s? And are all these vain desires – No – they spring from God – & they will lead you to him.  This is ye effect I long to see accomplished in all it’s fulln:s. O Sylvia – trust in ye Lord with all y.r heart – don’t be a follower afar off – but beg of God to give you strength humbly to knock at ye door of his Church below, that y.r happy admittance here, may be a kind of pleasing anticipation of y.r happier admittance to ye Church triumph.t above.  Why sh.d you tarry?  Are you unwilling to be wholly the Lord’s? Or can you expect to walk more safely or move comfortably out of ye ways of his appointm:t than in them? My Sylvia, my friend, my Theodosia’s friend & beloved relat:v – I know not how to take a denial – I am fulfill:g ye will of ye Deceased in ye importunity I  use with you – this w.s one of ye Subj: on which we convers’d – I want to see you, may I so speak, married unto ye Lord – unreservedly, heartily, affec:y devoted to him.[ii]  And y.r felic:y, y.r great:r comfort, & advancement in the div:e life, is all I aim at.  May ye Lord incline you to fulfil my joy! Noth:g can heal y.r wounds but ye balm of religion, and where can we expect to find this balm, but und.r ye gr.t Physic:s eye? Tis y.r hon.r & y.r happin:s, Sylvia, to h.v had such a relat:v – & y.r mercy to h.v enjoy’d her so long, & lov’d her so much – w.t remains, to compl:t y.r felic:y, but to tread in her steps here, & to spend a blissful etern:y with her, hereaft:r.  Pardon my weak attempts to counsel & comfort you, & ye Lord grant they may n.t be wholly in vain!

   When I first began this lett:r, I hop’d to have wrote somew:t more to ye purpose – but such & so freq.t are my interrupt:s, y.t I find I must write as I can, or not at all.  Sylvia will overlook my defects, & accept my good intent:s.  The Sabbath aft.r I heard of y.r D.r Aunt’s decease, I endeav: to infer:e her dying words – I know yt my redeem:r liveth – & tho’ it is as plain & unadorned a discourse as I ever deliv’d, yet I sh.d offer Sylvia a transcript of it, as I kn:w she w.d esteem every memor:l of her Theodosia – were it not y.t I am confid:t she has already heard a much bett:r disc:s upon ye S.m Subj:t from M.r Kent, as well as ano:r upon a chosen text, from M.r Lewis.  Yet still, if Sylvia h.v a des:r to peruse my little effus:n upon ye occas:n, it shall cert:y be transmitted to her with all conven:t speed, und:r ye prom:s of shew:g it to no one but her hon.d Fath:r & Moth:r who will read it with eq.l indulg.e with herself.  

   Should you indulge me with ano:r letter, I shall rec:v it with gratitude, & esteem it an honor to enjoy y.r correspond:e.  My d.r wife joins in affec.t salutations, with

                                                         y.r sympathetic sinc:r frd,

                                                                     C Evans

P.S. I desir’d M.r T. to write to you, bec:s I know he could do it much bett:r than I could – & I am happy to find his lett.r was acceptable.

Text: STE 5/16/ii, Steele Collection, Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford.  Mary Steele, much to her aunt’s (and Evans’s) dismay, had never settled her "election"; she would not present herself for admission to the Baptist church at Broughton until 1795.