Robert Hall, Cambridge, to Thomas Langdon, Leeds, 29 April 1797.

. . .  Among the infelicities of my situation I never fail to reckon the want of more frequent opportunities of seeing my friend Langdon, whose kindness and constant regard are implanted on my heart in indelible characters of gratitude.  Could we not sometimes contrive to meet at some place, between Cambridge and Leeds?  I would willingly give you the meeting. . . . I am truly concerned you should be harassed with the inconveniences of a school, who are so well fitted by the benignity and generosity of your spirit, to adorn and enjoy an ample fortune.  But every situation in this life, you know, my dear friend, has a mixture of the pleasing and the painful.  The tranquillity of a single life is apt to degenerate into insipidity, and that of married persons to be ruffled with care.  The stream of existence with you flows in strong and rapid current, is varied by inequalities, and is full of anxieties and joys . . .  Village preaching has lately occupied much of my attention.  I regularly preach in some village every sabath night, unless I am prevented by illness.  The growing number and serious attention of the audience on these occasions is very encouraging: though I can say little at present of any decisive good having been done . . .  I was much delighted a few weeks since by my attendance at the Bedford Union, of which you have undoubtedly heard. It appears to me an admirable institution: I wish it were imitated in every part of the kingdom.  It would delight a heart like yours, to behold Dissenters, and Methodists, and Church people, and Moravians, blending together their affections, forgetting their differences, and uniting their endeavours to promote the great and common cause of Christianity . . .  Is not the growing harmony among different sects of Christians, the disposition to consider rather their points of correspondence than of disagreement, to be reckoned among the most pleasing appearances of the present time?  May we not augur from it the design of Providence to extend the boundaries and increase the prosperity of the Christian church. . . 

April 29th, 1797.

Text:  A Brief Memoir of the Rev. Thomas Langdon, Baptist Minister, of Leeds . . .  By his Daughter  (London: Baines & Newsome, 1837), 144-46.