Robert Hall, Leicester, to Olinthus Gregory, Woolwich [copy sent to John Ryland, Jr., in Bristol], 2 November 1815.

Leicester Novr 2. 1815

My dear Friend,

  I have just received your letter, and cannot lose a moment in expressing the deep sympathy I take in the affliction arising from the melancholy tidings it announces.  Alas!  my dear friend Boswell Beddome – my eyes will see thee no more!  The place which once knew thee will know thee no more!  How many delightful hours have I spent in thy society, hours never more to return!  That countenance beaming with benevolence & friendship will be beheld no more until the Resurrection morn, when it will rise to view radiant with immortal brightness and beauty.  How [?] and solemn the visitations of Death in that amiable & most respectable family the Beddomes!  What awful reversal & catastrophes.  Surely their Heavenly father must have destined them to some destinguished station in the eternal edifice with whom he has taken so much pains in hewing, cutting and polishing.  The dealings of God towards our dear Boswell have been at once severe and tender and never perhaps are the preparations of mercy to be traced more visibly than in the events which have recently befallen him.  The faculties are extinguished for a while to be restored and [?] resumption; as though God had determined to recast his whole nature into a crucible previous to its being poured into the mould of Eternity.  I have been delighted to hear from various quarters and particularly from Mr Alexander of the sweet tranquil state of his mind subsequent to his first attack and flattered myself with the hope of his life being protracted to a distant period.  But God’s ways are not as our ways nor his thoughts as our thoughts.  After purifying our dear friend in the furnace of affliction, he was fit to cut short his work in righteousness.  Be assured my dear Sir, I deeply sympathize with you and dear Mrs Gregory both in your joys and sorrows on the present occasion.  You have to sing of mercy and of Judgment.  The loss of such a Parent must be long and deeply regretted; but there is so much to console and elevate in this event taken in all its bearings that the tears you shed partake of the nature of a tender triumph.  Our dear friend has reached the goal and gained the prize which we are still doomed to pursue with anxiety & toil.  May we my dear friend be quickened in our progress by this most impressive event, and learn more effectually than ever to desire the one thing needful

Robert Hall

Text:  OSG.95B, box A, Bristol Baptist College, Bristol.