Robert Hall, Leicester, to Mrs. Thomas Langdon, Leeds, 23 October 1824 [just after Thomas Langdon's death].

My dear Madam,

  The melancholy intelligence of the death of Mr. Langdon has deeply affected me, and most happy should I deem myself were it in my power to adminster effectual consolation under such a stroke.

  I refrained from addressing you immediately, waiting for the first transports of grief to subside, because I wellknow that premature attempts to console only irritate the sorrows they are meant to heal.  Let me indulge the hope that by this time reason and religion have come to your aid, and that you are prepared to say with the greatest and most illustrious of sufferers, “even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.” The remarkable combination of the most lovely qualities, with the most fervent piety, which distinguished the character of our dear friend, while they enhance the sense of your loss, will, I hope, mitigate its bitterness in another view by assuring you that great is his reward in Heaven.  Death to him is undoubtedly exceeding great gain, nor would you in your best moments wish to draw him from his elevated abode to this vale of sorrow and affliction.  The stroke was not entirely sudden and unexpected; a long series of attacks and infirmities must no doubt have contributed to familiarize your mind to the event.  Remember, my dear Madam, the time is short, the separation is but for a season; our dear friend is not lost, but preferred to a infinitely higher state, where he is awaiting your arrival.  To me his removal will long be a source of deep regret, for where shall I find a friend equally sincere, tender, and constant?  With respect to my coming to preach the funeral sermon, I must beg you to excuse me on several accounts. . . . Whoever preaches the funeral sermon for our departed friend should by all means print it; now, such is my invicible reluctance to printing my performances, that the probability is that you and the rest of his dear friends would be deprived of this gratification were I to preach it. .  . . Conscious of these impediments, our dear friend, during his life time, at my request, formally discharged me from this office.  I beg to be most affectionately remembered to each of your dear children, earnestly praying that their father’s God may be their God.  Wishing and praying that you may be favoured with the richest consolations of religion,

  I remain, dear Madam,

  Your affectionate friend,

R. Hall

Oct. 23rd, 1824.

Text: Brief Memoir of the Rev. Thomas Langdon, Baptist Minister, of Leeds . . .  By his Daughter  (London: Baines & Newsome, 1837), 107-09.