Samuel Medley, London, to John Smallshaw, Sparling Street, Liverpool, 22 December 1792.

London 22d Dec.r 1792

My dear Brother and Sister Smallshaw

  In writing to many of my dear and much-loved friends in Liverpool as now absent from them—you both, as a peculiar part of that number must not be forgotten of or neglected by me     I trust I can say You are not in any sense so far as in my power    I daily think of you in my poor way   I daily pray for you—that the gracious Blessing Promise and Consolation of our God and Heavenly Father in Christ Jesus may be ever with You—that his Heavenly and Everlasting Arms may be underneath You and that the Banner of his Love may be ever over You—that You may thro Grace cleave to the Lord with purpose of heart—and so be enabled to look upward and to press forward and rejoice in hope of the Glory of God—And that tho You are now getting into years and so drawing towards the Evening of Life Yet You may find his Grace to be sufficient for You and his Strength to be made perfect in Your weakness—and that You may daily and universally come up from this wilderness looking to and living upon the Lord Jesus Christ as your Beloved and as Your friend—and this I trust thro Grace You know Him to be—and therefore You cannot nor will You part with him or give up or let go Your claim of or hold upon him   O my dear friends Christ and his Grace and Love are precious Realities—And will stand us instead when flesh and Heart fail us as they will do     O what an unspeakable mercy it is to be brought to some Experimental Knowledge of—Faith in—and Love to Him as an Able—Willing—Kind—Wise—Only—Faithful—Free Faithful Unchanging and Everlasting Savior And all this he is to his dear Children and People—well might the apostle Paul say of him what I trust You can and do say of him also—viz that he is—All and in all—It has pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell—And O it is Your great mercy and mine also my dear friends to believe out of and from his Blessed fullness and grace for grace and that we may do so we are Warranted Invited and Encouraged to Come Humbly and yet Boldly to his Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help us in everytime of Need—may we be made truly thankful for—and make both diligent and constant use both of the Word and of the Throne of Grace also—O may we love and delight in and find Blessing daily flowing to us from the Word of God and Prayer for I am well persuaded and assured that if thro Grace our Souls are truly alive to God we do not we cannot live without them—The Bible—and Prayer—are Heaven’s appointed means for the maintaining and strengthening the spiritual life and comfort of the Real Christian as I trust your souls find by happy Experience   I hope and pray this hasty Line may meet you both and all the dear children mercifully well—Accept my best Love to yourselves and present the same to them also—Tell Dear Hannah that I purpose if possible I can get time to drop her a line before I leave London—But my Engagements are very many in publick and I [am] almost always in a hurry while I am here in London—I have been very much indisposed since I have been here with a most violent cold thro the Goodness of God I have been of late considerably better tho not quite rid of it yet—my publick Labors here are many O that the Lord may Commend his gracious Blessing on my poor attempts for his Glory—I hope the good Lord feeds Your Souls with his Blessed word at home tho I am not with You—May You indeed be fed with it and truly grow thereby—till we reach to the Better Brighter world above and so are ever with the Lord   I hope to see you again soon if the Lord please by the first Sabbath in January I think of and pray for me that I may be returned to you in safety & peace and that we may rejoice in Christ Jesus and be mutual Comfort and Blessings to one another    My Son his Wife and Mrs Arthur join in kind respects to You all—Grace be ever with You   so prays

                           Yours most affectionately

                                             Sam Medley

Text: Timothy Whelan, Baptist Autographs in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, 1741-1845 (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2009), pp. 62-63 (annotated version); also Raffles Handlist, unlisted fascicle no. 367, John Rylands University Library of Manchester. John Smallshaw was a Liverpool ship-builder and member of Medley’s congregation at Byrom Street. His daughter, Elizabeth, married Medley’s son, Samuel, in 1818.Samuel Medley, Jr., (1769-1857), was a painter and a leading Baptist layman in London.