WORDS FOR THE AFFLICTED

(The author of the great hymn, “Amazing Grace,” wrote the following in a letter to a friend who had been sick a long time.)  

I trust you will find the name and grace of Jesus more and more precious to you:  His promises more sweet, and your hope in them more abiding; your sense of your own weakness and unworthiness daily increasing; your persuasion of His all-sufficiency to guide, support and comfort you more confirmed.  You owe your growth in these respects, in a great measure, to His blessing upon those afflictions which He has prepared for you and sanctified to you.  May you praise Him for all that is past and trust Him for all that is to come.

Your humble servant, John Newton, April 13, 1776 A.D.

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