Birmingham, Sunday, 6 o'clock.
I JUST received them, my dear son and true yokefellow, and am amazed at the tidings. Many an earnest petition, and silent tear, have I dropped in my little study, for a beam from Jordan to enlarge the place, which is too strait for us; and he that answers by terrible things in righteousness, shows himself to be God when he answers by fire. God will repair the damages that the chapel has sustained; and when it is repaired it shall never be insured by me in any other office than that of Heaven. I believe that the Lord was in the fire, and I trust he will be in the pockets of the people to displace, or replace both the beam and the rafters; so that the stone shall not cry out of the wall, nor the beam out of the timber answer it, for the want of short stuff.
I hope you will not be vain enough to think, that you have got all the fire in Titchfield Street; we have God a little at Birmingham, and we are compassing ourselves about with it, and hope as it is an hallowed flame that it will never go out. May the living coal, and the cloven tongue, ever be with thee, my son: while I remain in love and affection,
Ever thine in the bowels of Christ.
W. HUNTINGTON.
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