The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-06-18 00:00:00

ADDRESS.

" Liverpool, sth June, 1844.
" Rev. and dear Sir,—'We, the members of your con-
gregation whose names are hereunto attached, request
your kind acceptance of the accompanying service of
plate, as a testimony of our affectionate esteem for von
as our Minister in Christ, and of our gratitude for that
faithfulness with which your Heavenly Master has ena-
bled you, from the first hour of your coming amongst us,
to declare in all its fulness the Gospel of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ ; and which many of us, and many
now no more, hut whose memories are dear to us, have
indeed found to be the power of God unto salvation.
" The circumstances which have now given rise to an
expression of our sentimen►s, so gratifying to ourselves,
are briefly these. At the close of the month of January
last, a letter was addressed to our respected churchwar-
den, Mr. Tollitr, of which the following is an abstract :
" Liverpool, Jan. 29th, 1814.
" Sir,—Although I am unknown to you. I am a very old
member of St. Michael's Church. and I may not be long spared
to hear the Word of God explained. I wish, therefore, before
my last change shall come, a small token of my gratitude to
be given to our excellent and worthy minis'er, the Rev. Henry
Carpenter, for his faithfulness in preaching the Gospel of Christ,
our only Saviour and Redeemer, as the way, he truth. and the
life.' I know many wish to give their shillings.' • I think all
the money you can get should he put into a purse, and then
presented by you to Mr. Carpenter, as a small token of his
people's love for his zeal for Go i's glory and the salvation of
-inners." I enclose half a five-pound note, and shall send the
other half as soon as I find you have begun the good work,
which I pray the Lord may prosper.'
" • I remain, sir, with sincerity,
" • A VERY OLD MRMBISR.'

" This excellent letter was followed in the course of
February by another, enclosing a further sum of £5 for
the same purpose. Some delay arose in the first instance
in carrying into effect the object of the letter, from an
unsuccessful endeavour to discover its author. Thus it
has only been within a few weeks that the subject has
been brought nnder the notice of your people.
" In uniting with the writer of these letters, we heartily
adopt his sentiments as our own ; and it is our earnest
prayer that you may be long spared to minister amongst
us an unadulterated Gospel, stedfastly to maintain, at a
time of much apostacy, the faith once delivered to the
saints,' and those pure principles of our national evan-
gelical church, for which her revered martyrs poured out
their blood even unto death.
" We cannot conclude this address, sir, without ex-
pressing our sympathy in Mrs. Carpenter's leng,hened
illness, and our happiness that she is in some measure
restored to health and usefulness. May her valuable life
be long continued to her family and friends.
" Finally, we would say, reverend and dear sir, the
Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given
thee of the Lord God of Israel.'
" We remain, reverend and dear sir,
" Faithfully and affectionately yours,
" On behalf of the subscriners,
(Signed) " JOHN romArr, Churchwarden,
"To the Rev. Henry Carpenter, Minister
of St. Michael's Church."
ANSWER.

" St. Michael's, June sth, 1844.

" My dear Friends,—lt is with feelings of no ordinary
gratification I receive the affectionate address which you
have this evening so kindly presented to me. For your
expressions of regard for myself personally, I hope, I feel
thankful ; but, I freely own, I feel still more thankful
for the testimony, which this address affords, of your
approval of the great truths of the Gospel, to teach which
has ever been the object of my ministry among you. To
a minister of Christ seeking to save ,those that hear
him,' it will be at all times a source of-gratification to
know that his flock entertain a just value for the distin-
guishing doctrines of the Gospel. But in days like the
present, when doctrines, repudiated by our church, are
taught with much confident assertion indeed, but with
no scriptural proof, it is doubly gratifying to know that
almost all the laity of our church reject these dangerous
novelties, and are resolved to stand by those principles of
Protestant truth, of which, fur three centuries, the church
of this nation has been the best bulwark and the most
distinguished guardian. That you, my dear friends,
share in this jealousy for the maintenance (to adopt your
own expression) of an unadulterated Gospel, is and will
be a subject of rejoicine with me. In this lam not, I
hope, actuated by anythinc, so insignificant as a paltry
party spirit (from which I desire ever to keep clear), but
by the high and solemn consideration, that Gospel rrut hi ,
as enunciated by our Reformers, is the great anol on y
instrument for sanctifying and saving the soul of man.
Where such interests are at stake, every faithful shepherd
erd
t willshaic
hispeotrpulethd.elisbeurcahtejloyyeyxopurer dsastdhreet
sr s at.o f
"The letter you introduce into your address, and which
th
ermevjeerniitienetgoo when
evangelical
has
awakened within me.
gave rise to your present kindness, is to me peculiarly
pleasing ; because it seems to proceed from one who has
derived profit from the preaching of the Gospel. I hope
we may yet come to be acquainted with the name of this
unknown friend, that 1 may tender to him the same
thanks I now offer to yourselves for your generous and
costly present, and the affectionate expressions with
which it is accompanied.
" I shall prize your gift for its beauty and intrinsic
value, but far more shall I prize it as a memorial of your
undeserved kindness to myself, and of your affection for
the scriptural truths, which, for more than seven years,
I have endeavoured by the grace of God to inculcate
among you.
" For your expressions of sympathy in reference to
Mrs. Carpenter's health, accept, my dear friends, her
thanks and my own. We trust that this recent and
unlooked-for demonstration of kindness on your part,
will excite a livelier concern in both our minds for your
temporal and spiritual welfare, and that the substantial
record of your affection we have this day received will
serve as an incentive to bind us, and our children after
us, in firm attachment to evangelical truth, as the sure
basis of personal, domestic, and national happiness in this
life, as well as of everlasting happiness in the life to come.
That ' the truth as it is in Jesus' may become increasingly
precious to you all, and that you may all know from
happy experience that it is the power of God unto salva-
tion, is the fervent and united prayer of us both.
" And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to
the Word of his grace, which is able to build you up,
and to give you an inheritance among all them which are
sanctified. (Acts, xx. 32.)
" Believe me, my dear Friends, your affectionate Minister,
" HENRY CARPENTER."