File 1: Hassall family, correspondence, volume 1, pp. 1-690, 1796-1854: No. 019
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you are engaged in a most exalted work, you have had the [countenance?] of very valuable persons, all this may rather tend to fan the sparks of pride, which no good man is without; but then you have much to ballance all this. A sense of your own insufficiency; the dangers & self-denial of a long voyage; the difficulties to be incremental when you get to the Islands, before you can expect to be useful; these and many other things will, I trust, keep you low in your own eyes, & keep you near to the Lord Jesus, whose [fulness?] alone can supply all your wants, & give you perseverance for years to come. You must have the patience of the husbandman, mentioned by St James, waiting long for the precious fruit of the earth, till he receive the early & latter rain. And be assured of this, that whether little or much success attend your endeavours, your labour, as yourselves shall not be in vain in the Lord.
What you heard respecting my having thoughts of leaving Coventry, is true. Preaching thrice a day & various
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other labours in so large a congregation, are too much for my constitution & I think I can serve the cause of God, and particularly in the affairs of the Missionary Society, more extensively in London. But as yet this is not determined. I hope and pray the Lord will direct me for the best. I know it will be a great trial to many if I leave them & therefore it will be a trial to me; but if I can be more useful & comfortable elsewhere; I trust the Lord will provide well for them. Whether I go or not, I wish you to write to me & direct for me at Mr Wilson's, Wood Street, Cheapside, London, which will find me whether at London or Coventry.
My christian love to your wife, to Mr Micklewright, to the Surgeon, & to all the Missionaries, & particularly to Captain Wilson. Mrs Burder also unites in love to you & wife & so would all friends here if they knew of my writing.
I remain in everlasting bonds of christian love
Yr sincere friend & brother
Geo. Burder
We shall often remember you
but especially on the first monday evening of the month at 7 oçlock