Letter

Scope and Content

From Samuel Warren in Macclesfield to Mary Fletcher in Madeley. Fletcher did not see Warren at the time of Conference as expected, so she is probably wondering what he has been doing. He has passed through such a time of trouble as he often felt would overwhelm him, but in fact it had the result of displaying the power of God to effect a deliverance.

About the beginning of June, Warren's dear wife Anne suffered a miscarriage. This resulted in bleeding that defied the ability of the doctors to control or stop. Occasional signs of improvement occurred, but to no lasting effect. Anne was confined to her bed for about nine weeks and her condition worsened until it appeared on occasion that death was immiment. Warren is unable to describe his feelings at this meloncholy time. However, just when all hope seemed lost, the Lord 'raised her from "the doors of the shadow of death!". Warren had reconciled himself to accept the will of God - and at that moment, but not before; 'the Lord applied the following passage with uncommon power, and from that time, when all besides despaired of life, I could plead in faith - 2 Cor[inthians] 1-9,10. Daily and hourly, it was corroborated by numerous passages ... such as "The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise her up" - "By faith - women received their dead raised to life again" ... '

After two or three days, all human hope was abandoned. However, Warren remained so confident that God had spoken to him, that even when all his religious friends begged him to abandon hope, he was able to reply that he knew she would recover. 'When a little while after, as they were all kneeling round her bed, in death-like silence, watching the last symptoms of dissolving nature, and I nearest to her head - her eyes became fixed and clouded with a whitish film, her countenance completely deathlike, and at length, her lower jaw dropped, and breathless she lay, to the judgement of all who were present, a corpse. Just before these last symptoms came on, she just articulated, so I could understand, "If I recover, it will be by your prayer". When she had been in the above situation for some time, such an agony of prayer came upon me, as I never felt in my life before ... I fetched a deep sigh as though my spirit would have departed; and to my astonishment, at the same instant, she partook of the same; at the interval of a few moments, a second; a third ... at length, she opened her eyes ... and I was prompted by the spirit of God to take hold of her hand, and use the following words, "In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, my dear, rise up", which with a little assistance, she did ... from that moment, she has been gradually recovering, for over two months. She is at present in the country, at her sisters for the benefit of her health.' In her last letters, Anne says that she is in excellent health and that all she feels now is a slight pain in her gut, which is decreasing daily.

The above are only the general outlines of this extraordinary case.