The GOSPEL TRUTH
LETTER OF

CHARLES G. FINNEY

1827

To John Frost

10 March 1827

 

[Extract copied in a letter from John Frost, George W. Gale, Noah Coe, and S. C. Aikin to Asahel Nettleton, dated Utica, May 7, 1827, published in the New-York Observer and reprinted in The Religious Intelligencer, 12 (New Haven: 5 January 1828), p. 499.]

 

Br. Finney wrote to us from Troy soon after we visited you, and expressed his conviction that your letter to Br. A. and Dr. Beecher's to Br. Beman ought to be published. His letter is dated, Troy, March 10. "You know that while you were here, an extract from Dr. B.'s letter was published. These extracts have been sent in all directions. The thing has become perfectly notorious, that Br. N. and B. and many others, are opposed to us; insomuch that one of the greatest opposers of religion, living at some distance from the city, says, 'We have all the New-England clergy on our side.' In the printed extract Br. Nettleton's letter to Br. Aikin, and Dr. Beecher's to Br. Beman are mentioned, and indeed the whole thing is unmasked before the world. So far as the ungodly are concerned, the thing can be no worse; and among the brethren they make as much use of the letters as if they were in print; and all this without giving us an opportunity to answer them. Now this thing cannot and must not be kept in the dark. The world and the church are substantially in possession of one side of the question. It is well that the proceeding has been thus far exparte. Let us read often and pray over the 13th I. Cor. If they come out in print 'tis well. If not and they continue to circulate their letters, &c. then, if it be thought necessary, we must print their letters and answer them."