A wonderful 2pp autograph letter entirely in the hand of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. This is from a sequence of correspondence lately discovered wherein Spurgeon, who was preaching 5-10 times per week at this point, was in his "spare" time, assembling a volume of engravings and prints relative to the Reformation, Puritans, Covenanters, and Huguenots to have bound and placed in his home so that when friends were visiting, he might take a few moments to talk to their children about the history of the Church in a way that was visually interesting.
It is moving to me and I think says something of his true pastoral heart that he thought in this manner. It also seems from this letter he may have been contemplating either a publication or an exhibition, though perhaps he simply references the children's table book he had been working on.
He seems particularly interested in Calvin's withholding of the Lord's Supper from the antinomians / libertines. He likely references the image included in the present listing [not present with the letter].
The present reads, in full:
"24 January, 1883
Dear Friend,
You exceed in kindness. I have heard from Geneva of a plate which I have not, viz, Calvin refusing the cup to the Libertines. I am also trying for an engraving of 'Preaching in the Desert,' & I am in good hope of getting it at Nimes. It may be some time before I feel my collection can be used, but I shall peg away at it. I have thought of finding an artist to increase in size some of the small but precious things in the German Luther you so kindly sent me. This would be expensive and I would do it by degrees.
Should you hear of anything I should be glad to purchase it. I have a friend hunting up old prints in Edinborough.
A thousand thanks both from me and from Mrs. Spurgeon for the £21 rec'd to be divided as you direct.
God bless you in His own divine manner.
Yours gratefully,
C. H. Spurgeon"