Auburn Friends

“God does not have problems. Only plans,” proclaimed Corrie ten Boom when a clerical error allowed her to be released from a Nazi concentration camp one week before all women prisoners her age were executed.
After being released from the horrors of Ravensbruck, Corrie continued to live in reliance on God, just as her family had as they hid Jews from Nazi terror. Traveling the world as an ambassador of the power of forgiveness in Christ, Corrie later established rehabilitation centers to help other Holocaust survivors. Her 1971 autobiography, "The Hiding Place", has inspired many people to see God at work through the darkest of life’s circumstances.
Recorded October 9, 2016

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CS Lewis (1898 – 1963), known to his friends as Jack, is best known as the author of The Chronicles of Narnia, but he is also noted for his other works of fiction, such as The Screwtape Letters and The Space Trilogy, and for his non-fiction Christian apologetics, including Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain.

Lewis was a close friend of JRR Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings. Both men served on the English faculty at Oxford University. Lewis fell away from his faith during adolescence but was converted at the age of 32, owing to the influence of Tolkien and other friends, and he became an “ordinary layman of the Church of England”. Lewis’s faith profoundly affected his work, and his wartime radio broadcasts brought him wide acclaim.
[Recorded March 26, 2023)

"I aim to speak plain truths to a plain people! May it please the God of all grace, to accompany my feeble endeavors to promote the knowledge of His truth! If my letters are owned to comfort the afflicted, to quicken the careless, to confirm the wavering — I will rejoice." - John Newton
John Newton, well known as the author of the song, Amazing Grace, was radically changed by the Lord Jesus Christ and became an outstanding witness to that grace that never ceased to amaze him. From his letters we come to know a man of great humility and wisdom, and though written some 250 years ago, they continue to comfort and encourage those who take the time to read them.
These readings are from the edition of letters edited by Josiah Bull and first published in 1869.
Concerning Mrs. Dawson, the editor writes:
Mrs. Dawson was educated at Northampton by Mrs. Trinder, whose school had at that time attained a deserved eminence. Many ladies afterwards known in the religious world, received their first serious impressions under Mrs. Trinder's judicious training.
Mr. Newton was a frequent visitor at the house, and his addresses to the young people were greatly appreciated by them. It was probably here that he first became acquainted with Miss Flower.
In 1782, Miss Flower was united in marriage to John Dawson, Esq. of Aldcliffe Hall, Lancaster—a union which was somewhat suddenly terminated in May 1804, Mrs. Dawson surviving till December 1826.
We are informed that the subject of our notice was possessed of great intelligence and conversational powers, was remarkable for amiability and the cultivation of every Christian grace, and was honoured and beloved by a large circle of friends like-minded with herself.
(Newton, John. Letters by the Rev. John Newton: Edited by Josiah Bull (pp. 242-243). Kindle Edition.)

"I aim to speak plain truths to a plain people! May it please the God of all grace, to accompany my feeble endeavors to promote the knowledge of His truth! If my letters are owned to comfort the afflicted, to quicken the careless, to confirm the wavering — I will rejoice." - John Newton
John Newton, well known as the author of the song, Amazing Grace, was radically changed by the Lord Jesus Christ and became an outstanding witness to that grace that never ceased to amaze him. From his letters we come to know a man of great humility and wisdom, and though written some 250 years ago, they continue to comfort and encourage those who take the time to read them.
These readings are from the edition of letters edited by Josiah Bull and first published in 1869.
Concerning Lord Dartmouth, the editor writes:
"William Legge, second Earl of Dartmouth, was born in 1731. Early in life he was deprived of his father, and his education devolved on his surviving parent. Upon the death of his grandfather, in 1750, he succeeded to the earldom. Soon after his marriage with the daughter and heiress of Sir Charles G. Nicholl, he was introduced to Lady Huntingdon. At her house he made the acquaintance of Mr. Whitefield, Mr. Romaine, the Wesleys, and other good men of the same class. Indeed, Lord and Lady Dartmouth very soon attracted general attention for the profession of religion they made, and the countenance they afforded to faithful ministers of Christ, suspected of what was called "Methodism."
Exalted as was the social position of Lord Dartmouth, he did not escape the misrepresentations and even the ridicule of some of his friends, who regarded his opinions and practices as fanatical and absurd. They, however, afterwards saw cause entirely to change their views."

William Tyndale (1494 – 1536) was an English Biblical scholar and linguistic genius who became a leading figure in the Protestant Reformation but us best remembered for his translation of the Bible into English.
In 1535, Tyndale was arrested and in 1536, he was convicted of heresy by the Catholic Church and executed by strangulation, after which his body was burnt at the stake.
His dying prayer was that the King of England's eyes would be opened and just one year later Henry VIII authorized the Matthew Bible, which was largely Tyndale's work, with missing sections translated by John Rogers and Myles Coverdale.