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Anne Dutton
Anne Dutton (1692–1765) was an English poet and Calvinist Baptist writer on religion.[1] She published around 50 titles and corresponded with George Whitefield and John Wesley. Dutton's Narration of the Wonders of Grace (1734) was a 1500-line poem in heroic couplets, complete with marginal references to Scripture, reviewing redemption history from the point of view of Calvinist Baptists. (A modern scholar has called it "execrable verse, interesting only as testimony to the mental tilt of a particular kind of zealot".[3]) In her correspondence with Wesley she differed with him over the question of Election. A Brief Account of the Negroes Converted to Christ in America was one of 13 tracts and letters she published in 1743 alone. George Whitfield was another recipient of her work.
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Anne Dutton preaches about finding comfort and solace in Jesus Christ as our ultimate Friend, emphasizing His infinite fullness of love, grace, wisdom, and faithfulness. She encourages laying our burdens before Christ, who knows our griefs and offers compassion and refreshment to our souls. Despite trials and losses, she testifies to the kindness, mercy, and graciousness of the Lord, who sustains and supports His children through every difficulty, ultimately bringing them out of trouble. Anne Dutton highlights the importance of working diligently for Christ while there is still time, entrusting ourselves completely into the arms of Jesus, our love, life, and all.
Jesus Your Friend
Very Dear Sir, I am glad that you still rejoice in your sweet Jesus, though you have no other that you can call a friend. It is enough, beloved of the Lord, that Christ is your Friend, though all others should fail you, and no man care for your soul. There is such an infinite fullness, such an unsearchable depth of love and grace, of wisdom and knowledge, of tender care and loving faithfulness in your own Lord Jesus, that you need not go to the creature for compassion in misery, for ease in trouble, or for solace in sorrow. The Lord, your Friend, knows all your griefs, and by love-sympathy makes them His own. Lay your weary head in Christ's bosom, and pour out your troubled heart before Him. His kind hand will wipe away all your tears, and His precious lips will drop sweet-smelling myrrh for your soul's refreshment. And as Jesus your Friend will be with you in trouble, so, well will He bring you out of it. The wisdom and kindness, the power and faithfulness of the Lord your Friend, will overrule the lack of friendship in creatures, and all unkindnesses and disappointments you meet with from them. For myself, I must say, the Lord is still infinitely kind, merciful, and gracious to vile, sinful, unworthy me. It has been His dear pleasure to try me greatly by permitting the ship in which my dear husband sailed for England to founder at sea, to the loss of his life. But most surely the Son of God has been with me in this burning fiery furnace, and His sweet presence, at times, loosed my bands, and caused me to walk at liberty. Heavy was the stroke to my weak nature, but glorious has been the display of divine power in supporting me under it. I long to love, honor, and adore my chiding, smiting, loving God. I believe He does all things well, and what I know not now, I shall know hereafter. I wait for the light of glory to open the mysteries of this dark providence, and rejoice in hope of it. Oh, how fast does our dear Lord gather His lilies! We had need work while it is day—the night comes, in which we can do no more for Christ in this world. Into the arms of Jesus—our love, our life, our all, I commit you. His grace be with your spirit.
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Anne Dutton (1692–1765) was an English poet and Calvinist Baptist writer on religion.[1] She published around 50 titles and corresponded with George Whitefield and John Wesley. Dutton's Narration of the Wonders of Grace (1734) was a 1500-line poem in heroic couplets, complete with marginal references to Scripture, reviewing redemption history from the point of view of Calvinist Baptists. (A modern scholar has called it "execrable verse, interesting only as testimony to the mental tilt of a particular kind of zealot".[3]) In her correspondence with Wesley she differed with him over the question of Election. A Brief Account of the Negroes Converted to Christ in America was one of 13 tracts and letters she published in 1743 alone. George Whitfield was another recipient of her work.