PHILLIPS BROOKS - AUTOGRAPH NOTE SIGNED - HFSID 31232

PHILLIPS BROOKS
Four-page letter offering religious consolation to a parishioner with an ailing sister
Autograph Letter signed: "Phillips Brooks", 1 pages, 4½x7. No place, no date. To "My dear Miss Rhees". In full: "I have just received your note of today. It is well that my note was delayed & so an announcement made impossible for a visit such as we proposed would have been most ill-timed. I had not heard of your Sister's illness & regret most deeply to hear you speak so discouragingly of her health. I wish that I could see you but what could I say except to point you to the one source of comfort & strength, unexhausted, inexhaustible, which you know so well already. 'He giveth more grace' is what we know of the Character of Him with whom we have to do. We need more grace, is what we know of our own poor life. Can we help feeling how divinely the two meet and can we forever needing help going to the forever going with boldness & certainty. God bless you & give you strength, my dear friend, for all He is sending you now and for all He may have in store for you in the future. Do you really feel so much interest in my decision? Then I should rather you should hear from myself that I have today declined the call to Holy Trinity & leave over to my work at Advent with a deeper love than ever for the persons sent there. Do not forget us as we draw near to our specially solemn Confirmation time. Of course I am ready for our plan again leaving all arrangements entirely to you. As ever, your friend and pastor". Phillips Brooks (1835-1893) was ordained an Episcopal minister in 1859. He was Rector of Philadelphia's Church of the Holy Trinity (1862-1869) and then of Trinity Church in Boston, until he was consecrated Bishop of Massachusetts in 1891. An inspiring preacher who drew large crowds, he wrote "O Little Town of Bethlehem" (1867), inspired by a visit to the Holy Land. Many of his sermons and lectures were published, including his Lectures on Preaching at Yale (1877). Phillips Brooks House at his alma mater, Harvard University,is named after him. After the great Boston fire of 1872, Brooks supervised reconstruction of Trinity Church, an architectural marvel designed by Henry Hobhouse Richardson which still graces Boston's Copley Square. Normal mailing folds. Lightly toned. Otherwise, fine condition.