Dear Friend, For over forty years have I been living in this city of New York, having landed here, from England, on April 20th, 1831. The first year or two were spent I scarcely know how; better for me could that time be blotted out. But no; that cannot be. It remains, if I am what I hope I am, as an evidence of the truth of that blessed portion of God's word: "Sanctified by God the Father, preserved in Jesus Christ, and called." Kent was right when he wrote: "There is a period known to God, When all his sheep, redeemed by blood,  Shall leave the hateful ways of sin,  Turn to the fold and enter in." Though I was mercifully preserved from bringing…

Mr. John Axford was born in or near Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England, on the 28th of April, 1810. He married early, and came to New York in or about 1829 or 1830. He has told the writer of his call by grace and his early struggles for truth in New York. But memory is too treacherous to enter into particulars about these early times; suffice it to say, several ministers came from England then, and among them Thomas Reed, who preached here for several years. At that time there were several "old school Baptists" that preached the truth here well. The writer of this landed in New York on Sept. 30, 1850. On Oct. 1 he called upon Mr. Axford; who then kept a book store…