Born in affluence in 1773, yet losing his father at the age of fifteen and much of his means of support at the same time, James Bourne wandered about aimlessly, till God took him in hand. He settled in London and became a private art tutor, and in his life taught a future prime minister and an archbishop. Yet this was not what he gloried in. Like Moses he was brought to “esteem the reproach of Christ”, and from the school of affliction and sorrow he was able to write spiritual letters of comfort, exhortation and warning to others, which were deeply appreciated by many, especially as his work often took him away from his family and friends. Later he retired from his art work and became pastor for the remaining years of his life at a chapel at Sutton Coldfield. This book gives his own relation of the Lord’s dealings with him, concluding with a short account of his last illness and blessed death, and 475 of his letters.
