Wonderful little assemblage of manuscripts all in the hand of Anna Laetitia Waring [1823-1910]. Her first work, Hymns and Meditations, was published in 1850 [the year of the first letter in the grouping]. She was known as a woman of devoted piety. Raised a Quaker, she was admitted into the Anglican church in 1842. Though her life-long commitment to the Discharged Prisoners Society shows her Quaker roots. She mastered Hebrew as a young girl and read her Old Testament and other poetry in it throughout her life.

Her best known hymns, remaining still often in print, include Father, I Know that All My Life; Go not Far from Me, O My Strength;  In Heavenly Love Abiding; and My Heart is Resting, O My God. 

Her works were highly commended by A. W. Tozer, who said she had "ascended the peak" to see God more fully than most. He included works by her in his Christian Book of Mystical Verse. 

Three items:

1. An apparently unpublished 8 stanza poem, composed in 1899, titled "Divine Guidance."

As my Father lets it be
So the path before me lies.
Nothing changes there for me,
Yet He leads me - He is wise.

In its varied ministries
Searching for a single mind,
Much that never could be His,
Much that is my own I find.

But when something not divine,
Where I cannot fight or flee,
Sacrifices aught of mine
To a higher right in me - 

When the Christ no eye may see
Hides me in His patient reign,
And what can be only He
Gives new heart through toil & pain,

Then dividing thoughts are still;
Life, no long weak or dim,
Means the freedom of a will
Giving up itself to Him.

Evil, if its lightest breath
Held deceitful base command,
Suffers any kind of death
Under my Redeemer's hand.

And the stern effects of sin
Where His saving mercies shine
He can make a discipline
That is nothing but divine.

So the way before my face
Sacred every step must be
To the more than guiding grace
In my Father's heart for me.

A.L.W.

2. A single page letter of gratitude by Waring to an undisclosed recipient thanking them, in the year of the publication of her own first book, for the copy of "Hymns & Poems" which she says will be "a story of Heavenly enjoyment & consolation. . ." Dated to 15 July, 1850.

3. A 3.5pp ALS dated to December 29, 1902 to her cousin, Frederick. In it she discusses in great detail the typology of the vessels of the Old Testament.

"The gold [in the altar vessels] had been made perfect for its purpose & there is something in this representative of that consciousness of sin which belongs to the Spirit's preparation for holy service & by the discipline of faith in Christ helps it into the purity of His indwelling power & use. Do not you think this fitness for Him, the Saviour of sinners, which recognizes the absence of all good apart from Him in His sufficiency is the kind of perfection required of & attributed to His disciples?" etc. 

All in a very good state.