There are comforts too deep for a theology textbook ? too personal even for a sermon preached to multitudes. They fit in a letter: a few handwritten lines addressed to one particular person in their darkest night. When the Soul Hurts gathers ten such letters, written by giants of the faith to believers who suffered just like you: John Newton ? the former slave trader transformed by grace ? comforting grieving, sick, and discouraged friends; Samuel Rutherford writing from his exile in Aberdeen the tenderest, most Christ-filled letters in all Christian literature; Charles Spurgeon writing to his congregation from his bed of pain in 1871; alongside James Smith, Mary Winslow, and Octavius Winslow. Each letter appears in its original English, exactly as written, with a short biographical note on its author and its original source, preceded by an introduction on the healing power of Christian correspondence. These texts come from the Grace Gems digital library, whose public-domain writings have comforted believers for centuries. If you are walking through grief, illness, discouragement, or a dark night of the soul, these letters will remind you that you are not alone ? and that God's grace reaches into the deepest pain. Vol. 1 of the Gems of Grace series.