This is intended for WIlliam Sykes number 283 Portsmouth Prison
Sir
Governor of this Prison Sir it is not my wish or will to go against the rules or Regulations of this Prison and I hope and trust through your instrumenttality that William Sykes Convict number 283 will receive this into his hands and i hope it will not miss his heart and i wish to inform him that his wife and Children Brothers and Sisters are all well at present for ought i know we send our dearst and kindest respects to you hopeing it will find you in good health, William my advice to you is that you obey all that are in authority over you and Let your Conduct be good and try to gain that which you have lost i mean your character Let me beg of you to pray to our heavenly father and his son Jesus Christ to give you a clean heart and right spirit within and then all your troubles and anxieties of this world will be small when compared with the Joy and happyness of that bright world above William I hope you are aware that our Blessed Lord has Caused all holy scriptures to be written for our Learning and God Grant that we may hear and read them and not to read them only but to do what they teach us and then when the swelling of Jordan overtakes us may we be ready to meet our saviour and him to be ready to convey us through the valley and shadow of death to our heavenly father arms there everlasting to dwell with him
Dear Brother i ask you to seek for Christian salvation which means deliverance from something that is feared or suffered and it is therefore a term of very general application, but in reference to our spiritual condition it means deliverance from those evils with which we are afflicted in consequence of our departure from God it implies deliverance from ignorance from ignorance of God, the first and the last, the greatest and the wisest, the holiest and the best of beings, the maker of all things, the centre of all perfection, the fountain of all happiness, ignorant of God, we cannot give Him acceptable worship we cannot rightly obey his will we cannot hold communion with him here we cannot be prepared for the enjoyment of his presence hereafter
