Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

of gilt paper, that I may, in the best manner I can, make you a return for your letter which I received yesterday. I would not delay long to let you know how much your mamma and I were pleased with it. It is a great happiness to us that we are well assured of your desire and intention to oblige us; and we hope not to be behind-hand with you.

We are very far from thinking your temper is bad; the manner of your answer is a proof of the contrary. You may sometimes need a word of advice or admonition; I believe even this will not be often necessary; and when there is occasion, my affection will prompt me to offer it with so much tenderness, that it shall look as little like reproof as possible: and I hope and expect to find many more occasions for commending than for reproving you.

a

Should it please the Lord to spare your cousin, time will come when you will live together, and, I believe, love each other dearly. I would certainly wish you to imitate her in any thing that you see is commendable; and there will be other things, I trust, in which you may be a pattern to her. Thus you may be mutually useful to each other; and we will love you both, and rejoice in you both. We shall not love you a hair's breadth the less than we should have done if we had never seen her.

Indeed, I cannot be sufficiently thankful to the I ord, that when he was pleased in his providence to put two children under my care, they should be both of such an amiable, affectionate disposition, as would win my love if they had been strangers, and not so nearly related as you and your cousin are to us. And though I consider you both now as my own children, yet you are still my eldest, and my having a second, will be no prejudice to your birthright.

I have not a bit of news that I can think of to send Vol. II.

E

1

you. Your mamma is pretty well, and your cousin likewise; but she is much confined, for if the weather is either wet or cold, we cannot venture her abroad. She does not seem to want to go out, except to church. When we are going thither, it is some trial to her to be left behind; but she is satisfied, because she thinks her aunt is the most proper judge whether she can go with safety or not.

You, my dear, are favoured with health, and I hope you will be thankful for it. Your cousin, and twenty other young people I could name, know the value of health by the want of it. The Lord can make sickness a blessing when he is pleased to send it; but still a good state of health is a great privilege. If your life should be prolonged, it may be a good while before increase of years makes a sensible change in your constitution, but you will feel it at last. When you see an old woman tottering about with a stick, consider that she was once as young as you are now, and probably her spirits as lively, and her limbs as agile as yours. Suppose it may be fifty years before you are like her, such a space, which seems long beforehand, will seem very short when it is past, and there is hardly one in fifty of your age, that will be alive fifty years hence.

Dangers stand thick through all the ground,

To push us to our tomb;
And fierce diseases wait around,
To hurry mortals home.

How just, therefore, and important is that advice, "Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth, "before the evil days come!"

And whom should we remember if we forget him? Our Creator is our Redeemer; Isa. liv. 5; the Saviour, the Lover of souls, who assumed our nature, that he might be capable of dying for us.

Shall we

1

not remember him who endured agonies, and sweat blood, and hung upon the cross, that we might escape the misery we have deserved, and be made the children of God! I wish the poet's words may express

the very feeling of your heart and mine :

Remember thee!

Yes, from the table of my memory
I'll wipe away all trivial, fond records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,
That youth and observation copied there;
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain,
Unmix'd with baser matter.

I commend you to his love, and pray him to write his name upon your heart. We all join in love to you.

[ocr errors][merged small]

1

[blocks in formation]

I BLAME myself, and ask your pardon, for not writing sooner. My confinement occasioned me so many visits from kind friends, that it added little to my usual time of leisure. Your first letter, enclosing Mr. C's, came safe; as did the second, but that was posterior to mine to Miss P, and therefore I could not then acknowledge it. I now thank you for them both, and for that dated the 27th of April. As the news of your illness and your amendment came together, my sympathy was concern mixed with pleasure; and having as much that seemed to require immediate attention as I could well find time for, I believe the hope of seeing you soon in town, made me the more easy to let your letter lie by unanswered.

My arm, I believe, is nearly, if not quite well, excepting a stiffness in it, from being so long confined in one position. I have it now as much out of the sling as in it. I have been able to wear my coat for a week past; the surgeon, however, thinks it prudent, though not necessary, to keep on my bandage

for a few days longer. I believe the arm has advanced as happily, as speedily, and with as little pain, as possible.

My spirit has been peaceful; it is a small thing to say resigned, for I have seen it a dispensation full of mercy, and have not been permitted to feel a wish that it had been otherwise. Especially as, through the Lord's mercy, Mrs. N felt no abiding ill effect from the great terror she was at first seized with, and which I feared might have brought a return of all her nervous complaints. But he is very gracious to us, and she is remarkably well.

I think you must have suffered more than I have done of late; but our faithful and good Shepherd affords to us both, strength according to our day. He knows our frame, and will lay no more on us than he will enable us to bear; yea, I trust, no more than he will cause to work for our good; he delighteth in our prosperity; our comforts of every kind come free and undeserved. But when we are afflicted, it is because there is a need-be for it. He does it not willingly. Our trials are either salutary medicines, or honourable appointments, to put us in such circumstances as may best qualify us to show forth his praise. Usually he has both these ends in view; we always stand in need of correction; and when he enables us to suffer with patience, we are then happy witnesses to others of the truth of his promises, and the power of his grace in us. For nothing but the influence of God's good Spirit can keep us, at such times, either from despondence or impatience. If left to ourselves in trouble, we shall either sink down in a sullen grief, or toss and rebel like a wild bull in a net.

Our different posts are, as you observe, by the Lord's wise appointment; and therefore must be best for us respectively. Mine is full of trials and

« PoprzedniaDalej »