His wife was a confirmed invalid, and could with the greatest difficulty discharge her domestic duties.
The three daughters were the principal sufferers. One was deprived of reason: the other two were emaciated by disease, and had been confined to their beds, one for two, and the other for seven years. Medical attendance, medicines, and loss of time in nursing his children, had consumed all the property of the good old man, except the small tenement which he occupied, and which ere long he expected to exchange for a still narrower one. But, for the credit of religion, and for the comfort of all who may be called to pass through "the fire" of such trials, I can say, that this veteran soldier of Christ and his family seemed supported by the consolations of the Gospel. On these I conversed at large, and with each member of the family; and I endeavoured to lighten, by every means in my power, the heavy burdens of these poor pilgrims.
The father, the mother, and one of the daughters appeared cheerful and resigned; but the other daughter seemed greatly depressed. She had been now seven years on a bed of exquisite pain. Her hair had turned gray by the unmitigated anguish of her head. Sleep had long deserted her, and she seemed to have been in the act of martyrdom for years. Confined for so long a time to her bed, incapable of occupation or amusement, at times, even of devotion, she struggled hard to say, "Thy will be done." She however appeared to confide in God, but was destitute of spiritual consolation.
In this state, and in this place, she composed, from time to time, the Poems which are about to be published. They are like the Lamentations of Jeremiah, or, more truly, like the complainings of Job; and may serve to make both the prosperous and the afflicted more grateful, and submissive to the allotments of Divine Providence.
