indeed, is no wonder ; for though I have so often experienced His infinite mercy and power in my support, and inward calmness of spirit when the trial would otherwise have been too strong for me, yet His ways of working are to myself incomprehensible and ineffable. Your brother was exceeding dear to me in this life, and perhaps I have erred in loving him too well. I once thought it impossible to bear his loss, but none know what they can bear till they are tried. As your good old grandfather used to say, 'That is an affliction that God makes an affliction.' Surely the manifestation of His presence and favour is more than an adequate support under any suffering whatever. If He withhold His consolations, and hide His face from us, the least suffering is intolerable. But, blessed and adored be His holy name, it hath not been so with me, though I am infinitely unworthy of the least of all His mercies. I rejoice in having a comfortable hope of my dear son's salvation. He is now at rest, and would not return to earth to gain the world. Why then should I mourn? He hath reached the haven before me, but I shall soon follow him. He must not return to me, but I shall go to him, never to part more.
"I thank you for your care of my temporal affairs. It was natural to think that I should be troubled for my dear son's death on that account, because so considerable a part of my support was cut off. But to say the truth, I have never had one anxious thought of such matters; for it came immediately into my mind that God by my child's loss had called me to a firmer dependance on Himself; that though my son was good, he was not my God; and that now our Heavenly Father seemed to have taken my cause
