and sure the Lord feeds me with comfort.  O the comfort of knowing that the Almighty God is their own reconciled Father by an everlasting covenant; Christ, the Mediator and Surety, their Advocate, Brother, and Friend; the Holy Ghost their Teacher, Guide, and Comforter.  It cannot be ill with my dear children, who are also God’s dear children.  My Father, I know it, thou chastenest for their profit.  I know not where they are, nor how they fare.  I know not what to ask for them; but thou art everywhere present, thine eye is upon them, thou knowest all their wants, all their burdens, all their bereavements, or whatever tries them.  O let thy sensible presence be with them; open wide the leaves of that new testament in Christ’s blood, and let them read their rich legacy, their unsearchable riches in Christ; give them confidence in thy wisdom and goodness, and sweet acquiescence in all thy dealings with them.  Thou hast spared in mercy, perhaps now thou hast taken in mercy:  yes, thy tender mercies are over all thy works, and a large ingredient in every cup thou puttest into the hand of thy children.  It is well, it is well.

“Since writing the above, I have received my dear D——­’s letter, second copy, by the way of London.  The Lord is your God. and the God of your seed.  John the Baptist leaped in the womb when the salutation of Mary sounded in his mother’s ears; he was then a living soul, and an heir of salvation at that moment.  If your babe was conceived in sin by the first covenant, he is an heir of grace by the second.  Think it not hard; no, you do not think it hard that you have conceived him in sickness, carried him in sickness, and suffered the pangs of birth without the succeeding joy to make you forget your anguish.  All this shall be for the glory of God, and that is what you seek; believe it now, you shall see it soon.  I do sympathize; my fond heart had embraced a sweet babe added to the family for one taken.  The Lord has taken this also; it is his due:  I shall soon leave the mortal and join the immortal; five have joined the head, six remain; and one I know nothing of, more than that I cast him on the Lord, and look for mercy.  I thank my God that he gave you the grace of resignation, and supported you in the solitary confinement.  Alas, my child, did you listen for the voice of your babe?  O, what a suspense; but let me stop—­he had reached maturity ere that time; without the fight, obtained the victory; he is of the travail of the Redeemer’s soul; children are God’s heritage, the fruit of the womb his reward.  Rest then in the Lord; this is to his glory, both without and within your soul.”

“MAY 20, 1802.