“Thou didst stay thy rough wind in the day of thine east wind, and in the multitude of their thoughts within them did thy comforts delight their soul.  Thou humbledst them under thy mighty hand, and thou hast in the multitude of thy mercy exalted them in due time.

“In all their sojourning thou hast been with them; and in fellowship with thy church greatly hast thou comforted them.  Thou hast given them favor in the hearts of thy people, and made ’the stones of the field to be at peace with them.’  And now, O Lord, restore them to their friends and Christian society, and to their place which thou hast in thy goodness given and preserved to them.  Here may they be thy witnesses, that ’thou art the Lord, and besides thee there is no Saviour.’”

“SEPTEMBER, 1802.

“This day has the Lord our God answered our prayers, and enriched us beyond the ordinary lot of humanity.  D——­ and I. B——­ and J——­ are restored to their preserved places, and to the bosom of their family.  We are as men who dream; our mouths are filled with laughter, our tongues with singing; the Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad.  Thou hast turned our captivity as the streams in the south.  We sowed in tears, we have reaped in joy.  Bless the Lord, O our souls; ever true and faithful is his word:  ’He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.’

“‘O Lord, from thee is our fruit found;’ may our sheaves be many and weighty, thou working all our works in us, to thine own glory and our blessedness.  Amen.”

“1802.

“Dear brother Pero,* happy brother Pero, thy Jesus, in whom thou trustedst, has loosed thy bonds, has brought thee to that rest which remains for the people of God; thou drinkest of the pure river that maketh glad the city of our God; of that blessed fountain from which issue all the streams which refresh and revive us weary pilgrims.  But a little while ago, and thou wast weary, dark, and solitary; thy flesh fettering and clogging thy spirit; thy God trying thy faith, hope, and patience, which he had previously implanted, watered, and made vigorous, to stand that trial more precious than gold that perisheth, though it be tried by fire, and was made manifest to the glory of that Saviour who leaves not his people in any case.  If need be, they are in heaviness, through manifold temptations; but he knows how to deliver them, having himself been tempted.

Pero was an elderly man of color whom Mr. Andrew Smith had purchased, and made free. 
 Pero had previously been a freed man of Christ.  He had been for some time in ill health; Mrs. Graham kindly attended on him, and read the
 Scriptures to him:  he died by the bursting of a bloodvessel, at an hour when none of the family were with him.  Mrs. Graham, in humility of spirit, reproaches herself in this exercise, for having been absent from him, without inquiring into his situation for one hour.