“Mr. Reid will not be less kind to the offspring of his friend when they have lost, than when they were under a mother’s protection.  May the blessing of the widow and the fatherless follow him wherever he goes, and may God recompense him a thousand-fold in blessings spiritual and temporal.  Let Diana* be sent with my children; if there be an infant, you know a nurse must be found for it, whatever it cost.  As for Susan,* I am at a loss what to do with her; my heart tells me I have no right to entail slavery upon her and her offspring; I know I shall be blamed, but I am about to be called to account by a higher power than any in this world for my conduct, and I dare not allow her to be sold.  I therefore leave it to herself either to remain here, or if it be her desire, to accompany the children.  I beg Mr. Reid will be kind enough to allow her a passage with the rest.

The two Indian girls.

“And now, my dear friend, as the greatest happiness I can wish you, may that God whom I have chosen as my own portion, be yours also; may he, by his outward providence and by the inward operations of his Spirit on your heart, lead you to himself and convince you of the truth.  But O, my dear friend, shut not your eyes and ears against conviction.  You are not satisfied that the Bible is indeed the word of God.  Is it not worth inquiring into?  What would you think of a man who had a large fortune, and the whole depending on proving some certain facts, and yet would not be at the pains to inform himself?  Are the interests of this world of such importance, which in a few fleeting years we must leave and have done with for ever, and our final state in the next, which is to fix us in happiness or misery through the endless days of eternity, not worth a thought?  Think then, and seriously ask, ’What if it be so?  What if this be indeed the word of God given by inspiration, for the rule of both our faith and manners, and by which we are to be judged?  What if this same God, who so kindly reveals his will to men, has with it given the clearest evidences and strongest proofs that it is his own word?’ Think, I say, my dear friend, if it should be so, what they deserve who either reject or neglect it without taking the trouble to inform themselves, or to be convinced that it either is or is not of divine authority.

“How many great, learned, and wise men have sifted these evidences with the greatest care, and the deeper they entered into the search, the more clear they appeared, even those whose lives are entirely contrary to it, and whose interest it is to wish it false, cannot deny.  As to the various explanations of it, it is every one’s duty to read for himself, and although there may be some parts of it too deep for every capacity, and which may perhaps require a knowledge of the history of the times to understand, yet the simple truths of the gospel, what we are to believe concerning God, and what duties he requires of us, and what he forbids, are equally plain and easy.