“Now, my dear friend, look at your real situation, as a suffering member of a suffering body.  Take a view of the saints of God in history, sacred or profane, and compare your own individual suffering with theirs:  I am apt to think that, great as it is, it will not rise to mediocrity.  I could expatiate on this subject, from what comes every day within my own knowledge.  The Lord is working in this way all around me; but of that another time.  In your own case, try for a moment to shut out of view every thing without your own family, what you once were, what you once possessed and enjoyed; also what your friends possess and enjoy at this present time; detach yourself from all.  What was yours is gone; what you calculated upon is also gone; set all aside, and consider yourself a sinner saved from destruction by grace; in a state of purgation and preparation for happiness; on a pilgrimage with thousands of others your fellow-saved sinners, through the wilderness, to that inheritance which was purchased for you at such a price.  Your Saviour is your leader, protector, provider; also your physician, and the physician of the whole body, perfectly acquainted with the constitution, disposition, and temper of every individual.  He has made provision for each, all the journey through, and given security that none shall suffer real want.

“Bread and water are promised; nothing beyond these, though in general he gives more; to each he gives a portion in hand, to some for a day, some for a week, some for a year, which they calculate upon with more or less probability:  none with certainty.  Your portion is—­for a year; take a view of those whom you know; one with another, I am inclined to think the Lord has still given you your full share of privilege.  Look at the ordinary provision he makes for the ministers of his gospel, most of them with large families; many of those in the country have five hundred dollars, some four hundred, some three hundred, generally ill paid.  The Lord puts a blessing in it, he makes it go far; they do what their hands find to do, and get along:  so will he do with you, my dear.  He will put you upon methods of industry and economy:  your one chicken divided into six parts, with a little bit of pork, with the fruit of God’s blessing on your industry in the garden, shall both taste sweet and satisfy for the time.  Try to be thankful; Moses said of the manna, ’This is the bread which the Lord your God giveth you.’  Pray and watch against dwelling on the plentiful tables of others; and when bidden to a feast take your portion, and say, this is from the Lord for the time.  Do not let a thought of misery or wretchedness dwell upon your mind.  O no, God is good; you shall not want.  O, what sweet meals have I and my children made on hot potatoes, nicely boiled and cracked, with salt—­not merely content, but they tasted good and savory.  There are peculiar pleasures in a life of that kind.  You shall yet sing of it.