“NEW YORK, February 20, 1794.

“This day I have a letter from my poor wanderer.  It is more than a year since I heard of him.  Accept of my thanks, good and gracious Lord.  I feared his cup had been full, and he called out of the world with all his sins on his own head; for I have no tidings of his turning from his sinful courses, or fleeing from the wrath to come, by taking hold of the hope set before him.

“I bless thee, Oh, I bless thee, for thy sparing mercy, thy long-suffering, thy patience, thy forbearance.  Yea, even to him, thou hast been more than all this.  Thou hast been his preserver, his provider; thou hast watched over him in many imminent dangers, in the great deeps, in burning and in frozen climes.

“Thou hast followed him with thy preserving mercy and temporal bounty.  He is still in the land of the living, and among those who are called to look unto thee and live.  Still thou feedest my hopes of better things for him.  Thou sufferest my prayers to lie on the table of thy covenant.  I will trust, I will hope, I will believe, that in an accepted time thou wilt hear me, and in a day of thy power thou wilt bow his stubborn will, and lay him an humble suppliant at thy feet.  Oh, I trust thou wilt bring this poor prodigal to himself, and turn his steps towards his Father’s house.  See how he feeds with the swine upon husks, and even these not his own.  O turn his thoughts to his ‘Father’s house, where there is bread enough, and to spare.’

“’Lord, remember thy gracious word, on which thou hast caused me to hope,’ and which has ever been my comfort in the time of my affliction, and in my straits my only relief.

“He is again launched into thy great ocean.  Lord, he is far from every friend and from every means of grace, and for any thing I know, far from thee by wicked works; under thy curse and hateful in thy sight; but thou, God, seest him.  Means are not necessary, if thou willest to work without.  Thou canst find an avenue to his heart at once.  Dead as he is, vile as he is, guilty as he is, far from help of man, and in the most unlikely situation to receive the help of God, yet I know all these hinderances, all these mountains shall melt as wax at thy presence.

“Lord, I believe, thou knowest I believe, that if thou but speak the word, this dead soul shall live; this vile, this guilty soul shall be cleansed, shall be renewed, and my son be changed to an humble, thankful, genuine child of God, through the cleansing blood of atonement, through the imputation of the Redeemer’s righteousness and the implantation of thy Spirit.  I can do nothing for him, but thou canst do all this.  I wait for it, Lord, I wait for thy salvation.  Lord, let there be ‘joy in heaven over this one sinner repenting.’  I roll him on thee.  I trust in thy sovereign, free, unmerited mercy in Christ.  Amen.”

All inquiries instituted by kind friends respecting this son proved fruitless; and as a vessel named the Hope was some months after reported as having been taken by the French, it is perhaps probable that he died in a French prison.