“I would fain begin to hope that my children are now on, or near the green fields of Albion.  Many a severe gale has agitated them, and tried their faith and confidence before this day.  But as He who sitteth on the clouds, commanding and governing the elements, is their own God in covenant, who loves them, careth for them, and perfects what concerns them, I hope they have had much of his presence:  I hope they have found, even on the boisterous ocean, amidst the horrors of the swelling deep, agitated with winds and tempests, all things necessary to life and godliness in these great and precious promises, accompanied by divine power, by which they are made partakers of divine life, and escape the pollution that is in the world through lust.  I hope they are enriched in experience, and advanced in the divine life, by all they have suffered, and all they have tasted of divine support in their sufferings; that Christ is still more precious, his word more tried, and their confidence in him more established:  if so, great is their gain.  And our darling J——­, being a sharer in the suffering, shall, at her God’s hand, be also a gainer, though it be not evident to our perception.  O how rich is the Christian, how inexhaustible his portion! his table is ever furnished, his cup ever full; all is blessing, no curse mingled—­that our Surety took to himself; prosperity and adversity, sickness and health, light and darkness, all, all shall bless us, work for our good, turn to our profit, and end in the glory of God and our unspeakable, inconceivable happiness.

“I have been here a week yesterday; all vegetable nature glows and shines in the perfection of beauty; flowers, shrubs, trees, grain, grass, falling waters turning the busy mill, the brook murmuring on its way to the ocean, fit emblem of eternity, all glorify their Creator; and although no such birds as in Britain charm the listening ear, we have some sweet chirpers of his praise; and what is wanting to the ear, is made up to the eye, for in beauty they excel.

“These I may enjoy; with these hold communion; for Oh, spiritual death holds all within these walls in dismal bondage; not one symptom of life appears, but death, as the dry bones in the valley of vision.  Why do I not wrestle more for the Spirit to breathe on them?  I do pray:  but Oh, formal, formal.”

To the same.

“JUNE 17, 1801.

“MY DEAR CHILDREN—­Difficult it is for me to exercise patience:  the 23d, of this month will make three months since you waved the handkerchief on board the Mars, off the Battery.  I had made up my mind not to give way to expectation short of three months; they are nearly past:  how many events take place in that space of time; how many duties ought to be performed; how many sins are really committed; how guilty to wish to annihilate the time that a certain event may come round.  For every moment of time we must account, and not one moment of it can we recall.  Much you have seen;