is what grieves me to the heart.  What has He not done to serve you?  Were you to fall into a well, and a stranger should run to your help and take you out, that stranger should forever afterwards be esteemed as your chief friend.  Nothing could be too much for you to do for him.  Of nothing would you be more cautious than of grieving him.  And has Christ come down from heaven to save you?  Has He died for you?  Has He shed his very blood for you that you might be delivered from the worm that dieth not, and the fire which is never quenched?  And can you be so wicked as not to love Him?  My dear nephew, this will not do; it must not do.  You must alter your course.  But I will stop writing for a moment and kneel down and entreat God’s mercy for you.  I will endeavor to present the sacrifice of the Redeemer at the Throne of grace, and see if I cannot, for this sacrifice’ sake, call down the blessing of the Holy Spirit upon you.”

As a remarkable coincidence evidencing an answer to earnest believing prayer, this letter found both the nephews drawing near to their eternal state.  Under the discipline of the Holy Spirit, the end of the two stipulated months for special daily prayer in his behalf, found De Witt brought into the light and liberty of the Gospel, rejoicing in his Savior.

A few incidents occurring in the progress of the sickness, and during the death-bed scene, will now be adverted to; and as the death of JOSEPH took place first, I shall first allude to his case.  He was in his fifteenth year, and last fall, in September, entered the Freshman class in the New York University.  He had been characterized from childhood for an amiable and docile spirit, filial kindness and obedience, and correctness of deportment.  His mind opened to religious instruction in the family and Sabbath-school.  He loved the Bible, and it is believed was observant of the habit of prayer.  It was the anxious prayer, and assiduous labor of his pious mother that all this might be crowned with the saving knowledge of Christ as his Redeemer.  He took a cold soon after entering the University which at first excited no alarm, but it was soon accompanied with hectic fever, which made rapid progress, and gave indications that his death was not remote.  In the early part of November, their mother, realizing these indications, and also the precarious state of De Witt’s health, who had been afflicted with a cough during the whole of the preceding year, which had been slowly taking root, and now furnished sad forebodings of the issue, plied her labors with greater earnestness for their spiritual welfare.  The visits and conversations of Rev. Mr. Carpenter were most acceptable and blessed after this period.  I shall here make extracts from some notes and reminiscences furnished me by the mother:  “The evening of Sabbath, November 16, was a solemn one to myself and sons.  We spent the time alone; I entreating them to yield their hearts unto God, they in listening to the words of their