I have this morning occasion to sing of mercies and judgments. May I
properly notice each. A mixture of joy and grief agitates my bosom. The
return of thee, my dear partner, after a four months' absence, is a
pleasure I cannot express; but the joy is overclouded, and the day is
darkened, by the mixture of grief,--the sympathy I feel for the loss of
your brother, cut off in the pride of life and the bloom of manhood, in
the midst of his usefulness. Heaven sanctify this affliction to us, and
make me properly thankful that it is not my sad lot to mourn the loss of
a husband in the room of a brother.
May thy life be spared and thy health confirmed for the benefit of thy
country and the happiness of thy family, is the constant supplication of
thy friend.