Weymouth,[102] 1 October, 1775.
Have pity upon me. Have pity upon me, O thou my beloved, for the hand of
God presseth me sore.
Yet will I be dumb and silent, and not open my mouth, because Thou, O
Lord, hast done it.
How can I tell you (O my bursting heart!) that my dear mother has left
me? This day, about five o'clock, she left this world for an infinitely
better.
After sustaining sixteen days' severe conflict, nature fainted, and she
fell asleep. Blessed spirit! where art thou? At times I am almost ready
to faint under this severe and heavy stroke, separated from _thee_, who
used to be a comforter to me in affliction; but, blessed be God, his ear
is not heavy that He cannot hear, but He has bid us call upon Him in
time of trouble.
I know you are a sincere and hearty mourner with me, and will pray for
me in my affliction. My poor father, like a firm believer and a good
Christian, sets before his children the best of examples of patience and
submission. My sisters send their love to you and are greatly afflicted.
You often expressed your anxiety for me when you left me before,
surrounded with terrors; but my trouble then was as the small dust in
the balance, compared to what I have since endured. I hope to be
properly mindful of the correcting hand, that I may not be rebuked in
anger.
You will pardon and forgive all my wanderings of mind; I cannot be
correct.
'T is a dreadful time with the whole province. Sickness and death are in
almost every family. I have no more shocking and terrible idea of any
distemper, except the plague, than this.
Almighty God! restrain the pestilence which walketh in darkness and
wasteth at noonday, and which has laid in the dust one of the dearest of
parents. May the life of the other be lengthened out to his afflicted
children.