_To Mrs. S――――._
_On board the Success, May 12, 1754._
_Dear Mrs. S――――_,
I FULLY purposed to have written to you from _Lisbon_, but was so taken
up in seeing the ecclesiastical curiosities of the place, and was so
suddenly called away, that rendered it impracticable.――However, that
I may not be disappointed again, I sit down to write you a few lines,
though about eight hundred miles off shore. May they find you as to
spirituals, in the same situation as is our ship in a natural respect,
gently, sweetly gliding towards your heavenly harbour, under a pleasant
gale of divine influence. Or,
_If rough and stormy be your way_,
Fear not―――― _Only to JESUS cry, and say_,
_Be strength proportion’d to my day_.
You will find him a kind and faithful Saviour. Whom he loves, he loves
to the end. He hath already delivered you out of the paw of the bear
and of the lion, and he will also deliver out of the hand of every
remaining _Goliah_. Courage, then, my dear Mrs. _S――――_, courage. The
crown is before you, and ere long JESUS will put it on your head. I
hope all your houshold, as well as yourself, have this in full view. It
glitters, though at this distance. O how bright and radiant! Purchased
at how dear a rate! It is worth striving for. The LORD help you all to
strive so as to obtain. So wishes and prays, dear Mrs. _S――――_,
Your assured friend and servant, for CHRIST’s sake,
_G. W._