“PLYMOUTH, _Feb. 25, 1750_.
“REVEREND AND DEAR SIR,—Your letters always fill me with
sympathy. Your last I have just been reading, and in reading
breathed out the ejaculation, ‘Lord, when will the days of his
mourning be ended?’ Surely, you are not always thus to stick
fast in the mire and clay. Look up then, my dear Mr. Hervey;
you shall find grace to help in time of need.
“‘Leave to His sovereign sway,
To choose and to command;
So shalt thou, wondering, own His way,
How wise, how strong His hand.
Far, far above thy thought
His counsel shall appear,
When fully He the work hath wrought,
That caused Thy needless fear.’
“This is the advice I give you, I sent your hymn to good Lady
Huntingdon, who has been ill, but is now, I hope, recovered.
Pray write to me often. Sorrows grow less, joys grow greater,
by being communicated. Load me as much as you will with all
your grievances, and I will lay them before Him, who came to
bear our sicknesses and heal our infirmities.”