s helped me
hitherto, whose covenant is an everlasting covenant,
even a covenant of peace, that shall never be removed
by any earthly change. Oh that it may never
be forsaken by me! Oh that every breach may be
forgiven me! Oh that the wisdom that is from
above may be my safeguard and director! How has
it comforted me, in thinking of leaving such dearly-loved
ones behind, to feel that one Friend above
all others, whose love has been the most precious
joy of my life, will go with me, and be with me
forever, and, I trust, bind in that bond of heavenly
love, even more and more closely, the spirits He, I
trust, has brought together, and make us one another's
joy in Him!

Now that we are at home in the quiet round of
duties and employments which have filled so many
(outwardly at least) peaceful years, and that perhaps
my continuance among them reckons but by months,
oh for a truly obedient, affectionate, filial spirit,
both to my heavenly Father and the precious guardians
of my childhood! I have strongly felt that my
highest duty towards him with whom my future lot
may be linked, as well as my own highest interest,
is to live in the love and fear of God. Many deficiencies
I shall doubtless be conscious of! but if I
may live, and we may be united in the love and fear
of God, all, all will be well. Oh, then, to be watchful
and prayerful!

_1st Mo. 25th_. Letter to M.B.

* * * There is much, very much, connected with
any experience in these matters calculated to teach us
that this is not our rest; and often have I thought, when
pondering the uncertain future, that but for the small
degree in which the hope of things beyond, steadfast
and eternal, keeps its hold, I should be ready to sink;
and then I think of kind rich promises on which I try
to lay hold, "Thy shoes shall be iron and brass," and
"As thy day, so shall thy strength be." And so, dear
M., I trust it will be with us all, if our trust be but
rightly placed; and in this I fear I have sometimes, perhaps
often, been mistaken. I am sure it is well to have
this sifted and searched into, and none of the pains
which must attend such a process are in vain. When
we have learned more fully what and how frail we are,
then we can better appreciate the help that is offered,
and the abundant blessing of peace when it does come.
The depth of our own capacity for suffering is kno