ld approve your conduct, if your actions were
laid bare to their inspection; and thus you will be pretty sure that He
who sees the motive of all our actions will accept the good designed,
though it fall short in its accomplishment. You are young, and are
placed in a situation of great peril, and are, perhaps, sometimes
tempted to do things which you would not do if you knew yourself under
the eye of your guardian. The blandishments of a beautiful city may lead
you to forget that you are always surrounded, supported, and seen by
that best Guardian."
He was an eminently just man, and he carried this trait into the little
details of his domestic life. His household adored him; and his friends
were bound to him by ties unusually strong. He was firm and positive in
his own opinions; but he was tolerant of those who differed from him. He
was a man of quick, nervous temperament, but he possessed a powerful
self-control. He was a sincere and earnest Christian, and while
attaching himself to the sect of his choice, his sympathies and aid went
out to the whole Christian Church.
Denominational differences had no place in his heart. He stood on the
broad platform of the "faith of Christ crucified."
During the last years of his life, Mr. Lawrence was a constant invalid.
To a man of his temperament this was a great trial, but he bore it
unflinchingly, exhibiting, in the long years of feeble health which
preceded his death, a cheerfulness and patience which plainly showed the
aid of the Arm on which he leaned for support. For sixteen years he did
not take a meal with his family. His food and drink, of the simplest
kind, were regularly weighed, a pair of scales being kept in his chamber
for that purpose. He wrote to his friend President Hopkins, of Williams
College: "If your young folks want to know the meaning of epicureanism,
tell them to take some bits of coarse bread (one ounce or a little
more), soak them in three gills of coarse meal gruel, and make their
dinner of them, and nothing else; beginning very hungry, and leaving off
more hungry."
Mr. Lawrence continued in this condition until December, 1852, when he
was seized with a severe attack of the stomachic trouble to which he was
a martyr. He died peacefully, on the last day of that month and year, at
the age of sixty-six years, eight months, and eight days. He was buried
in Mount Auburn Cemetery, and was followed to the grave by a host of
friends who mourned him as a b
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