d word has failed of all that he has
promised. 'He has done all things well,' and at this day I am richer
and happier than ever I was in my life. Not that I am yet made free
from sin, that is still my burden--want of love and gratitude,
indolence in commanded duty, self-will, and nestling in the creature.
But my heart's wish and earnest desire is conformity to the divine
will. The bent of my will is for God; and if my heart deceive me not,
my God is the centre of my best affections. It is by grace that I am
what I am, and the same grace engages to perfect the work begun.

"This God is my God; he will guide me even unto death, through
death, and be my portion to eternity. This God I recommend to my
friend; and this well-ordered covenant, this all-sufficient Saviour,
for your acceptance: the Bible for your guide, pray to God for his
Holy Spirit to lead you to the knowledge of the very truth as it is in
Jesus. Accept this as a testimony of friendship, and believe me

"Yours, in love,

"I. GRAHAM."

To the same.

"NOVEMBER 2, 1800.

"You have, I find, been the child of affliction: she is a stern,
rugged nurse; but blessed often are the lessons she teaches. I have,
says God, chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. It is God's
ordinary way of drawing sinners to himself, either to dry up or
imbitter the streams of worldly comfort, that he may shut them up to
seek that comfort that depends not on any transitory source.

"I have no doubt but you shall yet sing with the royal Psalmist,
'It is good for me that I have been afflicted; for before I was
afflicted I went astray, but now I have kept thy word. Blessed is the
man thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law.' Many
are the texts to the same purport; take them for your consolation as a
part of God's well-ordered covenant.

"You have met with a late bereavement, which has entered deep
into your soul. We are not called to stoicism, but to tenderness of
heart and spirit. Jesus wept with the two sisters over a brother's
grave. But still, the Christian's spirit must be resigned, and say,
and try to say with cheerfulness, 'Not my will, but thine be done.'
And Oh, my friend, great will be the wisdom and happy the
acquisition, if every new bereavement enlarge the room for divine
love in the heart, and be f