my senses, shall be
for their best interests.

"And now, my dear father, suffer one parting word, though from
one no way entitled to advise: this is the third loud call for you to
be also ready; according to the course of nature, you must very
shortly follow; you can have very little more to do in this world, and
therefore the smallest share of your attention is due to it. The
young, the gay, the giddy, and thoughtless hold it a wise maxim to
forget their departed friends as soon as possible; this may be
worldly, but it cannot be heavenly wisdom. To be fully and entirely
resigned to the will of God in all things, is certainly the
characteristic of a Christian; but this is perfectly consistent with
the most tender remembrance. That resignation--but indeed it deserves
not the name--which consists in forgetfulness, in banishing thought
and drowning reflection in worldly cares and amusements, can be no
grateful offering to Him who has commanded us to have our loins girt
and our lamps trimmed, and to be always ready, for in such an hour as
we think not 'the Son of man cometh.' How often are we commanded to
watch, to set our affections on things above, to be dead to the world,
to lay up treasure for ourselves in heaven. These injunctions are
inconsistent with forgetfulness; and if it be our duty to meditate on
death and eternity, nothing more naturally leads our minds to that
subject than the recollection of departed friends, who, if pious, are
not lost, but only gone a little while before, taken from our earthly
and added to our heavenly treasure.

"Believe me, my dear father, to a mind abstracted from the world
and devoted to God, death, though solemn, has nothing dreadful in it;
on the contrary, to a mind rightly disposed it is rather a desirable
object. Just conceptions of God, and converse with him, will very soon
change the aspect of the king of terrors to a welcome messenger, who
comes to set open the gates of immortality, and to usher us into the
kingdom of our heavenly Father. And now may our most gracious God
grant you, through your few remaining days, his direction and
consolation; may he bestow upon you that peace which the world can
neither give nor take away; and when the appointed time of your change
shall come, may the comforts of his Holy Spirit so cheer and refresh
your soul, that you may be able, without a doubt or a fear, to resign
it into the hands of your Redeemer.

"Give my love to H