51, Dr. S. addressed a letter from Madura, in India, to his nephew, De
Witt Hunt. So remarkable is this letter, not only in the matter it
contains, and spirit it breathes, but also in the fulfillment of the
prayers it refers to, as the end of the two months stipulated found De
Witt brought into the hope and liberty of the Gospel, on the very verge
of his removal to heaven, that we make the following copious extracts
from it:

"My dear Nephew,--My daughter Harriet received your letter by the last
steamer. I have not the least evidence from the letter that you love the
Savior, for you do not even refer to him. On this account I may perhaps
be warranted in coming to the conclusion that he is not much in your
thoughts. Be this, however, as it may, I have become so much alarmed
about your spiritual condition as to make it a special subject of
prayer, or to set you apart for this purpose; and I design, God willing,
to pray for you in a special manner until about the time when this shall
reach you, that is, about two months. After that I can make no promise
that I shall pray for you any further than I may pray for my friends in
general. I have now set apart a little season to pray for you and to
write to you. Do you wonder at this? Has it never occurred to you as _a
very strange thing_ that others should be so much concerned in you,
while you are unconcerned for yourself? I can explain the mystery. Your
friends have seen you, and your uncle, among the rest, has seen you
walking on the pit of destruction, on a rotten covering, as it were,
liable at every moment to fall through it, and drop into everlasting
burnings. _This_ you have not seen, and therefore you have remained
careless and indifferent. Whether this carelessness and indifference
will continue I know not. All that I can say is, that I am greatly
alarmed for you. It is no small thing for you to trample under foot the
blood of Christ for eighteen years. Justly might the Savior say of you,
as he said of his people of old, 'Ephraim is joined to idols, let him
alone.' Your treatment of the blessed Savior is what grieves me to the
heart. What has He not done to serve you? Were you to fall into a well,
and a stranger should run to your help and take you out, that stranger
should forever afterwards be esteemed as your chief friend. Nothing
could be too much for you to do for him. Of nothing would you be more
cautious than of grieving him. And has Christ come down from heaven