istinction in the
neighborhood, where he had an opportunity of showing in how decent and
graceful a manner he could unite the Christian and the gentleman, and
give conversation an improving and religious turn, without violating any
of the rules of polite behaviour, or saying or doing any thing, which
looked at all constrained or affected. Here we took our last embrace,
committing each other to the care of the God of heaven; and the colonel
pursued his journey to the north, where he spent the remainder of his
days.

The more I reflect upon this appointment of Providence, the more I
discern the beauty and wisdom of it--not only as it led directly to that
glorious period of life with which God had determined to honour him, and
in which, I think, it becomes all his friends to rejoice, but also as the
retirement on which he entered could not but have a happy tendency to
favour his more immediate and complete preparation for so speedy a
remove. To this we may add, that it must probably have a very powerful
influence to promote the interests of religion (incomparably the greatest
of all interests) among the members of his own family, who must surely be
edified by such daily lessons as they received from his lips, when they
saw them illustrated and enforced by so admirable an example, and for
two complete years. It is the more remarkable, as I cannot find from the
memoirs of his life in my hands that he had ever been so long at home
since he had a family, or indeed, from his childhood, ever so long at a
time in any one place.

With how clear a lustre his lamp shone, and with what holy vigour his
loins were girded up in the service of his God in these his latter days,
I learn in part from the letters of several excellent persons in the
ministry, or in secular life, with whom I have since conversed or
corresponded. In his many letters dated from Bankton during this period,
I have still further evidence how happy he was amidst those infirmities
of body, which his tenderness for me would seldom allow him to mention;
for it appears from them what a daily intercourse he kept up with Heaven,
and what delightful communion with God crowned his attendance on public
ordinances, and his sweet hours of devout retirement. He mentions his
sacramental opportunities with peculiar relish, crying out, as in a holy
rapture, in reference to one and another of them, "Oh how gracious
a Master do we serve! how pleasant is his service; how rich the
e