w means.

Shakespeare says: "Sorrow comes not in single spies but in battalions,"
and experience proves the adage to be true. William Fry, the eldest son
of the family, was thrown upon a bed of illness, as the result of an
over-strained and exhausted brain; soon after, sickness spread through
the whole family, until the house, and even Plashet,--which, being
empty, afforded them a temporary shelter,--became a hospital on a small
scale. Yet at this time the kindly letters of sympathy and condolence
received from all quarters must have comforted and cheered her anguished
spirit. From a number of such communications we give two, one from
William Wilberforce, the other from Mrs. Opie. Wilberforce wrote:--

You, I doubt not, will be enabled to _feel_, as well as to know,
that even this event will be one of those which, in your instance,
are working for good. You have been enabled to exhibit a bright
specimen of Christian excellence in _doing_ the will of God, and, I
doubt not, you will manifest a similar specimen in the harder and
more difficult exercise of _suffering_ it. I have often thought
that we are sometimes apt to forget that key, for unlocking what
we deem to be very mysterious dispensations of Providence, in the
misfortunes and afflictions of eminent servants of God, that is
afforded by a passage in St. Paul's Epistle to his beloved
Phillipians: "Unto you it is given, not only to believe on Him, but
also to suffer for His sake." It is the strong only that will be
selected for exhibiting these graces which require peculiar
strength. May you, my dear friend (indeed, I doubt not you will),
be enabled to bear the whole will of God with cheerful confidence
in His unerring wisdom and unfailing goodness. May every loss of
this world's wealth be more than compensated by a larger measure of
the unsearchable riches of Christ.... Meanwhile you are richly
provided with relatives and friends whom you love so well as to
relish receiving kindnesses from them, as well as the far easier
office of doing them....

In reply to this, it would seem that Mrs. Fry, while thankful for the
sympathy manifested on all hands, doubted the advisability of resuming
her benevolent labors among prisons and hospitals. Mr. Wilberforce
proved himself again a wise and far-seeing counsellor. He wrote:--

I cannot delay assuring you that I do