FL14372979

[MS 679]
Macquarie Grove 6th November 1817
My very Dear Brother
It gives me unspeakable pleasure and gratification to reflect upon
the goodness of God, in favouring us with the means of corresponding, and although de?
? at so great a distance from each other, yet we can communicate the various occasions
as they traspore, during our Pilgrimage below - these are truly great blessing bestowed on
us, who are not the most deserving, but, perhaps, the msot ungrateful of his People.
Seldom do we consider that had it not been for the interposition of a Gracious
Providence we might have been left to mix with the indigent & unhappy part of mankind.
But remember the night at Northern Boundary, when a bleeding Father lay upon the ground
left for dead and a distrressed mother with three helpless boys deprived of the mecessary comforts
of life, besides innumerable instances of the Goodness of God, which must fill your heart
as I trust it nwo does mine, with humble gratitude. O my Dear Brother when we
reflect upon these events & contrast them with our present circumstances, we must be
led to exclaim, what had God done for us, his most unworthy Creatures!!! -
And tho' we can't repay our Heavenly Father for the least of his mercies, we may evince
our gratitude (the only return expected( by improving the talents committed to our care
and doing all the Good we can to the Souls & Bodies of his Creatures, who are
daily perishing for lack of knwoeldge - happy are those whom he calls to labour in his
vinyard! And as you my Dear Brother have put your hand to the Gospel Plough,
I trust you will go forward with a steady Single aim, seeing the Lord takes no delight
in the Soul that lacks ? or seeks a reward, in anxiosuly securing a temporal, instead
of an eternal recompense, which he has promised ye shall in due tim ? if you faint not
Therefore I trust you will be diligent at a Throne of Grace from which only, you can
be directed to commence the important duty in the way most acceptable to your
Lord & Master -
Your absence fills both my hands and mind by the numerous duties which daily devolve
upon me, and requireds much of my time - O that I could look back upon my labours with
pleasure, but the reverse is the case at present; having to relate that my wishes and exactions {?}
towards the Redeemer's ? have been either disappointed for a time-