1840-42. SORE ANGUISH. 141 



pocket to search among the crumbs there for the wanting 

 coin for the beggar, lead me to search in my heart for some 

 consolation for you, if mayhap the dried-up fountain may 

 yield a drop of comfort. The last two years have been 

 fraught to me with such mournful experience, that I would 

 gladly exchange my condition for a peaceful grave. A 

 bankrupt in health, hopes, and fortune, my constitution 

 shattered frightfully, and the almost certain prospect of 

 being a cripple for life before me, I can offer you as fervent 

 and unselfish a sympathy as ever one heart offered another. 

 I have lain awake, alone, and in darkness, suffering sore 

 agony for hours, often thinking that the slightest aggravation 

 must make my condition unbearable, and rinding my only 

 consolation, in murmuring to myself the words patience, 

 courage, and submission. 



" You have done the same, and God, who has supported 

 both of us through cruel trials, will not desert us in our 

 great need. My religious faith is feeble, because my light 

 is dim, and my knowledge scanty, but I pray for more. 1 

 have felt assured of answers to prayer already. 



" Even in this world, I feel firmly convinced there is no 

 worthy character, even for worldly work, who has not been 

 ' perfected through suffering.' Affliction has not developed 

 the vices of my disposition ; it has pruned some and 

 banished others. My intellect is purified -and ennobled, and 

 many mists which vanity spread before me are blown away. 

 Take comfort, my dear brother, we shall yet do well." 



From Seafield, letters to his friend Miss Abernethy give 

 peeps at his invalid life, and show how every ray of sun- 

 shine was turned to account. Miss Abernethy' s acquaint- 

 ance was made in the beginning of George's student life, 

 through her nephew Dr. Niven. An intimacy then sprang 



