LETTERS. 225 



flow with draughts of such extreme asperity, we ought 

 to fortify ourselves against lesser evils, as unimportant to 

 man, who has much heavier woes to expect, and to the 

 Christian, whose joys are laid beyond the verge of mortal 

 existence. There are afflictions, there are privations, 

 where death, and hopes irrecoverably blasted, leave no 

 prospect of retrieval ; when I would no more say to the 

 mourner, " Man, wherefore weepest thou ?" than I would 

 ask the winds why they blew, or the tempest why it 

 raged. Sorrows like these are sacred ; but the inferior 

 troubles of partial separation, vexatious occupation, and 

 opposing current of human affairs, are such as ought not, 

 at least immoderately, to affect a Christian ; but rather 

 ought to be contemplated as the necessary accidents of 

 life, and disregarded while their pains are most sensibly 

 felt. 



Do not think, I beseech you, ray dear Ben, that I wish 

 to represent your sorrows as light or trivial ; I know 

 they are not light ; I know they are not trivial : but I 

 wish to induce you to sum up the man within you, and 

 while those unhappy troubles, which you cannot alleviate, 

 must continue to torment you, I would exhort you to rise 

 superior to the crosses of life, and show yourself a genuine 

 disciple of Jesus Christ, in the endurance of evil without 

 repining, or una\ ailable lamentations. 



Blest as you are with the good testimony of an approv- 

 ing conscience, and happy in an intimate communion 

 with the all-pure and all-merciful God, these trifling 

 concerns ought not to molest you ; nay were the tide of 

 adversity to turn strong against you, even were your 

 friends to forsake you, and abject poverty to stare you in 

 the face, )ou ought to be abundantly thankful to God 

 for his mercies to you ; you ought to consider yourself 

 still as rich ; yea, to look around you, and say, I am far 

 happier than the sons of men. 



This is a system of philosophy which, for myself, I 

 shall not only preach, but practise. We are here for 

 nobler purposes than to waste the fleeting moments of 

 our lives in lamentations and wailings over troubles 

 which, in their widest extent, do but affect the present 



