1844-54. A BROKEN CIRCLE UNITED. 399 



letter to his brother, at a time of domestic trial, gives the receipt, 

 one that cannot fail to cement in bonds beyond the reach of 

 earthly changes. It is written in the last year of his life. 



" Illnesses are the times that make me despise penny postages, 

 as premiums on tortoise and snail paces, and long for electric 

 wires from door to door all round the world. Were we beside 

 each other, I should be seeking to comfort you with all kinds of 

 medico -surgical reasonings, showing that there was more of 

 good than evil in particular symptoms. But as we are, I can 

 only wait for the next mail with patient impatience, and hush 

 alarms by repeating the blessed words : ' Eest in the Lord, and 

 wait patiently/ Yet after all I can do more. When we kneel 

 together each evening to offer our prayers to God, you are never 

 forgotten. Jessie and I are the priestess and priest, and she 

 reads the lesson ; and when we pray, commending all our beloved 

 ones to the mercies of God and the consolations of Christ, I 

 seem to go round the world, passing from Birkenhead, where 

 Jeanie has had many anxieties and trials ; to you with your 

 mingled sunshine and shade ; to Alick at Adelaide, still refusing 

 to be comforted for the loss of three children ; and to Brazil and 

 Hanover, whence Mina and her sister write claiming relation- 

 ship, and beseeching remembrance in our prayers. 



" I say to myself with a sigh, Are they dead ? Are they 

 living ? Is it well or ill with them ? But there is no reply. I 

 can only pray for them ; but why say only! Is there anything, 

 my dear brother, we can do for each other, or for those we love, 

 more certain to serve them than prayer ? That it is something, 

 even my faithless, sceptical heart, and fault-finding spirit lias 

 realized. To the God of all grace I commend you." 



