"Boston, August 23, 1843.
"My dear Sir: I cannot find words with which to express my sense of your unexpected and considerate kindness, in providing so beautiful a resting-place in Mount Auburn for me and my loved ones. It is soothing to me to anticipate that my grave will be so near your own. May the Almighty, in his infinite mercy, grant, that, when the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall awake, we may both rise together, to be forever with the Lord! If the proximity of my last place of repose to ministers of another denomination shall teach candor, charity, and peace, I enjoy the sweet consciousness that this will be in harmony with the object of my life.
Yours, gratefully,
"Daniel Sharp."Amos Lawrence, Esq."
The enlarged Christian spirit which formed so prominent a trait in Mr. Lawrence's character, and which enabled him to appreciate goodness wherever it could be found, without reference to nation, sect, or color, may be further illustrated by the following note of acknowledgment, received about the same time with the preceding, from Bishop McIlvaine, of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Ohio, who was then on a visit to Boston to procure funds in aid of Kenyon College:
"Wednesday evening.
"My dear Sir: I have just received your very kind and grateful letter, with its cheering enclosure of a hundred dollars towards an object which engrosses me much just now. Thank you, dear sir, most truly, for your kindness, and the first fruits of Boston, for I came only to-day. I trust the ingathering will not dispossess the first ripe sheaf. Coming from one not of my own church, it is the more kind and grateful. O, sir! if God shall so bless my present effort as to send me home with the sum I seek, I shall know a freedom of mind from care and anxiety such as I have not experienced for many years, during which our present crisis has been anticipated. I shall have great pleasure in riding with you, according to your note to Mr. R. To-morrow will probably be a day of more leisure to me than any other while I shall be in Boston.
"Yours, very truly and respectfully,
"Charles P. McIlvaine."
(TO ONE OF HIS PARTNERS.)
"December 18, 1843.
"Dear Mr. Parker: I am puffed up (with ague), but not in a manner to gratify my pride, as I am housed, and denied the sight of most of those who call, but not the privilege of reading their papers, and spending money. In short, I have more use for money when in the house than when able to be abroad. If you will tell Brother Sharp[7] his beautiful bills find an exceedingly ready use, I shall be glad of one hundred in ones and twos, two hundred in fives, and three hundred in tens and twenties; say six hundred dollars, just to keep me along till the end of the month. The calls are frequent and striking. 'Do with thy might what thy hand findeth to do; for the night cometh, when no man can work.' God grant me the blessing of being ready to answer the call, whether it be at noon or at midnight!"
Twelve days after, he writes to the same gentleman for another supply; the sum already received not having been sufficient apparently to carry him through the year:
"December 30, 1843.
"'The good there is in riches lieth altogether in their use, like the woman's box of ointment; if it be not broken and the contents poured out for the refreshment of Jesus Christ, in his distressed members, they lose their worth; the covetous man may therefore truly write upon his rusting heaps, "These are good for nothing." He is not rich who lays up much, but he who lays out much; for it is all one not to have, as not to use. I will therefore be the richer by charitable laying out, while the worldling will be poorer by his covetous hoarding up.'
"Here is the embodiment of a volume, and whoever wrote it deserves the thanks of good men. I would fain be rich, according as he defines riches; but possession, possession, is the devil, as the old Frenchman at —— said to George Cabot. This devil I would try to cast out; you will therefore please send me twelve hundred dollars, which may do something for the comfort of those who have seen better days.
Your friend,
A. L."To C. H. Parker, Esq."
The following letter from Judge Story was received at about the time the preceding letter was written; but no memorandum is found by which to ascertain the occasion which called it forth. It may be that he had been made the channel, as was the case a few months before, of some donation to a third person; a mode which Mr. Lawrence often adopted when he felt a delicacy in proffering direct aid to some one whose sensitiveness might be wounded in receiving assistance from a comparative stranger:
"Cambridge, Saturday noon.
"My dear Sir: I have this moment finished reading your letter and its enclosures, which did not reach me until this noon, and I can scarcely describe to you how deeply I have been affected by them. I almost feel that you are too much oppressed by the constant calls for charitable purposes, and that your liberal and conscientious spirit is tasked to its utmost extent. 'The poor have ye always with you' is a Christian truth; and I know not, in the whole circle of my friends, any one who realizes it so fully, and acts upon it so nobly, as yourself. God, my dear sir, will reward you for all your goodness; man never can. And yet the gratitude of the many whom you relieve, their prayers for your happiness, their consciousness of your expanded benevolence, is of itself a treasure of inestimable value. It is a source of consolation, which you would not exchange for any earthly boon of equal value. Wealth is to you an enlightened trust, for the benefit of your race. You administer it so gracefully, as well as so justly, that I can only regret that your means are not ten times as great. Gracious Heavens! What a contrast is your life to that of some wealthy men, who have lived many years, and have yet to learn how to give, or, as you beautifully expressed it the other day, who have yet to learn to be their own executors! My heart is so full of you, and of the whole matter, that I would fain pour out my thoughts at large to you; for you understand me, and I can sympathize with you. But just now I am full of all sorts of business, and without a moment to spare, having many judicial opinions to prepare in the few remaining days before I go to Washington; and, withal, having Mrs. S. very ill, in respect to whom I feel a deep anxiety. But, wherever I am, I pray you to believe that you are always in my thoughts, with the warmest affection and dearest remembrance. And, if this hasty scrawl is not too slight for such a matter, pray preserve it among your papers, that your children may know what I thought of their father, when you and I shall be both in our graves.
"I am most truly and faithfully your obliged friend,
"Joseph Story."Amos Lawrence, Esq.
"P. S.—I have sent the letter and its accompaniments to Mr. ——. Think of ——. Think of those rich men in ——, who have never dreamed of the duties of charity. Cast a view to their own posterity. How striking a memento is the very case of ——, presented in his own letters, of the instability of human fortune!"
Mr. Lawrence closes the year 1843 by a review of his temporal affairs, and by fresh resolutions of fidelity to his trusts. He then gives an estimate of his income and expenditures, showing a somewhat large excess of the latter, though, as he says, from the state of the times, not to the detriment of his property.
(TO THE MECHANIC APPRENTICES' LIBRARY ASSOCIATION.)
"My young Friends: It cheers and comforts me to learn of your well-doing, and encourages me to offer a word of counsel, as prosperity is often more dangerous in its time than adversity. Now is your seed-time. See to it that it is good; for 'whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.' The integrity, intelligence, and elevated bearing, of the Boston mechanics, have been and are a property for each citizen of great value; inasmuch as the good name of our beloved city is a common property, that every citizen has an interest in, and should help to preserve. At your time of life, habits are formed that grow with your years. Avoid rum and tobacco, in all forms, unless prescribed as a medicine; and I will promise you better contracts, heavier purses, happier families, and a more youthful and vigorous old age, by thus avoiding the beginning of evil. God speed you, my young friends, in all your good works! With the enclosed, I pray you to accept the felicitations of the season.
"Amos Lawrence."