LETTER MXLIII.
To Mrs. S——.
On board the Success, May 12, 1754.
Dear Mrs. S——,
I FULLY purposed to have written to you from Lisbon, but was so taken up in seeing the ecclesiastical curiosities of the place, and was so suddenly called away, that rendered it impracticable.—However, that I may not be disappointed again, I sit down to write you a few lines, though about eight hundred miles off shore. May they find you as to spirituals, in the same situation as is our ship in a natural respect, gently, sweetly gliding towards your heavenly harbour, under a pleasant gale of divine influence. Or,
If rough and stormy be your way,
Fear not——Only to Jesus cry, and say,
Be strength proportion’d to my day.
You will find him a kind and faithful Saviour. Whom he loves, he loves to the end. He hath already delivered you out of the paw of the bear and of the lion, and he will also deliver out of the hand of every remaining Goliah. Courage, then, my dear Mrs. S——, courage. The crown is before you, and ere long Jesus will put it on your head. I hope all your houshold, as well as yourself, have this in full view. It glitters, though at this distance. O how bright and radiant! Purchased at how dear a rate! It is worth striving for. The Lord help you all to strive so as to obtain. So wishes and prays, dear Mrs. S——,
Your assured friend and servant, for Christ’s sake,