“If the air at Wem does not agree with you, could you not come to Madeley? Though I am no nurse, and though I have been the contrary of one to you, I hope we should wait upon you with more tenderness than when you were here last. Mrs. Power would nurse you, and I would talk to you of the love of Jesus as well as I could. You know I perceived your bodily weakness when you were here, and charged you with a neglect of your body. If I was right, I hope you will follow the advice you give me.
“Offer yourself to God for life or death, for ease or pain, for strength or weakness. Let Him choose or refuse for you; only do you choose Him for your present and eternal portion.”[[125]]
Seven months after this, Miss Hatton peacefully expired.[[126]] Miss Ireland lived more than two years longer. To her, he wrote the following:—
“Madeley, July —, 1766.
“My very dear Friend,—The poor account your father has brought us of your health, and his apprehensions of not seeing you any more, before that solemn day when all people, nations, and tongues shall stand together at the bar of God, make me venture to send you a few lines.
“First, then, my dear friend, let me beseech you not to flatter yourself with the hopes of living long here on earth. These hopes fill us with worldly thoughts, and make us backward to prepare for our change. I would not, for the world, entertain such thoughts about myself. I have now, in my parish, a young man who has been two years under the surgeon’s hands. Since he was given up, about two months ago, he has fled to the Lord, and has found in Him that saving health, which a thousand times surpasses that with which the surgeon flattered him; and he now longs to be with Christ, which is far better.
“Secondly. Consider, my dear, how good the Lord is to call you to be transplanted into a better world, before you have taken deeper root in this sinful world. If it is hard to nature to die now, how much harder would it be if you lived to be the mother of a family, and to cleave to earth by the ties of new relations, schemes of gain, or prospects of success!
“Thirdly. Reflect that, by your illness, the Lord, who forecasts for us, intimates that long life would not be for His glory, nor your happiness. I believe He takes many young people from the evil to come, and out of the way of those temptations, or misfortunes, which would have made them miserable in time and in eternity.
“Fourthly. Your earthly father loves you much: witness the hundreds of miles he has gone for the benefit of your health; but your heavenly Father loves you a thousand times better; and He is all wisdom, as well as all goodness. Allow, then, such a loving, gracious Father to chose for you; and, if He chooses death, acquiesce, and say, ‘Good is the will of the Lord! His choice must be best!’
“Fifthly. Weigh the sinfulness of sin, both original and actual, and firmly believe the wages of sin is death. This will make you patiently accept the punishment; especially if you consider that Jesus Christ, by dying for us, has taken away the sting of death, and turned the grave into a passage to a blessed eternity.