Page:The Works of the Reverend George Whitefield, M.A. (1771 Vol 1).djvu/33

 *our a natural tendency to make us calm, easy, peaceful, happy? And then, why should we refuse so easy a yoke, so light a burden? I am sure the little (alas! too, too little) time I have drawn in it, I have found it not galling but healing, and the longer I bear it, the easier and pleasanter it is. Let us then, Dear Mrs. H. chearfully take it upon us, and then No mortal living of us all can miss A permanent, a sure substantial bliss.  Your sincere, though very unworthy friend and humble servant, G. W.     LETTER XVIII. To Mr. H.

Dearest Sir,     Oxon, Oct. 14, 1736.

I Was agreeably detained, as you was pleased to term it, last Tuesday, in reading your kind letter, and had I not been assisted by the grace of to receive every thing with an equal, undisturbed mind, perhaps the contents of it might have given me some small uneasiness. But religion quite changes the nature of man, and makes us to receive all the dispensations of providence with resignation and thankfulness. Of this, dearest Sir, I hope you have had an experimental proof, in bearing up with courage and resolution under those acute pains the Almighty was pleased to visit you with last Sunday, and with which, perhaps, his infinite wisdom and goodness may continue to visit you longer. My dear friend (if I mistake not) used to say, he was afraid did not love him, because he did not chasten him. Behold then, now the hand of the is upon you, not so much to punish, as to purify your soul. Not in anger but in love. Pray therefore in your easy intervals, that you may know, wherefore the contendeth with you, and that you may not come cankered out of the furnace of affliction. Offer up every groan, every sigh, in the name of your dying, risen Redeemer, and doubt not, but they will be as prevalent as set times of prayer. Our being enabled to pray when sickness comes on us, doubtless, is to teach us the necessity of praying always, when we are in health. But, dear Mr. H. wants no such lessons, or excitements, I