The hand that penned it is now among
'the just made perfect.' Your mother had given you up by faith. Have
you ever ratified the vows she made in your behalf? When she bade you
a long farewell, she commended you to the protection of Him who had
promised to be a father to the fatherless." The great Augustine, in
his early years, was an infidel in his principles, and a libertine in
his conduct, which his pious mother deplored with bitter weeping. But
she was told by her friends that 'the child of so many prayers, and
tears could not be lost;' and it was verified to her happy experience,
for he afterward became one of the grand luminaries of the church of
Christ. This remark has often been applied to you; and I trust you
will yet have the happiness to find that 'the prayers of the
righteous' have 'availed much.'
"One favour I would ask: when you have done with this, destroy it,
that it may never meet the eye of any third person. In the presence of
that God, before whom the inmost recesses of the heart are open, I
have written. I consulted him, and him only, respecting the propriety
of addressing it to you; and the answer he gave was, freedom in
writing, with a feeling of the deepest interest impressed upon my
heart.
"Z. Y"
"To Col. A. BURR."
EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM MRS. BURR TO HER FATHER, PRESIDENT EDWARDS.
"Princeton, Nov. 2, 1757.
"Honoured Sir,
"Your most affectionate, comforting letter, by my brother, was
exceedingly refreshing to me, although I was somewhat damped that I
should not see you until spring.
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