The Power of Faith | Page 8

heart bleeds for you. Father of mercies, support my
aged parent, and enable him to place his hopes of happiness beyond
this transitory world, and to follow the footsteps of the dear departed
saint till he joins her in glory, never, never more to be separated.
"My dearest father, we may indeed mourn for ourselves; but she is
happy--that is beyond all doubt. Her delight was with God while she
was here; her closet was a Bethel; her Bible was her heart's treasure,
and His people were her loved companions. She has now joined the
innumerable company above, where she continues the same services
without human frailty, and the enjoyment heightened beyond our
highest conceptions.
"O then, my dear father, be comforted; let us now try to follow her; let
her Saviour now be ours, and then shall we be blest with like
consolations.
"My dearest father, I cannot tell you how much I feel for you; my tears
will not allow me, they flow so fast that I cannot write; what would I
give to be with you. But these are vain words.
"The doctor, however, fully expects that next summer will bring him
leave to go home; then, I trust, we shall be in some fixed place of abode,
and, my dear papa, you will come and live with us. I shall feel it to be a
privilege beyond what I can tell, to perform every service you stand in
need of, soothe your pains and comfort you under the infirmities of old
age.
"My dear, my worthy brother--how has that tender letter, and the noble
resolution he has taken, endeared him to me. It is certainly his
indispensable duty to stay with you in your present solitary situation;
such a dutiful, affectionate son must be a great comfort to you, and he
will not lose his reward.
"I am anxious, my dearest father, to know the particulars of my
mother's death: who attended her in her illness? was the nurse who was

with her a good woman? was she sensible? did she expect death? and
did she mention me, and leave me her blessing? My dear, dear father,
tell me all.
"Farewell, my beloved father; may your God and Redeemer be your
support and final portion, is the prayer of your affectionate daughter,
"I. GRAHAM."
In her grief for the loss of her inestimable mother, Dr. Graham had said
to her that "God might perhaps call her to a severer trial by taking her
husband also," and the warning appeared prophetic; but her own words
best describe the emotions of her bleeding heart.
To Miss Margaret Graham, Glasgow.
"MY DEAR SISTER--Prepare yourself for a severe shock from an
event that has robbed me of every earthly joy. Your amiable brother is
no longer an inhabitant of this lower world. On the seventeenth of
November he was seized with a putrid fever, which, on the
twenty-second, numbered him with the dead, and left me a thing not to
be envied by the most abject beggar that crawls from door to door.
Expect not consolation from me: I neither can give nor take it. But why
say I so? _Yes, I can._ He died as a Christian, sensible to the last, and
in full expectation of his approaching end. O, you knew not your
brother's worth; you knew him not as a husband: he was not the same
as when you knew him in his giddy years: he was to me all love, all
affection, and partial to my every fault; prudent too in providing for his
family. I had gained such an entire ascendency over his heart as I
would not have given for the crown of Britain.
"On Wednesday, at one o'clock, the seventeenth day of November,
1773, my dear doctor was seized with a violent fever. I sent for his
assistant, Dr. Bowie: he not being at home, Dr. Muir came, who
prescribed an emetic in the evening, and his fever having greatly abated,
it was accordingly given. In the morning Dr. Bowie thought him so
well I did not ask for any other assistance. At ten o'clock his fever
greatly increased, though not so violent as it had been the day before.

He was advised to lose a little blood, which he did; and towards
evening it again abated.
"I found he was not quite satisfied with what had been done for him; at
the same time he would do nothing for himself. Thursday evening I
begged Dr. Bowie to call in Dr. Warner's assistance, notwithstanding
he assured me there was not one dangerous symptom. Friday morning
they both attended, and both pronounced him in a fair way of recovery.
"About three o'clock Dr. Eird came, who seemed surprised the thing
had not been done which Dr.