West Townsend, Massachusetts 30 Jan. 1864
Very Dear Brother in Christ,
You may be surprised at not receiving an acknowledgement of your very kind letter of the 30th long before this, but a few words will explain all. I left home with my wife for a sort of missionary excursion about five weeks ago & did not return until the forepart of the present week. In the meantime yours was read by my brother, & read by him in consequence of his not knowing our whereabouts. And I now write with my wife in heartfelt thanks to you & the dear Christian friends associated with you in your kind remembrance of us, as expressed by your loving epistle & its contents. Nor do we at all forget that you are but the stream while God is the source whence all our blessings come. We do thank Him fervently & first of all, & you next for all the occasion which your letter has been of awakening in our bosoms thanksgiving & praise to God. The Lord has seen what we needed & has in His faithfulness provided accordingly. We have gone to Him as never before, until within about one year, & repeated before Him the words of His own beloved Son addressed to His disciples, “Consider the lilies”, “Behold the fowl of the air”, “Take no thought for the morrow.” And we have asked ourselves, Are these the words of Christ, & are they to be literally understood & acted upon by His children to the end of time, while waiting in the spirit of devotedness on Him? The allusion to the “fowls”, & then to the “lilies”, & then the declaration that we cannot add to our stature one cubit, is the strongest kind of assurance that we should give up into the hands of our heavenly Father all kind of care of ourselves as if no solicitude or labour of ours could alter anything in our earthly condition. These words, therefore, gave us sweet rest of mind, &
