'
TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY
'_February_ 20_th_, 1837.
'I read your letter with dismay, Ellen--what shall I do without you?
Why are we so to be denied each other's society? It is an
inscrutable fatality. I long to be with you because it seems as if
two or three days or weeks spent in your company would beyond measure
strengthen me in the enjoyment of those feelings which I have so
lately begun to cherish. You first pointed out to me that way in
which I am so feebly endeavouring to travel, and now I cannot keep
you by my side, I must proceed sorrowfully alone.
'Why are we to be divided? Surely, Ellen, it must be because we are
in danger of loving each other too well--of losing sight of the
_Creator_ in idolatry of the _creature_. At first I could not say,
"Thy will be done." I felt rebellious; but I know it was wrong to
feel so. Being left a moment alone this morning I prayed fervently
to be enabled to resign myself to _every_ decree of God's
will--though it should be dealt forth with a far severer hand than
the present disappointment. Since then, I have felt calmer and
humbler--and consequently happier. Last Sunday I took up my Bible in
a gloomy frame of mind; I began to read; a feeling stole over me such
as I have not known for many long years--a sweet placid sensation
like those that I remember used to visit me when I was a little
child, and on Sunday evenings in summer stood by the open window
reading the life of a certain French nobleman who attained a purer
and higher degree of sanctity than has been known since the days of
the early Martyrs.
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