"26th April 1809.--You, my dear William, are situated in a post which is very dear to my remembrance because the first years of my residence in India were spent in that neighbourhood. I therefore greatly rejoice in any exertions which you are enabled to make for the cause of our Redeemer...Should you, after many years' labour, be instrumental in the conversion of only one soul, it would be worth the work of a whole life...I am not sure that I have been of real use to any one person since I have been in this country, yet I dare not give up the work in which I am engaged. Indeed, notwithstanding all the discouragements which I feel from my own unfitness for any part of it, I prefer it to everything else, and consider that in the work of my Redeemer I have a rich reward. If you are enabled to persevere you will feel the same, and will say with the great Apostle--'I count not my life dear to me that I may fulfil the ministry which I have received of the Lord.' 'Unto me is this grace (favour) given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.' Hold on, therefore, be steady in your work, and leave the result with God. "I have been thinking of a mission to the Ten Tribes of Israel, I mean the Afghans, who inhabit Cabul...I leave the other side for your mother to write a few lines to Mary, to whom give my love." "CALCUTTA, 1st November 1809.--Yesterday was the day for the Chinese examination, at which Jabez acquitted himself with much honour. I wish his heart were truly set on God. One of the greatest blessings which I am now anxious to see before my death is the conversion of him and Jonathan, and their being employed in the work of the Lord. "Now, dear William, what do we live for but to promote the cause of our dear Redeemer in the world? If that be carried on we need not wish for anything more; and if our poor labours are at all blessed to the promotion of that desirable end, our lives will not be in vain. Let this, therefore, be the great object of your life, and if you should be made the instrument of turning only one soul from darkness to marvellous light, who can say how many more may be converted by his instrumentality, and what a tribute of glory may arise to God from that one conversion. Indeed, were you never to be blessed to the conversion of one soul, still the pleasure of labouring in the work of the Lord is greater than that of any other undertaking in the world, and is of itself sufficient to make it the work of our choice. I hope Sebuk Ram is arrived before now, and that you will find him to be a blessing to you in your work. Try your utmost to make him well acquainted with the Bible, labour to correct his mistakes, and to establish him in the knowledge of the truth. "You may always enclose a pinch of seeds in a letter."