GRACE and peace be yours. I am come to visit you once more with pen and ink, though I am not able to come in person to see you. This is a means of conversation the Almighty has afforded us, nor can we be too thankful for it, as we may write to each other on those momentous subjects which concern our never dying souls; nor can the pen be better employed than in stirring up each other’s mind, by way of remembrance. Time with us both is short; you are farther advanced in years than I am, but both are going to our Father’s house; let us therefore follow that advice of the Wise Man’s while we can, _Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do_, _do it with all thy might_, _for there is no work_, _nor device_, _nor knowledge_, _nor wisdom_, _in the grave whither thou goest_. It is the work of faith to lay hold of eternal life. The knowledge of faith gives present peace; the wisdom of faith is to cleave to God, and the art or device of faith is to endeavour to gain all it can, to be useful to others. This faith leads us to think God’s thoughts, and approve of them; to do what Jesus has commanded—to carry our cases to God; to search diligently into his word, and to open the mouth for God when we have an opportunity.—Faith opens the mouth to God in prayer and praise, and for God’s glory, in a firm, warm, decided attachment to his cause, his people, his ways, his truth; and while we are favoured with health and means, let us improve them. The faculty of speech, the opening of the lips, and the exercise of the lungs, should be all employed in his service and to his glory, who died, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. Age, infirmities, trials, and death itself, will soon put an end to these; let us therefore employ them while we can, and in the lively hope of glory, may we sing, with the excellent _Cowper_, And when this lisping stammering tongue, Lies silent in the grave, Then in a nobler sweeter song, I’ll sing thy power to save. Hence Solomon exhorts to these things in your favourite chapter, which I glanced at in my last letter. He reminds us of the solemn period to which we are all hastening, _when the doors shall be shut in the street_; _the sound of the grinding be low_, _and __he shall rise up at the voice of the bird_, _and all the Daughters of Music shall be brought low_.