“The news of your promotion has given me great pleasure. I feel a sincere satisfaction in the diligence with which you devote yourself to the good of society, and that you prefer a life of labour to one of indolent and useless inactivity. We may be instruments of some good in any condition of human life, if we faithfully fulfil its duties; and the more difficult our station may prove to be, the more of satisfaction is likely to result from acquitting ourselves well in it. The ambition which springs from this principle has nothing censurable in it, provided that a view to the glory of God be its motive. I delight to think that the advancement of the Divine glory is your principal end; in which case, as your influence extends over the whole city, the good you do may be very great. You will find a thousand opportunities of glorifying God by your diligence, integrity, and disinterestedness. Endeavour to find or make occasions of this sort; seize on them eagerly, and shrink not from entering into the minutest details, when the object is to do good to the bodies or souls of your neighbours. Imitate, as far as circumstances will admit, the charity of Christ; who went about doing good, and disdained not to converse with the most wretched. I dwell on this the more particularly, because the vanity and pride which reign in our native town appear to me directly opposed to the spirit of charity. If you rise above these, you will conduct yourself as a Christian, whose sole object is to advance the glory of God; and who thinks little of the esteem of man, except as it may place him in a position to do more good in the world. “Your recreations, of which you have given me a brief sketch, are doubtless innocent, especially if they occupy no more of your time than a due attention to health, and the wants of our nature demand. Although you have often reproached me with being too austere, I am far from thinking that religion forbids the use of innocent recreations; because, being indifferent in themselves, they become useful when they are necessary for the relaxation of the body or the mind. I am not at all shocked at the tradition which informs us that St. John sometimes amused himself with a partridge which he had tamed. Happy are they who, as far as they are able, endeavour to turn their own recreations to the advantage of others, which may certainly, if not always, yet sometimes, be done. I sometimes polish shells with Mr. Hill, out of compliance with his wishes. This used formerly to put me in a bad humour, on account of the loss of time it occasioned. But I begin to find that pious thoughts may sanctify an occupation as insignificant as even this, and that a renouncing of one’s own will from compliance with that of others is not without its utility.