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72   SOLOMON BAYLEY.

70. Surely I desire to thank him for this late token of his mercy and goodness to me : and I here send my thanks to every one of you that has remembered me for good; and I pray that the good Shepherd may remember your good, and feed you with food convenient for you always. Amen. And now, dear friends, I might tell you what made me so glad to receive your blessings,--here has been almost a famine this year.

71. Now none but the Searcher of hearts can tell how I felt. Now there was a cause why this distress happened; which was this war in the country round about us, among the natives. So they confused their own planting, and did not make bread. Then our neighboring tribes that wished to be protected by us, came buying bread, and we had not got rice out of the country because of the war.

72. We had to live mostly on cassada and potatoes. So we were deceived, not getting rice as usual to make our bread stuff hold out. We were stripped so near, fear broke in upon us on every side; but there was too much cause to fear, because the Lord had spoken, that if a house or a kingdom be divided against itself, it is brought to desolation; and it is sorrowful to say, we were too much divided both in church and political affairs. O! when will the professors of religion cease to behave unseemly!

73. Now may the Lord bless S_____ W______ and all his, and may he give him skill and understanding,

SOLOMON BAYLEY.   73

that he may know how to sow his seed in the morning, and in the evening hold not back, and grant him a plentiful harvest at the resurrection of the just.

74. Now it come into my mind expressly, after my friend John Seys left, that I ought to have mentioned in that letter of mine, how long it had been since that impression rose in my mind ;* and here you see that in the 26th year of my age, I was favored to find repentance for sins past ; then an inquiry rose which was the sure way to heaven; then to follow Christ appeared to be the only sure way ; that has been about forty-three years ago.

75. Now in love to thee and thy dear family, and all the dear friends that ask after me, I conclude, thy friend,       
SOLOMON BAYLEY,
Caldwell, Africa, 9th month 22d, 1836

The following, of the same date, was addressed to --------

I received thy letter, thy few lines, dated 6th month, 1836; and O! how the goodness of God did come before me! Thee mentioned a few trifles sent me; then I remembered the two mites of the poor widow, which she cast into the treasury, which, in the judgment of Truth, was esteemed more than all the rest--not in bulk, but sincerity.

*The impression of the inconsistency of war, as set forth in his sermons.

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-20 08:33:49