A languishing body

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(Letter to a dying youth)

My dear friend, 
A languishing body is a heavy cross. Sickness often depresses our spirits, shatters our nerves, and casts a gloom over our minds. But it is good thus to be weaned and detached, and gradually loosened from the strong ties that bind us to earth. I was ill once for many months, and many thought I would never recover. I found it a heavy trial, but I believe it wasprofitable to my soul.

May the Lord make all your bed in your sickness, give you many testimonies of His special favour—and when He sees fit to take down your earthly tabernacle, remove you to that happy country where the inhabitant shall never say, "I am sick," where tears are wiped away from all faces, and sorrow and sighing flee away.

May the Lord speedily grant your desires, and visit your soul with looks of love, rays of mercy, and beams of tender kindness, so as to smile you into humility, resignation, patience, gratitude, contrition, love, and godly sorrow. 
Yours affectionately in the bonds of the gospel, 
J. C. Philpot, February 1, 1840