Samuel Rodman letter to Thomas Rotch, Nantucket 11 mo 1791

               
  B-153-1
  Beloved Brother & Sister            Nantucket 11 mo 21 1791
  
                    Brother Wm & Sister Sarah's letter
  conveye'd to us the affecting account of the final change of your
  dear little infant, after a few days distressing sickness. that
  [illegible]with sympathy toward you, upon an occasion
  [illegible] unprecedented in our family circle. I trust you will
  not doubt. And altho, we cannot command that Christian
  fortitude & resignation, wch events so trying to feeling minds
  abundantly need the aid of, we may be assured of the profession
  by a willing patient Surrender, of the blessings deemed the
  most
  ^choice. when called for at our hands by the gracious benefac=
  tor. Whose ways, are ways of inscrutable wisdom. the consider=
  ation of wch ought ever to abate, our solicitude, even for
  objects. the most deservedly dear to Nature - You have
  therefore, I hope relinquished this pledge of your love with
  out murmur or discontent ~   The uncertainty, how
  my children may mature, has ever, at times damp'd an
  [illegible] which would otherwise have been strong for their lives
  & how preferable, would an early grave, for them, be to a
  knowledge that vice would have the ascendancy, of virtue
  over their minds .  Greatly & above all things desiring for
                                       heavenly
  them. that they may prove plants of the ^Fathers, right
                                                        hand