Martha Routh letter to Thomas and Charity Rotch, Manchester 6th of 2nd mo 1800

               
 B-167-3
                              Manchester 6th of 2nd mo 1800
  My very dear Friends
  T and C Rotch 
                   Many months having pasts possibly
  more than a year since I addressed you respectively
  this way, it hath for some weeks been on my mind to salute
  you as a joint capacity having felt much near and tender
  sympathy with and for you, in the opening of a prospect
  (which dear Lydia mention'd to me, and) which I have
  conceived must have cause'd you deep searchings of heart, in
  order to know and do the Divine Will: yea I can easily ad=
  =mit a belief, that such may have been your baptisms, as
  scarcely to be fathomed; unless through the power of that feeling
  
  which hath no fellow it were possible for others to put their
  souls in your souls stead; and I may acknowledge when sur=
  =rounded with fiery trails have thought this could not be
  the case: nay I firmly believe it is impossible with man
  as man, (whether Friend or Brother:) yet (in reverent
  thankfulness) through the power of Truth at times ex=
  [illegible], that kindred spirits are so [illegible]in to
  the one Body, that when one member suffers, another suffers
  with it: and some such as these I trust you have at hand
  in your near and dear relatives by the ties of nature, and
  of the family and household of Faith: for some such, I have
  also deeply felt beyond the power of expression: having accord-
  ing to my measure conceived, it would be like dividing between