Matthew Franklin letter to Charity Rotch, New York, 12 mo 31 1803

              B-255-3 
  Dear Friend                             New York  12 mo  31, 1903
			I now take up my Pen to acknowledge the rect of
thy very acceptable letter of 18th Instant, which came to my Hands at a
time, when I felt like a pelican in the Wilderness, or sparrow on the House-
top…a poor lonely Bird, without any sympathizing friends, to mingle with
my sorrows or sustain my drooping Mind and at such at time afford-
ed peculiar satisfaction, to find a beloved absent Friend kindly had me
in Remembrance for believe me dear Charity I have felt of latter time
as tho  every mans Hand was against me; like a crippled Bird already
wounded by the archers, and not knowing where to find a resting place;
indeed I feel myself altogether unworthy of those blessings enjoyed by my
                               believe              ago
fellow Creatures in general, and ^ that I should long^ have been a castaway
but for the divine attribute of Mercy; which thus all has covered the
judgement Seat and now altho  I thus speak, I do not so far
despond, but that I believe myself to be still an object of divine com-
passion; indeed I cannot consent to let go this hold on Heaven; for if
I do, methinks I should sink into the Gulf of despair:  I cannot think
the omnipotent Arm has been so marvelously made bare, and bro  me out
of the House of Egypt, and from among a people of a strange lan-
guage, from under the cruel Iron Hands of Pharaoh, even to pass
thro  the Red Sea, and to perceive my Enemies Carriage wheels run off,
        this song of Moses and the Lamb
deliverance^  I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously,
 the horse and his Rider hath he thrown into the sea; the Lord is my Strength
 and my song, and he is become my Salvation: he is my God and I will pre-
pare him a Habitation, my father God and I will exalt him.  I say
I cannot be bro t to think that thy blessed holy Arm, will suffer me to perish in
the Wilderness, unless thro  my own disobedience I provoke him to Anger 
and there is a hope that as an Anchor bears up and supports, that however
in the course of infinite Wisdom;  I may be tried as at Marsh and proved
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