Let those that sow in sadness, wait
Till the fair harvest come!
They shall confess their sheaves are great,
And shout the blessings home.

I have been so happy as to get the sight of five original letters which
he wrote to his mother about this time, which do, in a lively manner,
illustrate the surprising change made in the whole current of his
thoughts and temper of his mind. Many of them were written in the
most hasty manner, just as the courier who brought them was perhaps
unexpectedly setting out, and they relate chiefly to affairs in which the
public is not at all concerned; yet there is not one of them in which he
has not inserted some warm and genuine sentiment of religion. Indeed it
is very remarkable, that though he was pleased to honour me with a great
many letters, and I have seen several more which he wrote to others, some
of them on journeys, where he could have but a few minutes at command,
yet I cannot recollect that I ever saw any one in which there was not
some trace of piety; and the Rev. Mr. Webster, who was employed to review
great numbers of them, that he might select such extracts as he should
think proper to communicate to me, has made the same observation.[*]

[*Note: His words are these: "I have read over a vast number of the
colonel's letters, and have not found any one of them, however short,
and writ in the most passing manner, even when posting, but what is
expressive of the most passionate breathings towards his God and Saviour.
If the letter consists but of two sentences, religion is not forgot,
which doubtless deserves to be carefully remarked, as the most
uncontested evidence of a pious mind, ever under the warmest impressions
of divine things."]