(seq. 52)

[fol. 1r]

Brookline, July 8, 1797.

Dear Brother,

It seems almost an age, since I heard from
you. I acknowledge, you wrote last. But have you not omit-
ted some good opportunity from this circumstance? I hope,
our friendship which has been constantly increasing, & which
has been maintained with unusual warmth on both
sides, is not about to cease for want of cultivation, or degener-
ate into a cold ceremonious formality. Let us then arouse
from our epistolary lethargy & manifest our former zeal in
the cause. For my part I have begun two or three letters,
since the receipt of your last, which for want of immediate
conveyance, I laid by & neglected. I know not what difficulties
you met at your first settlement; but so great is the variety of
my engagements, avocations, & infirmities, that I find it a very
nice & critical task to fix on a good plan for the improve-
ment of my time. In one thing I am decided, which is to
write for the present but one sermon a week. Of consequence
I must exchange one half of the time. But when shall I
write this one sermon? On Saturday night, I resolve to
write it on Monday. Well, Monday comes, I am quite ex-
hausted. Perhaps, I rode ten miles & preached, the day be-
fore. Some sick person calls my attention. My time is broken,
the week is before me, & away goes my Saturday night's reso-
lution. On Tuesday I muster up my pen & ink, get a scrap of
paper to sketch the plan of my sermon from a text I had
chosen the sabbath before, & resolve to complete it at the be-
ginning of the week, that I may devote the remainder to
pastoral visits. After revolving the subject in my mind for some
time, a plan is adopted. I read the chapter, whence my text is
taken, that I may see the connexion, & consult commentators,
that I may be certain of its import. By this time, with the