My dear Friend, As the Lord has taken away from me my very dear wife and companion in this lower world, and as the blessed Lord has, in infinite mercy, appeared for her precious soul during her long illness and in her dying moments, and sealed its blessed effects upon my heart, I have felt a longing, day after day, to drop my mortal body, to depart from this world of sorrow, to dwell with Christ, which is far better. But the Lord hath spoken these words to my heart: "Thou shalt not die, but live and declare the works of the Lord;" "Do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that it may give light to all…