“_August 9, 1842._
“1. Be more careful to observe the seasons of secret prayer.
“2. Never indulge resentful feelings toward any person.
“3. Embrace every opportunity of exercising kind feelings, and doing good to others, especially to the household of faith.
“4. Sweet in temper, face, and word, To please an ever-present Lord.
“Renewed December 31, 1842.
“_December 31, 1842._ Resolved to make the desire to please Christ the grand motive of all my actions.”
It may be well to glance at some of the forms of excessive self-mortification which this great religious nature assumed under the stress of sickness, sorrow, and solitude. He was reared in the sound common-sense views of New England. He knew the value of money and the necessity of providing for the future by thrifty habits and close economy. Now all this he felt it his duty to give up. His advice to young men who were coming out as missionaries was, “Never lay up money for yourselves or your families. Trust in God from day to day, and verily you shall be fed.” He was allowed by the Governor-General of India five thousand two hundred rupees,[35] in consideration of his services at the treaty of Yandabo and as a member of the embassy to Ava. Besides this, the presents he received while at Ava amounted to two thousand rupees.[36] All this money he paid into the treasury of the mission. Nor did he regard this as a donation. His view was that whatever a missionary might earn by such necessary and incidental outside work belonged, in the nature of the case, to the Board by which he was employed. But not only did he cheerfully give up these perquisites, but at a single stroke he transferred to the mission all of his private property, the slow accumulation of many years of thrift. He thus wrote to the Corresponding Secretary:
“MAULMAIN, _May_ 31, 1828.
“REV. AND DEAR SIR: When I left America, I brought with me a considerable sum of money, the avails of my own earnings and the gifts of my relatives and personal friends. This money has been accumulating at interest for many years under the management of a kind friend to the mission, and occasionally receiving accessions from other quarters, particularly at the close of the late war, until it amounts to twelve thousand rupees. I now beg leave to present it to the Board, or rather to Him ‘who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood.’ I am taking measures to have the money paid to the agent of the Board, and the payment will, I trust, be effected by the end of this year.
“I would suggest, lest a temporary suspension of the necessity of remitting money should occasion some relaxation of the usual efforts made to meet the current expenses of the mission, whether it may not be advisable to invest a sum equivalent to that which I now pay the agent, viz., six thousand dollars, as part of a permanent fund. But this I leave entirely to the discretion of the Board.
“Yours, faithfully, “A MISSIONARY.
“P. S.—It is not from an affected desire of concealment that the writer has subscribed himself ‘A Missionary.’ He is sensible that the tenor of the letter will, to those who are acquainted with the state of the mission, sufficiently betray him. But this is not the case with the public in general; and so far as it may be thought desirable not to throw away the influence of example, it is quite sufficient to tell the public that the money is given by a missionary, without specifying the individual.”
And not only so, but he and Mr. Wade proposed to relinquish a twentieth, and conditionally, even a tenth of their respective salaries, and afterward he desired to have his own salary lessened by one-quarter.
_Letters to the Corresponding Secretary._
“MAULMAIN, _September_ 1, 1828.
“REV. AND DEAR SIR: Since it is to be ascribed to the want of money, rather than to that of men, that the Baptists in the United States of America make such feeble efforts to send the Gospel through the world, inasmuch as the want of money prevents the managers of missions from presenting those invitations and encouragements which would be gladly embraced by many young men who are waiting the call of Providence, we feel the importance of recurring practically to the golden rule, _that every individual do his duty_ in furnishing those means which are absolutely necessary to carry on the great war with the prince of darkness and his legions in this fallen world. Feeling, also, that missionaries and ministers are under peculiar obligations, beyond any other classes of Christians, _to take the lead in contributing of their substance_, and encouraged by our Saviour’s commendation of the poor widow in the Gospel, we have entered on a course of living which will, we hope, enable us to offer our two mites; and we propose, therefore, to relinquish annually one-twentieth of the allowance which we receive from the Board of Missions.