Faraday to William Buchanan   26 August 1846

Tunbridge Wells | 26 August 1846

Very dear Brother

It was with great pleasure though in the midst of melancholy feeling that I received here your letter full of kind & loving faithfulness & sympathy. The shock of my dear brothers death¹ was very heavy upon us and I believe the more so from its suddenness[.] I received a letter here one morning at breakfast time informing me first of the sad accident and before I could reach home indeed even before I received the letter he was dead. Poor brother[.] I was at the inquest² & have seen the surgeon³ who first saw him. I believe that nothing could have been done to save him & am afraid he was insensible from the instant of the accident. It was of the Lords will that he should be taken away and it is of his mercies that to us who are left there are such glorious words of remembrance & comfort in the Epistles to the Churches of Corinth & Thessalonia that we sorrow not as those who have no hope[.] Even his dear wife⁴ & children in whom we might well expect the agony of grief in such sudden & heart rending destruction of their happy family bonds, not only bear with patience & with thankfulness the scripture words of consolation from those near to them but used them to each other & to me & more wonderfully sustained in their deep distress so as to be an example & so a comfort to those around and I do hope that in the more quiet but dull & constant grief that must come to my dear Sister now that the burial is over that she will according to that strength which is from God be equally & continually supported. I believe few can know the sorrow of losing one who has been a loving partner in life except those who have experienced it but such as you & I who know what it is to possess such an one may have a thought of the desolation, in this life, which would come over us were the loss to be ours. May it be our blessed lot in looking forward to that death which is in Adam we may have our minds directed to him who is man & is the first fruits of them that sleep⁵.

You also must have grieved most deeply for the loss of your dear Granddaughter for I know your affectionate heart and sometimes think of it when I feel as if my own were hard & dull but indeed at the end of the first week after my brothers death I felt as if months had passed so closely had the thoughts been tied to one event. My dear wife joins me in earnest condolence & sympathy with you & Mrs. Buchanan and Mrs. Cullen⁶ to whom speak of us when you may without disturbing her grief[.]

Some of our friends here have been very ill[.] Mrs. David Fisher⁷ was near to death but she is recovering. Our brother Mr. Clerk⁸ lost his wife rather suddenly about ten days ago & is very forlorn. Mrs. Barnard has been poorly but is better & Mr. Barnard whom we expect to day back from London is very well[.]

In the midst of our particular grief we had a consolation last Sabbath week in union with the whole church here. The Elders read your letter to them to the Church and called for the minds of the brethren. The instant oneness of the church was astonishing & convincing. Many had been under great bondage & rejoiced at the liberty restored unto them others whose thoughts had not been so much examined were yet of the same mind. For myself I can best judge myself in every way for when at the time it was a grief to me to submit to what I feared was a restraining of prayer yet as an Elder I joined with others in subjecting brethren to the same bondage. The whole matter convicts me of fearing men rather than God and of an unwillingness to trust myself in his hands. But it further shews that it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not censured & that still it is the accepted time & the day of salvation[.]

Believe me to be Ever Dear Brother | Your most affectionate & grateful Servant | M. Faraday

Wm. Buchanan Esq | &c &c &c