24, 1820.
Thy affectionate letter I received with pleasure, though some parts of its contents penetrated the deepest recesses of my heart, and excited in me every tender sympathetic feeling of a brother and a friend.
I rejoice that thou hast found freedom to speak so candidly the undisguised language of thy heart; to me it seems like a voice from the dead, because I conceive it to be the voice of that awakened principle in thee which, as in many others, may have been held too long in captivity through the predominance of the surfeiting cares of the world.

Whenever thou inclinest to unbosom to me thou mayest do it with freedom and in confidence, for, be assured, if thy complaints cannot meet with relief, they will at least meet with a welcome reception and a heartfelt condolence; for I could have no claim to the least of the Christian virtues, if I were destitute of a feeling regard for the sufferings of a friend, and especially a brother.
A few months afterwards he was again called upon deeply to sympathise with his brother.

The occasion this time was the perplexity in matters of business in which Thomas Yeardley was involved.

He expressed his feelings in a letter in which he not only gives the soundest Christian counsel, but also shows how he was himself indebted to the same maxims for the preservation of his honor and of his spiritual life and usefulness.

The firm and practical manner in which the subject is treated render his remarks of permanent value.
Bentham, 8 mo.