Letter from William Cowper, Olney, to Judith Madan, 1767 December 10 : autograph manuscript signed.

Writing of his fears for the health of Mary Unwin: "My dear Friend Mrs. Unwin, whom the Lord gave me to be a Comfort to me in that Wilderness from which he has just delivered me, has been for many Weeks past in so declining a way, and has suffered so many Attacks of the most excruciating Pain, that I have hardly been able to keep alive the faintest Hope of her Recovery. I know that our God heareth Prayer, and I know that he hath opened mine and many Hearts amongst this People to pray for her. Here lies my chief Support, without which I should look upon myself as already deprived of her;" describing Mary Unwin's patience and humility during her suffering, and asking his aunt (Madan) to pray for both of them; describing Unwin as "the chief Blessing I have met with in my Journey since the Lord was pleased to call me, and I hope the Influence of her edifying and Excellent Example will never leave me;" describing how her illness has tried his faith; saying that they went to St. Albans to consult Dr. Nathaniel Cotton about a month ago and the doctor seemed to believe that her case was hopeless: "He prescribed however, but she has hardly been able to take his Medicines. Her Disorder is a Nervous Atrophy attended with violent Spasms of the Chest and Throat, and This is a bad Day with her ; worse than common;" thanking her for some verses, "which speak sweetly the Language of a Christian Soul;" saying that he began to compose verses of his own "yesterday Morning before Daybreak, but fell asleep at the End of the two first Lines, when I awakened again the third and fourth were whisper'd to my Heart in a way which I have often experienced;" including a poem of six four-line stanzas beginning "Oh for closer Walk with God" (this would become the hymn "Walking with God"); concluding "Yours my dear Aunt in the Bands of that Love wch. cannot be quenched."