FEBRUARY 28
God grant I may never live to be useless!
Journal, 28th June, 1783
Some time ago, since you went hence, I heard a circumstance which gave me a good deal of concern – namely, that the College or Academy in Georgia had swallowed up the Orphan House. Shall I give my judgment without being asked? Methinks friendship requires that I should. Are there not, then, two points which come in view – a point of mercy and a point of justice? With regard to the former, may it not be inquired; Can anything on earth be a great charity than to bring up orphans? What is a college or an academy compared to this? … I know the value of learning, and am more in danger of prizing it too much than too little. But still, I cannot place the giving it to five hundred students, on a level with saving the bodies, if not the souls too, of five hundred orphans.
to George Whitefield, 1770
Our comfort is, He that made the heart can heal the heart.
Letter, 14th February, 1786
