Plea 1

You press me by many great considerations to meekness and quiet submission under this heavy stroke of God, but you little know what stings my soul now feels in it.

This child was a child of many prayers — a Samuel begged of the Lord. And I concluded when I had him that he brought with him the answers of many prayers. But now I see it was nothing of the sort. God had no regard to my prayers about him, nor was he given to me in that special way of mercy as I imagined. My child is not only dead, but my prayers on the same day are shut out and denied.