Answer

The more lovely and engaging your relation was, the more excellent will your patience and contentment with the will of God in its death be. The more loveliness, the more self-denial; and the more self-denial, the more grace. Had it been a thousand times more endearingly sweet than it was, it was not too good to yield for God. If therefore obedience to the will of God truly masters natural affections, and you look upon patience and contentment as far more beautiful than the sweetest and most desirable enjoyment on earth, it may turn to you as a testimony of the truth and strength of grace — that you can, like Abraham, part with a child whom you so dearly love, in obedience to the will of your God whom you love infinitely more.