The miners' express. (Dubuque, Iowa) 1849-1854, 1853-02-23
LETTER OF JoHN RANpOLPu.

LETTER OF JOHN RANDOLPH.
The following letter from the celebrated
John Randolph, of Roanoke, was recently pub
ished in the Washington Union, to which it
was communicated by Rev. Septimus Tustin.
It was written to Mr.. Rs half brother,
Henry st. George Tucker, on the occasion of
The death Of his eldest son, youth Of singular
promise:
rETTER FROM MR. RANDOLPH
sMay He, who has the power, and always
the will, when earnestly, humbly, and devoted
ly eptrca,ed, support and comfort you, my bro
Their IL shall not point to you the treasures
that remain to you in your surviving children,
and their mother, dearer than all these put to-
gether No; have felt too deeply how little
power of words that play round the bed to reach
the heart when it is sorely wounded. The
common places of consolation are at the tongue &
end of all the selfcomplacent and satisfied, from
the pedant priest to the washer-womap. (They
who don't feel can TALK l abiure them all
The father of Lord Russell, when condoIed with
according to form, by the book, replied: 81
woeld not give my dead son for any other
mans living May this thought come home
to your bosom, too but not on the same occa-|
sion. May the spirit of God, which is not the
-chimera of heated brains, nor device OF artful
men to frighlen and caJnle the credulous, but 1t
is much the whisperings ofy your own heart
or the love you bore to him that you have lost
may that Spirit, which is the Comforter, shed
His influence upon your soul, and incline your
heart and understanding to the only right way,
which is that of life eternal DID you ever
read Bishop Buffers Analogy. If not, will
send it to you. lave you read the BOOK
What l say upon this subject, | not only be
leve, but know to be true-that tie Bible SIN
died with an humble and cun,rite heart, never
yet failed to do ITS work, even with those who,
from idiosy ncrasy or disordered minds, have
conceived tina. they were cut off from its promi-
ses of life to come.
TASK, and We shall find knock, and it shall
be opened unto you.'-This was my only sup
port and stay during tie years of misery and
darkness; a, Just as had almost ,un des
pair, after more Than ten years of pentence and
prayer, it pleased God to enable me to see the
truth, to which until then my eyes had been
sealed. To this vouchsafement, | have made
the most ungrateful returns But would not
give up my slender portion of the price paid for
| our redemption--yes, my brother, our redemP
tion-the ransomed sinners-of all who do not
hug their chains, and refuse to come out from
the house of bondage-I say that | would not
exchange my little portion in the Son of David
for the power of glory of the Parthian or Roman
ton of our Lord aud Saviour-not for all with
| which the enemy tempted the Saviour of man.
s'This is the secret of the change OF my spi-
rits, " ich all who know must have observed
within few years past. After years spent in
| humble and contrite entreaty, that the tremen-
dous sacrifice on Mount Calvary might not have
been made in vain for me-the chieiest ct sin.
ners-it pleased God 10 speak his peace into
nay heart-that peace OF God which passeth all
understanding 10 them that know it not, and
even to them that do. And, although have
now, as then, to reproach myself with time mis-
spent, and faculties misemployed although my
condition has on more than one occasion Eesem-
bled that of him who, having one evil spirit cas-
out, was taken possession of by seven other sp;-
rts wicked than the first, and the first also
yet trust that they, tpo. by the power and mer'
| cy of God, may be, if they are not, vanished.
"But here am running to? On this SUBJ
ject more hereafter. Meanwhile, assure your
self of wha, is of small value compared with that
| of those who are a piece of yourself-of the un
changed regard and sympathy Of your mother
s>ul. All my God remember to have see
her dic-to have followed her to the grave-to
have wondered that the sun continued to rise
and set, and the order of Nature 60 on lg
norant OF true religion, but not yet an atheist,
remember with horror my impious rxp,stula-
vi an atheist The existence Of atheism has
been denied-but was an honest one. Hume
began and finished me. | read Spinoza aud all
the tribe. Surely, Tell by no ignoble hand
+, And the very man |) who gave me
'Humes Essay upon Human Nature to read
administered 'Beattie upon Truth as the anti.
dote-Venice trcacle against the arsenic and
\ the essential oil of bitter Almonds bread and
milk poultice for the bite of the cobra capello.
"Had remained successful political leader,
might have never been Christian. But il
pleased God that my pride should be mortified
that by death and desertion. should lose my
| friends that except in the veins Of mainac,
and he, too, possessed sof child by a deaf and
dumb spirit there should not run one drop OF
| my fathers blood in any living creature besides
myself. The death of Tudor finished my hui
initiation. had tried all things but the refuge
to Christ and to that with PARENTAL stripes, was
driven. Often did cry out with the father
ofthat wretched boy, 'Lord, believe; help thou
mine unbelef!'' and the gracious mercy of our
Lord 10 this wavering faith, staggering under
the force OF hard heart and unbelef, | humbly
hoped, would in his good time, be extended to
me also.-St Marx, vii, 1879.
Throw Revelation aside, and can drive
any man by irresistible induction to Atheism.
John Marshall could not resist me. When |
say any man, mean a man capable OF logical
and consequential reasoning. Deism is the re-
refuge Of those that startle at Atheism, and can
believe Revelation; and my -, (may God
have forgiven us both,) and myself used, with
Diderott & Co., to laugh at the Deistical bigots
who must have milk, not being able to diges,
meat All Atheism is derived from Revelation
that Of the laws confessedly. Our own is
from the same source-so is the false revelation
Of Mahommet-and can't blame the Turks for
considering the Franks and Greeks TO be dola
tiers. Every other idea OF one God that floats
in the world is derived from the tradition of
the sons Of Noah handed down to thei. pros.
terity.
"But enough-more than enough can
scarcely guide my pen. | will add, however,
that no lukewars1 seeker ever became a real
Christian; for 'from the days of John the
Baptist until now, the kingdom of Heaven sui
fereth violence and the violent take it by force
"a text which | read sou times before had
the slightest conception OF its true application.
Your brother,
J. R. OF ROANOKE.
To H. ST. G. TUCKER, Esq.