Levi Frisbie, letter, to Eleazar Wheelock, 1767 May 3
Date3 May, 1767
ms number767303
abstractFrisbie writes to express gratitude for Wheelock's favors, his wish to do honor to the school, and his hopes to become useful as a missionary despite lacking "the grace of God" in his heart.
handwritingHandwriting is largely clear and legible. The trailer is in an unknown hand.
paperLarge sheet folded in half to make four pages is in good condition, with light-to-moderate creasing and wear.
inkBrown-black.
Persistent Identifier
Agreeable to your Advice, and Desire, I attempt to addreſs you with a few broken Li=nes. I am sensable I am unable to render that Respect (either with my Tongue or Pen) which is
justly due to you; but yet I look upon myself bound in point of Gratitude as
well as on other Accounts to testify my Senſe of your
Kindneſs to me by every token of Respect, and act of Obedience that I am capable of.
and as I trust you will put me to nothing but what is just so I
[illegible]shall endeavour to perform your Will with the
utmost Freedom and Dexterity. and since you have been pleas:d to [illegible][guess: Re] receive me into the School,
notwithstanding I am utterly underserving of such a Favour, I desire to return you the most grateful Thanks, as
all the Acknoledgment I am capable of making you at present for such a
Kindneſs. and God grant I may so conduct myself at all times and
under all Circumstances that I may be an Honour to the
School, to Religion and to you my e great Benefactor. Concious of my own Impotency I desire you would be mindful of me in your ardent
Requests to Heaven, that God would Aboundantly replenish me with his grace, that I may be made the Instrument in his
Hand, of converting Multitudes of the Poor benighted Savages to Himself; that I may
be endowd with
Blank page.
all that Courage, Fortitude, and Love,
to God and the Souls of the poor Savages as may be neceſsary in order to my being Servisable in carring on such and Important Work. One great Barr in the way to my b^e^coming Servisable in this Affair (and perhaps this is enough without any other) is that
I have the greatest Reason to fear that I have not the Grace of God in my Heart;
without which I Shall not only be miserable to all Eternity, but also be unable
to do any thing in this grand and interesting Affair; but it appears to me if I can
have the
Aſsistance of God if I may have his Preſense, if I may be enable.d
to trust in him in every
Streight and under every Difficulty, I can travel from one End of the Wilderneſs to the Other spend my Life my Strength and my All in his Service, can
encounter the greatest Difficulties, and undergo the greatest Hardships, that may
attend me in the Savage Land: but notwithstanding I am in Some measure Sensible
that without the Assistance of God I Shall be wholly unequal to the task; yet O!
how unconcernd am I about it, how hard is my Heart how Stubborn my Will!—
— but le^a^st I be tedious ^even^ to a
Crime I [illegible] conclude with Subscribing myself
Sir
Honourd Sir
your most unworthy yet most
oblig.d
Serv.t
Levi
Frisbie
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