his constitution.

He was aware that but a brittle thread kept his earthly moorings; but
this did not deter him; he must work while the day lasted; for the
night cometh when no man can work. While the vital spark remained, he
would not, indeed we may say, he could not stay his hand. And so in
the midst of his years God took him.

What a privilege to have walked with him in the fellowship of love,
and to have enjoyed the richness and fullness of his friendship! What
springs of tenderness in his nature ready to gush forth to refresh
and quicken the tendrils of a drooping heart. How the sorrows of
others found echo and response in his own soul. The grim messenger
death once entered my own home, and made all a desert and a
desolation. I never can forget the letter that I received from our
brother at that time. What melting tenderness and sympathy were
expressed in it! He was smitten and afflicted; he was wounded and
bruised for my sake. It was as if he was the stricken one and not
myself. But I could not account, however, at the moment, for the
blotted and blurred appearance of the writing. But it was all
explained in a postscript. "Please excuse the writing. I could not
keep the tears back; they fell so thick and fast as nearly to destroy
the legibility of my letter." How can we help loving such a man? He
took up the sorrows of others and made them his own; aye more, he
took up the woes of a race and made them his own. When did the
colored man have a better and more faithful friend than he? Who was
more completely and absolutely identified with his interests than he?
Burn down the colored man's school house through the malign influence
of caste feeling, and you had kindled in his soul the fires of an
indignation which quite eclipsed the original conflagration.