“Beloved kindred, mysterious are the ways of God toward us. Clouds and darkness envelope his ways. But blessed be his name, righteousness and judgment are the habitations of his throne. Let us therefore confide in him under all circumstances. Yes, though storms of adversity beat upon us, though death threaten, and every thing looks dark, still may we unreservedly commit ourselves to him.” — Theodore Sedgwick Wright, A Pastoral Letter, Addressed to the Colored Presbyterian Church, in the City of the New York, June 20th, 1832, quoted in Dorothy Porter Wesley, Early Negro Writing, 1760-1837, p. 473