John Hunt Journal, 1820 1mo. 16 - 1820 7mo. 27

              16th of the First Month, 1820. First Day. I went to our meeting, concluding [that] it would be right for me to quite shut up, and so we sat till late. Then I stood up in diffidence and fear, thinking I would only express a few sentences without I should find strength to go through, and was helped evidently to good satisfaction. Oh, what a favor continued!

17. A great storm of rain and snow together, and high wind. Of high winds we had but very little of late. Clears up fine and moderate. See [Thomas] Clarkson's 1st volume, Memoirs [of] William Penn, page 245, in a letter to his wife just as he was going off to America: My mind is wrapped up in a saying as thy father's: I desire not riches, but to owe nothing � and truly that is wealth and more than enough. To live is a snare attended with many sorrows. But how few in these days are much afraid of this snare, although very many are made to feel the sorrowful effects of it. As the old saying is: 

Of the love of wealth beware,
A little is enough; too much a snare.

As one of the ancients said: man wants but little here, nor wants that little long. As divers of our worthies have said and we have seen that leaving children great possessions has proved a great snare to very many, and proved a curse instead of a blessing. The prayer of Agur was: remove far from me vanity and lies; give me neither poverty nor riches, but feed me with food convenient for me [Proverbs 30:8-9]. The middle way to every step reveal, nor let me heights of woe nor pleasure feel.

Read an account of the poor benighted Africans, now groaning under the grossest ignorance, superstition, and idolatry. What shall we render for all our benefits and blessings, both temporal and spiritual? What people are under greater obligations than we are? Be thou instructed, oh Jerusalem, least I make thee desolate a land not inhabited, and my soul depart from thee [Jeremiah 6:8]. And let it be remembered that Jerusalem and Antioch were once the churches of Christ, but where are they now? So we read: oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered thee; but ye would not behold. She is left desolate [Luke 13:34-35].

There is a satisfaction in doing but a little good, [even] if it is only in mending shoes, which has been my employment this cold snowy weather. And making brooms.

[Margin] * Some are starving, and [others] suffocating, smothering with abundance.