LETTER OF
The GOSPEL TRUTH CHARLES G. FINNEY
1855
To Julia Finney
8 January 1855
[MS in Finney Papers # 1581]
Westernville 8. Jan 1855.
Dear Julia.
I do not know when I
have written you. We have heard
from you through Ange, but suppose
your eyes have not allowed you to
write. Your Mother was so ill about
the time of your going to Brooklyn
that we were talking of her going
down with you, when behold we
recd a letter informing us that you
had gone. Your Mother is well
again. She had seasons of severe
vertigo. I feared that she might die
of it. But she seems quite over it.
We hear frequently from your broth
ers. Norton is, I believe, about decided
to study law. Brothers were well a
few days since. And ho[w] do your
eyes do Dear Child. We hope
ere this that they are quite well.
[page 2]
I suppose that you & Ange &
cousin Fanny, are having nice
rah
times. And Aunt Saharah with
her nice girls, with sincere
hearts around her, rejoicing that
she is doing you all so much
good, & is so much beloved by you
all. And then Uncle Ford,
comes home at night & finds every
thing so snug - Such a wife - Such
daughters - Every face so full of
smiles & every heart so grateful
& so loving - What a little circle
of happy ones & what a blessed home.
All hang around him & he smiles
on all. So it goes from day to day.
His home is an almost dangerously
happy one. Almost too happy for
an earthly one, but it should
make him forget or litely esteem
hope
his heavenly one. But I ^ trust the
Lord has taught him how tender
[page 3]
is his hold on earthly blessedness
& that "the spiders most attenuated
web, is cord, is cable, to mans tender
tie on subliming bliss." The work of
the Lord is very interesting here.
hearts
Tall oaks bow & "hard ^ cases."
are softened by the Holy Spirit.
How long we shall be here we do not
know, nor whether we shall go when
we leave. We are called by man
many ways, but we are not yet
sure that we have a call of God.
Detroit, Mi, & Springfiel[d] Ohio,
are fields from which we are
receiving special & pressing calls.
Should we be able to get away
from here in time, I think it
that we shall go to
But appearan
ces indicate that we may not be
able to leave here, in time for
any other field this winter.
I do so want to see you my dear
[page 4]
child. We have not heard from
Helen direct, for a long time.
Give a great deal of love to Dear
Aunt Sarah & Uncle Ford.
To Dear Cousin Fanny say
I do want to see very very
much. What are you doing.
Or are you able to do nothing.
I hope My Dear, that the Lord
is not neglected by you in the
midst of your happiness with your
Brooklyn friends. Do write us
often either with your own, or
by anothers hand. Ma sends
a world of Love to you all
Your aff. Father.
[signature removed]
[endorsement in the handwriting of Julia Finney Monroe.]
Name taken out to serve as
an autograph signature for
the portrait in Encyclopedia &c
March. 1887-
[The signature from this letter was published under an engraving of Finney in the article on him in Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. 2, 1888, page 462. The Cyclopaedia was published in 6 volumes by D. Appleton & Co., of New York. The signature under the engraving in the article in the National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. 2, p.402, is taken from a different letter.]
Footnote:
This quotation is from Edward Young, Night Thoughts (night 1, l, 178)
The spider's most attenuated threadIs cord, is cable, to man's tender tie
On earthly bliss; it breaks at every breeze.
A piece of the letter was cut out containing the signature on the reverse.