LETTER OF
The GOSPEL TRUTH CHARLES G. FINNEY
1859
To Julia Finney
5 May 1859
[MS in Finney Papers, Supplement # 72]
Houghton, Huntingdon. 5. May 1859.
My Precious Julia. We learn that you have left Oshkosh.
I regret it as I had made arrangements with Charles to pay
for your board & let you board with them. From Miss Rawson
I learn that at the date of her letter you was at Oberlin. We shall
not be likely to send for you, for I am confident that neither
of us can abide this climate & our present labors much
longer. We see more & more of the impossibility of
your being with us even could we remain here.
Are you aware that your Uncle Hobart is going
to remove to have the house improved & that it
may be very inconvenient for you to be there?
I do not like to have you remain at Dolson's.
While you are in Oberlin you must be very discreet
& by no means open the house to company. It would
be a scandal, & an expense to which we can
not be subjected, as my salary stops now I am
away so long. & we shall not make up here
what we loose there including travelling
expenses. A word to the wise. We are at
present at Mr. Browns trying to get a little rest.
But we are surrounded with so much company that
we make poor headway. I was talked almost crazy
yesterday. All that want to see us run in at meal
times & take seats at table just as if they were at
home. We cant even guess how many will come
in. Such hospitality as this I find no where else.
[page 2]
We expect D.V. to commence labors again after next week,
at Huntingdon. Direct still to this place.
We left London a good deal worse. The work of God
was powerful there & continues. If you are at Oberlin
when this reaches you will you call on one of the editors
of the O. Evangelist & ask who committed the blunder of
representing the piece they published from the British Standard
as Editorial & Dr. Campbell as so great a theologian.
The piece was not editorial as appears on the face
of it. Dr. C. is any thing but a great theologian.
When I was with him he professed agreement with
my views. He now claims to differ from me
& is out upon me in his paper & claims
to be real old School. What a ridiculous
blunder that paper has made. So many
Cooks will spoil the broth. The communication
in the Standard was quite as much as I could
bear & I hessitated [sic] about sending a copy to Oberlin
Their publishing it as editorial prefaced
with such a puff was too bad. It pains
me beyond measure. Whose taste, or whose
indiscretion could that have been. Do inquire
& let me know. O this puffing. how loathsome
it is. Why dont you write oftener? Take care how
[you] receive visitors at O, My Darling Daughter. I shall
inclose this to James to send to you if he knows where you
are. We hope Olivia is better. Love to all. Mother joins.
Your aff. Father C. G. Finney
Footnotes:
i.e. lose
This word is unclear. It might be worn.
The editors of The Oberlin Evangelist were Henry Cowles, James A. Thome, James H. Fairchild, and Henry E. Peck.
The piece to which Finney was referring was published in The Oberlin Evangelist, 13 April 1859, pp. 57-58. It started off:
We republish the following article from the pen of Dr. Campbell, of London, who has been long a distinguished editor and minister among the Independents in our mother country. It is an editorial in the Standard, one of the papers which he edits. The article will show the estimation in which Pres. Finney is held by a remarkably independent and able English Theologian, whose opportunities for knowledge have been ample; for it was in his Church that the President chiefly labored during his former visit on the other side of the Atlantic. The many friends and spiritual children of Pres. Finney, we thought would naturally wish to know how their beloved brother and father was received and regarded among the earnest evangelical Christians of Great Britain. A "wide and effectual door" appears to be opened to him in the land to which we Americans, self-sufficient as we may be, are wont to look with a lingering or filial reverence.
This was probably James Atkinson, a son of Mrs. Finney, who lived in New York and had the responsibility of managing Finney's property in Catherine Street.
A note in Mrs Finney's Journal under the date May 10th reads:
Letters from home bringing the sad news of our Olivia's death - the family broken up - Mr Finney is quite depressed in spirits and in health - I feel sad / sad indeed at this news.