Letter from Harriet to Father, August 29, 1881

Letter from Harriet to Father, August 29, 1881

Church buildings; Anniversaries; Marriage; Prophecies

Hattie writes to her father about how glad she is to receive so many letters and that her sister Martha was able to reach home in time for the Anniversary. She and Henry have another five years before they will finally reach home again. One of their friends from home, Mr. Hamshers, has died and Harriet is thinking of reaching out to his wife. She is reading "The Approaching End of the Age" by H Grattan Guinness. He prophesied that the times will come to an end in about forty years. She talks about his two main arguments. She asks her father what he thinks of the "New Version" and that there is no excuse for DeWitt Talmage to speak of it as he did. The mission's new doctor is to come out married and Miss Butler is coming as well. Harriet talks about the new churches and what the funds will allow.

Noyes, Harriet Newell

The College of Wooster, Special Collections, Noyes Collection, Box #2

Unpublished

1881-08-29

Council on Library and Information Resources Hidden Special Collections Grant

PDF

eng (English)

Text

noyes_c_cor_257

Canton China
Aug 29th 1881.
My dear Father -
I have not very
much time to write for the
mail that leaves to-morrow
as it is now nearly eight-o-clock
in the evening . The last mail
brought such a lot of letters those
that should have come by the
preceding mail with the ones
written just after Martha reached
home and the Anniversary. It
was nice that she reached home
in time for it. I wish the rest
of your children could have
been there. I think with the
help of all the letters I can imagine
very well how her getting home
seemed. I can hardly realize
that it is more than five years
since the day that Henry and
I reached home. I dont believe
we will either of us ever have

quite as nice a day again in this
world. but we shall have a meeting
by and by that will be better still
The letters told me about Mr Hamshers
death. He has been a dear good
friend to us for many years. I
want to write to Mrs Hamsher if I
can tomorrow. I am glad he was
brought to Seville and laid to rest
in our cemetery. Ever since I was
at home I have felt that I would
rather be buried there than any
where else. I used to think I
would prefer to be laid in the
Mission cemetery here. If those
who look for Christs second coming
are right in their expectations it will
not be very long for any of us to sleep
who are living now. I am
reading a book "The approaching
end of the Age", by H Grattan
Guinness, an English minister
who has studied the subject very
carefully and thoroughly. From
his calculations everything leads to
the conclusion that the "[?times?]" prophesied
to elapse will come to an end
about forty years hence.

From the many signs given to show
when the end would be near he
selects two which he thinks we now see
the fulfillment of, one that "Many
shall run to and fro and knowledge
shall be increased" and the other
and the other the universal skepticism
on the subject which is predicted in
consequence of which the coming of the
Son of Mary shall be unexpected as
"a thief in the night". None of us I
suppose will be very likely to see the
close of the present century. Everything
from the [u]beginning[/u] has seemed to be
in [?periods?] so I cannot help thinking
that when six thousand years have
passed the [u]seventh[/u] thousand will
be different from those that have
preceded it. How do you like
the "New Version" there seems to be
a great difference of opinion about
it but I think there is no excuse for
DeWitt Talmage speaking of it as he
did. Whatever any one may think of
the result it is the work of able
scholars who have doubtless endeavored
to do their very best. No one can dislike
change more than I do I wish the
old version had been [u]perfect[/u] so
there would have been no need
for another.

I am so glad they celebrated the 50th
anniversary. It must have been very
nice for you. I wish very much to see
your address. I am glad you sat first
in the chair that is to be the ministers
hereafter and it was very nice that
they gave you the sofa that you
had used so long. I always wished
we had one for the parlor and it seems
very nice to have that one. The
church must have looked very pretty
for the coming year from which we
learn that our new Doctor is to come
out married. Doubtless Miss Butler
will come with them. They found they
could not at present give the funds
needed for chapels for the Second
and Third churches. But we are
pleased to find from what they write
that we may expect when they can
give it they will grant enough for
a new chapel here and not rebuild
+ enlarge the hospital chapel. Mr Henry
& we favored this the rest of the mission
the other plan --we felt exceedingly
desirous to have a chapel separate from
the hospital chapel which is in constant
use as a dispensary and in which often
times the patients sleep. Martha
can explain the reasons for &
against. We have been expecting to
buy land up in the Lin Chau but I

[Note: Letter concludes sideways on page one]
hear to-day that the attempt to do so has excited the opposition of the
people & they have threatened to beat the
assistant
[?Cuan Loy?]
He is the one
whose letter was
in the Observer
a while ago
+ who was
called to
Sacramento
but decided to
remain here.
I do not know
whether this will
interfere with our
proposed trip to
Lin Chau or not
With warmest love
Your aff daughter
Harriet-

[Note: Written sideways on page four]
I was so glad to get your letter written July 4th.



中国广州，
1881 年 8 月 29 日。
我亲爱的父亲——我没有太多时间为明天寄出的邮件写信，
因为现在已经快晚上八点了。
最后一封信带来了如此多的信件，
这些信件本应由前一封信件来的，
而这些信件是在玛莎回到家和周年纪念日之后写的。
很高兴她能及时回家。
我希望你的其他孩子能在那里。
我想在所有信件的帮助下，
我可以很好地想象她回家的样子。
我几乎无法意识到距离亨利和我回家的那一天已经五年多了。
我不相信我们中的任何一个人都会在这个世界上再次拥有如此美好的一天。
但我们很快就会开会，
这样会更好。
信中告诉我有关 Hamsher 先生的死讯。
多年来，
他一直是我们亲爱的好朋友。
如果我明天可以的话，
我想写信给 Hamsher 夫人。
我很高兴他被带到塞维利亚并安葬在我们的墓地。
自从我在家以来，
我就觉得我宁愿被埋在那里而不是其他任何地方。
我曾经以为我宁愿被安葬在这里的传教士墓地。
如果那些期待基督复临的人在他们的期望中是正确的，
那么我们现在活着的任何人都不会很长时间才能入睡。
我正在读一本《时代即将结束》的书，
作者是 H Grattan Guinness，
一位对这个主题进行了非常仔细和彻底研究的英国牧师。
根据他的计算，
一切都得出这样的结论：预言的“时代”将在四十年后结束。
从给出的许多迹象中，
他选择了两个他认为我们现在已经看到实现的迹象，
一个是“许多人会跑来跑去，
知识将会增加”，
另一个是普遍的怀疑论关于预测的主题，
其结果是玛丽之子的到来将作为“夜间窃贼”出人意料。
我想我们中的任何一个人都不太可能看到本世纪的结束。
一切从一开始就好像是有周期的，
所以我不禁想到，
六千年过去了，
第七千年会和之前的不一样。
你如何看待“新版本”似乎对它有很大的不同意见，
但我认为 DeWitt Talmage 没有理由像他那样谈论它。
无论任何人如何看待结果，
这无疑都是有能力的学者的工作，
他们无疑已经尽力做到最好。
没有人比我更不喜欢改变了，
我希望旧版本是完美的，
这样就不需要另一个了。
我很高兴他们庆祝了 50 周年。
对你来说一定很好。
我非常希望看到你的地址。
我很高兴你第一个坐在以后将成为部长的椅子上，
很高兴他们把你用了这么久的沙发给了你。
我一直希望我们在客厅里能有一个，
拥有那个似乎非常好。
来年我们得知我们的新博士要结婚了，
教堂一定看起来很漂亮。
毫无疑问，
巴特勒小姐会和他们一起来。
他们发现他们目前无法为第二和第三教堂的教堂提供所需的资金。
但我们很高兴从他们写的内容中发现，
我们可能期望他们能够提供足够的资金用于这里的新教堂，
而不是重建+扩大医院教堂。
亨利先生和我们赞成这个任务的其余部分的另一个计划——我们非常希望有一个与医院小教堂分开的小教堂，
它一直用作药房，
病人经常在里面睡觉。
玛莎可以解释支持和反对的原因。
我们一直期待在莲洲买地，
但我[注：信在第一页横着结束]今天听说这样做的尝试激起了人民的反对，
他们威胁要击败助理琬Loy He 是不久前在《观察家报》上写过信的人，
他被召唤到萨克拉门托但决定留在这里。
我不知道这是否会影响我们提议的莲洲之行
怀着最热烈的爱
你的女儿，
哈里特-
[注：写在第四页上] 我很高兴在 7 月 4 日收到你的信。

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