Letter from Henry to Father and Mother, June 17, 1883

Letter from Henry to Father and Mother, June 17, 1883

Travel; Boats and boating; Sermons; Baptism; Measles

Henry writes to his parents about his current trip in Shek-Lung. He had a good day being that he gave a sermon and held a baptism. Henry gives a detailed description of everything he did for the day. He expects to leave in the morning for Sam-Kong where theres a new chapel. Back at home, Bella and William are in good health but Richard has the measles.

Noyes, Henry Varnum

The College of Wooster, Special Collections, Noyes Collection, Box #3

Unpublished

1883-06-17

Council on Library and Information Resources Hidden Special Collections Grant

PDF

eng (English)

Text

noyes_c_cor_775

Shek-Lung June 17th 1883
My dear Father and Mother
It is now a little while before
dark, just about the time that so often at home,
we have gathered as a family to recite the catechism
or sing together the songs of Zion. That time
here is of course just a little while after day-
light at home. You will see by the date of
this why I am writing. My mind goes across
the wide waters to the "home on the hill" and
those who are there to day. I would [?fain?] have
my thoughts and wishes and prayers mingle with
theirs. I wonder what you will all be doing to
day. I hope you two are both well. In that
case you will undoubtedly go as usual to
the church where Father has so often preached and
when we all have so many times worshipped.
May the Sabbath bring to you blessed rest and
peace and this day be a real foretaste of
the Eternal Sabbath that is still to come.
Would you like to know where I am
to night. I am in a boat anchored by the
river bank in the city of Shek-Lung. This is
a large place about 40 miles East of Canton
is one of Mr Henry's stations . He and I
changed for this visit- he going to San-Ui
and Chik-Hom + other places and I coming
in this direction. The dragon boats have
been passing up and down the river a
good deal of the time to day. I can hear
their drum beating now. It has been very
rainy. The rain poured down almost con-
stantly from 10-o-clock AM till 4 PM but

now it seems to be over for the present. We had
a very good day here notwithstanding the
rain. I went up to the chapel a little
while before 11-o-clock and found the
members mostly gathered togethere. A church
was organized here 3 months ago with,
I think, 28 members. There were 16 present
to day. Some of them live at a considerable
distance . It was communion and one
new mEmber was received who appear
very well. I hope he will prove to be
a sincere and useful man. There were
24 present in all. I preached from Acts
8:36-38. How strange it must have
seemed to Philip when he was in the
midst of such grand success at
Samaria, to be suddenly directed to
leave it all, and go way off into
that desert country, when no one lived,
to the south west of Jerusalem. It would
seem from the record that he was not told
[u]why[/u] until after his arrival, when, seeing
the chariot that was passing, he was di-
rected to go and join himself to that chariot.
The Lord had his own plans, and it was
more important that this earnest inquirer
should be instructed than that Philip should
remain in Samaria. This one man thus
instructed seems to have carried the
gospel into a distant country and [?dare?]
an excellent work in the establishment of

churches there. After the sermon the appli-
cant for baptism was baptised and the
communion service held. I cam back to
the boat between one and two-o-clock got
a cup of tea and something to eat and
what then -- why I lay down and went
to sleep. The boat was rather dark as
it had to be shut up on account of
the rain, so that it was more favorable
for sleep than reading and besides I
felt somewhat tired. After that I looked
over the Bible lesson for this evening -
had my supper and since have been
writing this . It is getting nearly dark now
and I must go to the chapel soon,
will finish this after I come back -- .
Have just returned from the chapel
It is quarter past nine. We had a
very good number for the bible reading
Went over Luke 6: 12-39 and closed
by singing "My heavenly home is bright
and fair". The clouds have disappeared
from the sky and the moon is
shining beautifully. I expect to leave
this place to-morrow morning and
go to a place called Sam-Kong when
a [--new--] chapel has been recently opened

I believe Mr Henry has not visited
it yet. I expect there will be a
crowd of people as there generally is
in a new place. The assistants from
then who has been here to-day says
that a great many of the people have
been inquiring about when the
foreigner is coming. He says that
they are very well behaved so I hope
to have a good time there to-morrow
and part of next day, and will prob-
ably get back to Canton on Wednesday.
I left last Monday. At that time
Bella and Willie were in usual health
but little Richard had the measles. I
presume he is better before this time.
I visited two places holding commu-
nion services at each before coming
here. One is called Liu-Po and the
other Ty-Long.
Well it is bed time and so
I will lay down my pen after wishing
you both a very happy day, and according
to the time [u]here[/u] now saying good night
Your Aff Son
-Henry-



石龙 1883 年 6 月 17 日
我亲爱的爸爸妈妈
现在是一段时间以前
天黑了，就在那个经常在家的时候，
我们一家人聚在一起诵读教理
或一起唱锡安的歌。那时
当然，这里只是在家里白天过后的一小会儿。你会看到的日期
这就是我写作的原因。我的思绪越过
宽阔的水域到“山上的家”和
那些今天在那里的人。我会徒劳的
我的思想、愿望和祈祷与
他们的。我想知道你们会做什么
天。我希望你们两个都很好。在那里面
毫无疑问，你会像往常一样去
父亲经常讲道的教会
当我们都敬拜了这么多次。
愿安息日带给你幸福的安息和
和平与这一天是真正的预尝
永远的安息日即将到来。
你想知道我在哪里吗
今晚。我在一艘锚泊的船上
在石龙市的河岸。这是
广州以东约 40 英里的一个大地方
是亨利先生的车站之一。他和我
这次访问改变了-他要去San-Ui
还有植磡等地方我来了
在这个方向。龙舟有
一直在河上来回穿梭
每天有很多时间。我能听到
他们的鼓声现在。已经很
下雨。雨几乎倾盆而下
从上午 10 点到下午 4 点，但

现在它似乎已经结束了。我们有
在这里度过了美好的一天，尽管
雨。我往小教堂走去一点
而在 11 点之前，发现
成员大多聚集在一起。教堂
3个月前在这里组织的，
我想，28 名成员。有16人出席
今天。他们中的一些人生活在相当可观的
距离 。这是圣餐和一个
新会员已收到谁出现
很好。我希望他能证明
一个真诚而有用的人。曾经有
共有 24 个。我从使徒行传讲道
8:36-38。它一定有多奇怪
在菲利普看来，当他在
在如此巨大的成功中
撒玛利亚，突然被引导到
放下这一切，然后进入
那个无人居住的沙漠国家，
在耶路撒冷的西南部。它会
从记录上看，他没有被告知
为什么直到他到达之后，当，看到
那辆经过的战车，他被指示去和那辆战车汇合。
主有他自己的计划，它是
比这个认真的询问者更重要的是
应该被指示而不是菲利普应该
留在撒玛利亚。这个人因此
指示似乎已经携带
传福音到远方，敢
一个出色的工作在建立

那里的教堂。讲道后，申请洗礼的人受洗，
圣餐服务举行。我回来了
下午 1 点到 2 点之间的船
一杯茶和吃的东西
然后——为什么我躺下走
睡觉。船很黑，因为
它必须被关闭，因为
下雨了，所以更有利
为了睡觉而不是读书，除此之外我
觉得有些累。之后我看了
在今晚的圣经课上——
吃了我的晚餐，从那以后
写这个。现在天快黑了
我必须尽快去教堂，
我回来后会完成这个——。
刚从教堂回来
现在是九点一刻。我们有一个
非常适合阅读圣经的数字
翻阅路加福音 6：12-39 并关闭
通过唱“我的天堂之家是光明的
和公平”。乌云消失了
从天空和月亮是
闪耀美丽。我期待离开
这个地方明天早上和
去一个叫Sam-Kong的地方
最近开设了一座小教堂

我相信亨利先生没有来过
还没完成。我希望会有一个
人群一般
在一个新的地方。助理们来自
那么今天来过这里的人说
很多人都有
一直在询问什么时候
老外来了他说
他们表现得很好，所以我希望
明天在那里玩得开心
和第二天的一部分时间，可能会在周三返回广州。
我上周一离开了。当时
贝拉和威利身体正常
但是小理查德得了麻疹。我
假设他在此之前更好。
来之前我参观了两个地方，每个地方都举行圣餐仪式
这里。一个叫刘婆，
其他泰隆。
嗯，现在是睡觉时间，所以
许愿后我会放下笔
你们俩都是非常开心的一天，并且根据
到这里的时间现在说晚安
你的儿子
-亨利-

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