Letter from V Noyes to Sister Z., April 3, 1860

Letter from V Noyes to Sister Z., April 3, 1860

Aging; Future life; Baptism

Varnum writes to his sister in response to her and sister N.'s letter. He hopes he will see them again before he is too weak, but is comforted by the promise of the afterlife. Muddy roads relocated Varnum's congregation to Dowd's hall from his house, and they gave significant donations. A local Baptist minister had prepared to rebuke Varnum's preaching but undermined himself in response to a Congregational minister. Mr. Cook has died, Mrs. Horton is near death, and Edward is teaching at Harriet and Emily's school. Henry is at Hudson and George Wheeler is visiting.

Noyes, Varnum

Loose, The College of Wooster, Special Collections, Noyes Collection

Unpublished

1860-04-02

Council on Library and Information Resources Hidden Special Collections Grant

PDF

eng (English)

Text

noyes_c_cor_884

Guilford April 3d 1860
Dear Sister Z
I will take a little
time this morning to answer the letter
I received from you and sister N. about
two weeks ago. I am always glad to
hear from you and should be very
much gratified if I could see you, but
whether I shall enjoy that privilege again
in this world is known only to the Lord.
We are growing old and infirm, often
subject to diseases which admonish us
that time is short and we are draw-
ing near to our long home. Though I am
the youngest of the family yet I begin
to feel the effects of age, I cannot endure
as much labour as formerly. We should
be poor creatures if we had no hope
of bliss beyond the grave. But the hope
of hereafter being with Christ and be-
ing [u]like[/u] him, and of being with all
those who have been ransomed with
his blood is calculated to comfort and
cheer us in our earthly pilgrimage.

The thought of meeting in heaven those
whom we have known and loved &
taken sweet counsel with is delightful
and can reconcile us to the loss of their
company during our brief sojourn
in this vale of tears. I can say I
believe there are few families where
there has been such sincere and uni-
form and long continued affection
as in ours. Nothing has ever occurred to
mar or disturb our attachment and
affection to one another and I feel
confident nothing ever will. This
makes it pleasant to me to review
part scenes, and recall by-gone days.
But you will want to learn something
of our state. There is nothing very spe-
cial in the state of religion among
us. My people made us a very pleas
ant donation visit the 1st day of
March. They did not come as usual
to my house but met at Dowd's
hall in the village. It was well that
they did as the roads were exceeding
ly muddy at the time, and many of

them could not have come to [?any?]
house. Neither could we have con
veniently accommodated such a
multitude. Our good ladies provid-
ed a sumptuous supper, and [?then?]
^people gave gifts to the amount of a hun
dred dollars.
There has been for a few days past
quite an excitement in our place on
the subject of baptism. Our baptist
minister has been harping on the
subject of baptism for two or three
months almost constantly and dis-
turbing tracts in families of other
denominations in order to dissem
inate his peculiar views upon im
mersion. I felt it my duty to preach
on the ^subject sabbath before last and en-
deavoured to show that immersion
was not essential to christian bap-
tism. To my astonishment the baptist
minister having heard of it came
up with his pencil and paper
to take notes on my sermon in
order to reply to it. The Congre-

gational minister was present
and gave notice at the close of
the meeting ^house that he would lecture
on the subject in the congregational
meeting ^house the next evening. He did so
and the following evening, Wednesday
the Baptist minister tried to answer
but discovered so much ignorance
that he injured his own cause. In-
deed it was nearly a complete failure.
The subject has excited much interest
whether it will do good I know not.
Last sabbath was our communion, we
received two new members.
Mr Cook died suddenly a few weeks ago.
Mrs Horton is failing. My own family
are well. Edward is teaching out acad-
emy. Harriet and Emily attend his
school. Henry is at Hudson. We are
expecting to see George Wheeler this week.
It will be something new for my
children to see a cousin, some of them
have never seen one. Give our love to all
our friends and keep a large share for
yourself. Affectionately yours
V Noyes.



吉尔福德 1860 年 4 月 3 日
亲爱的Z姐姐
我会带一点
今天早上是时候回信了
我从你和 N 姐妹那里收到了关于
两周前。我总是很高兴
收到您的来信，应该非常
很高兴能见到你，但是
我是否会再次享有这项特权
在这个世界上只有主知道。
我们经常年老体弱
患上告诫我们的疾病
时间很短，我们正在接近我们长期的家。虽然我是
最小的家庭，但我开始
感受年龄的影响，我无法忍受
和以前一样多的劳动力。我们应该
如果我们没有希望，就做可怜的动物
超越坟墓的幸福。但希望
以后与基督同在，并像他一样，与所有人同在
那些被赎回的人
他的血是用来安慰和安慰的
为我们的尘世朝圣欢呼。

一想到在天堂遇见那些
我们认识和爱过的人&
接受甜蜜的建议是令人愉快的
并且可以使我们和解他们的损失
我们短暂逗留期间的陪伴
在这眼泪汪汪的地方。我可以说我
相信很少有家庭
曾有如此真挚、统一、长久的感情
就像我们的一样。从来没有想过
破坏或扰乱我们的依恋和
对彼此的感情，我感到
相信什么都不会。这个
让我愉快地回顾
部分场景，回忆过去的日子。
但是你会想学点东西
我们的州。他们的宗教状况并没有什么特别之处
我们。我的人民让我们非常恳求
蚂蚁捐赠参观第一天
行进。他们没有像往常一样来
到我家，但在多德家见面
村子里的大厅。这很好
他们这样做了，因为当时的道路非常泥泞，而且许多

他们不可能来任何
屋。我们也不能方便地容纳这样一个
民众。我们的好女士提供了丰盛的晚餐，然后
人们送礼物的金额达一匈奴
美元。
过去几天有
在我们的地方相当令人兴奋
洗礼的主题。我们的浸信会
部长一直在喋喋不休
两三个人的洗礼对象
几个月几乎不断和令人不安的大片在其他家庭
教派，以便在沉浸时传播他的独特观点。我觉得传道是我的责任
在前一个安息日这个主题上，并努力表现出那种沉浸感
对基督教洗礼来说不是必不可少的。令我惊讶的是浸信会
部长听说来了
拿起他的铅笔和纸
为我的讲道做笔记
为了回复它。这

公理部部长出席
并在结束时发出通知
他要讲课的会议室
关于会众的主题
第二天晚上的会议室。他这样做了
第二天晚上，星期三
浸信会牧师试图回答
但发现了很多无知
他伤害了自己的事业。事实上，这几乎是一次彻底的失败。
这个话题引起了很大的兴趣
我不知道它是否会有好处。
最后一个安息日是我们的圣餐，我们
收到了两个新成员。
库克先生几周前突然去世。
霍顿夫人失败了。我自己的家人
很好。爱德华在学院教书。哈丽特和艾米丽参加他的
学校。亨利在哈德逊。我们是
期待本周见到乔治·惠勒。
这对我来说将是新的
孩子们去看表弟，其中一些
从来没有见过。把我们的爱献给所有人
我们的朋友，并为
你自己。深情的你
V 诺伊斯。

Letter