September 26, 1861
I did not have room enough in my last letter, nor have I
time this morning, to write as much as I desired about Dr. Dabney's sermon
yesterday. His text was from Acts, seventh chapter and fifth verse. He stated
that the word God being in italics indicated that it was not in the original,
and he thought it would have been better not to have been in the translation.
It would then have read: “Calling upon and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit.” He spoke of Stephen, the first martyr under the new dispensation, like
Abel, the first under the old, dying by the hand of violence, and then drew a
graphic picture of his probably broken limbs, mangled flesh and features,
conspiring to heighten his agonizing sufferings. But in the midst of this
intense pain, God, in His infinite wisdom and mercy, permitted him to see the
heavens opened, so that he might behold the glory of God, and Jesus, of whom he
was speaking, standing on the right hand of God. Was not such a heavenly vision
enough to make him forgetful of his sufferings? He beautifully and forcibly
described the death of the righteous, and as forcibly that of the wicked. . . .
Strangers as well as Lexington friends are very kind to me.
I think about eight days since a gentleman sent me a half-barrel of tomatoes,
bread, etc., and I received a letter, I am inclined to think from the same,
desiring directions how to send a second supply. I received from Colonel Ruff a
box of beautifully packed and delicately flavored plums; also a bottle of blackberry
vinegar from the Misses B. What I need is a more grateful heart to the “Giver of
every good and perfect gift.”
SOURCE: Mary Anna Jackson, Life and Letters of
General Thomas J. Jackson (Stonewall Jackson), p. 193-4
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