Charlestown, Jefferson Cottnty, Va.,
Nov. 27, 1859
(Sabbath).
My Dearly Beloved
Sisters Mary A. And Martha, — I am obliged to occupy a part of what is
probably my last Sabbath on earth in answering the very kind and comforting
letters of sister Hand and son of the 23d inst., or I must fail to do so at
all. I do not think it any violation of the day that God made for man. Nothing
could be more grateful to my feelings than to learn that you do not feel
dreadfully mortified, and even disgraced, on account of your relation to one who
is to die on the scaffold. I have really suffered more, by tenfold, since my
confinement here, on account of what I feared would be the terrible feelings of
my kindred on my account, than from all other causes. I am most glad to learn
from you that my fears on your own account were ill founded. I was afraid that
a little seeming present prosperity might have carried you away from realities,
so that “the honor that cometh from men” might lead you in some measure to
undervalue that which “cometh from God.” I bless God, who has most abundantly
supported and comforted mo all along, to find you are not ensnared. Dr. Heman
Humphrey has just sent me a most doleful lamentation over my “infatuation and
madness” (very kindly expressed), in which, I cannot doubt, he has given
expression to the extreme grief of others of our kindred. I have endeavored to
answer him kindly also, and at the same time to deal faithfully with my old
friend. I think I will send you his letter; and if you deem it worth the
trouble, you can probably get my reply, or a copy of it. Suffice it for me to
say, “None of these things move me.” Luther Humphrey wrote me a very comforting
letter.
There are things, dear sisters, that God hides even from the
wise and prudent. I feel astonished that one so exceedingly vile and unworthy
as I am should even be suffered to have a place anyhow or anywhere among the
very least of all who, when they come to die (as all must), were permitted to
pay the debt of nature in defence of the right and of God's eternal and
immutable truth. Oh, my dear friends, can you believe it possible that the
scaffold has no terrors for your own poor old unworthy brother? I thank God,
through Jesus Christ my Lord, it is even so. I am now shedding tears, but they
are no longer tears of grief or sorrow; I trust I have nearly done with those.
I am weeping for joy and gratitude that I can in no other way express. I get
many very kind and comforting letters that I cannot possibly reply to; wish I
had time and strength to answer all. I am obliged to ask those to whom I do
write to let friends read what I send as much as they well can. Do write my
deeply afflicted and affectionate wife. It will greatly comfort her to have you
write her freely. She has borne up manfully under accumulated griefs. She will
be most glad to know that she has not been entirely forgotten by my kindred.
Say to all my friends that I am waiting cheerfully and patiently the days of my
appointed time; fully believing that for me now to die will be to me an
infinite gain and of untold benefit to the cause we love. Wherefore, “be of
good cheer,” and “let not your hearts be troubled.” “To him that overcometh
will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set
down with my Father in his throne.” I wish my friends could know but a little
of the rare opportunities I now get for kind and faithful labor in God's cause.
I hope they have not been entirely lust.
Now, dear friends, I have done. May the God of peace bring
us all again from the dead!
Your affectionate
brother;
John Brown.
SOURCES: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters
of John Brown, p. 607-9
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