Sunday, December 23, 2018

John Brown to Reverend Alexander M. Milligan, November 29, 1859

Charlestown, Jefferson County, Va., Nov. 29, 1859.

My Dear Covenanter, — Notwithstanding I now get daily more than three times the number of kind letters I can possibly answer, I cannot deny myself the satisfaction of saying a few words to a stranger, whose feelings and whose judgment so nearly coincide with my own. No letter, of a great number I have got to cheer, encourage, and advise me, has given more heartwarming satisfaction or better counsel than your own. I hope to profit by it; and I am greatly obliged for this your visit to my prison. It really seemed to impart new strength to my soul, not withstanding I was very cheerful before. I trust, dear brother, that God, in infinite grace and mercy for Christ's sake, will neither leave me nor forsake me till I “have showed His power to this generation, and his strength to every one that is to come.” I would most gladly commune further as we journey on; but I am so near the close of mine that I must break off, however reluctant.

Farewell, my faithful brother in Christ Jesus! Farewell!

Your friend,
John Brown.

SOURCES: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 610

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