Charlestown, Jefferson
County, Va., Nov. 22, 1859.
Dear Children,
— Your most welcome letters of the 16th inst. I have just received, and I bless
God that he has enabled you to bear the heavy tidings of our disaster with so
much seeming resignation and composure of mind. That is exactly the thing I
have wished you all to do for me, — to be cheerful and perfectly resigned to
the holy will of a wise and good God. I bless his most holy name that I am, I
trust, in some good measure able to do the same. I am even “joyful in all my
tribulations” ever since my confinement, and I humbly trust that “I know in
whom I have trusted.” A calm peace, perhaps like that which your own dear
mother felt in view of her last change, seems to fill my mind by day and by
night. Of this neither the powers of “earth or hell” can deprive me. Do not, my
dear children, any of you grieve for a single moment on my account. As I trust
my life has not been thrown away, so I also humbly trust that my death will not
be in vain. God can make it to be a thousand times more valuable to his own cause
than all the miserable service (at best) that I have rendered it during my
life. When I was first taken, I was too feeble to write much; so I wrote what I
could to North Elba, requesting Ruth and Anne to send you copies of all my
letters to them. I hope they have done so, and that you, Ellen,1
will do the same with what I may send to you, as it is still quite a labor for
me to write all that I need to. I want your brothers to know what I write, if
you know where to reach them. I wrote Jeremiah a few days since to supply a
trifling assistance, fifteen dollars, to such of you as might be most
destitute. I got his letter, but do not know as he got mine. I hope to get
another letter from him soon. I also asked him to show you my letter. I know of
nothing you can any of you now do for me, unless it is to comfort your own
hearts, and cheer and encourage each other to trust in God and Jesus Christ
whom he hath sent. If you will keep his sayings, you shall certainly “know of
his doctrine, whether it be of God or no.” Nothing can be more grateful to me
than your earnest sympathy, except it be to know that you are fully persuaded
to be Christians. And now, dear children, farewell for this time. I hope to be
able to write you again. The God of my fathers take you for his children.
Your affectionate
father,
John Brown.
_______________
1 Mrs. Jason Brown.
SOURCES: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters
of John Brown, p. 597-8
