The GOSPEL TRUTH
LETTER OF

CHARLES G. FINNEY

1862

To Julia Finney

12 July 1862

 

[MS in Finney Papers, Supplement # 110]

 

Oberlin 12th July 1862

Dear Daughter Julia.

How do you do? & how is Helen?

How much we do want to see you. Our

erries

raspberrys ^ are now ripe, & we have abund

ance of them, & as you dont eat straw-

berries I wish you could here. I suppose

you have them there but perhaps not

in such abundance as we have. They

come only once a year at best &

seldom as plentifully as this year.

We hate to ask you to leave Helen in

her loneliness & anxiety about Dolson

but we want much to see you.

By the bye We have just been invited

to visit Sarah Cowles at 8 oC[l]ock on

Monday morning. She starts immediately

after on a journey east. I leave you to

judge the rest as this is all we know

of the matter. She has been home about

two weeks. I wish to know whether Helen

[page 2]

has read Dr. Bushnells "Christian

Nurture." If not whether she will read

it if I send it to her. What does Helen

propose to do with Willie or have

him do with himself. He is at his uncles.

He is rather lonely here where he has

nothing to do. If he were at study

I think he would not be lonely as he

would then form acquaintances &

be busy withall. When he goes to study

again had he not better come here &

complete his education? I expect to give

him a thorough course if I live long

enough.

Dolson it seems is still kept back

from the seat of the war. I am glad

it is so though he, I presume is not.

I hope Helen is quiet in spirit &

trusting in God. Norton was at

home & went to the Lake on the 4th

He writes since that he is well & very

busy. Your cousin little Edward

Andrews is sick at Cleveland,

[page 3]

He went to spend the 4th with

Helen, was taken sick, & yesterday

they telegraphed for his mother to go

out immediately. She went but

I have not heard from her since.

Your mother is not at all well any

of the time. The cough is worse than

I have ever known it at this time

of year. She is about & busy but not

well. My health continues to improve

slowly. It is a time of unusual health

here as physicians say. It rains a

great deal so that the roads are bad

nearly all the time & we can neither

hoe the corn not get the hay.

We hope you are well. Love to

Dear Helen & the Dear Children.

But as Mothers letter went to day

I will let this lie over until

Monday.

Monday morning. I have just returned

from Sarah Cowles wedding.

She was married at 7. & left in the

[page 4]

train for New England at 8.

She married the principal of the

Institution for the Blind at Janesville

Wis, where she has been teaching. Her

husbands name is Little. They are

to continue their teaching there.

I preached yesterday morning for

the first time since my severe il[l]ness.

Willie was here yesterday. Is at his

uncles now. If you were here he

would not be so lonely here. It rains

to day & rained last night.

James is well. We are as usual.

All send love. Give any quantity

of love to Helen & the children &

to Dolson when any of you

write. Your aff. Father.

C. G. Finney

 

Footnotes:

Brigadier-General Jacob Dolson Cox who was encamped in Charleston had had a successful campaign in Western Virginia the previous year but was unable to get a role in the major fighting in the East. See Eugene D. Schmiel, "The Career of Jacob Dolson Cox, 1828-1900" (Ph.D. Dissertation, Ohio State University, 1969), pp 80-92.

Sarah Florella Cowles (1838-1912) was the daughter of Professor Henry Cowles, of Oberlin. On Monday 14th July she was married to Thomas Henry Little, the superintendent of the State School for the Blind in Janesville, Wisconsin, where she was a teacher. See her obituary in The Oberlin Alumni Magazine Vol. 8 (February 1912), p. 168.

Horace Bushnell, Christian Nurture (New York: Scribner, 1861). Parts of this work had previously been published in 1847 under the title "Views of Christian Nurture." Finney was a friend of Bushnell's from the time when Finney had preached in Hartford in the winter of 1851-52.

Finney had written something here, crossed it out and altered it to what looks like at. Julia Finney has written over it: "? at".

Edward William Hutchinson Andrews (1849-1924) was the son of Deacon Edward Andrews of Oberlin, and his wife, Delia.

Julia inserted the word Atkinson here. James Atkinson was a son of Finney's wife.