LETTER OF
The GOSPEL TRUTH CHARLES G. FINNEY
1867
To Friends in England and Scotland
30 January 1867
[MS in Atkins Family Papers, C-B449, The General Library, University of California, Berkeley.]
Mary Atkins (1819-1882) had been a student at Oberlin College and was Assistant in the Female Department from 1847-1849. For information, see "Mary Atkins Lynch" by Rita S. Saslaw, in Maxine S. Seller (editor), Women Educators in the United States, 1820-1993: A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994), pp. 283-93; and the sketch by Corinne Lathrop Gilb, in James T. Edward, Notable American Women 1609-1950, Volume 1 (Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971), pp. 65-66. See also details of her marriage to John Lynch in The Lorain County News (Oberlin), 31 March 1869, p. 3.
Oberlin College. Ohio, U.S.A.
30th Jan. 1867.
To My Dear Friends in England & Scotland.
Rev. Dr. John Campbell, London.
Rev. James Harcourt, London.
Mrs. Thomas Avery. High Gate Birmingham,
Mr & Mrs. William Philips, Birmingham,
Peter Spence, Manchester,
Rev. Mr. Best, Bolton, Lancashire.
James Barlow Esqr, Bolton.
Potto Brown Esqr, Houghton, Huntingdon shire.
Bateman Brown, Esqr, Huntingdon.
Doctor Cotter Cambridge,
Rev. John Kirk, Edinburg, Scotland,
Rev. Fergus Ferguson, Glasgow.
Dear Christian Friends, I take pleasure
in commending to your Christian love
Miss Mary Atkins. She is an Oberlin student
& has been teaching with marked success
since her graduation. She has visited the
Missionary stations in China, Japan, Siam
& Van Couver Island. She now visits
Europe as an enquirer after the most
approved methods of teaching. You
will find her intelligent, frank &
trustworthy in all respects. Any thing
that you can do to aid her in getting
the information she seeks will be
greatfully appreciated by her & by myself.
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She has long been a very dear friend
of mine & of my family. I am anxious
to have her make your acquaintance &
that of your family so far as is possible
for her, & convenient & agreeable to you.
You will be glad to know that we
are at present enjoying the most
powerful out pouring of the Holy
Spirit that I have witnessed for many
years. My health is good when I do
not labor too hard. I am of course
full of revival labors at present.
God bless you all evermore
C. G. Finney
Footnotes:
She was a student of the class of 1845 in Oberlin College.
This visit was for a year of rest. For details of the first 115 days of her voyage from San Francisco via the Sandwich Islands and Japan to Shanghai, from 10 November 1863 to 4 March 1864 on the Brig Advance, see The Diary of Mary Atkins. A Sabbatical in the Eighteen Sixties. Introduction by Amelia Henry Reinhardt (Mills College, California: The Eucalyptus Press, March 1937).