Letter from Judith to Henrietta Bogart 1822
From the personal collection of Sylvia Hasenkopf
Miss Henrietta Bogart
To the care of Mr. John Bogart
Albany
Catskill July 24, 1822
My dear Henrietta
Your kind & welcome I received yesterday and was happy in hearing although I had not received a line from you that I had not been forgotten, and sincerely trust I was remember’d in your prayers also, I think it is a great gratification to me, when absent from friends that we love, we have the pleasure of thinking of them, & make known our thoughts by writing……& I can assure you my dear & it affords me pleasure, that I can address you by writing, perhaps you will accuse me of flattery, but believe me my dear & when I say that you are one of my friends which I sincerely love, & more dear are you now to me then ever you were before, --- & why ---- because I humbly trust that we are both sincere followers of the meek & lowly few, who my dear …that has heard of of the blessed Saviour, & his great compassion to sinners, but what will willingly give themselves up to him, to be entirely his surely into better hands we never can commit ourselves, & I sincerely trust we may always abide in his love, ----- Gitty has …… a severe loss but I trust she knows to whom she must look for that comfort & consolation which she so much stands in need of & I trust she knows that it is her heavenly father that has afflicted & that no doubt for some wise end, for he does not afflict or grieve the children of men willingly, for whom the Lord loveth he chastiseth &scourges every soul whom he receives, many precious promises have the sons & daughters of afflictions offered to them in the Gospel, God never lays more upon his children then they are able to bear, --I think it is well for us my dear… that we have trials & afflictions in this live, they often prove our greatest blessings and every thing work out as we wish, & we pass through life without trials of some kind or other, we would forget we are mortal forget that there is a day comeing in which we shall all have to give an account of the life that we have spent, & would also forget that there is an all wise being to whom belongs all our praise, it is very often through afflictions that we are brought to a sense of our unworthiness, ---------- Yes my dear Christian friend, I have openly professed the name of Christ & feel happy , for without Christ , what is then in this life or in the life to come that can make us truly happy, surely nothing, & it shall always be my sincere prayer that I may continue steadfast until the end, & I sincerely trust & pray that I may be kept from the wicked ways of sin & folly --- & that my (……?) & conversation may always be such as I have possessed, & that I may grow more & more in Grace & in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ & live by faith upon the divine premises, ---, it affords me great pleasure to hear that you have been pleased with the conduct of Emeline Benson, --- I think that she is not willfully wicked & I am really in hopes that she will make a smart Scholar, I am very much attached to her, --- tell her from me that I hope she will be a good girl & I mind all you say, --- I (missing) really in hopes I should before another Sabbath be at home, but Gitty thinks she cannot go until next Tuesday (missing) know how it will I am very anxious to go home (missing) all my friends, --- but it will be all right, therefore it is my wish to submit, to him who knows what is best, & who orders all things wise & sure, ---- if you possibly can my dear Henrietta, I wish you would write to me by the Fridays Boat, excuse all mistakes you will find in this letter, give my love to your mother & all enquiring friends, & in your prayers to the Throne of grace remember me your friend, Judith