Dartmouth, Mass., Sept. 15, 1859
My Dear Children,
You should feel grateful to God for his care over you. Morning
and evening you should have an interest in, and respect for, the hour
of prayer, and from your hearts offer to God true gratitude. Shut out
from your thoughts everything which would divert the mind from God,
and while others are praying, fix your thoughts upward. When you
pray, tell the dear Saviour just what you want in order to be kept from
sin, and that you may have a heart to glorify him. Jesus deserves your
gratitude and love. If you lack these things you cannot be children
of God. Jesus can give you strength to overcome every fault. He can
strengthen you in your purposes to do right. Keep from bad company.
If you are annoyed or threatened in the streets by quarrelsome boys,
do not retaliate. It is truly noble to forgive and pass over a wrong;
but it is mean and cowardly to revenge an injury. Let me entreat
you to be above everything like engaging in a dispute, or speaking
disrespectfully or sneeringly of those who annoy you, and do not
respect themselves enough to behave properly. Such boys are to be
pitied. They have but little happiness.
[66]
Seek to set a noble example to others, and make them happy. Do
not repeat things which you have heard to the injury of another. Ever
seek to make peace. Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers; for they
shall be called the children of God.” If you, my dear children, strive to
make peace with one another, and ever love as brothers should, you
will be blessed. Reflect, dear boys, if one of you should die and be laid
in the silent grave, how bitterly would the living feel over every unkind
word that had been spoken, every act which had grieved—all would
be revived. Every little unkindness would prove a thorn to wound your
heart.
Your affectionate Mother.
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