Major Sulivan's Last Letter to His Wife During the Civil War

Headquarters, Camp Clark
Washington, D.C., July 14, 1861

My Very Dear Wife:

Indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days, perhaps to-morrow. Lest I should not be able to write you again, I feel impelled to write a few lines, that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more.

Our movement may be one of a few days duration and full of pleasure and it may be one of severe conflict and death to me. Not my will, but thine, O God be done. If it is necessary that I should fall on the battle-field for any country, I am ready. I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in, the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how strongly American civilization now leans upon the triumph of government, and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution, and I am willing, perfectly willing to lay down all my joys in this life to help maintain this government, and to pay that debt.

But, my dear wife, when I know, that with my own joys, I lay down nearly all of yours, and replace them in this life with care and sorrows, when, after having eaten for long years the bitter fruit of orphanage myself, I must offer it, as their only sustenance, to my dear little children, is it weak or dishonorable, while the banner of my purpose floats calmly and proudly in the breeze, that my unbounded love for you, my darling wife and children, should struggle in fierce, though useless, contest with my love of country.

I cannot describe to you my feelings on this calm summer night, when two thousand men are sleeping around me, many of them enjoying the last, perhaps, before that of death, and I, suspicious that Death is creeping behind me with his fatal dart, am communing with God, my country and thee.

I have sought most closely and diligently, and often in my breast, for a wrong motive in this hazarding the happiness of those I loved, and I could not find one. A pure love of my country, and of the principles I have often advocated before the people, and "the name of honor, that I love more than I fear death," have called upon me, and I have obeyed.

Sarah, my love for you is deathless. It seems to bind me with mighty cables, that nothing but Omnipotence can break; and yet, my love of country comes over me like a strong wind, and bears me irresistibly on with all those chains, to the battlefield. The memories of all the blissful moments I have spent with you come crowding over me, and I feel most deeply grateful to God and you, that I have enjoyed them so long. And how hard it is for me to give them up, and burn to ashes the hopes of future years, when, God willing, we might still have lived and loved together, and seen our boys grow up to honorable manhood around us.

I know I have but few claims upon Divine Providence, but something whispers to me, perhaps it is the wafted prayer of my little Edgar, that I shall return to my loved ones unharmed. If I do not, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you, nor that, when my last breath escapes me on the battle-field, it will whisper your name.

Forgive my many faults, and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless, how foolish I have oftentimes been! How gladly would I wash out with my tears, every little spot upon your happiness, and struggle with all the misfortune of this world, to shield you and my children from harm. But I cannot, I must watch you from the spirit land and hover near you, while you buffet the storms with your precious little freight, and wait with sad patience till we meet to part no more.

But, O Sarah, if the dead can come back to this earth, and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you in the garish day, and the darkest night amidst your happiest scenes and gloomiest hours always, always, and, if the soft breeze fans your cheek, it shall be my breath; or the cool air cools your throbbing temples, it shall be my spirit passing by.
Sarah, do not mourn me dear; think I am gone, and wait for me, for we shall meet again.

As for my little boys, they will grow as I have done, and never know a father's love and care. Little Willie is too young to remember me long, and my blue-eyed Edgar will keep my frolics with him among the dimmest memories of his childhood. Sarah, I have unlimited confidence in your maternal care, and your development of their characters. Tell my two mothers, I call God's blessing upon them. O Sarah, I wait for you there! Come to me, and lead thither my children.

- Sullivan

Photo Source: nps.gov/articles/-my-very-dear-wife-the-last-letter-of-major-sullivan-ballou.htm

"You shall not make for yourselves idols, nor shall you set up for yourselves an image or a sacred pillar, nor shall you place a figured stone in your land to bow down to it; for I am the Lord your God." - Leviticus 26:1

THEIR MOLTEN IMAGES ARE WIND AND EMPTINESS   

“Behold, all of them are false; their works are worthless, their molten images are wind and emptiness."  

- Isaiah 41:29

YOU SHALL NOT MAKE OTEHR GODS   

"You shall not make other gods besides Me; gods of silver or gods of gold, you shall not make for yourselves."  

- Exodus 20:23

THOSE WHO FASHION A GRAVEN IMAGE  

"Those who fashion a graven image are all of them futile, and their precious things are of no profit; even their own witnesses fail to see or know, so that they will be put to shame."  

- Isaiah 44:9 

WHATSOEVER WE HAVE IDOLIZED  

"Whatsoever we have over-loved, idolized, and leaned upon, God has from time to time broken it, and made us to see the vanity of it; so that we find the readiest course to be rid our comforts is to set our hearts inordinately or immoderately upon them."  

- John Flavel (c1627-1691) English Puritan Minister

CURSED IS THE MAN WHO MAKES AN IDOL  

"‘Cursed is the man who makes an idol or a molten image, an abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ And all the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’" 

- Deuteronomy 27:15

THEY PRASIED GODS OF GOLD AND SILVER   

"They drank the wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone."  

- Daniel 5:4

AN IDOL MADE BY OUR OWN HANDS   

"Loving a holy God is beyond our moral power. The only kind of God we can love by our sinful nature is an unholy god, an idol made by our own hands. Unless we are born of the Spirit of God, unless God sheds His holy love in our hearts, unless He stoops in His grace to change our hearts, we will not love Him... To love a holy God requires grace, grace strong enough to pierce our hardened hearts and awaken our moribound souls."  

- R. C. Sproul (1939-2017) American Reformed Theologian 

SELF-RIGHTEOUSENESS IS THE LARGEST IDOL  

"Self-righteousness is the largest idol of the human heart - the idol which man loves most and God hates most. Dearly beloved, you will always be going back to this idol. You are always trying to be something in yourself, to gain God's favour by thinking little of your sin, or by looking to your repentance, tears, prayers ; or by looking to your religious exercises, your frames, etc; or by looking to your graces, the Spirit's work in your heart. Beware of false Christs. Study sanctification to the utmost, but make not a Christ of it." 

 - Robert Murray McCheyne (1813-1843) Church of Scotland Minister

ABSTAIN FROM THINGS POLUTTED BY IDOLS  

"But should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood."  

- Acts 15:20 

WORSHIPPING THY OWN IMAGINATION 

"To have a faith, therefore, or a trust in anything, where God hath not promised, is plain idolatry, and a worshipping of thine own imagination instead of God." 

- William Tindale (1494-1536) English Biblical Scholar

NOT TO WORSHIP DEMONS AND IDOLS  

"The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk."  

- Revelation 9:20

IDOLATORS WILL NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD  

"Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,  

- 1 Corinthians 6:9  3   

Photo Credit: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Phillip_Medhurst_Picture_Torah_450._Worshipping_the_golden_calf._Exodus_cap_32_vv_5-6._Dutch_Picture_Torah.jpg

ADAM, WHO WAS A TYPE OF THE ONE TO COME  

"Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come."

- Romans 5:14

ADAM WAS FORMED FIRST  

"For Adam was formed first, then Eve;"  

- 1 Timothy 2:13   

GOD CREATED HIM IN HIS LIKENESS  

"This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God."  

- Genesis 5:1

GOD FASHIONED INTO A WOMAN

The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man."

 - Gensis 2:22

AND ADAM CALLED HIS WIFE EVE

"And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living."

- Genesis 3:1

WHEN EVE WAS BROUGHT TO ADAM  

"When Eve was brought unto Adam, he became filled with the Holy Spirit, and gave her the most sanctified, the most glorious of appellations. He called her Eva, that is to say, the Mother of All. He did not style her wife, but simply mother, mother of all living creatures. In this consists the glory and the most precious ornament of woman."  

- Martin Luther (1483-1546) German Priest, Theologian

FROM ANY TREE IF THE GARDEN YOU MAY EAT

The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

- Genesis 2:16-17

THE SERPANT BEGUILED EVE

"But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."

- 2 Corinthians 11:13

THEN THE EYES OF BOTH WERE OPENED

"Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.."

- Genesis 3:7 

IT SOOTHES HIS SORROWS, HEALS HIS WOUNDS  

"How sweet the name of Jesus sounds, In a believer's ear! It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, And drives away his fear."  

- John Newton

ADAM FATHERED A SON IN HIS OWN LIKENESS  

"When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth."  

- Genesis 5:3

INHERITED FROM OUR FIRST PARENT ADAMA AND EVE  

"Let us, then, have it fixed down in our minds that the sinfulness of man does not begin from without, but from within. It is not the result of bad training in early years. It is not picked up from bad companions and bad examples, as some weak Christians are too fond of saying. No! It is a family disease, which we all inherit from our first parents, Adam and Eve, and with which we are born."  

- J. C. Ryle (1816-1900) English Anglican Bishop 

Photo Source: worthpoint.com/worthopedia/bible-scene-adam-eve-paradise-sunrise-462318081

"But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him." - 1 Corinthians 8:6

ABBA FATHER

"'Abba' is only a little word, and yet contains everything. It is not the mouth but the heart’s affection which speaks like this. Even if I am oppressed with anguish and terror on every side, and seem to be forsaken and utterly cast away from your presence, yet am I Your child, and You are my Father. For Christ’s sake: I am loved because of the Beloved. So this little word, “Abba,” Father, deeply felt in the heart, surpasses all the eloquence of Demosthenes, Cicero, and the most eloquent speakers that ever lived. This matter is not expressed with words, but with groanings, and these groanings cannot be uttered with any words of eloquence, for no tongue can express them"

- Martin Luther (1483-1546) German Religious Reformer

GOD IS OUR FATHER

"As Christian people we must learn to appropriate by faith the fact that God is our Father. Christ taught us to pray “Our Father.” This eternal everlasting God has become our Father and the moment we realize that, everything tends to change. He is our Father and He is always caring for us, He loves us with an everlasting love, He so loved us that He sent His only begotten Son into the world and to the Cross to die for our sins. That is our relationship to God and the moment we realize it, it transforms everything."

- Martyn-Lloyd Jones (1899-1981) Welsh Protestant Minister

JESUS ADDRESSED GOD AS HIS FATHER WHEN PRAYING

"In almost every prayer that Jesus utters in the New Testament, He addresses God as Father… This represents a radical departure from Jewish custom and tradition. Though Jewish people were given a lengthy number of appropriate titles for God in personal prayer, significantly absent from the approved list was the title “Father”… The serious reaction against Jesus by His contemporaries indicated that they heard in His addressing God as Father a blasphemous utterance by which Jesus was presuming, by this term of address, a certain equality that He enjoyed with the Father."

- R. C. Sproul (1939-2017) American Reformed Theologian

FATHERHOOD OF GOD

"If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God the Father."

J. I. Packer (1926-2020) English Evangelical Theologian

I'M TAKING MY CHILDREN WITH ME

"I am taking my children with me, and I notice that it is not difficult for me to remember that the little ones need breakfast in the morning, dinner at midday, and something before they go to bed at night. Indeed I could not forget it. And I find it impossible to suppose that our heavenly Father is less tender or mindful than I… I do not believe that our heavenly Father will ever forget His children. I am as very poor father, but it is not my habit to forget my children. God is a very, very good Father. It is not His habit to forget His children."

- Oswald Chambers (1874-1917) Scottish Evangelist and Teacher

THE FATHER OF THE FATHERLESS

"A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.."

- Psalm 68:5

KIND AND GOOD HEAVENLY FATHER  

"Oh, how very kind and good my heavenly Father has been to me! I have no aches or pains, no rheumatism, and now in my ninety-third year I can do a day's work at the orphan houses with as much ease and comfort to myself as ever."  

- George Mueller 1805-1898) English evangelist and helper of Orphans

REMEMBERING BEFORE OUR GOD AND FATHER  

"Remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ."  

- 1 Thessalonians 1:3

WHOM I WILL SEND FROM THE FATHER    

"But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me."  

- John 15:26 

FATHER MAKES KNOWN TO THE CHILDREN    

"The living, the living, he thanks you, as I do this day; the father makes known to the children your faithfulness."   

 - Isaiah 38:19

A FATHER GIVES HIS SON TWO SHINY QUARTERS

In Sabina Wurmbrand's book The Pastor's Wife. Sabina, a Romanian Christian, gave her life to the ministry of the persecuted church. After she spent ten years of her life in Communist prisons for her faith in Christ, she and her husband, Richard Wurmbrand, founded the organization, Voice of the Martyers, a Christian outreach to the suffering church. During World War II, she also was known to have hid the Jews from the Nazis. Later, she hid the Nazis from the Communists. Her ministry reached the expanse of many countries. 

I remember hearing Richard tell a church group that a woman came up to him after hearing him preach one Sunday morning and told him, "All the questions that I ever had about being a Christian woman were answered in Sabina's book." 

Sabina frequently told the story of a father who gave his young son two shiny new quarters. He instructed his son to put one of the quarters into the offering plate at the church as a gift to God and the other he could spend as he please. 

The young son, filled with joy, played with the two quarters until one finally slipped from his hands and fell into a drainage pipe, no longer to be found. Tears filled the boy's eyes as he ran to his father and said, "Daddy, Daddy, I've lost the quarter you gave me for God." 

Sabina's simple story was a constant reminder of how quickly we assign our lost time to God and hold fast to ourselves what is left. How often do we give the first fruit of our time, energy, and resources to our needs and desires and leave what is left, if anything, to God? Sabrina is an example of a woman who put God and the needs of His people first. During times of difficulty she would often ask a person, "Whose coin have you lost?" 

Sabrina left this world with virtually no earthly possessions. She didn't own or desire any savings, house or car, but she made many rich with the gift of her life. 

WHEN I WAS A SON WITH MY FATHER  

"When I was a son with my father, tender, the only one in the sight of my mother."  

- Proverbs 4:3

Photo Source: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Guercino,_padre_eterno_con_un_angioletto,_1620,_02.JPG

"One of the soldiers pierced his side with a lance, and immediately there came out blood and water” - John 19:34.

 BY HIS WOUNDS WE ARE HEALED   

"But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed."  

- Isaiah 53:5

BE GRACIOUS TO ME; HEAL ME    

"As for me, I said, “O LORD, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you!”  

- Psalm 41:4

HEALING EVERY DISEASE AND AFFLICTION    

"And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction."  

- Matthew 9:35

TO PROCLAIM THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND TO HEAL  

 "And he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal."  

- Luke 9:2

ASKING HIM TO COME AND HEAL HIS SERVANT    

"When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant."  

- Luke 7:3

WITH THE EXCEPTION OF SICKNESS   

"I venture to say that the greatest earthly blessing that God can give to any of us is health, with the exception of sickness. Sickness has frequently been of more use to the saints of God than health has."    

- Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) English Baptist Preacher 

HE HAD COMPASSION AND HEALED THEIR SICK  

"When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick."  

- Matthew 14:14

HEAL THE SICK AND SAY TO THEM   

"Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’"  

- Luke 10:9

NO HELATHY SAINT EVER CHOOSES SUFFERING  

"To choose to suffer means that there is something wrong; to choose God's will even if it means suffering is a very different thing. No healthy saint ever chooses suffering; he chooses God's will, as Jesus did, whether it means suffering or not."  

- Oswald Chambers (1874–1917) Scottish Evangelist and Teacher

IN SICKNESS THAN IN HEALTH 

"I wish you could convince yourself that GOD is often (in some sense) nearer to us, and more effectually present with us, in sickness than in health."  

- Brother Lawrence (1611-1691) Lay Monk in Paris 

HEALING TO ALL THEIR FLESH    

"For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh."    

- Proverbs 4:22

AND I WOULD HEAL THEM   

"For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them."  

- Matthew 13:15

Photo Source: beliefnet.com/columnists/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars/2011/04/does-russia-have-the-spear-that-pierced-jesus-side.html  - "A Soldier Pierces Christ's Side" by James Jacques Tissot (1836-1902)

"A simple man believes anything, but a prudent man gives thought to his steps." - Proverbs 14:15

WISDOM DWELLS TOGETHER WITH PRUDENCE  

"I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence; I possess knowledge and discretion."  

- Proverbs 8:12

THE PRUDENT SEE DANGER AND TAKE REFUGE  

"The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it."  

- Proverbs 27:12

A PRUDENT MAN ACTS OUT OF KNOWLEDGE  

"Every prudent man acts out of knowledge, but a fool exposes his folly." 

-Proverbs 13:16

WHOEVER HEEDS CORERCTION SHOS PRUDENCE  

"A fool spurns his father's discipline, but whoever heeds correction shows prudence."  

- Proverbs 15:5

THE PRUDENT ARE CROWNED WITH KNOWLEDGE  

"The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge."  

- Proverbs 14:18

A PRUDENT WIFE IS FROM THE LORD  

"Houses and wealth are inherited from parents, but a prudent wife is from the LORD."  

- Proverbs 19:14

NOT PRUDENT TO DO ANYTHING AGAINST CONSCIENCE  

"It is neither safe nor prudent to do anything against conscience."  

- Martin Luther (1483-1546) German Priest, Theologian

FOR AQUIRING A DISCIPLINED AND PRUDENT LIFE  

"The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel: for attaining wisdom and discipline; for understanding words of insight; for acquiring a disciplined and prudent life, doing what is right and just and fair; for giving prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the young. let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance for understanding proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise.  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline."  

- Proverbs 1:1-7

PRUDENTLY CULTIVATING SMALL PLEASURES  

"The chief secret of comfort lies in not suffering trifles to vex us, and in prudently cultivating an undergrowth of small pleasures, since very few great ones are let on long leases."  

- James H.  Aughey (1828-1911) Imprisoned American Minister

A PRUDENT MAN CONCEALS KNOWLEDGE   

"A prudent man conceals knowledge, but the heart of fools proclaims folly."  

- Proverbs 12:23

DANIEL REPLIED WITH PRUDENCE AND DISCRETION  

"Then Daniel replied with prudence and discretion to Arioch, the captain of the king’s guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon."  

- Daniel 2:14    

THE WISDOM OF THE PRUDENT    

"The wisdom of the prudent is to discern his way, but the folly of fools is deceiving."    

- Proverbs 14:8

Photo Source: ncregister.com/blog/patience-and-prudence

Under a sun awning, a thatched grass roof, resting on a roughly cut wooden posts, Mtesa, King of Uganda, sat in his quaintly built chair. By his side on a camp stool, Sir Henry Morton Stanley, his writing-case on his knees, was busily typing. Around them chiefs and sub-chief’, slaves, and native women, formed the background.

“Here is the letter,” said the white man to the ruler of the land, “the letter asking the people of my country to send you teachers. I wish I could stay and instruct all your people in the ways of the white man and the white man’s God, but I cannot do this, as my friends who have sent me to this country expect me to go on my geographical and exploring work.”

At this moment Linant de Bellefond, Stanley’s friend, sauntered up to him. “I think I shall have to leave to tomorrow,” he remarked, “on my way north-ward down the Nile. Can I do anything for you?”

  “Yes,” said Stanley. “You can carry my mail if you will and take this letter to the Editor of the Daily Telegraph in London. I’ll write him a special note, asking him to publish this call for missionaries to be sent to Uganda.”

King Mtesa, much pleased, showed his appreciation by providing carriers and food for the caravans of the two explores when, shortly after, they left his land.

Through forests, swamps and open plains, by road and river, de Bellefond journeyed towards the Sudan. Months and months of travel in the wild tropical regions of the African forest belt had been hard on de Bellefond’s nervous system. He was full of fever but soon (maybe in a month or two) he would reach Khatum, travel through healthy desert lands, to Egypt, and thus home. Like Van der Deken, Mme. Tinney, Boyd Alexander and many others, he was to die in the dark Continent at the hands of the natives.

He had reached the country of the Bari people, one of the Nilotic tribes. Whether his treatment of the natives caused by his nervous condition stirred up, or whether fear of the white man ghost-like traveler who suddenly appeared among them lead to trouble, will probably remain unknown. This is much certain, that in a scuffle with Bari tribesman he received a blow on the head with bludgeon-like, wooden club, and was killed. The servants ran away, and some of them finally found their way to Khatum, where Charles Gordon (“Chinese Gordon”) was then governor. An intelligence officer who had heard the story of the death of a white man reported it to Gordon. A small expedition of investigation was sent, and de Bellefond’s body was found. The natives had not touched it, but had run away into the long grass. The body was decomposed, but on its feet were still the boots, and when these were examined, there was found in one of them Stanley’s letter to the Editor of the London Daily Telegraph. 

Reverently the explorer’s body was deposited in a grave, but Stanley’s letter was taken on, handed to Gordon, and by him sent home to Europe. In due time it appeared – on November 15th, 1875. An anonymous donor immediately offered five thousand pounds sterling to the Church Missionary Society, asking that a missionary party should be dispatched to Uganda. Another 15 thousand pounds was collected, and on 22nd of April 1876, the missionaries sailed from England to carry the Gospel to the heart of Africa, there to lay the foundations for the most successful foreign missionary enterprise of our day. On that boat was Alexander M. Mckay who was the first missionary to Uganda. 

IF YOU ENTER THAT PROVINCE  

“Brother, if you would enter that Province, you must go forward on your knees.”   

- Hudson Taylor (1832-1905) Missionary to China

EVERY CHRISTIAN IS A MISSIONARY  

"Every Christian is either a missionary or an impostor."  

- Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) English Baptist Preacher 

NOT CALLED! DID YOU SAY    

'Not called!' did you say? 'Not heard the call,' I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father's house and bid their brothers and sisters, and servants and masters not to come there. And then look Christ in the face, whose mercy you have professed to obey, and tell him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish his mercy to the world."    

- William Booth (1829-1912) Founder, Salvation Army

PEOPLE WHO DO NOT KNOW THE LORD

"And people who do not know the Lord ask why in the world we waste our lives as missionaries. They forget that they too are expending their lives, and when the bubble has burst they will have nothing of eternal significance to show for the years they have wasted.

- Nathanael Saint (1923–1956) Christian Missionary Pilot killed in Ecuador

LEAVE YOUR WORK AT HOME

"I entreat you to leave your work at home to the many who are ready to undertake it, and to come forth yourselves to reap this field now white to the harvest."

- Alexander Mackay (1849-1890) Scottish Missionary to Uganda

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Maurice_Adolphe_Linant_de_Bellefonds

THE CHINESE MONARCH AND THE REBELS

A Chinese Emperor told that his enemies had raised an insurrection in one of the distant provinces,-- "Come, then, my friends" he said he, "Follow me, and I promise you that we shall quickly destroy them." He marched forward, and the rebels submitted upon his approach. All now though that he would take the most signal revenge; but were surprised to see the captives treated with mildness and humanity. "How!" cried the first minister, "is this the manner in which you fulfill your promise? Your royal word was given, that your enemies should be destroyed; and, behold you have pardoned them!"  

  "I promised," replied the Emperor, with a generous air, "to destroy my enemies. I have fulfilled my word; for see, they are enemies no longer; I have made friends of them." Let every Christian imitate so noble an example, and learn "to overcome evil with good."

- Moral and Religious Anecdotes by Norman Islay Macleod C. 1870s

AFTER JOB PRAYED FOR HIS FRIENDS 

"After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before."  

- Job 42:10

ETERNAL FRIENDS

"As I go into a cemetery I like to think of the time when the dead shall rise from their graves… Thank God, our friends are not buried; they are only sown!"

- D. L. Moody (1837-1899) American Evangelist, Teacher and Preacher

GOOD CHARACTER

"A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble."

- Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) English Baptist Preacher and Author

FIRENDS IN ETERNITY

"It the best to be with those in time, that we hope to be within eternity."

- Thomas Fuller (1608-1661) English Churchman and Historian

BURY THE FAULTS OF YOUR FRIENDS

" Every man should keep a fair-sized cemetery in which to bury the faults of his friends."

- Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) American Clergyman

GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

- John 15:13

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