Name/Title
J.J. Elwell Letter Regarding the PsalmsEntry/Object ID
2000.FIC.02.248Scope and Content
Letter from General John J. Elwell concerning his appreciation for the receipt of a book of the Psalms of David.
2000.FIC.02.248A
Elwell Stationary Letterhead:
OFFICE OF
J.J. Elwell,
Room 2, Benedict Block,
29 Euclid Avenue.
Cleveland, O. June 23 18 [blank]
My Good & Dear friends
It is very pleasant as I start off on the eighth, and last section of my life, to be greeted with so beautiful a copy of the Psalms of David. In the long and stormy life of David we find a parallel to every phase both of joy or sorrow, of fear or hope, nor has met us in this life from boyhood I have,
[p. 2]
like all Christian believers, in all of us and under all circumstances turned instinctively to the Psalms for thou help and comfort that I received in every emergency. Especially, during the war, I carried a little vol. given me by my daughter Emma - full of passages from the Ps- which I read and reread- passages and text for everyday in the year. Only yesterday I was looking over some pencil work made by me in 1862 + at Port Royal S.C. on who; "I will both lay me down in peace and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me to dwell in Safety."
[p. 3]
[Same heading]
"I laid me down & Slept. Iv waked; for the Lord sustained me". "But thou O Lord art a shield for me". These contr ? the experiences of a man whose life was a stormy one. He was on the mountain top and close to God at times and there he was in the deep dark valley of death and sin. Sometimes in defeat sometimes victorious - His life illustrates folly, an active human life. So it fits my case and yours, and that of all -
My poor wife wants
[p. 4]
me to read to her out of the Ps. more than any thing else. Last Sunday -a week ago- I read 22 Psalms to her - then she said I did not hear you read the 23 Ps. So I read that also. When she was able to read she read the Ps and Johns Gospel almost exclusively.
So you see how much I value your gift - both on account of what it contains to help us in the struggle of life, and because it came from you. I am not sorry that I have reached to so advance a point in life - I have no complaint to make of the past - it has been much better and ? of blessing More I deserved - Love to all JJECollection
Early Family Papers: CahoonRelationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Elwell, J.J.Person or Organization
Elwell, EmmaRelated Entries
Notes
2000.FIC.02.249, 2000.FIC.02.250, NP.03.02.006, NP.03.02.007, NP.03.02.008, NP.03.02.009, NP.03.02.010, NP.03.02.011
