Transcription
2d October 1848
My Dear Mrs MacKenzie
Notwithstanding a feeling that / any words from others than your own immediate family / would as yet be an intrusion upon the sacred privacy of / your deep sorrow, I cannot help expressing to you with / how true a sympathy I have thought of you during / these days of trial. Independently of the attachment / which I shall ever entertain for your Father + the most grateful / affection which I shall cherish for the memory of your be / loved Mother as long as my life lasts, there have been afso- / ciations with yourself which have caused me to regard / your welfare with a peculiar interest. I have been / under the impression (whether correct of not it matters / not) that we commenced the christian life about the / same period. The change of my own views + habits was / a very great one. Religious hopes + plans took a strong / hold of my feelings + I trust, of my heart likewise: and /
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Imbibing the notion at the time, that your concern in / this momentous subject was deepening + maturing, I / feel in the privacy of my own thoughts as though I had a / companion in this new life. I remember that among / my earliest endeavors to present my own wants before / God, I coupled with them earnest petitions for your spi - / ritual welfare. At various times in your subsequent / life have I sought thus to remember you in imperfect / intercessions, animated by the belief that in this / way I might be able to return to the daughter some / of the great kindness which I had received from the / parents. I could not allude to such private thoughts / of my own, here it not that the mention of them / [^may assure you] that in now breaking in upon your retirement, I / am prompted by a feeling of the truest regard + sym / pathy.
I know that your [bereavement?] is one of the very / nearest [or keenest?] with which God visits his children: one which / no one can fully enter into except those who have been /
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In all respects similarly tried: And though I am / persuaded that by + bye a thousand pleasing + allevia / ting circumstances will throng upon your memory, / giving you occasion to see in your own case how much / of mercy is to be found amid heavy sorrows, still at / present the trial is fearfully “grievous” + prostrating in / its effects. Leaving then those suggestions which here - / after your heart will be better prepared to received, suf- / fer me to repeat – what I doubt not is fully realized / by you alread _ that there is one only solace while in / such a p”furnace of affliction”; – and that is a simply child= / like clinging to the arms of the Lord Jesus.
Consider that it is the act of one who strikes in mercy, / + wounds that he may heal. Call to mind his unutterable / tenderness + compassion. Represent him to yourself in / all the attributes of love + pity by which he was surroun - / ded when himself “a man of sorrows” in this [?--ed?] Be- / lieve that he is now the same, having a heart overflowing / with sympathy for his sorrowing servants. Dwell upon / the expressions of figures employed in Scripture to illus=
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trate his [surpassing?] goodness toward those who trust in him. She / often is indelibly imprinted upon my mind. You know / well the love of a mother for her child: _ How her own heart / is wring when the darling suffers : how every cry pierces / her very sould when she is forced for its good to inflict needful / chastening. Now this very image is used by the Lord / “As when his mother comoforteth, so will I comfort / you!” Could words or figures more touchingly depict the / measurelefs love of the Lord Jesus for his people!
Cast yourself therefore, My dear friend, very, very often in / prayer upon the promises + invitations of this gracious Lord. Pour / out your grieds to him at your [??] in the Ear of some devote d/ friend: And you will find him very near to you _ a very / present help in time of trouble. He will sustain + comfort / + guide + afsit + protect + sanctify you : _ and qualify you / for the serious duties which his providence has devolved upon / you. I will trespass no farther upon you : and would only / beg to afsure you that I shall not cease to pray for Lord’s Blefsing / upon you + your little ones Anna unites with me in / messages of affection. I am
Most faithfully yours
Pierre P. Irving
Mrs A. S. McKenzie / TarrytownTranscriber
Kathryn AlexanderLanguage
English
