Take refuge in prayer when you are most
troubled; the door of the sanctuary will never be shut against you. I
send you a paper which is very sacred to me. Bless Heaven that your
heart is awakened to sacred duties before any kind of gentle
ministering has become impossible, before any relation has been
broken. [Footnote: It has always been my desire to find appropriate
time and place to correct an erroneous impression which has gained
currency in regard to my father, and which does injustice to his
memory. That impression is that he was exceedingly stern and exacting
in the parental relation, and especially in regard to my sister; that
he forbid or frowned upon her sports;--excluded her from intercourse
with other children when she, a child, needed such companionship, and
required her to bend almost unceasingly over her books. This
impression has, certainly in part, arisen from an autobiographical
sketch, never written for publication nor intended for a literal or
complete statement of her father's educational method, or the relation
which existed between them, which was most loving and true on both
sides. While the narrative is true, it is not the all she would have
said, and, therefore, taken alone, conveys an impression which
misleads those who did not know our father well.
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