Letter 18

Date:              August 25, 1877

Sender:          Harmen Jan te Selle

Addressee:   Mrs. Dela te Selle-ten Damme  Brothers

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Firth, Neb    August 25, 1877

received Sept. 13

17 days

Dear Respected Mother and Brothers, and other friends.

I hereby take up the pen to write you some words and hoping you may receive these words in the best personal state of health.

Before this letter I wrote another one, but I never got an answer back. We write now because we received last week a letter from brother Derk Willem. Yes, that was very sad news! So I thought to answer that letter, which hopefully will get into your hands.

Yes, brother D.W., it is a hard blow for you to have to miss your dear wife. ^[i]   Yes, I know from my own experience^[ii] how sad it is to have to leave to the death a wife and mother of dear children.   But it is God's wish. And who will doubt his doings?

Brother, have trust in the Lord. He will help you. He will not desert anybody who trusts Him.  Herewith comforting it is a consolation to know that peace will befall those who fear the Lord. And once in the future we will see each other again face to face in that eternal state, in that new Jerusalem hereafter, where no tears are going to be shed anymore. And death cannot cause any separations anymore.   Yes, may this be yours and my consolation. Yes, may this be a consolation for all of us and there may be peace for the people of God.

I received that letter at the postoffice and brought it to Gerrit Jan. I thought to myself, mother is very old already and might not be doing too well. And when we opened the letter we were so sad to learn that it was actually about Janna’s death. And also for you, Mother, it must be sad. You possibly might have thought to get good help from Janna in your old age or your deathbed. But she precedes you to eternity. She cannot help you any more. She passed away. But Mother find consolation  in the fact that you have another helper and that is Jesus, your saviour.