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sons who are abroad. 62 Be thou the guardian and guide of their youth and studies,
and let all our dear children, friends, and relatives be pitied and find mercy and
receive grace from our God. Oh! Lord, accept of my thank offering and hear our
prayers. Amen.
June ’82
18. My son Rensselaer was sick of the chickenpox, and I enabled through grace
to call you the Lord for his restoration, dedicating him at the same time to His
service, and the Lord has heard and answered me. Thanks to my God and Father
for this new instance of unchangeable love and sparing goodness. May all my
children be taught to acknowledge the Lord in all their ways, and my family
experience that the Lord is our physician who healeth our sicknesses. O gracious
God, accept of my thank offering and bless Thee according of that Thy mercy to
my soul and to my children for Christ’s sake. Amen.
July ’82
5. Blessed be the Lord who has heard my prayers. Both our daughters Elisabeth
and Catharine were also visited with the same sickness though neither of them as
severe as Rensselaer, and the Lord has most graciously healed them. May they all
be impressed with humble and Holy Gratitude, and live for the glory and in the
service of our God; about the same time we received intelligence that our eldest
son Stephen at Cambridge was very ill of a fever, which distressed us not a little
because he did not write himself and we heard was indeed too sick to do it. We
called upon the name of God, who is everywhere present. It will not despise the
supplications of them that are destitute; and the Lord has granted us an answer of
prayer, while by the last account he was almost perfectly restored. May this
instance of His loving kindness be remembered by us and our children, and we all
be enabled to glorify our bountiful Benefactor in our day and generation. I have
also had the honor to address General Washington, who received us very friendly
and honored the consistory with a polite answer. May our spiritual wishes be
acceptable to God and our prayers be answered in His own good time. Lord,
preserve us in the privileges we still enjoy and restore peace and plenty with
virtue, and piety to our sinful guilty land, for Christ’s sake. Amen.
13. May our souls be prepared to meet the Lord at His Table, in His Sanctuary,
for tomorrow we are called to commemorate the death of our Lord! Blessed be
God for a crucified Jesus, who has honored and glorified the laws and
righteousness of God by a complete satisfaction to Divine justice, and is now
exalted on a throne of mercy, nay, invites us poor perishing sinners to His
gracious and Holy Communion. I desire in the strength of his grace and spirit to
renew covenant with my God and Father in Christ and to devote myself and
family to the Lord and His service, but oh, Lord, pardon our manifold sins which
we have committed before Thee and do not enter into judgment with us, but
remember mercy and let us experience that with Thee is forgiveness and plenteous
redemption in Thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ; and grant us the renewing
62
He must be referring to Stephen and Philip Van Rensselaer, his stepsons, then 17 and 15,
respectively. “Abroad” was used as a term meaning “away.’ Stephen was a student at Harvard then.
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