Year: 1868

time thinking, bad, wicked thoughts.
| amt bit thankful for our mercieg.


L kneel down and pray and ask God to
make me good, and He doesn't do it.


I IL know He has pardoned my sins for
Chriss,s sake. l kpgw and kpow. AID


kno" lie has; but I don't stop being


wicked. keep thinking and think
! ing about great elegant house with
three Or four large parlers, all in a row.
and green house, and a conservatory
and a lawn, and great OAK trees, and We
are all there and have a large pa.ty


Ihc larlors are so elegant, all lined


with mirrors and pictures, withs many


lights, and you see everything over
and over again in ths mirrors. Fatber
and mother and you ara receiving com.
pany. He looks like a noblemap


Mother is dressed in a heavy black
silk, With little white lace cap; ard
you have on silver grey, and look
like pearl. Minerva wears blue
velvet, with long trail, and long fow-
ing sleeves, and a little lace collar, and
pearl broach, with white lace veil
fixed so as to show her goldy brown hair


She just looks like queen, go slender
and tall. l have On buff moire an
! tlque, and willow feather of the same
color in my hair. Fanny and Julia
wear white and pink. Jeaanic is lust
like cherub, and Willie can see rs
all. Is God very angry when We think
about pretty dresses :? What is the sin
against the holy Ghost? 1 lost some
money yesterday, and I tried to be re-
signed because i I:thoaght: God had
foreordaiued it from: eternity. What
made God oreordain sin ? .Dr. Mur-
dock says He only permits it,. but if
He "foreordained whatsoever comes to
pass" there isn't much comes to pass
but sin; and don't see but it's Just IS
bad for Him to permit it.. If He did
Mt intend to have sin be doesn't gov
ern the world, and things must be al
ways going contrary with Him; and
how does He know how it. will all turn
out? Oh, wouldn't it be- dreadful if
things arc just happening, and He can
not make them come right? What
makes Him have things 60 wrong at
all, when he is all-powerful? I am
sure it is wicked for me to talk 50;
but I think and think, and He knows
it, and cannot help it. Oh, dear,
do love you SO much and want to see
you every minute.


Susan Matoon has the funniest little
bonnet. Her cousin sent it ,ffom Par
is i; it is SO little you cannot tell she
has anything on her head, unless you
get behind her She just pins it to
the back Of her hair, with two great
pins; and there it is and she goes to
meeting bareheaded Old Deacon
Stanton says it's a shame to let her
come in with her head uncovered.


There's going to be Worlds Fair
in New York. It will he all made Of
glass; and I am going to make pair
Of CATERS and send it. Amanda Simp-
son says the end Of the world is com
ing, because man away out in Penn
sylvania was digging salt we'll, and
the we'll came full of OIL She says the
OF! will catch fire and burn the world
up. l am sure I don't care if it did,
only I wish you were here. Just TO
think that you are away great deal
further than Pennsylvania. She says
the men are all wicked, and will not
give women their rights and I some
times wish should never see one Of
them; but [ am not going to bind
shoes for then all my life, as the Miss
Simpsons have done, and let them have
the profit. I made myself the incest
pair Of CATERS ever you saw, and pair
for JEANNE, and I'm going to be
shoemaker or shoemakeress. What's
the reason mother is not bakeress?
She makes the incest bread! do
wish you would come home, or let me
go to you. There I've come to the
end of my paper and I'm not half done.
Goodbye dear, love, pet Maggie.


20.


P.S. Do you think God will pun
ish people forever and ever, with some
dreadful punishment? I think l shal,
60 crazy thinking of it; and last night
I woke mother up dreaming Of it. If
We we're in heaven and some one I
loved was in torment, I am sure I
couldn't stay unless they shut the
gates to keep me in. Oh, it is so
dreadful! 20.
This letter cost Margaret much self
communing; and in the still watches
she wrote in answer:


LITTLE SISTER You. beat the
bars with your snowy wings to break
through the great mystery which walls
US in on every side. The origin and
use of evil is the great question which
has most puzzled philosophers in every
age, and the soul cannot rest without
a belief on the subject. I know no
more than you, but will tell you the
theory which has saved me from insan-
ity. We may not know of these things
now, but "we shall know hereafter" I
thank God for you that He has given
you that best of all knowledge, the
knowledge of sin pardoned- white
stone with new name written there
on. This blessing is often long with.
held; and since He has given it to you
thus early, l judge it is il preparation
for q wearisome journey home. I too
got it early, and have thus far found
this ''statf' my only dependence under.
the t'rod." As for Gods DEGREES I
could not believe anything else than
that they arc universal and immutable.
If every event is not bound to somo
central purpose, as the heavenly bodies
are bound to common center, there is
no analogy between the physical and
moral universe. If He does not gov
ern and control results there is univer-
sal anarchy. He cannot control results
without controlling all the causes. If
every event were not fixed in its own
place, in the great chain or cycle
which is working out some purpose,
things would be constantly "going con-