My9s
 
Creative Commons License
Victorians Institute Journal Annex content in NINES is protected by a Creative Commons License.
Peer Reviewed

My Dear Amelia: The Doty Letters from Amoy, Christian Parenthood, the Heathen Chinese, and the Missionary Enterprise

Ting Man Tsao, LaGuardia Community College, CUNY

Letter 4

Amoy Sept. 18th 1850@
My own dear Amelia Caroline[:]
Altho[ugh] I have very little time still I must write you a short letter. Ma Doty has written to Ma Dubois and told all about Mr. and Mrs. Talmage having come to Amoy and brought all your nice presents. But I must tell you how very glad I was to receive them too. It makes my heart glad to know that my far away children remember their far-off in China Pa and Ma. It would make me sorry if [they] did not, but I know they do and so I feel happy. Mr. Talmage bro[ugh]t the picture of you I dare say it looks very much like you. How you have grown! When we left you in America with your dear Pa and Ma Dubois to come to China, you was a little girl who could scarcely speak plain and whose head [had] only a little hair on it. But now you have more hair than I have, and now you can not only speak plain, but read the Bible and other good and nice books. As you grow large, oh, I do hope you will also grow good. But if you would grow good[,] you know you must every day pray to Jesus for his Holy Spirit to make your heart new and clean and to help. Unless you have a new heart you cannot be good and then your Heavenly Father cannot love you. I wonder if Ma Doty in her letter has told about your little brother Charles. He does not walk alone yet, but he goes about on his little feet when he is held up and laughs and calls pa-pa pa-pa: When I look at his little head with his little flaxen hair I often think of you when a little babe with just such hair. Mr. Talmage bro[ugh]t me a little letter written by your own Sister Clarissa. She says she had been to see you and had played on the lake. I hope one of these days to receive letters from Amelia too, written with her own hand. Oh how pleasant that will be. Does Amelia sometimes think why Pa and Ma Doty are so far away in China. I hope so. Yes, Amelia must remember the Chinese are very ignorant and wicked people who do not love God nor Jesus and do not worship him but worship idols, images made of clay and wood. They themselves first make them and then pray to them. Is it not very foolish[?] Now you know Pa and Ma are here in China, first to teach this people that they must not do so and to tell them about the dear Savior, and that they must believe and love him and have new hearts or that they cannot go to heaven and be happy. Oh, how many many children there are here who never hear about the God who made them and know nothing about the Savior Jesus; but only learn to worship dead idols and do just as their parents have done. Amelia must pity and pray for these heathen children. I hope one of these days when we have time and a good opportunity to send some little remembrances to Amelia. Ma Doty wants to do so too. But you must not be impatient to have anything soon, for China is very far away from Gansevoort and often takes a long time for things to go across the wide sea.
Amelia must kiss Pa and Ma Dubois for Pa and Ma Doty. The Lord bless you – is the Prayer of your far away Pa Doty.