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Glenoak August 1. 1857
I received your letter a few days ago. Employment in the affairs of the family here combined with a slight undisposition in bodily health has prevented my replying to it sooner. Mrs Tomes bids me say to you that you can retain the books of Mr Tomes in your keeping as long as you wish and until it is perfectly conventient for you to return them. I shall request the administration to advertise for the return of Mr. T's books, many of which are scattered about in the city. But you will understand that such notice respects those persons as have books unknown to us.
With yourself, my dear friend & Bro., I feel the death of Tomes to be a grievous loss. I cannot discover the divine purpose in such a dispensation, but I do not permit myself to doubt for a moment, that God intended it for good. I have scarcely yet realized that "he is dead"!
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Still the sad reality begins to force itself upon me in various ways: but in name, perhaps more than in the settled and calm grief of his wife. His children do not seem to know that they have lost their father They are probably unable by reason of their tender age to form any just conceptions of death, as they can not certainly estimate its temporal consequences. A day or two since in riding from town with little Sarah alone, I conversed with her about her Father -how much he loved his children-how often he gave them good advice & wished & prayed that they might be useful, good & happy; & I asked her what she thought about her Father's going away from them all, never to be seen again. She said, it seemed to her, that her pa had gone to visit some town or place, as he used to go to Columbia or New York-and would come back again-"I keep think =ing" said she, "as if I was just going to see him coming back!" How natural! But this absence of expressed or manifested sorrow on the part of the children, seems to add to Henrietta's grief-as
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if it were some want of respect to the memory of their Father. This too is natural, for we unconsciously desire all persons to think of our loved departed ones as we do ourselves. I realize more fully than ever how fully and completely we of the clergy are hedged up to simple & unqualified trust & reliance upon God, both for ourselves & for those who are ours. May the great head of the Church spare you to your dear wife and little ones, till they are at least not wholly dependent upon the kindness of that world which is at enmity with God. I see too the greater necessity more plainly than ever, of the clergy's taking more active measures to increase the fund for the support of the widows & children of deceased ministers. Let us bear this in mind both at conventional meetings & at other times.
As to your observations about the communion of saints, I have no more doubt about the reality of such spiritual intercourse than I have of the certainty of my own consciousness. This intercourse is carried on, how? I cannot explain. But I am satisfied that it goes on thro' the medium of dreams, when there is not always dreams either but visions more likely.
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there are no external objects present to excite or direct the thoughts, and more frequently when visible objects and passing events are seized on, if I may so say, to convey impressions to our minds - or more properly when the impressions made by the external world are employed by the spirits of the departed, to make us sensible of their presence. It seems to me that I have repeatedly been so impressed with the consciousness of James presence to my mind since his death, that nothing whatever was wanting to the certainty of that presence but the evidence of the seeing eye, the hearing ear & the sensible touch. But I cannot pursue this subject now. What the great majority of mankind have believed in all ages must be regarded as having the stamp of truth. About next Wednesday I shall leave for Riverside to consecrate the church there. About Wednesday week I expect to join Henrietta at Chattanooga to proceed via Charleston & Sea to N. York. She wishes to go - her friends there insist on it, and some one must go with her. The duty falls naturally tho' inconveniently, on me and I must obey. - I wish you would write to Loop and tell him of Sommerville, Shelbyville, Murfreesboro, McMinnville, & Ripley near Dr. Oldhams, all of which places will support a young, unmarried man genteelly with promise of increase. But clergymen who will not come to Tenn.e as you and [Tomes?] & I and some others have done, "having faith" in God to provide for us, had better stay away. We have had enough of those who ask "quid dabitis."?
Yours ever, Jas. H Otey
My love to your family. If I can serve you, North.
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AD 1858. 275
April contin. Easter Day -4th A.M. service, sermon, & HC PM ser & serm
Easter Monday A.M. service and annual election of vestry
Easter Tuesday A.M. service
" " 1 S after Easter 11th Exchanged duties AM with Rev. Mr Hildebrandt of Ashwood - no service PM
"2d S. " " 18. [Pm?] prayers & [ ] Ch: of the Advent, [ ] " " " Ch H. Trinity [ J. Ro Jr?]&Dr Q.[ ] Advent No service in St. Peter's Col.
3d S " " 25th AM ser. & serm. PM " "
Wednesday 28th PM service
Friday 30 PM service
May 4th Sun. after E. 2nd AM serv. serm [at][H?] PM ser. & serm-night reading at Institute
Tuesday 4th night- [ ] Dr. Quintard [ ] [ ]
" 5th Sun. " 9th AM ser. & serm PM service
Ascension- Thursday 12th AM service PM service and [ ] night reading at [ ]
Sun after Ascen 16th AM ser and serm PM " " - Baptism-Sarah, daut of John & Julie C Bain - [ ] at Wm Perry's Plantation, William, (adult) servant-very ill