Episodes In The Life Of An Isolated Reciever

Preface

TT7E are induced to publish the following letters

* * and extracts as a testimony to the support and comfort which the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem impart, thinking that the unswerving faith and devoted attachment of an oft-times “ isolated receiver ” cannot fail to strengthen the belief of those like privileged in possessing such truths, and to awaken interest m a religion which was felt to be the delight of life.

Some of the early letters written during the Civil War in America being of much general interest, our friend’s consent was asked to forward them to the newspapers of that time, and she unhesitatingly gave our family full permission to make any use we liked of these and subsequent ones. Various circumstances, however, have hitherto always prevented us from availing ourselves of her consent, and we regret that she has passed away before the opportunity came to bring them out in volume form. Many of the names that occur are fictitious.

VI

PREFACE .

These letters of Mademoiselle KafFery (afterwards Madame Goulaye) are among the treasured relics of the past to us, the only surviving members of the family to whom they were addressed.

Half of the proceeds arising from the sale of this book will be devoted to the New-Church Foreign and Colonial Missions.

M. M. H.

A. D. H.

Memoir.

KAFFERY, native of Switzerland, came as governess to England some time between the years 1855 and i860. While taking a holiday engage¬ ment in the neighbourhood where our parents resided, she brought a letter of introduction to them, and a relative of our dear mother also wrote to interest her in Mademoiselle Kaffery’s behalf. Feeling for her loneliness as a foreigner, and naturally ever ready to brighten the lives of others, our father and mother invited her to their house occasionally, while she was residing with a neighbouring family, and afterwards to spend her holidays, when a friendship began, resting upon the glad and zealous offering of New-Church truths on the one side, and their delighted acceptance on the other, which proved a life-long regard.

It is, however, necessary to preface these Letters with the fact that Mademoiselle Kaffery was in a very unsettled state of mind as to religion when the acquaintance commenced.

Brought up amidst infidel and atheistic influences in Switzerland, while staying in Paris on her way to England, the Roman Catholic religion attracted her enthusiasm and appealed to her longing for a creed,

MEMOIR.

viii

but failed to satisfy her reasoning powers: indeed, it was the fact of being unable to accept some trivial superstition in which she was asked to have unreason¬ ing faith, that revealed its fallacies to her, and so in preference she fell back upon infidelity*

From this state she was rescued through taking a situation in an Evangelical Protestant family, when the clergyman of the parish interested himself to convert her to his views. She became a believer in the Sacred Scriptures, but was much perplexed by some of the doctrines of the Church of England, that of the Atonement especially. She read theological works, and argued the various points with all who cared to talk to her, without finding any permanent satisfaction or solid footing.

It was at this critical and truth-seeking time that she became acquainted with members of the New Church in our dear parents, and found her difficulties met and dispersed by the doctrines they so firmly believed.

Mademoiselle KafFery, however, being unable to speak English except in “ broken ” language, and finding but limited New-Church literature in French and German, the arguments upon and instruction in the doctrines were carried on under difficulties; but with a yearning that was ever looking for the truth* her heart seemed to bound forward to meet it when presented, while our beloved mother with her clear perception and warm sympathies, met her state* unfolded to her the beauties and truths which quite

MEMOIR .

IX satisfied both her doubting mind and longing spirit, as the following extracts evince.

Gladly she exchanged her half-hearted acceptance of the Evangelical doctrines recently presented to her, for a whole-hearted belief in those revealed in the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. The Bible, no longer a book of problems, became her highest treasure, its inspiration firmly established; the doctrine of the Vicarious Sacrifice was replaced by the glorious fact of the Redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ as Jehovah in person; the thought of the Resurrection of the earthly body no longer clung to her, and the Trinity was clearly seen ; the other life lost its vague¬ ness to her now, and her religious faith became the light of her eyes and the zest of her life.

The interest of the letters may to some be enhanced by the “ broken English ” which sometimes gives force to her expressions, while some of the impulsive acts related were such as only a foreigner would have ventured to do.

The lady of whom there is frequent mention in various letters, as C. R., or Clara Barton, is the Miss Clara Barton who has been sometimes called the “Florence Nightingale of America,*’ and the news¬ papers of April or May, 1898, mentioned her as just starting for the seat of war in Cuba, on the Red Cross Mission. Between this lady and Mademoiselle Kaffery there existed a long and sincere friendship.

Most of the early letters were written to our dear mother; the subsequent ones to ourselves. The long intervals between some of the dates are occasioned by

X

MEMOIR.

some of the letters of special interest (such as the account of her baptism into the New Church and her previous emphatic acknowledgment of her faith) having been lent and lost; and also owing to long visits to our family, whenever she was in England.

We have usually omitted the terms of endearment and affectionate messages to each member of the family, with which each letter begins and ends, also various allusions to matters of personal interest only. At the same time, feeling that her thoughts upon bereavement and her hold of the New-Church views of the future life, may be helpful to others, we cannot entirely with¬ hold them, even when touching upon sorrows almost too sacred for publication.

Instead of a long memoir, we think that the incidents, of her life are best told in the letters themselves. It is interesting to note the progress of her regeneration from the self-centred character evidenced in the earlier extracts, to the unselfishness and humility, with the warm sympathy for others, which her later years display.

One morning in August, 1895, we received the announcement of our friend’s departure from this world and entrance into the higher life which she seemed ever to have set before her. Our thoughts now turn to her there, in happy assurance that, clinging to the heavenly doctrines as she did through her wandering life, gaining increasing love to her Saviour in each step of the way, she will not fail to realize them with everincreasing joy in her eternal home.

M. M. H.

A. D. H.