A Letter of

Mrs. Laura Moore Nye

Eighteenth Birthday

Of her Daughter, Ellen Rose Nye

                                                                                            CHAMPLAIN, Nov. 9TH.

ON THIS, your eighteenth birthday, my darling Nellie, in thinking what I should say to you, it occurred to me that were I to wish that the coming year may be as happy as the last, we could hardly de­sire anything more. With the exception of your absence from home, I am truly a happy mother. How great the goodness of God in giving us so much enjoyment. Your little world is not, in a measure, shut out from me; with your daily life I am not quite so conversant as in the past, but I look back with so much pleasure as I recall the happy hours of last year.

 

A new world is now open to you as you stand on the threshold of womanhood.  How bright and fresh must life be to you, my darling, and how much happiness there is before us if we know how to attain it. There is an "Open Sesame" to those who are able to discover the hidden spring. We have many undeveloped resources which, in our busy life, we are apt to forget or lose sight of. I need hardly point you to the first, for you have tasted of the blessedness there is to be found in Christ, that Friend to whom we may trust all our earthly cares; in the light of whose love we may each day live, and from whom we may draw strength to bear our burdens, and consolation in our sorrows.  How lovingly does He say, "Cast all thy cares upon me," "In all thy ways acknowledge me and I will direct thy paths." His loving heart finds no weariness in His care for His children.  When we can add to this the power or making others happy, then is our life complete. I need hardly tell you, dear Nellie, that this is a constant warfare with ourselves; to put aside self and exercise in our daily life that charity which "endureth all things, believeth all things." The formation of character will now, each year you live, be more and more your study. You will be earnest to maintain a pure heart; to be loyal to your friends. I do not think young girls take a realizing sense of the value of friendship. It should not be made a convenience or amusement, and at any time the bond dissolved. I want you to take a higher view of it. Cherish your friend; adhere to her in prosperity or adversity. Many school-girl friendships are characterised by a want of fidelity and sincerity, which degrades them. You will see a girl court the one whom she considers richest or best born in school, and then turn from her for a new friend, when she finds her no longer useful. This is a meanness which some girls are guilty of. I do not think you are of that stamp.

 

I want you, dear Nelly, to be a good, noble, sincere, benevolent woman; cultivating the power of attracting your kind; taking a broad view of the world, and feeling that others beside your family, have claims upon you.  Whenever you can help a companion on the road of life do not fail to do so.  It is easy: an encouraging word; a kind ad; a triffling gift has great power—one cannot compute their worth. And, Nellie darling, before I close this, I wish to say a word about a subject which has caused me a great deal of discomfort, in the hope that you may be free from the fault. It is to wait before you judge a person's motives; we are so apt to think wrongly of those whom we think slight us, and attribute motives which they never dreamed of. I have learned by sad experience, to suspend judgment till I have more knowledge.

 

I did not, dear Nellie, intend to send you a sermon in place of a birthday letter, but I fear I have done so. Will you accept the books which accompany it; and may Heaven's choicest blessings rest on the head of my darling Nellie, is the prayer of your loving

MOTHER

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Thirty-six copies of this Letter were privately printed
by Hugh McLellan, in the month of November,
1920, at the Moorsfield Press, Cham‑
plain, N. Y.  — the fifth
production of this
Prefs.

No 14

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