October 6, 1875

[Letterhead: Goupil Paris]


Paris, 6 Oct. 1875


My dear Theo,

Even though I wrote to you only recently, I want to do so again anyway, because I know how difficult life can sometimes be. Keep your chin up, old boy, after rain comes sunshine, just keep hoping for that.

Rain and sunshine alternate on ‘the road that goes uphill all the way, yes to the very end’, and from time to time one also rests on ‘the journey that takes the whole day long, from morn till night’. So think now and often after this, that ‘this also will pass away’.

And especially, you too should ask: Create in me a new heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Today I had the opportunity to send a package to Anna and Willemien. Among other things I sent her L’imitation de Jesus Christ and several books of the Bible, published separately, in the same edition as the Psalms I sent you.

Read them faithfully. Would you perhaps like the Gospels and some of the epistles, printed separately?

I also sent Anna several prints – including Rembrandt, Reading the Bible and The supper at Emmaus (an old engraving, by De Frey, I believe), Philippe de Champaigne, Portrait of a lady, a large, beautiful etching after Chaigneau, Shepherdess and sheep, and then Dupré, Evening, Troyon, Morning, Bodmer, Fontainebleau, Français, Last fine days, Frère, Seamstresses, and A cooper, Daubigny, After sunset, &c. &c., as well as a couple of photos, namely of Delaroche, Gethsemane No. 424, Good Friday and Mater Dolorosa and Brion, The farewells.

I hope so much that things will continue to go well for Anna there. She keeps up her courage, I know so well that she sometimes finds things so difficult.

And yet ‘one has one’s good days’ as Jules Dupré often said, let’s go on believing that.

I’d very much like to have the Dutch hymns. When you get the opportunity, do you think you could manage to send the cheapest edition that can be found? I have the Psalms.

There are also some beautiful English hymns, including this one:



Thy way not mine, o Lord

However dark it be,

Lead me by thine own hand

Choose out the path for me.



I dare not choose my lot;

I would not if I might;

Choose Thou for me, my God,

So shall I walk aright.



The kingdom that I seek,

Is thine; so let the way

That leads to it be thine

Else I must surely stray.



Choose Thou for me my friend

My sickness, or my health;

Choose Thou my cares for me,

My poverty my wealth.



Not mine, not mine, the choice

In things or great or small

Be Thou my Guide my strength

My wisdom and my all.



and the following:



Nearer my God to Thee

Nearer to Thee!

E’en though it be a cross

That raiseth me;

Still all my song shall be

Nearer my God to Thee

Nearer to Thee.




Though like a wanderer,

The sun gone down,

Darkness come over me

My rest a stone;

Yet in my dreams I’d be

Nearer, my God, to Thee

Nearer to Thee!




There let my way appear

Steps unto Heaven;

All that Thou sendest me

In mercy given

Angels to beckon me

Nearer, my God, to Thee

Nearer to Thee.




Oft in sorrow and in woe

Onward, Christians, onward go;

Fight the fight, maintain the strife,

Strengthen’d with the bread of life.




Let your drooping hearts be glad;

March in heavenly armour clad:

Fight, nor think the battle long,

Soon shall vict’ry tune your song




Let not sorrow dim your eye,

Soon shall ev’ry tear be dry;

Let not fear your course impede,

Great your strength, if great your need!



Give my regards to my acquaintances. How is Caroline van Stockum? Give my special regards to her, and believe me


Your most loving brother

Vincent



Does the road go uphill then all the way?

‘Yes to the very end’.

And will the journey take all day long?

‘From morn till night, my friend’.

September 30, 1875

[Letterhead: Goupil Paris]

Paris, 30 Sept. 1875.


My dear Theo,

Herewith the book about Michel that I promised you, also an etching after the Margaret by Scheffer and a lithograph after Corot, and a package of chocolate.

I do know that things aren’t easy for you at the moment, old chap, but remain steadfast and be brave; ‘Not to dream, not to sigh’ is also necessary sometimes.

You know ‘that you are not alone but that the Father is with you’. I shake your hand heartily in thought. Ever,


Your loving brother
Vincent


Please keep the enclosed etching after Rembrandt, along with the photos of the Corot and the Jules Breton sent previously, until Pa and Ma are comfortably settled in Etten, and send them then, at the end of November for example.

September 29, 1875

Paris, 29 Sept. 1875

My dear Theo,

Be careful, old boy, don’t lose your resilience.

See things as they are, and, for yourself, don’t think everything good.

One can deviate, both to the left hand and to the right hand. Remember what Pa no doubt once told you too: understanding and feeling must go together.

Warm regards and ever,

Your loving brother

Vincent

Write again soon.

I advised you to go out quite a lot, but if you don’t like it, don’t do it. You know that I didn’t go out so very much either, and that people often remarked upon it.

How much I’d like for us to be able to breakfast together or drink a cup of chocolate in my room. Keep well, old chap. Don’t take things that don’t concern you directly too much to heart, and don’t let them weigh upon you too heavily. How is it going, eating bread? Have you tried it yet? In haste, I shake your hand heartily in thought.

September 27, 1875

[Letterhead: Goupil Paris]

Paris, 27 Sept. 1875.

My dear Theo,

‘The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: the kingdom of God is within you.’ ‘The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister’, and we who want to become His disciples, Christians, we are no better than our Master. Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the pure in heart.

Narrow is the way, which leadeth unto Life, and few there be that find it. Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.

My brother, let us take care; let us ask Him who is above, who also maketh intercession for us, that He should not take us out of the world, but that He should keep us from the evil. Yea, let us watch and be sober, let us trust in the Lord with all our heart, and lean not unto our own understanding. Let us ask that He compel us to come in, that He give us a Christian life to fulfil; that He teach us to deny ourselves, daily to take up our cross and to follow Him; to be meek, longsuffering, and lowly in heart.

A part which shall not be taken away, a well of living water springing up into everlasting life, these are the good gifts that He who heareth prayer, the Giver of all perfect gifts, will give to those who pray to Him for them.

And in addition to all this, the assurance that there is ‘a house of the Father in which there are many mansions, and that when He has prepared a place for us there He will draw all men unto Him. And to comfort us in this life, on our way to our Father’s house, ‘the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, who will guide us into all truth’. The Christian life nevertheless has its dark side too; it is mainly men’s work.

Those who walk with God, God’s friends, God’s pious followers, those who worship Him in Spirit and in Truth, have been proved and tried, and have oft-times received from God a thorn in the flesh; blessed will we be when we can repeat after our father, Paul: when I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child: but now that I have become a man, I put away childish things, and I became, and God made me: sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.

Write to me soon, and give my regards to all my acquaintances, and believe me

Your loving brother

Vincent.

September 25, 1875

[Letterhead: Goupil Paris]

Paris, 25 Sept. 1875

My dear Theo,

The way is narrow,1 so we must be careful. You know how others have arrived where we wish to go; let us take that simple path as well. ora et labora.

Let us do our daily work, whatever the hand finds to do, with all our might, and let us believe that God will give good gifts, a part that shall not be taken away, to those who pray to Him for it. And let us trust in God with all our heart and lean not unto our own understanding. God’s will and not ours.

‘Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new’. II Cor. 5:18.

I’m going to get rid of all my books by Michelet &c. &c., you should too.

How I’m longing for Christmas, but let’s be patient, that time will come soon enough.

Keep well, old chap, and give my regards to all my acquaintances, and believe me

Your loving brother

Vincent

I’ll send the money for the frames as soon as possible; when I write to Mr Tersteeg I’ll tell him that I don’t have much money at the moment, because I’ve asked our cashier to keep back part of my monthly wages as I’ll be needing a good deal of money around Christmas for my trip &c.

I hope, though, that it won’t be so very long before I can send it.

If I were you I wouldn’t go to Borchers all that often.

Don’t you find these words beautiful? I Cor 2:4 and 5

For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

September 17, 1875

Paris, 17 Sept. 1875.

My dear Theo,

Feeling, even a fine feeling, for the beauties of nature isn’t the same as religious feeling, although I believe that the two are closely connected. The same is true of a feeling for art. Don’t give in to that too much either.

Hold fast especially to your love for the firm and for your work and to respect for Mr Tersteeg. Later on you’ll see, better than now, that he deserves it. You don’t have to take it to extremes, though.

Nearly everyone has a feeling for nature, some more than others, but there are few who feel that God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Pa is one of the few, Ma too, and also Uncle Vincent, I believe.

You know that it is written ‘The world passeth away and all its glory’, and that on the other hand there are also the words ‘that part which shall not be taken away’, about ‘a well of living water springing up into everlasting life’. Let us also pray that we may become rich in God. But don’t think too deeply about these things, which will become clearer to you of themselves with time , and just do what I’ve advised you to do. Let us ask for our part in life that we may become the poor in the kingdom of God, God’s servants. We haven’t achieved this yet, however, for often there are beams in our eye of which we ourselves are unaware; let us ask that our eye may become single, for then we shall be completely single.

My regards to the Rooses and if anyone should ask after me, and believe me ever,

Your loving brother

Vincent

September 13, 1875

[Letterhead: Goupil Paris]

Paris, 13 Sept. 1875.

My dear Theo,

The photographs of the J. Breton and the Corot are for Helvoirt; the rest are for you.

Send on the Helvoirt ones when you have the opportunity, but I’ll do my best to get another copy of the Rembrandt, so perhaps it would be better to delay sending them until I’ve sent you that one as well.

You’ll have received my letter of yesterday by now.

Warm regards,

Vt.

September 12, 1875

Paris. 12 Sept. 1875.

My dear Theo,

Wings, wings above life!

Wings over the grave and death!

That’s what we need, and I’m beginning to see that we can acquire them. Doesn’t Pa have them, for instance? And you know how he got them, through prayer and the fruits thereof: patience and faith, and through the Bible, which was a light unto his path and a lamp unto his feet.

This afternoon I heard a beautiful sermon on ‘forget that which is behind you’ part of which was: ‘Have more hope than remembrances; what there was of seriousness and blessings in your past life is not lost; do not reflect on it any longer, you will find it elsewhere, but keep moving forward. All things are become new in Jesus Christ’.

Keep your chin up, and believe me

Your loving brother

Vincent

If it’s indeed true that childhood and youth are vanity (always bearing in mind what’s written above, and remembering that although one has to start anew later, a well-spent youth is worth a fortune), shouldn’t it then be our ambition and hope to become men like Pa and others? Let us both hope and pray for this. My regards to everyone who asks after me.

You know the etching by Rembrandt, Burgomaster Six standing in front of the window, reading. I know that Uncle Vincent and Cor like it very much, and I sometimes think that they must have looked like that when they were younger. You also know the portrait of Six when he was older, I believe there’s an engraving of it in your shop. That life of his must have been a fine and serious life.

September 9, 1875

My dear Theo,

You hadn’t expected to get this letter back again, had you?

No, old boy, this isn’t the path to follow.

The death of Weehuizen is certainly sad, but sad in a different way than you say.

Keep your eyes open and try to become strong and resolute. Was that book by Michelet really meant for him?

Actually, I’d like to suggest something to you, Theo, which will perhaps amaze you:

Read no more Michelet or any other book (except the Bible) until we’ve seen each other again at Christmas, and do what I told you, go often in the evenings to the Van Stockums, Borchers &c. I believe you won’t regret it, you’ll feel much freer as soon as you’ve started this regimen. Be careful with the words I underlined in your letter.


There is quiet melancholy, certainly, thank God, but I don’t know if we’re allowed to feel it yet, you see I say we, I no more than you.


Pa wrote to me recently ‘Melancholy does not hurt, but makes us see things with a holier eye’. That is true ‘quiet melancholy’, fine gold, but we aren’t that far yet, not by a long way. Let us hope and pray that we may come so far and believe me ever

Your loving brother
Vincent

I’m already a little bit further than you and already see, alas, that the expression ‘childhood and youth are vanity’ are almost completely true. So remain steadfast, old chap; I heartily shake your hand.