Of a Devotion to Last Carefully a letter intended to be read upon her life’s departure, Anne Bradstreet’s To My Dear Children is a literary work that captivates the religious side of the author which we identified as Mistress Bradstreet. In the eleventh paragraph of her letter, Bradstreet wrote, “If at any time you are chastened of God, take it as thankfully and joyfully as in greatest mercies, for if ye be His, ye shall reap the greatest benefit by it.” (Heimert & Delbanco 139) Indeed, even with the sorrowful events that happened to her life – the misery of longing for a child and the afflictions, both physical and spiritual, which she contacted had eventually led her closer to God.
She further attests her faith by saying, “But when I have been in darkness and seen no light, yet have I desired to stay myself upon the Lord, and when I have been in sickness and pain, I have thought if the Lord would but lift up the light of His countenance upon me, although He ground me to powder, it would be but light to me..” (Heimert & Delbanco 140) As people say it through the prayers at mass, we as people, vulnerable to mistakes and sins, are not worthy to receive the Lord, but He only have to say the word and we shall be healed. Near the end, Mistress Bradstreet said, “Now, to the King, immortal, eternal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour, and glory forever and ever.
Amen.” (Heimert & Delbanco 141) Here she rejoices of her eternal devotion to the Lord, something she had grown to, strayed from, and eventually found her salvation latterly. As Mistress Bradstreet talks in the letter, she revels on the fact that life would always be challenging and difficult, but staying beside the Lord would always lead us to what is good.
Works Cited
- Heimert, Alan and Andrew Delbanco. The Puritans in America: A Narrative Anthology. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1985.
