Temperance > Autobiography and personal recollections of John B. Gough

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AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN B. GOUGH.
and keep you in all your ways! is the earnest prayer of your
affectionate mother. Jane Gough.
From a letter dated April 2, 1831:—
I hope, my dear, you are well in health and spirits. I do
assure you we all of us remember you with unabating affection;
and the ninth of every month brings forcibly to my mind the
time when I parted from you; and I hope, if it be the Lord’s
will, that we shall meet again in this world, if our lives be spared.
You have been gone now nearly two years, and the time will
wear away.
Your father was pleased that you had taken pains to write
your last letter so well. He wishes you to practise your writing
whenever you have an opportunity; and also your ciphering, as
it may be of great use to you in your future life.
I hope, my dear boy, you are earnestly seeking after the one
thing needful. You know the Lord has said, “They that seek
shall find.” It is, my dear boy, the most earnest wish of both
of your parents, that you may in early life be devoted to the
(Lord, that you may be his servant—serve him—and so, my dear
boy, keep close to your Bible. Whenever you have an oppor¬
tunity to read it, prefer it above all other books; and may the
Lord enable you so to read and understand it, that you may be
made wise unto eternal salvation.
(And I hope you will not neglect private prayer. “Ask, and
you shall receive” is a most gracious promise; and he that has
spoken it will perform it. May the Lord guide and keep you in
all his ways, and bring you at last to his heavenly kingdom!
Adieu! my dear boy. May the Lord bless, keep, and preserve
you, and keep you in all his ways!—is the prayer of your ever
affectionate mother. Jane Gough.
Extract from a letter written by me a few weeks after
my arrival in this country:—
On the 17th of July, as I was looking for Doddridge’s Rise and
Progress, I found that dear letter which my beloved mother put