"The gradual scattering of the family has some grief in it . . ."

Rev. Charles E. Craven, D.D.

355 North Fullerton Avenue

Upper Montclair, N.J.

26 March 1933

 

My dear friend, Jesse Halsey:

For March 26^th I find the note: “Jesse Halsey, m. 1910.” So I am sending you and Mrs. Halsey my congratulations—and Mrs. Craven’s also. After more than 47 years of it we are so well persuaded that marriage is good that we like to send congratulations to younger voyagers on the matrimonial sea and tell them that it gets better as the years go on. We find marriage as comfortable as an old shoe—a wonderful old shoe which grows easier, but like the shoes of the children of Israel in the wilderness never wears out.

We wish you and Mrs. Halsey a happy new year together, with God’s blessing upon your work, your family, and your church. I suppose the days are here or soon coming when your children will be away from home at school or college. The gradual scattering of the family has some grief in it, but it comes gradually, and brings compensations of many sorts. These men and women that are our children and now have children of their own in different places certainly bring many new and varied interests into our lives.

The care of a large church in these days must fill your hand and heart with many cares and responsibilities, and I can imagine that active ministry was never more interesting, engrossing, and useful than now. May you have health and strength for it, and rich satisfaction in it.

Faithfully yours,

Charles E. Craven