Sarah Osborn's World by Brekus Catherine A

Author:Brekus, Catherine A.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2012-09-17T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Love Thy Neighbor, 1759–1763

O Let us build upon the dear the sure foundation Christ Jesus all the Good works we can O Let this be ever as oile to our wheels to make them run swift inasmuch as ye did it unto them ye did it unto me O may God reward Every kind benefactor He has rais’d to me in Every time of distress o may they never Loose their reward tho they did it to the Least of thine Let them Hear thee say dear Lord to them Precious souls Even Here in as much as ye did it ye did it unto me o reward them a thousand fold into their own bosoms and may Gratitude Ever Glow in my breasts to God and them and as I Have freely receiv’d in times of my distress so Let me freely Give as God Enables and occasion offers Lord Ever open my Hand and Heart to the sick poor and needy and make me a blessing in my day o make me extensively useful in my family in my school in the dear Dear society to all arround me Oh Let the Lord God almighty delight to own me to use me to set me apart for Himself in secret in Private and in Every way my Proper station admits.1

Sarah wrote these words in the midst of the Seven Years’ War, a time of devastation in Newport. The war was in its fifth grueling year, and every day brought terrible news of battles lost, soldiers wounded, and loved ones killed. As food supplies dwindled and prices rose, many families were left destitute. The almshouse was filled with widows and orphans who lacked food, clothing, and a safe place to sleep.

Sarah spent many sleepless nights worrying about whether she and Henry would fall into bankruptcy again, but even though she could barely pay their rent, she was determined to help the hundreds of other impoverished and distressed people in Newport whose lives had been disrupted by the war. Praying to God in the pages of her diary, she promised to open her hand and heart to the “sick, poor, and needy”—a description that easily could have been written about Sarah herself. She, too, was chronically ill and had little money to spare, but inspired by Jesus’s injunction to “love thy neighbor as thyself,” she resolved to emulate characters in three biblical stories who sacrificed their own needs for the good of others: the Good Samaritan who tenderly bathed a stranger’s wounds, the poor widow who gave away her last two mites to the public treasury, and the “righteous” in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats who treated the hungry, naked, sick, and imprisoned as if they were Jesus himself. Inspired by the words of Jesus to his disciples, she transcribed them in her diary: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” If

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