The Last Letter of Joost Verkindert

God, who is the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, by the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted of God through Christ Jesus, to Him be praise, honor, glory, dominion, power, and majesty, forever and ever. Amen.

This I wish you as a cordial and friendly greeting, my dear and beloved wife and sister in the Lord, as a perpetual farewell on earth; and I inform you that I am still reasonably well, considering the time, for which I thank and praise the almighty Father, my God and yours, that He has chosen me for this.

So, my most beloved, do not sorrow too much on my account, but praise and thank the Lord that you have had a husband who is counted worthy to lay down his life for the truth.

O my beloved, I pray and exhort you once more to keep yourself in quietness and in the fear of God, that we may together receive the beautiful promises, where neither cold, nor heat, nor hunger, nor thirst will be any more, but such joy as eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, the great joy and gladness which God has prepared for those who love Him. First Corinthians 2, verse 9.

O my beloved, this befell me when we least expected it; but the almighty God be praised and thanked through Christ Jesus, that He still thus aids and sustains me in my distress.

With this I commend you and my two little children to Christ Jesus, whom I commend to you for a husband.

O my beloved, never forsake this husband and bridegroom, for he is the Father of the widows and orphans. Psalm 68, verse 6. Farewell, my most beloved, with mother and all our friends, whom I commend on earth to the crucified, bleeding Christ Jesus. Farewell, farewell, all together. Subscribed by me,

JOOST VERKINDERT.

Your dear husband, written in my bonds.