Dear Roy:

You may be surprised to get this letter. You have been on my mind a good deal. I have felt that I wanted to write what I plan to now, but I have hesitated, fearing you would think me a sort of "visionary." Because I love you and Gertrude, I am going to tell you what I have found of great help to me, hoping your analysis of it, with your logical mind, will not make it seem unreasonable, or a faith without an adequate foundation. I am praying night and morning for you both, and that health of body, mind, spirit and life may be yours abundantly. God bless you!

I want to recount a chapter from my own experience, relating what has helped me, and passing it on to you, with the hope that it will bring even far greater help to you.

I have not turned "Christian Scientist." But I am finding that God can and does give me strength and health of body as well as of mind and spirit. If I should become ill, I would send for the best medical help available; and I would help the doctor by continuing to do what I will outline in this letter and it would help me too, I know.

I have never been given to much worrying. But there have been times when I did worry and fear a plenty. Such a time came to me a few months ago. I will explain:

About two years ago, I believed I ought to, for Robert's sake and the good of the community, do some improving at the dairy which would give this city an ideal, healthy milk supply. I had the money in the bank that would have cleaned up all my debts. Instead I put it into a model dairy plant. The chance came a year ago in June to buy the kind of a farm needed to supply the feed required for a larger number of cows, and to acquire a dairy herd and business with the farm that would put the business on a proper footing. I went in debt for the entire amount. A considerable sum it was. That called for expansion of the model dairy barn, costing several thousands more.

You know the rest of it. Unemployment cut down the patronage of the dairy seriously. I owed several thousands of dollars at the two banks here. Within two months after I bought the farm and dairy and spent thousands more in improvements, the Nashville bank failed; then the Freeport bank; then Caledonia and Clarksville banks followed Middleville, Woodland and Delton banks limiting deposit withdrawals. Then came failure of state banks at Ionia and Eaton Rapids. Then, because all of these were state banks, confidence in the City Bank began to disappear. I realized to an extent I never had before that I am living on borrowed time. How could I hope to get out of such a situation, business declining, banks possibly forced to ask me to pay when I couldn't? I had property enough, but I couldn't realize on it to pay my debts if liquidation were forced, as it appeared it would be. That was my situation after I was well past 73, and didn't know how long I could work and earn so as to reduce my debts and ultimately retire them.

I have explained enough so you can see how it was hard to get to sleep and easy to wake with a start and think! think!! think!!! over someone or several depressing elements in my situation, and then be restless for the rest of the night. This soon led to depressed thoughts through the day. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he," was surely true of me at that time. There was not much joy in my life nor elasticity to my step. I felt too that I was slipping physically. I had no "pep," no fight in me. I felt that I was licked at times.

Then I began to ask myself, "What is your religion for if not to rescue you from fear, help you keep well so as to see the thing through? How can you reconcile worrying with faith in the goodness of God and the helpfulness of Christ? What right have you to worry or fear when you have `exceeding great and precious promises of God'? Why not seek the spiritual resources God has given you? Why not see if you cannot, with the Psalmist, say `the joy of the Lord is my strength'?"

Well, Roy, I began to mine for the real gold of life in the New Testament, using Moffett's translation. Here are some of the nuggets, the words of Jesus Himself, and `He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.' It startled me to find them. There are many others but these words of the Master seem so rich to me:

1. "In union with God, anything is possible."
2. "Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh, receiveth it; he that seeketh shall find, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Which of you having a son if he asks for bread will he give him a stone? If he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in Heaven give good things to them that ask Him?"
3. "Whatsoever ye pray for and ask, believe that ye receive it, and you shall have it."
4. "Truly, truly, I tell you, he who believes in me shall do the very deeds that I do, and greater than these, for I go to my Father; and whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye ask anything in my name, I will do it."

Prayer has come to mean more for me than it ever did. Faith in God, in Christ, is a vital thing. I can say that, basing my asking for good things for my friends, my dear ones and myself on these promises, I find my mind eased, my life buoyed up, my spirit cheered and my body strengthened. I am receiving the good things I am asking for myself. For reasons you can readily think of, I have not told others what I am asking for them; but I have had the satisfaction of seeing many things I have asked for them come to pass. I am asking good things for Gertrude and you, and I am expecting they will come to you; but you can do more than I can. I am widening the circle for whom I pray, and I take the time to mention them by name as I bring them and their needs to the Father and the Master.

Maybe this will not seem worthwhile to you but I hope it does. With your keen mind and backed by your useful life, you will find more help in Christ than I can possibly suggest. I pray that you may, and that richness of joy, strength of body, mind and spirit may come to you and yours. If this shall interest you, and you do not think me a visionary, I will be glad to talk with you about this matter. I have written this long and possibly tiresome letter with the one motive of helping you as I have been helped, and because I am interested in you and yours, and love you. God bless you.

Sincerely yours,

M. L. COOK