Religion
Too much faith
Jacobus Brandt had complaints in 1882 about the municipalities which weren't parishes, in his opinion, with the Bible anymore:Here are many places where the people are building three churches and three vicarages, and they try to get three teachers. But only one church, one vicarage and one teacher had to be enough, and the other teachers could be sent to other places among the command 'Go and preach'."There were also problems among the community because people came different provinces 'so one feels so, and another so, so here is many trouble in the municipalities'.
God helped
Some people wrote at the end of a year about the things which happened that year. An example is the letter from E. Wonnink, written in 1872:"(..) The year is ended, it all went very fast. Many problems were there, good and bad times, love and hate. But at the other side there were many signs of God, with his love and blessings, and also his punishments. We're going into a new period, not knowing what will happen, but if we trust God, the future will not fail, with good and bad times. He knows what's the best for us."In the letters of immigrants, many times the dependence of God was mentioned and during New Year, they wrote even more about it. It was their way of living. They were afraid of sickness and death in the 19th century, so there are only a few letters in which they didn't mention that 'I am still healthy through God's goodness'. An example of a average letter is the ending of a letter by C. Snoeyenbosch:
"I wanted to say this, so now I stop with writing. I wish you the blessings of the Most High to spirit and body. For time and eternity he gives you and us together to te acquiesce in him. Because what he does is only majesty and glory. All of us say goodbye to you."
Choices
[Too much faith]