Van Gogh: Painted With Words Page #3

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he immersed himself in the study of the Bible.

But his preoccupation with religion

led him to neglect his duties in the art firm,

so he was fired.

He now tried to get a position as a teacher's assistant,

hoping this would help him reach his goal of entering the church.

'Dear Theo,

'I received a letter from a teacher in Ramsgate, who suggested that I come there for a month,

'without pay, in order to see whether he can use me at the end of that time.

'It's a beautiful route.

'The sky was a light blue, with grey and white clouds.'

'You can imagine, I was looking out of the window for Ramsgate

a long time before I got there.'

Herewith, a little drawing of the view from the school window.

Where the boys stand and watch their parents going back

to the station after a visit.

Determined to make himself useful to those he saw suffering around him,

Vincent taught Sunday school to children from the London markets and streets.

And on the 12th November 1876,

he delivered his first sermon.

We are pilgrims in the earth and strangers.

We come from afar and we are going far.

The journey of our life goes from the

loving breast of our Mother on Earth

to the arms of our Father in heaven.

Theo,

your brother spoke for the first time in God's house last Sunday.

When I stood up on the pulpit,

I felt like someone emerging out of a dark,

underground vault into the friendly daylight, and

it's a wonderful feeling

to think that from wherever I go from now on, I'll be preaching the gospel.

Religion came to dominate his letters to his family,

with his Biblical fanaticism seeping into the language.

My brother, let us take care.

Let us ask Him who is above,

who also maketh intercession for us, that He should keep us from the evil.

Yea, let us watch and be sober, let us trust in the Lord with all of our heart,

and lean not unto our own understanding.

Let us ask that He compel us to come in.

To be meek,

longsuffering and lowly,

sorrowful yet always rejoicing.

He writes many letters,

long ones too,

and when reading them,

one is inclined to say how can

a simple clergyman come out of this?

And then again there is

nevertheless something good in them as well.

When Vincent returned to Holland,

his father agreed to support his preparation to enter the ministry.

But he struggled with his studies,

and quit after a year.

The only option left to him was missionary work,

and in January 1879

he was appointed as a lay-preacher in the Borinage,

a coal-mining district in Belgium.

Going down in a mine is an unpleasant business,

in a kind of basket or cage like a bucket in a well,

so that down there looking upward,

the daylight appears to be about as big as a star in the sky.

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