1. On Monday evenings Van Gogh attended the prayer meetings at the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Richmond. See also letter 92.

3. Van Gogh combines ‘eenvoudigheid des harten’ (singleness of heart; Acts 2:46, Eph. 6:5 and Col. 3:22) with ‘overvloed des harten’ (abundance of the heart; Matt. 12:34 and Luke 6:45).

4. Mr Slade-Jones occasionally sent Van Gogh to London and Lewisham on errands, such as collecting money (probably from the parents of the boys at his boarding school). The Gladwell family happened to live in Lewisham.

5. Mr Slade-Jones’s daughters.

6. H.C. Andersen, ‘De sneeuwkoningin’, Andersen 1872, pp. 44-81, also published as ‘The snow queen’ in Andersen 1861, pp. 150-184. In this fairy tale, splinters of glass in people’s hearts and eyes prevent them from seeing anything but ugliness or evil. The boy Kay falls under the spell of the snow queen: he is abducted, and his heart becomes a lump of ice. His friend Gerda goes in search of him, and is strengthened in this endeavour by prayer. The hot tears of love that flow at their reunion thaw the lump of ice and melt the glass, the message being that ‘if you don’t become like children, you will never set eyes on the kingdom of God’.

7. Van Gogh was permitted to work on behalf of the Congregational Church of Reverend Slade-Jones in Turnham Green. On 19 November, he was ‘formally accepted as a co-worker’. See exhib. cat. London 1992, p. 67 and Bailey 1990, p. 94.

9. Based on the poem ‘Op de bergen’ (On the lofty heights) by P.A. de Génestet (beginning and end of the second part of the poem):

To the lofty heights of suffering,

– Steep the path to the Holy Land –

On the lofty heights of suffering,

I was led there by Love’s hand.

And the final stanza reads thus:

And I thought of that one morning,

Of that morning long ago,

When I laughing, without caring,

From lofty Alps looked down below.

(Op de bergen van het Lijden,

– Steile weg naar ’t heilig Land –

Op de bergen van het Lijden

Voerde mij der Liefde hand.’

En ik dacht weer aan dien morgen,

Aan dien morgen van weleer,

Toen ik lachend, zonder zorgen,

Blikte hoog van de Alpen neer.)

Van Gogh’s version (or the version his father had once sent him – see letter 104) has been Christianized. It is however possible that Vincent was following yet another version; indeed, the rhyming lines

Steep the path one upward strives

steep the path to better lives

(Steile weg naar hooger streven

Steile weg naar beter leven)

which do not occur in the 1869 edition, seem to suggest this possibility. See De Génestet 1869, vol. 2, pp. 115-117.

10. Ps. 116:1-19. Van Gogh evidently thought it suitable, in the light of Theo’s illness, to skip verse 15: ‘Kostelijk is in de oogen des Heeren de dood zijner gunstgenooten’ (Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints).

13. A ‘lesson for the day’ is an edifying text printed on calenders and in booklets for the pious to reflect upon.

14. Based on P.A. de Génestet, ‘Toen ik een knaap was’ (When I was a lad). See De Génestet 1869, vol. 2, pp. 13-14.

18. Taken from Augustine, Belijdenissen (Confessions), book 9, chapter 10 (conversation with his mother about the kingdom of heaven). No nineteenth-century Dutch edition has been traced, so it is not known which text Van Gogh transcribed. In letter 104 of 28 February 1877, Van Gogh also quotes a line from the Confessions.

19. Matt. 18:20. We have placed this biblical passage outside the quotation marks because it does not occur in the passage quoted from Augustine.

20. Like the exclamation ‘Goddank’ (Thank God) (see Arrangement), this prayer for brotherly fellowship is often uttered by Vincent during this period; see letters 87, 92 and 111.

22. 2 Cor. 6:9-10 (in reverse order).

24. Taken from the chapter ‘Les aspirations de l’automne’ in L’amour (part 5, chapter 5). See Michelet, L’amour, pp. 387-396; see also letter 14. Van Gogh introduced a few small changes.

26. Prov. 31:11-31. Van Gogh skipped several verses.

28. Cf. Eccl. 7:2-3. Van Gogh left out the second half of verse 2.

29. A prayer written and often recited in the family circle by Mr van Gogh; see letter 113.