Page 90 - March On! God will Provide by Brother Aubert

Chapter 11

SOME RYKEN CORRESPONDENCE

-D
RoTHER RyxrN's coRREspoNDENcn for lg44 is rather
..,[-l extensive. Several items from it present interesting
sidelights on the manner of man he wis.
To Brother Tomballe, still following rhe
_Alphonse
course at the Van Beek Institute, he gave these initruc_
tions regarding an applicant whom frJ naa consented to
accept on trial: "Tell him to bring some shirts and his
trowel, so that he can show us his ability. I have work
for him. Make him undersrand thoroughly that he is
embarking on a period of probation on'iy and that he
must consider well before he makes the decision.',
In discharging another applicant as unsuited, he wrote
to the sponsor: "I do nor thint that I shall be able to
keep him. I have had enough people without brains.
91. .T"-9o nothing with them. . . .'f., discharging him
I shall alienarc many people, ,bur better that thlan-to ,be
em_barrassed by such subjects during their life.,,
One of the letters that appears in the collection for
1844 contains Brother Rykent answers to most of the
gbjections that had been raised against his Brotherhood.
In it he is in turn aggressive, piiying, indignant, scorn-
tu-I,_ argumentative, and ingratiating. The young man,
addressed as "Monsieur flermans," io whom the"pfriUp-
pic was sert, must have been amazed. at its leng;h a;d
content. Ifermans was a carpenter working witn fris
father in a lirtle village in North Brabanr. Att t e nua
done was to put to Mr. Ryken the questions that he
had been directed to ask by the prieit whom he had
consulted about joining the Brotheis.