Page:A memoir of Granville Sharp.djvu/9



was born at Durham in England, on 10th November, 1735. His earlier education was limited. In 1750, he was apprenticed, in London, to a Friend—afterwards to an Independent—and subsequently to a Romanist. This intercourse with different persuasions, appears to have had no effect upon his own creed—but he learnt from it, one of the most glorious lessons which man can learn, the cordial practice of that gracious charity, which "vaunteth not itself"—"which suffereth long and is kind." Collision with a Socinian, who boasted that the original language of the New Testament favored his views, led Sharp to study the Greek—and controversy with a Jew, impelled him to the acquisition of the Hebrew. "To be ignorant of the truth, was to him a source of inexpressible pain; and to neglect the means of acquiring it, intolerable disgrace."

In 1757-8, he lost his parents—and from that time, he served the Government, in the Ordnance Department, until the beginning of the American war, in 1776, his prospects in life depending upon his situation. But duty, not interest, was his law; and when he found, that if he retained his office, he must be accessory to bloodshed, he did not hesitate to resign. In this, as throughout life, he evinced, that eternal truth, according to the scriptures, was his chief study—and "glory to God in the highest—and on earth, peace, good will to men" his great end. The pursuits of