Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/107

 io"-s.ii.JcLY3o,i9w.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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8 months. About two months before his death he was for some time in the churchyard with his father, and a day or two after said to his mother : " Mother, I was so happy 'tother day in the churchyard, that I did not know what to dp, or how to account for it. I was forced to say, Praised be God." On Sunday morning, about one o'clock, he was suddenly taken ill, with a violent pain in his bowels. His suffer- ings were extremely acute during his whole illness, which lasted little more than four [?J hours, during which time at intervals he would pray with great fervency. To his nurse on Monday morning early he said : " Nanny, I have nothing more to do with books and learning now : I have laid 'em all aside." Even in his ravings, which were frequent, he was either talking of his books, or praying earnestly and singing hymns. On Monday he desired his mother to read to him the 21st* Psalm ; "or rather," said he, " let me read it." He took the book in hand, but his eyes were already dim ; he then desired his mother again to read it, and afterwards to pray with him. She did so, and he joined with fervour. At one time he lay quite still and calm. "My dear," said his mother, "how do you do? are you in pain ?" " Oh no," said he, " I am very easy and very well." On Tuesday night, about two hours before he died, his mother was for applying fresh warm flannels to his bowels. Upon touching him, he said: " Oh you disturb me in my journey"; and in two hours afterwards he died, without a struggle or a sigh, in the midst of a hymn.

The death of this child made me take particular notice of two stanzas of a hymn in Doddridge's collection :

Thy saints in earlier life removed In sweeter accents sing,

And bless the swiftness of their flight. That bore them to their King.

The burthens of a lengthened day

With patience we would bear ; Till evening's welcome hour shew,

We were our Master's care.

Yours, my dear Aunt, etc. etc.

Pp. 45-47 :

Letter 5.

0-y (Olney), Sept. 26, 1767. MY DEAR AUNT, It is fit I should acknowledge the goodness of God in bringing me to this place, abounding with palm trees and wells of living water. The Lord put it into my heart to desire to partake of His ordinances, and to dwell with His people, and has graciously given me my heart's desire. Nothing can exceed the kindness and hospitality with which we are received here by Mr. N (Newton) ; and to be brought under the ministry of so wise and fruitful a steward of his holy mysteries, is a blessing for which I can never be sufficiently thankful. May our heavenly Father grant that our souls may thrive and flourish in some proportion to the abundant means of grace we enjoy : for the whole day is but one continued opportunity of seeking Him, or conversing about the things of His kingdom. I find it a difficult matter, when surrounded withf the blessings of Providence, to remember that I seek a country, and that this is not the place of my rest. God glorifies

was the 23rd." t By in text, with in margin.
 * Mrs. Cowper's note : " I should rather think it

Himself by bringing good out of evil, but it is the reproach of man, that he is able, and always inclined, to produce evil out of the greatest of blessings. The Lord has dealt graciously with me, since I came, and I trust I have, in two instances, had much delightful communion with Him ; yet this- liberty of access was indulged to me in such a way, as to teach me, at the same time, His great care, that I might not turn it to my prejudice. I expected that in some sermon or exposition I might find Him, and that the lips of this excellent minister would be the instrument, by which the Lord would work upon and soften my obdurate heart : but He saw my proneness to idolize the means, and to praise the creature, more than the Creator ; and therefore, though He gave me the thing I hoped for, yet He conveyed it to me in a way, which I did not look to. At the last Sabbath morning, at a prayer meeting before service, while the poor folks were singing a hymn, and my thoughts were rambling to the ends of the earth, a single sentence ("And is there no pity in Jesus's breast?") seized my atten- tion at once, and my heart within me seemed to return answer : " Yes, or I had never been here." The sweetness of this visit lasted almost through the day ; and I was once more enabled to weep- under a sense of the mercies of a God in Jesus. On Thursday morning I attended a meeting of children, and found that passage,* "out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast Thou ordained praise," verified in a sense, I little thought of ; for at almost every word they spoke, in answer to the several questions proposed to them, my heart burned within me, and melted into tears of grati- tude and love. I thought the singularity of this dispensation worth your notice ; and, having com- municated it, am, in a manner, obliged to break off abruptly.

Yours, my dear Aunt, affectionately, etc. etc*

Pp. 47-49 :

Letter 6.

Oct. 15, 1767.

MY DEAR AUXT, I have taken a journey since I received the favour of your last letter, with Mr. N[ewtonl. Our visit was to the Rev. Mr. Moody, an old gospel minister, whom Mr. N. assists annually with a sermon. From his orchard I could see some hills within a small distance of my native place,f which formerly I have often visited. The sight of them affected me much, and awakened in me a lively recollection of the goodness of the Lord, in caring for and protecting me in those dark and dangerous days, of ignorance and enmity against Him and His own blessed word ; teaches me to draw an inference from these premises, of more worth than millions of gold and silver. If while I was an enemy He loved me, much more reason have I to rest assured of His love, being, reconciled by the blood of His Son. I found myself at this place, not entirely among strangers, as I expected to be. The old gentleman was formerly acquainted with my father, both at the university, and at B-k-d (Berkhampstead), and his wife- travelled with me from thence to London in the stage coach above 20 years since. It pleased the Lord to take occasion by these seemingly trivial circumstances to make my childhood and youth, in their most affecting colours, pass in review

t Great Berkhampstead.
 * Ps. Ixxxii. compared with Matt. xxi. 16.