Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/204

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NOTES AND QUERIES. iw s. n. AUG. 27, im.

I cannot speak more to his praise. In the worst times blessed be His Name ! I can bear testimony to His faithfulness and truth ; He has never left me since He first found* me, no, not for a moment. I know that the everlasting arm is underneath me, and the Eternal God my Refuge. blessed state of a believing soul ! who trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. The Almighty hath graven him upon the palms of His hands, and all his interests and concerns are continually before Him. What a blessed peace belongs to this sweet persua- sion ! a persuasion not founded in fancy, as the world profanely dreams, but built upon the sure promise of an unchanging God. Did not the remainder of sin and unbelief, deprive us of much of our enjoyments, what a delightful portion should we possess even here below ! How much of heaven does a believing view of Jesus, as our all-sufficient good, bring down into the soul ! we seem to breathe the pure air of that better country, where all the inhabitants are holy, and more than seem to converse with God, for our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. Truly the Lord is gracious ; blessed are all they that wait for Him ! to as many as receive Him, gives He power to 'become the sons of God. May we always be enabled to receive Him with our whole heart ! May we charge our souls continually to lift up their ever- lasting gates, and admit this King of Glory, the Christ of God, in all the fulness of His free salva- tion : so shall we be the children of the Most High. He that is in us, will prove Himself greater than lie that is in the world, by giving more than victory over all our enemies. The warfare seems often difficult to us because we are weak, and the Lord keeps us sensible of our weakness, for wise and .gracious ends ; but how easy it is in His hand, Who hath on His vesture and on His thigh* a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords ! before Whom the powers of darkness are as nothing and 'less than nothing, and the legions of hell, with all their devices and subtleties, are as naked in His sight. Then let us not fear because of them, but be very courageous, for the Lord God is with us ; He it is that fights for us : who can be against us ? Yours, my dear Aunt, in the best bonds, etc. etc.

Pp. 75-76, by the same author as pp. 70-72. Dated 12 March. Begins :

May God be for ever praised for the mercies as on this day vouchsafed us all in the event you mention.

Further on :

What a strength of nature does it prove, that at such an age [84], and so feeble a frame, the disso- lution should have so much to struggle with. May this dear and faithful servant of God and man be -enabled to wait the appointed hour of release, and then depart in peace, her eyes seeing Thy salvation, o Lord !

Pp. 77-78 :

Letter 14 [should be 17]. Dated y (Olney), Aug 8t 31 st 1769. Printed in Wright, i. 110-11. P. 110, 1. 2, "afflicting," MS. "afflictive"; 1. 8, "blessed

There was I found by One who had Himself Been hurt by the archers.
 * * The Task,' iii. 112-13 :

and happy," MS. "happy and blessed"; 1. 11 from foot, "and when," MS. "when"; 1. 6 from foot, "trust in," MS. "trust" ; 1. 4 from foot, "distress," MS. "a distress." P. Ill, at end of letter, "etc. etc."

Pp. 79-80 :

Letter 15 [should be 18]. Date March 5, 1770.

Printed in Wright, i. 116-17. Begins " Dear Cousin." P. 116, 1. 4 of letter, "hope," MS. " hopes " ; 1. 5, " only," omitted in MS. ; 1. 9, "beyond," MS. "out of." P. 117, 1. 1, after "purified" MS. adds "by the many furnaces into which He is pleased to cast us. The world is a wilderness to me, and I desire to find it such, till it shall please the Lord to release me from it" ; 1. 6, after " praise" MS. adds :

" My present affliction is as great as most I have experienced : but

When I can hear my Saviour say, Strength shall be equal to thy day, Then I rejoice in deep distress, Leaning on all-sufficient grace. I beg you will present my affectionate respects to the family you are with. I often think on them ; and, when I do so, I think we shall meet no more, till the great trumpet brings us together. May we all appear at the right hand of that blessed Redeemer Emanuel, Who has loved poor sinners, and washed their sins in His own most precious blood.

My poor brother is continually talking in a delirious manner, which makes it difficult for me to know what I write. I must add no more there- fore but that I am, my dear Cousin,

Yours etc. etc. JOHN E. B. MAYOR. Cambridge.

(To be continued.)

PURCELL'S MUSIC FOR < THE TEMPEST.' PHOF. CUMMINGS, upon whom Grove and the ' D.N.B.' base, assigns the composition of Henry PurcelPs music for Shad well's version of 'The Tempest ' to 1690, a highly improbable date. As I have been at some pains to show in my article in the March issue of Anglia (Halle), Shadwell's so-called opera was originally produced at the Duke's Theatre, in Dorset Gardens, in April, 1674. Largely based on the Dryden-Davenant sophistication of 1667, its text is represented by the anony- mous and misleading quarto issued by Herringman late in 1674. Even if it could be shown that the opera was revived in 1690, the probabilities are against its having been provided with a new score at that period. Such a course would hardly have been followed unless it had proved a failure at the outset, and we know the contrary to have been the case.

Beyond the fact that Purcell was barely sixteen at the time, I see no reason for