Page:Records of the Life of the Rev. John Murray.djvu/240

230 confinement many respectable gentlemen, clergymen in Boston, visited him. One or two repeated their visits, and they apparently regarded the now white-haired servant of God, with kindness and respect. One clergyman questioned him respecting his then present views, wishing to be ascertained if his faith were still in exercise, if he were willing to depart. "O yes, yes, yes," exclaimed the long-illumined christian, "the glorious manifestations of divine love still brighten upon me. Right precious to my soul are the promises, the ; and, sir, so far from shrinking from my approaching change, my only struggle is for patience to abide, until the time appointed for my emancipation. I would cultivate a humble, child-like resignation; but hope deferred, doth indeed too often make the heart sick." Another gentleman congratulated him on his apparent convalescence—"Oh! sir," he returned, "the voice of gladness suits not my present feelings; it is, as if, when I believed I was voyaging to my native shores, where health, happiness, and peace awaited me, borne onwards by gales the most propitious, and supposing myself almost in the moment of obtaining the long desired haven, when suddenly driven back by some adverse circumstance, instead of being soothed by condolence, I am pierced to the soul by the discordant sounds of felicitation." Yet, we repeat, the revered teacher was in general astonishingly patient, resigned, and even cheerful. He was frequently heard to say, that he had experienced, in the course of his confinement, more of the abundant goodness of his God, than through the whole of his preceding life; and those, most conversant with him, could not forbear observing, that the protracted period which would in prospect have risen to the eye with a most melancholy, if not terrific aspect, taken as a whole, exhibited the saint more equal, calm, and dignified, than any other six years of his existence. A respectable gentleman, not of his persuasion, but candid and benign, remarked, that his character was elevated to no common height; that his uncomplaining endurance of suffering, and the unwavering steadfastness of his faith, had stamped his testimony with the seal of integrity, and gave that confirmation to his confidence in his own views of sacred writ, which could not fail of rejoicing the hearts of his adherents.

The chamber of adversity was occasionally illumined by the presence of a few fast friends; and sympathizing, kind-hearted, affectionate brother was so uniform in his appearance, with the close of every week, that we might almost have designated the day, and the hour of the evening, by his approaches. Nor was the demise of his teacher the period of his kindness; his countenance, his aid, his commiseration,