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Read Ebook: The Character and Happiness of Them That Die in the Lord A sermon preached Oct. 13 1822 in Park Chapel Chelsea on occasion of the death of the late Rev. John Owen by Dealtry William
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Ebook has 58 lines and 14896 words, and 2 pages
"Sunday, April 24. Have humbled myself before God, this morning; and do resolve to watch and pray that I enter not into temptation. May the Lord pardon all my sins, and secure me, by his grace, from falling into them again! Amen."
It ought to be recollected, that the writer was a man of remarkably fine temper.
My next extracts respect his ministerial duties:--
"August 9. Endeavoured to put Dr. A.'s advice into execution, to bear the people to whom I was about to preach, fervently to the throne of grace.
At a somewhat later period, he again expresses the affectionate interest which he took in their welfare, and the hope which he entertained of their progress in true religion.
Most, if not all of these passages, were written many years ago.--What, it may be asked, was the state of his mind as he approached the termination of life?
The only remaining paper to which I shall refer, was written when he was deprived by sickness of the privilege of public worship.
In contemplating a man of this character, of piety so scriptural, and of talents, which, for variety and power, are rarely to be found; we might perhaps have expected, that he would long be spared to assist in carrying on that work of mercy, which, through the divine goodness, had already prospered so wonderfully in his hands; but,--God's thoughts are not our thoughts, nor His ways our ways:--he has been taken away in the midst of his usefulness. We might have expected, that in his last hours he would have been permitted to testify of that Saviour whom he served, and of the power of that gospel which he had laboured to spread throughout the world. But, such was the mysterious appointment of Providence, his vigorous mind seemed to sink under the weight of the disorder which was fatal to the body. Would it not have been better, we are ready to ask, that he should be called away by a sudden death? No; for to God it seemed otherwise: and, although he was for several weeks previous to his dissolution able to say little, and although it was difficult, towards the close of life, to excite in him any sensible apprehension; yet since, if ever he was roused to any portion of his former energy, it was when the chord of religion was touched; since there was something within which answered to that sound, when all besides was silent, the testimony thus given was neither unsatisfactory nor unimportant. How strong in his mind must have been the influence of that heavenly principle, which, amidst the wreck of his mental, as well as bodily powers, could still survive, and still give proof of its existence!
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