My quest for God . impression on me, and was often a support to me in thereligious struggles of my boyhood. At a time when my life wasdespaired of, he prayed, as a father would, that I might bespared; but added, that he would rather I should die in infancythan grow up to be unsaved by the grace of God. When I wasold enough to have the need of redemption impressed uponme—which was very early—the terror which fell upon me wassometimes alleviated by the conviction that this prayer of myfathers would be answered, and that I had not been allowedto live to be lost in hell at last. My father was a lo
My quest for God . impression on me, and was often a support to me in thereligious struggles of my boyhood. At a time when my life wasdespaired of, he prayed, as a father would, that I might bespared; but added, that he would rather I should die in infancythan grow up to be unsaved by the grace of God. When I wasold enough to have the need of redemption impressed uponme—which was very early—the terror which fell upon me wassometimes alleviated by the conviction that this prayer of myfathers would be answered, and that I had not been allowedto live to be lost in hell at last. My father was a lover of books, and my own shelves containseveral from the small collection which he left at his death. Ihave read some of his letters to my mother, and have a of his into which he used to copy extracts in poetry andprose. These remains all suggest a mind that had little oppor-tunity for expansion, and insufficient force to break its the other hand, he must have been well abreast of his ITofaccp. CHILDHOOD. 3 for I have a card showing that he was a member of the AntiCorn Law League, and among his books were the twenty-sevenvolumes of the Penny Cyclopaedia, Chambers EncyclopediaOF Literature, RolHns Ancient History, and a large volumeof Shakspeare. These things indicate whither his tastes wereleading him ; and they might have led him much further but forpoverty and early death. I daresay that an uninstructed person, reading the letters ofmy parents, would conclude that theirs was a religion of merephrases, so constantly did their ideas express themselves instereotyped terms. I remember well, for instance, how fre-quently the antithesis occurs between the creature and theCreator, and, • Nature and Grace; and how, by the habitualuse of such set phrases, thought seems to be stifled and lifequenched. But such a judgment would be wide of the as their religion was in its expression, it was very realin its experiences, and gave them strength
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