Memorials of the Independent Churches in Northamptonshire: with biographical notices of their pastors, and some account of the puritan ministers who laboured in the county.Coleman, Thomas
History
Memorials of the Independent Churches in Northamptonshire: with biographical notices of their pastors, and some account of the puritan ministers who laboured in the county.
Coleman, Thomas
Clergy -- England -- Northamptonshire; Independent churches -- England -- Northamptonshire; Puritans -- England -- Northamptonshire
Suppose this house had been three times its present size, and had
been filled for half the century past with a constant crowd of
hearers; suppose the fame of the venerable man now gone had been
shouted to the skies, and he had been held up as the pride and
prince of preachers; but after all, this had been _all_:--suppose
selfish motives had been supreme, under the disguise of love to
souls; a mere notional religion had been propagated; people had been
only amused, and amazed, and made to wonder and admire; but no minds
really instructed, no hearts humbled, no sinners turned from the
errors of their ways, no Christian graces implanted, no Christian
duties promoted; in this case all these fifty years (as we have
seen) must end; and what is the consequence? What would all this
parade and popularity have proved to him? Only the bursting of a
glittering bubble; the retreat of an actor from the stage amidst the
clappings of the theatre, which he was to hear no more. There is one
passage of Scripture which, when realized, is worth all the cases of
this kind which could occur put together, viz., when a dying
minister can look round on a weeping, affectionate flock, and say,
"Ye are our epistles, written upon our hearts," &c. I say, the
genuine application of such a passage as this to a dying minister
would be worth infinitely more than all the applause and popularity
in the world.
Two discourses, occasioned by the death of the Princess Charlotte of
Wales, were also published.
Since the death of Mr. Toller two volumes of sermons, and a volume of
expository discourses on the Book of Ruth, have been published, as
transcribed from the Author's shorthand manuscripts. To the first volume
of sermons was prefixed a memoir of Mr. Toller, by his friend the Rev.
R. Hall.
We will transcribe from that memoir an ever-memorable anecdote, or
rather, the ever-memorable use the preacher made of a domestic incident
to illustrate a most important subject:--
On one occasion he preached from Isaiah xxvii. 4--"Let him take hold
of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make
peace with me." "I think," said he, "I can convey the meaning of
this passage, so that every one may understand it, by what took
place in my own family within these few days. One of my little
children had committed a fault, for which I thought it my duty to
chastise him. I called him to me, explained to him the evil of what
he had done, and told him how grieved I was that I must punish him
for it. He heard me in silence, and then rushed into my arms and
burst into tears. I could sooner have cut off my arm than have then
struck him for his fault; he had 'taken hold of my strength, and had
made peace with me.'"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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