The Foundling; or, The Child of ProvidenceChurch, J. (John)
General
The Foundling; or, The Child of Providence
Church, J. (John)
Church, J. (John), approximately 1780-approximately 1825; Clergy -- England -- Biography
As through grace you have been an eye and ear witness to the Lord’s
dealings with me, and to the testimony which he has borne to the word of
his grace (however weak the instrument) in town, so you have heard of
some success I have had in the country. Various have been my journies,
and scarcely have I ever heard of one in vain. Soon alter the death of
my dear girl, I was invited to take a journey to Sheerness. When I
arrived, some who had heard me preach in town, and others who had beard
of me, came to solicit me to preach in that place. The minister was
requested the use of his pulpit, but he denied it at first, which threw a
general damp upon them all. However, I was impressed that the Lord had
intended me to preach there, and when I got alone, I begged of the Lord
to shew me his mind, which he did in his Word, by this text, which I
opened upon—“I will give thee the opening of the mouth unto them.” When
my friends assembled around me again, each giving their various opinions,
I told them I should surely preach to them. The next day I wrote a
polite note to the minister myself, and in the evening he as politely
came to invite me. The Lord opened my mouth, and the dew descended on
the barn floor. This was an enlivening and a quickening time. Many, and
especially the Baptists, were stirred up, and shortly built a small place
for themselves, in which I shortly after preached. I believe a church is
since formed in the place, and godly Baptist ministers supply it. The
Lord also opened the meeting at Strood, and enabled me to proclaim the
unsearchable riches of Christ to the joy of some good old-established
Christians, who had long sat under the truth, and were blessed with that
charity that rejoiceth not in error, but rejoiceth in the truth. Many
remember those visits, and although I shall never see them more in this
world, yet I trust that truth that has made us free will bring us home to
the enjoyment of the God of truth. In the year 1811, I opened a
Monday-evening lecture at Horselydown, and another at the Welsh meeting
at Lambeth, where I continued some years, till Providence altered the
circumstances of these places; also at Little Providence Chapel, in
Holborn, where the Lord met many precious souls, and highly honoured me,
to bring in some of his people: as it is written, _Isaiah_ lxvi. “And
they shall bring in your brethren for an offering unto the Lord, out of
all nations, upon horses and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules,
and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain, saith the Lord.”
Yours, J. C.
P.S. I was very partial to travelling from place to place, but the Lord
has cured me of that roving fit, and I have scarcely a desire left me of
ever leaving my own place: for, sometimes it is found true what Solomon
says—“As a bird that leaveth his nest, so is a man that wandereth from
his place.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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