The Foundling; or, The Child of Providence — John Shaqi
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
thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest; and I will not
leave thee until I have done all the good which I promised unto thee.”
In the evening I again addressed the congregation, from the language of
Moses—“Let thy presence go with us.” After the evening sermon, we had
the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper. The evening was solemn, and we
concluded with thanksgiving for the many happy hours we had spent in the
place, and intreated the Lord to go with us the next day, and abide with
us all our days. We left the old spot with some reluctance, and the next
morning I opened the new meeting. I preached from _Exodus_ xxv. 8—“And
let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them:” this sermon
is now in print. And in the evening to a very crowded congregation, from
_John_ xvii—“And I have declared thy name, and will declare it, that the
love wherewith thou hast loved me, may be in them, and thou in them.”
The bustle of the day had impaired my mind, but I was helped through it,
and the collection amounted to upwards of fifty pounds for that day,
which I considered to be very great. Some very excellent singers
volunteered their kind services, and at the close of the service favoured
us with some very beautiful anthems from Handel. The place was always
well attended, but the building of the chapel involved me in several
heavy debts, many of which I paid out of the produce of the chapel, and
others I borrowed money to pay them with, so that I paid all the
tradesmen comfortably to my own mind; but the borrowed money laid as a
dead weight on my spirits, and created me many anxieties. This gave
fresh exercise to prayer and faith, and an opportunity of watching the
hand of God. Soon after the building was completed, my subscriptions
stopped, and of course all the heavy debt laid on me. As I was
determined no one should be hurt by me, I became responsible for every
thing; and having collected by subscription, about seven hundred pounds,
I found I was nearly ten hundred pounds in debt—three hundred I paid in
about eighteen months, and the rest I paid interest for the use of, till
the whole was cleared off. And as I had the money given me, I built the
place and paid for it, of course it is my own property; but I have since
seen it necessary to choose trustees, by way of executors to my will,
that the place should be always appropriated to the preaching of the
gospel: this was to secure it from any who should claim it, and in future
time convert it into any thing else: as I had known some preachers who
had chapels of their own, after they had made a fortune in them, sell
them to brokers, and other persons, laying an injunction on them never to
let them again have the gospel preached in them. This is most base, and
cruel, beyond all expression; and what an awful state must their
consciences be in, to act in so base a manner. The Lord was with me, in
this place also, till another calamity befel me: but this I know, every
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account