The Life and Letters of the Rev. George Mortimer, M.A.: Rector of Thornhill, in the Diocese of Toronto, Canada WestArmstrong, John
Religion
The Life and Letters of the Rev. George Mortimer, M.A.: Rector of Thornhill, in the Diocese of Toronto, Canada West
Armstrong, John
Mortimer, George, 1784-1844
particularly well, and he frequently told us that he never felt his
ministerial duties less burdensome. One of his remarks, which made an
impression on my mind at the time, has since struck me the more from the
coincidence of the following text being written in one of the blank
leaves of the Bible that he was accustomed to use, until within the last
two or three years of his life: “When I am old and grey-headed, O God,
forsake me not.” Psalm lxxi. 18. The remark which he made in
conversation was this: “He has been my God from my youth up, but I never
felt that he was so near to me as now in my old age.” These are not, I
think, quite the expressions he made use of, for I quote from memory, and
although I attempted to write them down the same day, I could not even
then recall the _words_ that he used. Often similar attempts that I made
failed also, and I then relinquished the idea that I had entertained, of
preserving in writing some of my endeared father’s religious
observations. During one of our drives to the station at the German
Mills, speaking of the ministering of angels, a subject of which he was
very fond, he remarked, that the dispensation of _faith_ under which we
are placed made it necessary that an unseen agency should be employed for
our protection and deliverance, as otherwise faith would be lost in
sight; and also that, had these ministering spirits been made visible to
us, we should have been very prone to place our reliance upon _them_,
instead of putting our trust simply in God. He pursued the conversation
as we ascended a very steep hill, and said, “I think we are little aware
how constantly angels are employed on our behalf; perhaps now, an angel
is leading that horse by the bridle, and encouraging it onwards.” One of
the horses, a fine animal, was then exerting itself to the utmost; for
the roads were very bad at the time, and the hill was therefore very
difficult of ascent. I think the following anecdote will be interesting
to you, as it is one which made a strong impression on my dear father’s
mind, and, as it is short, I am tempted to copy it for you: “As one said
to Philip J. Jenks just before he expired, ‘How hard it is to die,’ he
replied, ‘Oh, no, easy dying, blessed dying, glorious dying.’ Looking up
at the clock, he said, ‘I have experienced more happiness in dying this
day, than in my whole life. It is worth living for, it is worth a whole
life, to have such an end as this. I have long desired that I might
glorify God in my death; but oh! I never thought that such a poor worm
as I could have come to such a glorious death.’” I believe this account
of “happiness experienced in death,” contributed very much to weaken his
apprehension of the pains of death, which he afterwards entirely lost.
It had, however, long been his own practice, and one which he recommended
to others from the pulpit, to make death a daily subject of prayer,
particularly as regarded its _time_ and _manner_; and I believe one of
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