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
_whole weight_ has been placed upon it; if we stagger and stumble, though
by dexterity we may recover ourselves, and not actually fall, yet we show
that _too much_ of our weight was resting on it; but if, after its
removal, we stand upright as before, it is manifest, as Archbishop
Leighton observes, that we have been leaning not on our prop, but on an
invisible arm for support. The application is easy. But I suggested
another means of ascertaining the same point. What are our feelings
under any probable expectations of the removal of our channel? This,
however, is so closely allied with the former that it needs no separate
enlargement or elucidation. It is evident that the man who is filled
with alarm at the bare idea of the removal of his gold, is too much in
love with it, and, more or less, is making it his god. And he who, with
more specious refinement of taste, dreads the interruption of his social
pleasures, or the removal of some of his wonted sources of good, follows
but too closely in the same steps. God must be owned and felt as our all
in all. He must be regarded, not merely as our _supreme_ good, but as
our only good, as that which is _alone_ necessary. In a word, all I have
to say is summed up in those two expressive lines in the Methodist
hymn-book,
“Lead me where I my heaven may find,
The heaven of loving Thee alone.”
* * * * *
About the end of the year 1817, Mr. Mortimer entertained serious thoughts
of going out to New Zealand as a missionary, and for this end
corresponded with the secretary of the “Church Missionary Society” on the
subject; and it so happened that about this time also two New Zealand
chiefs, Tooi and Teterree, arrived in England, and it was proposed that
they should abide for awhile at Madeley, which they accordingly did. The
providence of God, however, did not seem to open his way for removing to
a far-distant land, and he acquiesced in the result with his usual loving
submission to the will of God. The following letter to the writer gives
some account of the way by which he was led to contemplate the step
referred to:—
Madeley, Nov. 26th, 1817.
My dear Armstrong,
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.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account