The Power of Faith: Exemplified In The Life And Writings Of The Late Mrs. Isabella Graham.Graham, Isabella
Religion
The Power of Faith: Exemplified In The Life And Writings Of The Late Mrs. Isabella Graham.
Graham, Isabella
Christian biography; Graham, Isabella, 1742-1814
Mrs. Graham was very partial to the works of Dr. John Owen, Rev.
William Romaine, and Rev. John Newton, and read them with pleasure and
profit. One day she remarked to Mr. B----, that she preferred the
ancient writers on theology to the modern, because they dealt more in
italics. "Dear mother," he replied, "what religion can there be in
italics?" "You know," said she, "that old writers expected credit for
the doctrines they taught, by proving them from the word of God to be
correct: they inserted the scripture passages in italics, and their
works have been sometimes one-half in italics. Modern writers on
theology, on the contrary, give us a long train of reasoning to
persuade us to their opinions, but very little in italics." This
remark of hers has great force, and deserves the serious attention of
those who write and those who read on theological subjects.
On the two Sabbaths preceding her last illness she joined in
communion at the Lord's table. On the 10th of July, 1814, at
Greenwich, and on the 17th at her own church in Cedar-street. On each
week preceding these seasons she attended three evenings on religious
exercises; on Thursdays at the Orphan Asylum, on Friday evenings the
preparation sermons, and on Saturday evenings at the prayer-meetings.
She appeared lively, and expressed comfort in those religious seasons,
and continued actively useful until the very day on which her
illness commenced.
On the morning of the 17th she attended the Sabbath-school with
her daughter and grandchildren. Thus the Lord was pleased to direct
that she should lead her children's children into the walks of
usefulness before she took her flight to heaven, and impose a pleasing
obligation on them that they should follow her steps. Of the same date
is the last meditation in her diary.
"COMMUNION SABBATH, July 17, 1814.
"'Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him
not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls,' 1
Peter, 1:8, 9.
"I had requested to be brought to my Lord's banqueting-house, and
to be feasted with love this day. I ate the bread and drank the wine,
in the faith that I ate the flesh and drank the blood of the Son of
man, and dwelt in him and he in me. Took a close view of my familiar
friend Death, accompanied with the presence of my Saviour, _his
sensible presence_. I cannot look at it without this; it is my only
petition concerning it. I have had desires relative to certain
circumstances, but they are nearly gone. It is my sincere desire that
God may be glorified, and he knows best how and by what circumstances.
I retain my one petition,
"Only to me thy countenance show,
I ask no more the Jordan through."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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