“O Jesus, how richly hast thou provided for me here? Thou givest me a large earnest of my inheritance. Thou dost give me to drink of that fountain of living water. O that it may be in me as _a well of water, springing up into everlasting life_! O thou fairest among ten thousand, what hast thou done for such a worm as me! Thou hast purchased for me holiness and heaven; yea, heaven upon earth. Thou dost give thyself to me, and with thyself all things. Be astonished, O my soul, at the large inheritance which thy Jesus has purchased for thee! Behold the rivers of pleasure that flow at his right hand! And there thou shalt behold his face without a veil:
“Far from a world of grief and sin, With God eternally shut in!”
A short Account of the Death of MARY LANGSON, Of _Taxall_, in CHESHIRE, Who died _January_ the 29th, 1769.
WHEN _Mary Langson_ was about fourteen years of age, it pleased God to awaken her by the preaching of the gospel; and soon after she received a clear sense of his pardoning love, in the enjoyment of which she continued, though not exempted from those trials and temptations which are common to believers.――From her first hearing the preaching, she was diligent in the use of all the means of grace, whether private, or public: and though the preaching was seldom near, she attended at every possible opportunity.
She was constant at meeting her class; and those who were most acquainted with her, being of the same family, observed that she always expressed the state of her soul, just as it was, and manifested such a spirit of sincerity in all her deportment, as convinced them that she was an _Israelite indeed_, in whom was no guile.
Her step-mother being rendered incapable of managing the affairs of the house, the care of a young family in a great measure devolved on her, which, with the attendance needful for her helpless step-mother, necessarily brought considerable exercises and trials, to one of such tender years; yet being inwardly strengthened for the performance of these duties, she manifested as much tenderness towards her, as if she had been her own mother; (an example too rarely seen in such cases) and was enabled to go through her constantly-trying circumstances with unwearied patience. Although by these means she was deprived of providing for herself such sort of apparel, and conveniences as those of her age usually expect, and may innocently enjoy.
*Having been tried, and in some measure intangled in her affections, she was sensible of a decline in her spiritual consolations, but through the mercy of God, this lasted not long; for she rested not till she had recovered all she had lost; so that she was enabled to testify to a Christian friend, while she remained in health, “I find my heart loose from every creature, and all created good, and wholly fixed on God: this is the desire of my soul.
“O that I might walk with God, Jesus my companion be; Lead me to the blest abode, Thro’ the fire, and thro’ the sea: Then I shall no more complain, Never at my lot repine, Welcome toil, or grief, or pain, All is well, if Christ is mine.”
When the grace of God thus takes place in the heart, how little does every thing we suffer for his sake appear! How empty is _all_ the world calls _good_ and _great_, to a soul filled with divine love!
From the following remarkable circumstances, it seems as if she had some apprehensions of the near approach of death. She began to be more abundantly diligent in the use of every means of grace, for some weeks before her last sickness. It was also observed that though she had not been accustomed to pray at the class-meeting, yet being now exceedingly fervent in spirit, one evening at class, she broke out into earnest prayer; she appeared to enjoy much freedom, and great nearness to God, and was deeply affected with a sense of the _evil of sin_, and her own _weakness_, which occasioned her crying to God in such expressions as these, “O Lord! Rather let me die, than live to offend, or ever sin against thee!” Indeed the vehement importunity with which she uttered these petitions made her brethren suspect that something more than common would happen; for the power of God was unusually present.
Soon after (on the 14th of January, 1769) she sickened for the small-pox. One then asked her, how she felt her soul: she said, “My evidence is clear, and life or death, the will of the Lord be done.”