fTHEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, | 
 I Princeton, N. J. f 
 
 Si^:Sk'^ -«*5^«e<^ 
 
 From the PUBLISHER. 
 
 BV 4935 .H68 P57 1847 
 Pitcairn, David, d.l870. 
 Perfect peace 
 
PERFECT PEACE 
 
 LETTERS-MEMORIAL 
 
 OF THE LATE 
 
 JOHN WARREN HOWELL, ESQ, 
 
 OF BATH, M.B.C.S. 
 
 BY y^ 
 
 THE REV. DAVID PITCAIRN; 
 
 MINISTER OF EVIE AND KENDALL. 
 
 W^\X^ an JfTttr^lruction, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. JOHN STEVENSON, 
 
 Author of " Christ oa the Cross." 
 
 FHOM THE NINTH LONDON EDITION. 
 
 NEW-YORK : 
 
 ROBERT CARTER, 58 CANAL-STREET. 
 
 PITTSBURG : 56 MARKET-STREET. 
 
 1847. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT 
 TOTHE FIFTH EDITION 
 
 It was only in April last year that this little volume 
 first appeared. Already eight thousand copies have 
 been sold. Many most interesting proofs of its use- 
 fulness have reached the ears, and gladdened the heart, 
 of the author. And although the price is so small, 
 the great extent of the sale has secured a considerable 
 pecuniary benefit to Mrs. Howell and her children. 
 
 The objects for which the publication was underta- 
 ken have thus, by the blessing of God, been accom- 
 plished with a rapidity, and to an amount of success, 
 far surpassing the most sanguine anticipations. 
 
 In issuing a new edition, the author feels himself 
 under a strong and pleasing obligation, to express his 
 deep gratitude, not only to the many kind friends in 
 different parts of the country who have interested 
 themselves in promoting the circulation of the book, 
 but especially to Him who overrules all events for His 
 own glory, and who has so strikingly, in this case, 
 
IV ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 given testimony to the faithfulness of His word : " The 
 Lord preservetii the stranger ; He relieveth the fa- 
 therless and widow." (Psalm cxlvi. 9.) 
 
 Attempts are at present being made to select and 
 arrange such portions of the valuable documents Mr. 
 Howell left behind him, as may seem best adapted for 
 general reading. And it is hoped that many of those 
 who have perused with pleasure or profit the " Letters- 
 Memorial" of his premature but peaceful death, will 
 gladly hail the announcement of a volume of his lite- 
 rary and scientific remains. 
 
 Torquay, April, 1845. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 REV. J. STEVENSON 
 
 Every living man is interested in the ex- 
 perience of the dying. It is the last school 
 of wisdom to which the children of men can 
 be advanced. Some, indeed, may question 
 what concern they have with every sable 
 narrative, and it is true they may not now 
 feel that they are affected by it. Neverthe- 
 less here lies their interest : Are they not 
 travellers upon the sa,me road ? Is not the 
 velocity of time hurrying them onward to 
 the same terminus ? And shall we shut our 
 eyes upon the experience of others, and bar 
 the inlet of wisdom till we be ourselves de- 
 stroyed ? The reckless navigator may deem 
 his own sagacity a safer guide than all the 
 charts of older mariners, and with unfurled 
 1* 
 
6 INTRODUCTION 
 
 sail he may explore the half-known coasts 
 of distant lands, but it may only be to make 
 a first and last discovery of his own folly 
 upon the rock which they would have taught 
 him to avoid. 
 
 "Nil humanum a me alienum puto," was 
 the noble sentiment of a heathen philoso- 
 pher. The lover of wisdom puts nothing 
 from him that concerns his kind. He feels 
 himself linked to every form of man by the 
 tie of a common nature, and he treasures up 
 the lessons of their experience as sources of 
 instruction to direct his own. This is but 
 common prudence. We all act upon it for 
 life, and why not also for death ? It is wis- 
 dom for a man's self Who is there that 
 does not practise it in his own department ? 
 
 The Merchant fails not to inquire in what 
 quarter of the globe men make their great- 
 est gains, nor is he slow to mark that spe- 
 cies of merchandise which has proved most 
 lucrative. The Lawyer studies every case 
 that bears analogy to that of his client, and 
 makes himself familiar with the long list of 
 precedents. The evidence which they fur- 
 nish he will canvass, and avail himself of 
 the successful pleas which they have urged. 
 So likewise the Physician, the Statesman, 
 the Leaders of armies or of navies, are all 
 wise in their generation. They allow no 
 
BY THE REV. J. STEVENSON. 7 
 
 thing to pass unnoticed which can contrihute 
 to their private good or the general benefit. 
 It would be their folly if they did. The 
 temple of wisdom is supported by the pillars 
 of experience. Every discovery in science, 
 every new specimen of art, every fresh ad- 
 vance in knowledge, is of importance to the 
 inhabitants of the globe. 
 
 Of all the objects of interest which this 
 attractive world presents, none can equal 
 that of a peaceful death-bed. xin echpse of 
 the solar orb attracts the attention of all who 
 are dependent on its light. The birth of an 
 mfant awakens emotions in the breast of 
 every one that is connected with its family. 
 But — the departure of a man — the eclipse 
 of a fellow-mortal — the labour of his birth 
 into eternity, should exceed them all in its 
 thrilling interest to his fellows. No man 
 ought to be insensible to its appeal. We 
 know that we must follow him. We see 
 ourselves, as it were, represented in him. 
 His very sickness may be ours. The pain 
 he feels, or the comforts he enjoys, may be 
 ours also. We long, therefore, to know 
 what are the feelings which his situation 
 awakens. If calm and peaceful, we wish 
 to ascertain by what means they became so ; 
 and we see it to be our wisdom, our duty, and 
 our happiness, so to adopt the same means. 
 
8 INTRODUCTION 
 
 that when we reach the same verge we may- 
 enjoy the same consolation. 
 
 To meet this wish is the design of the ex- 
 cellent author of the following letters. To 
 prepare the living for death, by these details 
 of the experience of the dying, is the object 
 of their publication. It is a spiritual study 
 which is here set before us. The rise and 
 progress of a soul heavenward is here de- 
 scribed. In the brief space of a few weeks, 
 a "pilgrim's progress" from the city of 
 destruction to the Zion of God is strikingly 
 delineated. An experienced minister of 
 Christ is here perceived guiding an immor- 
 tal spirit on the way to everlasting happi- 
 ness. It is a deeply interesting sight. The 
 spiritual physician is called in to administer 
 the medicine of eternal health. Stretched 
 on his dying bed, lies a healer of the body : 
 himself past healing ; and the only inquiry 
 that bursts from his lips is this, "What shall 
 I do to be saved?" 
 
 Of all death-beds, that of the medical man 
 is one of the most painfully interesting. He 
 who has grappled with the king of terrors 
 to rescue his fellow-men, he who has been 
 used by Providence to deliver others, is now 
 seized himself His very profession teaches 
 him at once to recognise the grasp of Death. 
 He knows the ten thousand turnings of dis- 
 
BY THE REV. J. STEVENSON. 9 
 
 case. He feels not only what it is, but what 
 it Avill be. He can foresee its course, the 
 stages of its progress, and the symptoms of 
 its advance. He can calculate the various 
 vibrations of the pulse, and fix his eye on 
 the diseased mechanism within. The ul- 
 cerated lung, the ossifying heart, the inter- 
 nal cancer, are all as palpably before his 
 mental vision as are the bleeding wound 
 and the fractured limb to the eye of the com- 
 mon observer. He understands alike the 
 power and the impotence of medicines. 
 Surely, if a case could be where ignorance 
 were bliss, it must be to know nothing of 
 anatomy on a sick-bed, and to be then un- 
 read in the great pharmacopoeia of unavail- 
 able medicines. To have long prescribed 
 for others, and at last to find nothing to pre- 
 scribe for one's self, is a position of pecuUar 
 trial, demanding the strongest sympathy. 
 
 Such was the situation of the subject of 
 the ensuing memorial. Mr. Howell was a 
 rising man in the medical profession, — a 
 profession requiring no little share of native 
 talent, and of laborious research. In each 
 of these he excelled. He is described by 
 competent judges as a man of no ordinary 
 stamp. His intellectual powers were of the 
 highest order, and he had long been distin- 
 guished for the most patient, persevering 
 
10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 study. These studies and powers had heeii 
 directed to a profession which required him 
 to be scrupulously exact in every thing that 
 affected the well-being of man. He Avas 
 accustomed to deal with realities. He could 
 discriminate between the real and the appa- 
 rent properties of things ; and was not like- 
 ly, therefore, to be easily deceived, or misled 
 by false premises or specious arguments. 
 The quality of his mind was "reflective, 
 not demonstrative;" we maybe therefore 
 sure that every statement made to him, 
 every truth propounded, would be maturely 
 weighed and fully tested, ere utterance would 
 be given to his accordance with it. 
 
 Besides, Mr. Howell is declared to be a 
 man of such integrity and truthfulness, that 
 the fullest confidence might be reposed in 
 the sincerity of every statement which he 
 made. The truth of this abundantly ap- 
 pears in the following Memorial. 
 
 The contemplation, then, of the spiritual 
 experience of such a character is highly sa- 
 tisfactory ; and, were it at all needful, a sim- 
 ilar testimony might be borne to the Chris- 
 tian fidelity of the narrator, by whom, we 
 know, that the exactest shade and colouring 
 would be given to every interview which 
 words are capable of imparting. 
 
 In the opening letter, Mr. Howell is pre- 
 
BY THE REV. J. STEVENSON. 11 
 
 sen ted before us as "peculiarly standing in 
 need of spiritual counsel and encourage- 
 ment." But what occasion was there? 
 His age and prospects fair, his wife and 
 family presented strong arguments, indeed, 
 for love to life. But it was not to love life that 
 he sought encouragement, — it was express- 
 ly to meet with death. And why a man, so 
 free from vice, so virtuous and amiable, who 
 had spent his time so honourably to himself 
 and so usefully to others, should shrink more 
 than our nature doth at the approach of 
 death, the world can see no reason ! Were 
 he wanting in common fortitude, or did 
 some secret sin against a fellow-creature lie 
 heavy on his conscience, the fact would be 
 explained. But these existed not. So far 
 as man can judge, Mr. Howell possessed in- 
 vincible fortitude, and a reputation unblem- 
 ished and unimpeachable. What, then, 
 occasioned his depression 7 It was this : 
 — Mr. Howell had begun to reckon, that 
 though he had not sinned in the sight of 
 men, he had sinned before God. He felt 
 that he had neither loved nor served his 
 Maker as he ought; and therefore the pros- 
 pect of soon being ushered into his holy pre- 
 sence filled him with dismay. 
 
 Like most other men, Mr. Howell, in the 
 days of health, had chiefly looked to one side 
 
12 INTRODUCTION 
 
 of his account, and was "well satisfied witn 
 himself" when he thought he had discnarg- 
 ed the duties which he owed to his feliow- 
 men. But what does it avail the prisoner, 
 when tried on two indictments, to plead al- 
 ways his innocency as to the second, and pay 
 no regard to the accus tion of the first? 
 Now man is such a prisoner, against whom 
 a double indictment is made out ; and, either 
 in this world or in the next, he must give in 
 his pleading to them both. "Thou hast 
 sinned against thy God," and "Thou hast 
 sinned against thy neighbour," is the two- 
 fold charge which the Scriptures record 
 against every human being. To the due 
 consideration of the first charge, men seldom 
 or never apply themselves. In general, it is 
 deemed quite enough to show that they have 
 not flagrantly violated the second. How 
 awfully startled, then, must such persons be 
 when death approaches, when conscience 
 awakens, when the guilt of having forgotten 
 God flashes upon their minds, and when the 
 voice of the unerring Judge seems already 
 to condemn them. 
 
 Happy, thrice happy, surely, are those 
 who are taught by the Spirit of God to con- 
 sider the charge in its twofold character, and 
 to seek for an advocate before it be too late. 
 Of this class was Mr. Howell. He was no 
 
BY THE REV. J. STEVENSON. 13 
 
 longer deceiving himself. He had begun 
 honestly to consider the twofold charge 
 which lay Eigainst him: he felt that he was 
 guilty, and he knew not how to escape. 
 
 To a man in such circumstances, how joy- 
 ful is the message of .the minister of Christ ! — 
 ''An advocate is already appointed for you. 
 Trust in him, and he will bring your case to 
 a favourable termination." "But what," 
 may the desponding prisoner answer, — 
 "what can he do for me? what can he say 
 on my behalf, for I am indeed guilty?" 
 •'This advocate," the messenger of God can 
 reply, "has shed his blood to take away 
 your guilt, and he has lived a perfectly 
 righteous life towards God and man. Of 
 this blood and of this righteousness he can 
 plead, as your surety, that you may enjoy 
 the benefit. Do you, then, place yourself in 
 his hands?" "Who is he that I may do 
 so?" "He is Jesus Christ the righteous, 
 whose name is Immanuel, God with us. He 
 is the fellow of the Most High God, and yet he 
 is your brother, having assumed your nature, 
 and become bone of your bone. Love to 
 man brought him from the realms of glory, 
 and now he is ascended up on high to plead 
 for every one that believe th in him." 
 
 Imagine such a communication on un- 
 doubted authority to be made to a prisoner 
 2 
 
14 INTRODUCTION 
 
 on the eve of trial. Is it not enough to trans- 
 port him with joy? Such was the effect of 
 the Gospel, simply and energetically stated, 
 upon Mr. Howell. The glad tidings swal- 
 lowed up every other feeling. "Grace and 
 peace were multiplied unto him through the 
 knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ his 
 Lord." (2 Pet. i. 2.) And so long as his at- 
 tention remained fixed on the love of God in 
 Christ towards him. he continued to experi- 
 ence the same exuberant joy. But, after- 
 wards, when time for thought elapsed, this 
 very natural consideration arose within his 
 mind, "But I am altogether unworthy of 
 such a friend as this, and of such a happi- 
 ness as I now enjoy." We say this was a 
 natural reflection, because, as we estimate 
 men and things by their intrinsic value, we 
 naturally conclude that God judges by the 
 same rule. Though we rejoice, therefore, 
 when we consider the free and blessed de- 
 clarations of the Gospel of Christ, yet, when 
 we begin to contemplate our own un worthi- 
 ness, our joy is turned into mourning. This 
 arises from three causes. First, imagining 
 that God will estimate us by our own inhe- 
 rent value; second, hoping to acquire that 
 value in his sight ; and third, inadequately ap- 
 prehending the nature of that Gospel which 
 has made us glad. To remedy these errors, 
 
BY THE REV. J. STEVENSON. 15 
 
 we need to be convinced by the Word and 
 Spirit of God, that he does not, and will not, 
 estimate man by his personal value, or wor- 
 thiness, because he has already pronounced 
 that he possesses none. This judgment of 
 God must be so inwrought into our judg- 
 ment as to destroy the hope of our ever being 
 able to possess any merit in his sight, and 
 then, from this utter prostration of our hopes 
 and of our own righteousness, we must flee 
 to Him, whom God has graciously provided 
 to be the Saviour of our souls. We must see 
 that when God could not accept us in our 
 own name, or for our own sake, he will re- 
 ceive us, and pardon us, and sanctify us, in 
 the name and for the sake of his own Son. 
 We must be brought to believe that the blood 
 of Jesus expiates our sins before God, which 
 even our own blood could not have done; 
 and also to believe that the righteousness of 
 Christ is as freely offered to us and is as fully 
 available for us, as if we ourselves had lived 
 his righteous life. 
 
 Such glad tidings, however, as the Gospel 
 brings, appear at times to be too good to be 
 true. We feel as though we could not be- 
 lieve them for joy ! "Can such a creature 
 as I am hope for heaven? Is the love of 
 God so great and so gratuitous that it can 
 reach to me ? Is it really true that the Son 
 
16 INTRODUCTION 
 
 of the Most High God died upon a cross to 
 save my soul from hell?" Such are the 
 thoughts that rise upon the mind. They are 
 the natural cogitations of the heart. It does 
 not surprise us, then, to hear a similar senti- 
 ment from the mouth of Mr. Howell. On 
 the contrary, we regard it as another evi- 
 dence of that scrupulous sincerity Avith which 
 he watched over each successive step of his 
 spiritual progress. There v/-as no eager, un- 
 scrutinising, haste; not a single point was 
 ever taken for granted. At one interview 
 we observe that the bliss of heaven formed 
 the captivating subject of conversation. The 
 heart of the instructor was enraptured by it. 
 An enthusiastic hearer would have appeared 
 to reciprocate the feeling of exultation ; but 
 not so the subject of this narrative. "Mr. 
 Howell looked grave. At last he remarked 
 that he admitted the truth of all that had 
 been advanced, but added, after some hesi- 
 tation, 'It is indeed delightful to hear about 
 the bliss of heaven ; and my own reflections 
 suggested by this tract, and by your conver- 
 sations, have been most soothing and eleva- 
 ting. At the same time, I cannot subdue a 
 continually rising idea that it is premature 
 in a person like me to entertain the hope of 
 this bliss. All my former pursuits have been 
 so exclusively of a worldly character, and 
 
BY THE REV. J.* STEVENSON. 17 
 
 my whole life has been marked by such for- 
 getfulness of God, and indifference to the 
 salvation which is by our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 that I wish for your opinion whether I am 
 not deceiving myself in this matter.' " 
 
 Whence did this new feeling originate'? 
 Mr. Howell informs us. '-I thought," he 
 added, "that your theory of salvation was 
 too simple. It seems too easy a way of get- 
 ting to heaven. He thought the Gospel too 
 good to be true. Its very freeness tempted 
 him to disbelieve it. The frankness and the 
 generosity of the love of God, exhibited in 
 Christ, are so beyond the thoughts and ways 
 of man (Is. Iv. 8.) that even after our minds 
 have received the idea, we find it difficult to 
 retain it. Our sins appear to be too great to 
 be so easily passed by. Oh, unworthy- 
 thought ! Easily passed by ! Look to Cal- 
 ^vary ! See the beloved Son of /3od, bleed- 
 ing, dying on the cross ! Say, hadst thou 
 been nailed there for thine own sins, wouldest 
 thou still believe that they were easily passed 
 by 7 Ah, no ! And if a friend will give his 
 body to be pierced instead of thine, are thy 
 sins easily passed by? Yea, if God himself 
 come down, and suffer in thy room, wilt thou 
 still say that thy sins are easily passed by? 
 Nay, rather let us more exquisitely feel for 
 the sufferings of our Friend than we would do 
 2=M= 
 
18 INTRODUCTION 
 
 for our own. And let his wounds indelibly 
 impress two grand ideas upon our hearts — the 
 greatness of our guilt and the vastness of his 
 love. To keep these two continually in 
 mind- is the duty of every Christian. Yet 
 we cannot, without an eifort, keep them 
 botlr equally before us. Like Peter, who 
 had looked simply to his Lord, and thus had 
 walked firmly upon the water, the Christian, 
 after a time, looks to himself and to the bil- 
 lows that surround him, and he begins to 
 sink. In thinking of himself and of his own 
 weakness, Peter forgot his Master, and his 
 mighty power. So did Mr. Howell in the 
 Qase before us ; and so do all Christians in the 
 days of their despondency. They think of 
 sin till they lose sight of that atonement 
 which has been made for it. They think of 
 their own unrighteousness till they forget 
 that Christ is of God made righteousness 
 ■unto them (1 Cor. i. 30.) The true position 
 of every disciple is this, so to see the deep 
 that is beneath him as to lose all confidence 
 in himself and so to see the Saviour that is 
 near him as to lose all terror of the billows. 
 Christ Jesus has freely made himself our 
 great deliverer. And shall we complain that 
 his work is too gratuitous, and that his deli- 
 verance is too complete '? What should we 
 feel to hear the soldiers of Prussia say, in re- 
 
BY THE REV. J. STEVENSON. 19 
 
 ference to Waterloo, "It was too easy a vic- 
 tory?" Would we not indignantly reply, 
 "So, indeed, it was to you! Our generai 
 bore the heat and burden of the day. He 
 gained a hard-fought victory, and gave you 
 a retreating and conquered enemy to pur- 
 sue?" This reply presents us with anil- 
 lustration of the Christian's position. Jesus, 
 the Captain of our salvation, has conquered 
 sin, and death, and Satan. He triumphed 
 over them on his cross (Col. ii. 15,) and calls 
 upon us to pursue the conquered foe. The 
 duty of Christians is to follow in the wake of 
 victory. The whole hosts of hell are on the 
 retreat. But never let us forget that, though 
 vanquished, they are not yet destroyed. 
 The retreating enemy, in a revengeful spi- 
 rit, will turn on every opportunity, and take 
 quick advantage of the incautious zeal or 
 weak timidity of their pursuers. The fear- 
 ful they will assail ; before the bold and the 
 courageous they will retire. "Resist the 
 devil, and he will flee from you." (James, 
 iv. 7.) He flees, not simply because we re- 
 sist, but because he feels he has been already 
 conquered by our Lord. To say, then, that 
 our way to heaven is too easy, is to speak 
 with selfish reference to ourselves, overlook- 
 ing the travail, and the agony, and the blood 
 of Him who made it easy for us. 
 
20 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Yet we ought not to forget that this wrong 
 conchision originated in Mr. Howell from a 
 right feehng. He was a man of an honour- 
 able mind. He knew that he had wronged 
 his Maker, and he felt that he ought to make 
 satisfaction, — nay more, he wished to make 
 it. He could not allow himself to be happy 
 till this was accomplished. This is a most 
 important point. Many honourable men of 
 the world feel utterly at a loss how to solve 
 this difficulty. They find it to be an effec- 
 tual barrier to their progress; they feel as 
 though it would not be honourable to accept 
 such a free invitation to heaven, until they 
 have made a full reparation. Now here the 
 Gospel meets them. It declares, "You can- 
 not make this reparation yourselves; but 
 Christ has put himself in your place, and has 
 made it for you. He has made full satisfac- 
 tion to God for your offences: yea, he has 
 'magnified the law,' which you have dis- 
 honoured, and 'made it honourable' (Isaiah, 
 xlii. 21.) Your invitation, to heaven, then, 
 is made to you on the very ground on which 
 you desire to accept it. 'A full, perfect, and 
 sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction,' 
 has been made for sin; so that God may be 
 just, and yet the justifier of him who be- 
 lieves." (Rom. iii. 36.) 
 Here, then, is some thing to lay hold of. 
 
BY THE REV. J. STEVENSON. 21 
 
 The justice of God is satisfied. We feel that 
 we now tread on soUd ground. We see that 
 the Gospel is no superficial thing, but a sub- 
 stantial realit3^ We learn that our case has 
 been fully dealt with. We no longer hesi- 
 tate. We accept the work of our Surety, 
 and we rejoice. This became Mr. Howell's 
 feeling; he understood the Gospel. ''I see, 
 then," he said, "that in order to be justi- 
 fied, our faith must embrace the blood of 
 Christ for the pardon of our innumerable of- 
 fences, and the perfect righteousness of Christ 
 as a substitute for our want of righteousness." 
 From this moment his peace and his pro- 
 gress were like a noble river in its flow. 
 The spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the 
 knowledge of Christ had been given to him 
 (Eph. i. 17.) the eyes of his understanding 
 were enlightened, he now knew that the hope 
 of his calling was based on a solid and im- 
 movable foundation; and the affections of his 
 heart became captivated by the love of 
 Christ. The immediate effect was an ardent 
 desire after holiness. It is deeply interest- 
 ing to observe this. How delightful, how 
 instructive is it to watch the progress of a 
 soul ! The love of Christ, like fire, con- 
 sumes our dross, and assimilates us to him- 
 self No sooner did Mr. Howell understand 
 the love of a crucified Saviour than he in- 
 
22 INTRODUCTION 
 
 quired, ''But is there not provision in the 
 Gospel scheme for our deUverance from the 
 power of sin? God's people surely should 
 be holy. They for whom the Son of God 
 died should themselves die unto sin!" 
 
 The soul has attained an elevated position 
 when it can utter this sentiment. It pants 
 after holiness. The noblest ambition that 
 can inspire a created being has now taken 
 possession of the Christian's breast — he longs 
 to be restored to the image of God ! His at- 
 tention, therefore, is again directed to the 
 Gospel, and he finds it to be pre-eminently a 
 provision for holiness. He finds therein not 
 only a willing Saviour, but also a sanctify- 
 ing Spirit. He learns that it was by the se- 
 cret drawings of this Spirit that his thoughts 
 and desires were first turned to the truths of 
 God's word. He perceives that his under- 
 standing was enlightened, his conscience 
 awakened, and his afllsctions captivated, by 
 the operation of this Spirit. He now knows 
 that the outward voice of the minister is but 
 the instrument, and that the inward voice of 
 the Spirit is the power that worketh in him; 
 and he feels that, under the quickening of 
 this Spirit, his love to prayer is strengthen- 
 ing, that his delight in God's word is increas- 
 ing, and that his hatred to sin, and his de- 
 
BY THE REV. J. STEVENSON. 23 
 
 sires after purity in every thought and feel- 
 ing, are burning with an intenser glow. 
 
 Thus the dying Christian is made meet 
 for the inheritance of the saints in light. 
 He does not now estimate himself only by 
 the external act, but by the inward motive. 
 He is no longer well satisfied with himself. 
 He no longer flatters himself that he has dis- 
 charged his duties to his neighbours. He 
 feels that he owed to their soul a debt of 
 love, and of sympathy, and of spiritual kind- 
 ness, which he had never taken account of. 
 He weeps at the thought of his previous 
 bhndness and self-righteousness; and, while 
 he casts all the past upon the atoning blood 
 of his Redeemer, he will be enabled, in all 
 honesty, to say, by the sanctifying grace of 
 the Holy Spirit, ' ' Henceforth it is my whole 
 delight to love the Lord my God, with all 
 my heart, and with all my soul, and with 
 all my strength, and with all my mind : and, 
 I do desire to love my neighbour as I love 
 myself!" 
 
 What a change has here taken place ! 
 The twofold law of condemnation has given 
 way to the twofold law of love ! The man 
 has grown up into Christ. (Eph. iv. 1.5.) 
 Such was at last the case with Mr. Howell. 
 He had put on the new man which after God 
 is created in righteousness and true holiness 
 
2A INTRODUCTION 
 
 (Eph. iv. 24.) And so sincerely and fully 
 had he put off the old man with his deeds 
 (Col. iii. 9,) that even the reflection of sin in 
 a dream of the night filled him with self-ab- 
 horrence ! 
 
 Behold the workmanship of God ! ' ' Who 
 can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" 
 The Lord alone ! Behold, then, and admire 
 the power of God ! Go forward, reader, to 
 the perusal of these letters. May these ex- 
 cellent instructions, by which Mr. Howell 
 was conducted from darkness to light, from 
 perplexity to peace, be equally blessed to 
 thee ! Learn, that no natural amiability of 
 heart, no gigantic powers of intellect, noth- 
 ing but the Gospel of Christ, can secure 
 peace to a troubled conscience. See how 
 former worldliness, and forgetfulness of God, 
 and indifferency to Christ's religion, come 
 back with a lieavy weight upon the soul : 
 what thorns to the dying pillow, what hin- 
 derers of spiritual progress, those things be- 
 come, of which in health, but small account 
 is made. Pray then, earnestly, for thine own 
 soul, that the Spirit of the hving God may 
 make thee wise unto salvation. From the 
 sublime and solemn spectacle of a fellow- 
 creature calmly composing himself to his 
 last sleep, retire with this resolution indeli- 
 bly imprinted on thy heart, "To me to 
 
BY THE REV. J. STEVENSON. 25 
 
 live" shall be ''Chrisf' (Phil. i. 21.) Thou 
 shall thus experieuce the same marvellous 
 transformation with the subject of this in- 
 teresting narrative. The medicine of the 
 Gospel will produce in thee also the true 
 symptoms of everlasting health. In the ten- 
 derness of his love the Great Physician will 
 watch over the progress of thy soul's conva- 
 lescence. B)^ the greatness of his skill he 
 will insure the restoration of thy moral 
 strength. In the fulness of his power he will 
 raise up the new man within thee in the holy 
 bloom of spiritual health, and, no longer re- 
 quiring to detain thee in the sick chamber of 
 this world, he will bid thee also to go to that 
 genial chme, where no danger of a relapse 
 can reach thee, where the noxious vapours 
 of sin and of temptation cannot enter, and 
 where, amongst the spirits of the just, thou 
 shall be made perfect in holiness for ever. 
 
 J. S. 
 
 Cury Vicarage, Helston, Coi-nwall, 
 27th January, 1844. 
 
MEMORIALS, 
 
 &C. &C. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 In the Bath and Cheltenham Gazette^ of Ja- 
 nuary 10th, 1844, there appeared the following 
 obituary : — 
 
 " At Torquay, on the 4th instant, aged 33, 
 John Warren Howell, Esq., Surgeon, of Axford 
 Buildings, in this city. 
 
 " We have a melancholy duty in recording the 
 death of our esteemed friend, the late John War- 
 ren Howell, M.R.C.S., late Honorary Secretary 
 of the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Insti- 
 tution, and Corresponding Member of the Lon- 
 don Botanical, and other learned societies. His 
 professional Hfe was marked by firmness, ability, 
 and humanity. Of a powerful, energetic, and 
 original mind, his whole life was devoted to the 
 acquisition of knowledge, and promoting the in- 
 tellectual attainments of mankind. As a lecturer 
 he was eminently distinguished. Many of the 
 articles on botany, astronomy, &c., which have 
 
30 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 appeared in this journal, and which have been 
 honoured by the learned with public eulogiums, 
 were communicated by Mr. Howell. During a 
 long period of suffering from pulmonary consump- 
 tion, the mind of Mr. Howell was exclusively de- 
 voted to the truths of revelation — a subject, the 
 deep importance of which he had contemplated 
 from his earliest youth, but the full enjoyment of 
 which he never realized, until, by conversation 
 with Christian friends at Torquay, and a prayerful 
 searching of the Scriptures, his faith became 
 steadfast. His confidence in the all-sufiiciency 
 of his Redeemer's ransom was to the last moment 
 of his life spoken of with humility, gratitude, and 
 joy. Beloved by all who had the felicity of his 
 confidence, for his unselfish character, his since- 
 rity, and his unblemished virtue, his memory will 
 be long cherished, and his example reverenced. 
 He has left a widow and three infant children to 
 deplore his loss; for whom, during his short ca- 
 reer as a general practitioner in this city, and sub- 
 sequent long declining state, it was impossible for 
 him to make any provision." 
 
 The information contained in the foregoing.ex- 
 tract produces the conviction, that, in point of ta- 
 lent and attainment, Mr. Howell was elevated far 
 above the average of mankind, and awakens a 
 desire to know something more concerning his 
 active life, and his peaceful death. A Memoir of 
 his literary and scientific life would be acceptable 
 to his personal friends, and of advantage to the 
 interests of science. But unhappily the present 
 
HIS LITERARY REMAINS. 31 
 
 hinderances to ihe accomplishment of this desira- 
 ble object appear to be insurmountable. 
 
 Besides a large collection of most beautiful 
 drawings on animal and vejietable anatomy, and 
 very numerous diagrams, illustrative of an im- 
 mense variety of topics in the different depart- 
 ments of natural history, Mr. Howell has left a 
 multiplicity of notes and memoranda which would 
 have assisted himself in prosecuting a work he 
 contemplated on "• The Unity of Nature." 
 But these materials are considered to be too dis- 
 connected and fragmental for publication, unless 
 they were worked into shape and form by some 
 person of a similar turn of mind, and who was 
 thoroughly acquainted with Mr. Howell's parti- 
 cular views and opinions: and such a person can- 
 not be found. One of his literary friends in Bath 
 writes to me : — " For the last ten years I have 
 seen Mr. Howell almost daily, and, having his 
 entire confidence, perfectly understood his beau- 
 tiful character. Of his attainments and mental 
 powers I dare not trust myself to write, and feel 
 conscious — sadly conscious, that, amongst those 
 who loved him, and delighted in his company, 
 there is not one who can do justice to his memo- 
 ry. He soared high above us all — above all I 
 ever knew ; but it is impossible to make this evi- 
 dent to the world." 
 
 In the absence of a Memoir, the reader will be 
 better prepared for understanding and appreci- 
 ating the nature of that peace, into the enjoyment 
 
33 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 of which Mr. Howell was so mercifully brought 
 in his latter days, by a 
 
 of his professional career, of his scientific and 
 literary occupations, and of his general character 
 and dispositions. 
 
 John Warren Howell was born in Bath, on 
 the 21st day of December, 1810. In that city 
 he received his rudimental education, which was 
 defective rather than liberal, so that in after-life 
 he was wont to speak with regret of what he called 
 " the waste of his early years." To a great ex- 
 tent, it may be said that he was self-taught. The 
 innate vigour of his intellect, and his insatiable 
 thirst for knowledge, in no small degree compen- 
 sated for the disadvantages under which he la- 
 boured ; and, while yet a youth, it was remark- 
 ed, that his attainments were beyond his years. 
 
 At the age of fifteen he was articled to a me- 
 dical practitioner in Bath ; and, during the five 
 years of his apprenticeship, he not only applied 
 himself with all diligence to the more immediate 
 studies of his profession, but eagerly seized on 
 all opportunities of acquiring information on every 
 subject, and especially on subjects connected with 
 natural history, for which he manifested an early 
 predilection. 
 
 When his apprenticeship expired in the year 
 
PROFESSIONAL COMMENCEMENT. 33 
 
 1830, he was received as a dresser into the Bath 
 Casualty Hospital, where he passed twelve months 
 and then matriculated as medical student in Trin- 
 ity College, Dublin. There he enjoyed the pub- 
 lic instructions of the late Dr. Macartney, and 
 other eminent professional men, with whom he 
 had also occasionally the benefit of holding pri- 
 vate intercourse. As a student he gained consi- 
 derable distinction; and, even at this period, his 
 proticiency in science enabled him, in 1832, to 
 deliver a course of lectures on Medical Botany, 
 in the theatre of the King William Street School 
 of Medicine, which were recognized by the Royal 
 College of Surgeons, and by the Apothecaries* 
 Company, London. This was certainly a very 
 gratifying compliment to so young a man. 
 
 Having completed his curriculum of medical 
 education, he returned to England in 1833, bring- 
 ing with him an increased and ardent love for the 
 profession he had chosen, a large accumulation 
 of professional and general knowledge, and the 
 highest testimonials of industry, ability, and cha- 
 racter. 
 
 Mr. Howell lost no time in offering himself to 
 the Royal College of Surgeons, London, as a 
 candidate for a diploma. He has himself pre- 
 served an interesting memorandum of his exami- 
 nations. In answering the first question pro- 
 pounded to him, he had entered so readily, so 
 fully, and so intelligently, into an explanation of 
 the subject, that he was dismissed in ten minutes. 
 He expected a leugthened detention, and, as he 
 
34 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 walked towards the door, uncertain as to the cause 
 of his speedy dismissal, it is probable that his 
 expressive countenance betrayed his inward feel- 
 ings ; for one of the examinators recalled him, 
 and said, " You are accepted, sir ; and we thank 
 you for the gratification and pleasure you have 
 afforded us." The porter, surprised at the can- 
 didate's premature return, concluded he must 
 have been rejected, and addressed him in a kind 
 and doleful tone, " I'm sorry for you, young 
 man.". But Mr. Howell's bright smile, as he ut- 
 tered, " All 's right," changed his condolence in- 
 to congratulation. 
 
 In July of the same year, he commenced prac- 
 tice in his native city, and soon felt the want of 
 that congenial society he had enjoyed during the 
 prosecution of his studies in Dublin. There, be- 
 sides the kindred spirits among the students with 
 whom he associated, he had been favoured with 
 occasional interviews with men of the highest 
 consideration for talent and acquirements — men 
 from whose matured experience he gathered use- 
 ful information, which acted both as a stimulus, 
 and as a guide to his own inquiries. In Bath 
 there were also many eminent literary and pro- 
 fessional men. But it was not the privilege of 
 Mr. Howell to have gained access to their socie- 
 ty. He was young, and unknown, and, as yet, 
 moving in a sphere of comparative obscurity. 
 He endeavoured, however, to remedy this misfor- 
 tune by cultivating the acquaintance of young 
 men who gave indication of genius and of enter- 
 
SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS. 35 
 
 'prise : and, as a point of concentration, as well 
 as a means of mutual improvement, at the sug- 
 gestion of Mr. Howell, and chieflj through his 
 instrumentality, the Bath Literary and Scientific 
 Association was organized in 1837. Mr. How- 
 ell was nominated to the office of honorary secre- 
 tary. In connexion with this Society he first. ap- 
 peared before the Bath public as a lecturer. The 
 subject announced was, " The Unity of Nature." 
 A copy of the programme of this lecture now lies 
 before me, and decidedly proves how compre- 
 hensive were his views of this sublime subject at 
 that early stage of his professional life. 
 
 Mr. Howell's public lectures were well attend- 
 ed; and, among other beneficial effects, they in- 
 creased the number of the members of the Asso- 
 ciation, — many of whom, now pursuing with suc- 
 cess the path of industry and of knowledge, into 
 which their zealous founder directed them, will 
 remember with grateful pleasure the able and 
 beautiful papers which Mr. Howell read at their 
 weekly meetings, on Astronomy, Optics, Chem- 
 istry, Botany, Geology, Mineralogy, &c. But 
 this Association had a short-lived existence. In 
 fact, its prosperity, in a great measure, depended 
 on Mr. Howell's resources and exertions, and 
 drew more largely on his time than was conve- 
 nient. For this, and other reasons, which need 
 not be detailed, its dissolution became inevitable. 
 
 Subsequently, Mr. Howell delivered pubhc lec- 
 tures, and courses of lectures, on a variety of 
 scientific subjects. And in January 1842 he at- 
 
36 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 tempted to exhibit, in ten lectures, " The propri- 
 ety and usefuhiess of Anatomy and Physiology 
 as a branch of general education." 
 
 These lectures were delivered in the Hall of the 
 Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, 
 of which Mr. Howell had, some time previously, 
 and in a very gratifying- manner, been appointed 
 the honorary secretary. They attracted crowd- 
 ed audiences, and were illustrated by anatomical 
 preparations, and by numerous large drawings 
 executed by Mrs. Howell, under the superin- 
 tendence of her husband. 
 
 In the spring of the following year, a corre- 
 spondence took place with the Liverpool Me- 
 chanics' Institution, which resulted in the con- 
 sent of Mr. Howell to give a course of lectures 
 in Liverpool " On the Brain and Nervous Sys- 
 tem." But his preparations for this undertaking 
 were checked by the progress of the disease, 
 which ultimately proved fatal. 
 
 All Mr. Howell's lectures displayed a deep and 
 accurate knowledge of the many different topics 
 of which they treated. They were specimens of 
 the versatility of his genius, as well as of the ex- 
 tent of his researches. They were distinguished 
 by great originality of thought, and by profound 
 logical acumen. And, from his command of 
 matter, they were generally prolonged to double 
 the length of time that is usual ; but the atten- 
 tion of his audiences was sustained throughout 
 by the continual flow of new and interesting ideas, 
 and by his elegant and engaging manner of de- 
 
SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS. 
 
 37 
 
 5ivery. Mr. Howell was pre-eminent as a lec- 
 turer; and it is much to be reffretted that none 
 of his very instructive lectures were fully written 
 out. He was gifted with an uncommon fiicility 
 of expressing his sentiments in the most perspi- 
 cuous and appropriate lano;uafre ; and, on this 
 account, he was in the habit of speaking from 
 short notes. Sometimes, indeed, he spoke with 
 the greatest fluency for two hours, and altogether 
 extempore* 
 
 * Since this sketch was completed I have seen letters 
 from two of Mr. Howell's scientific companions. One of 
 them who is at present resident in Bath, says, in refer- 
 ence to the year l842 and the early part of 1843, — "A 
 •week seldom passed durii-c: which 1 had not, on different 
 days, spent much of my lime in* his company. During 
 ray intimacy with him, which was the intimacy of brothers, 
 I could not fail being struck with his originality of thought, 
 with his acuteness in analysis, and with his patient perse- 
 verance in research. And I may say that scientific in- 
 quiries, to be at all worthy of regard, require no small de- 
 gree of these qualifications." "His mode of lecturing 
 was clear and decisive, generally quiet, although the in- 
 terest of the subject not unfrequently led the lecturer to 
 continue speaking much beyond the u.sual time allotted, 
 and 'thus to exert liimself beyond his strength. It was the 
 opinion that there was matter esough in one lecture to 
 have made two \ery good ones." 
 
 The other gentleman, resident in London, thus writes 
 respecting Mr. Howell, — " As a philosopher, he was dili- 
 gent in the pursuit of science, treading her mazy and dif- 
 ficult paths with confidence, perseverance, and succe^s." 
 •<' His reasoning was generally characterised by original- 
 ity of thought, and his ideas expressed in language ap- 
 propriate, firm, and unequivocal." "His genius soared 
 
 4 
 
38 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 On the subject of botany, however, which was 
 one of Mr. Howell's principal favourites, two 
 separate series of articles were inserted in the 
 Bath and Cheltenham Gazette^ to which allu- 
 sion is made in the obituary. These articles were 
 entitled, " Walks in the Botanic Garden," and 
 amounted in number to no less than forty. Other 
 articles of a scientific nature, from the same fruit- 
 ful pen, appeared at different times in the same 
 respectable journal. One of them, " On the 
 Structure of the Capsule of PAPAVERACEiE," and 
 " On the Nature of the Stigmata of Crucifer^,'* 
 was afterwards inserted in No. Qo of the Annals 
 and Magazine of Natural History. It arrested 
 the attention of scientific men, and a continuance 
 of Mr. Howell's communications was requested 
 for that very able periodical. 
 
 Perhaps it may be deemed advisable to g-ather 
 into a small volume all the articles on botany^ 
 astronomy, and other scientific topics, which Mr. 
 Howell himself had thought worthy of submitting 
 to the public, and which, in their detached forms, 
 
 into heaven, and told the stars ; descended into the sea, 
 and explored the deep ; expanded over the earth, and 
 comprehended the three kingdoms in its ^rasp," " Al- 
 though universality of acquirements is generally acknow- 
 ledged to be incompatible with the deep, reflective mind, 
 ^'et there are go many instances on record of men whose 
 intellects were so strong as to enable them to pierce the 
 very penetralia of wisdom, that I do not hesitate to ap])ly 
 the epithet universal genius to Howell, or to class him 
 among their number. His acquirements were as sterling 
 as his talents were varied. 
 
PAPERS ON BOTANY, ETC. 39 
 
 have already been marked by the approval of 
 competent judges. Although they are only iso- 
 lated parts, or small fragments, of large and com- 
 prehensive subjects, still they bear upon them the 
 stamp of an original and reflective mind ; for, 
 however much Mr. Howell consulted the works 
 of authors of established reputation, he subjected 
 the truth of all their statements to the test of strict 
 investigation, or of analytical experimenL He 
 made observations for himself, and exercised care- 
 ful and profound reflection on every subject that 
 engaged his attention. He tied himself down to 
 no systems. He called no man master. Truth, 
 wherever he could find it, and from whomsoever 
 he could learn it, was the grand object of which 
 he never lost sight. As an intelhgent, and un- 
 prejudiced, and persevering student of the arcana 
 of Nature, it is known to his intimate friends that 
 he was continually making discoveries in some 
 one or other of the departments of science; and 
 had he lived to prosecute and arrange, and pub- 
 hsli his valuable researches, there is good ground 
 for believing that he would have earned for him- 
 self a high and deserved rank amongst the dis- 
 tinguished few whose learning and whose labours 
 have rendered their names illustrious in the an- 
 nals of philosophy and science. 
 
 Of Mr. Howell's general character and dispo- 
 sitions it would be presumptuous in me, on so 
 short an acquaintance, to attempt a full and regu- 
 lar delineation. But I feel justified in mention 
 
40 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 ing some points tliat prominently appeared in the 
 intercourse Avitli liim which I was privileged to 
 enjoy during the latter part of his life. 
 
 The first thing that struck me as unusual was 
 the entire exclusion from his conversation of al 
 mere commonplace remarlzs. As a stranger in 
 the place, as an invalid whose comfortable sen- 
 sations were very dependent on heat and sun- 
 shine, and as an intelligent and social member of 
 society, interested in the welfare of his country 
 and of mankind, it would have been allowable — 
 it would have been natural, to have asked of a 
 visitor what w^as the news of the day, who had 
 arrived and who departed, or what was the state 
 of the weather. I do not, however, recollect of 
 Mr. Howell ever saying one word to me on 
 either of these never-ending topics of talk with 
 ordinary people. On every occasion of my visit- 
 ing him, he had scarcely answered my inquiri-es 
 about his health, when he plunged at once 
 into some subject of importance. He did this 
 the very first day 1 sat at his bedside ; and he 
 did so constantly. 
 
 In connexion with this extraordinary absence 
 of trifling remarks, I must notice the uncommon 
 activity of his mind, which never was overcome, 
 excepting by the power of opiates, or by occasion- 
 al fits of exhaustion. Even whilst lying on bed 
 so long, notwithstanding the general debility to 
 which he was reduced, and his incapacity for 
 continuous reading, he was never found in a 
 listless or dreamy mood. His mind was not 
 
CENETIAL CHAKACTER AND DISPOSITION. 41 
 
 only actively cmploypcl, but his Avhole mental 
 energies were intently fixed on some one particu- 
 lar subject. This great power of abstraction, or 
 concentrativeness, tbrced itself on my attention 
 as a peculiarity. In his circumstances, it might 
 have been expected that the activity of his mind 
 would have manifested itself in restlessness, — in 
 the untTovernable roving of his thoufrhts amidst 
 the immensity of subjects with which he was 
 familiar, and affecting even his bodily frame 
 with continual tossings to and fro. But the very 
 reverse of this was manifested. His thouohts 
 were under complete control. They ran all in 
 the direction of some one truth that had been 
 submitted to his consideration ; and they never 
 were diverted from it till he had sifted it to his 
 satisfaction. In calhng on him any day, I found 
 him still occupied with what had been the theme 
 of the former conversation. 
 
 And then there was a calmness and composure 
 of demeanour such as are rarely met with. In 
 the midst of much bodily uneasiness, I have fre» 
 quently seen him remain still as a rock for the 
 whole period of my visit. The body was as 
 quiescent as the mind was active. Religion, no 
 doubt, latterly exercised a mighty and a blissful 
 influence over him, in the patience, and resigna- 
 tion, and peace which it supplied ; but, inde- 
 pendent of all that was superinduced by religious 
 principle, there was evidently a magnanimity in 
 his constitutional temperament, which raised 
 h.im superior to the pains and the annoyances 
 4* 
 
42 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 which would have caused irritation to most men. 
 And, besides, I believe that he had tutored him- 
 self into a kind of philosophic dignity of conduct, 
 which was equally removed from sinful pride, 
 and from stoical indifference. His judgment 
 always -maintaiix^d the mastery over his feelings. 
 He endured what he could not remove. He 
 knew the folly of making worse what was be- 
 yond his power to mend. He, therefore, endea- 
 voured to make the best of things as they were.* 
 Another characteristic feature that attracted 
 my notice was a combination of opposite quali- 
 ties, acting like antagonist forces, and imparting 
 to his mind a pecuhar and beautiful equipoise. 
 Confidence in his own capabilities, — in his re- 
 sources, and motives, and intentions, — was min 
 gled with diffidence in subjecting himself to the 
 
 * The following anecdote is a striking instance of his 
 self-command and composure under circumstances of 
 trial : — One day, when a lecture " On the Eye and 
 Vision " had been advertised, before he went out in the 
 morning, he gave directions about the proper placing on 
 the wall of the room of a number of diagrams, which 
 were necessary for illustration. He did not return from 
 seeing his patients till the company had assembled. But, 
 on entering the room, he discovered, on a glance, that the 
 diagrams were entirely misplaced. To have put them 
 risht would have caused both delay and confusion. Mr. 
 Howell betrayed neither displeasure nor disappointment. 
 He commenced a lecture on an entirely different subject; 
 and, at the conclusion, he explained to the audience what 
 had hnppened, and intimated the day on which he would 
 deliver the lecture he had prepared. Not one man in a 
 thousand could have acted as he did. 
 
MORAL EXCELLENCIES. 43 
 
 judgment of other persons, and witli great mo- 
 desty in stating his own opinions. Candour and 
 sincerity in acknowledging ignorance or error, 
 were accompaiiitd with a kind of reservation, as 
 if lie were afraid of couunitting himself too far. 
 An apparent frankness* and suavity of manners 
 was hlended with an indescribahle sometliing 
 that forbade familiarity. And, with a very re- 
 markable talent for communicating instruction to 
 others, he himself was largely possessed of the 
 spirit of docility, and was ever ready and eager 
 to be taught. As the result of all these conflict- 
 ing sentiments and feelings, his character was 
 adorned by constant watchfulness over himself, 
 and by much prudence and discretion in his 
 dealings with mankind. He was a cautious man. 
 The mind of Mr. Howell had, indeed, been 
 cast in a noble mould. He was richly endowed 
 with those high mental qualifications which 
 constitute the true philosopher. But, in addition 
 to so much that was purely intellectual, there 
 was about him a moral loveliness that greatly 
 elevates our conceptions of his general character. 
 His conduct was very blameless in the sight of 
 man. He did not degrade himself, as many do, 
 by sensual and vicious indulgences. The pru- 
 dence and self-respect which guided him in other 
 things exerted their benign influence to uphold 
 him in the path of virtue. The refinement of his 
 mind, too, and his extreme delicacy of feeling, 
 made vice odious to him. Thus he avoided many 
 of the evil practices into which young men are 
 
44 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 often so easily ensnared. And, by the con- 
 current teslimony of those who knew him best, 
 he was a highly honourable, upright, and aniia* 
 ble man. But tliis must not be mistaken for 
 scriptural and spiritual religion. He certain- 
 ly had at heart an abiding theoretic reverence 
 for the Divine Being; and he conscientiously 
 professed belief in Divine Revelation. He con- 
 stantly and openly repudiated the sceptical opi- 
 nions so prevalent in the French schools of me- 
 dicine and of science. In his own study of the 
 manifold works of God, he took pleasure in dis- 
 covering the wonderful traces of divine wisdom, 
 and of almiglity power, whether in the magnifi- 
 cence of the starry heavens, or in the anatomy 
 of the minutest plants. And in his public lec- 
 tures he appears to have delighted in exhibiting 
 and explaining to his fellow-creatures, and espe- 
 cially to the young, whatever was calculated to 
 exalt their conceptions of the great Creator. 
 The Divine Being whom lie so habitually revered 
 was the God of Nature. But it is, nevertheless, 
 a painful truth, which must not be concealed, 
 that, in the midst of all his studies, Mr. Hovv'ell 
 practicaUij forgot the God who is revealed to us 
 only in the Holy Scriptures ; and forgot his obli- 
 gations to obey those Scriptures, whose divine 
 inspiration he acknowledged. The fear of God 
 was not before his eyes; the love of God was 
 not in his heart ; the glory of God Avas not the 
 object he had in viev/, nor the end at which he 
 aimed ; the day of holy rest which God has set 
 
INSUFFICIENCY OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. 45 
 
 apart for his own special service, was desecrated 
 by secular occupations ; the pubhc worship of 
 God was seldom attended, and family worship 
 was not thought of; the welfare of his immor- 
 tal soul was overlooked ; the great concerns of 
 the eternal world were neglected. This is no 
 ex agi>e ration. It is the substance of his own 
 heartfelt regrets, — of his own tearful confessions, 
 on a dying bed. 
 
 It is willingly admitted that the pursuits in 
 which Mr. Howell had employed his noble ta- 
 lents, and spent his time, often by night, as well 
 as by day, and prematurely wasted his strength, 
 were not in themselves sinful, and that they had 
 yielded him a large amount of intellectual and 
 rational gratification. So likewise, it is no more 
 than justice to record how kind and dutiful he 
 was in all the varied relations of life. He was 
 decidedly a social and domestic man. So long 
 as he remained under the parental roof, he was 
 far from despising parental authority. And when 
 he married he gave to the object of his choice 
 that faithful devoted ness of affection which he 
 claimed and received in return. The endear- 
 ments of wedded life made him indifferent to the 
 pleasures of public amusements and of private 
 parties. With his wife and children, and with 
 the quiet companionship of a few scientific 
 friends, he found a perpetual source of social and 
 domestic happiness. But he was brought to see 
 and acknowledge that he had sinned in giving to 
 creature objects that ardent regard and exclusive 
 
46 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 affection to wliich they were not entitled. And 
 he was made to feel that God himself, as recon- 
 ciled to us in Jesus Christ, is the only source of 
 pure, and satisfying, and lasting enjoyment. 
 
 When divine grace taught him that he was a 
 sinner standing in need of salvation, and that he 
 was a dying man unprepared for the eternity to 
 which he was approaching, then he experienced 
 the utter inefficiency of all his former pursuits, 
 and of all his acquired knowledge, and of all his 
 moral excellencies, and of all his social and do- 
 mestic enjoyments, to quiet his fears, or to in- 
 spire a cheering hope. And so soon as his heart 
 was opened to receive " the grace, mercy, and 
 peace," which are multiplied towards us through 
 the knowledge and faith of our God and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ, then he would have said to his 
 learned and scientific associates as he did actu- 
 ally say to his wife, " We have indeed lived very 
 happily together, but we have missed much hap- 
 piness; we have been strangers to true happi- 
 ness ; and, were we to live our lives over again, 
 we should be infinitely more happy in loving and 
 serving God than ever we have been before." 
 
 Mr. Howell did not rank himself amongst the 
 pious and the devout, nor was he in the habit of 
 associating with them. He was too honest to 
 profess what he did not sincerely feel and con- 
 scientiously practise. In fact, the inconsisten- 
 cies which he observed in persons who did make 
 high religious professions had been a stumbling- 
 block to him from his youth upwai'ds. At the 
 
INSUFFICIENCY OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. 47 
 
 same time, it would be a perversion of truth to 
 sav, or to give reason to suppose, that he ever 
 •was re":arc]less of re!i<>ioii. He was as far re- 
 moved as possible froni scepticism, and the frame 
 of his mind was too serious to allow him to scoff 
 at what was sacred. His desire to obtain know- 
 ledge of all kinds prompted him to make a study 
 of wiiat is called natural theology. He also 
 carefully examined the evidences of the inspira- 
 tion of the Bible, and he spoke to me of his 
 fondness for controversial divinity. Such sub- 
 jects afforded scope for intellectual prowess, — 
 for reflection, and for argument Besides, his 
 constitutional love of truth, — his love of finding 
 out where truth lay, — worked together with Iws 
 natural inquisitiveness in renewing his religious 
 inquiries from time to time. Neither was he 
 speculatively ignorant of the peculiar and essen- 
 tial doctrines of Christianity. These, as well as 
 less important and more curious matters, receiv- 
 ed a share of his all-grasping consideration. 
 With his professional friend, Dr. Morgan, he 
 used to cnnverse freely on religious topics. From 
 this gentleman he obtained much information on 
 the errors of Popery, and likewise on the Unita- 
 rian heresy. And latterly, when the appearance 
 of consumptive symptoms led him to think of 
 their probable termination, he was thankful for 
 " the words in season" whicli the doctor occa- 
 sionally dropped while in professional attend- 
 ance upon Mr. Howell previous to his leaving 
 Bath. 
 
48 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 Having thus briefly sketched the character of 
 Mr. Howell, and adverted to his literary and 
 scientific attainments, the duty which now de- 
 volves on me is to furnish the reader with 
 
 ^ Narrative 
 
 of the gracious dealings of God with this highly 
 gifted man, and particularly of what fell under 
 my own observation during the latter part of his 
 fatal illness. This duty is as free from difficulty 
 as it is full of delight. 
 
 In the arrangements of Providence, it not un- 
 frequently happens that the loss of bodily health 
 and temporal advantages is made subservient to 
 the acquisition of spiritual and eternal life. It 
 was so with Mr. Howell. His illness set a limit 
 to the extent of his exertions ; it interrupted the 
 constancy of his persevering application ; it 
 checked the ardour of his pursuit after increas- 
 ing knowledge ; it put the stamp of " van- 
 ity and vexation of spirit" on his ambitious de- 
 sires to gain some notoriety in the world of let- 
 ters ; and thus a new direction was given to his 
 thoughts and his inquiries. In fact, it constituted 
 the commencement of a new era in his history, 
 for from this time he began to regard religion as 
 something practical and personal ; and yet the 
 change was slow and gentle, rather than sudden 
 and decided. 
 
 When first he came to Torquay, in May last 
 year, his disease had not made great progress, 
 
FIRST ILLNESS. 40 
 
 and he was alone. His wife and family were 
 left beliind, as his ^nay was not intended to be 
 for any length of time. His physical strength 
 was not as yet so much impaired as to incapaci- 
 tate him for out-of-doors exercise and enjoyment ; 
 and to him it was a real and a great enjoyment 
 to saunter in the Devonshire lanes, where the 
 luxuriant hedges afforded him the richest fields 
 for botanising. Still more peculiar and enthu- 
 siastic was his delight in strolling along the 
 shores of Torbay, and in examininjr the varie- 
 ties of marine plants and animals with which the 
 locality abounds ; for he had been in the habit, 
 now and then, of having a box of the nett-refuse 
 sent to him at Bath from the very place where 
 he now resided. It was quite a pleasure to find 
 himself at the sea-side ; and here he had the 
 additional pleasure of meeting with different 
 individuals of similar tastes with himself, with 
 whom he could converse on his favourite topics, 
 and who were qualified to appreciate his attain- 
 ments. 
 
 It was on the occasion of his first visit to Tor- 
 quay that he made the acquaintance of Dr. Tet- 
 ley, who soon became his attached friend as well 
 as his skilful physician. He was a daily visitor 
 at the house of the Rev. S. F. Statham ; and by 
 degrees his friends and acquaintances increased, 
 all of whom, as far as I have heard, were led to 
 feel an unusual interest in Mr. Howell ; and 
 some of them, under the constraining influence 
 of Christian love, yearned over him as a hopeful 
 S 
 
50 BIOGUAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 young man who was not far from the kingdom 
 of heaven. He was frequentlj drawn into im- 
 portant conversation on the fundamental truths 
 of the Gospel by individuals who longed to see 
 him partaking of those consolations which nothing 
 earthly can administer to the sick and dying, and 
 of that hope which is full of immortality. A 
 young clergyman from Suffolk, who was also at 
 Torquay as an invalid, took a peculiar interest in 
 Mr. Howell. He frequently accompanied him 
 in his botanising excursions, and was sedulous in 
 his endeavours to bring him to the simple faith of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ. But God's time of mer- 
 cy was not yet come. Mr. Howell listened with 
 patient attention to every statement of divine truth 
 that was submitted to him, and where there was 
 room for it he entered eagerly into the argument. 
 But, as he afterwards acknowledged, it was no- 
 thing more than the play of the understanding. 
 In the letters which he every day wrote home, 
 there were continual and interesting notices of 
 the places he had visited, and of the natural ob- 
 jects he had examined, and of the benefit which 
 his health was deriving from the genial climate ; 
 but he said little on that one subject which he af- 
 terwards felt to be the " one thing needful." He 
 did not write as a man who had been convinced 
 of his guilt and danger. His letters breathed no 
 anxious concern about spiritual health, no urgent 
 desires after everlasting salvation : the compara- 
 tively unimportant researches into the beautiful and 
 wonderful mechanism and properties of the works 
 
FIRST RESIDENCE AT TORQUAY. 51 
 
 of God Still maintained a disproportionate share 
 of his mental energies. He was not yet brought 
 to fed that the greatest and most important of all 
 studies is, the knowledge of God liimself as he is 
 revealed to his sinful creatures in the Holy Scrip 
 tures. 
 
 Mr. Howell improved in health and strength 
 very steadily ; and in the beginning of July he 
 left Torquay, under the impression that every un 
 favourable symptom had been subdued, and tJiat 
 he was able to resume his usual occupations at 
 Bath. In this, however, he was sadly mistaken. 
 The warninghe had had of consumptive tendencies 
 was unhappily and unaccountably lost upon him. 
 Misled by the delusive character of the disease, 
 and flushed with the speedy renovation of his 
 health, he devoted himself with too much enger- 
 iiess to his professional practice, and to his scien- 
 tific pursuits. In a few wrecks he became worse 
 than ever. A consultation was held, and his 
 medical advisers judged it necessary that he should 
 instantly again leave Bath. They were also of 
 opinion, that the only probability of his ultimate 
 recovery depended on a residence for a term of 
 years in a soft and genial climate. Mr. Howell 
 was therefore obliged, in a hurried manner, to 
 break up his establishment, and abandon his prac- 
 tice ; and he resolved on returning to the jilace 
 where he had formerly been benefitted. 
 
 But he was thrown into a state of great alarm 
 by the decidedly unfavourable view which had 
 been taken of his case, and by the subsequent ar- 
 
52 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 raiigements ; and, when he came the second time 
 into Devonshire, early in August, there was a very 
 manifest alteration on him in respect both of body 
 and of mind. His strength was prostrated. His 
 nervous system had sustained a dreadful shock. 
 He was depressed in spirits, and greatly agitated. 
 A lodging had been taken for him in the village 
 of Torre, adjoining to Torquay ; and, on his ar- 
 rival, although he had spent a night on the road, 
 he suffered under such extreme exhaustion, that 
 the people of the house feared he might have 
 died. 
 
 It was deemed advisable, not only that Mr. 
 Howell should leave Bath without delay, but that 
 he should avoid the bustle and disagreeableness 
 of a family movement under such trying circum- 
 stances. Matters of indispensable business were 
 devolved on Mrs. Howell, who was detained for 
 several days ; and, when she arrived at Torre, 
 she found her husband in a state of great uneasi- 
 ness, from the apprehension that his death was 
 certain, and that it might be sudden. 
 
 That evening, after his wife had read a por- 
 tion of Scripture to soothe and comfort him, he 
 asked her to pray with him. This request took 
 her by surprise,- it was something quite new. 
 She was unaccustomed to pray aloud, and felt 
 obliged to dechne. " Then I must do it myself," 
 said Howell ; and he did pray with her, which he 
 had never done before. He was in distress, and 
 felt that God was his only refuge. He felt that 
 prayer was more than a duty — it was a pri- 
 
SEEKS CONSOLATION IN RELIGION. hS 
 
 vilege ; and from tliis time they bad always pray- 
 er together, morning .and evening, althougli a 
 book of prayers was commonly used. 
 
 On Sunday morning, Mrs. Howell went to 
 Torre Churclv At tlie commencement of the 
 Litany, it startled her to hear tlie name of her 
 husband read out as a sick person desiring the 
 prayers of the Church; and, on inquiry after- 
 ward?:, she found this had been done at his own 
 solicitation. He had written a note to the Rev. 
 J. Blackmore, the officiating curate, in which he 
 requested to be publicly prayed for, and, at the 
 same time, hoped Mr. Blackmore would visit 
 him. 
 
 Every thing now indicated that Mr. Howell 
 was in earnest. He read the Bible diligently, 
 with a wish to understand it. His correspond- 
 ence with his friends at Bath ,did not entirely 
 omit the mention of literary and scientific sub- 
 jects ; but it was characterised by this new fea- 
 ture, that he intimated, without disguise or re- 
 serve, the dangerous condition to which he was 
 reduced, and his desire to seek for consolation in 
 religion. As he himself confessed on a dying 
 bed, the first chastisement laid upon him by his 
 heavenly Father was not. severe enough. He was 
 not sufficiently humbled ; nor had he been brought 
 to any real and permanent contrition. But now 
 he was sorely chastened ; and it was the chasten- 
 ing of a loving Father, who designed to bless, and 
 not to curse — to pardon, and not to punish ; and 
 who, by means of chastisement, was about to 
 5* 
 
54 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 impart to this wanderer the spirit of adoption, and 
 to prepare him for enjoying the privileges of the 
 heavenly family. Whilst God laid him low 
 under the rod of disease, he seemed to be address- 
 ing him in the very words of remonstrance, 
 which of old he put into the mouth of his pro- 
 phet, " Wherefore do ye spend money for that 
 which is not bread 1 and your labour for that 
 which satisfieth not"? Hearken diligently unto 
 me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your 
 soul dehght itself in fatness. Inchne your ear, 
 and come unto me : hear, and your soul shall 
 live." God had purposes of mercy towards him, 
 and was softening his heart under this remon- 
 strance, and openinoj his ear to welcome the gra- 
 cious invitation, " Ho, every one that thirsteth, 
 come ye to the waters ; and he that hath no mo- 
 ney, come ye, buy and eat ; yea, come, buy wine 
 and milk, without money, and without price." 
 Isaiah, Iv. 1, 2. 
 
 Dr. Tetley renewed his professional attendance 
 on Mr. Howell. He found that the insidious dis- 
 ease which preyed on him had made rapid pro- 
 gress ; but, on the other hand, there was a cheer- 
 ing earnestness for instruction in divine things, 
 and for the experience of their power on his own 
 heart, such as had not been manifested at any 
 period of his former visit to Torquay. The doc- 
 tor saw him daily, and was encouraged by his 
 subdued and teachable spirit, to hope that a time 
 of blessing was at hand. Mr. Blackmore also 
 visited hira frequently ; and he has told me he 
 
PROGRESS OF DISEASE. 55 
 
 took great pleasure in conversing with Mr. How- 
 ell. Although his spiritual progress was not as 
 yet very marked, still he always found in him a 
 singularly interesting and hopeful inquirer after 
 the way of life which the Gospel reveals. The 
 subjects on which they chiefly conversed were 
 the amazing love of God to sinners, displayed in 
 the gift of his Son for our salvation, and the 
 atonement for sin which was effected by the Sa- 
 viour's humiliation and death on our account. 
 These were the grand consoling truths that now 
 supremely engaged his thoughts, and the contem- 
 plation of which tended to tranquillise his agitated 
 mind. But as yet he had not obtained a spiri- 
 tual discernment of them, nor had his faith so 
 embraced them as to give him a peaceful and sa- 
 tisfying hope of his own forgiveness and accept- 
 ance with God. 
 
 After a few weeks he considerably recovered 
 in health and in spirits. He got out in a bath- 
 chair to enjoy the open air, and the lovely land- 
 scapes that met the eye at every turn. He even 
 gained strength sufficient to walk short distances; 
 and he greatly rejoiced in being able to go to 
 Torre Church, where he gave public thanks to 
 God for what he had experienced of his goodness. 
 But, as the season advanced, he again relapsed. 
 After his removal to Torquay for the winter, he 
 only once attended divine service, although his 
 residence was close to Trinity Church. He now 
 declined rapidly ; and he was entirely confined to 
 
56 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 bed towards the end of November, when my ac- 
 quaintance with him commenced. 
 
 At this important crisis, the loss of the strength 
 which he had recently regained, and the appear- 
 ance of fresh symptoms which marked tlie pro- 
 gress his disease was making, again disappointed 
 his hopes of recovery, and deprived him of the 
 comparative tranquillity he had been enjoying. 
 His inward distress became great; and so did his 
 anxiety for relief. All human refuges were una- 
 vailing. But he was looking to God, and crying 
 for mercy ; and he neither looked nor cried in 
 vain. 
 
 As a minister of the Gospel of Christ, I was 
 asked to visit Mr. Howell, in consequence of the 
 absence of other clergymen who were wont to 
 see him ; and I was urged to go, because he was 
 a dying man who truly needed, and who greatly 
 desired, spiritual consolation. 
 
 Although I had not hitherto happened to meet 
 Mr. Howell, nor ever heard one word of his 
 splendid talents and high acquirements, the first 
 sight of him convinced me that he was a supe- 
 rior man ; and, in our first conversation, there 
 was something so unusually interesting as to 
 make me resolve to keep some record of his case; 
 
 In the following 
 
LETTERS RESPECTING HIM. 57 
 
 Series Of Hetters, 
 
 there is preserved a simple and faithfid statement 
 of those divine truths which were successively 
 submitted to his consideration, and likewise of 
 the impressions which their reception made upon 
 his mind; of his deliverance out of spiritual dark- 
 ness and distress, and of his entrance into the en- 
 joyment of that " peace with God through our 
 Lord Jesus Christ," which is the accompaniment 
 of a heaven-taught faith. 
 
 It ought to be mentioned that the letters are 
 genuine^ and thjit they were not originally intend- 
 ed for publication ; but, to the much-valued friend 
 and brother to whom they were addressed, the 
 work of grace in Mr. Howell aj)peared so pecu- 
 liarly instructive, that he hoped it might prove a 
 blessing to many. And I could not gainsay the 
 assertion, that the unconstrained communications 
 of one friend to another concerning any recent 
 event, have a freshness and naturalness about 
 them that never can be imparted to a more for- 
 mal narrative drawn up at a subsequent period. 
 For this reason I have consented to the insertion 
 of the letters in this place, although it may sub- 
 ject me to the charge of bringing myself too pro- 
 minently into view. And it is my earnest request 
 that the reader may fix his mind on the dying 
 man, and on the great truths which were the sub- 
 ject of conversation, without giving a thought of 
 any kind to the writer of the letters. 
 
LETTER I. 
 
 To the Rev. John Stevenson, Cury Vicarage. 
 Torquay, November 28th, 1843. 
 
 My beloved Friend 
 
 You are not unacquainted with the peculi- 
 arities of this place. The natural beauties of the 
 locality have feasted your taste for fine scenery; 
 the kindness of Christian friends has oft refreshed 
 your spirit; and the poor invalids, who make up 
 so large a portion of its winter inhabitants, have 
 called forth your warmest sympathies. 
 
 Durins^ your own occasional sojournings here 
 you heard of many cases of most affecting inte- 
 rest, and not a few passed under your immediate 
 personal observation. In the midst of your own 
 suspension from active duty, I am well av/are 
 how much of a painful pleasure you felt in visit- 
 ing the chambers of sickness and of death, and 
 in administering the consolations of the Gospel of 
 Christ to your fellow-sufferers ; and you know 
 that, during those welcome respites from severe 
 
INTRODUCTORY REFLECTIONS. 59 
 
 illness with which God is pleased to favour my- 
 self, I, also, accordinjr to my ability, willingly 
 take a part in the work of comforting the sick, 
 the dying, and the bereaved. 
 
 Since 1 first came to Torquay, there have oc- 
 curred many events which produced a very deep 
 and solemn interest, but of which I now regret 
 having preserved no record. Memory is often 
 treacherous ; and, by permitting such occur- 
 rences to sink into the grave of obhvion, we de- 
 prive ourselves and others of tlie profitable les- 
 sons they are calculated to imparl. It is good 
 not only to notice at the time, but afterwards to 
 meditate upon, the wonderful v/orkings of Pro- 
 vidence. The Psalmist says, " Whoso is wise, 
 and will observe these things, even they shall 
 understand the loving-kindness of the Lord." 
 (Psalm cvii. v. 43 j. And oh, how blessed it is 
 to possess this understanding! — to understand 
 that there is lovivg -kindness in all the doings of 
 the Lord, and especially in His affiictive dispen- 
 sations ! And this blessedness comes from a 
 7cise observation of passing events. 
 
 I have been led to these reflections in conse- 
 quence of being called to the bedside of a gentle- 
 man on whose constitution pulmonary disease 
 has already made great encroachments; and 
 whose case, so far as it is yet developed, appears 
 to me to merit something more particular and 
 more permanent than a tew ephemeral expres- 
 sions of hope or of thankfulness. And I write 
 to you on the subject, because the love which 
 
60 FIRST LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 d^yells in your heart to the souls of poor sinner?!, 
 and to their Saviour, gives me the assurance of 
 awakening your Christian sympathies in behalf 
 of Mr. Howell, and of securing your prayers, 
 that God may more and more prosper our inter- 
 course. 
 
 Mr. Howell has been at Torre with his family 
 since the autumn. It is only within the last few 
 weeks that he removed down to Torquay for 
 greater warmth, and he took the house called 
 Beulah, next to Trinity Church, in the hope of 
 Mrs. Howell getting some pupils. I had heard 
 a good deal said among my friends about this 
 family, as their circumstances excited commise- 
 ration ; but I had not met with them, nor had I 
 intended calling, as my circle of acquaintance is 
 already sufficiently large. Our excellent friend 
 Dr. Tetley, however, came in to see me one 
 evening last week, and made so earnest a re- 
 quest, that I could not refuse promising to visit 
 Mr. Howell. The doctor said his patient was now 
 confined to his bed, and he feared was rapidly 
 sinking. Mr. Blackmore had seen him fre- 
 quently, so long as he remained at Torre ; and 
 Mr. Fayle has called several times since he 
 came to Beulah. But now Mr. Fayle's time 
 and attention were absorbed in the dangerous 
 illness of his wife, and Mr. Blackmore was from 
 home on business. This was a plea for my try- 
 ing to supply their place. Moreover, the doctor 
 represented the sick man's state of mind as pe- 
 
KEASONS FOR VISITING IIIM. 61 
 
 culialy standing in need of spiritual counsel and 
 eiicojjragement.* He knew tlie dangerous nature 
 of his malady ; and lie was alive to the impor- 
 tance of salvation. But he did not seem to 
 have an experimental knowledge of that one 
 way of a sinner's acceptance with God whicli the 
 Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ reveals. The 
 clergymen who had visited him faithfully directed 
 him tothe Saviour, and urged him to rest his hopes 
 on Christ alone. This he complained he could 
 not do. He confessed it was what was right, 
 and what, indeed, he desired; but he could not 
 believe, and he felt himself without comfort, be- 
 cause he was without hope. It was manifest, 
 however, that he was an earnest and anxious in- 
 quirer after Gospel truth, from many circum- 
 stances, and, amongst others, from the effect 
 produced upon him by the doctor's repeating 
 some little remark he had heard from my lips, 
 on one occasion last winter, in a time of serious 
 illness. This was the connecting link between 
 Mr. Howell and me. His desire was to see me, 
 and now my desire was to see him. 
 
 I had called at the door both on Friday and 
 Saturday; but on Sunday, after the morning 
 service, I was for the first time admitted. Mr. 
 Howell was in bed. I had never happened to 
 see him until now, and assuredly the first im- 
 pression made upon me will not soon be effaced. 
 There was the stamp of superior intelligence on 
 his countenance ; there was more than that ; — 
 there was dignity of character, combined with 
 6 
 
62 FIRST LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 great benignity: whilst his hazel eyes, and long 
 dark eyelashes ; — his capacious *brow, crowned 
 with a profusion of jet black locks ; and the 
 scarlet scarf that was loosely twisted round his 
 neck, gave me the idea of what is generally de- 
 signated genius. I had been told he was a clever 
 and very accomplished man, and now I could 
 not doubt it ; and the miniature picture I have 
 sketched will help your conception of his appear- 
 ance, and perhaps increase your interest in him. 
 We entered at once into important conversa- 
 tion ; and I spent at his bedside as interesting an 
 hour as you and I once did with a poor man in 
 the garden of Cury Vicarage. We seemed to 
 know each other, and this inspired that kind of 
 mutual confidence which is requisite for free 
 and profitable intercourse. He showed no taste 
 for idle words. The public worship of God, in 
 which I had been privileged to engage, and 
 from which he had been detained, furnished a 
 natural topic to begin with. The sermon I had 
 heard preached brought us more directly to his 
 own views and prospects ; and we were now 
 eagerly occupied with the fundamental truths of 
 the Gospel. Howell spoke with great kindness 
 of the Christian friends who had so assiduously 
 visited and instructed him. He confessed that 
 his understanding went along with their state- 
 ments, but that his heart remained untouched. 
 There was something very touching to me in 
 this confession, and I felt that it lay with the 
 Holy Spirit to work upon his heart. At the 
 
PRIMARY CONVERSATION. G3 
 
 same time, as the Spirit works by means of the 
 revealed word, tlie duty which devolved on me 
 was, with the utmost simplicity, to unfold to him 
 *' the truth as it is in Jesus," secretly praying 
 that the Spirit of Truth might take of the tilings 
 of Jesus, and apply them with power to the heart 
 of this earnest incpiirer. 
 
 Now, my dear brother, I must mention it as a 
 singular coincidence, that in the prosecution of 
 my work on Doubts, I had been meditating 
 much for the previous fortnight on imperfect and 
 inaccurate views of the Person of Christ, as one 
 of the causes out of which doubts arise, and had 
 just completed a letter on the subject. My mind 
 was strongly impressed with the conviction, that 
 many people who are anxious for salvation are 
 kept in a state of anxiety, without experiencing 
 peace or joy in believing, because they look to 
 the work which Christ has accomplished, with- 
 out duly considering the peculiar and wonderful 
 constitution of His Person as Emmanuel, "God 
 with us," which alone fitted him for the work 
 which he undertook as our Deliverer from sin, 
 and death, and hell. And, therefore by way of 
 laying a good and solid foundation, I deemed it 
 advisable fully to explain the doctrine of the in- 
 carnation of the Son of God. 
 
 You can imagfine the ground over which Ave 
 travelled together, and the various texts of Scrip- 
 ture to which reference was made.* It would 
 
 * Mrs. Howell has informed me that her husband con- 
 stantly referred to this conversation on the humanity of 
 
64 FIRST LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 fill several pages, were I to attempt an outline of 
 what passed. But it was extremely gratifying to 
 observe how completely the subject arrested his 
 attention, and with what quickness he seized on 
 the true humanity of our Lord, as connecting 
 him v.'ith us, and securing his sympathy, and 
 altogether qualifying him to act as our surety. 
 The fifty-third chapter of Isaiah satisfied him 
 that the sufferings of the Saviour were both sacri- 
 ficial and substitutionary. Jehovah laid the ini- 
 quity of us all on his righteous servant ; and on 
 that account he was wounded, and bruised, and 
 poured out his soul unto death. And now Mr. 
 Howell saw, in a light he had never done before, 
 how this wonderful punishment of sin in the 
 person of Christ depended on his taking upon 
 him our nature; and, again, that our deliverance 
 from the punishment to which, as sinners, we 
 are exposed, depends upon what the incarnate 
 Son of God has done in our stead. Of course 
 we conversed about the divinity of our Lord also, 
 
 our Saviour with peculiar satisfaction. He always said 
 it was the opening up of this subject that led him, by- 
 God's blessing, to a distinct knowledge of the Gospel. 
 She has expressed a wish that the conversation had been 
 more fully preserved in the letter. A clerical friend, also, 
 to whom the MS. was shown, and whose judgment is en- 
 titled to the highest respect, thought it might have been 
 useful to others had the subject been expanded, and some 
 of the principal texts submitted to the consideration of the 
 reader. For these reasons a few additional particulars 
 will be found in an Appendix, as they are too long for a 
 note. 
 
CHRIST MADE PRECIOUS. bo 
 
 and the union of the two distinct natures in liis 
 one person, without which he could not have 
 been tlie Mediator between God and man, nor 
 could the shedding of his blood have been ef- 
 fectual for the remission of sins. But on the 
 divinity of the Saviour I found him well establish- 
 ed. The reality, and the importance, and the 
 necessity of his humanity, had burst upon him 
 with all the power and freshness of a new subject. 
 He said it had never before been so fully and 
 plainly opened up to him ; and the satisfaction it 
 afforded him was still more manifestly dif^played 
 in the expression of his countenance than in the 
 language he employed. It was truly delightful 
 to mark the avidity with which he drank in the 
 truth, as I was enabled to state it, and how the 
 truth commended itself to his conscience. His 
 teachableness struck me very particularly. There 
 was no disposition to start objections, nor any of 
 that captiousness which one has so often to encoun- 
 ter in dealing with men of talent ; on the con- 
 trary, he rejoiced at God's word " as one that 
 findeth great spoil." 
 
 It is a sure step in advance towards the attain- 
 ment of Christian peace, hope, and joy, when a 
 person, under the consciousness of guilt, and 
 with enlightened views of the holiness of the 
 divine character and df the Gospel scheme of sal- 
 vation, makes the discovery how sin is effectually 
 punished, and yet the sinner himself is eternally 
 saved. It removes difficulties which appear to 
 him to have been insurmouirtable, and imparts a 
 G* 
 
(jQ FIRST LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 satisfying blessedness to his soul, when he beholds 
 how "God is just," and at the same time the"justi- 
 fierof him whoheheveth in Jesus." And I thank- 
 fully cherished the persuasion, that these were the 
 circumstances into which Howell was brought. 
 *' The wind blowelh where it listeth ;" and the 
 Spirit of God v/orketh when, and where, and how 
 he pleaseth. 
 
 Our conversation had ranged over a variety of 
 topics; all of them aided in pointing out in v/hat 
 the Gospel salvation consisted, and how it has 
 been freely procured for us, and the means by 
 which its inestimable blessings become ours. 
 But the one centre from whence all these topics 
 emanated, and into which they all again converg- 
 ed, was " God manifested in the flesh.'''* This is 
 declared by the inspired apostle to be " the great 
 mystery of godhness," because it explains how 
 infinitely God hates sin, and how marvellously 
 he has loved his sinful creatures. And it seemed 
 to me that Howell understood this mystery, and 
 believed it, and felt its life-giving power. 
 
 You Vv^ill not accuse me either of presumption 
 or enthusiasm when I express my conviction, 
 that the Holy Spu'it had equally guided me in 
 speaking and him in hearing, and that there was 
 and would be a blessing. We did not separate 
 without kneeling at the footstool of the throne of 
 grace, and asking from the God of all grace, in 
 the name of our glorified High-Priest, that 
 measure of blessing which should redound to his 
 own glory. 
 
DEEP DISTRESS OF MIND. G7 
 
 I did not find it convenient to call yesterday, 
 nor did it seem to be necessary; but in the even- 
 ing, about nine o'clock, just as I bad concluded 
 family worsbip witb tbe friends wbo lod<re in the 
 same bouse wiib me, tbe door- bell rang;, and Mrs. 
 Howell was ushered in. She bad come at tbe 
 solicitations of her husband, who had been labour- 
 ing for some hours under deep distress of mind, 
 and wished particularly to see me. Tbe call of 
 duty was imperative. I instantly accompanied 
 her. On entering bis bedchamber, Howell flung 
 out bis arms across the bed, and grasped my 
 hand with a cordiality and firmness that s})oke 
 more powerfully than words how thankful he 
 was to see me. But he could not speak, and his 
 fine countenance was expressive of inward agony : 
 it was quite an appalling spectacle. I silently 
 gazed upon him for a minute or two, and then 
 said, "God is our refuge in every time of distress 
 and trouble. Before we attempt to converse with 
 each other, we bad best cast ourselves upon God. 
 If you please, we will pray for his presence with 
 us, for bis guidance, his d<-liverance, and for his 
 blessing." The distressed man signified his 
 approval. During the prayer, which had special 
 reference to his case, it was very afi'ecting to be 
 continually interrupted with his whispered " Yes, 
 yes!" "Amen, amen !" joined with the sobs and 
 responses of his wife. We were very earnest in 
 our supplications ; and while we were yet speak- 
 ing, it happened to us, as to Daniel of old, that 
 God heard, and answered. Indeed, I never was 
 
68 FIRST LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 SO sensible of an immediate answer to prayer. 
 On rising from my knees, and opening- my eyes 
 on Howell, I found him greatly soothed. His 
 countenance had regained its usual placidity; 
 and from a low and feeble voice, in which at first 
 he spoke, by degrees he gathered strength and 
 animation. He mentioned how great his enjoy- 
 ment of spiritual comfort had been after my visit 
 on Sunday. He acknowledged that he never in 
 all his life had experienced such pure happiness; 
 it was like an anticipation of the joys of heaven. 
 This elevated state of religious feeling continued 
 uninterrupted the whole of Sunday afternoon and 
 evening, during the midnight hours, and through- 
 out the forenoon of Monday. The excitement 
 connected with this great and joyful change had 
 borne hard oc his debilitated frame. As the day 
 advanced, he sank into great exhaustion ; and, 
 amidst this weakness of body, what he described 
 as " a cloud of horrible darkness" enveloped his 
 mind. He could not believe anything. The 
 truths which had been the joy and rejoicing of 
 his heart vanished from his hold like unsubstan- 
 tial shadows. All his hopes and consolations 
 had suddenly fled. And so terrible was the in- 
 ward conflict to which he had been subjected, 
 that he used the liberty of sending for me. 
 
 I listened to this narrative with intense interest. 
 It taught me that a real work and a great work was 
 going forward in this sick man's soul. The good 
 Spirit had sown and watered the good seed, which 
 had already sprung up, and was bringing forth the 
 
RENEWED INWARD CONFLTCT. 69 
 
 holy friiits of love, and joy, and peace: and the 
 wicked one had been attemptinLS not merely to 
 blight and blast, but to uproot and destroy. 1 could 
 renard the " cloud of horrible darkness " in no 
 other li«rht than thatofSiitaiiic temptation. How- 
 ell's experience enabled him to say with the 
 Psalmist, " The entrance of thy words giveth 
 light." Ilis inquisitive and Inghly cultivated 
 mind had just been gratified by a wonderful ac- 
 cession of knowledge, and of that kind of know- 
 ledge which was far more precious than rubies to 
 a dying man. This cast a bright gleam of sun- 
 shine around his path and his prospects, and 
 made him happy ; but "the Prince of Darkness" 
 used his crafts and assaults to extinguish the 
 heavenly light, and to counteract the good work 
 of the Holy Spirit. For a time, it would appear, 
 he had succeeded; but the "terrible conflict" 
 which agonised the mind of Howell was a very 
 satisfactory proof how highly he prized that light 
 of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face 
 of Jesus Christ, with which God had shone upon 
 him, and how ardently he desired its continuance, 
 and how intensely he was affected by its tempo- 
 rary withdrawal. This, I doubt not, will appear 
 to you, as it did to me, to evidence his sincerity 
 in seeking after Gospel truth, and the unspeaka- 
 ble value he attached to its possession. And, 
 painful as this conflict was, I believe it was a 
 wisely permitted stroke of discipline to remind 
 my new friend that as it was not by dint of his 
 own application, nor in the exercise of his own 
 
70 FIRST LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 natural abilities, that he had acquired the know- 
 ledge of salvation, so neither could he of himself 
 retain what God in sovereign mercy had im- 
 parted. This was a most useful lesson to him at 
 the commencement of his new career as a be- 
 liever in the Lord Jesus Christ.* 
 
 * Since the death of her husband, Mrs. Howell has ex- 
 plained to me, that the distress into which he sank on 
 this occasion, and the darkness which overspread his 
 mind, was connected with deep conviction of sin. As 
 she sat by him, endeavouring to administer comfort, he 
 complained that he could not remember what had been 
 said to him the day before : he could not keep hold of it. 
 And, suddenly throwing both his hands upon his head, he 
 exclaimed, " Oh ! I have been a great sinner /" and the 
 tears rolled down his cheeks. Under this overwhelming 
 sense of sin, he lost hope, and became disconsolate. 
 Mrs. Howell was overwhelmed too. She felt there was 
 something beyond her power to mitigate or remove ; and 
 in these painful circumstances they both thought of ap- 
 plying to me. 
 
 I am still of opinion that Howell's spiritual darkness and 
 distress were the work of our " adversarj^, the devil, who, 
 as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may 
 devour." The conviction of sin is the province and the 
 prerogative of God's own Spirit, who is called " the Com- 
 forter," and whose special work it is to lighten our dark- 
 ness. And that Howell's convictions should have been so 
 deep and so overwhelming is peculiarly satisfactory. It 
 is strictly consistent with his high conscientiousness, and 
 his strong love of truth. Whenever he saw sin to be sin- 
 ful, he utterly loathed it ; and when he felt himself to be a 
 sinner, he sank into the very depths of sorrow and self- 
 abasement. He was tempted to look away from Christ at 
 the time he most needed him, and hence his distress. But 
 he was a man of the greatest natural amiability, and his 
 
RECOURSE TO THE WORD OF GOD. 71 
 
 I sat beside him till half- past ten o'clock. It 
 is vain to argue with people who are in the dis- 
 tressing condition in whicii I found Howell. I 
 briefly stated to him what I liave just stated to 
 you, as my opinion of the origin and design of 
 the dark cloud which had frowned upon him. I 
 thankfully observed that its blackness was al- 
 ready somewhat brightened ; and instead of 
 making his own distress the subject of conversa- 
 tion, I asked for a Bible, and read a portion of 
 the sixth chapter of St. John. The introduction 
 of light is the only way to dispel darkness. The 
 word of God is the sword of the Spirit, and that 
 is the weapon wherewith we shall most surely 
 scare away all spiritual enemies. We spoke of 
 the Son of God as the alone food of an immortal 
 soul — the bread of life — of which, if a man eat, 
 he shall never hunger. This supplied sublime 
 materials for thought, and placed before him the 
 true object of that fahh which sanctifies and 
 saves. We spoke also with considerable large- 
 ness on the repeated declarations of our Lord re- 
 moral character was unblemished in the sisjht of men. 
 This was a snare out of which he must be brought. It 
 was necessary that he should see his own sinfulness in the 
 sight of God; and I doubt not that his experience that eve 
 ning prepared the way for his more thoroughly apprecia- 
 ting " the great salvation." 
 
 This fact, which Mrs. Howell has communicated, adds 
 interest to the narrative, and furnishes another evidence 
 of the reality of that " repentance toward God and faith 
 in the Lord Jesus Christ," which her husband experienced 
 and exhibited. 
 
72 FIRST LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 specting tlie " will of the Father," — see verses 
 37 — 40. To do that will the Son became incar- 
 nate ; and in the accomplishment of that will 
 sinners become the heirs of eternal life. This 
 led us to the fountain-head of God's love. Here 
 was a theme of fathomless depth and of immeas- 
 urable height. Salvation was wholly to be as- 
 cribed to sovereign grace, a doctrine most hum- 
 bling to the proud, the self-conceited, and the 
 self-righteous ; but, at the same time, most en- 
 couraging to the anxious inquirer and to the 
 humble penitent. " Whosoever cometh unto me 
 I will in no wise cast out." 
 
 Thus we talked on and on, and the disconso- 
 late man forgot his sorrows. We talked of 
 Christ, and " the light of life " began to shine 
 upon him ; we still talked of Christ, and he 
 found him to be his nourishment and strength, his 
 balm and consolation. 
 
 When I left Howell his mind was as tranquil 
 and peaceful as could be desired. I retired 
 praising God for his goodness. This morning I 
 have not seen him, but the answer returned to a 
 message of inquiry was that he had had some re- 
 freshing sleep, and felt comfortable. He request- 
 ed me not to call till the afternoon, as that is the 
 lime of day he is apt to sink, and it is the time 
 when his wife is obliged to leave him. 
 
 I feel pretty confident that the perusal of this 
 letter will not exhaust your patience, and that so 
 far from complaining of its great length, you will 
 desire the receipt of another. You may expect 
 
EFFECT OF BLESSING ON THE WORD. 73 
 
 to hear again in a few days ; meantime let me 
 entreat you* to pray for dear Howell, that he may 
 grow in grace and in the knowledge of our God 
 and Saviour Jesus Christ. Pray also for me, 
 that I may be divinely guided in all my inter- 
 course with this interesting and hopeful invalid, 
 so as to be, in the hand of God, an instrument of 
 good to his precious soul. 
 
 And now adieu. May the light of God*s 
 countenance ever cheer you onward amidst all 
 present ailments and all ministerial obstacles. 
 Believe me most affectionately, &c. 
 
 P. S. I should be sorry if I have expressed 
 myself so as to impress you with the idea that the 
 happy effect produced on Howell's mind was at- 
 tributable to my having stated truths with which 
 he was previously altogether unacquainted. We 
 know very well that before the natural man can 
 really understand the Scriptures, his understand- 
 ing must be opened. This is the work of the 
 Holy Spirit, and I believe the Spirit did work 
 with Howell during my conversation with him, 
 and by means of those particular truths on which 
 we conversed. I believe the Spirit worked on 
 these occasions with a power which this earnest 
 inquirer had not before experienced. Thus it 
 was that he no longer complained of inability to 
 believe. His understanding was opened; and 
 because he understood the truth, he believed it ; 
 and because he believed it, he was made a par* 
 taker of its divine consolations. 
 7 
 
LETTER II. 
 
 To the Rev. John Stevenson, Cury Vicarage. 
 
 Torquay, December 2, 1843. 
 My very Dear Friend, 
 
 I know that my letter of last Tuesday will have 
 awakened your interest in Mr. Howell, and that 
 you will be pleased to have some further details 
 of his case. 
 
 On Tuesday, after dinner, I sat at his bedside 
 for an hour and a half. We were entirely alone, 
 as Mrs. Howell is engaged in teaching in the af- 
 ternoon. I found him beautifully composed. He 
 had had no return of spiritual darkness or dis- 
 tress. He had been occupied with much reflec- 
 tion on the truths which were stated to him on 
 the previous day ; and I could easily perceive 
 how great had been his progress in the compre- 
 hension of divine things under the teaching of the 
 Holy Spirit. I ought to inform you that natural- 
 ly he is of a very reflective turn of mind ; he is a 
 deep thinker on every subject that catches his at- 
 
ON REGENERATION. 7o 
 
 tention ; and at present he certainly manifests an 
 extraordinary degree of inquisitiveness and docili- 
 ty in regard to tiie truths of the Gospel. 
 
 Of his own accord, and almost immediately on 
 my being seated, he referred to our Lord's con- 
 versation with Nicodemus,as recorded in St. John, 
 chap, iii., and expressed his conviction that the 
 beinj^ " born again," which our Lord declares to 
 be indispensable to admission into the kingdom 
 of heaven, must mean some thorough and radidlil 
 change in a man's views and character. " But," 
 he added, " when such a change is effected, don't 
 you think there will be the consciousness of it ?" 
 I saw that in propounding this question he had 
 himself in view ; and, therefore, with the desire 
 of satisfying his mind on this very practical point, 
 I explained our natural condition as alienated 
 from God and from holiness, having neither un- 
 derstanding of divine tilings nor relish for them ; 
 and as there were at least some people to be 
 found in every place who noio delighted in God 
 and in his service, and who did have a know- 
 ledge both of the evil nature of sin and of the 
 salvation which is by Jesus Christ our Lord, it 
 was obvious that a great change had passed on 
 them. I spoke of what is called conversion as 
 a reality, which is only scorned or laughed at by 
 those who are strangers to it; and I mentioned 
 that there were still such things as sudden con- 
 versions, although, in general, the work went on 
 gradually, as from the morning dawn to the per- 
 fect day. I dwelt on the case of Saul of Tarsus 
 
76 SECOND LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 at some length, and the whole circumstances 
 riveted his attention. I then said, " In reference 
 to yourself, it appears to me that, ahhough the 
 work has not been so instantaneous or complete, 
 nor accompanied with any miraculous lights or 
 sounds, yet you have nevertheless undergone a 
 change similar in its object and tendency to that 
 which made the blasphemer of the name of Jesus, 
 and the cruel murderer of his saints, one of his 
 most faithful and devoted servants. You now 
 know and acknowledge that Jesus is your Lord 
 and your God, and from the desire to serve him 
 your language is much the same as that of the 
 newly-converted sinner, * Lord ! what wilt thou 
 have me to do V " To this discourse and its ap- 
 phcation to himself he Hstened with unbroken si- 
 lence. His expressive countenance indicated 
 how carefully he was pondering every sentence. 
 At last he said, " I do feel that a great change 
 has taken place." It seemed an effort to make 
 this acknowledgment, but from the moment it was 
 made he has continued to bless God for his won- 
 drous mercy and forbearance towards him. 
 
 I cannot tell you how great was my happiness 
 when the poor dying man ceased to complain of 
 inability to believe that Christ had died for him, 
 and of doubt respecting his own salvation. It 
 was a release from captivity, and brought him 
 into the enjoyment of " the glorious liberty of the 
 sons of God," when he confessed himself to be a 
 partaker of the grace that is in Christ Jesus; — 
 when he openly acknowledged that there was 
 
ACCOUNT OP HIS PAST LIFE. 77 
 
 such a change in his own rehgious viev/^s, and 
 feeling's, and desires, as testified the truth of his 
 having been " born from above." This was a 
 mighty step in advance ; for, so soon as he felt 
 the quickeiiing power of Christian principles, and 
 professed faith in Jesus Christ as his own Sa- 
 viour, his heart became warm with love to that 
 Saviour who had first loved him, and so loved 
 him. And as it is true that " out of the abun- 
 dance of the heart the mouth speaketh," so the 
 hps of Howell were opened to " show forth the 
 praises of Him who had called him out of dark- 
 ness into his marvellous light." (I Pet. ii. 9.) 
 
 He now began to give a sketch of his former 
 life. From a child, he said, he had felt an inor- 
 dinate thirst for knowledge of all kinds. Of 
 course he had studied hard in the way of his pro- 
 fession, and even after he was established in prac- 
 tice, his ardour in the prosecution of literature 
 and science was unabated. He rose early and 
 sat up late ; and, with shame and sorrow, he 
 confessed that the Sunday had been too often 
 spent in his laboratory, making experiments in 
 chemistry. Sometimes he went to church, but 
 he did not go as a humble and devout worship- 
 per ; the object in view was generally to hear 
 some celebrated preacher. He also read books 
 of theology, and had a particular liking for con- 
 troversial divinity; but it was merely to enlarge 
 his stock of knowledge. All this time he lived 
 free from those gross vices in which he saw others 
 around him indulging. He was opposed to scep- 
 7* 
 
78 SECOND LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 ticism, to materialism, to Unitarianism. In the 
 application of his intellectual powers to philoso- 
 phical and scientific pursuits he thought he was 
 living a rational life, and he was very well pleased 
 with himself. About a year ago, from overwork- 
 ing both mind and body, he began to break down ; 
 there were symptoms of tenderness in the chest. 
 He took the advice of Dr. Morgan, in Bath, who 
 was a pious man, and with whom he had been 
 accustomed to converse on religious subjects. 
 Howell went on to say, " The doctor used al- 
 ways to be dropping some little word of instruc- 
 tion or warning, and it had all the more weight 
 with me as I knew him to be a sincere and con- 
 sistent character. At the same time, nothing he 
 said made any deep or lasting impression on me. 
 My mind was still engrossed with my favourite 
 studies, and towards the latter end of May I came 
 to Torquay for change of climate. There, in the 
 house of the Rev. Mr. Stathan, with whom I had 
 some acquaintance through the introduction of a 
 friend, I met with Mr. Tetlcy, and in this way I 
 was induced to ask his professional advice. I 
 found him just such a man as Dr. Morgan. He 
 showed me great kindness and took e\ery oppor- 
 tunity of directing me to the Saviour. And now 
 I can see how much there was of the goodness of 
 God in casting me into the hands of these pious 
 physicians. Surely it was God's own doing." 
 
 Howell remained at Torquay, and recovered 
 his health amazingly. He returned to Bath to 
 resume his practice. He found a great arrear of 
 
EFFECTS OF THE GOSPEL. /t) 
 
 work. He devoted liimsclf too intensely to his 
 multifarious pursuits; and he had not been home 
 more than five or six weeks wlien his lieaUh was 
 again very seriously impaired. As the result of 
 a consultation, he was now ordered to break up 
 his establishment entirely, and retire for three 
 years to a genial climate. Torquay had done so 
 much for him before, that he came back in Au- 
 gust, bringing his family with him ; but, instead 
 of recovering as formerly, lie has gradually been 
 losing ground. 
 
 Poor fellow ! at the conclusion of this little 
 history, he honestly admitted that the first chas- 
 tisement of his heavenly Father had not been se- 
 vere enough. Had he been able to prosecute 
 his medical profession, he felt assured that the 
 warning he had received would have been lost 
 upon him; that he would have forgotten God, and 
 continued to neglect his salvation. Now he 
 blesses God for withdrawing him from the snares 
 of science and of human knowledge ; remarking, 
 however, and very justly, that the pursuit of 
 knowledge is in itself laudable ; but in his case 
 it had been carried to an extent which he now 
 saw to have been sinful, inasmuch as it excluded 
 higher objects from that attention they deserve. 
 The knowledge of the only true God, and of Je- 
 sus Christ, whom he hath sent, is forced upon 
 him as of paramount importance. And note this 
 is the department of knowledge which engages 
 his uncommonly active and intelligent mind. 
 
 That afternoon, instead of spending time in 
 
80 SECOND LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 further explanation of what the Gospel is (which 
 I had largely done on Sunday and Monday,) I 
 spoke of its effects : of the peace of mind and 
 peace with God which it yields; of the holy joy, 
 and animating hopes, with which it fills the 
 soul ; of its power to purify the heart from the love 
 of sin, to strengthen us for duty, to support us 
 under trial, and to administer abundant consola- 
 tion amidst all the afflictions of life. In short, I 
 showed how it brings us into fellowship with God, 
 and both disposes and enables us to live to his 
 glory, as reasonable, and responsible, and im- 
 mortal, and redeemed creatures. It would have 
 rejoiced your heart to see how readil}^ and cheer- 
 fully he responded to all that was said. He had 
 the happy consciousness that these were in some 
 measure the effects which the belief of the Gos- 
 pel was producing on himself You will recol- 
 lect what St. Paul says in writing to the Colos- 
 sians, of their faith in Jesus Christ bringing forth 
 fi*uit, since the day they heard and knew the 
 grace of God in truth (Col. i. 3-6.) The fruit 
 begins immediately with the faith. Thus it was 
 with Howell and he felt himself as in a new 
 world. We had much elevated and interesting 
 conversation on the mysteries of grace, and on 
 the wonders of redeeming love ; and, when we 
 addressed the God of salvation in prayer, there 
 was a great call for thanksgiving in connexion 
 with our supplications. I left him all animation, 
 and very happy. 
 
 On Wednesday afternoon I again sat with him 
 
EFFECTS OF THE GOSPEL. 81 
 
 for upwards of an hour and a half. His pro- 
 gress in the divine hfe was still more marked : 
 his observations were deeply experimental, and 
 his whole temper and spirit were ^heavenly in a 
 high degree. During the preceding part of the 
 day he had suffered much bodily distress, but his 
 mind was perfectly tranquil. I had recommend- 
 ed the first chapter of the Epistle to the Colos- 
 sians to his serious perusal, as expressing very 
 sublime views of the Saviour, and of all God's 
 works as centering in him. He thanked me re- 
 peatedly for directing him to this portion of Holy 
 Scripture. He said it had given rise to the loft- 
 iest thoughts that had ever passed throuo^h his 
 mind, and had filled him with wonder. During 
 my lengthened visit he never once complained of 
 uneasiness or discomfort, although fomentations 
 were being applied all the time. The high and 
 holy exercise of his noble faculties, on the no- 
 blest of all themes, seemed to drown or to drive 
 away pain; and, when I made a movement for 
 departure, he took me by the hand and said he 
 never could thank me enough, et ccBtera, Be- 
 fore engaging in prayer, he requested me to make 
 it one petition to God, that the work begun in him 
 might go on. He desired its continuity above all 
 things, and solemnly avowed his purpose, should 
 his life be spared, to live only to God. We 
 spoke of his wife, who, to his unspeakable com- 
 fort, evinces fellowship with him in his present 
 feelings and experience ; and also of his three 
 babes, whom he would earnestly instruct in the 
 
82 SECOND LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 ways of God ; and of many other things, which 
 were all proofs and specimens of that " newness 
 of life" into which he had entered. Oh ! my 
 dear brother, this was a sweet season, when both 
 of us experienced something of that burning of 
 the heart which the two disciples felt when Jesus 
 walked with them on the way to Emmaus, and 
 while he opened to them the prophetic Scriptures 
 concerning his sufferings and his glory. 
 
 On Thursday the continued happiness he in- 
 wardly enjoyed caused him to feel better, as it 
 respected his bodily ailments. I believe it was 
 more a matter of feeling than any real amend- 
 ment. But in him there was at this time a literal 
 fulfilment of the scriptural declaration, " The 
 joy of the Lord is your strength." (Nehemiah, 
 viii. 10.) 
 
 I spent part of the afternoon with him as usual. 
 He had been reading the Epistle to the Ephe- 
 sians with great delight. His wife and he both 
 remarked that they saw much in it that they had 
 never seen before ; indeed, it was like something 
 altogether new to them. I had mentioned this 
 epistle on a previous day as well fitted to engage 
 and gratify the reflective mind of Howell, and to 
 lead him into the very heighths and depths of 
 man's redemption. I read and commented on 
 the remarkable prayer offered up by St. Paul for 
 his Ephesian converts, and which is recorded in 
 chap. iii. 14-21. 
 
 This day Howell had been so full of holy joy, 
 that he regretted his inability to sing; but, at his 
 
HIS SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. 83 
 
 own request, liis wife had read to him the thirty- 
 fourth Psalm as a song of praise. Even in health 
 he never could sing; but it was singularly pleas- 
 ing to learn that he considered the singing of 
 psalms as the natural expression of religious joy, 
 (James v. 13.) 
 
 Yesterday (Friday) the dear invalid suffered 
 great bodily discomfort, and laboured under much 
 exhaustion. This unfavourable change did not 
 surprise me, seeing his mind had been so much 
 exercised, and somewhat under excitement, for 
 several days; but he had neither clouds nor doubts 
 to disturb his peace, or to obscure his prospects. 
 He complained, however, of confusion and stu- 
 pidity, resulting from the amount of opiate to 
 which he had necessarily been subjected. He 
 told me he had had " a glorious night." His 
 sleep had been very refreshing to him, and dur- 
 ing the intervals, when awake, his meditations 
 had been sweet. 
 
 When I went to see him about four o'clock, 
 (my customary hour,) I found Mrs. Howell home, 
 in consequence of his requiring more than usual 
 nursing. She was administering some nourish- 
 ment. He was extremely languid, but by de- 
 grees, revived a little. I read various short por- 
 tions of Scripture, and made observations on 
 them, and rather discouraged his attempts to en- 
 ter into conversation. But God's truth commend- 
 ed itself to his heart and conscience ; he felt its 
 power and its comfort. I have never witnessed 
 greater desire to hear, or more delight in hearing, 
 
84 SECOND LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 or such a quick perception of divine realities. 
 There were no cavils, no objections, no difficulties. 
 Although in one sense he was but a " babe in 
 Christ," yet he seems all at once to have reached 
 a spiritual manhood. Many of his remarks were 
 such as could only have been expected from a 
 Christian of established character and ripened ex- 
 perience. With the utmost propriety he might 
 adopt the prophet's language addressed to his 
 God, " Thy word was found of mc, and I did 
 eat it and it was the joy and rejoicing of my 
 heart." (Jer. xv. 16.) Texts were occasionally 
 brought to his remembrance, which he had read 
 or heard in the days of his ignorance of their 
 meaning, and many times he has expressed great 
 satisfaction to find me uttering exactly the same 
 things as his kind friend. Dr. Morgan, at Bath 
 had done. This he considered as a proof that 
 the same Spirit taught the same truths to all the 
 children of God. In listening to his remarks, so 
 spiritual and experimental, and in looking on his 
 countenance so brightened with the gladness 
 which pervaded his inner man, I was induced to 
 compare the blessed alteration in his religious 
 state to that of the grovelling grub which has be- 
 come a winged insect. He had burst the shell, 
 and escaped from a chrysalis condition : his soul, 
 now emancipated from the dark prison-house of 
 ignorance and unbelief, was soaring above sub- 
 lunary things on the newly expanded wings of 
 faith and hope, and basking in the beams of the 
 Sun of Righteousness. This idea charmed hira 
 
THANKFULNESS FOR RELIEF. 85 
 
 exceeding-lj, from his peculiar fondness for natu- 
 ral science. He said it was a beautiful idea ; 
 and he rocked his head on the pillow, and al- 
 most wept with delight. He acknowledged that 
 for some time previous to this recent change he 
 had spiritual life, but it was in a manner dormant. 
 
 This has been a memorable week in Howell's 
 history. I remained nearly two hours with him ; 
 but so intensely was he interested in divine things, 
 that he could not suppose it possible my visit had 
 been half so long. He was now elevated in 
 spirit, and his mode of address had become very 
 animated, and yet he was quite patient and sub- 
 missive to the will of God. Before kneeling for a 
 parting prayer, he desired me to thank God for 
 the present revival, — he meant the relief he ex- 
 perienced at that moment from the languor and 
 uneasiness of the former part of the day, and the 
 spiritual refreshment and happiness he was en- 
 joying. 
 
 This day (Saturday) I have not as yet seen him, 
 but am informed he has passed a quiet and com- 
 fortable night. Mrs. Howell has been taken ill. 
 She has had a great deal of anxiety, nor has she 
 been wholly exempt from excitement. Dr. Tet- 
 ley, however, thinks she will soon be well again, 
 and that her husband, to all human appearance, 
 may survive for eight or ten days. Until this 
 day I have never happened to meet the doctor 
 since he asked me to call on Howell. He is 
 much engaged, and has been frequently out of 
 the town to see country patients. He had no 
 8 
 
86 SECOND LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 leisure to talk about Howell's case ; but, on men- 
 tioning to him that I vras vrriting to you on the 
 subject, he sends Christian love, and suggests that 
 it might be well to preserve this letter, and the 
 former one, as there is no other record of God's 
 gracious deahngs with this dying man. 
 
 T am sorry to understand that the family is in 
 very straitened circumstances. Mrs. Howell does 
 sometimes advert to this, and, having been ac- 
 customed to tuition before her marriage, is now 
 desirous of getting pupils. But Howell himself 
 has never touched that subject with me. He has 
 got possession of*' the true riches," and with that 
 durable treasure he is satisfied. 
 
 I shall write again ere long ; meantime believe 
 me, in the love of the Spirit, 
 
 Yours, 
 
LETTER III. 
 
 To the Rev. John Stevenson. 
 
 Torquay, December 15, 1843. 
 
 My beloved Friend, 
 
 With respect to Mr. Howell, he, too, is still 
 alive, and he lives to God. I may say he hves 
 with God ; for all his thoughts are directed to 
 divine subjects, and on them alone he delights to 
 converse. 
 
 Last week, however, was a kind of blank in 
 his spiritual history. I visited him daily, but, 
 owin^ to the causes mentioned in my last hur- 
 ried note to you, we had little intercommunion. 
 The diarrhoea was very severe. He suffered 
 much from exhaustion, and the necessary opiates 
 stupified him. Although unable for long visits, 
 he was glad to have prayer made for him, and 
 generally expressed something or another, either 
 
88 THIRD LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 to be asked of God, or to be acknowledged with 
 thanksgiving. 
 
 I really thought he was entering into the dark 
 valley of the shadow of death, and despaired of 
 renewing the sweet and interesting intercourse 
 we had had together. In these apprehensions, 
 however, I was mistaken : Mr. Howell has en- 
 joyed some respite from bodily distress ; and, 
 although I cannot say that the progress of his 
 disease has been arrested, or that there is the 
 least hope of recovery, still he feels himself 
 better, and once more his intelligent mind is all 
 activity. 
 
 One afternoon (1 think it was on Tuesday), 
 on inquiring how he felt himself, he said, " Oh, 
 thank God ! I am very comfortable. I have 
 had a glorious night, and I have also had a glo- 
 rious day. Dm-ing the night I had several 
 hours of the sweetest sleep that could be; and, 
 during the day, I have been reflecting on the 
 subject to which you directed my attention last 
 evening. I see that there is a reality, and an 
 assurance, and an actuality in God's word of 
 promise, which invites me to rest upon it; and 
 this inspires me with hope." This prologue 
 was followed by much important conversation. 
 The subject to which I had directed his attention 
 on the previous evening was Heb. vi. 16-20, — 
 " For men verily swear by the greater, and an 
 oath for confirmation is to them an end of all 
 strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly 
 to show unto the heirs of promise the immutabi- 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF HOPE. 89 
 
 lity of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath ; 
 That, by two immutable thmofs, in which it was 
 impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong 
 consolation, who have fled for refuge, to lay hold 
 upon the hope set before us : Which hope we 
 have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and 
 steadfast, and which entereth into that within the 
 vail ; Whither the Forerunner is for us entered, 
 even Jesus, made an hiirh-priest for ever, after 
 the order of Melchisedec." This passage I had 
 read and commented on. It was exactly one of 
 those passages likely to give his mind some em- 
 ployment, and to strengthen his faith ; and re- 
 collecting the use I had made of it when writing 
 " On the Pernicious Influence of Doubts in 
 checking and blighting our Hopes for Eternity," 
 I carried the MS. to him, and read a few pages 
 of it. He listened with interest. He said it 
 cheered him, and desired me to leave it. At the 
 same time I left with him a beautiful tract, enti- 
 tled " The Bliss of Heaven," which I had that 
 day received from Major Hall. I think he 
 stated it had been recommended to him by Arch- 
 deacon Hare. 
 
 The next time I saw Howell, a new symptom 
 of disease had manifested itself He complained 
 of a sore throat, and was just preparing to apply 
 a blister. I had not seen him for a day or two, 
 and observed that there was now an air of great 
 thoughtfulness about him. I could read in his 
 expressive countenance that something pressed 
 upon his mind which was impairing his wonted 
 8* 
 
90 THIRD LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 peace and joy. I ^iquired if he had been able 
 to look at the MS. He replied that he had pe- 
 rused the first half of it with great care and plea- 
 sure, and he felt convinced of the sinfulness of 
 doubts, as throwing discredit on the word and 
 promise of God. He added, " I know, also, 
 from what I experience, that doubts will spring 
 up unbidden, even when I am endeavouring to 
 repress them ; and they always have a darken- 
 ing and deadening effect. I suppose they may 
 be ascribed, in some measure to the weakness 
 under which I am labouring ; and, perhaps, 
 there is something of temptation in them." Re- 
 marks like these show how much his mind is 
 exercised, and how personal his rehgion is, and 
 how very correctly he judges of things which are 
 entirely new to him. 
 
 You can imagine in what way I attempted to 
 restore the stability of his faith, Avhich I perceiv- 
 ed had been a little shaken. He then alluded 
 to the tract : Mrs. Howell had read it to him on 
 the evening after my departure. He spoke of it 
 with rapture. He had since read it himself 
 when alone. It had supplied him with heavenly 
 meditations by night and by day. In speaking 
 of it he said, " I see that to be with Christ, or to 
 have Christ with us, is heaven. The place 
 where is of inferior moment. There may be 
 heaven on earth." This observation struck me 
 forcibly. How true ! and what a delightful 
 truth ! and how seldom realised ! It furnished 
 me with a fine text, on which I expatiated for 
 
THE BLISS OF HEAVEN. 91 
 
 some time. But Howell was not elevated by the 
 subject ; he looked grave. At last, after some 
 hesitation, he remarked, " I admit the truth <>\' 
 all you have advanced ; there must be bliss in 
 heaven, and it is delightful to hear about it. I 
 see, also, that there is neither heaven nor bliss 
 for us without Christ ; and my own reflections, 
 suggested by this little tract, and by your con- 
 versations, have been most soothing, and, at 
 times, most elevating to me. But, admitting all 
 this, I cannot subdue a continually rising idea, 
 that it is premature in a person like me to enter- 
 tain the hope of this bliss. All my former pur- 
 suits have been so exclusively of a worldly cha- 
 racter, and my whole life has been marked by 
 such forgetfulness of God, and indifference to the 
 salvation which is by our Lord Jesus Christ, that 
 I wish for your opinion whether I am not de- 
 ceiving myself in this matter." 
 
 To this humble and conscientious statement I 
 listened with the deepest interest. It was evident- 
 ly uttered with reluctance, and yet the uttering 
 of it was a relief to him. You will regard it as 
 a fine example of that honesty and truthful- 
 ness, of which there is so large a preponder- 
 ance in his natural character, and which 
 affords such excellent materials for " the Spirit 
 of truth" to work withal. I looked at him with 
 earnestness, and, instead of entering upon any 
 discussion, simply put the question, " Do you, as 
 a poor, perishing sinner, really, from the heart, 
 believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?" " Oh, yes !" 
 
92 THIRD LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 he replied, and looked somewhat surprised at my 
 putting such a question to him. " Are you sure 
 you are not deceiving yourself in this 1 Have 
 you the consciousness of believing in him, and 
 trusting on him, as the Son of God, and the 
 Saviour of sinners V " I am perfectly conscious 
 of doing so. / am as conscious of believing in 
 Christ as I am of being alive.'''' " Well, then, 
 my dear friend, it is your faith in Christ, which 
 the grace of God enables you to exercise, that 
 gives you a relish for the bliss of heaven ; and 
 this relish is a preparation for it. You never 
 could prepare yourself, even by a long life of re- 
 pentance and prayer, and such other services as 
 are in your power to render. It is of importance 
 to keep full in view that Christ is your Saviour, 
 and not your helper. Your admission into 
 heavenly bliss depends not on a joint work to be 
 performed by him and by you. Remember the 
 words of St. Paul, — 'By grace are ye saved 
 through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the 
 gift of God : not of works, lest any man should 
 boast,' (Eph. ii. 8, 9.j Salvation is wholly of 
 God's own free grace. It is all his gift ; even 
 the faith in us, through which we come to the 
 enjoyment of it. Whenever he gives us grace to 
 believe, it cannot be premature to hope for what 
 is promised and provided. And there must be a 
 turning point in the history of every man, who is 
 brought out of the darkness of his natural con- 
 dition into the marvellous light of the Gospel. I 
 beheve i/ou have passed that point.''^ Here he 
 
FEARS TO INDULGE A FALSE HOPE. 93 
 
 interrupted me, and said with eagerness, "I see it, 
 I see it. I am sensible that the whole state of my 
 views and fcehngs, in regard to religion, has un- 
 dergone a great change ; but I only feared I 
 might be indulging a false hope." 
 
 To find him maintaining such a watchfulness 
 over himself filled me with secret joy, and made 
 me the more anxious clearly to explain his war- 
 rant to participate in all the blessings of the Gos- 
 pel salvation at once, and without delay. I quoted 
 the words of our Lord, — " He that believeth on 
 the Son hath everlasting life^ and he that believ- 
 eth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath 
 of God abideth on him :" also, " He that heareth 
 my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath 
 everlasting life, and shall not come into con- 
 demnation, but is passed from death unto life"*^ 
 (St. John, iii. 36 ; v. 24.) These precious say- 
 ings set the whole Gospel before him, under the 
 one term, life ; and it was deserving of special 
 notice, that this life is enjoyed in immediate and 
 present connexion with faith. He that believeth 
 hath life ; the life which is everlasting begins now ; 
 it begins the moment we believe in Christ ; this 
 life is in him, and received from him ; he him- 
 self is our life. " A nd you," I added, " who late- 
 ly were ' dead in trespasses and sins,' as you read 
 in the Epistle to the Ephesians, have been quick- 
 ened together with Christ, and raised up to 'new- 
 ness of life.' The work is done ; your very faith, 
 of which you are conscious, is a proof of it. It 
 is, in fact, the effect of this new and everlasting 
 
94 THIRD LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 life having been imparted to you. Your faith, 
 therefore, ought to keep you in possession of hfe, 
 and to give you the enjoyment of it ; and I would 
 not have you, on any account, to doubt the reaU- 
 ty of the work which God has been so graciously 
 carrying on." " No," he answered, " I ought 
 not to doubt, — and, indeed, I cannot doubt it ; 
 but, if you will forgive me using the expression, I 
 thought that your theory of salvation was too sim- 
 ple — it seems too easy a way of getting to hea- 
 ven."*^ 
 
 Thus we got upon new ground, and I was 
 drawn into a new discourse. I spoke of the sim- 
 plicity which distinguishes all the works of God, 
 as contrasted with the complexity of human con- 
 trivances, and, as an eminent naturalist, he caught 
 the spirit of this remark, and felt its weight. On 
 every principle of analogy, the simplicity of the 
 Gospel plan of salvation, so far from constituting 
 an objection against it, is an evidence in favour 
 of its divine origin. What creature ever could 
 have contrived it ? " Believe on the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and thou shalt be saved." What work so 
 great, so difficult, as the salvation of sinners, and 
 yet what inimitable simplicity in the means of at- 
 taining it ! But then we must not think only of 
 the simple faith which is required of us : we must 
 think who is the person on whom we believe. 
 We must think on an incarnate God, — and, 
 oh ! what a thought is that ! We must think on 
 all that the Lord Jesus Christ has done and suf- 
 fered to procure the remission of our sins, and the 
 
THE THEORY OF SALVATION. 95 
 
 sanctification of our hearts, and, in one word, the 
 enjoyment of what the Bible so emphatically calls 
 LIFE. Such thoughts teach us that the effect pro- 
 duced, however great it is, has an adequate cause. 
 And, besides, I urged him never to forget, that 
 our salvation is not in our faith, but in the Sa- 
 viour in whom we believe. Simple faith on our 
 part is what God has prescribed as the one means 
 or medium through which we come to enjoy the 
 freely provided salvation. This is fitted to hum- 
 ble our proud and self-righteous hearts : it conti- 
 nually reminds us that we have done, and can 
 do, nothing to deliver our own souls from the 
 guilt we have contracted, and from the punish- 
 ment we deserve : it keeps us sensible of our infi- 
 nite obligations to sovereign mercy, and gives all 
 the glory to God, &c. &c. " Thus you see," I 
 continued, *' that there is no defect in what you 
 designate * the theory of salvation.' It bears up- 
 on all its parts the impress of divine skill, as well 
 as of divine love. And may I not refer to your- 
 self as an illustration of its practical working ? 
 You tell me every day how peaceful and com- 
 posed your mind is. You feel relieved from the 
 load of anxiety, respecting the pardon of sin, 
 which pressed so heavily on your spirits ; and you 
 acknowledge that, of late, you have experienced 
 a happiness to which you had all your life before 
 been a stranger." " True, very true," he ex- 
 claimed. " All this," I resumed, " is the natu- 
 ral result of that faith in the Saviour which you 
 are conscious of exercising. It is the actings of 
 
96 THIRD LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 the new life which has been bestowed on you ; ii 
 is the commencings of that salvation which is to 
 be eternaV "Yes," he replied, " I see what 
 you mean ; and, certainly, I do feel as if I were 
 just beginning to live" 
 
 Some of Mr. Howell's admirable little sayings 
 I have recorded verbatim. I know you will ap- 
 preciate their power. And the substance of what 
 passed between us, at this interview, has been 
 sketched with sufficient minuteness to enable you 
 to fill up the details in your own mind. The sub- 
 jects handled were very important ; but I should 
 not omit to mention that I adopted the method of 
 confirming every doctrinal assertion by Scripture 
 examples. Thus, for instance, in obviating his 
 mistaken conceptions of the simplicity of the Gos- 
 pel salvation, I referred him to the case of Naa- 
 man, the Syrian, who came to Elisha to be healed 
 of his leprosy. That diseased heathen expected 
 some mighty and extraordinary work to be per- 
 formed by the prophet : and when merely ordered 
 to go and wash seven times in the river Jordan, 
 he was staggered and oftended by the very sim- 
 plicity of the means proposed for his recovery. 
 But he was brought to know that the heahng vir 
 tue lay not in the waters of Jordan, or in any 
 waters, but in the power of the God of Israel, and 
 in obedience to what he prescribed by the mouth 
 of his servant. So, likewise, in removing the idea 
 of prematurity in a newly converted man's en- 
 joying Gospel happiness, or indulging the hope 
 of heaven, I quoted the cases of the gaoler at 
 
SCRIPTURE ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 97 
 
 Philippi, and of tlie Ethiopian eunuch, botli of 
 whom rejoiced in the experience of Gospel bless- 
 ings, from the very moment of their believing the 
 truths that were preached to them. We find it 
 written that the same thing happened at Samaria 
 on a large scale. Very many people believed in 
 Christ through the preaching of Philip ; and we 
 read that " there icas much joy in that city.''^ — 
 And it was manifest that these references to pri- 
 mitive Christianity brought home the conviction 
 to his own mind, that he was himself experien- 
 cing nothing more than other men had experi- 
 enced under similar circumstances. 
 
 You, my dear brother, speak of Howell as " a 
 fresh jewel added to the Redeemer's crown ;" 
 and, from what I have written at this time, you 
 will judge that he shines with an increasing bril- 
 liancy. Notwithstanding his high talents, and 
 great proficiency in professional and scientific 
 knowledge, he talks with me in a most childlike 
 manner on the things that concern his peace ; in- 
 deed, he evinces as humble and teachable a spi- 
 rit as I have ever met with. This, combined 
 with his extreme desire for information, and his 
 remarkable acuteness and penetration, invests 
 with uncommon interest the intercourse I am pri- 
 Wleged to hold with him. His mind is always 
 occupied with something of importance — he never 
 trifles; nor does he now show any desire for con- 
 troversy or disputation. His aim is to acquire 
 the knowledge of those truths on which his pre- 
 sent peace and everlasting safety are suspended. 
 9 
 
yS THIRD LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 He wants not only knowledge to satisfy the crav- 
 ings of his intellect, but, above all, he wants food 
 for his immortal soul. And you can easily sup- 
 pose how much pleasure there is in dispensing to 
 him the " Bread of Life," — expounding the 
 truths of *' the glorious Gospel of the blessed 
 God," according to the ability given to me. 
 
 I cannot withhold from you some account of a 
 subsequent conversation I have had with Howell, 
 which still farther developes the state of his mind. 
 You may, therefore, expect to hear again from 
 me soon. 
 
LETTER IV. 
 
 To the Rev. J. Stevenson. 
 
 Torquay, December 25, 1843. 
 My very dear Friend, 
 
 My letter of the 15th and 16th contained a 
 pretty full account of a conversation I had with 
 Mr. Howell some days before. I thought it suf- 
 ficiently interesting to communicate to you ; and 
 on the second day afterwards our conversation 
 was no less interesting. So soon as he had re- 
 plied to my inquiries respecting his health, he 
 said, " I recollect your once saying something 
 about the power of sin being removed, and that 
 this was one of the blessings which the Gospel of 
 our Lord and Saviour brings to us. I should 
 like to hear something more on this subject.'* 
 
 It instantly occurred to me that this request in- 
 dicated a peculiar state of mind. The topics 
 which he had started at the previous interview, 
 and the ways in which he expressed himself, led 
 me to think that he was beginning to look in- 
 
100 FOURTH LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 wards, and that the discovery of much that was 
 sinful in his own heart had made him fearful of 
 entertaining the hope of heaven. The informa- 
 tion which he now requested intimated, although 
 he did not say so, that some "root of bitterness" 
 was already springing up within him which he 
 had not expected, and which caused him disap- 
 pointment, and perhaps some measure of doubt, 
 also, as to the sincerity or stabihty of his faith ; 
 at all events, this was the impression made on 
 my own mind, and it influenced the particular 
 turn that was given to our conversation. 
 
 I stated, generally, that the salvation which is 
 by the faith of Jesus Christ is of a threefold cha- 
 racter : we are delivered from the guilt of sin, 
 from the power of sin, and from the punishment 
 which sin deserves. This opened the way for a 
 discourse on justification and on sanctification, — 
 on the distinction between the one and the other, 
 and on their connexion the one with the other. I 
 explained how it was necessary, from the holiness 
 of God's character, and for the honour of his holy 
 law, that the pardon of sin should be accompa- 
 nied with a declaration of righteousness. In or- 
 der to our acceptance with God and restoration to 
 his favour, we must stand acquitted of the guilt 
 with which we were charged. A simple pardon 
 would never meet the necessities of our case, and 
 hence the value and the meaning of those nume- 
 rous passages which speak of the righteousness 
 of Christ as the ground of our justification in the 
 sight of God. " He hath made him to be sin for 
 
JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 101 
 
 US who knew no sin, that we might be made the 
 righteousness of God in him," ("2 Cor. v. 21. See 
 also, Rom. iii. 21-26, and Philip, iii. 8, 9.) As 
 there is nothing in us to merit the forgiveness 
 which we need, so it is only through the righteous- 
 ness of Jesus Christ, the righteous One, imputed 
 to us, that we appear as righteous before God. 
 This is what is called our justification. It is on 
 the part of God a sovereign act, which, once 
 passed, is neither to be recalled nor repeated ; 
 and, on our part, the active and passive obedience 
 of the Saviour, — that is, his life of perfect holi- 
 ness, and his sacrificial death, are accounted ours 
 when the Holy Spirit works faith in us. " And, 
 therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace 
 with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 I was anxious to fix his mind on the finished 
 and accepted work of the Lord our righteousness, 
 and plainly to point out how that wondrous work 
 was all undertaken and accomplished for us men, 
 and for our salvation ; and to urge him to the ex- 
 ercise of a continued faith in the Saviour, and in 
 what he has done for us, as the only method by 
 which the delightful peace he had been enjoying 
 could remain undisturbed. He was profoundly 
 attentive, and never once interrupted me. " I 
 see," he then said, " that in order to be justified, 
 our faith must embrace the blood of Christ for the 
 pardon of our innumerable oflEences, and the per- 
 fect righteousness of Christ as a substitute for our 
 want of righteousness." "Yes," I answered: 
 " were it not so we could not be saved at all. 
 9* 
 
102 FOURTH LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 And it is from overlooking this grand truth, 
 which you have so well expressed, that many 
 Christian people are deprived of the peace and 
 joy which ought to be their possession. They 
 fancy, that whilst they look to the Saviour for 
 pardon, they ought to look to themselves for 
 righteousness." "Ah!" said Howell, "that is 
 important, very important. But is there not pro- 
 vision in the Gospel scheme for a deliverance 
 from the power of sin 1 God's people, surely, 
 should be holy: they for whom the Son of God 
 died should themselves die unto sin." This ob- 
 servation led me to speak of Gospel holiness. I 
 mentioned the operative nature of faith. What- 
 ever we beheve has an effect upon us ; and that 
 effect is regulated by what we believe, and by the 
 liveliness of our belief. To this he cordially as- 
 sented. "Now, then," I continued, "whenever 
 a convinced sinner believes that Jesus Christ died 
 for him on the accursed tree, and that nothing 
 short of the blood of God's incarnate Son could 
 wash away his guilt, and deliver him from the 
 wrath to come, he is at once constrained to hate 
 sin as his greatest enemy, and to love his Saviour 
 as his best friend. Here is provision for his sub- 
 sequent holiness. He is sanctified by the belief 
 of the truth as it is in Jesus, and also by the in- 
 dwelling of the Spirit of Jesus, which is promised 
 to believers." I asked if he had not often no- 
 ticed, in his intercourse with mankind, that a cer- 
 tain class of people are much freer than others 
 from the follies and immoralities that every where 
 
MEANS OP SANCTIFICATION. 103 
 
 abound. This he acknowledojed. " And do you 
 not feel in yourself," I added, " that now you 
 ftave a delight in thinking of God, and a desire to 
 serve him, which you never felt before V " Bless- 
 ed be God!" he "^replied; "blessed be God! I 
 can say that is true." " Well, then, my dear 
 friend, how is it so? Is it ftot your faith in Christ 
 as your Saviour that fills your heart with the love 
 of God, and holy love prompts you to all holy 
 obedience 1 But it is as a sinner you believe in 
 Christ. Were you not a sinner you would not 
 need a Saviour ; and, were he not a complete Sa- 
 viour, you could not confide in him, nor rejoice 
 in his work." He admitted the justice of all 
 this. " 1 therefore expect you will perceive that 
 justification and sanctification are two distinct 
 things which must not be confounded. The Gos- 
 pel, which provides for our deliverance from the 
 guilt we have already contracted, provides, also, 
 that from the moment of our believing in the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, we shall follow after holiness, with- 
 out which no man can see the Lord. But the 
 work of Christ for us, and which alone is effec- 
 tual for our justification, is quite different from 
 the work of Christ in us, by which we are sanc- 
 tified. The work of Christ, in our nature, and in 
 our stead, is complete; and, therefore, St. Paul 
 says of believers, ' Ye are complete in him.'* In 
 ourselves the principle of faith is seldom strong, 
 and often is not in exercise at all. We do not 
 reahse Christ's presence with us and in us; we do 
 not sufficiently feel the intensity of our obliga- 
 
104 FOURTH LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 tions to his love, and hence the imperfection of 
 our holiness. Our holiness, besides its incom- 
 pleteness, at the best fluctuates; it ebbs and flows 
 like the tide, although not with the same fre- 
 quency or regularity. But I mention this merely 
 to warn you against the danger of resting on your 
 own attainments for peace of mind, or for hope 
 towards God. Christ must be your confidence 
 from first to last: and every feeling of remaining 
 sinfulness about you ought to make you cling to 
 him with greater thankfuhiess, rather than to drive 
 you away from him into the dark and cloudy re- 
 gions of doubt." 
 
 This is the substance of my remarks; and, in 
 conclusion, I earnestly urged upon him the ne- 
 cessity of abandoning all self-righteous depend- 
 ence, if he really desired either personal holiness 
 or spiritual comfort. " The more steadfastly we 
 rely," I said, "on the Lord Jesus Christ for jus- 
 tifying righteousness, the more successfully shall 
 we resist the enticements of sin and the tempta- 
 tions of Satan ; the more constantly we look to 
 the Saviour, and lean on him alone for every spi- 
 ritual blessing, the more uniform and satisfying 
 will be our experience of the joys of his salvation." 
 
 Whilst I continued speaking, Howell gazed 
 on me with an eager eye, and appeared to be si- 
 lently scrutinising the import of every sentiment 
 and sentence I uttered. I asked whether what 
 had been said satisfied him that the Gospel 
 scheme of salvation had a direct tendency to sub- 
 due the power of sin 1 With great decision and 
 
A PRESENT SALVATION. 105 
 
 emphasis he replied, " Your statements are irre- 
 sistible ; they are unanswerable." Of course I 
 was delighted that he expressed his satisfaction so 
 strongly. I then requested him to observe that it 
 was a very common mistake to speak of salvation 
 Sis future, — as somethino^ which awaits believers 
 in the eternal world. But he would understand 
 that the faith of Christ puts us in possession of a 
 present salvation, although the fulness of it will 
 not be enjoyed until the body is redeemed from 
 the grave; yet even now every believer is really a 
 redeemed man, redeemed from the cruel bond- 
 age of sin and Satan, and brought into the glo- 
 rious liberty of the children of God. " Ah ! yes," 
 he hastily exclaimed ; " I see it, — I feel it !'* 
 ♦' Then, my friend, let us not close our eyes on 
 the bright and certain prospects of a glory which 
 is yet to be revealed in us, — of a resurrection life 
 when we shall be with Christ, and when we shall 
 be like him. But let us ever with adoring grati- 
 tude remember, that by divine grace we are even 
 now the sons of God^ He took my hand and 
 thanked me most affectionately. On prayer 
 being proposed, he desired me to pray " that he 
 miijht have still more ligrht, and an abidino^ com- 
 fort in his Saviour." 
 
 I saw him on the following afternoon : the visit 
 was short. He was labouring under much ex- 
 haustion, and I had a headach ; neither of us 
 was disposed or fit for a lengthened conversation. 
 But I felt anxious to ascertain how he was affect- 
 ed by the truths which had been so fully submit- 
 
106 FOURTH LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 ted to his consideration at the two preceding in- 
 terviews. He said he was enjoying great peace, 
 although his mind was somewhat confused by 
 opiates. I also thought proper to mention what 
 had been my suspicions in regard to the causes 
 of those states of feeling which had induced him 
 to introduce the particular subjects on which we 
 conversed ; and he frankly owned that I was quite 
 correct in supposing that, after the joyful sur- 
 prise and delight occasioned by the first gush of 
 so much divine light into his previously darkened 
 understanding had somewhat subsided, he had 
 been tempted to harbour the question, whether 
 all this wonderful change that had passed upon 
 him were a delusion or a reality. This was the 
 origin of his doubt whether a person like him was 
 warranted to entertain the hope of heavenly bliss. 
 He confessed farther, that when looking into him- 
 self, and examining the state of his heart, he still 
 found many evil thoughts spontaneously arising 
 which he considered to be inconsistent with the 
 holiness of a true Christian ; and this made him 
 anxious to know how the power of sin was to be 
 removed. All this was exceedingly natural ; and 
 to me it was interesting in a high degree, as con- 
 firmatory of much that you have read in my MS. 
 letters on the subject of Doubts. It was truly 
 pleasing to hear Mr. Howell say, his own short 
 experience taught him that his hours of purest 
 happiness were those which had been spent in the 
 contemplation of Christ. This reminded me of 
 
THE ABHORRENCE OP SIN. 107 
 
 his own beautiful saying, " to be with Christ is 
 Heaven.'''' 
 
 On Tuesday last I found him very weak. He 
 spoke in a whisper. In answer to inquiries he 
 told me that his mind was very composed, and he 
 had had a heavenly night. " My dreams," he 
 said, " were full of religion ; my mind was occu- 
 pied with God, and I had a sweet night. It was 
 heavenly; but," he continued, "the night before 
 it was quite otherwise with me ; my dreams, were 
 full of sin." As he thus spoke, he became agi- 
 tated ; his countenance assumed an expression 
 of indignant distress and repulsion ; he withdrew 
 one of his hands from under the bed clothes, and 
 moving it rapidly backwards and forwards, as if 
 driving from him some hated object, he added, 
 '* My dreams were of things that are utterly ab- 
 horrent lo my waking desires." Then, calming 
 himself, he said, " I wish you to tell me if I am 
 responsible for these dreams ; if I am to be con- 
 sidered as the perpetrator of such wickedness." 
 Of course, I had no hesitation in relieving his 
 anxiety on this point. At the same time, I could 
 not avoid stating how inveterate is the sinfulness 
 of our nature ; and how exceedingly thankful we 
 should be for " the great salvation " which the 
 Gospel reveals ; and how thankful he himself es- 
 pecially should be, that now sin, even in a mid- 
 night dream, appeared to him so very sinful as to 
 excite his utmost dread and detestation of it. 
 This view of the subject had not occurred to him. 
 It Ccdled forth expressions of devout and lively 
 
108 FOURTH LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 gratitude to the God of all grace ; and he re- 
 quested me to pray " that this blessed grace 
 might he continued and increased." 
 
 I called at Beulah next nmorning, and was in- 
 formed that Mr. Howell was a little revived again. 
 I did not go up stairs to see him. 
 
 Thursday, the 21st, was his birth-day. He 
 entered on his thirty-fourth year. I intended giv- 
 ing him a long visit in the afternoon ; but in the 
 early part of the day I heard through a friend, 
 that Dr. Tetley thought him fast sinking. I call- 
 ed about my usual hour ; Mrs. Howell was at 
 home — she had got a holiday. In general, she 
 goes to Torre in the afternoon, to teach Mr. Black- 
 more's children. She accompanied me to the 
 chamber where her dear, dying husband lay. He 
 looked very languid and emaciated : it was evi- 
 dently an effort for him to speak, even in a sub- 
 dued whisper. As we shook hands, I expressed 
 a hope that, in the midst of so much bodily frailty, 
 he had peace of mind. He answered, '* Perfect 
 peace," and, after breathing, he repeated with 
 emphasis, *'j9er/ec^ peace." His motionless pos- 
 ture, and the placidity of his countenance, were 
 to me like two witnesses attesting the truth of his 
 declaration ; and truly, under such circumstan- 
 ces, such a testimony was invaluable. He was 
 experiencing in his own soul, and manifesting 
 unto others, the fulfilment of what is written by 
 the prophet Isaiah, " Thou wilt keep him in per- 
 fect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because 
 he trusteth in thee," (chap. xxvi. 3.) I quoted 
 
PERFECT PEACE. 109 
 
 tliistext, and he made some remarks on the con- 
 nexion between our exercise of trust in God and 
 our enjoyment of inward peace. 
 
 Mrs. Howell went out of the room to fetch 
 some refreshment that was being made ready for 
 her enfeebled husband. As soon as we were 
 left alone, he muttered, with great composure, 
 *' The flesh is fading." This little unlooked-for 
 speech produced a conflict of feelings in my own 
 bosom : it was the plainest, and the first direct 
 intimation he had ever given me that he thought 
 himself dying ; and death is always a sad and 
 solemn thing when it is brought near lo us. My 
 mourning was, nevertheless, mingled with joy, 
 on this occasion. I was really glad to find the 
 dying man sensible of his situation, and still more 
 so to see that his " perfect peace" was nowise 
 disturbed or diminished by the supposed near- 
 ness of " the king of terrors." I looked at him, 
 and listened to him in silence. He presently- 
 added, *' I feel myself sinking, and I only wish 
 that God may grant me the use of my faculties 
 unto the end, that I may enjoy the consolations 
 of prayer." I said, " God will do what is best 
 Is your dependence still on Christ ?" He shook 
 his head, and he tried to smile as he replied, 
 *' Oh, yes, on him alone.'''' 
 
 Mrs. Howell returned. It was obvious he had 
 desired to spare her feelings ; and, therefore, no 
 allusion was made to her of what had passed 
 during her absence. Howell partook of a little 
 gruel. I begged permission to hold the cup to 
 10 
 
110 FOURTH LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 his head, and was happy of the opportunity fo 
 render him that little service, which might pro- 
 bably be the last ever afforded me. I spoke of 
 *' the better country," which is our destination, 
 and of the glory that awaits us at the coming of 
 our Lord, when we shall be " clothed upon with 
 our house which is from heaven." I described 
 this hope — this glorious hope, not as a thing un- 
 certain and precarious, but as " sure and stead- 
 fast" — a living reality. As such, I urged him to 
 hold it fast; for, just as he fixedly believed in 
 the Saviour, he would have " Christ in him, the 
 hope of glory." He distinctly said, " God had 
 promised it" — meaning to express his own con- 
 viction of the firmness of the foundation on which 
 the Christian's hope is based ; and here our con- 
 versation abruptly terminated. It was necessary 
 for me to leave the room ; and as he was so 
 vreak, and, at the same time, so free from men- 
 tal disquietude, I judged it wisest not to return. 
 
 On Friday, immediately after breakfast, I 
 went to the house, fully prepared to hear that 
 Howell was dead. Inside the garden gate I met 
 the two eldest of his infant children playing; 
 and this dissipated my doleful forebodings. At 
 the door, the servant told me that her master 
 was rather better ; and, on being ushered into 
 his apartment, I had the unexpected pleasure to 
 observe an appearance of liveliness about his 
 eye, that told how much he had revived from the 
 preceding afternoon. 
 
 He was all alone. Mrs. Howell was engajred 
 
THE FOrNDATION OF CHRISTIAN HOPE. Ill 
 
 with her pupils. There lay on his hed a pocket 
 Bible, and a copy of " James's Anxious In- 
 quirer," of which he had just been reading a 
 chapter. He observed that he had met in it 
 with views of justification and sanctification very 
 similar to those I had already explained to him a 
 few days before. This little volume had been 
 given to him on his leavin*^ Bath, by a pious 
 lady, who was one of his patients. He valued it 
 on her account, and often had it beside him, 
 ahhough he had never yet read the whole of it. 
 In fact, he was able for very little reading, and 
 latterly he spent what strength he had almost 
 wholly on the Bible. But he felt that he now 
 understood this excellent little treatise better 
 than he had done formerly. I could not help re- 
 marking, that the time was when he himself had 
 been an inquirer after salvation, as well as after 
 other branches of knowledge, without his having 
 any anxiety on the subject. The time too was^ 
 and that not long since, when he felt the impor- 
 tance of personal salvation so deeply as to make 
 him a very anxious inquirer how he might be 
 saved. But, by the grace of God, and through 
 the teachings of his Holy Spirit, he had now 
 found Him, of whom Moses and the prophets 
 wrote, even Jesus, the Christ. Instead of 
 being merely ari inquirer after it, he was a par- 
 taker of salvation ; and his anxiety had given 
 place to gratitude and praise. A holy smile 
 played on his wasted face as he said, " Yes, in- 
 deed, but still I have much to learn." 
 
112 FOURTH LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 He told me that his peace of mind continued, 
 and he spoke more freely as a dying man than 
 he did the day before. I thought he was quite 
 inclined for conversation, had not the tendentess 
 of his throat prevented him ; at all eveiits, he 
 was intent on something that might prove to 
 edification. He put the Bible into my hand, 
 and requested me to expound. I read some 
 verses in the beginning of the first chapter of 1 
 Peter. The subject is very animating and pe- 
 culiarly calculated to support the tried, and to 
 cheer the dying Christian. My own soul had a 
 benefit in dwelling on *' the resurrection of our 
 Lord from the dead ;" and on the " lively hope" 
 with which his resurrection inspires his believing 
 people, that they too shall rise ; and, on " the 
 inheritance" which is reserved for them ; and on 
 the power of God, by which " they are kept 
 through faith" until they are put into possession 
 of their glorious and complete salvation " in the 
 last time." These truths greatly comforted the 
 dear dying man. We spoke, too, of the mighty 
 power of Gospel faith and hope to bear us up 
 under present and even under " manifold tempta- 
 tions ;" and of that unquenchable love to an un- 
 seen Saviour, which has carried many delicate 
 females, as well as healthy men, to the gibbet 
 and to the stake ; and of that insatiable desire, 
 and holy assurance, of seeing Him whom our 
 souls love, which gives rise to a "joy that is un- 
 speakable and full of glory." In such converse 
 we mutually enjoyed a sweet and solemn season 
 
TOPICS OF CONSOLATION. 113 
 
 of spiritual refreshment. He asked me to pray, 
 and renewed his request of the former afternoon. 
 He particularly wished, if it pleased God, that 
 his mental faculties might not be impaired, and 
 that he mijTht be able to enjoy the advantages of 
 prayer unto the end. This led to some interest- 
 ing talk about a variety of otlier blessings, which 
 it would be our privilege to implore, as pecu- 
 liarly needed at the time ; and it was suggested 
 that we ought also to offer up special thanksgiv- 
 ing for blessings already so freely conferred on 
 him. With this previous arrangement, we ap- 
 proached the throne of grace, and poured out 
 our hearts before the Hearer and Answerer of 
 prayer. It was, indeed, an affecting service — 
 necessarily embracing the past, the present, and 
 the future ; and comprehending not only the 
 case of dear Howell individually, and our recent 
 intercourse, and our anticipated separation ; but, 
 on such an occasion, we could not omit the case 
 of his wife and children, so soon to become a 
 widow and fatherless. All this was very trying 
 to the fading flesh ; but when the prayer was 
 concluded with his own audible " Amen, and 
 Amen," I found the dying man neither bathed 
 in tears, nor manifesting any agitation whatever. 
 His " perfect peace" had not forsaken him. He 
 rested firmly and securely on the Rock of Ages. 
 There was no shrinking from an encounter with 
 the last enemy ; there were no regrets at the 
 prospect of leaving the world ; no repinings at 
 the overthrow of all his plans and projects for 
 10* 
 
i]4 FOURTH LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 the attainment of professional distinction ; no 
 murmiirings against Providence for cutting iiira 
 down in the very prime of life, and thus early 
 breaking asunder the conjugal and parental ties, 
 to which his amiable dispositions imparted both 
 strength and tenderness. Neither was there any 
 approach to excitement: his composure was 
 something quite remarkable. I am sure that God 
 was the strength of his heart. I am equally sure 
 that great was his inward happiness ; but it was 
 chastened and kept under subjection, from a 
 continued fear of prematurity or presumption. 
 And by this time he had been brought to those 
 enlarged views of the Divine character, and to 
 that simple reliance on His word, which enabled 
 him to cast upon God the burden of his cares ; 
 and meekly, and patiently, and contentedly, to 
 resign himself, and all that was dearest to him 
 on earth, to the disposal of Unerring Wisdom 
 and Love. 
 
 I have never attended a death-bed where there 
 was so little of gloom : I never beheld a nobler 
 exliibition of Christian calmness under trouble, 
 and of that heavenly serenity, amidst the length- 
 ening shadows of this life's closing hours, which 
 remind one of the softness and stillness of a sum- 
 mer evening, when the noise and the toils of 
 human labours have ceased — Avhen the \ery ele- 
 ments of nature appear to be indulging in twilight 
 repose ; and when the anticipations of midnight 
 blackness are brightened with the assurance, that 
 the sun which has set beneath the horizon will 
 
HEAVENLY SERENITY OP MIND. 115 
 
 rise again in the morning, to cheer man onward 
 in the path of hfe, and to clotlie the earth with a 
 fresh mantle of gladness and of glory. 
 
 It was not without reluctance that we parted. 
 Neither of us dare say so ; but both of us evident- 
 ly had the impression that we should not meet 
 again in this world. Our hands remained locked 
 in each other's for a considerable length of time. 
 I cannot repeat the words of kindness with which 
 he expressed his sense of obligation for my visit; 
 nor need I repeat ray own expressions of grateful 
 delight, in having been privileged to act as a 
 minister of Christ, in explaining to him the Sa- 
 viour's character and work, and to spend so 
 many pleasant hours with him in mutual Chris- 
 tian fellowship, and in united communion with 
 God. At last we did exchange farewells ; but 
 neither of us was aware of what awaited us. 
 Howell, I doubt not, was in the expectation of 
 a speedy release from his diseased and wasted 
 body, and that his immortal spirit would soon 
 depart from this scene of sin, and suffering, 
 and sorrow, to be for ever with the Lord. — 
 And I, although far from being well at the 
 time, certainly did not entertain any apprehen- 
 sion of being laid by. But, in the wise provi- 
 dence of God, it has been so ordered that the 
 dying man still lingers on, hanging by a slender 
 thread, whilst I have been confined to the house 
 ever since I saw him on Friday morning. I can- 
 not think of asking his afflicted and much-occu- 
 pied wife to take the trouble of writing to me, and 
 
116 FOURTH LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 verbal messages furnish me with no particulars 
 about her husband. I learn only in a general 
 way that he is very ill, and at the same time very 
 composed. 
 
 Should I afterwards hear any thing interesting 
 respecting either his life or his death, I shall not 
 fail to apprise you. In the meantime, this letter 
 has swelled out to an immoderate length. It is 
 concluded and dated on Christmas-day, but in 
 reality it has been written at intervals during the 
 past week. It has been the pleasant occupation 
 of my leisure hours from day to day. Let me 
 hear it reaches you in safety, as also whether you 
 received its predecessor. 
 
 * ^ * * * * 
 
 Wishing you many returns of the season, with 
 much of the presence and blessing of Him who 
 at this season came in the name of the Lord to 
 save us, 
 
 T remain, 
 Your very affectionate friend 
 
 and brother in Christ Jesus, 
 
 D. P. 
 
LETTER V. 
 
 To the Rev. John Stevenson. 
 
 Torquay, January 13, 1844. 
 
 My very Dear Friend, 
 
 Since Christmas-day, the date of my last long 
 letter, a variety of circumstances has hindered 
 me from continuing the narrative of Mr. Howell's 
 dying experience ; but from my short notes to 
 your wife, and also to your curate at different 
 times, you have already learned that he is both 
 dead and buried. 
 
 " Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord," 
 and this is his blessedness. The spirit has return- 
 ed to God who gave it. It has gone to Christ 
 who redeemed it, and now mingles with the glo- 
 rious company of " the spirits of the just made 
 perfect." Now he knows in reality that to be 
 present with his Lord and Saviour is heaven. On 
 earth he saw, through the measure of light tltat 
 was imparted to him, that in the incarnate God 
 all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are 
 
118 FOURTH LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 hid ; but he had little time to search into these 
 treasures. What surprising discoveries he would 
 make in entering upon the world of spirits ! and 
 how must he now, with ineffable wonder and de- 
 light, contemplate his narrow escape from perdi- 
 tion, and his safe entrance into that abode where 
 Satan cannot follow him, and where he shall 
 never feel the power of sin ! It is indeed a bless- 
 edness beyond our utmost conception to be for 
 ever separated from sin, and to be for ever with 
 the Lord. And of this celestial blessedness I 
 feel assured that our dear brother Howell is now 
 a partaker. 
 
 Asa man he is dead : it is only his spirit that 
 lives and is blessed. But the mortal body which 
 has been committed to the grave in corruption 
 and dishonour, to mingle with its kindred dust, 
 shall also, ere long, participate in the blessedness. 
 It shall be raised in honour, in incorruption, and 
 in immortality : it only waits the " voice of the 
 archangel and the trump of God," which are to 
 announce the descent of the Lord himself from 
 heaven with a shout, when, " the dead in Christ 
 shall rise first, and when all the living saints on 
 earth shall be changed. I often marvel that our 
 thoughts are so seldom and so feebly directed to 
 the subject of the resurrection. Oh ! what a day 
 of joy, of glory, of astonishment, that will be, 
 when the whole church of the first-born, gathered 
 into one, out of all tribes and kindreds of man- 
 kind, and from all climes and countries on the 
 face of this globe, — adorned with their spiritual 
 
BLESSEDESS OF DYING IN CHRIST. 119 
 
 bodies, fashioned like unto the glorified body of 
 their Lord, — shall live and reign with him, and 
 enjoy the completeness of the great redemption ! 
 
 But I must leave you to pursue this train of 
 animating thoughts at your own leisure. You 
 desire to hear something more of Howell, and 
 *' trust that such a testimony may be given in the 
 last moments as may redound to the glory of 
 God." I think it is in my power to gratify your 
 desire, and to put fresh songs of praise into your 
 lips for the abundance of grace vouchsafed to the 
 dying man. 
 
 You will recollect that when I left him on the 
 morning of the 22d of December, after a very 
 affecting interview, we took a kind of formal fare- 
 well. Each of us had the impression that we should 
 not meet again, and so it has happened, although 
 in a way very opposite toour calculations. I con- 
 sidered Howell was on the very brink of the eter- 
 nal world, and from his conversation that day he 
 evidently thought so himself; whereas the flick- 
 ering lamp of life did not expire till the 4th of 
 January. But it never entered into my thoughts 
 that the slight indisposition under which I was 
 then labouring might probably increase. Yet 
 this was what Providence had appointed. I re- 
 turned home from this visit, and was not able 
 again to leave the house till the day he died. Dr. 
 Madden had been at Beulah early that morning 
 along with Dr. Battersby. He gave me permis- 
 sion to go out, and said if I wished to see my 
 friend once more I must go immediately. I was 
 
120 FIFTH LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 too late. I saw only a breathless corpse ; but 
 still it was beautiful, — so beautiful that it might 
 have served any sculptor as a model for a repre- 
 sentation of mental peace and corporeal tranquil- 
 lity. 
 
 After the few first days of my confinement, I 
 could not be satisfied with verbal messages. I 
 ventured to intrude on Mrs. Howell with little 
 notes of inquiry and of comfort, and in her replies 
 the uniform assurance was given me that her hus- 
 band enjoyed " perfect peace." Whatever were 
 the changes and fluctuations in the symptoms of 
 his disease, or in his sensations of bodily comfort 
 or discomfort, his spiritual experience at this so- 
 lemn crisis underwent so little variation, that the 
 name of Howell has, in my mind, become asso- 
 ciated with these sweet words — " perfect peace." 
 The association is so pleasing and so warranta- 
 ble, that should your proposal of giving his reli- 
 gious experience to the public be carried out, I 
 cannot think of any title so appropriate as that 
 of Perfect Peace, exemplified in the dying days 
 of John Warren Howell. 
 
 Mrs. Howell has favoured me with some re- 
 miniscences of his last days. She says : — 
 
 " It was his frequent request that I should pray 
 with him, and I often made the effort ; but, be- 
 ing ill, and unused to oral prayer, I found much 
 difficulty. He encouraged me with great tender- 
 ness, and expressed an almost celestial satisfac- 
 tion when he found that I had prayed by his side 
 while he slept. His daily request was that I 
 
MR. HOWELL S PERFECT PEACE. 121 
 
 should make earnest petitions for the preserva- 
 tion of his intellect, thut he might depart with 
 the voice of prayer in his ear. 
 
 " A new symptom appearing, he said, — 
 
 *' 'Ah ! my love, these are so many steps to- 
 wards the last hourn.' 
 
 " I replied, ' You do not fear 1 ' 
 
 " ' No,' he answered ; ' blessed be God, all 
 dread is taken away : I rely wholly on the merits 
 of my Saviour.' 
 
 " ' Can you say mi/ Saviour ? ' 
 
 " ' Yes ; jni/ Saviour.' 
 
 " Every new pain he called a gracious token 
 sent to warn him that death, and not restoration, 
 was God's intention towards him. Sometimes, 
 indeed, our wishes would get the better of our 
 judgment, and we would lay too much stress on 
 any little amendment. 'Notwithstanding my 
 present uneasiness,' he would say, ' I am certain- 
 ly better ; many of the most urgent symptoms are 
 giving way.' Alas ! he did not discern God's 
 gracious mercy in thus gently preparing him for 
 the last hour, but took it for an earnest that his 
 life was to be prolonged. 
 
 " When I congratulated him on the opening 
 of the new year, he said, ' It will be a happy 
 new year if begun in glory.' On the evening of 
 that day he asked me to come and read the 
 Bible, and talk with him. I read the first two 
 chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews. He 
 called them ' noble chapters,' and said they were 
 a complete refutation of the Unitarian doctrine. 
 11 
 
122 FIFTH LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 I asked him that night if he felt himself accept- 
 ed 1 He said, ' I am afraid to speak so decided- 
 ly. I have no doubts, no fears ; and, perhaps, 
 my natural temperament interferes to modify 
 both my feehngs and expressions. You know, 
 love, that I am reflective, not demonstrative. 1 
 am afraid Mr. Pitcairn is not satisfied with me 
 on that point, but you must explain to him my 
 peculiar character." 
 
 And this remark of the dying man affords me 
 a fitting opportunity to say how pleased I felt 
 with his modest diffidence all along. When the 
 truth of the Gospel scheme first broke in upon 
 his mind, and he was made to know experi- 
 mentally that Christ crucified is the power of 
 God, and the wisdom of God unto salvation, joy 
 was the ruling emotion of his heart. Then it 
 was he regretted his inabihty to sing: and had 
 he not felt and expressed this joy, there would 
 have been no proof either to himself or to others, 
 of his having believed the glad tidings of salva- 
 tion. But his joy, even when at its height, was 
 still of a most subdued description. In this his 
 natural temperament was manifested, and very 
 soon the calmer emotion of peace entirely sup- 
 planted joi/. 
 
 From the moment that he began to reflect on 
 his past manner of life, and to watch the state of 
 his heart, he ceased to be joyful. This loss of 
 joy was the less to be regretted, so long as he 
 kept fi-ee from spiritual distress ; and there was 
 the greatest cause for satisfaction, when his 
 
LOVE FOR THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 
 
 123 
 
 abiding peace was not marred by any tendency 
 to despond. I did urge upon liim to resist the 
 intrusion of doubts, and to rest on the truth of 
 God's word with a steadfast faitli ; but on the 
 subject of his personal assurance I never remem- 
 ber to have questioned him. Nor did I think it 
 at all necessary, inasmuch as he was so sweetly 
 enjoying and exemplifying the holy fruits of 
 faith. 
 
 Mrs. Howell says, " The last Scriptural sub- 
 ject on which we conversed was that of the 
 Roman centurion. He had forgotten the exact 
 words of the narrative, and he asked me how 
 the centurion's refusal to permit the Saviour to 
 come into his house could be accounted for. 
 While I was speaking of this true believer's 
 faith and humility, Dr. Tetley came in, and my 
 dear husband was much pleased and satisfied 
 that the doctor should give the same explanation 
 as I had done. I afterwards read to him St. 
 Matthew's account of that instructive and inter- 
 esting narrative." (See chap. viii. 5-13). 
 
 His love for the Holy Scriptures became great : 
 their sublime truths absorbed his attention, to 
 the exclusion of chemistry and botany, which 
 were very favourite subjects of experiment and 
 investigation. But his mind was too active ever 
 to be without a subject. A small Bible latterly 
 was his constant companion on the bed. He could 
 read very little at a time ; a very few verses, how- 
 ever, supplied materials for deep and long-conti- 
 nued reflection. I remember his once saying to 
 
124 FIFTH LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 me that he wished to reserve all his strength for 
 the pure Word of God. The only other book 
 he liked to have beside him was " The Anxious 
 Inquirer," where he found much precious truth 
 in a small space, and much that was particular- 
 ly suited to his own circumstances. But were 
 his life spared, he said, he would give himself 
 up to the study of the Bible ; and as it was only 
 small portions of it he could at present read, he 
 asked me to recommend what might be most 
 profitable to him. 
 
 Here it is proper to mention that, on the 
 second Sunday after I began to visit him, a 
 hymn had been sung in Trinity Church, which 
 I thought calculated to speak comfort to his 
 heart ; so 1 put the hymn-book into my pocket, 
 and went to see him after service. You have a 
 copy of the same collection. The hymn I read 
 is the 175th, beginning, — 
 
 *' My God, my Father, blissful name ! 
 
 Oh, may I call thee mine ! 
 May I, with sweet assurance, claim 
 
 A portion so divine !" 
 
 He was delighted with these sentiments, and 
 this hymn continued to be one of three favourites 
 which his wife was often requested to read, and 
 occasionally to sing, in his hearing. Another is 
 the 248th :— 
 
 " Stricken, smitten, and afflicted, 
 
 See him dying: on the tree ! 
 'Tis the Christ by man rejected ; 
 
 Yes, my soul, 'tis he, 'tis he !" 
 
 i 
 
COMMUNINGS WITH IIIS WIFE. 125 
 
 And the last that he hstened to was the 
 140th :— 
 
 " Jesus, thv blood and righteousness 
 My beauty are, my glorious dress ; 
 Midst flaming worlds, in these array'd, 
 With joy shall I lift uji my head." 
 
 These hymns having been chosen in prefer- 
 ence to many others, ii'we a pleat^ing- indication 
 of the current of Mr. Howell's thoughts, and of 
 the frame of his own mind. Christ, his blood 
 and righteousness, was all his dependence, all 
 his hope, all his salvation; and in recognising 
 God's fatiierly care and love, he no doubt had 
 respect to his wife and children, as well as to 
 himself. His affections were very tender, — his 
 sensitiveness was extreme, and, therefore, the 
 bare idea of separation from the beloved wife of 
 his bosom, who had never heard an angry word 
 from his lips, nor seen a frown on his face, and 
 from their three helpless babes, must have cost 
 him many a pang. But these overwhelming 
 sorrows he obviously kept as secret as he could : 
 he did not wish to distress others with them. 
 To me he rarely broached the subject, and never 
 in presence of Mrs. Howell. To herself, she 
 tells me, he spoke unreservedly, and with as- 
 tonishing self possession. He talked over freely 
 with her the state of his worldly affairs, which 
 are the very reverse of being prosperous; and he 
 gave iier a number of directions how she ought 
 to act, so as not to involve herself in unnecessary 
 11* 
 
126 FIFTH LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 troubles. He spoke also of his funeral, and or- 
 dered it to be conducted in the plainest and least 
 expensive manner. He expressed his confidence 
 that God would provide for the widow and the 
 fatherless. Amidst these most painful and na- 
 turaliv aoitatino- communino;s with her whom he 
 was about to leave a "widow and desolate," he 
 maintained the utmost composure. His faith 
 upheld him. Even whilst he was undergoing 
 these trials, Mrs. Howell could write to me, that 
 her husband continued in " perfect peace." 
 The Christian understands how this should be ; 
 the man of the world must wonder. 
 
 On Wednesday the 3d instant, he sunk into 
 stupor : he could scarcely articulate, and was al- 
 most insensible. His wife tried to converse with 
 him, but he could not attend to her; she offered 
 to read the Bible, but he was incapable of listen- 
 intr : he complained that he had not been able to 
 think of God. In the course of the evening-, Dr. 
 Battersby and Dr. Madden were both with liim, 
 and saw that he could not long survive. Dr. 
 Madden asked him how all was within. Howell 
 did not understand him at first ; he seemed to 
 imagine that the question was professional, and 
 referred to the state of his body ; but when Mad- 
 den explained that he was inquiring about the 
 state of his mind, he replied in a whisper so faint 
 as only to be heard by the application of the ear 
 to his face, " Oh ! there has been a wonderful 
 change ! — wonderful — wonderful !" and as if lost 
 in the contemplation of what he was experiencing, 
 
UPHELD BY FAITH IN CHRIST. 127 
 
 and of what he was expecting of God's love to 
 him, lie went on repeating the word " wonderful" 
 for ahout the space of a minute. He attempted 
 to say something more. Dr. Madden thinks he 
 caught the word "j^eace;" but he could not be 
 sure, as the voice was so feeble. lie never spoke 
 again ! Thus, with his latest breath, he testified, 
 in the most solemn and emphatic manner, to the 
 wonderful work which the power of divine grace 
 had wrought upon him. I know of no dying 
 •words that could have been more appropriate or 
 more impressive. 
 
 He passed the night in great tranquillity : he 
 slept almost without interruption. Early on 
 Thursday morning warm cloths were applied to 
 his limbs; but it would appear he was himself 
 conscious that the coldness of death was creep- 
 ing over him. Of his own accord he turned 
 round from the side on which he had been lying, 
 and, placing himself flat on his back, he first 
 stretched out his limbs, he then closed his own 
 eyes, and compressed his mouth, and folded his 
 left hand across his breast. The right hand he 
 placed just outside the bedclothes, as if for a part- 
 ing shake with those around him; and, in this 
 attitude, the last breath gently escaped from the 
 chest at ten o'clock, without one feature of the 
 face being distorted, or one muscle of his body 
 convulsed. 
 
 Dr. Battersby had kindly been in attendance 
 from an early hour, and remained until Dr. Tct- 
 ley's arrival, about half-past nine o'clock. His 
 
128 FIFTH LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 presence at this solemn moment was an unspeak- 
 able comfort to Mrs. Howell, and painfully gra- 
 tifying to himself. He once more prayed with 
 and for his dying friend, and Mrs. Howell writes, 
 *' Notwithstanding the dimness of his failing 
 senses, I think sufficient consciousness appeared 
 to render it probable that he recognised the words 
 of hfe poured out at his bedside by Dr. Tetley, 
 whom he loved as a brother ;" and she adds, " I 
 feel assured that all was peace, and hope, and 
 joy with him. It was seen in the expression of 
 his closing eyes, and in that calm and holy ' fall- 
 ing asleep,' which those who witnessed it never 
 can forget. Here is my consolation, nay my re- 
 joicing. I have given him back to the Lord, 
 blessing and praising His holy name, that he 
 gave me such an example, companion, and friend, 
 though only for so short a time." 
 
 And now, my dear friend and brother, after 
 perusing this simple and faithful record of the 
 closing scene, surely you will acknowledge that 
 dear Howell in his last moments, did give forth a 
 testimony which hath redounded, and will yet 
 redound, to the glory of God. 
 
 The funeral did not take place till the 11th. 
 The delay, in some measure, arose from an ex- 
 pectation that Mr. Empson of Bath might come 
 to Torquay, and assist in the last sad service; 
 and, as he has acted the part of an attached and 
 most devoted friend to Howell for a long period, 
 Mrs. Howell naturally desired his presence ; but 
 
WONDERFUL COMPOSURE IN DEATH, 129 
 
 I observed from the first that she liad set her heart 
 on that particular day, because it was the seventh 
 anniversary of her first meeting with him, to 
 whom she was mjirried about two years after- 
 wards, and whose premature loss she now so 
 justly and deeply mourns. 
 
 He died in a place where he was a stranger, 
 and he was attended to the grave by persons 
 whose acquaintance had been made only within 
 the last few weeks or months. But still they 
 were his true friends, — they were loving brothers 
 in the Lord, — and this must have been a sweet 
 solace to the poor widow amidst the desolateness 
 of her situation and her circumstances. 
 
 The whole of this interesting case is now be- 
 fore you. I shall be anxious to hear your candid 
 opinion of it. Death-bed repentances, in gene- 
 ral, are not very satisfactory. We are naturally 
 suspicious of them : and all the more so, as we 
 see many instances of people making great pro- 
 fessions of amendment in the time of sickness, 
 who, with returning health, return to the ways of 
 folly and of sin. But, with regard to Howell, 
 there was such earnestness and ingenuousness 
 about him, that a suspicion ot his sincerity never 
 once crossed my mind. I have since heard that 
 his general character was pre-eminently distin- 
 guished by honesty and truthfulness. For my- 
 self, I am constrained to say, that during upwards 
 of thirty years of Christian observation and expe- 
 
130 FIFTH LETTER TO REV. J. STEVENSON. 
 
 rience, I have never met with clearer and more 
 decisive evidences of a work of God's Spirit on 
 any of the sons of men. And Dr. Tetley tells me 
 he has been present at many deaths, peaceful and 
 happy deaths, but any thing resembling the dig- 
 nified composure with which Howell died he 
 never before had witnessed. 
 
 I consider it quite a privilege to have made his 
 acquaintance, and to have enjoyed his society, 
 even in his dying hours. During one month I 
 saw him almost daily. Our lengthened inter- 
 views, our interesting conversations, are now past 
 and gone ; but they have left a sweet fragrance 
 behind them, — they can never be forgotten while 
 my memory retains its power. And I trust the 
 re(!ollection of his anxious search after truth, — 
 his diligent and persevering use of means, — his 
 humble and teachable spirit, notwithstanding his 
 great literary and scientific attainments, — and his 
 astonishing progress heavenwards, after he re- 
 ceived grace to believe in Christ to the saving of 
 his soul, — may ever stimulate myself to " press 
 towards the mark for the prize of the high calling 
 of God in Christ Jesus," (Philip, iii. 14;) and 
 prompt me to " give thanks unto the Father, 
 who hath made us meet to be partakers of the in- 
 heritance of the saints in light; and who hath de- 
 livered us from the power of darkness, and who 
 hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear 
 son," (Col. i. 12, 13.) 
 
 The salvation of sinners is God's own work. 
 May we not say, it is his greatest work 1 It is 
 
THANKS FOR GRACE RECEIVED. 131 
 
 that in which he will be chiefly glorified through- 
 out the endless ages of eternity. Let us give him 
 glory now, for what he has graciously done in 
 plucking dear Howell " as a brand from the 
 burning." And let us ever glorify him for the 
 measure of grace he has bestowed upon our- 
 selves ! It is altogether of his own free and sav- 
 ing grace that our cold hearts have been warmed 
 with the love of God, and with love to each other, 
 and with love to the souls of our perishinij fellow- 
 creatures. May God grant a continuance and an 
 increase of grace, that our faith in Christ Jesus 
 may be strengthened, and that our love may 
 abound more and more ! 
 
 Believe me to "remain. 
 
 Your affectionate friend and brother 
 in the bonds of the Gospel, 
 
 D.P. 
 
SUPPLEMENTARY TESTIMONIES. 
 
 The beloved friend to whom the foregoing- let- 
 lers were addressed had an unhesitating reliance 
 on the accuracy of all my statements respecting 
 Mr. Howell. It would be unreasonable, how- 
 ever, to expect that other persons to whom I am 
 unknown should rest with the same degree of 
 confidence on my solitary testimony ; and yet, it 
 is highly desirable to inspire universal confidence : 
 for, if any reader should question the truth of the 
 narrative which is presented to him in these let- 
 ters, he is placed in a most unfavourable position 
 for receiving; that edification which is desiorned 
 and desired by the publication of this little volume. 
 I feel, therefore, a peculiar satisfaction in being 
 able to bring forward two very competent witness- 
 es, whose declarations cannot fail to remove doubts 
 and suspicions where they may exist, and to es- 
 tablish every one in the conviction that Mr. How- 
 ell was the subject of a great and decided work 
 
134 SUPPLEMENTARY TESTIMONIES. 
 
 of the Holy Spirit before he died ; and that the 
 " Perfect peace," which he enjoyed and exempH- 
 fied in his dying days, was the legitimate result of 
 those views of Scripture truths, and of that stead- 
 fast faith in the Saviour of sinners, to which 
 through grace he had attained. 
 
 Mrs. Howell is the most important witness. 
 She was quite ignorant of my correspondence 
 with Mr. Stevenson about her husband, until she 
 was a widow. But, so soon as she did know of 
 it, her desire to see the letters was not more strong 
 than it was natural. They were accordingly 
 written for : and after she had perused them she 
 sent me the following note : — 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 I return your letters, — those precious me- 
 morials of my beloved husband ! 
 
 Surely it was a gracious thing that the Lord 
 should have put it into your mind to preserve 
 these memoranda. They are balm to me, and I 
 trust may be conducive to the spiritual instruc- 
 tion and comfort of others. 
 
 I recognize the subjects of these conversations 
 which took place, even when I was absent, — al- 
 most to the very words ; for it was my dear hus- 
 band's custom to recapitulate these conversations 
 in the evening, as I sat by his bedside ; and often 
 with a minuteness, energy, and animation, that 
 made me weep for my own inability to follow 
 him. 
 
 I must take the liberty of adding, that the sim- 
 
NOTE FROM MRS. HOWELL. 135 
 
 plicity and truthfulness of your narrative are pe- 
 culiarly satisfactory to me, as being in harmony 
 with the character, and with the love of truth, 
 which distinguished, in so remarkable a manner, 
 the dear saint whom it concerns. 
 
 Continue to remember me in your prayers ; and 
 believe me, 
 
 With deep feelings of gratitude, 
 Yours, 
 
 Augusta Howell. 
 
 Beulah, Saturday Evening, Jan. 26, 1844. 
 
 The other witness is the physician who was in 
 regular attendance on Mr. Howell. 
 
 With Dr. Tetley I am in habits of Christian 
 intimacy, and it was through him that my ac- 
 quaintance with Howell first commenced. I often 
 longed to meet with him, that we might talk to- 
 gether, and compare notes as to the progress of 
 the good work that was going on in the heart of 
 the dying man. But the Doctor was particular- 
 ly busy about that time, and often called into the 
 country ; besides, his visits to Howell were al- 
 ways in the morning ; mine were in the after- 
 noon. And thus, from one cause and another, I 
 had seen Dr. Tedey only once, and on that occa- 
 sion only for a few minutes, fi-om the evening 
 when he called, and requested me to visit his pa- 
 tient, until after Howell's death. His testimony, 
 then, may be received as distinct from mine, and 
 independent of it. 
 
 Even now the Doctor has not read one of my 
 
130 SUPPLEMENTARY TESTIMONIES. 
 
 letters to Mr. Stevenson ; but, at ray request, he 
 has committed to paper his own observations and 
 impressions in regard to Mr. Howell's state of 
 mind. And I do think every impartial reader 
 must admit, that what the Doctor states briefly, 
 and in the general, corresponds exactly with what 
 I have narrated at greater length and with more 
 of detail. 
 
 To the Rev. David Pitcairn. 
 
 Torre, Jan. 26, 1844. 
 
 My dear Friend, 
 
 In attempting to give you an outline of 
 my intercourse with Mr. Howell, I feel the want 
 of memoranda, which, had they been made at the 
 time, would have afforded many interesting indi- 
 cations of his spiritual progress. I hope, how- 
 ever, I may be enabled to give a faithful transcript 
 of the impression left on my mind, desiring to 
 write in prayerful dependence on His help, who 
 can, even by the feeblest instrumentality, accom- 
 phsh " the good pleasure of His will." 
 
 Mr. Howell consulted me soon after his arrival 
 in Torquay, in the early part of last year; and 
 from that time till the time of his death we had 
 free and frequent communication with each other. 
 He evidently possessed talents and acquirements 
 of a superior order; and I do not remember to 
 have spent an hour with him without advantage. 
 His information on all subjects was profound and 
 
LETTER FROM DR. TETLEY. 137 
 
 accurate, and his facility of communicating it ex- 
 traordinary. 
 
 The subject of rehgion was soon introduced, 
 and 1 was delighted to find that he took it up 
 with much interest. He appeared, however, to 
 have studied this all-important and first business 
 of life much in the same way as he had studied 
 the sciences, bringing religion to reason ; and 
 consequently his mind was beset with difliculties, 
 proving that the world by wisdom knows not God. 
 Still there was about him a straightforward since- 
 rity and seriousness which gave promise of the 
 approach of a better state. 
 
 After a few weeks he left Torquay, improved 
 in health, and fully expecting to renew his pro- 
 fessional occupations. I felt some degree of dis- 
 appointment, as we had never got beyond a 
 certain point ; and he appeared to guard so cau- 
 tiously against every attempt to draw the afi'ec- 
 tions of the heart, as well as the powers of the 
 understanding, into exercise, in contemplating 
 *' the Gospel of the glory of the blessed God." 
 • In a short time he returned to Torre. His 
 health was much broken, and every hope of re- 
 suming the practice of his profession altogether 
 abandoned. He had a correct estimate of his 
 state and prospects, and sometimes spoke of 
 death as not far distant. There was now a 
 humble spirit, and a growing desire to appre- 
 hend the truth as it is in Jesus. He felt that if 
 there was any thing valuable in religion, it was 
 samething beyond what he had as yet attained : 
 12* 
 
138 SUPPLEMENTARY TESTIMONIES. 
 
 and, in the spirit of one conscious of ig-norance 
 and insufficiency, he now sought Jirst the king- 
 dom of God and his righteousness, exhibiting 
 the disposition of a httle child, without which 
 there is no entrance into the kingdom of Heaven. 
 He continued to study rehgion as he had studied 
 the various sciences, in which he had made such 
 remarkable proficiency ; but every effort of the 
 understanding, and every obstacle to the recep- 
 tion of its sacred truths, were now lost in the all- 
 absorbing desire to know what he must do to be 
 saved. He began to feel the importance of 
 prayer, and frequently asked me to join him in 
 seeking mercy. At length his earnest longing 
 for rest in Christ could only be described in the 
 words of our Saviour's command, " Agonise to 
 enter into the strait gate." And his deepen- 
 ing humility and growing earnestness gave no 
 uncertain indication that the darkness would 
 soon pass away, and the Son of Righteousness 
 arise with healing in his wings. 
 
 At this time he had frequent interviews with 
 Mr. Blackmore, and often mentioned most grate- 
 fully his deep obligation to him for the pains he 
 took in meeting his difficulties, and instructing 
 his ignorance. Soon afterwards he removed to 
 Beulah House, and his loss of strength became 
 daily more apparent. I was sitting by his bed- 
 side one evening, endeavouring to set before him 
 the suitableness and sufficiency of the Gospel of 
 Christ ; and with the view of encouraging him 
 to cast his burden altogether on the Lord, I 
 
LETTER FROM DR. TETLEY. 139 
 
 mentioned your experience in a time of severe 
 illness ; when, unable even to retain a few words 
 of Scripture in the mind for a moment, you were 
 kept in perfect peace, because you feJt you were 
 on " the Rock.'''' On hearing this, he clasped 
 his emaciated hands, and, lifting up his eyes to 
 heaven, exclaimed, " God grant that this may be 
 my lot !" I went from his room to yours, and 
 asked your prayerful interest and assistance. 
 Like Peter going to Cornelius, you did well that 
 you went without delay ; for he was prepared to 
 hear all things that were commanded you of 
 God. The power of the Holy Spirit appeared 
 to attend your message from your first interview. 
 Peace and joy in believing took possession of his 
 soul, and with only occasional interruptions, con- 
 tinued and mcreased to the last. 
 
 I remember he told me that Mrs. Howell had 
 sent for you one evening in consequence of his 
 being for a time in a state of almost " black des- 
 pair ;" as if the enemy here determined to do his 
 worst, knowing that his time was short. I saw 
 him early the following morning. The tempta- 
 tion had passed away, and tranquillity was fully 
 restored. 
 
 His disease now made rapid progress, and he 
 was conscious that the closing scene could not 
 be far distant, although with a characteristic 
 fluctuation of feeling he occasionally spoke of 
 rallying again. But the peace of God rose supe- 
 rior to every other feeling of nature ; and, while 
 
140 SUPPLEMENTARY TESTIMONIES. 
 
 he could only refer to himself with distrust and 
 dissatisfaction, he spoke of the Saviour with evi- 
 dent delight, and was ever ready to hear of his 
 character and work. Thus did he " look to 
 Him and was lightened, and his face was not 
 ashamed." 
 
 At length the appointed hour of departure ar- 
 rived, and it was a scene never to be forgotten. 
 He knew that he was dying, and had deliberate- 
 ly laid himself on his back, and carefully adjust- 
 ed the bed-clothes. Every feature spoke compo- 
 sure, and every limb repose. Thus did this 
 child of God fall asleep, resting securely on the 
 bosom of everlasting Love, without a struggle, a 
 sigh,, or a groan. We knelt around his bed, 
 and committed his passing spirit to " the Shep- 
 herd of Israel," who had already given such 
 cheering evidence of his saving power and gra- 
 cious presence. Nothing I ever witnessed has 
 made me more sensible of the completeness of 
 the salvation of Christ. The suffering and worn- 
 out body was now at rest; and the calm, con- 
 templative countenance and attitude of repose 
 reminded rae of Dr. Watts' beautiful lines : — 
 
 *' By strict experience I have known 
 
 Thy sovereign power to save ; 
 At thy command I venture down 
 
 Securely to the grave.' 
 
 ** Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory, 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord." Nothing could 
 
LETTER FROM DR. TETLE^. 141 
 
 be plainer than that in this case death was a con- 
 quered enemy. But who conquered him ? Cer- 
 tainly not that wreck of his iormer self who lay 
 before us. Mind and memory had fled ; and 
 had there been no " stronger man" there, the 
 departino: spirit would have been an easy prey to 
 the adversary, who had already ^iven an earnest 
 of what he would do, if permitted to take his 
 own unrestrained course. But He was there of 
 whom it is written, " Forasmuch, then, as the 
 children are partakers of flesh and blood. He 
 also, himself, likewise took part of the same ; 
 that through death He might destroy him that 
 had the power of death, that is the devil ; and 
 deliver them who, through fear of death, were all 
 their lifetime subject to bondage." Thus was 
 the enemy of souls defeated with his own wea- 
 pon — death ; and the happy spirit entered into 
 the presence of that friend, who, when on earth, 
 was so wont to say, " It is I ; be not afraid." 
 Ever, my dear friend, 
 
 Yours aff'ectionately, 
 
 James Tetlet. 
 
 P. S. I find I have omitted to mention two 
 circumstances forming important features m Mr. 
 Howell's history. 1 never heard any thing ap- 
 proaching to a murmur, from first to last. And 
 I observed, after his return to Torre, a growing 
 love for the study of the Scriptures. I ought also 
 to have said that he expressed the deepest obhga- 
 
142 SUPPLEMENTARY TESTIMONIES. 
 
 tions to you for the kind interest you had taken 
 in his spiritual welfare, and spoke of a MS. you 
 had lent him, as affording much relief and com- 
 fort to his agitated mind. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 The word of God declares, ** It is appointed 
 unto men once to die, and after this the judg- 
 ment," (Heb. ix. 27.) Sooner or later this is the 
 doom of every man ; and surely it is unwise in 
 any one to neglect preparation for that solemn 
 event, from which he cannot escape, and the 
 nearness or remoteness of which he can neither 
 calculate nor control. 
 
 To a large class of persons, who find their plea- 
 sure exclusively in the business or in the amuse- 
 ments of this world, the subject of death is always 
 unwelcome, and they adopt all expedients to ba- 
 nish it, not only from their conversation, but from 
 their thoughts. This is a common and a fearful 
 specimen of that infatuation and insensibility 
 which sin engenders. To those inconsiderate in- 
 dividuals who thus shrink even from the contem- 
 plation of death, and who, nevertheless, know 
 that some day or other die they must, there is the 
 truest kindness in submitting a question, which 
 
144 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Hannah More has clothed in very forcible lan- 
 guage, "If you cannot face the image, how will 
 you encounter the reality T' We could wish an 
 answer to this question. The image of death 
 may be shunned and avoided ; but death is a re- 
 ality, and it must be met. How 1 and what is to 
 follow? Reader, pause, and consider. 
 
 Mr. Howell had tried every way. For years 
 he lived as entirely engrossed with the concerns 
 of this present world as if he were never to die. 
 He was of a peculiarly reflective habit : he 
 thought much, and his thoughts ranged over a 
 vast variety of objects; but he thought not about 
 death, nor of that eternal world into which death 
 is the door of entrance ; although what he was 
 daily witnessing, as a medical practitioner, was 
 well fitted to force this grave and important sub- 
 ject on his attention. In this respect he was im- 
 wise, notwithstanding his high character for what 
 passes among men under the nanie of wisdom. 
 But the loss of health reminded him of his folly, 
 and the progress of disease warned him of the 
 approach of death. In these circumstances he 
 acted like a. wise man. Finding that he could 
 not face the image of this terrible enemy without 
 having all his fears awakened, he felt it was full 
 time to consider in what way he should be able, 
 without fear, to encounter the reality. He ceased 
 to shut his eyes on the danger of his situation, 
 and now he applied himself with all diligence to 
 seek for the removal of sin which gives to death 
 its condemning sting. He sought relief in the 
 
CONCLUSION. 145 
 
 Gospel of the grace of God ; and in the ftiith of 
 Him " who liatli abohslied death," the terrors of 
 conscious giiik were subdued ; — in tlie faith of 
 Him who is " the resurrection and the Hfe," his 
 liopes of immortahty became bright. TIjus, as 
 his appointed time drew near, he could think of 
 death without dismay, — lie could talk of death 
 with cahii dehght: and at last, in the hour of dis- 
 solution, lie neither shrunk from the contest, nor 
 dreaded the consequences ; but, witli the most as- 
 tonishing moral courage, he arranged the very 
 posture of his own body; and when the spirit fled, 
 the lifeless countenance still retained the expres- 
 sion of that heavenly peace and placidity which 
 death itself had not disturbed. Who can read of 
 his unruffled composure, and of his perfect peace, 
 without the secret prayer, or the expressed desire, 
 *' Let me die the death of the righteous, and let 
 my last end be like his !" 
 
 Ignorant as we are of the plans and purposes 
 of God, it appears to us a dark and unaccount- 
 able dispensation that a man like Mr. Howell 
 should be taken out of the world just at the time 
 when he had become most fitted for usefulness 
 amongst his fellow-creatures, and when he had 
 been prepared and disposed for dedicating all his 
 talents, and all his attainments, to the advance- 
 xment of the glory of God. We have, indeed, 
 many philosophers and men of science ; but we 
 have few Christian philosophers: we have ^ew 
 examples of eminence in human knowledge com- 
 13 
 
146 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 billed with devotedness to the service of God. 
 We have not many men of distinguished ahility 
 and learning, who consider " the knowledge of 
 the glory of God, as it shines in the face of Jesus 
 Christ," as the summit of all knowledge. We 
 have not many, excepting among professed theo- 
 logians, who examine the word of God with that 
 minute and intense application which they give 
 to the works of God, and who study the character 
 of God the Saviour with a deeper and holier in- 
 terest than that wherewith they contemplate the 
 wondrous attributes of the great Creator. 
 
 After his mind had been enlightened in the 
 knowledge of salvation by Jesus Christ our Lord, 
 Mr. Howell himself remarked, that " he felt as 
 if he were only beginning to live." This ^vas a 
 memorable saying ; and its meaning is definite 
 and intelhgible. He felt that his past life had 
 been misspent — he felt, that now he was in pos- 
 session of new principles of action ; and that in 
 prosecuting even the same pursuits as formerly, 
 he would be influenced by new motives. And 
 had he been permitted to resume his elaborate 
 researches into the numerous departments of na- 
 tural science, and to transfuse into all of them 
 the true spirit of Christianity, he might have 
 shone before men as a Christian philosopher with 
 a bright and attracting lustre, and, according to 
 our judgment, been the honoured instrument of 
 leading many up "from nature, and from nature's 
 God," to the still more sublime and precious, and 
 
CONCLUSION. 147 
 
 satisfying knowledge of redemption, and of the 
 great Redeemer. 
 
 But it sometimes happens in the spiritual, as it 
 does in the natural world, that the commencement 
 and the close of earthly existence are almost sim- 
 ultaneous. In the inscrutable arrangements of 
 Providence, it is not unfrequently the case that 
 children are born only to die. Their connexion 
 with this material world has just been recognised, 
 when it is again dissolv ed. They have scarcely 
 breathed the breath of life, and opened their eyes 
 on visible objects, when death terminates their 
 brief sojourn in the land of living men, and hur- 
 ries them into the world of spirits. It need not, 
 therefore, be a matter of surprise, that, among 
 those who are born again — who are born of the 
 Spirit, and become new creatures in Christ Jesus, 
 some should be taken away in the very infancy 
 of their spiritual existence. No doubt it is true 
 that most of those who experience the new birth 
 are spared to pass onwards, from being at first 
 mere babes in Christ, to reach the vigour of 
 youth, or the prime of manhood, or the maturity 
 of old age; and, were it not so, the Church of 
 Christ on earth would become extinct, just as 
 the human race would soon disappear were all 
 children to die in infancy. But it is possible that 
 the number of those who are removed from earth 
 to heaven, in the earlier stages of their new and 
 better being, is far larger than generally sup- 
 posed or allowed. Nothing like encouragement 
 must be held out to postpone the great concerns 
 
148 CONCLUSION. 
 
 of salvation till a time of sickness and danger ; 
 nor dare we flatter any with the assurance of a 
 death-bed repentance. Still it is a blessed truth 
 that tlie mercy of God is rich towards all who call 
 on him with sincerity and earnestness, even at 
 the eleventh hour. And it is pleasing to hope, 
 that, in the exercise of sovereign grace, not a 
 few who have wasted life and health in the neg- 
 lect of the Saviour are, in their dying hours, con- 
 strained to seek, and privileged to find, a refuge 
 from the wrath to come in his meritorious right- 
 eousness and all-atoning blood. 
 
 Let it be admitted, however, that the number 
 is not great, we may affirm with certainty that 
 there are, at least, some who have barely begun 
 to " live by the faith of the Son of God," and to 
 behold with enlightened eyes the wondrous truths 
 which his Gospel unfolds, when death mars our 
 anticipations of delightful intercourse and fel- 
 lowship with them as Christian friends and 
 brethren. But when we are called to mourn for 
 their departure from the church below, we ought 
 to rejoice, on account of their speedy admission 
 to the church above. Let such be our feelings 
 in regard to Mr. Howell. We are not forbidden 
 to mourn over his removal from a world where 
 we think his sanctified talents and activities pro- 
 mised fair to have been a blessing to other pro- 
 fessional and literary men ; but we bow submis- 
 sive to the will and to the wisdom of God, who 
 is never at a loss for instruments to accomplish 
 his own designs, and we may rest assured, that 
 
CONCLUSION. 149 
 
 had the services of Mr. Howell been needed here, 
 tliey would have been secured. God has called 
 liim hence, and for his own sake we ought to 
 rejoice and give thanks. If his Christian pil- 
 grimage was of short duration, it was distinctly 
 marked by divine guidance, and by divine sup- 
 port. If the bud began at length to open which 
 had been slowly forming during the several pre- 
 vious months, its rapid expansion into a flower 
 of the loveliest hues and fragrance explicitly be- 
 spoke its heavenly culture. In his case there 
 was no dubiety. We could not err in estimating 
 the origin and the character of that change 
 which his w^hole inner man underwent. It was 
 none other than the Spirit of the living and the 
 holy God who raised him up from the death of 
 trespasses and sins unto newness of life. No 
 other agency could have effected such deep con- 
 viction of guilt; such comprehensive knowledge 
 of salvation; such humble, holy, and loving re- 
 liance on the Saviour of sinners; such patience, 
 and resignation, and fortitude under bodily dis- 
 tress ; and such mellowed ripeness for "the 
 inheritance of the saints in light." On his ac- 
 count it would be wrong not to rejoice. Even 
 the angels in heaven rejoice ovef every sinner 
 who is brought to repentance, because his deli- 
 verance from sin and from Satan adds a fresh 
 jewel to the Redeemer's crown, and opens up a 
 new and everlasting source of glory to the God 
 of all grace. Surely then, we, who are men 
 upon earth, ought with still greater alacrity and 
 13* 
 
150 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 ardour to swell the anthem of praise to redeem- 
 ing love, and to rejoice over this our brother, 
 who was lost and is found, who was dead and is 
 alive ; and who, though so soon removed from 
 us, after having " passed from death unto life," 
 has only left the imperfections of earth to enter 
 into the joys of heaven. 
 
 Blessed be God ! cases of conversion are not 
 rare things. Under the preaching of the Gospel, 
 they are continual)}^ occurring in our own coun- 
 try and in other lands, among all ranks and 
 conditions of people, — chiefly, however, among 
 the poorer classes,' — comparatively seldom among 
 the rich and the noble. And, beyond the circle 
 of his own immediate friends and acquaintances, 
 no notice would have been taken of the case of 
 Mr. Howell, had there not appeared something 
 unusual both in his ovj^n character, and in the 
 gracious dealings of God with him. 
 
 It must have struck every reader of this little 
 volume that before Mr. Howell arrived at that 
 state of peace, in the enjoyment of which his 
 earthly existence so gloriously terminated, he 
 had previously undergone a diligent, and anx- 
 ious, and even distressful inquiry after rest for 
 his soul. From the beginning of August, when 
 he left Bath, up to the latter end of November, a 
 period of nearly four months, the principal occu- 
 pation of his acute, and thoughtful, and logical 
 mind, was to discover in the religion of Christ 
 that solid foundation of truth on which, as a siu' 
 
CONCLUSION. 151 
 
 fill and immortal creature, he might build a sure 
 and certain hope of pardon and of life everlast- 
 ing. Nothing short of certainty on a point of 
 such momentous importance could satisfy a mind 
 like his. And as he laboured hard, and waited 
 long ere he attained the object of his fervent de- 
 sire, it may prove useful to others to examine 
 the causes in which his mental anxieties origin- 
 ated, and the purposes of God in permitting 
 their lengthened continuance. 
 
 In the first place, then, it may be observed, 
 that from the time the physicians pronounced a 
 hopeless opinion of Mr. Howell's disease, the 
 idea of dying, and of entering into an untried 
 and never-ending state of existence, produced in 
 him great agitation and alarm. 
 
 So long as health permitted the undisturbed 
 ardour of his professional and literary pursuits, 
 he found therein a never-failing source of present 
 satisfaction : so lonoc as he srave no thou<i:lit to 
 the requirements of that holy and immutable law 
 of God against which he was a daily offender, 
 he had no influential apprehension of any im- 
 pending punishment ; and so long as he under- 
 valued and neglected the free grace of God, pro- 
 claimed in the Gospel of his Son, from ignorance 
 of his own guilty and helpless condition, he did 
 not smart under the lashings of an upbraiding 
 conscience. Like multitudes around him, he 
 was conversant only with men, and with the 
 material world. Practically considered, his con- 
 
153 CONCLUSION. 
 
 dition resembled that of the heathen Ephesians, 
 previous to then* reception of Christianity, of 
 whom St. Paul writes, " At that time ye were 
 without Christ, being aliens from the common- 
 wealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants 
 of promise, having no hope, and without God in 
 the world." (Eph. ii. 12.) But this actual and 
 deplorable destitution of spiritual blessings was 
 not felt, and therefore caused no distress. The 
 calmness and serenity of mind which he general- 
 ly enjoyed was not at all of a religious character. 
 His peace and self-satisfaction arose entirely 
 from spiritual indifference ; and from sinful inat- 
 tention to the just claims of God on the affections 
 and services of his rational creatures ; and from 
 utter forgetfulness of the great day of reckoning, 
 which cannot be evaded. Out of this false secu- 
 rity he was roused by the announcement that 
 disease had attacked tlie vital organs of his body. 
 He knew that a death-blow was given to all his 
 fondly cherished schemes and projects for scien- 
 tific discoveries and professional distinction. A 
 sense of dano^er withdrew his thoughts from an 
 exclusive attention to " the things that are seen, 
 and temporal ;" and he could not contemplate 
 " the things that are unseen and eternal," with- 
 out terror and dismay. 
 
 The state of great alarm into which Mr. How- 
 ell was thrown by the near prospect of death was 
 the precursor of a state of pure peace and of great 
 blessedness. It was the method which God, in 
 the exercise of his sovereign grace, was pleased 
 
CONCLUSION. 153 
 
 to employ with this gifted individual, to break the 
 fascinating spell with which the study of anima- 
 ted and inanimated nature had monopolized his 
 intellectual powers ; and to awaken him to a feel- 
 ing of personal concern with that spiritual world 
 of wonders revealed to us in the great salvation 
 which is by Jesus Christ our Lord. But the pe- 
 culiar structure of his mind tended for a time to 
 aggravate his alarm : and this is the more deserv- 
 ing of notice, because many persons of weaker in- 
 tellect, and of inferior moral character, when in- 
 formed of their dying circumstances, betray com- 
 paratively little fear of death ; or, at all events, 
 they succeed in quieting their fears by one expe- 
 dient or another. 
 
 One reason for Mr. Howell's extreme uneasi- 
 ness under deadly disease we shall find in that 
 resolute uprightness, that high conscientiousness, 
 that unswerving love of truth, which were govern- 
 ing principles in all his conduct. In ordinary 
 cases, such high moral qualities act as a quietus 
 to the natural conscience ; and might have done 
 so with him also had not the Holy Spirit made use 
 of them as instruments for the destruction of all 
 false peace. His love of truth had a certain mea- 
 sure of divine illumination to guide it. Thus he 
 did not attempt to deceive himself as to his real 
 situation ; nor did he wish to be deceived by 
 others. He was dying, and he was not prepared 
 to die. This was his honest conviction. Not- 
 withstanding the amiability of his dispositions, and 
 his strict regard to morality, he never sought a 
 
154 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 REFUGE IN SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS. This is a re- 
 markable fact, and goes far to explain the pecu- 
 liar character of his early convictions, and of his 
 subsequent peace and composure. Long before 
 he had any spiritual discernment of the holiness 
 of God's law, and of the exceeding sinfulness of 
 sin, he never attempted to deny or to extenuate 
 his manifold short-comings. He laid no claims 
 to a piety which he did not possess ; he was in 
 nowise tinctured with formalism ; he attached no 
 worth to the outward observance of religious du- 
 ties in which the heart was not engaged ; he 
 knew how far removed he was from moral per- 
 fection. He was well aware that he had neither 
 feared, nor loved, nor obeyed God as he ought to 
 have done ; and, with all these convictions and 
 impressions, his conscientiousness, which had 
 formerly administered peace and comfort to his 
 mind in his intercourse with mankind, became a 
 humbling reprover to him, and a ceaseless tor- 
 menter, when he found that he had to deal with 
 his Maker. 
 
 There was safety amidst this distress to which 
 Mr. Howell was subjected. Had his mind been 
 differently constituted, unless proportionately am- 
 ple supplies of grace had been vouchsafed, he 
 might have been tempted to indulge a delusive 
 satisfaction with the inoffensiveness of his studies 
 and avocations, or with the conscious integrity of 
 his conduct, or with the estimation in which he 
 was held by his friends and associates. In this 
 snare multitudes are caught who gladly suffer 
 
CONCLUSION. 155 
 
 themselves to be deluded, and who thus descend 
 to the grave with a lie in tlieir rig^ht hand. Most 
 men are prone to overvahie their own paltry and 
 imperfect performances, and to overlook the strict 
 demands of the divine law. But it was otherwise 
 with Mr. Howell. He saw nothing in himself re- 
 sembling that holiness which God requires of all 
 who would approach unto him, neither could he 
 rest contented with those vague expectations of 
 divine mercy and forbearance, which quiet the 
 fears of many dying sinners. He did think of 
 God ; but he thought candidly of his justice as 
 well as of his mercy ; of his faithfulness as well 
 as of his forbearance : and such thoughts trou- 
 bled him, because he felt that he could not stand 
 the scrutiny of a just and faithful God. He was 
 also necessitated to think of death, judgment, and 
 eternity ; and in the consideration of these sub- 
 jects he was overwhelmed. Hence it is obvious 
 that the honesty and candour which he brought 
 to the examination of his own state and prospects 
 operated very powerfully in causing and increas- 
 ing his mental distress. But the anguish and 
 alarm under which he suffered were amply com- 
 pensated by his freedom from a self-righteous spi- 
 rit, which, in general, is the greatest obstacle to 
 the reception of a gratuitous salvation ; and by 
 his possession of that humility and self-abase- 
 ment, which dispose a man to look for rehef out 
 of himself. 
 
 Some persons may imagine that Mr. Howell's 
 
156 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 high intellectual faculties might have raised him 
 out of the uneasiness and fears, to which the de- 
 licacy of his moral sense subjected him. This, 
 however, is quite a mistake. On the contr.iry, 
 the peculiar character of his mind explains the 
 reason why he could not shake off his agitatino- 
 apprehensions. We have seen that he was dis- 
 tinguished by an excessive inquisitiveness, by 
 profound reflection, by unwavering truthfulness, 
 by energetic perseverance, and by great logical 
 acumen. These mental properties, in their united 
 activity, had often secured his success in the in- 
 vestigation of scientific subjects. But, so far 
 from facilitating his attainment of that good hope 
 for another world, which, as a dying man, was 
 indispensable to his peace, they were the very 
 cause of a continual succ.ession of difficulties and 
 hinderances; for, the more he inquired into the 
 moral character of God, and the deeper he re- 
 flected on the principles of rectitude, which must 
 regulate his moral government of his creatures, 
 the distance between God and himself seemed 
 to increase. The more he pondered over his 
 own diseased and dying condition, proofs of his 
 sinfulness multiplied upon him; and, the more he 
 impartially considered the justice of God's threat- 
 ened punishment of sin, the difficulty of being 
 saved appeared the greater. The more he tried 
 to grasp the immensity of an eternal existence, 
 and the more intensely he felt the paramount im- 
 portance of personal salvation, the insignificance 
 
CONCLUSION. 157 
 
 and insufficiency of all human means of deliver- 
 ance became painfully manifest to liim. 
 
 But his attention had been directed, even be- 
 fore his illness, to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, — that only true foundation of a sinner's 
 hope towards God, — the only fountain that sends 
 forth a pure and endurinjr blessing to the dis- 
 tressed. And it is true that, after his arrival at 
 Torre, his mind was often soothed when hearing 
 of the love of God to his guilty creatures, in send- 
 ing his well-beloved Son as their Saviour. Yes; 
 it did soothe him to hear of an atonement for hu- 
 man transgressions, whereby the justice of God is 
 satisfied ; and of a p»-rfect righteousness wrought 
 out in their behalf, wherein even the chief of 
 sinners may find acceptance with God. These 
 wondrous truths excited his interest and his grati- 
 tude; but still they failed to yield him the satis- 
 faction he required, because, however vigorously 
 he applied his understanding to their compre- 
 hension, they produced no moral influence upon 
 his affections. His heart, as he afterwards con- 
 fessed, remained untouched. His natural incre- 
 dulity and demand for proof was a barrier in the 
 way of his realising the love of G(k1 so marvel- 
 lously exhibited. He did not feel himself to be 
 the object of this love. He could not appropri- 
 ate the atoning sacrifice and meritorious right- 
 eousness of Christ as the ground of his own jus- 
 tification. He qould not believe in Christ as a 
 Saviour to himself. Thus, at that initiatory pe- 
 riod of his spiritual history, because of his ina- 
 14 
 
158 CONCLUSION. 
 
 bility to believe it, that Gospel which is the power 
 of God, and the wisdom of God unto salvation, 
 was nothing better in his experience than a 
 pleasing but profitless speculation. His heart 
 was not yet opened to receive it. It did not pa- 
 cify his conscience — it gave him no assurance of 
 being forgiven — it did not secure him of admission 
 into a world of happiness and life, when he 
 should leave this world of sin and death. He 
 saw that other people with whom he had inter- 
 course did believe this Gospel, and that they had 
 "joy and peace in beheving." But this rather 
 augmented than diminished the uneasiness with 
 which he was oppressed ; and thus the fruitless 
 efforts of his own extraordinary intellect were 
 well calculated to teach himself a most instruct- 
 ive lesson, which, it is to be hoped may not be lost 
 on others. For, whether he fixed his attention 
 on the want of righteousness in himself, or on the 
 all-perfect righteousness which is in Christ Jesus, 
 as the sinner's surety, instead of obtaining the 
 satisfaction which he so eagerly and so honestly 
 desired, he suffered a greater degree of mental 
 disquietude than is usual with other inquirers, 
 whose conscientiousness is less active, or who 
 think less profoundly, or whose reason yields 
 more easily to argument. 
 
 We know there are people in the world whose 
 mental obtuseness is so decided, or whose moral 
 sensibihty is so deficient, that the prospect of death 
 neither intimidates nor appals them. Certainly 
 
CONCLUSION. 159 
 
 Mr. Howell did not belong to that pitiable class 
 of human beings. But, although it has been 
 shown that the peculiar construction of his noble 
 mind increased, and could not remove the alarm 
 into which the knowledge of his dangerous situ- 
 ation had thrown him, yet we ought to believe 
 it was the grace of God that awakened him to 
 that sense of his sinfulness whicli made the thought 
 of death so terrible. Thus his alarm, however 
 trying and painful, was the commencement of 
 blessing to his soul; and, no doubt, had it pleas- 
 ed God to bestow it, a larger measure of grace 
 at first would not only have convinced him of hia 
 sins, and of the danger to which they exposed 
 him, but speedily conducted him to that know- 
 ledge, and faith, and love of the Saviour, which 
 is the peaceful haven of safety for tempest-tossed 
 and afflicted sinners. That haven he was des- 
 tined to reach ; and there, at length, when he 
 had escaped from the inward storm, he did enjoy 
 " a great calm." But the purposes of God, in 
 reference to this talented and interesting man, 
 while they were fraught with the richest mercies 
 for time and for eternity, were slowly developed, as 
 if with the avowed design of setting forth in a con- 
 spicuous way the foolishness of human wisdom, 
 and the impotency of even the highest intellectual 
 powers, to silence the condemning voice of a 
 guilty conscience, or to irradiate the gloom of 
 death with the gladdening hope of a new, and a 
 better, and an endless life. 
 
 It was good for Mr. Howell himself to learn 
 
160 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 how little his own unaided abilities and accom- 
 plishments coidd forward or secure his everlasting 
 salvation. It was necessary for him to know 
 experimentally that "the natural man receiveth 
 not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are 
 foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, 
 because they are spiritually discerned," (1 Cor. 
 ii. 14.) This humbling lesson prepared the way 
 for another still more humbling- to the proud 
 heart of an unrenewed man. But let us mark 
 how wise it was in God to teach him, in the 
 nianner best suited to his natural genius, and to 
 his studious habits, those doctrines of salvation 
 by free and unmerited grace, which are the very 
 glory of the Gospel dispensation. He was left 
 for a time — for a long time, to exercise his 
 inquisitiveness, his reflectiveness, his patient rea- 
 soning, his persevering research, on the all- 
 important topic of how a sinner is to be pardoned 
 and reconciled unto God consistently with his 
 holiness and justice, and how he himself might 
 be delivered from the bondage of the fear of death. 
 During all this^ time of inquiry he was diligently 
 using the proper means of grace. But his 
 prayers were not answered as he expected; and 
 his Scripture readings and religious conversations 
 did not bring him the relief he needed. Still, 
 though he might be unconscious of it, a great 
 work was going on. He was growing in humil- 
 ity, in teachableness, in earnestness, and in 
 dependence upon God. This was the training to 
 which he was so wisely subjected, and now the 
 14* 
 
CONCLUSION. 161 
 
 abundance of grace was vouclisafed unto him. 
 He no longer had to complain that his heart 
 remained untouched. The fire of divine love 
 had touched it ; and its blindness was enlightened, 
 its obduracy was softened, its emnity was sub- 
 dued. The pride of intellect was cast at the foot 
 of the cross of Christ. The teaching of the Holy 
 Spirit brought him at once to understand, and 
 appreciate, and believe those doctrines of the 
 cross which gave to his mind that rest, and 
 satisfaction, and comfort, for which, in the 
 strength of his own intellectual faculties, he had 
 laboured so long in vain. " The truth as it is in 
 Jesus" commended itself to his judgment, and to 
 his conscience. He received it without hesi- 
 tation, and with all thankfulness ; and, as has 
 been well illustrated in the Introduction, it was 
 just as natural, after he experienced spiritual 
 illumination, that he should have entered so 
 readily and so fully into the enjoyment of " perfect 
 peace," as it was that, without it, he should have 
 continued in a state of spiritual darkness and 
 distress. Such was the constitution, or tempera- 
 ment of his mind, that he had no rest until the 
 Spirit of God discovered to him the truth he 
 was in pursuit of to rest upon. But having once 
 found the truth, he held it fast, and in its posses- 
 sion he enjoyed the fulness of its blessings. 
 
 The Letters addressed to Mr. Stevenson 
 contain the record only of what may be termed 
 the Christian experience of Mr. Howell. They 
 
162 CONCLUSION. 
 
 exhibit the commencement, the progress, and the 
 close of his bright career as a Christian man; and 
 it was inconsistent with the plan of The Bio- 
 graphical Sketch which is prefixed to the 
 Letters to do more than briefly state the fact, 
 that he continued for some months, after his 
 return to Devonshire, to suffer more or less of^ 
 mental agitation or anxiety. It appeared, there- 
 fore, to be essential to a correct understanding 
 of his case, that, in winding up the narrative, 
 there should be presented to the consideration of 
 the reader some specific details of that intellectual 
 and spiritual discipline which he underwent, be- 
 fore he was enabled calmly to repose on the bosom 
 of God's forgiving love, and to descend into the 
 corruption of the grave "in sure and certain hope 
 of the resurrection to eternal life, through our 
 Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 And now it is most fervently desired that every 
 reader, and especially every man of like mind and 
 similar pursuits, may profit by the lessons which 
 the experience of Mr. Howell so plainly enforces. 
 
 1. How utterly important in the matter of 
 salvation are the noblest intellectual powers, the 
 most extensive attainments in secular or scientific 
 pursuits, the most blameless moral behaviour, or 
 the highest place in the estimation of friends and 
 acquaintances ! These are valuable possessions 
 in respect of "the life that now is :" and, so far 
 as they can enrich, Mr. Howell was rich indeed. 
 But in reference to "the life which is to come," — 
 that awful hereafter, to the brink of which disease 
 
CONCLUSION. 163 
 
 had brought him, he found them to be entirely 
 worthless ; and so will every one who, with equal 
 honesty and earnestness, thinks of God, and of 
 death, and of eternity. It is, indeed, a hard and 
 humiliating lesson ; but it is needful to all men, 
 whether rich or poor, whether learned or unlearn- 
 ed ; for there is no safety, no peace, no hope for 
 any awakened sinner, until he feels and confesses 
 that in regard to his deliverance from guilt and 
 its consequences, "it is not of him that willeth, 
 nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth 
 mercy," (Rom. ix. 16.) 
 
 2. And how omnipotent is that grace of God 
 which brings to us salvation ! So soon as it pleas- 
 ed God to work effectually by his Spirit on the un- 
 derstanding, and on the will, and on the affections 
 of Mr. Howell, a great and happy change took 
 place. Every barrier was broken down; every 
 obstacle was removed ; every difficulty vanished. 
 The way of a sinner's return to God stood wide 
 open before him. He saw that Christ himself was 
 the way; he felt the Holy Spirit was his guide; 
 and now he was no longer faithless, but believing. 
 Here is another humbling lesson to man, — he 
 must submit to receive salvation wholly as a free 
 gift. But, oh ! how thankful should a sinner be 
 to be saved on any terms ! how thankful should 
 a sinner be that salvation is the work of God! 
 Nothing short of that Almighty power, which at 
 first created man in the image of his Maker, can 
 renew what sin has defaced. Nothing less pow- 
 erful than that omnipotent word which called the 
 
164 CONCLUSION. 
 
 material universe into being can transform the 
 fallen sons of Adam into "new creatures in Christ 
 Jesus." Hence we read that "the Gospel of 
 Christ" is " the power of God unto salvation, 
 unto every one that believeth," {^Rom. i. 16.) 
 Again, " the preaching of the Cross" is " the 
 POWER OF God," (1 Cor. i. 18.) And in exact 
 harmony with these doctrinal statements, St. Paul 
 prays for the Ephesians, that they might know 
 
 "what is THE EXCEEDING GREATNESS OF HIS 
 
 POWER to US-ward who believe, according to the 
 working of HIS mighty power, which he wrought 
 in Christ when he raised him from the dead," 
 &c. (Eph. i. 18—22.) Truly this is a very re- 
 markable and most emphatic passage of Scrip- 
 ture ! It sets before us this wondrous truth, that 
 every sinner who believes in Christ for salvation 
 has been made to experience, not merely " the 
 power of God," nor yet " the greatness of his pow- 
 er," but " the exceeding greatness of his power ; " 
 and, oh ! how important it is to "know" that un- 
 til we do experience the omnipotence of divine 
 grace, we never shall believe in the Saviour whom 
 God hath sent to bless us. 
 
 The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the 
 grand remedial scheme for man's moral and spirit- 
 ual maladies, is, " the power of God." How en- 
 couraging is this ! the belief of it will inspire a 
 feeling of security. " If God be for us, who can 
 be against us 1 " (Rom. viii. 31.) But let it be 
 remembered that the same omnipotence which has 
 provided the remedy must also apply it. The 
 
CONCLUSION. 165 
 
 grace of God, which brings salvation to us, must 
 likewise work faith in us. *' For by grace are ye 
 saved through f;»ith ; a!jd that not of yourselves, 
 IT IS THE GIFT OF GoD ; uot of works, lest any 
 man should boast," (Eph. ii. 8, 9.) And then 
 " the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and 
 the haughtiness of men shall be made low, and 
 THE Lord alone shall be exalted," (^Isaiah 
 ii. 17.) 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 ON THE HUMAN NATURE OF CHRIST. 
 
 See page 64. 
 
 The incarnation of the Son of God is a subject as 
 important as it is wonderful. It is a subject also 
 of great magnitude in a theological point of view ; 
 but the one point claiming further elucidation at 
 present is, not that the Son of God became man, 
 which might have been accomplished by a direct 
 act of CREATION, as in the case of Adam ; but 
 that, by means of generation, he connected him- 
 self with humanity as it exists since the fall, 
 while he himself " knew no sin," and " did no 
 sin." (2 Cor. v. 21 ; 1 Pet. ii. 22.) It is to this 
 that St. Paul refers, when he say^, "And, with- 
 out controversy, great is the mystery of godli- 
 ness." (1 Tim. iii. 16.) The greatness of the 
 mystery lies not so much in the manifestation of 
 God, in visible form as a man, as in his being 
 " manifested in the flesh." This expression, " the 
 flesh," is of very frequent occurrence in Scrip- 
 ture, and has many various significations ', but, 
 
168 APPENDIX. 
 
 when applied to human beings, it always denotes 
 a state of physical or moral existence affected by 
 sin. " So then they that are in the flesh cannot 
 please God." But here is the mystery. — God 
 sent forth his Son "in the likeness of sinful flesh," 
 subject to all the infirmities and distresses that are 
 incident to the sinful nature of man, subject even 
 to death itself, and still throughout his whole 
 earthly existence he continued to be " the Holy 
 One and the Just." He took the nature that had 
 sinned, but he himself was altogether " without 
 sin." These two things, apparently incompatible, 
 the connexion of God's incarnate Son with us sin- 
 ners, and his own spotless holiness, were abso- 
 lutely necessary ; the one to insure his sympathy 
 with us, and the other to insure our salvation by 
 him. May we not here exclaim, in the language 
 employed by the apostle on another occasion, 
 "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and 
 knowledsje of God !" 
 
 The doctrine of our Lord s true humanity is 
 distinctly acknowledged in the Articles and Con- 
 fessions of all the Protestant churches. The 
 statements of the Athanasian Creed are specially 
 explicit on his manhood as well as his godhead. 
 But our proofs must primarily be taken from 
 Scripture. 
 
 The very first intimation of a Saviour is re- 
 markable. After the disobedience of Adam and 
 Eve, their hope of pardon and deliverance from 
 the tempter was directed to " The Seed of the 
 woman," (Gen. iii. 15.) The Great Deliverer was 
 
APPENDIX. 169 
 
 subsequently promised as " The Seed of Abra- 
 ham,'" {Gen. xxii. 18.) " In thy seed shall all the 
 nations of the earth be blessed." And of this 
 promise St. Paul has given us an inspired inter- 
 pretation : " Now to Abraham and to his Seed 
 were the promises made. He saith not, and to 
 seeds, as of many ; but as of one, and to thy Seed, 
 which is Christ," (Gal. iii. 16.) In the opening 
 of his Epistle to the Romans, the apostle speaks 
 of himself as " separated unto the Gospel of God," 
 — " concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, 
 which was made of the Seed of David according 
 to the flesh,'" (Rom. i. 5.) So it had been pre- 
 dicted by Isaiah : " And there shall come forth a 
 rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall 
 grow out of his roots," (xi. 1.) And also by 
 Micha : " And thou Bethlehem Ephratah, though 
 thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet 
 out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to 
 be Ruler in Israel," &c. (v. 2-4.) With these 
 predictions the Jewish people were familiar ; and 
 hence, when there was a division among them 
 concerning our Lord, some said, " Hath not the 
 Scripture said, that Christ cometh of the seed 
 of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where 
 David was?" (John vii. 42.) The reader will 
 do well to peruse the discourse of St. Peter on the 
 day of Pentecost, where particular reference is 
 made to our Lord's connexion with David, (Acts 
 ii. 25-36.) In complete harmony with Old Tes- 
 tament prophecies, the commencement of the New 
 Testament Scriptures is called, " The book of 
 15 
 
170 APPENDIX. 
 
 THE Generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of Da- 
 vid, the Son of Abraham,^' (Matt. i. 1.) And, in 
 the same chapter, we read that the angel of the 
 Lord appeared unto Joseph in a dream, saying, 
 " Thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee 
 Mary thy wife ; for that which is conceived in 
 her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring 
 forth a Son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus," 
 &c. This, too, is in fulfilment of prophecy: 
 " Hear ye now, O house of David ; is it a small 
 thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary 
 God also ? Therefore the Lord himself shall give 
 you a sign ; Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear 
 a son, and shall call his name Immanuel," (Is. vii. 
 13, 14.) " For unto us a child is born, unto us a 
 Son is given ; and the government shall be upon his 
 shoulder ; and his name shall be called Wonderful, 
 Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Fa- 
 ther, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his 
 government and peace there shall be no end, upon 
 the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, &c. 
 (Is. ix. 6, 7.) Thus we read, in St. Luke's Gospel, 
 that the angel Gabriel was sent from God, " to a 
 virgin espoused to a man whose name was Jo- 
 seph, of the house of David ; and the virgin's 
 name was Mary." And the angel said unto her, 
 " Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and 
 bring forth a son, and shall call his name Jesus. 
 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of 
 the Highest ; and the Lord God shall give unto 
 him the throne of his Father David," &c. (i. 26- 
 32.) Again, in the second chapter, it is recorded 
 
APPENDIX. 171 
 
 that Joseph went up from Galilee, out of the city of 
 Nazareth, into J udsdo., unto the city of David, which 
 is called Bethlehem, (because he was of the house 
 and lineage of David,) &c. There Mary " brought 
 forth her first-born Son ;" and there the angel of the 
 Lord announced the wondrous event to the shep- 
 herds of Bethlehem, " Behold, I bring you good ti- 
 dings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 
 For unto you is born this day, in the City of David^ 
 A Saviour which is Christ the Lord." All these 
 quotations from the prophets, and evangelists, and 
 apostles, when grouped together, and arranged in 
 juxtaposition, present an interesting mass of evi- 
 dance. And their united testimony most incon- 
 trovertibly establishes the fact, that our Almighty 
 Saviour was " of the seed of David according 
 TO the Flesh," — that he was a true man, and a 
 man truly connected with the existing race of 
 mankind : — "the seed of the woman," through the 
 line of Abraham and of David. 
 
 It is likewise deserving of very particular no- 
 tice, that, during the brief period of his intercourse 
 with men on earth, our Lord so very frequently 
 speaks of himself as " the Son of Man," and of 
 men as his brethren. By such modes of ex- 
 pression he evinced his anxiety to strengthen our 
 belief in his true humanity, and in his connexion 
 with ourselves. 
 
 The apostles have been led by the Holy Spirit 
 to the use of a similar style of language, and, no 
 doubt, for the same object. 
 
 St. John, in the commencement of his Gospel 
 
172 APPENDIX. 
 
 history, first mentions the second person in the 
 adorable Trinity as the Word, who was with 
 God in the beginning, and who was God ; and 
 then, after this unequivocal assertion of his essen- 
 tial divinity, we find it written, " And the Word 
 was made Jiesh, and dwelt among us." (John i. JL4.) 
 
 St. Peter, in his memorable discourse on the 
 day of Pentecost, to which allusion has already 
 been made, has these words, — ^^ Jesus of Nazar- 
 eth, A MAN approved of God among you by mira- 
 cles, and wonders," &c. ; " ye have taken, and 
 by wicked hands have crucified and slain ;" " this 
 Jesus hath God raised up ;" " therefore, let all the 
 house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath 
 made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, 
 both Lord and Christ," (Acts ii. 22-36.) 
 
 St. Paul, in the synagogue at Antioch, goes 
 over much of the same ground, in regard to the 
 death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth ; and 
 then draws this practical conclusion. " JBe it 
 known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that 
 through this man is preached unto you the for- 
 giveness of sins," &c. (Acts xiii. 38.) And at 
 Athens he finished his powerful address with these 
 words, — " Because he (God) hath appointed a day 
 in which he will judge the world in righteousness 
 by that man whom he hath ordained ; whereof 
 he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he 
 hath raised him from the dead," (Acts xvii. 31.) 
 
 The only other passage to which it seems ne- 
 cessary to refer is in the First Epistle to Timothy, 
 — " For there is one God, and one Mediator be- 
 
APPENDIX. 173 
 
 tween God and man, the man Christ Jesus; who 
 gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in 
 due time," (ii. 5, 6.) 
 
 In the immediately preceding verses the apostle 
 had spoken of our Saviour as God, ^vho will have 
 all men to be saved, and to come unto the know- 
 ledge of the truth. Here he speaks of the sinner's 
 way of approach to God, and of that inestimable 
 " ransom," through which alone there is salvation 
 for any. And, therefore, as an encouragement to 
 our confidence in Him, the living Mediator, who 
 interposes between a holy God and his guilty 
 creatures, is designated " the man Christ Jesus," 
 because it was his humanity that enabled him, as 
 our substitute, to give himself, to shed his own most 
 precious blood, as the ransom-price of our deliver- 
 ance. Thus how real and how great is our en- 
 couragement to cling to the God-man Mediator, 
 with loving and thankful hearts ! " For verily 
 he took not on him the nature of angels, hut he 
 took on him the seed of Abraham ;^' and, forasmuch 
 as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, 
 he also himself likewise took jjart of the same/' 
 (Heb. ii. 14-16.) 
 
 " The Man " who is the Mediator, is substan- 
 tially allied by a common humanity to " the men " 
 for whom he mediates. But the difference between 
 him and us lie^, not only in his being " without 
 sin," but especially in this, that he is more than 
 man. In his one person the divine nature is mys- 
 teriously but indissolubly united with the human. 
 He who was born of the Virgin Mary is at the 
 15* 
 
174 APPENDIX. 
 
 the same time " the Son of the Highest." Such a 
 Mediator is precisely what we need, and what we 
 want; for something within tells us that he who 
 is to effect a reconciliation between God and man 
 iTiUst be man's bkother, as well as God's fel- 
 low ; — that He who is to act the part of our Re- 
 deemer must be our kinsman. None else can 
 legally and effectually interfere to raise us from 
 the low estate into which we have fallen ; none 
 else can procure our discharge from the debts we 
 have incurred by transgression against God ; none 
 else has right or authority to put us in ()ossession 
 of our forfeited inheritance ; and hence the vast 
 importance of distinctly understanding the pecu- 
 liar constitution of the Saviour's person, in order 
 to a firm reliance on his work. Unless we be- 
 lieve that in his one person he was, and is, and 
 ever shall be, both God and man, we cannot con- 
 sistently and confidently trust in him, either as our 
 Surety or as our Saviour. To effect our salva- 
 tion it w^as needful that he should act in each of 
 these capacities : but, were he not possessed of 
 THE HUMAN NATURE, he could not be our surety ; 
 and, were he not possessed of the divine nature, 
 he could not be a Saviour at all. Thus the im- 
 portance of clear and spiritual views on this sub- 
 ject can scarcely be overrated. 
 
 Many Christians practically lose sight and hold 
 of the Saviour's true humanity, although they 
 doctrinaJly acknowledge it. They run into this 
 error either from the contemplation of his perfect 
 holiness, as separating him, in nature, from us 
 
APPENDIX. 175 
 
 who are so sinful ; or from an exclusive attention 
 to his divinity, in which they conceive his power 
 to save must altogether lie. But it is most desir- 
 able that this practical error should be prevented 
 or removed, as its existence cannot fail to inter- 
 fere with the stability of a Christian's faith, and 
 with his enjoyment of the privileges and consola. 
 tions of the Gospel.