106 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 93. 



renewed state of mind, is not perhaps upon record, 

 and cannot too extensively be made known. The 

 letter ajipeai-ed a few years ago in the Chm-chman s 

 Penny Magazine, vol. ii. p. 154., with the initials 

 » T. H." 



" Dear Sir, 



" Your kindness towards me, and the desire you ex- 

 press of becoming serviccal>le to me, require that I 

 should be explicit as regards the circumstances under 

 which we met, a little time ago, and have since con- 

 versed on. I think my statement should be in writing, 

 and hence this letter. 



" It has pleased the Almighty to have dealings with 

 me for several years, until, by His Holy Spirit, I have 

 been brought from darkness to light ; to know Him, 

 through faith in Christ ; to rest in His love, as in the 

 cleft of a rock, safe from the storms and afflictions of 

 the world. To acquaint all who ever heard of my 

 name, with this mighty change of heart, has long been 

 my desire; and it seems to me, that I ought not to 

 exercise my restored faculties without tendering their 

 first fruits as an humble offering to the promotion of 

 His cause, by testifying of His great mercy. It has 

 been my frequent and earnest prayer to God to enable 

 me to do this, as His doing; to seek nothing but 

 honour to His holy name, and in the fear of Him, and 

 Him only, without regard to the praise or dispraise of 

 man — come from what quarter it may — to have my 

 soul possessed in patience ; to wait and be still, as a 

 mere instrument in His hands, made willing in the day 

 of His power, to do His work. If it be His work. He 

 will bless it : I pray that it may be. Now, in this 

 matter, and in this view of it, self-seeking and personal 

 gratification are out of the question. The desire to 

 engage in it is the most earnest wish of my heart ; but 

 my heart has submitted to God, and in submission to 

 Him, it seeks to do His will, to do the will of my 

 Saviour, as my Lord and my God, who has done all 

 things for me, and will do all things well. 1 believe He 

 has put the desire into my heart to do this homage to 

 His sovereignty, as a subject of His kingdom. To do it 

 has been the ruling purpose of my mind : as an instance 

 of it, let me mention, that I have been frequently asked 

 by autograph collectors to write something in their 

 albums. For the last two years I have done nothing 

 in this way, till the .'?rd of last month, a lady having 

 brought in her album the night before, I remembered 

 it was my birth-day, and wrote the following linos : 



' The proudest heart that ever beat 



Hath been subdued in me ; 

 The wildest will that ever rose 

 To scorn Thy cause, and aid Thy foes, 



Is quell'd, my God, by Thee. 



Thy will, and not my will, be done ; 



My heart be ever Thine : 

 Confessing Thee, the mighty Word, 

 My Saviour Christ, my God, my Lord, 



Thy Cross shall be my sign.' 



" These lines, I thought, would be ill-placed among 

 contributions of different impoit: I therefore wrote 

 them at the end of my Bible, and put some others, of a 

 religious and kindly admonitory tendency, in the lady's 



album. Not even in the albums can I write without 

 manifesting, that to please is less my object than to 

 acknowledge the goodness of God. Well, then, my 

 dear Sir, in this respect you m.ay gather, in some de- 

 gree, how it is with me, and how God has wrought 

 upon my mind, and operates upon it to the end I speak 

 of When His hand struck me as for death, it was in a 

 house of prayer, and whilst being carried from the place 

 in men's arms as for dead. He lifted my heart to His 

 throne of grace. During the loneliness of what seemed 

 to be my dying bed, and the discomfort of my awful 

 infirmity, and the ruin of my house, and family, and 

 property. He was with me, and comforted me ; and 

 hitherto He has helped me, and I bless His holy name ; 

 my faith in Him is unshaken, and He keeps me con- 

 stantly to himself; and despite of worldly affections, 

 and nature's fear, I depend on Him and the workings 

 of His providence, that He will never leave me nor for- 

 sake me. It has never entered my mind, even as a 

 shadow, that I can do anything for Him ; but what He 

 enables me to do, I will do to His glory. In the dark 

 seasons of the hidings of His face, I would wait on Him 

 who waited for me while I resisted the drawings of His 

 love ; and when I sit in the light of His countenance, I 

 would stand up and magnify His name before the 

 people. And now, that He has wonderfully raised me 

 up, after a long season of calamity, to the power of 

 using my pen, I pray that He may direct it to tell of 

 His mercy to me, and by what way He has brought 

 me to acknowledge Him, ' the Lord our righteous- 

 ness,' ' God blessed for ever,' at all times, and in all 

 places, where there may be need of it. I trust I may 

 never be ashamed to declare His name ; but readily 

 exemplify, by His help, the courage and obedience of a 

 Christian man, and, as a good soldier of Christ, fight 

 the good fight with the sword of the Spirit. 



" May God grant me grace to do His will, is my 

 humble supplication. I am, 



" Dear Sir, 



" Yours most sincerely, 



" Wm. Hone." 



The foregoing letter may perhaps be considered 

 too pharasaical ; but when is added to it the fol- 

 lowing note by Mr. Hone, relating the aftlictions 

 which had overtaken him, and well nigh over- 

 whelmed him, it cannot apjiear surprising that 

 when he sought comfort and relief from where 

 alone they are to be found, his heart overflowed 

 with thankfulness and praise. 



I find the subjoined notice to his readers in 

 Hone's Table Book, vol. ii. p. 737. : — 



" Note. 



" Under severe affliction I cannot make up this sheet 

 as I wish. This day week my second son was brought 

 home with his skull fractured. To-day intelligence 

 has arrived to me of the death of my eldest son. 



" The necessity I have been under of submitting re- 

 cently to a surgical operation on myself, with a long 

 summer of sickness to every member of my family, and 

 accumulated troubles of earlier origin, and of another 

 nature, have prevented me too often from satisfying 

 the wishes of readers, and the claims of correspon- 



