248 SAMUEL FOTHERGILL CHAP. 



saint, pondering on his brother's public course of life, 

 trembled for his safe preservation. " My friend, my 

 brother, my companion, who stands as on a slippery sea 

 of glass, surrounded by the flattery of those who assume 

 the guise of knowledge and sincerity! Thy station 

 exposes thee to many things that wound the secret 

 innocent life of Jesus. Oh, watch over it as thy chief 

 treasure." He delivered his parting messages with 

 uncommon power, energy and life : one of these that was 

 addressed to his own meeting mingled stern rebuke with 

 words of hopefulness. Through painful nights and 

 wearisome days a sense of humble assurance rested with 

 him to the end : " although my house has not been so 

 with God . . . yet his candle shines around mine head. 

 He is good, and his mercy endureth for ever." 



Samuel Fothergill died at his house at Warrington 

 on June 15, 1772, and was buried at Penketh, a 

 large concourse of all ranks of people attending on the 

 occasion. His widow, who was older than himself and 

 already in feeble health, survived him but for a year : 

 innocence and peace marked her closing days. They had 

 no children. In person S. Fothergill was taller than his 

 brother, comely and dignified, courteous, with an ease 

 and politeness of manner founded on true kindness of 

 heart. He wore the wig and long coat of the period. 

 " Well read both in books and men," he had an observant 

 mind and a good memory ; and a sense of innocent 

 humour made him a pleasant companion, especially to 

 the young. 



In the long list of Quaker preachers S. Fothergill is 

 distinguished by his uncommon gifts. " He was a 

 glowing exhibition as he stood before the great throngs 

 that came to hear him, and as he moved quietly among 

 men in his daily walk, of a type of life which demonstrates 

 beyond all arguments the incoming of the divine into the 

 human." * He had a high conception of the Christian 



1 Rufus M. Jones, op. cit. p. 129. No portrait of S. Fothergill is known to 

 the author. Mrs. Gummere of Haverford possesses a profile outline, taken 

 whilst he was preaching. When he rose to speak, he was often slow at first : 

 it was his habit, we are told, to thrust the fingers of his left hand under his 



