xvin A PROPHETIC FIGURE 249 



ministry. It is a solemn and awful thing, he writes in 

 1760 to Susannah Hatton, to assume the name of the 

 Lord's ambassador. The Lord gives us, not only instruc- 

 tions for ourselves but also credentials to others : if we 

 wait his time, the clear message will be received : not 

 like that of Ahimaaz, who pleaded, " When I ran, there 

 was a tumult." In all the service we must remember our 

 Lord's dignity, and maintain that dignity by purity of 

 life and singleness to Him. " Try the spirits, . . . 

 mistake not the warmth of passion for the gospel authority; 

 the first is like the rattling thunder, which frights, but 

 never hurts ; the last is like the lightning, which illumin- 

 ates and breaks through, and melts down every obstruc- 

 tion." Be not disquieted at a sense of deep poverty : 

 make no human confidant : receive no obligation that 

 can be avoided, lest men say " I have requited his labour " : 

 be courteous to all unless secretly restrained. 



The literary style and eloquence of his own addresses, 

 unusual in the members of his society at that period, 

 made them the more effective vehicle for the message 

 he bore. When he prayed in public, it seemed, we are 

 told, as if heaven and earth were brought together. He 

 had an apt way of summing up conditions, or addressing 

 individuals in a few words. " Be content to be a child," 

 he says to one, " or thou wilt be a monster." " Know 

 thy place and abide there." " Thy branches are too 

 large for thy root." " Some men are too big to enter 

 in at the strait gate, too lazy to walk in the narrow way." 

 " Many have wished for our crown without our cross." 

 " The smoothest passage is often mercifully thorny." 

 " Esteem is a cool word," this to a newly married 

 relation " but it is the permanent basis of union." His 

 letters and discourses abound with Scripture symbols, 

 and he spiritualised the Old Testament after the Puritan 

 manner. Indeed his thought moved in metaphors, often 

 felicitous, and sometimes quaint. It is on record that 



wig, and it was when these were presently withdrawn, that his words flowed 

 forth like a mighty stream, full of force and beauty. MS. Records of Jas. 

 Jenkins, p. 101, Fds. Ref. Lib. 



