356 APPENDIX I. 



was connected by prophecy or quotation with the New Testament, 

 either in the Gospels or in the Epistles. He was microscopic in 

 his readings, and in his interpretations of the Word of God, for he 

 most impUcitly believed every word of the original languages to be 

 Divine, and dictated and written, through the writers, by the Holy 

 Ghost. These languages, through their antiquity, are necessarily 

 obscure ; thus he was content to leave many passages and even 

 chapters unexplained, satisfied that they never contradicted each 

 other. Where two sides of a doctrine or subject are decidedly 

 stated, he would reverently stand, and say, "There they are! 

 I cannot put them together, but God can. I leave it to Him 

 and am silent. Only through the Holy Spirit can it be received 

 into the heart." This mode of thought was characteristic of Philip 

 Henry Gosse. He had a wide grasp of the Holy Scriptures. He 

 spoke of them as if the key had been given to us, and he sought 

 to unlock their stores. He was familiar with the letter from a 

 child, and, having been brought up in the old Puritan school, 

 he was thoroughly sound in all the cardinal points of Evangelical 

 doctrine. 



On July 9, i860, I see noted in his diary, " There was a large 

 meeting at the new room in Fore Street, St. Marychurch." This 

 chapel, which he had built, being now finished, the Church and 

 congregation removed to it ; and henceforward the meetings were 

 continued there. The routine was the "breaking of bread," 

 prayer, singing hymns, and a discourse by Mr. Gosse as the pastor 

 of the Church. In the evenings, a gospel sermon by him. 



During this summer he occasionally brought up to the Cottage 

 his microscope or some natural history objects, and gave a familiar 

 lecture on them. Some young friends were staying with us, and 

 we all benefited by his interesting and cheerful remarks. These 

 occasional visits were looked forward to by us all with great pleasure. 

 The party sometimes accompanied him to the beach at Oddicombe 

 or Babbicombe, when he always took great pains to show his mode 

 of collecting, and sometimes brought out new and curious and 

 lovely creatures, when we gathered around and exclaimed, in our 

 ignorance of such matters, " How beautiful ! how wonderful ! " 

 and at the end agreed that we had spent a delightful morning. 



My sister, in July, left Torquay, and I remained at Upton 

 Cottage the rest of the summer, as we had let our house at 



