FRIENDLY VISITOR: PUBLISHED IN MONTHLY NUMBERS, DURING THE YEAR 1840. BY THE REV. W. CARUS WILSON, M. A. RECTOR OF WHITTINGTON, AND PERPETUAL CURATE OF CASTERTON. VOL. XXII. "Much good may be done this way to considerable numbers at once in an acceptable KIRKBY LONSDALE: PRINTED AND SOLD BY A. FOSTER. Of whom may be had single numbers to make sets complete. SOLD BY L. AND G. SEELEY, FLEET STREET, LONDON; The profits are devoted to charitable purposes. FRIENDLY VISITOR. No. 256.] JANUARY, 1840. AN OLD DISCIPLE.* [VOL. 22. The venerable Christian of whom I mean to record a few particulars, was not a native of this parish, but came here at an early age, and engaged in the brass works. I have heard his daughter speak, with tears in her eyes, of his being left a widower, and of his tender care of his three young children. He had regularly attended the house of God in the place from which he came; and it was there that he received, by the grace of God, the knowledge of the truths needful to salvation,-that he was a sinner, and that the Lord Jesus Christ is the all-sufficient Saviour. And no wonder that he always loved to visit that church when the sacred bread and wine, representing his Saviour's body and blood, were provided there; one of these visits was paid on the very last Sunday of his life. With one of his daughters he had a comfortable home for many years. No signs of distressing poverty were in that house. There was a wide fireplace which spoke of comfort, and well-polished furniture spoke of neatness and good care; a cage, containing a green canary, hung in the window, which was shaded by a tall geranium. At the hack of the house was a garden, well filled with herbs and common flowers. One summer's evening visit, I remember the good old man coming in from one of his long walks. His face was lighted up with joy as he said, "I cannot hear a word, but I can enjoy His presence at morning, and evening, and noon-day. I think of the nails * From "Things New and Old, or Recollections by a District Visitor," published by Hamilton, Adams, and Co. |