CHAPTER XI. |
AFTER breakfast I went to Surrey Chapel and heard the Rev. Rowland Hill preach from these words, “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom:” Psalm 90. The congregation was large and very attentive. After the sermon, I was introduced to the Rev. R. Hill, who requested that I would dine with him; with which I complied, and spent two or three hours with him to my great satisfaction. I was much pleased to see in this aged and devoted servant of God, the testimony of a good conscience, and his spirit seemingly just hovering on the verge of immortality and eternal life. His conversation was of a truth in heaven. Many of his remarks were very serious. On speaking of the shortness of this life, he said,! “I am now in my eighty-eighth year: few and evil have been my days. When I laid the first foundation of this (Surrey) chapel, about fifty years ago, it seems only like yesterday. My greatest object now, is to end well, and to enter into immortality.” His mind appeared to be much concerned for the poor deluded Papists in Ireland. He also deplored the wickedness of the English, who profess Christianity in theory, but deny the Lord in their works. Speaking on the subject of singing in public worship, he remarked, “I like the plan of the whole congregation joining in singing with the organ; but I do not like the method used in some chapels of having a few paltry trumpeters stuck up in the gallery.” He advised me to speak in my own way this evening in his chapel, and said, “You see