The Christian of Fourscore; A Memorial of Mrs. Driffield. a Memorial of Mrs. Driffield (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1864. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER III. I cannot, dare not, now deny The things my God hath freely given; That happy favour'd soul am I, Who finds in Christ a constant heaven: He makes me all his sweetness know, He makes my cup of joy o'erflow. C. Wesley. T is sometimes remarked by readers of Biography that too often the subject of a memoir is obscured by the reflections and sentiments of the writer. Where documentary material does not exist, or is only furnished to a limited extent, this may be almost unavoidable 5 but in the present instance, a reliable and correct insight into her inner, as well as outer life, may be obtained from a diary, kept with her habitual order, with some few intermissions, for fifty-four years, and from letters written to her friends. After her conversion to God and union with his people in 1793, she began to keep a record of her experience; she resolved to do this, she tells us, by the help of God, after reading the Life of Mrs. Hester Ann Rogers, by which she was greatly profited, "in order," as she observes, "that I may know how I get forward on my journey to heaven, for, by the help of God, I am fully set to arrive there." This earnest determination in spiritual things, formed at the very commencement of her christian course, is the key-note to fifty-eight years spent in the service of God. Alluding to it in the last year of her life, she remarked, with deep and touching earnestness; "fifty-eight years I have been a child of God, and am now happier than ever;" adding to her thankful acknowledgement of the grace by which she had been kept during so many years of her life's pilgrimage, the ascription of her praise; "Glory be unto God " Many valuable incidents, evincing the deep tone of her piety, must have been wholly lost, had it not been for th...