Christian Theology - Media Sabda Org

is indebted to Dr. Clarke, will not be known before "that day shall break
which never more shall close." He travelled, he begged, he wrote, he
prayed for it; and it is my decided conviction that, without his very
efficient aid, such as no other man in the kingdom could have rendered,
it would have been long since abandoned. Of that assistance it is now
deprived, and is dependent for its support on the Methodists' Contingent
Fund, and on the contributions of an enlightened and benevolent public.
I most strongly, therefore, recommend it to the attention and liberality of
all who revere the memory of the venerable doctor, or who feel
compassion for the sheep that are scattered over the mountains.
The doctor visited the islands himself in the year 1826, and again in
1827; and on his return, when I was stationed in Newcastle-on-Tyne,
wrote to me thus: "And now, Sammy, what shall I say about the work of
which we have written and spoken so much? I cannot say that it answered
my expectation. It far exceeded all that I had even hoped. I have not
witnessed so much good done in so short a time, with such slender
means, wherever I have travelled; nor have I read of such. I saw all the
preachers, and had the leaders from every isle and place of preaching,
(either at Walls or Lerwick,) and I inquired closely into the work
everywhere; and I believe I pretty well know the whole; I have seen the
grace of God which is among them, and am sovereignly glad. The half
of the good I witnessed had not been told me. Indeed, the preachers
themselves do not fully know it. When I reflected on your first entering
in among this people, the difficulties which you had to encounter, the soil
wholly unprepared, &c., &c., I stand astonished at the work. I see fully
that of the great harvest in the principal parts of Shetland, you sowed the
seed. God has put great honour upon you, and multitudes remember you
even with tears of affection."
It was in the year 1824 that Dr. Clarke sold his house and land in
Lancashire, quitted Millbrook, and purchased, and then removed to
Haydon Hall, a lovely spot, near Pinner, and about sixteen miles from
London.