Thomas Shillitoe, the Quaker missionary and temperance pioneer

Front matter

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

CHILDREN'S PETS. By Josephine.

Preface

A desire has often been expressed for a popular and portable memoir of tbe late Thomas Shillitoe, a man of whom it may be truly affirmed that he was one of the most remarkable of modern missionaries and philanthropists. The writer of the present life has sought to furuish such a memoir, and in it he has embodied many personal reminiscences of its subject, communicated by surviving friends, and has also availed himself of various unpublished documents, kindly lent by a member of Mr. Shillitoe' s family.

The principal aim has been to promote an increased interest in the great Christian principles and objects of social progress, which were so intimately associated with the efforts of the good man whose career is here described. Frequent allusions have also been made to kindred labours and experiences.

Crown 8vo, ivith a Portrait, price 2s. 6d., cloth.

PETER BEDFORD,

THE SPITALFIELDS PHILANTHROPIST.

CONTAINING AN INTERESTING ACCOUNT OF HIS LABOURS IN THE METROPOLIS, ESPECIALLY AMONG THE THIEVES.

By WILLIAM TALLACK.

"HIM ONLY SHALT THOU SERVE."

: Luke it. 8.

Chapter I. General Aspect Of His Life

A universal philanthropist — An early labourer for Temperance, Prison Reform, Abolition of Slavery, and Sabbath observance — His strong sense of individual responsibility — His deep

Chapter II. Youth Axd Early Manhood

Childhood and parental care — Three years in a public-house — Depravity and violence of the Eighteenth Century — A grocer's apprentice at Wapping and Portsmouth— Returns to London — Joins the Friends — Difficulties in consequence — His integrity amid surrounding compliance with the spirit of the times — Quits a bank to become a shoemaker — Trials — His prospects brighten — Settles at Tottenham — Marriage — Gradually acquires property — His ultimate retirement from business to devote himself to the service of God

X CONTENTS.

Chapter III. His Home Missions And Ordinary Ministry

PAGKE

Habitual pedestrian ministry — Extraordinary spells of walking — An excessively hot day — Free and easy style of dress — Love of labour, both spiritual and manual — His intemperate foreman, and the reward of faithfulness — Prayerful trust in God — Sense of dependence the measure of Christian progress — Faith developed by effort — Indispensable necessity for the visitations of the Holy Spirit — "Laying on hard" — Illustration of Mr. Shillitoe's style of religious address — Efforts amongst the Kingswood colliers — Provision for sufferers by colliery accidents — " Compel them to come in" — Visits to the widows and orphans of executed machine-breakers — Zealous attention even to efforts for single individuals ... 30

Chapter IV. His Foreign Missions

Serious prospect of extensive travel at his advanced age — The province of reason— The Hicksites — Breaks up his home — Five chief objects of effort — Daily breathing-times of the spiritual life — Economy of effort — His cheerfulness and pleasantness — His gallantry — Locked up at Altona — Honoured at Hamburg — Mishaps of Danish travel — Success at Copenhagen — A black guide — New year's festivities in Norway — Magnificent scenery — Prussia and Germany — A Friends' Meeting conducted under difficulties — Dumb eloquence — Home through Switzerland and France .. . ... ... 52

Chapter V. Further Foreign Missions — Russia And America

Second continental journey and its labours — Six months in Petersburg — Daniel Wheeler — Dread of the police and the

CONTENTS. XI

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rats — A wful inundation at Petersburg — Perilous journey homeward — Berlin — Eecruits his exhausted energies at Buxton — Seizes an opportunity of usefulness there, and visits the Duke of Devonshire on behalf of the poor — Embarks for America — The Hieksites — The moral sense — Indispensable need of the Gospel and the Holy Scriptures — Address to Indians at Cataragus — Testimonies of Mr. Moffatt and other missionaries as to the necessity of the Bible and of ministry to the heathen — Hai Ebn Tokdan — " A cumber-ground " — Children and dogs at meeting — Visits to the President and to slave-owners — Return to England ... ... ... ... ... 72

CHAPTER VL

VISITS TO SOVEREIGNS AND INFLUENTIAL PERSONS.

Purely religious source of his visits to such persons — Reciprocal influences of rulers and subjects, min isters and congregations, upon each other — Individual responsibility — As the seed, so the harvest — Visit to the President of the "United States — ■ William Carter's union prayer meetings — Scriptural commands to labour for others in prayer — Mr. Shillitoe's visits to George the Third and George the Fourth. — His faithful counsel to the latter — Interviews with the Kings of Denmark and Prussia — William the Fourth and Queen Adelaide — The Emperor Alexander of Russia — The ninety-first Psalm — Alexander's religious history — Daniel Wheeler's account of his last days... ... ... ... ... ... ... 98

CHAPTER VTI.

EFFORTS IN PROMOTION OF TEMPERANCE.

Intemperance chiefly evil because of its antagonism to religious effort — Testimonies of experienced persons — Mr. Shillitoe's labours in the whisky-shops of Waterford, Cork, &c. — Insults received — Arduous visitation of six hundred drinking-houses

Xll

CONTENTS.

in Dublin — Scene in a cellar — His own remarkable experiences of stimulants and abstinence — His extreme nervousness much lessened — Dr. Channing on the moral evils and imperceptible approach of intemperance ... ... ... ... 122

CHAPTER Till.

GENERAL PHILANTHROPIC EFFORTS.

Prisons, the Sabbath, Theatres, and Kindness to animals ... 135

CHAPTER IX.

LAST DAYS.

Evening of life at Tottenham — Efforts for his poor neighbours — His extensive correspondence — Letter from Professor Tholuck — Revival amongst the Friends — Indispensable necessity for Christ's spiritual influences on the soul, as obtained by a constant looking to the Cross — Christ faithful and true from youth to age — Quotation from Dr. Bonar —Prepared and extemporaneous communications — Habitual reverence — Last expressions, and finally sustaining hopes of Thomas Shillitoe 146

THE

QUAKER MISSIONARY,

Chapter I. General Aspect Of His Life

A UNIVERSAL PHILANTHROPIST — AN EARLY LABOURER FOR TEMPERANCE, PRISON REFORM, ABOLITION OF SLAVERY, AND SABBATH OBSERVANCE — HIS STRONG SENSE OF INDI- VIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY — HIS DEEP CHRISTIAN EARNESTNES — WEAKNESSES AND STRUGGLES.

Although comparatively unknown to fame, even amongst the religious world, Thomas Shillitoe may, without exaggeration, be described as one of the most remarkable men of modern times. A member of one of the smallest sects in Christendom, and peculiarly destitute of any special educational or social advantages, he lived a life of wonderful energy as a universal philanthropist and as a Christian minister of almost apostolic activity.

B

THOMAS SH1LLITOE,

Long before the establishment of the great philanthropic organizations of the present day, he had vigorously devoted himself to the advocacy of their respective principles, and, throughout his career, vigilantly seized opportunities of urging their importance upon persons in influential positions. Almost a quarter of a century before the formation of Temperance Societies, he laboured assiduously to mitigate the evils of drunkenness. Independently of Prison- Keform Associations, he made strenuous exertions on behalf of the religious and temporal interests of prisoners at home and abroad. Whilst Slavery was still generally countenanced by Christian nations, and even by the British Government in its colonial dependencies, Thomas Shillitoe, at personal risk, pleaded with slave owners on their plantations, for the oppressed bondsmen. And, many years previous to the modern associated efforts for promoting the reverent observance of the Lord's day, this unwearied man visited the chief sovereigns and dignitaries of Europe, in whose presence he boldly set forth the spiritual and social evils of Sabbath desecration.

Whilst thus engaged in so great a variety of benevolent services, he was equally indefatigable in his labours as a minister of the Gospel. We should rather say that he considered all the above objects as being subordinate parts of his ministry , and not merely collateral or independent matters. Knowing how inseparably man's spiritual destinies are connected with his temporal circumstances and material surroundings, Thomas Shillitoe regarded physical and social hindrances to religious progress as parts of the hostile army against which it was the duty of the Church militant to wage uncompromising warfare, and in her ranks lie was a faithful soldier. Yet not altogether can he be said to have served in her ranks. Shillitoe, like Whitfield and many others, was not formed for easy cooperation with fellow- workers.

His individuality was so strongly marked, his opinions so decided, and his constitutional temperament so sensitive, and at times even morbidly nervous, that he found the greater freedom and success in a large measure of lonely effort. Thus most of his numerous journeys were performed without a companion, a very unusual course with ministers of the denomination to which he belonged. In reading his letters and addresses, the constant manifestation of an innocent egotism is very striking. The pronouns " I," "my," "me," crowd his memoranda; but only in the humble simplicity of a person whose very soul was permeated by an abiding sense of the solemnity of his individual responsibility to one Divine Master.

This strong sense of individual responsibility is the key not only to the extraordinary career of Shillitoe, but also to the very large comparative influence which the exceedingly small sect of the Friends has exercised upon the world. That a body of Christians numbering, in the United Kingdom, less than fifteen thousand (less altogether than the members of other denominations often included in the population of a single town), should have succeeded, as they have done, in being recognized as taking a foremost place of influence in the accomplishment of almost every great philanthropic and progressive movement of the age, and in having anticipated most of such movements amongst themselves, indicates some very powerful basis of action. That basis is one early incul-

b 2 cated upon the true Friend — the sense of an inalienable, untransferable responsibility to his God and Saviour, an obligation to serve Him as one who must give an account for himself to God, and who may not rely even upon the Church or upon her officers for any relief from that awful responsibility.

This feeling of personal duty to God and to Christ, urged on Thomas Shillitoe through the arduous career which he accomplished. If he met with difficulties and discouragements, he looked to his Master for their removal or conquest. Feeling his own entire weakness, he prayed the more earnestly and perseveringly for the presence of the energies imparted by God's Holy Spirit. Taking the Bible as the chart of his life's voyage, and imploring the influences of the Spirit as an impelling and sustaining power, he lived his earthly term of discipleship and service. And looking beyond Time into the invisible but permanent realities of the future Kiugdom, he derived an animating steadying power which rendered him indifferent to human honour or celebrity, and sustained him in a quiet unostentatious perseverance to the end.

He indeed persevered strenuously and lived vigilantly ; for to him the Christian's prospect was one of intense seriousness. He believed firmly his Lord's assertions, " Straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." " Many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in and shall not be able." He read in the glorious descriptions of the future New Jerusalem and its kingdom, recorded by the Prophets and Apostles so repeatedly, the strict requirements of faithful obedience, obtainable by prayer, through Christ's

THE QUAKER MISSIONARY. O

grace, and hence he felt it necessary to u give diligence," and to " earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints.' 1 He felt that, both as to himself and to others, the glorious gift of eternal life through Christ, was promised only conditionally, and only to the believer. He deemed the Christian course a race for a prize, to be won with difficulty ; and, like the Apostle, the tenour of his preaching continually was, " So run that ye may obtain." This strong sense of the serious business of salvation pervaded him to the last, and on his death-bed (after a peculiarly saintly life) he exclaimed, " Oh, that I could get within the pearl gates — just within the pearl gates. I feel I have nothing to depend upon but the mercies of God in Christ Jesus. I do not rely for salvation upon any merits of my own ; all my own works are as filthy rags : my faith is in the merits of Christ Jesus, and in the offering He made for us. I trust my past sins are all forgiven me — that they have been washed away by the blood of Christ, who died for my sins. It is mercy I want, and mercy I have."

Thus, every way, Thomas Shillitoe was a soldier of the Cross — his life an arduous endeavour after the prize of eternal life, for himself and for others — a prize precious and costly, inasmuch as it was purchased only by the blood and sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ, and only to be qualified for by the gifts of the Holy Spirit which His death procured for men.

That a life comprising so many striking incidents as

..that of Thomas Shillitoe should not be known in general

beyond the narrow circle of his small sect, is not surprising

when his humility and retiring quietude are considered.

He counted it a small matter to receive honour from men who would soon pass away. If he could win a place in the future Kingdom at " the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints," that was the only thing worth his anxiety and labour. In this characteristic feature of his life he resembled thousands of good men in all ages of the Jewish and Christian church. The prayerful work of " laying up treasure in Heaven" was his desire. When he found it necessary to come out publicly in Christian effort, he boldly did so, but was glad to get back into private life again. And during his travels he felt a special interest in seeking out and consoling persons who, like himself, had their hopes and aspirations directed with simplicity toward God and Christ. He remembered the hidden but Divinely reserved seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal, but on whom the Lord's good pleasure rested, in old time, and the countless number of good Jews and Christians ever since, unknown to biographers, or to the public mind, but " whose record is on high," and whose names are written in the Book of Life, of the coming era, when they will " be had in everlasting remembrance," and be blessed with the raised saints of the Kingdom in " the new heavens and new earth," which are to succeed this present dispensation.

It is but fair to add, that whilst conspicuous as a missionary and philanthropist, the subject of this memoir was also characterized by a full share of the frailties and imperfections common to humanity. Thus he was often impetuous and irritable, sometimes obstinate, occasionally uncharitable, and always more or less nervous and eccentric.

But these weaknesses, some of which were the results of his physical constitution, render his persevering, prayerful, and laborious life, the more instructive and exemplary. Mere innocence may be exhibited by childhood and infancy, or even by the gentle irrational lamb and peaceful dove. But righteousness, holiness, and advanced progress towards perfection, are only developed amid conflict, temptation, and prayerful resistance. Hence the beauty and interest of such biographies as those of Jacob, David, Peter, John, and Paul, whose struggles and imperfections are recorded in the pages of inspiration, as instructive proofs that their graces were gifts from above, and developed, amid conflict, by the operations of Divine visitation.

Thomas Shillitoe was a good man, but also one of many weaknesses, and to have ignored these would have greatly lessened the value of his peculiarly instructive life.

«lfi$a&&

Chapter II. Youth And Early Manhood

CHILDHOOD AND PARENTAL CARE — THREE YEARS IN A PUBLIC- HOUSE — DEPRAVITY AND VIOLENCE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY — A GROCER'S APPRENTICE AT WAPPING AND PORTS- MOUTH — RETURNS TO LONDON — JOINS THE FRIENDS — DIF- FICULTIES IN CONSEQUENCE — HIS INTEGRITY AMID SUR- ROUNDING COMPLIANCE WITH THE SPIRIT OF THE TIMES — QUITS A BANK TO BECOME A SHOEMAKER — TRIALS — HIS PRO- SPECTS BRIGHTEN — SETTLES AT TOTTENHAM — MARRIAGE — GRADUALLY ACQUIRES PROPERTY — HIS ULTIMATE RETIREMENT FROM BUSINESS TO DEVOTE HIMSELF TO THE SERVICE OF GOD.

Thomas Shillitoe was born in London in May, 1754, a period when the Dead Sea lifelessness of " the leaden age of England," the eighteenth century, was being in many places roused into an unwonted excitement by the preaching of Wesley and Whitfield. He furnishes us with an illustration of the constantly observed fact that " As the twig is bent, the tree 's inclined," and that personal piety and usefulness are largely dependent on early parental care and godly nurture amid the critical years when abiding habits, for good or for evil, are usually formed. His father was Librarian of Gray's Inn. Both father and mother were earnestly desirous of bringing up their children in a virtuous life. They belonged to the Established Church, and habitually inculcated a due observance of its rites and services on the members of their family. And not merely so, but it was their endeavour, as Thomas tells us, to train him and the other children " in every moral duty." This speaks well for their seriousness and sincerity as the heads of a household.

There may be an outward profession of religion, and regular church or chapel-going ; but all will be in vain, unless truth, kindliness, honesty, industry, and other "moral duties" give evidence of the energizing presence of a Christianity which affects the heart and conduct. That special care in these respects was extended towards the young Shillitoes is further evidenced by the record that they were u kept close indoors, seldom being allowed to go into the company of other children except at school."

When Thomas was about twelve years old, his father found himself unable to continue his duties at Gray's Inn, through the infirmities of approaching age, and therefore, with a view to an " easy life," started as an innkeeper at Islington, as landlord of " The Three Tuns." But, as in many cases since, the life of a publican was not found to be conducive either to repose, to morals, or to real advantage. After three or four years spent in his new occupation, poor Mr. Shillitoe had in one way and another run through his little property, and was glad to resume a quiet life at Gray's Inn once more, as a supernumerary or semiretired official.

It was well for Thomas that his father did not continue in u the public line," for it was already producing a mischievous effect upon his hitherto carefully guarded morals. He was considered old enough to help in the business, and

CHAPTER II.

YOUTH AND EARLY MANHOOD.

CHILDHOOD AND PARENTAL CARE — THREE YEARS IN A PUBLIC- HOUSE — DEPRAVITY AND VIOLENCE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY — A GROCER'S APPRENTICE AT WAPPING AND PORTS- MOUTH — RETURNS TO LONDON — JOINS THE FRIENDS — DIF- FICULTIES IN CONSEQUENCE — HIS INTEGRITY AMID SUR- ROUNDING COMPLIANCE WITH THE SPIRIT OF THE TIMES — QUITS A BANK TO BECOME A SHOEMAKER — TRIALS — HIS PRO- SPECTS BRIGHTEN — SETTLES AT TOTTENHAM — MARRIAGE — GRADUALLY ACQUIRES PROPERTY — HIS ULTIMATE RETIREMENT FROM BUSINESS TO DEVOTE HIMSELF TO THE SERVICE OF GOD.

Thomas Shillitoe was born in London in May, 1754, a period when the Dead Sea lifelessness of u the leaden age of England," the eighteenth century, was being in many places roused into an unwonted excitement by the preaching of Wesley and Whitfield. He furnishes us with an illustration of the constantly observed fact that u As the twig is bent, the tree 's inclined," and that personal piety and usefulness are largely dependent on early parental care and godly nurture amid the critical years when abiding habits, for good or for evil, are usually formed. His father was Librarian of Gray's Inn. Both father and mother were earnestly desirous of bringing up their children in a virtuous life. They belonged to the Established Church, and habitually inculcated a due observance of its rites and services on the members of their family. And not merely so, but it was their endeavour, as Thomas tells us, to train him and the other children " in every moral duty." This speaks well for their seriousness and sincerity as the heads of a household.

There may be an outward profession of religion, and regular church or chapel-going ; but all will be in vain, unless truth, kindliness, honesty, industry, and other " moral duties" give evidence of the energizing presence of a Christianity which affects the heart and conduct. That special care in these respects was extended towards the young Shillitoes is further evidenced by the record that they were " kept close indoors, seldom being allowed to go into the company of other children except at school . "

When Thomas was about twelve years old, his father found himself unable to continue his duties at Gray's Inn, through the infirmities of approaching age, and therefore, with a view to an " easy life," started as an innkeeper at Islington, as landlord of " The Three Tuns." But, as in many cases since, the life of a publican was not found to be conducive either to repose, to morals, or to real advantage. After three or four years spent in his new occupation, poor Mr. Shillitoe had in one way and another run through his little property, and was glad to resume a quiet life at Gray's Inn once more, as a supernumerary or semiretired official.

It was well for Thomas that his father did not continue in M the public line," for it was already producing a mischievous effect upon his hitherto carefully guarded morals. He was considered old enough to help in the business, and

10 THOMAS SHILL1TOE,

was required to serve out liquor and assist generally. Sundays in particular were very busy days with him. But his parents still required his attendance at church ; and it is creditable to them and to their son, that the latter records his remembrance of the still abiding feelings of reverence with which at this period of his life he used to kneel down in public prayer and confession on these occasions. We may believe that, after the past years of earnest endeavour for a godly life, Mr. Shillitoe and his son would listen with mingled feelings to the clergyman's frequent utterance of the suggestive words — " Wherefore let us beseech Him to grant us true repentance and his Holy Spirit, that those things may please Him which we do at this present, and that the rest of our life hereafter may be pure and holy, so that at the last we may come to his eternal joy through Jesus Christ our Lord." As it was an age of drunkenness and profligacy, and as young Thomas tells us, he was " exposed to all sorts of company and allowed to ramble the village unprotected both by day and late of an evening, carrying out beer to the customers, " it may be presumed that he was in imminent danger of losing the freshness of " the dew of his youth." But happily the exposure did not continue long enough to undo the work of his guarded and well-instructed childhood. The father's failure was the son's gain, as it led to his being apprenticed to a more respectable line of life, that of a grocer, at Wapping.

It may appear strange to the reader, that in the allusion to his public-house life, just quoted, Thomas speaks of Islington as " The Village." But that which is now a populous portion of the great metropolis was then a small and straggling suburb. Between it and the City were gardens and fields. At the period of Thomas's boyhood, "The An 2: el " at Islington was a famous rural

7 O O

tavern whither the citizens repaired on summer afternoons and evenings to enjoy themselves. So miserably inadequate was the constabulary of those days, that highway robberies and murderous assaults were everyday occurrences even in and around London. Hence parties were formed, every half-hour, of citizens returning from the Angel to the city, who came home in numbers united for mutual protection. This was the period when Britain was engaged in almost perpetual warfare with other countries for "the balance of power," whilst her own home administration was in an unparalleled condition of disorganization and corruption. Horace Walpole speaks of the then dangers of English locomotion thus — "One is forced to tray el, even at noon, as if one were going to battle." Mr. Andrews, in his work on " the Eighteenth Century," graphically describes such incidents as bludgeon rights and fatal assaults which not unfrequently occurred in Fleet Street and the Strand ; highwaymen attacked chaises in Piccadilly, and escaped by riding over the " watchmen." The mails were robbed by wholesale.

Meanwhile on Hounslow Heath, Hampstead, and such open spaces, the "deterrent" gibbet was displayed incessantly, but only to be regarded as a scarecrow by ruffians of whom the authorities were afraid. In his work on " Crime," Mr. Frederic Hill records the following incident : — "An elderly lady with whom I was well acquainted, and who has not long been dead, had occasion on the wedding excursion of a friend to whom she had acted as bridesmaid, to pass in the dusk of the evening over Hounslow Heath. As they approached a mound they saw, under three gibbets that had been erected there, a group of men whom the travelling party suspected to be highwaymen, and they therefore proceeded immediately to conceal their money and jewels. Before they could effect their purpose, however, the highwaymen, for such they were, presented themselves masked, and, with pistols in hand, succeeded in obtaining possession of several watches, and nearly forty pounds in money, before they were alarmed by the approach of other carriages and obliged to decamp."

In the earlier portion of the eighteenth century there had been formed, amongst the young " bloods," a systematic association for conducting street outrages. Respectable citizens were surrounded by these wild fellows, and obliged to dance round at their pleasure, obedience being enforced by pricking their legs with the points of swords worn by the young " gentlemen." Often worse followed, noses were slit, skulls cracked, and limbs broken. Long after Shillitoe's boyhood astounding social evils were prevalent in the metropolis and throughout the country ; and yet there are still persons who recur with sentimental regret to the " Good old days of George the Third," those days without order, without legal justice, without gas, without rapid coaches, to say nothing of railways and telegraph ; days when the pulpit was asleep, the bar and even the bench corrupt, the legislature openly purchaseable, and the populace in a general condition of ignorance, brutality, and moral indifference. Men were at any time liable to be torn away from their families by savage press-gangs ; whole crews of honest sailors, just returned from a long voyage, were sometimes obliged to fight for their liberty with the King's officers. Yet a favourite tune was u Britons never will be slaves." Duelling and fighting were universally in vogue. Drunkenness was more prevalent than at any preceding period. It was inscribed in large letters outside the publican's houses, at this period, that persons might get drunk for a penny, dead drunk for twopence, and have straw for nothing, liquor at that time being remarkably cheap and untaxed. All around the coast smuggling afforded a livelihood to thousands. It is recorded that on one occasion a cavalcade of some ten waggons, each drawn by four horses, and all laden with " run " goods, was escorted safely to London by smugglers. On entering the City a pitched battle ensued, in which the revenue officers were obliged to retreat, and the smugglers succeeded in safely housing their spoil. Meanwhile the judges at the Old Bailey and elsewhere persevering] y hung men, women, and children by the half-dozen and dozen at a time ; but the evils of the time continued as bad as ever.

Such were the days of Shillitoe's boyhood; and it v is no wonder that his parents, when able, should have kept him and his brothers " close indoors," except when at school.

Thomas was sixteen years of age when he removed from Islington to "Wapping. But at the latter place he speedily found fresh cause to deplore the mischiefs of intemperance. He had barely been twelve months in the grocery trade when his master, whose drinking habits had latterly increased to an extent winch precluded his prosperity, was compelled to relinquish his business. But having relatives at Portsmouth he removed thither and resumed the same occupation, taking his apprentice, Thomas, with him. The latter now found things worse than ever. Surrounded by profligate scenes of the worst description, he shrunk with horror from the frequent contact with vicious and degraded persons which was now forced upon him, as his master's shop was situated in the lowest part of the town. It is greatly to the youth's credit that, in order to counteract the contaminating influences to which he was daily exposed, he sought to find virtuous companions from whose society he might derive some confirmation in his honest desires after a life of integrity and piety. Both at Wapping and Portsmouth he succeeded in forming some useful acquaintance of this description. But beyond all other means of preservation at this critical period, Thomas ascribes his safety to the continued renewal of serious impressions in his heart, by the visitations of the Holy Spirit of the Lord who had graciously watched over his childhood, and who had surrounded him with a peculiar measure of parental care and protection.