Читать книгу The Life and Letters of the Rev. George Mortimer, M.A - John Armstrong - Страница 6

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Dawlish, near Exeter, Aug. 12th, 1809.

My dear Sister,

You are, no doubt, returned from Broadstairs, and enjoying the pleasures arising from quiet and regular movements, and now and then, perhaps, in the midst of your retirement a thought wanders towards Devon, and you begin to wonder “what has taken the little fellow that he does not write.” I confess, time has glided on so insensibly, that I was not aware how long I had been here; I shall really feel sorry to leave my present situation, for I never spent five weeks so agreeably before. I lodge with good people, who do all they can to accommodate me. I make progress in my studies, which is another source of gratification, and I am situated in the midst of a country the most diversified and beautiful. As it is quite new to me, and I may probably never visit it again, I avail myself of the present opportunity of seeing everything worthy of notice, and since my purse will not allow me to enjoy any “leathern convenience,” I have commenced pedestrian, and frequently walk from fourteen to eighteen miles a day. I take a syllabus with me, and go over my subject in my mind, so that a peep now and then is all I require: by this method I lose no time, and combine profit with amusement. My stated walks, however, are much shorter, and devoted to relaxation only. But there is another source of gratification which I must mention, and which far exceeds all the rest; it is this, I feel I am advancing in the best of things; religion has an increasing and diffusive influence over my mind; it seems more and more my element, and I am enabled to live in that spirit which a friend of ours on a late occasion attempted to ridicule—I mean a spirit of recollection and prayer; not, indeed, so much so as I could wish, or as I ought to do, but still much more so than formerly. When my time for devotional exercises comes round, it is welcomed as the happiest of the whole day, and my Sabbaths are days of real pleasure and permanent good. May such in kind, though greater in degree, be the happy experience of my dear sister, and may no studies, no employments whatever, be prosecuted, but in subordination to those of a spiritual nature. Religion, I am persuaded, should be everything or nothing; here only a middle course is dangerous. If we profess to admire and to be influenced by heavenly objects, we should prize them above everything; and yet, alas! (O shame to our Christian profession!) to what poor and paltry considerations are they not daily sacrificed! Adieu, my dearest sister; may God preserve you pure and unspotted from the world until the day of his appearing!

Yours, most affectionately and sincerely,

Both in Christian and fraternal bonds,

G. M.