The Life and Letters of the Rev. George Mortimer, M.A. John Armstrong

care to prepare for death and judgment. These awful concerns have, for many weeks past, engaged my mind more steadily and frequently than for some years before. I seem to myself as a dying man amidst dying men, and it is my aim to live accordingly. I have heard you say, when you were at college, that retirement and your Bible have afforded you some of the most exalted joys you ever witnessed; these joys have been lately mine. I go up to my little room (which I have fitted up and consecrated to sacred purposes alone), and there I meet my God, find my Saviour precious, and experience the gracious influence of the blessed Spirit. When my hours of retirement come round, I joyfully lay aside everything in which I may be engaged; for I feel, I know, assuredly and experimentally, that I am going up to commune with the best, the most gracious and compassionate of friends. There I leave all my cares and all my sorrows, and come down again to the concerns of life with an unburdened, soberized, and tranquil mind. Blessed be God for all his benefits! I had frequently looked forward to this last year as the most trying of the three, and had imagined that if I found it so difficult to keep my ground before, I should necessarily give way at present; but JEHOVAH has been better to me than my fears, and I have found the truth of that promise, “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.”

      Believe me to be,

      Yours, truly and affectionately,

      George Mortimer.

TO THE REV. JOHN ARMSTRONG.

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      Q. C., Camb., Nov. 19th, 1810.

      My very dear Friend,

      Within a week or two past I have had to thank my God also for many providential interferences; for success in our late examinations; for being kept most mercifully from engaging in something which would have been highly detrimental to me; for the acquisition of a most valuable Christian friend (who is a great helper of my faith, and a very pleasing and agreeable companion; he was, like myself, formerly engaged in business, and also a Methodist); as also for a providential opening of my path respecting my future situation in his church. Of all the places I have yet heard of, this seems most suited to my views and inclinations. It is, Mr. Eyton’s, of Wellington, Shropshire, six miles from Madeley, and surrounded by pious ministers. The vicar is very pious and laborious, of similar sentiments with myself, humble and affectionate. I know three men in Cambridge who are very well acquainted with him and his situation, and they each say that they would go there in preference to any place whatever. My mother and sister (to whom I wrote a few days ago concerning him) met him when in Shropshire; and they advise me by all means to accept of it. I wrote to him lately, and received an answer, which has done my heart good. I have not yet finally settled in my mind, but I shall write either to-day or to-morrow, giving my final answer. I hope to be directed from above. I would not trust my own feelings or inclinations, but in the all-wise Disposer of events. Pray for me, my dear friend, that if I should not be useful there, or in any manner out of my proper place, that something or other may intervene to put a stop to all further proceedings. I am daily obliged to make some little preparation for orders, for Mr. E. is in want of assistance. Should I go to the place, I shall endeavour to be ordained soon after I take my degree; perhaps in a month or six weeks, if I can procure a private ordination. My degree may suffer in some measure, but I cannot help that; we must expect sometimes to be called to make a little sacrifice, but it will all be eventually well.

      Accept my best wishes

      From your faithful and affectionate

      Mortimer.

TO HIS SISTER.

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      Q. C. Camb. Jan. 19th, 1811.

      My dearest Mary,

      My time of anxiety is now completely over. I have just been admitted B.A., and have no more college matters to divide my attention, or call off my thoughts from the grand concern which lays before me. You will wish to know how I succeeded in my late struggle. I have no flaming honours to plume myself with, but through the mercy of God have passed through in such a manner as to afford cause neither for self-complacency nor discontent. I am a wrangler, though eleven from the top. My tutors, I am happy to state, tell me they are quite satisfied with my degree; as it respects myself, I have not the least wish it were otherwise. You would find it difficult to enter into my present feelings. I seem of late to have been like a ship tossed and driven by the fiercest tempests, and in danger every moment of sinking; but now I have gained the long-looked-for shore, and am enjoying for a time those sweets which my temporary leisure affords me.

TO THE REV. J. ARMSTRONG.

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      Q. C. Camb. Jan. 19th, 1811.

      My dear Armstrong,

      Your letter reached me, as you supposed it would, in the midst of a “mighty contest,” and I may congratulate myself upon having fewer bones broken than I might reasonably have expected. In all our Lord’s dealings with his people, there is the greatest display of wisdom mixed with loving kindness and mercy; to satisfy our wishes would frequently be only to administer poison instead of a balsam, and therefore He prescribes for us. With these introductory remarks you may perhaps expect to hear of some considerable disappointment in my place in the tripos, but this is not the case; I have had every reasonable expectation answered. I am eleventh wrangler, and the fifth from the bottom; had I been higher I might have been vain of my little successes; if lower, I might have felt depressed and discouraged. As it is, I am not only contented but happy; I wish I could say as much of another of the Jerramites, but I am sorry to say I cannot; poor C—, though fifth wrangler, feels quite disappointed, and receives the congratulations of his friends with a very poor grace. Our good friend Frazer is a man of a different spirit; he is third senior opt., but is nearly as much pleased with it as any in the tripos. Johnson is the highest Johnian, who is tenth wrangler, just one above your humble servant. Dicey, of Trinity, is thirteenth. The order of the men you will soon see in the Christian Observer, and therefore I need not insert them at large.

      I feel quite happy, my dear friend, in having done with every academical contention. I seem now to have nothing to do but to improve my mind by the acquisition of useful knowledge, and to prepare for that most important concern, the sacred ministry. I take it very kind in your calling my mind to these things in the midst of my late hurry; we are too apt to be absorbed with the things of the moment, but through the rich mercy of God, so great has been my composure for some months past, that the Senate House and all its appendages ceased to be objects of terror or solicitude. I may account for this in a great measure from my having fixed upon the curacy which I alluded to in my last. The saving of souls seemed more important than the acquiring of honours; so that my mathematical studies were entered upon more from a sense of duty than inclination; but I must not trouble you with these reflections upon a matter which is now gone by, though gone for ever!

      Adieu, my dear friend,

      And believe me to remain,

      Your ever faithful

       George Mortimer.

      As soon as he had passed through the Senate House, and taken his degree, he was desirous of entering, without delay, upon the great work which had so long engaged his thoughts; early, therefore, in the following month he accepted the curacy of Wellington, in Salop, of which parish the Rev. John Eyton was vicar; and in a letter to his sister, dated 11th Feb. 1811, after alluding to the prospect of ordination and of enjoyment with Mr. Eyton, he says:—

      “My way is now clear, and all I want is gratitude to my