Memoirs of Mrs. Hawkes, late of Islington. By Catharine Cecil [pp. 239-271]

IMemoirs of Mrs. Hawkes.
obtained?'By his glorious power,' giving strength according to our day.
'With all might.' What does' that mean? WVe shall know' if we follow on
to know the Lord.' When I read the glorious truths of the gospel, my mind is
overwhelmed with their richness and fulness; and I cannot help stopping at
every one, and using the words of that departed saint, Mr. Foster.*' What
does that mean,-and what does that mean!' Lord! teach me by thy Holy
Spirit what thou meanest. Take all impediments to my learning out of the
way; all ignorance, error, unbelief, conceit, and vain imaginations; and fill this
poor, feeble, dark mind, with thy light. Let not the eyes of my understanding
be confined within any boundaries of time and sense; let them not be drawn
down to means and creatures, to second causes, and human contingencies; but
fix them abidingly on thyself, the great First cause, the Governor of heaven and
earth; the invisible, eternal, ever-present God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, in whom I live, and move, and have my being. Am I afflicted? It is
a Father's gentle correcting hand. Am I in want? He knoweth it, and says,
'The world is mine, and the fulness thereof.' Am I in the valley of humiliation? There grows the lily of the valley; and there, blessed be the God of all
grace, have I found that Lily, and derive thence such invigorating sweetness,
as none but myself can know. Would I exchange my pain, my restless nights,
nay, even my sometimes heart-sinkings, with the alternative of losing these
heavenly bestowments? No! not to be made empress of the world. These
are but means of pulling down the walls of the prison-house, from whence the
captive spirit shall soon wing its way to those realms of bliss, which it is now
exploring with feeble faith, and strong desire. I need not say, O my dear sister,
fix your eyes there,-for there they are fixed; and there we shall shortly meet,
to smile at our poor, narrow conceptions of that glory which it has not entered
into the heart of man to conceive."
At this time, Mrs. Hawkes appears to have been peculiarly favoured in her Christian experience. Long exercised
in the school of adversity, she now began to realize in a
larger degree, those " peaceable fruits of righteousness,"
which are the effect of sanctified affliction, Her growth in
humility, resignation, and acquiescence in the divine will,
vas more and more apparent. There was also afforded her,
great comfort and enlargement in reading the Holy Scriptutres, in the diligent study of which she found increasing
delight.
In her journal, January 1818, she observes, "Some of my
acquaintance are ready to reflect upon me, because I can feel
so cheerful and so happy, circumstanced as I am in a certain
relative point of view. And well they might reflect, and
censure also, if I had any joy, but what cometh from God.
In the Lord, in his word, his ordinances, his providence, his
grace, and in his children, —-is all my delight; and in these,
I, in a measure, lose my griefs. 0, blessed be his name, IHe
has chosen mne for himself, and given me grace to choose
Him; and give myself to Him; and 1 am satisfied and re
* The Rev. Henry Foster, minister of Clerkenwell.
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