I will now close my observations for the present year, by stating the harvest home festival was celebrated on the 3rd of September.
“The way of the Lord is in the sea, His paths are in great waters, and His footsteps are not known.” “He bloweth with His wind, and the waters flow.” We have recently witnessed some terrific gales—November, 1864. Six steamboats have put into Lowestoft harbour with a great number of dead cattle on board. The judgments of the Lord are a great deep, who can understand? Many scenes of affliction, disappointment, sorrow, and death beset our path. Martha Bone, of Ryburgh, Norfolk—my wife’s eldest sister—suddenly called away by death, reminding us again to prepare with all earnestness, for “Behold! the Judge standeth at the door.” May the Lord, in His mercy, give us grace to be so prepared.
I have now before me a charge to a Dissenting minister jotted down:
1.—Preach Christ crucified, and dwell chiefly on the blessings resulting from His righteousness, atonement, and intercession.
2.—Avoid all needless controversies in the pulpit, except it be when your subject necessarily requires it, or when the truths of God are likely to suffer by your silence.
3.—When you ascend the pulpit, leave your learning behind you, if you wish to preach more to the hearts of your people than to their heads.
4.—Do not affect too much oratory. Seek rather to profit than to be admired—a timely, wholesome, affectionate, and salutary charge.
The Sabbath Schools Union festival was celebrated on Mr. Crabbbe’s lawn, on Tuesday, August 16th, 1864. The harvest was begun about a week before.
After a lapse of nearly four years, Mr. Samuel Abbott, of Lowestoft, is again invited to take part in the good work at Carlton Chapel.
The foundation-stone of the new chapel at Mutford Bridge was publicly laid on the 30th day of May, 1865, by Mr. Chew, of Norwich. There was at the time a strong cold wind, blowing from the west, yet a good number of friends were present on the occasion. On the 28th June died Martha, the wife of John Bullard. During the latter years of her life, she walked in the ways of the Lord. Her conversion was considered to be brought about by the revival and other religious services at Carlton Chapel.
The Oulton Chapel (Mutford Bridge) was opened for public worship on Tuesday, the 12th of September. Mr. Miller preached in the afternoon; then afterwards a public tea in the chapel was held, and addresses given in the evening. The services at this house of prayer are still continued, and many have found them “times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.”
An inquest was held at the “Wherry” Inn, on the 25th August, before F. B. Marriott, Esq., on the body of William Codling, aged 16 years, who was drowned by the upsetting of a boat in Oulton Dyke, on Tuesday, August 22nd, 1865. Here are again some of the joys and sorrows that beset and bestrew our pathway. A company of young lads think themselves competent to manage a sailing boat, but coming home at night the boat upset, its occupants were immersed in the water, and one of the party drowned.
Among the events noted down of this year, 1866, the death of Ann Challis, my wife’s youngest sister took place. She had been afflicted for several years, and died on the evening of the 22nd January. On the same evening, Charles Cutler was accidently drowned in Oulton Broad, he having kept the beer-house at Carlton, near Mr. Bullard’s shop several years. Their bodies were buried on Sunday, January 28th—my sister in law, at Oulton, and Mr. Cutler at Carlton Colville, and on the 31st of December of the same year, died Elizabeth, his wife, so that in their deaths they were not long divided.