"And to such a prayer I can most cheerfully respond, Amen."
"But do you not think," added Mr. Ingleby, "that the spirit of liberality is gaining ground among us?"
"I hope it is; but there is very much land yet unoccupied."
"True, but there have been some large inclosures made within the last half-century. Your London Missionary Society, which breathes such a catholic spirit, has brought together many of the children of God who were scattered abroad; and the British and Foreign Bible Society has bound them together as with a threefold cord, which the demon of bigotry will never be able to burst asunder."
"I think your remarks are correct; but I want to see more of the spirit of liberality of sentiment and feeling which is often expressed, and often applauded at our public meetings, brought into expression and practical operation in social life. I want to see Christians of every denomination mingling together, not in the costume and with the spirit of their distinctive order, but in their more dignified and exalted character, as disciples of the Lord Jesus. I want to see them disposed to merge the trifling distinctions in the more important consideration of their relative union to each other; and if the spirit of contention is to prevail among us, let it be the spirit which Paul inculcates, when he exhorted the Hebrews to provoke one another to love and good works."
"Your sentiments," replied the pious rector, "exactly accord with my own; and though I do not expect that the spirit of bigotry will die and be buried before I am called to rest with my fathers, yet I hope, when standing on the top of the celestial hills, to witness her interment, and then, in ecstasy, I will respond to the joyous shout which earth will raise, when she exclaims, 'Bigotry is fallen—is fallen!'"
"I have just had the pleasure of an interview with Mrs. Allen."
"Ay, she is an eminent saint. How is she, Sir?—I am now going to see her."
"She appears to be drawing near her latter end, but I do not think there is any prospect of an immediate change; she is in a most heavenly frame of mind."
"When I first knew her, which is now near twenty-five years ago, she came to live with me; but her temper was so violent, and her enmity to the gospel so inveterate, that I was obliged to part with her. After she left me, she went to live with a dissolute gentleman in the neighbourhood, when the seed of the kingdom, which had been unconsciously deposited in her heart, sprang up; and after remaining in her situation for a few months, she returned to my service, and never have I seen a more manifest proof of the efficacy of Divine grace."