CHAPTER XVIII.

"When thinking of any new undertaking, ask, Is this agreeable to the mind of God? Is it for His glory? If it is not for His glory, you must have nothing to do with it. Having settled that a certain course is for the glory of God, begin it in His Name and continue it to the end. Trust in God, depend only on Him. Wait on Him. Expect great things from Him. Faint not if the blessing tarries. Pray, pray, pray. Above all, rely alone upon the merits of our adorable Lord, that, according to His infinite merits, and not your own, the prayers you offer and the work you do will be accepted."

A

George Müller.

LMOST over-powering," writes Isaac Sharp, "were the congratulations on my safe return to England. It well-nigh overcame me, and yet I felt the love wrapped up in it, and the inward thanksgiving with praise to the Lord for His preserving care."

It must have been cheering to Him to be told by Dr. Bell Taylor that his eyes were wonderfully little altered since he had last examined them. By the advice of a friend he had an interview with an aurist, which he thus describes in a letter to his daughter :

"How old are you?'

"On the verge of eighty-eight.'

"He said not a word, but up went both his shoulders with a start as if suddenly electrified. Then he looked at both ears. 'The left is better than the right,' said he. Then came his quaint and concentrated dictum: 'Let them alone and buy a trumpet.' Much of what is said to me comes to me as a murmur; not so when anyone is near me with a clear, gentle voice."

EIGHTH AND LAST VISIT TO NORWAY.

261

He had not been at home a fortnight before he set out for his eighth and last visit to Norway. Dr. R. H. and Anna Thomas and he travelled together. Writing from Stavanger, he says: "There were two crowded meetings yesterday, larger, they say, than for years, many of the townsfolk coming in, among them a man of gentlemanly appearance (once a pupil of Asbjorn Kloster), who sent a sketch of an old man's wanderings to an evening paper and suggested that the said old man was to be present at the Quaker's meeting on Sunday. The two meetings were held in much solemnity, 'visiting Friends' and others taking part. The Spirit of the Lord was manifestly in our midst. I am favoured to feel abundantly satisfied of being under the guiding hand of the Lord."

The little sketch of Isaac Sharp published in the Stavanger People's Newspaper, contains these quaint words : "When we look upon this modest little man and listen to his burning zeal for the word of God, it is as if one stands before one of the patriarchs of the Bible."

A young Norwegian who was present at these meetings wrote of them as "blessed" times, and of the great joy it was once again to hear "dear old Isaac Sharp." He adds: "Dr. Thomas is a highly-gifted man. His winning manner and his joyful, bold preaching make him a powerful instrument in his Lord's service. I believe that the visit of these Friends will be a great blessing to the Friends in Norway."

On the 15th of June, 1894, Isaac Sharp writes: "I have a peaceful retrospect of Kvinesdal. The journey was toilsome and strength-testing, but it is a joy to have been there. Dear old Tollay Roisland, one year younger than myself, rejoiced at our meeting once more. Simple-hearted kindness abounded to the full and the tokens of welcome were many and cheering. Thorstein Bryne was with me. We were in an open boat last evening for about four hours; it was cool at night, not to say cold; two overcoats were not too much, plus a rug over the knees. The moonlight

and the residue of departed daylight made the travel easy. The westerly wind died away, and we got to Flekkefiord between ten and eleven p.m. I got to bed at midnight. Rheumatic pain and weakness of the knees were present a good deal on this journey. The days as they pass

in this brief visit to Norway, leave a deep impress on my spirit of the loving-kindness of the Lord, bringing to remembrance in lively appreciation the first visit here with Edwin O. Tregelles and John Budge well-nigh fifty years ago!"

At that time, some of the Friends in Norway were subjected to a severe persecution. In one place Isaac Sharp now found, built on a wooded knoll among the mountains, near a fiord, a charmingly situated meeting-house, which had taken the place of a house, no longer standing, in which a small room reached by a ladder had served as a place of spiritual worship.

This visit to Norway was but a short one. On the 29th of June we find him in London, and in his diary he writes: "Rose betimes, took the train at Aldersgate for Camden Road Station; walked from thence to the well-known 312, and had a brief converse with my beloved friend J. B. Braithwaite before the bell rang. Only four sat down at the breakfast table, prior to which J. B. B. read a morning portion, and it fell to my lot to offer prayer for the dear absent mother and her husband, and all belonging to them present and absent to the third generation. My heart was expanded largely in love, and utterance was given to it with much tender feeling and in wide embrace."

His homeward journey to Ettington was a fatiguing one as from incorrect information there was a long delay. In recording this he adds the remark, “After all, though very disappointing, it is not so bad as a broken leg."

The carriage was very warm. A pleasant gentleman sat opposite, who proposed to have the window closed because he was just out of a Turkish bath. Now Isaac Sharp had a weakness for Turkish baths, and this

A CENTURY'S PILGRIMAGE.

263

topic soon led to further conversation, and the stranger remarked that he had not known that the Society of Friends had any missionaries. Isaac Sharp told him of his own call to the work of the Lord-a call he realised to be direct from Him. "How do you know the call?" was the next question, in reply to which Isaac Sharp gave him a little of his own experience. They had some further conversation on spiritual themes. One of the texts quoted by Isaac Sharp was, "Hereby we know that He abideth in us by the Spirit which He hath given." "I think," said the gentleman, "I shall take those last words as the text for my sermon to-morrow."

Soon afterwards Isaac Sharp writes: "Many of my friends say I look wonderfully well. I often am sensible, nevertheless, of the inevitable effect of added days and that manifestly diminished power may come at any time, yet there lives in my heart an abiding consciousness that the Lord of life and glory is abundantly able to renew my strength from day to day, and grant ability for the completion of the service still before me in often remembrance for visiting the South of France this autumn, and Syria, should it be so, prior to the Yearly Meeting of 1895."

A call on the aged Elizabeth Hanbury, at Richmond, was much enjoyed by Isaac Sharp; it seems, indeed, to have been as a brook by the way to both. She was then (1894) in the first year of her second century.* Her visitor noted that the old sweetness and brightness of expression accompanied her smile. She spoke of her great comfort in her surroundings and was well able to sustain a conversation with the aid of her tube. She quoted with emphasis the text, "Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to His mercy He saved us." She had felt great interest in her visitor's pilgrimages and alluding to the service still lying before him in the South of France and Syria, she told him of her comfort in believing that strength would be given him for its fulfilment.

* Elizabeth Hanbury is still living, 1898.

Before they parted, these aged servants of the Lord spoke together with deep interest of the perpetual presence of the Lord Jesus.

At the Quarterly Meeting held at Newcastle, Isaac Sharp gave a résumé of his recent distant service, beginning with the words, “O, magnify the Lord with me!" Dr. Thomas Hodgkin afterwards remarked that to some it might seem a pleasant thing thus to travel in foreign lands, but such a journey in advanced life was a journey of dedication in the service of the Lord.

A week later, in one of London's busy streets, the kindly, courteous old man pauses to interchange a few words with a lady friend, who at parting said: "I often think of a sermon of thine in 1867. It has been a help to me all the days since then." He was cheered by this remark which brought to his memory another made half-a-century ago in the Shetland Isles, "Eternity alone will reveal what these meetings mean.”

At home again at Ettington, he is pleased by a most kind and friendly call from Dr. Nason who thought his former patient was not looking a day older than when they last met, and he reminded Isaac Sharp of the words he had spoken then, "I go at the call of the Lord for life or for death."

In a letter written about this time Isaac Sharp gives a story of an earnest old woman, a Wesleyan, who when told there was to be no meeting on a certain night, quietly made answer, "Yes, there will be." When, on her return she was asked how many were there," Oh," said she, reverently, “it was a blessed meeting. There were four of us." "Four?" "Yes, four, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and me, a glorious meeting!"

In August, 1894, Isaac Sharp attended a Farewell Meeting with the missionaries bound for Madagascar. It was presided over by John T. Dorland, and Isaac Sharp was asked to sit beside him. The missionaries were William and Lucy Johnson, and Ernest Robson. A year or two