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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 1833, Edition 1 of 1, Page 133, Untitled Article

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      humble and prove me , and to form me to a uniformly virtuous and pious disposition of mind . Thy will be done . But , O God , most merciful , desert me not in the season of trial . Lay no more upon my feeble spirit than thou wilt enable me to bear ; and above all suffer not the wise and useful discipline of thy providence to fail of its intended and salutary purpose . '

      'Sunday evening , April 1471793 . —My prospects are " still dark and gloomy . Scarcely one ray of hope penetrates through the solid darkness , to cheer my benighted and bewildered mind ' . . . A settled dejection lias seized my mind , which unhinges me for business , unfits me for company , and distresses me in solitude . I endeavour to employ myself as busily as I can , that I may not give way to it , nor sink under it ., J am sometimes prone to indulge repining thoughts . Why am I set as a mark for his arrows ? But I submit in silence . Shall the

      thing formed say , Why hast thou formed me . thus ? Whatever my sufferings are , whether bodily or mental , I will still believe that God is good . O God , enlighten my darkness , cheer and support my mind , and either avert from me the evils that threaten me , or impart strength to bear them with firmness arid fortitude / In the year 1792 , he had suffered a great disappointment in not being chosen colleague to Dr . Priestley and successor to Dr .

      Price . In 1794 , Dr . Priestley found that this . country was no longer a safe residence for him , and he accordingly removed to America . Mr . " Belsham was unanimousl y invited to be his successor , as Minister at the Gravel-pit Meeting , Hackney , which invitation he accepted , and entered with a noble zeal and ardour upon the duties of his office . Still he writes thus in his Diary .

      ' Sunday Feb . 1 , 1795 . —I labour under a very strong habitual depression of spirits , in some degree , no doubt , constitutional , but occasioned by the gloomy prospects which still seem to lie hefore me . ' I ought to hold more regular intercourse with the Supreme Being , and a more regular government of my own spirit . I am sure that if I were more watchful in this respect , I should enjoy much more peace of miiid than I can at present pretend to , or hope-for . '

      Jan . 1 , 1796 . —I cannot sufficiently admire the goodness of Divine Providence in not leaving me destitute . In all the changes through which I have hitherto passed in life , I have never been under the necessity of quitting one situation without finding another ready to receive me . I have now a congregation numerous and respectable , and

      my class of young persons increases every week . This is far beyond uiy expectation ; and if I am honoured as the instrument of doing good , my end is answered . God forbid that I should ever be governed by the desire of popularity , or of gain . I sometimes fear that my motives are not so pure as I wish them to be ; but I endeavour always to write and speak as in the presence of God /

      In 1802 j by the resignation of Mr . Kentish , and at the invitation of the congregation , Mr . Belsham became the sole preachei at the . Gravel-nit meeting . In 1805 , on the resignation of Dr .

      Untitled Article

      DIARY OF THE REV . T . BELSHAM . 133

  • Citation
    • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 1, 1833, page 133, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2613/page/5/