Page:Black Jacob, a monument of grace.djvu/44

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jacob hodges.

the public preaching on the Lord's day To all these, he gave the most strict attention. Considering his age and past habits of life, his improvement was really astonishing. In nothing was his advancement so great as in the knowledge of divine things. He was evidently taught of the Spirit, and daily grew in grace and every Christian virtue. His temper, which had been uniformly rough, and at times almost indomitable, became subdued and tender. At the remembrance of his sins, he would melt almost in a moment to penitence and tears; and, as he saw more and more of the Saviour, he was filled with gratitude and love. He was most obviously a new creature in Christ Jesus. The profane, drunken murderer, immured in his cell, was a broken-hearted penitent, a man of prayer. His prison now became a Bethel indeed.

It was here that I first met him: I shall never forget the day; it was the 4th of July, 1827. Having been engaged in religious services during the morning, in the