Page:James Thomason (Temple).djvu/139

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
PRIVATE LIFE IN GOVERNMENT HOUSE
131

Missionaries, and one[1] eminent among them, who had laboured at Agra, testified thus regarding him: —

'Having watched patiently and attentively the course of Indian Missions and partaken much in the hopes and fears which they have alternately awakened, he was sensibly affected with the report of anything which seemed to make against the progress of the truth; would suggest new plans, and point to fresh directions in which the Christian effort of each labourer engaged in the work might extend itself.

'In us who were strengthened and encouraged by observing in him the marks of the Lord Jesus, I believe that the remembrance of him will live, and will not readily be effaced. Many a distressed and afflicted one can bear witness to the timely help he rendered ... unknown to any but his Father who seeth in secret. His unassuming, reverent and prayerful demeanour was a blessed example to us in this house of prayer[2], of which he was so regular an attendant.'

Notwithstanding his strictness and sedateness, he could be genial and unconventional. He begins a letter of condolence in this wise — 'Well, my dear, the table cloth is just removed, the last sip of wine tasted, even the coffee finished. So let me draw my chair nearer to your side and have a little chat.' Again, alluding to a prescribed time for mourning, he writes: 'It is after all only a conventional period for the

  1. Thomas Valpy French, afterwards Bishop of Lahore. A sermon to the like effect was preached at the same time, 1853, by Archdeacon Pratt in Calcutta.
  2. St. Paul's Church, Agra.