Page:Black Jacob, a monument of grace.djvu/96

This page has been validated.
88
jacob hodges.

even to hear him. I have seen him seized with violent trembling fit the bare mention of that subject.

"He has said to me, 'Master, I do believe that my heavenly Father loves me. but how wonderful it is that he should love me. I cannot love myself: it seems to me that nobody ever sinned against him as I have done."

"Jacob was an earnest Christian. He was constantly examining himself. Every sermon he heard, he sought to apply someway as a test of his own character; and he was never satisfied unless he saw evidence that he was growing in grace. To this end, he was diligent in his use of all the means of grace. Until his health, began to fail, during the present season, he was very rarely absent from any religious meeting; and his familiarity with the Scriptures, acquired by the constant, perusal of them, was truly wonderful When I have met him and inquired after his health, nothing was more common than for him to reply in some such terms