MEMOIRS

OF

THOMAS SCATTERGOOD,

LATE OF PHILADELPHIA,

A MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST.

COMPILED FOR THE AMERICAN FRIENDS' LIBRARY,

CHIEFLY FROM HIS NOTES AND LETTERS,

BY WILLIAM EVANS AND THOMAS EVANS.

"The memory of the just is blessed."-PROV. x. 7.

LONDON:

CHARLES GILPIN, 5, BISHOPSGATE STREET WITHOUT.

YORK, JOHN L. LINNEY; BIRMINGHAM, H. NEWMAN; BRIGHTON,
A. WALLIS; CARLISLE, SCOTT & BENSON.

1845.

PUBLIC LIBRARY

154370

ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS. 1899

LONDON:

RICHARD BARRETT, PRINTER,

MARK LANE.

INTRODUCTION

BY

THE EDITORS OF THE AMERICAN FRIENDS' LIBRARY.

THE memoranda from which the following account of our beloved friend, Thomas Scattergood, is chiefly drawn, appear to have been penned for the information of his family and his own instruction and improvement, without any view to their being made public. They enter more into private and personal details than would be proper to meet the public eye, and often with a degree of minuteness which would be tedious to the general reader. It was therefore necessary to omit much of this description of matter; to correct some grammatical inaccuracies and sometimes to transpose a sentence for the sake of perspicuity.

The reader will perceive that our dear friend was one of those who knew what it was to be "in deaths oft;" to be brought very low after seasons of Divine favour, and often to partake, according to his measure, of that bitter cup which was drunk in its fulness by his Lord and Saviour. But these seasons of conflict and suffering, painful as they might be at the time, were blessed to him as a means of preservation, and of preparing him, not only to minister more effectually to the suffering and oppressed seed of God; but also to partake more largely of those consolations which are in Christ, when He, in whose hand are the times and seasons, saw meet to change the dispensation, and permit him to partake with his blessed Lord in his resurrection into dominion and glory. Few persons, it is believed, were preserved more steadily in a state of inward exercise and retirement of spirit, waiting on the Lord, or given to see more clearly, or to minister more pertinently to, the states of meetings and individuals,—and few have left behind them more seals to the baptizing and convincing power of their gospel ministry.