During this time the Sunday assembling of the church in the wilderness
was repeated as often as the safety of the congregation would permit.
These were Dr. Beaumont's halcyon moments; the refreshing balms which
enabled him to support his public and private affliction. The terrible
death of Humphreys had made a great impression in the village, the
outrageous blasphemies of the self-condemned reprobate in his last
moments, and the utter inability of the various teachers of different
opinions who gathered around him, to tranquillize his disordered
imagination or quiet his alarmed conscience, led the beholders of that
heart-rending scene to recollect, that no such occurrence had taken
place during the quiet ministry of him who had preached the comfortable
doctrine of God's universal acceptance of penitent sinners, and who had
ever aimed rather to reform their lives than bewilder their
understandings or influence their imaginations. Many of the neighbours
who wanted courage to attend his more public services, visited the
Doctor by night, and besought his instruction as a preceptor, or his
judgment as a casuist.
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