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THE

Evangelical Magazine,

FOR DECEMBER, 1802.

MEMOIR OF THE LATE
MISS HENRIETTA NEALE,
OF LUTON, IN BEDFORDSHIRE.

DURING the few years that have elapsed since the commencement of this Publication, we have repeatedly had to pay a tribute of respect to the memories of endeared relatives who have successively entered upon eternity. In some instances, the persons who have supplied us with Memoirs of their departed friends, have shortly themselves likewise become the subjects of posthumous record. To the person whose exemplary character now claims our attention, we are indebted for an affecting and profitable Biography of Mrs. Elizabeth Ann Chase. By their only surviving sister, we are favoured with the following information respecting Miss Henrietta Neale, who is known to many of our readers as the author of soine excellent publications; and whose amiable disposition and eminent usefulness, rendered her unexpected removal an occasion of extensive and durable regret.

These worthy and very affectionate relatives were born in London, their father being a citizen of the metropolis. Their mother was the only child of Mr. Wilham Whately, a gentleman of Bromley, near Bow, Middlesex. Being left a widow with five young children, she retired with them, first to her own mother's house, and soon afterwards, on the deccase of the latter, to Northampton. Mrs. Neale was descended, by the maternal line, from pious French Protestants, who took refuge in this country from the persecution of Lewis XIV. The favour of God so rested on the family of these oppressed Christians, that it is apprehended never to have been destitute of a seed to serve him; and there is room to hope, that it may continue to be so graciously distinguished. Mis. Neale was truly pious; she trained up her children in the fear of the Lord, with the happiest success; and, through his blessing

See the Evangelical Magazine for October, 1798.
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VOL. X.

on

on her laudable exertions, they discovered, in early years, a love to the ways of Christ.

Henrietta, the subject of this Memoir was accustomed to the important practice of self-examination; and at a time of life when most young people of both sexes are eagerly pursuing worldly amusements, she was thus growing in humiliation and in delightful fellowship with Christ. By committing her daily thoughts to writing, from the age of sixteen, she not only secured the advantage of comparing the frames of her mind at various periods but has transmitted to her surviving friends a fund of instruction and consolation; a selection from which may probably be communicated to the public. When seventeen years old, she thus writes:-" Our blessed Redeemer has said in his word, we must examine ourselves. How little have I been found in that duty! This night I have searched iny own heart. My sins are more in number than the hairs of my head! The remembrance of them is grievous, and the burden intolerable. I should be quite cast down, were it not for those comfortable words, "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest*." A short time afterwards, she adds, “ O Lord, grant that I may be more constant in prayer! What could such a sinner as I do, if it were not for my blessed Redeemer, who laid down his life for such as I am! I cannot but lament how ill I have spent my time; but do thou, O Lord, for the future, enable me to redeem it! for without thee I can do nothing! Wean me more from this world! Yet, thanks to my God, I can say I enjoy more true pleasure in my closet, than any this world can

afford !"

"She found," says Miss Leonora Neale, "nothing gloomy in region. She was naturally of a lively, cheerful, generous, temper; always secking the good of others, as these best know who now lament her loss. The sorrows of her heart, it is true, were often enlarged and poured out before God in secret; yet it was not religion that produced them, but the strong sense she had of her want of more true vital religion, and devotedness of heart to God. She often repeats in her Diary, "I would not give up the pleasures 1 enjoy, for all that the world could afford.”

At Northampton, the family attended on the ministry of the late Rev. John Ryland, A. M. The three sisters al

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terwards joined the church under his care. sion, Miss H. Neale observes: "I was enabled, though in an imperfect manner, yet with composure and comfort, to declare in Zion what God has done for my soul; and was admitted as a member. O that I may walk worthily! May I be like Daniel, whose enemies could bring nothing against him as an accusation, but in the matters of his God!" The compiler of this Memoir, to whom she addressed her printed account of Mrs. Chase, cannot refrain, after eight years of intimate friendship with the deceased, from bearing his testimony to the eminent degree in which the answer to this prayer was exemplified in her uniform temper and conduct. Her life was consistent with her emphatic language, in the following passage of her Diary: "I see so much beauty in Christ, that I long to be with him. Had. I the wings of a dove, I would flee away. Ah, Death, thou art nry friend! thou wilt unbar this prison, and set my spirit free. O, my Jesus! I wish to live, to honour thee on earth! bui I long to die, to enjoy thee to the full !"

After the death of Mr. Chase, in August 1789, Mrs. Neale and her two daughters removed to Luton, to reside in the same house with his widow and three young children. Mrs. Chase devoting her time chiefly to the educa tion of the latter, the attention of her sisters was naturally attracted to the same object; and a very pleasing and instructive volume, entitled "Amusement-Hall," was, in consequence, written by Miss H. Neale, and published in 1794. Her talents and taste for the tuition of children were fully demonstrated in that work, of which a strong recommen-. dation was given in our Magazine for November in the same year. At that crisis, Mrs. Chase made an alteration in her domestic arrangements, which afforded increasing scope to their zeal and talents for education. A friend suggested to her, that, for the heads of a family to give. themselves up solely to the instruction of their own children, would limit the usefulness of one generation, merely to the education of the next; whereas, when one person took the charge of instructing the children of several families, the sphere of usefulness was more proportionate to the degrees of attention that it required. Mrs. Chase, after maturely reflecting upon this hint, adopted it into her practice; first admitting a neighbour's children to share the advantages of her own daughters; and afterwards enlarging her plan, so far as to convert her own house into a boarding-school, Henrietta's exertions. for usefulness kept pace

with

with the opportunities afforded by her sister's arrangements; and, before these became so extensive as to occupy all her time, she published, early in 1796, her Sacred History, in Familiar Dialogues, in three volumes; with a fourth, containing an Abridgement of the Jewish History, connecting the Old and New Testament, in Sixteen Letters. Of this work, which is incomparably the best guide of early youth to an acquaintance with the historical parts of Scripture, an account was given in our Magazine for February 1796.

While the minds of these pious sisters were thus intent upon the spiritual and temporal improvement of the rising generation, they were by no means indifferent to the more enlarged plans of usefulness, which, during this period, occupied the attention of many religious people in this country. The advancement of the Gospel, whether among our ignorant neighbours, the Jewish nation, or the heathen world, excited in their congenial minds a very lively interest. In 1797, Miss H. Neale published a pamphlet, called, "Britannus and Africus; or an Attempt to instruct the Untutored Mind in the Principles of Christianity: in a Course of Conversations, supposed to take place between the Companion of a Missionary and a Native of Africa.” The ingenuity and familiar simplicity which rendered her former productions so serviceable to children, are, in this smaller work, applied to the benefit of Heathen minds; and likewise are well adapted to the advantage of the ignorant multitude in any country. By these various compositions, an earnest desire was excited in the minds of many parents and friends of youth, for the continuance of Miss Neale's literary exertions; but her time becoming closely occupied with the labour of tuition, and being, though with regret, obliged to resign this additional application, their hopes in this respect were disappointed. Of the publication last mentioned, notice was taken in our Magazine for May, 1797; and, at the same time also, of a set of Hymns on the Historical Parts of Scripture, partly selected, and partly composed by Mr. John Neale, of London; adapted to the several Dialogues on Sacred History, published by his sister.

In March 1798, this worthy family, and all their intimate connexions, sustained a severe loss by the death of Mrs. Chase, whose aged mother had departed in the faith only a year earlier. The work of tuition was thereby rendered more laborious to Miss H. Neale and her surviving

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