Q. C. Camb. Jan. 19th, 1811.
My dear Armstrong,
YOUR letter reached me, as you supposed it would, in the midst of a
“mighty contest,” and I may congratulate myself upon having fewer bones
broken than I might reasonably have expected. In all our Lord’s dealings
with his people, there is the greatest display of wisdom mixed with
loving kindness and mercy; to satisfy _our_ wishes would frequently be
only to administer poison instead of a balsam, and therefore _He_
prescribes for us. With these introductory remarks you may perhaps
expect to hear of some considerable disappointment in my place in the
tripos, but this is not the case; I have had every _reasonable_
expectation answered. I am eleventh wrangler, and the fifth from the
bottom; had I been higher I might have been vain of my little successes;
if lower, I might have felt depressed and discouraged. As it is, I am
not only contented but happy; I wish I could say as much of another of
the Jerramites, but I am sorry to say I cannot; poor C—, though fifth
wrangler, feels quite disappointed, and receives the congratulations of
his friends with a very poor grace. Our good friend Frazer is a man of a
different spirit; he is third senior opt., but is nearly as much pleased
with it as any in the tripos. Johnson is the highest Johnian, who is
tenth wrangler, just one above your humble servant. Dicey, of Trinity,
is thirteenth. The order of the men you will soon see in the _Christian
Observer_, and therefore I need not insert them at large.
I feel quite happy, my dear friend, in having done with every academical
contention. I seem now to have nothing to do but to improve my mind by
the acquisition of useful knowledge, and to prepare for that most
important concern, the sacred ministry. I take it very kind in your
calling my mind to these things in the midst of my late hurry; we are too
apt to be absorbed with the things of the moment, but through the rich
mercy of God, so great has been my composure for some months past, that
the Senate House and all its appendages ceased to be objects of terror or
solicitude. I may account for this in a great measure from my having
fixed upon the curacy which I alluded to in my last. The saving of souls
seemed more important than the acquiring of honours; so that my
mathematical studies were entered upon more from a sense of duty than
inclination; but I must not trouble you with these reflections upon a
matter which is now gone by, though gone for ever!
Adieu, my dear friend,
And believe me to remain,
Your ever faithful
GEORGE MORTIMER.
* * * * *
As soon as he had passed through the Senate House, and taken his degree,
he was desirous of entering, without delay, upon the great work which had
so long engaged his thoughts; early, therefore, in the following month he
accepted the curacy of Wellington, in Salop, of which parish the Rev.
John Eyton was vicar; and in a letter to his sister, dated 11th Feb.
1811, after alluding to the prospect of ordination and of enjoyment with
Mr. Eyton, he says:—
“My way is now clear, and all I want is gratitude to my gracious God
for all his past mercies, and a richer, fuller baptism from above, to
qualify me for the important, solemn duties which will soon engage my
attention. I have been enabled lately to recall some of those lively
feelings which I experienced when I thought of entering into the
ministry; a love for immortal souls, and a desire to spend and be
spent for them in every possible way, in a more constant feeling of
earnest desire than when I was buried under an enormous load of
academical lumber. I suffered myself to bear it as a mean to an end,
but that end being obtained, I shall dismiss the larger portion for
ever; what is useful I shall retain. However, I am now free from
these incumbrances, and shall hope to improve my liberty by turning
the habits thus acquired to beneficial purposes.”
Thus all seemed in a fair way for his immediate removal to Wellington,
when an unexpected hinderance was put in the way of his ordination, by
the bishop of the diocese. Such hinderances, in those days, to the
dishonour of our Episcopal Bench, were frequently thrown in the way of
men both of unimpeached character and of sound learning, to whose moral
excellence and literary qualifications their respective colleges bore
ample testimony; but they were men held in suspicion on account of their
great attention to religious duties, and their warm attachment to the
great doctrines of the Reformation: they were men of scriptural piety,
and of sound Church-of-England principles; but they bore a name of
reproach; they were considered as agitators in the Church, as holding
extravagant views, and as going out of the ordinary path of formality and
heartlessness, which characterized the great body of the Church in those
days. Happily, such prejudices have, in a great measure, passed away,
and no such obstacles exist to the ordination or preferment of men of
such views and principles; not that such men are altogether exempt from
slight and neglect, from discouragement and opposition, on the part of
many of the rulers in the Church at this day; but they are now
constrained by the weight of their character, by their well-known
laborious habits in their pastoral duties, as well as by their wealth,
their influence, and their number, to pay them some respect and
attention; and, blessed be God! there are many of our ecclesiastical
governors who now know the worth of such men, and who afford them all
suitable encouragement and support.
Mr. Mortimer deeply felt this disappointment; but that God was pleased to
make it the means of calling forth the exercise of his Christian grace,
may be seen by the three following letters:—