| Martha Gardener, the subject of this memoir, was the mother of James and Jane Gardener, whose happy lives aud triumphant deaths have already appeared in our Magazine. She was born in the parish of Worldham, in Hampshire, in the year 1765, of respectable parents. Her father was a farmer, and died when she was eight years of age, after which the business was carried on by her mother and elder brother. Her mother endeavoured to train her up in the fear of the Lord, as well as she knew how; but when she was sixteen years of age, her mother died also, and she was then obliged to go to service, in which capacity she continued for the next eleven years, living "without hope and with God in the world, being dead in trespasses and sins." She then entered on a married life, and resided at Binswood, in the Parish of Worldham, and as years rolled on she became the mother of eight children. She was a kind mother, and endeavoured to bring up her children to read the word of God. She regularly attended the church and received the Sacrament, but continued destitute of the saving grace of God, until our Missionaries visited the neighbourhood. Her son William observes, "In the year 1831, the Missionaries sent out by the Bible Christian Connexion, came into our neighbourhood to preach the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. My fellow workman who had heard them from time to time, was brought from 'darkness to light, and from the power of satan to God'; and while he was conversing with me, one day in our labour, a word which he spoke, through the blessing of God, affected my heart and convinced me of my awful state as a sinner of the deepest dye, which led me to cry to God for mercy. I then went and heard the preachers for myself and was soon enabled to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ with my heart 'unto righteousness,' and obtained 'joy and peace in believing.' My parents were glad to hear of the change that God had wrought in my heart, by his Holy Spirit, and in conjunction with some of the rest of the family, I requested them to let the Preachers come and preach in their house. My parents consented, and opened their door for preaching; the Missionaries came and proclaimed the word of life, and much good was done in the name of the holy child Jesus; but we had much persecution, and great things were threatened by one who ought to have known better. My father was soon brought to God, and its effects were so visible that the people were led to say be was a changed man. About the time of his death the preaching was withdrawn from our house, but many had cause to praise God that ever they had heard the word of the Lord preached in that place. My Brother James and Sister Jane, as well as many more, were brought to God through the instrumentality of the preachers, and were zealously affected in a good cause and my mother used to say that her children were become her Teachers." In the year 1836 she opened her house for preaching again, and the Preachers came and preached the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified; many "heard the glad sound, and liberty found through the blood of the Lamb;" a society was formed, and among the Mrs. Gardener was brought to feel her need of a Saviour. She then joined with the people of God, and sought the Lord with full purpose of heart, in prayer and supplications at the Throne of grace, both in public and private. Attending the means of grace was her delight; and she soon found out the truth of what her children had told her, that her honesty and uprightness were not religion; and that she must experience a change of heart and be converted, or die to all eternity. She now saw this to be the right way, and that her former righteousness was but as filthy rags in the sight of the Lord. She became humble and teachable, crying to God for mercy; hearing the word preached with prayer and faith; and God Almighty heard her cry, set her soul at liberty by his victorious love, and she was enabled to rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Her cry now was, "come and taste with me that the Lord is gracious." She was delighted to see the people flock to her house to hear the word of God, and oft times expressed a desire to see her house full of believers, exclaiming, "glory to God; praise the Lord; I long to see the salvation of the world." Her son William was the class-leader; and often while he was speaking to her in the class meetings the tears have ran down her withered cheeks, and she has praised God for his goodness towards her, and the mercy repeatedly manifested to her. She was strongly urged to shut out the preaching; but through the grace of God, she retained it till her death. Whilst I have been exhorting her to steadfastness, that by continuance in well doing she might seek for glory, honour, immortality, and eternal life, she has praised the Lord, and taken fresh courage to go forward. She was always glad when the time for attending the means of grace rolled round, whether it were prayer-meeting, class-meeting, or preaching. Sbe was kind to the Preachers, and entertained them whenever they came to her house, and she was always glad to see them. I travelled in the Farnham Mission the last two years of her life, and frequently conversed with her about the salvation of her soul; how she was brought to God at first; the many oppositions she had had to pass through; and that she had proved the grace of God to be sufficient for her, as it had kept her in temptations. She told me that the two last years had been the two best years of her life; that what she had enjoyed of the goodness of the Lord was better felt than expressed; and that she was determined, through the grace of God. to fight her passage through to the mansions in the sky. I exhorted her to hold fast, and sink into God, and lay hold on that precious promise, "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." I John i. 7. I have no reason to doubt for a moment but what her experience was sound, and that she was upon the rock Christ Jesus. She praised God that ever she heard the preachers sent out by the Bible Christian Connexion, and remarked how useful they had been in the hands of God to her family and the people in that neighbourhood. She had a son and a daughter-in-law in London; the daughter-in-law is the widow of her son James, who is mentioned in the commencement of this memoir. She lived in service in London, and Mrs. Gardener had reared up her little boy, and was in the habit of going to London once a year, and taking him with her to see her son and Daughter-in-law. In the spring of 1842, she went as usual. I saw her a short time before she went, and she was then happy and comfortable, and enabled to praise God from a feeling sense of his love shed abroad in her heart. She was then talking about her journey, and before I came around again she was gone. It was a very cold night when she went, and I suppose she took cold. Soon after she arrived at her son's, she was taken i11; a surgeon was called in who told her son that there wes no danger of her recovery, but in a few days she was removed from time into eternity. I believe her son watched with her the night she died, and he said she departed this life in a very quiet and happy state. She was buried in London, on Good-Friday, 1842. |