Life and letters of Thomas Hodgkin / by Louise Creighton.

  • Thomas Hodgkin
Date:
1917
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Life and letters of Thomas Hodgkin / by Louise Creighton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    inspiration from God, he could have made nothing so perfect as the face we saw. Here God had been the sculptor— one knew it, and knew that the greatest human mind could add nothing which should make His work more perfect. Yet this was not the one whom we knew. Suddenly I realised what life meant. In death we were seeing God’s perfect handiwork, in life we had seen God Himself. It was utterly impossible to believe that the least little pool or backwater of the glorious river of his life with us here, could be cut off or hindered from reaching God’s infinite sea of life. ■f Once speaking of a dear friend’s wish to be cremated, Thomas Hodgkin had said : ‘ I do not agree. I should rather give my body to dear Mother Earth.’ As he had always wished, his body was laid to rest in the Friends’ graveyard at Budock, a few miles from Falmouth. Here, high among the green fields with distant glimpses of the sea, grey walls enclose a quiet space of grass with a few trees. The whole spot breathes of rest and peace. Simple stones tell the names of those whose bodies have been brought there to their last resting-place, amongst them many of the Fox family and other well-known Falmouth Friends. In the dear south country which had brought him so much happiness, rather than amongst the smoke of Newcastle, the scene of his active life or by the wild Northumbrian shore which he had loved so well, it seemed fitting that the body of Thomas Hodgkin should lie. At the side of his grave they sang ' For ever with the Lord,’ and ‘ The sands of time are sinking.’ Friends gave thanks for his beautiful and fruitful life. The little company gathered there could not come as mourners when they remembered the rich harvest of his life, and gave thanks for him who had left them full of days and honours, but whose spirit seemed near them still to comfort and encourage. All could truly join in the prayer of thanksgiving offered by J. H. Fox for ‘ the beautiful life that had been such a help to many.’ Then Thomas Hodgkin’s brother Jonathan spoke as follows : There is a large fellowship of sympathy encircling the earth to-day, as many hearts here in England, away in Aus-