Oliver Hatch, my fourth great-grandfather through the line of my grandfather, Ed Sprott, was a London merchant with a thriving business. His sudden death in 1828, when he was middle aged, inspired a sermon at St. Andrew Holborn, his London parish church. Here I have included excerpts from the sermon (which was later printed as a type of religious tract). The entire sermon is presented in a separate post.
Luke xii. 35, 36.
Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning; and
ye
yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when
he will
return from the wedding; that when he cometh and
knocketh
they may open unto him immediately.
The repeated warnings given
by our Lord of the
uncertainty of life, and the
consequent necessity
of habitual readiness for
death, are so important
in themselves and so
interesting to the best feel-
ings of our nature, that, how
lightly soever we may
be disposed to regard them
while “careful and
troubled about many things,”
they cannot be for
ever excluded from our
thoughts.
The very circumstances in
which our life is
passed, the daily occurrences
to which we are ex-
posed, and the unexpected
calamities we are com-
pelled to witness, all
conspire to remind us of the
uncertain tenure of our
present existence, and to
re-echo in our ears the
imposing and solemn ad-
monition of the Prophet
“prepare to meet thy
God.”
When we see a man in the
summer
of his years, flourishing in
all the external signs of
health and vigour, fallen as
in a moment, by the
stroke of death, who among
ourselves shall pre-
sume to hope that his
continuance here is more
secure? — Which of us can
think it safe to put off
for a more “convenient
season” those indispensable
duties on which eternal
happiness depends, and
which, if neglected now, many
never be accom-
plished?
Surely, my Christian
Brethren, if ever there
were a season peculiarly
fitted for pressing this
consideration upon your
notice, it is the present.
When you reflect that one
from among yourselves,
who, when I last addressed
you, occupied his usual
place in this assembly,
mingling his prayers with
yours, — has since been
summoned to the assembly
of the “just, made perfect,”
that ere another sab-
bath dawned upon the earth
his soul had entered
into an eternal Sabbath, you
cannot be surprised,
if with the earnestness of
one whose duty it is to
“watch for souls,” I seize
the opportunity, of ex-
horting you, “as you love
your own salvation,'” to
take heed “lest that hour
overtake you unawares;”
that you will, after the
example of that worthy
man, “let your loins be
girded about, and your
lights burning; and ye
yourselves like unto men
that wait for their Lord,
when he will return from
the wedding; that when he
cometh and knocketh,
they may open unto him
immediately.”
“A double-minded man,” saith
St James, “is
unstable in all his ways.”
Such was not the character of
him whose ex-
ample we have now to consider.
His mind had
its “loins girt about,” in
the strictest sense, with
all necessary and saving
“truth.” His religious
sentiments were carefully
collected, and securely
fixed in the sound principles
of our venerable
Church. Convinced that she
was the authorised
and faithful interpreter of
the Sacred Oracles, he
received her doctrines, not,
indeed, with the blind
attachment of a bigot, but
with the unaffected re-
verence, rational humility,
and heart-felt gratitude
of one who delighted to know
“the truth as it is
in Jesus.” Feeling,
therefore, that any deviation
from her doctrines and
discipline must be as dan-
gerous as it was needless, he
shunned, with a pious
dread, every attempt at
religious innovation, per-
fectly content to “worship
the God of” his “fathers”
in the same pure and orthodox
faith in which the
“glorious company of the
apostles, the goodly
fellowship of the prophets,”
and “the noble army
of martyrs,” had lived and
died.
A man thus alive to the
paramount claims of
religion, and thus attached
to the sacred forms
which it assumed in the
earliest and purest ages
of the Church, was not likely
to waste much time
in canvassing new opinions,
and to risque the sal-
vation of his soul in a masse
of futile speculations.
It was enough for him to know
that the Church,
of which he was so sound a
member, was in all
its essential properties, a
constituent part of the
"Catholic and Apostolic
Church;” and that every
individual in it, whose faith
was evidenced by a
holy, just, and charitable
life, would, by the grace,
of God in Christ Jesus,
undoubtedly be saved.
“Why, then,” he would often
argue, “why should
we let our minds wander over
the wide ocean of
controversy, in doubt and
uncertainty, while the
truth is to be found ‘in the
ark of Christ's Church?’”
Such singleness of heart,
such firmness of re-
solution, and steadfastness
of purpose, as our la-
mented friend uniformly
exhibited, might proba-
bly make him appear, in the
eyes of worldly wis-
dom, too rigid and
uncompromising for the present
state of society; but those
who knew him best had
the best reasons for
believing, that, in maintaining
through “evil report and
good,” those principles
which he deemed the soundest,
he was as free as any
man from the bitterness of
party-spirit, and was
actuated only by the deepest
convictions of a well-
regulated understanding. In
him they could, with
heartfelt satisfaction,
recognise “an Israelite in-
deed, in whom" was
" no guile ;" who, having em-
braced the truth, was too
honest to use any am-
biguous or equivocal
expressions in declaring his
sentiments, and too candid to
have recourse to
bye-ways or plausible
artifices in discharging his
duty. This open and manly
conduct, while it
secured the confidence of
friends, afforded no just
ground for the resentment of
enemies. Indeed,
among those who most
materially differed from
him in principle, there were
few, I believe, who
did not regard him as a
generous and upright
Christian, whose character
was entitled to the re-
spect of every one.
The light of the true
Christian is not
confined to the sanctuary. He
carries it with him
“whithersoever he goeth” and
even though en-
gaged in a daily round of
worldly occupations,
can make those very
occupations the means of
glorifying his “Father which
is in heaven.”
Of this we have a most
convincing instance, in
the case of our lamented
friend.
If any one might plead excuse
for neglecting
the momentous concerns of
religion, or limiting
his attention to it, within
the narrow bounds of
the Sabbath and the
sanctuary, it would be one
whose extensive mercantile
connections seemed
to demand his incessant care.
But he had early
learned to ponder the
important question of his
Redeemer, “what shall it
profit a man if he shall
gain the whole world and lose
his own soul?”
And estimating rightly the
incomparable difference
between the gain and the
loss, he gladly conse-
crated his secular
employments to the service of
his heavenly Master, and
though never “slothful
in business,” was always
“fervent in spirit serving
the Lord.” While he relied
with humble confi-
dence on the merits of Jesus
Christ for acceptance
with God, and confessed that
when he had done
all he could he was “an
unprofitable servant,”
yet that reliance did not
relax but rather stimu-
lated his exertions to abound
in “all the fruits of
righteousness which are by
Jesus Christ, to the
glory and praise of God.”
“Pure religion and
undefiled” shone so
manifestly in the daily trans-
actions of his life, that
without making it the sub-
ject of formal professions,
or needlessly introduc-
ing it into common
conversation, it was suffi-
ciently evident to all who
had the happiness of
familiarity with him, that he
“used this world as
not abusing it,” and valued
it only so far as it
afforded him the means of
attaining to a better.
While many, with much
inferior means, are
constantly aiming at a show
of greatness which
they do not possess, and with
a culpable emula-
tion of their superiors,
straining every nerve to
keep up a fictitious
splendour, insomuch that they
have nothing left wherewith
to “lay up treasures
in heaven;” this good
Christian, actuated by that
charity which “vaunteth not
itself, is not puffed
up,” was content to “renounce
(according to his
baptismal covenant) the vain
pomp and glory of
the world,” that he might
“have to give to him
that needeth.” His many acts
of charity were in
the purest sense
disinterested. Situated as he was,
it is impossible to conceive
him to have been in-
fluenced by the hope of any
other benefit or re-
ward than what he has been
called to receive.
How many hundreds—aye
thousands, of poor chil-
dren in this metropolis--)and
some hundreds of
them are now before us,) owe
it to his exertions,
under, divine Providence,
that they have been
taught the way of salvatiom,
and “brought nigh
unto God*!” How many “poor,
and blind, and
maimed,” and destitute, of
his fellow-creatures
have obtained by his means,
relief and comfort!
These were the objects of his
unceasing attention.
And though ever ready to :use
hospitality with-
out gruding,'” to his
“friends and rich neigh-
bours,” who could make him “a
recompence,”—
he never forgot that these
poor members of Christ’s
body were recommended to him
by the head of
the Church, for this special
reason, “they cannot
recompense thee, but thou
shalt be recompensed
at the resurrection of the
just.”
* The indefatigable and extensive exertions of Mr.
Hatch,
as Treasurer to the City National Schools, are too
well known
to need any detailed account of them here. That a
layman
in his situation should devote himself, as he did, to
the pro-
moting of Religious Education among the children, of
the
poor, is perhaps no more than might have been expected
from
one who felt as he did the value of religious
knowledge.
Neither is it surprising that, attached as he was to
our vener-
able Establishment, he should prefer that system of
education
which unites them to the faith and worship of the
Church of
England. But it may be interesting to those who do not
feel
quite so strongly upon these points as our departed
friend did,
to know that in addition to his religious motives,
which were
ever predominant, he was influenced in the support of
these
Schools by the fullest conviction that if ever the
education of
the poor is to be made a national benefit, it must be
under the
conduct and superintendence of the National Clergy.
The same faith which made
him instruct the ignorant,
clothe the naked, and
succor the destitute, made
him “worship God
in spirit and in truth,” not
only by attending the
outward forms, of religion,
and “walking in all
the commandments and
ordinances of the Lord
blameless” himself, but by
carrying religion into
the bosom of his family, and
like the Father of
the faithful, commanding “his
children and his
household after him, to keep
the way of the Lord,
to do justice and judgment.”
He was not content with
allowing his domes-
tics, if they wished, to be
religious, but consi-
dered himself bound in duty
both to them and to
his Saviour, to exert the
influence and authority
with which Providence had
invested him, to make
them so.
Every opportunity therefore
which was afforded
him, he gladly devoted to the
moral and religious
improvement of himself and
his family, resolving
with the pious Psalmist to
“walk in” his “house
with a perfect heart,”
discountenancing every kind
of deceit and wickedness, and
suffering none but
such as would “lead a godly
life” to be his “ser-
vant*.”
Thus throughout his short but
useful career,
godliness and charity might
be observed mutually
succeeding and aiding each
other, with so much
constancy and perseverance,
that where the duties
of the one ceased, there the
exercise of the other,
began.
Sudden, therefore, and
untimely as his depart-
ture is to us, to him it
could never prove surprise
ing. His “light” was always
“burning:” he
was in that blessed state of
readiness that when
his Master came and knocked,
he could “open
to him immediately.” And it
is a fact which
must ever afford consolation
to those who love his
memory, that the herald of
his Judge found him
not “overcharged with
surfeiting and drunken-
ness, and cares of this
world,” but labouring in
the cause of charity+.
Suitable to such a life were
the manner and circumstances
of his death. It
pleased the Lord to carry
away his servant, as in
a moment, from the discharge
of that work in
which he delighted, to the
enjoyment of its re-
ward. He escaped, by divine
mercy, from the
pains of a protracted
illness. The garment of
mortality easily dropt off,
and the soul fled to his
eternal rest.
+After having attended divine service on
Ash-Wednesday,
Mr. Hatch presided at the Committee of the City
National
Schools, from whence he went home, under an apparently
slight indisposition: the following Saturday
terminated his life.
“Mark the perfect man, and
behold the up-
right, for the latter end of
that man is peace.”
“Blessed are the dead which
die in the Lord,—
they rest from their labours,
and their works do
follow them.” May the
memorial of that righteous
man remain for ever with us !
May it stimulate
our piety, enlarge our
charity, and awaken us to
an active, steady, unceasing
exercise of every
Christian duty; that while we
remember how well
he lived, and how suddenly he
died, we may learn
to be “ready also,” seeing
that “at such an hour
as we think not, the Son of
Man cometh.”
