The Life And Testimony Of Sophia Hardy (Voss)
Gospel Standard 1862:
Sophia Voss was the twin sister of the late Thomas Hardy, a well-known and highly-esteemed servant of God, and was born July 22nd, 1790, at Kirby Lane, in the parish of Kirby Muxloe, a little village four miles west of Leicester. Her father was a stocking weaver; and having a family of 13 children, seven sons and six daughters, she was of course not favoured in her childhood, if it be a favour, with much of the goods of this life. It is not exactly known when the Lord was first pleased to begin his work of grace upon her heart, but it appears to have been about the same time that convictions of sin first laid hold of the conscience of her twin brother Thomas, which was, according to the Memoir prefixed to his “Letters,” when he was about 13 years of age. At that period they were both very regular attendants at the parish church, and were sunk in the same depth of ignorance as the whole of the village, over which the darkest cloud seemed to rest. Nothing like the sound of truth reached their ears from the parish pulpit; and what light they could get from men’s books was not very extensive, when we are told that the entire library to be found in their father’s cottage was, besides the Bible, the Whole Duty of Man. This last book, we learn, Thomas Hardy took great delight in reading; and as he and his sister were always much attached to each other, and seem to have been led much in the same path of working at the Law for life, she might probably have laboured as hard as he to fulfil the duties prescribed by that strict task-master and most zealous servant of Moses. But in the kind providence of God, there was another book in her father’s library, the Book of books, which she was led to read, and it was from this pure word of life that convictions of sin chiefly reached her conscience, for the Lord the Spirit was pleased to send home some portions of it with killing, condemning power to her soul. In the light of this teaching from above, she began to see and feel what a sinner she was; for the curses of the holy law of God were sent home with such power to her conscience that she sank into the deepest distress of soul; and so far from getting any comfort from the Scriptures, wherever she opened them she found something to condemn her and bring her in guilty before God. One circumstance particularly aggravated her distress. She could see the grace of God shining forth in her brother Thomas; and as she was the elder, it was impressed upon her mind that she was an Esau; he meanwhile drawing a similar conclusion against himself from seeing the work of God plainly in her. Under these feelings she almost sank into despair; but after she had been for some time under this deep distress, she one day threw herself down on the bed quite in an agony of mind, not knowing what to think or what to do, when these words suddenly came with power to her soul, “Daughter, go in peace; thy sins are forgiven thee.” This filled her soul with comfort and peace, and in the strength of this she walked some time, until this temptation fell upon her mind, that the words in the gospel were “Son,” not “Daughter.” But this temptation was soon after removed in reading the Epistle to the Ephesians, which was much blessed to her soul. It seems that she had been labouring under the law for about four years before she obtained deliverance, as she was at this time about 17 years of age. By the hard labour which he had endured under the law, her brother Thomas was now much divorced from the Establishment, to which, however, he clung as long as he could; and his convictions of its unscriptural character were much strengthened by reading Simpson’s Plea for Religion, and by hearing ministers of truth at Leicester. As they both saw eye to eye in these and kindred points, they now began to walk together far and near in search of truth, though at this time neither of them was so deeply led into it us to have a clear discernment in whom it was, though they had a sufficient experience to give them clearly to see where it was not.
At this period her brother Thomas seems to have been before her in the knowledge of the truth, so that his conversation and opening of the word were much blessed to her; and it was by his advice that she was led to attend regularly the ministry of the late Mr. Vorley, who at that time preached at Leicester; and after a while she was baptized and joined the church under his pastoral care. At this time her brother Thomas had not begun to preach; but having been previously much exercised about the ministry, in the autumn of 1816 he began to expound the Scriptures in a private house at Leicester. Being possessed of great natural abilities, having been well and deeply exercised in his own soul, and having a great knowledge of the word, and a peculiar gift in opening it up, a congregation gradually gathered at the poor shoemaker’s house, in which he first spoke in the name of the Lord, so that in about a year after he moved with the people to a school-room in Millstone Street. We have no exact particulars when Mrs. Voss was first led to sit under her brother’s ministry; but as a chapel was built for him in 1818, in York Street, Leicester, where he preached regularly, it was most probably about that time that she became one of his constant hearers.
It was upon one of these occasions that her surviving partner, Mr. Voss, first met her. As Mr. Hardy knew him, he asked him, after preaching, to accompany them home to Kirby. On the road, Mr. Voss began to tell her some of the dealings of the Lord with his soul, which opened her heart and mouth to speak also of the way in which the Lord had been pleased to lead her. The mercy of God to such a hell-deserving sinner as she felt herself to be in calling her out of darkness into his marvellous light; the Lord’s teaching her the worth and value of her precious soul, and his distinguishing love in giving the Son of his bosom to bleed and die for such sinful wretches; the condemnation which she had felt from the law in her own conscience, and the mercy of being so condemned, as when delivered from it to know experimentally the pardon of sin, and not to be condemned with the world, all this she told out from a feeling experience in her own soul, which created and cemented a spiritual union that afterwards formed the best and truest basis for their union in the flesh, when they came together March 2nd, 1819.
We have not sufficient materials to give a detail of her Christian experience throughout the remainder of her days, and can therefore only throw together a few scattered hints which have been communicated by those who well knew her, and especially by her surviving partner; but from the very first beginning of the work of grace upon her soul, and all through her subsequent life, she was much led in a path of temptation and trial. Amongst the temptations which she most deeply and acutely felt were infidel suggestions which from time to time assailed her, even to a short time before she was finally delivered from them by passing into the eternal enjoyment of those heavenly realities, the truth of which Satan battled so hard to dispute her out of. But these temptations, and the many deliverances which the Lord gave her from them by the application of his word with power to her heart, only resulted in her deeper establishment in the truths of the gospel, as well as in a more thorough conviction of the depth of the fall, the helplessness of the creature, and the superabounding of sovereign grace over the aboundings of sin. These temptations and deliverances much endeared to her Hart’s hymns, which for seven years, in the earlier part of her life, she always carried in her pocket, and many she committed to memory, having had, to use her own expression, “many a feast from them.” It was also her lot to pass through a good deal of trial and affliction, from the cares and anxieties of a large family, and from having had at various times much illness, and, like her twin brother, suffering much from nervous feelings and depression of spirits, though outwardly to all appearance stout and strong. As the Lord does nothing in vain, and all the trials and afflictions which he sends upon his people are meant to work together for their good and his glory, as a result of this path of tribulation she was blessed with much tenderness of feeling toward the Lord’s tried and tempted people, especially the young whom she saw passing through much conflict of soul. Having herself been so deeply exercised in the days of her youth under the law, and having been shown such terrible things in righteousness, it gave her great sympathy for those who were passing through similar exercises, and an assurance for them which they could not have for themselves that the Lord would appear for, and deliver them in his own time and way. She was also favoured with a very tender spirit toward all that truly feared the Lord, being very much kept down in her own soul by daily discoveries of the corruptions of her heart, and was thus instrumentally preserved from pride and self-righteousness, and that harsh, condemning spirit which is so often seen in those who have not been led into a deep knowledge of their own vileness. But though she was so much tried in her own mind with a sense of her own corruptions and the temptations of her unwearied adversary, she did not like to speak about them, except now and then to give a hint or two to those of the Lord’s people who she knew could enter into them from a feeling experience. But speaking one day of these temptations to a friend, she said, “I little thought when the Lord first spoke peace to my soul that such evil thoughts and temptations would follow me through the wilderness; but I have lived to prove the truth of those words, ‘Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these.’ All this, however, makes me cry out, ‘Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?’ But how blessed to be able to add, ‘I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ ‘My soul through many changes goes;’ sometimes into the depths of darkness, then up to the heavens. The Lord knoweth what is best for me. May he give me faith to trust in him at all times, even when I walk in darkness, that I may stay myself on the Lord.”
Having had a large family, and having seen much of the distinguishing grace of God to herself and, as she believed, to four of her brothers and sisters, she felt very deeply on behalf of her own children, earnestly desiring to see a work of grace upon them; but knowing so thoroughly the helplessness of the creature, and being well assured that none but the Lord could savingly touch their hearts, she brought them to the footstool of mercy in the arms of prayer. Speaking of her exercises on this and other points, her surviving husband says of her in a few mementos which he has put down of her experience: “She did not like to say much about her troubles to any one, even to me, but took them all to the Lord. I have often found her upon her knees, committing her cares and anxieties to the Lord; and when deliverance came, she would say, ‘In my trouble I called on the Lord, and he heard me. O how faithful he is to all his promises to me, and to all that call upon him in truth in time of trouble.’ Sometimes in conversation about our children, I have said, ‘ I fear your heart is too much set upon them.’ But she would answer, ‘Can a woman’s tender care, Cease towards the child she bare?’ And again, ‘Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?’ I have prayed for them and taught them, ‘Children, honour and obey your parents;’ and I hope the good Lord will yet hear and answer my prayers for them, that he may give them his grace, call them out of the world, and show them what they are by nature. I have given them every caution against the allurements of this world, and the temptations to which they are exposed in it. I beg of the Lord to keep them upright in all their dealings as in his sight; and I have warned them of the danger of prosperity, which puffs up man to give himself the glory, instead of giving it to the Author of all good.’ On hearing that the Lord had brought her firstborn child to a knowledge of the truth, she burst out, ‘Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.’ She then quoted that hymn of Kent: ‘There is a period known to God.’
It has been named before that she was liable to attacks of illness, and especially to severe and distressing bilious headaches. On one of these occasions, about 30 years ago, when laid on a bed of affliction, and not able to raise her head from the pillow, the Lord made himself very precious to her soul by applying some sweet promises to her heart. She said on that occasion, “How kindly the Lord deals with me to give me these sweet promises, and especially these two: “I will make your bed in all your sickness,’ and, ‘I will lay underneath you mine everlasting arms.'”
In the winter of 1859, coming from chapel, from which she was never absent if she could possibly get there, she slipped and broke her leg. During this affliction, she was so blessed and favoured in her soul that she said, “My bed is not a bed of suffering, but of down. What a thing it is to have a God to go to! I am in better hands than those that are about me. God will take care of me.” She would often speak of the support which was given to her at this time, and the confidence she felt, adding, “Out of all our troubles the Lord will deliver us.” Though advanced in life, she seemed to have recovered perfectly from this fracture; and as she had two sons settled in London, was lately in the habit of spending a part of the year with them, during which season (though with much personal inconvenience at her time of life, being in the Kent Road) she used to attend at Gower Street; and often spoke of the sweet seasons she had been favoured with there, especially in conversing with some of the Lord’s dear people who with herself, as coming from a distance, used to spend the day there. Though she often complained of her deadness, darkness, and coldness, yet others could see that the life of God was much maintained in her soul up to the very last, for her conversation was almost always upon the best things, either lamenting her unfruitfulness, or speaking of the Lord’s past and present dealings with her, and exalting his great and glorious name.
But though her path was, for the most part, one of trial and temptation, yet from time to time she had blessed manifestations of the Lord’s love and goodness to her soul. Thus, on one occasion, when she had been praying for a view of the glory of heaven, these words were sweetly applied to her heart, “At my right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” But though this gave her a sweet assurance of her future participation in these pleasures, she still felt that she must wait the Lord’s appointed time to enjoy them. At another time, when reading Romaine’s Walk, Life, and Triumph of Faith, she said, “This has often been a comfort to me when I have had a sight of the wretchedness of my heart, and have been crying out, ‘Can ever God dwell here?’ that the very sense of my own sinfulness has caused me to look more away from sin and self, to the fountain opened for all sin and uncleanness.” She then repeated those lines:
“The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in his day,” &c.
At another time, speaking on death, she said, “The Lord does not give dying strength until a dying hour:
‘If sin be pardoned, I’m secure.
Death hath no sting beside.’
My blessed Redeemer hath swallowed up death in victory. It will not be death to die. When I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I shall then fear no evil, for his rod and staff they will comfort me. He hath been with me in all my troubles, and he will not leave me when I pass through the river Jordan. The billows may roar; but Christ will say to the storm, ‘Be still!’ Although I am the chief of sinners, he is all my salvation, and the blessed covenant is all my security. My prayer is that the Lord will give me his presence when heart and flesh fail.”
About two years ago, on reading Paul’s blessed declaration, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,” &c., (2 Tim. 4:7, 8,) she said, “How sweet this is to my soul, that he says this crown of righteousness was not only to be given to him, but ‘unto all them also that love his appearing.’ I truly love him and his appearing, for the great love which he hath shown to my soul.” At another time, after reading Acts 20, she said, “What love Paul had to the church of God, and the church for him! But how little there is of this in our day! How cold, for the most part, is our love to the ministers of Christ and to the brethren. O that the dear Lord would warm our hearts and give us more love to one another.”
At another time, after she had been, reading how David in the strength of the Lord overcame all his enemies, she said, “David was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. O how I want Jesus to reign over me, and put down all my enemies that daily war against me.”
On another occasion, speaking one day of the love of God, she said, “It is too great to be fathomed. Paul speaks of ‘the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of the love of Christ;’ but he adds, ‘it passeth knowledge.’ How this love of God,” she added, “is spoken of, (Rom. 8) as so great that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from it, as being in Christ Jesus our Lord.” quoted that line of Kent:
“‘Without a bottom, brim, or shore;'”
and then added:
“‘But this I can say: He loved me so well,
He lay down his life to save me from hell.’
O for more of that precious love felt and enjoyed in my heart, that I might glorify him in life and in death.”
On another occasion, after she had been reading her brother’s “Letters,” she said, “How little my knowledge is when compared with his in the things of God! But he had a great work to do, and but a short time to do it in. Thanks to the dear Lord for what he has taught me.”
One day, when her husband was reading 1 Thess. 5, she stopped him after the words, “Pray without ceasing,” and said, “How blessed it is to be favoured with this unceasing spirit of prayer. How it shuts out the world, gives victory over the enemy of our souls, and brings in peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.”
At another time, after reading in the Psalms, of which she was very fond, she said, “What a blessing it is that the Psalms have been left upon record for the profit of the Lord’s people! How some passage or other is almost sure to meet them in their various troubles and trials, such, for instance, as, ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him.'”
A much-attached female friend, who was with her in her last illness, which was very short, in fact only a few days, thus writes: “I was with her from Wednesday, Oct. 2nd, to the day of her departure, Lord’s Day, Oct. 6th. In the afternoon of Wednesday, I asked her how she felt, and if she found Jesus a safe Rock to rest on. Her answer was, ‘He hideth himself from me, which is very painful to me; still, I am hoping for a return of light.’
“After this for two days, from the nature of her complaint, her mind seemed rather wandering and, as it were, childish, so that not much could be obtained from her, or indeed said to her, on the things of God and the state of her mind. But even then, every now and then she was observed to be lifting up her hands as if to heaven, and speaking with a whispering voice, as though engaged in prayer. Satan evidently was not permitted to torment her mind, as she appeared to be quite calm; but we were hoping that the Lord would grant us the favour of hearing her speak something more before she left us. Our request was granted. About C o’clock on the Saturday evening, she became so much worse in body that I thought she could not last many hours longer. But she still appeared very calm in her soul, and, when she could speak, said, ‘What cheering words are these!’
Her speech was now beginning to fail; but she repeated the words as well as she could, adding, with much evident delight, ”Tis with the righteous well.’ She then added, with much feeling, ‘Jesus, my all, to heaven is gone.’
Many things were then said to her; but as her speech was now become more affected, she could make but little reply; but, from her countenance, was evidently favoured with the presence and love of God. Her dear husband asked her if she had any promise to rest upon. ‘Yes,’ she at once replied, ‘More happy, but not more secure, The glorified spirits in heaven.’
At times, when asked if she found Jesus a firm staff to rest upon whilst passing through the valley of the shadow of death, she warmly answered, ‘Yes.’
“Though she could speak but little in answer to many things said to her, yet she appeared to be realising that promise, ‘Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end.’ About 7 o’clock, her speech was so far gone that she could not make herself understood, though she tried hard to speak. But now and then we caught just a single word, as, ‘Blood,’ ‘Pray,’ ‘I will;’ and she seemed to be much engaged in secret prayer; and so she continued till she very quietly and calmly went off, as we fully hope and believe, to enjoy for ever the presence and glory of that blessed Lord whom she loved so well when here below.
“Though she was thus, as it were, suddenly removed from us, yet her mind was evidently being for some time prepared for the great change, for it was observed that after her return from her visit to London last summer, she was often singing the hymn, ‘Yes, I shall soon be landed, On yonder shores of bliss.”
“One day, when I called to see her, she said, ‘O how I do love to sing that hymn,’ and then sang it through. It seemed then to me as if her mind was being prepared for the great change. I said to her one day, ‘What a mercy it is to know and feel that all true religion is the gift and work of God.’ ‘Yes,’ she answered, ‘the reason why so many concerning faith make utter shipwreck is because their religion is not the gift and work of God. They have not the current coin of heaven.’
“I may add that she was a great reader of the ‘Standard,’ and found much comfort and instruction from it, especially from the letters and pieces of the late Mr. Congreve, of Bedworth, and John Rusk.”
Though we have given for the most part but fragments, yet, that nothing may be lost, we just add a few things which her surviving partner has called to mind of what dropped from her lips at various times; though of course many choice things that she said have escaped his memory. Thus, speaking one day of the Holy Ghost under his title of the “Remembrancer,” she remarked, “What a blessing it is that the Holy Ghost should thus be our Remembrancer, to bring to our mind the precious things of God, that we, left to ourselves, so often let slip.”
At another time, when she had been reading about the two disciples going to Emmaus, and how they afterwards spake to each other, “Did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures?” she said, “Has not our heart also burned within us when he has talked with us by the way, and he has opened his word up to us?”
At another time, when reading of Peter’s denying his blessed Lord and Master, she said, “O what power that look of love had which the Lord gave Peter! How he felt it in his very heart. It is the same power now which melts down our hearts, fills us with contrition, makes us weep over our sins and the wretched evils of our heart. What is so strong as love to cause us to walk humbly and tenderly before the Lord? It lays us low at his feet, makes us hate sin and watch against it, and to cry earnestly to the Lord to keep us from evil, that it may not grieve us. How sweet to us it makes the name of Jesus, who loved us and gave himself for us, and has left us such precious promises as this: ‘Because I live, ye shall live also.'”
“Sometimes,” her husband says, in the communication with which he has favoured us, “when I have been brought down very low in my own soul, and have at such seasons looked to her to give me some consolation, she has said to me, “He is the God of all comfort, and can lift up all that are cast down. It is most blessed to bring your troubles to the Lord, and to lay them at his dear feet, believing that he will order all our steps and all our goings in his paths, that we slip not. He goes before us in providence and in grace. How blessed it is to know this experimentally and feelingly for ourselves, and to see by faith that ‘known unto the Lord are all things from the beginning.’ He has said that ‘the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him.’ And he has promised that he will show us this secret, for he has said, ‘The Comforter shall take of mine and shall show it unto you.'”
“She said once to me,” writes the same female friend who was with her to the last, “‘How few ministers seem to know how to handle the precepts of God’s word,’ meaning that either they enforce them in a legal spirit, or else pass them altogether by, as if they had no place in the word of truth.”
Having been so long and deeply exercised in her own soul, and having had many gracious deliverances, she had a very sound judgment upon the truths of the gospel, and a discerning spirit into the ministry of the word. Having so much internal conflict, she was much kept from that trifling, unbecoming gossip about everything and everybody, and that light, vain conversation which is so prevalent in the professors of the day; and knowing well the deep corruptions of her own heart, she was at the same time much preserved also from that harsh, censuring, condemning spirit which marks others. Thus, when young people joined the church, she would sometimes say, “The Lord will carry on his own work of grace in their hearts; but often these younger ones will be spying out the failings and infirmities of us older ones. But by and by, when they are led into a deeper knowledge of their own hearts, their cry will be, ‘Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe.'”
The writer of this little memoir has been obliged to put it together as well as he could from what has been communicated to him by her surviving partner and a much-attached female friend who knew her intimately and was with her in her last illness; but he himself was well acquainted with her for more than twenty years, and has had at various times a good deal of conversation with her upon the things of God, having a great esteem and affection for her, and a union of spirit as one taught of the Lord and led into the foot- steps of the flock. She had a very pleasing and easy way of expressing herself, and was very free to speak upon the things of God where she felt a spiritual union; and her speech was for the most part at these times seasoned with salt, as the simple utterance of a believing, exercised heart. She was indeed, in his judgment, quite a mother in Israel; having a great love and affection for the family of God, much sympathy with the tried and tempted, and full of kind, warm, affectionate feelings toward the poor saints of God, especially when she saw the mind and image of the Lord conspicuously manifest in them. He never heard her speak in any boasting, presumptuous, or vain-confident way of herself, as it was a spirit which she abhorred; nor harshly nor unkindly of others; but was always willing to take the lowest place as a vile sinner, saved, and saved only, by sovereign grace.
She will be much missed by the church of Christ at Trinity Chapel, Leicester, of which she had been for many years a most highly-esteemed and valued member, having joined it July 20th, 1845, and to which she felt much united, having found it a home during the latter part of her pilgrimage. She was enabled, by the Spirit and grace of God, to walk in union and communion with the members, and to set before them an example of a life and conversation becoming the gospel, and the long profession (more than 50 years) which she had made of her faith, hope, and love in the glorious Person and finished work of the Son of God.
