The Life And Testimony Of Eleanor Freeman

Gospel Standard 1868:

Mrs. Eleanor Freeman, Of Oakham.

The following was taken down from her own lips:

“I was born at Harringwortk, Northamptonshire, in 1787. My father was a cottager.

[This is a local term, and does not signify a poor person who lives in a cottage, but a class of small farmers peculiar almost, as I believe, to the Midland counties. A “cottager,” then, is one who rents a small farm, varying from live to about twenty acres, which he mostly cultivates with his own hands and those of his family, his stock generally consisting of two or three cows (from which he makes butter and cheese), and perhaps a few sheep, besides a portion of arable land. There is not a more honest, industrious, hardworking, and independent race, in the Truest sense of the term, than these cottagers, who form a link between the labourer and the large farmer. No young men make better farm labourers than their sons, and no young women better household servants than their daughters, who seem to take what we may almost call an honourable pride in maintaining the respectable position of their family, as well as being brought up from infancy to hard work and economical living, with the greatest cleanliness of house and person; and it is much to be lamented that, through the increase of larger farms, they are being gradually swept away. Joseph Cooper, of Ashwell, and Francis Grant, of Cold Overton, Rutland, whose Obituaries have appeared in the “Gospel Standard,” members of the church at Oakham, were both of them cottagers, and more excellent specimens of that class could not well anywhere be found. J. C. P.]

I was the second of his five children. At 12 years of age I went into service, in which capacity I remained for a period of about 30 years, in different families, and in some of my places I continued for several years. I was brought up with strictly moral habits, but did not feel my need of anything beyond mere morality until I was getting on for 20 years of age, when an opportunity often occurred of having conversation with a young woman who used to talk to me about my soul. Her words created some concern in my mind, and I became very gloomy and harassed in soul. But I was not able to understand or know the nature of my feelings and exercises until I met with Bunyan’s ‘Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners.’ There I found a little relief, as it showed me that there was a people who had to pass through such things as I was then experiencing.

“Being one day at home by myself, during the daytime I thought I would kneel down and attempt to pray; but immediately these words came to my mind: ‘Your prayer will not be heard.’ I arose from my knees, came down stairs mourning over the state of my mind, when shortly these words were fastened upon my heart with some power: ‘Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth’ (Heb. 12:6), which brought such relief that, for the time, my troubles left me. After this I went on for some time in a religious profession, and used to hear evangelical preaching in the church, but was not satisfied with my state. In the year 1820 I married and came to live at Ashwell, three miles from Oakham.

“As I was not satisfied with what I heard in the church there, it was not long before I attended the Baptist chapel at Oakham, where there was a mixed doctrine preached; but as I had not light enough clearly to discern between truth and error, I was baptized and joined them. 

[This was not Providence Chapel, which, indeed, at that time, did not exist, but belonged to a church which, though it was called Particular Baptist, was yet, as regards doctrine, very General. It was in this chapel, of which the minister at the time was named Hinmers, that Mr. Tiptaft preached once or twice at Oakham, as alluded to in his Memoir, page 78.] 

After a time there was a fresh minister at that chapel, who wished to have open communion; and as I and some others could not hear him, we left, and attended at Providence Chapel, under the ministry of Mr. Philpot. But I felt that his preaching (for a time) was beyond what my understanding had been enlightened to receive, and, as regards experience, beyond what I had experienced in my own soul. But after I had heard him for some time, he one day took his text from Isa. 40:27 to the end. It was especially when he was speaking on verse 28: ‘Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard?’ &c., that my soul was much blessed; and as I walked home, I felt such peace and joy as I had not known before, and such light and understanding came upon the word and upon the things which I had been passing through, that not only was I much blessed at the time, but it has many times been sweet to look back upon.

“A short time after this, Mr. Philpot took his text from 2 Pet. 1:19: ‘We have also a more sure word of prophecy,’ &c. I could go with him from experience, when he was describing the ‘dark place’ of the heart of the Lord’s people, when he said that those who have light enough to see it to be dark are not in total darkness, but yet that many of them had to wait a long time for ‘the day to dawn and the day-star to arise in their hearts.’ I found, this very suitable to my case, and his ministry to be a living and life giving ministry to my soul. As there was preaching only once a fortnight at Oakham, I have often longed for the time to come again, when I might sit under the blessed sound.

“A church was formed at Providence Chapel in March, 1843, and in Dec. of the same year I gave in my experience of the Lord’s dealings with my soul and joined them. It was not considered needful that I should be re-baptized, as the Lord had begun a work in my soul before I went through that ordinance. I found it good and profitable to my soul to be joined with that people in church fellowship, and at times, under the word, I found myself sometimes searched and at others encouraged,

“In the winter of 1858 I was brought into a very distressing and harassing state of mind. The enemy was permitted sorely to work upon my unbelieving heart; and had not the Lord graciously spoken a few encouraging words to my soul at the outset I have thought I could not have held on through the trial. The words were these:

“‘I’ll bring thee through all, to praise me at last.’

“This state of trial and exercise lasted for some weeks; but from experience I learned that my strength was equal to my day; and when the Lord was pleased graciously to bring me out of that state, he made known assuredly to my soul that I should praise redeeming love throughout eternity; which blessed assurance abode with me for some time.

“I had for many years hoped in the Lord’s mercy; but after this trial and blessed deliverance, I felt my soul much more established in the Lord. I still find it to be a scene of conflict and trial, and many things to try my faith; but I have never, since the above precious token for good, been long left without some help from the Lord when in trials, and he has favoured me with some blessed answers to prayer in temporal things. At one time, when reading John 15, the last clause of verse 5: ‘Without me ye can do nothing,’ fastened with power upon my soul, and I have been brought into a more heartfelt experience of that truth than I ever knew before. Those words have also been very encouraging to me: ‘I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.’ Hymn 814, Gadsby’s Selection, was very sweet to me at one time in reading it:

“”Tis mine, the covenant of his grace, &c. Not mine through any creature merit, but through a dear Redeemer. Hymn 448 was also once very sweet to me in reading, and many others have been so at different times.

“I was called to lose my husband by death in 1865, but the Lord has appeared for me and supported me, both with his spiritual consolations and in his providential and temporal mercies; and I can use the language of Hymn 289: 

“‘Thus far my God hath led me on, &c.; and through the Lord’s dealings I have found wrought in me something of the experience of the last verse:

“‘Tis even so; thy faithful love, &c.” 

After the death of her husband, she came to Oakharn, and took rooms, wishing to spend her remaining days near the sound of the gospel, which had been so full of consolation to her under her trials and exercises. She expressed her belief that she should sojourn but a little longer in the wilderness, and said it was her earnest desire to have matters right between God and her own soul, to have her evidences clear of being a partaker of the blessings of his everlasting salvation; and the Lord was pleased graciously to grant her the desires of her soul. She was a very sincere, consistent, humble woman; had a tender conscience, a good judgment in the things of God, was sound in the truth and firm in her adherence to it. She was so quiet and unassuming in her conversation and general deportment that an old and esteemed member of the same church, with whom she lived in much union, used to say, that few persons were aware how many Christian excellences were combined in her.

From the time of her coming to Oakham, which was nearly two years preceding her death, her declining health was evident, and she had long been very feeble before her removal to that place. She chose as a text, to be engraved on a stone to her memory, Ps. 119:89: “For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.” The reason of which was that on looking over the word of God to find a suitable text for her husband’s tombstone, her eyes fastened upon the above passage, and the truth contained in it was so opened up to her mind that she at once decided upon it as the inscription she should wish for her own. The covenant settlements of Jehovah had long been a very blessed theme with her, as being the firm foundation of her hope. She said she had many a blessed help in meditating upon them, and in the “exceeding great and precious promises” quoted in Hymn 329, Gadsby’s Selection; and her mind would be stayed, sometimes for an hour together, upon these two lines, which were full of beauty to her:

“What more can he say than to you he hath said; You who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?” She could seldom get up to worship in the assembly of the saints; but her heart was with them, and the great Master of assemblies was often pleased to feed her soul with some sweet morsel from his word, or she was led back to muse upon his goodness to her through the path of her pilgrimage. She was enabled, in great feebleness of body, to be drawn up to meet with the Lord’s people for worship on Sept. 1st, which proved to be for the last time; and it is believed that she had a presentiment that it would be so. She heard Mr. Knill, from 1 Pet. 1:7, and Matt. 28:19, 20, and saw two persons baptized and added to the church, and said she felt her spirit refreshed by things which she heard, which suited her, especially in the morning.

In the interval of the services she stayed at a friend’s house, near the chapel, with whom she had been united for more than 30 years (which she usually did), and afterwards took her tea there; and on leaving took a very kindly leave of each one of the household, and as she got into the chair to go to her rooms, she looked towards the chapel and said, “Perhaps this may be the last time.” The same friend says (and it is strengthened by some others, and by my own experience), that she was always ready, according to her ability, to remember the poorer brethren; and would give small donations, and show them acts of kindness. [I can testify to the same, as she has given me money for an afflicted sister in the Lord, whom she had never seen, but to whom, from her experience in the “Standard,” she felt much union.]

On Monday, 2nd, her illness commenced; and she had medical advice, and requested her daughter should be sent for, who remained with her. The first few days, she did not express anything very particular about her soul; but was calm, and said that the outer man was perishing, but that she felt stayed, and. had inward support from the Lord; that much dulness of soul and darkness, which she had painfully felt the last few weeks, were cleared away, and she felt that the dear Lord had graciously removed all that stood between and kept her soul from his sweet presence and communion with him. There was manifestly an enlargement of heart, a liberation of spirit, a renewal of the inner man, a going forth of her soul in love, praise, and. adoration toward the Lord for his mercies vouchsafed to her, which increased, until, on Sept. 12th and 13th, her soul was full with the blessing of the Lord, which her weak frame was at times almost exhausted in endeavouring to pour out before him.

Through the night she kept repeating his worthy praise; and to a few spiritual friends who went to see her sometimes, she would say, “Let us praise the Lord, speak good of his name, rehearse his mighty acts. O thou blessed Creator, thou dear Redeemer, and O thou Holy Spirit, to covenant to redeem my soul! O thou blessed Jesus, to shed thy precious blood for my sins, and to make known thy great salvation to me, a poor worthless sinner! To raise me up from the ruins of the fall! ‘Goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.’ Much holy fervour and a sweet savour rested upon her words, and she had suck deep and reverential views of the majesty of God, when she became so exhausted that she could utter no more, that she would say, ” He is so great, he is so good!” Two promises she would, often repeat, which the Lord had made to her many years ago, and how graciously he had fulfilled them: “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee;” and, “I am persuaded that neither life, nor death, nor things present, nor things to come, shall be able to separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus my Lord.” Upon these she would dwell, and the words would hang upon her lips as if she sucked sweet support to arm her against- the enemy.

On Friday she said, “The enemy tried in the night to make death a terror to me, saying, ‘There is the Jordan of death for you to pass through;’ but I said, ‘Yes; but the Lord God of Israel, who divided the waters of the Red Sea, will bear me through. He has died to take away the sting of death;’” and these two lines, from Toplady’s hymn, came sweetly to her support:

“Sweet in his righteousness to stand, 

Which saves from second death.”

She said, “The enemy could gain no ground on any side, for the Lord had hedged me in.” She requested to have that hymn read to her, and said, “Slowly, very slowly. I feel, I feel, I feel the sweetness of every line.” When her friend got to the last verse, she said, “Leave that to me;” and the sweet anticipation with which she uttered it will not soon he forgotten:

“If such the sweetness of the streams,

What must the Fountain be,

Where saints and angels draw their bliss 

Immediately from thee!”

She said, “Who can tell forth all his praise? I lie here, when alone, repeating his mighty acts in the salvation of my soul, and every time I repeat his dear name it sounds sweeter to my ear:“’Thou dear Redeemer, dying Lamb.’ So I can say with that hymn: “‘How sweet the name of Jesus sounds, &c.,’ and feel every word of it.” She would also repeat Hymn 213: ” Salvation! O the joyful sound,” &c.

To a friend she said, when taking a very affectionate leave of, and blessing her in the name of the Lord, “Make light of the trials of the way, my dear; we have a blessed eternity before us.” She was grateful for the very least mercy bestowed or attention shown her. She requested the same friend to give her a cup of cold water, to moisten her mouth; and as she took it she said, in a most solemn and feeling manner, “I should have wanted this through all eternity, but for the grace of God.” Her state was that of sweet peace, her soul was stayed upon the Lord, her trust was in him. She spoke of nothing earthly, nor liked to hear anything but what belonged to the soul. She continued thus favoured, looking forward in the blissful hope of being “ever with the Lord.”

She became gradually weaker, but remained quite sensible to the last, except when her mind wandered a little from weakness, although she could not utter much the last week except a few words expressive of the Lord’s faithfulness. Alluding to the words which she had chosen for her stone : “For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven,” she said, “Let them be well engraved. I have no powers to tell the blessedness that I feel in them.”

On Saturday morning, Sept. 28th, the Lord gave her a gentle dismission from the body, and she was present with him.

On Oct. 2nd Mr. Philpot, our late and beloved pastor, who was then speaking the word of life amongst us, committed her remains to their native dust, in the cemetery here, till the resurrection morn. Several of our church and friends were present, and Mr. P. read and expounded 2 Cor. 5:1-5, and we sang Hymn 472 (which had been blessed to her), verses 3, 6, 7, 8.

Oakham, Oct. 21st, 1867. 

A. F. P. 

————————

Long and frequent observation of many who profess vital godliness, both as regards the lives which they live, and the deaths which they die, has fully convinced me of several things which, as having a bearing on the above Obituary, I trust I shall be excused if I name.

1. I have learnt to see from it more fully and clearly the sovereignty of God, and that both life and death are at his supreme disposal, not only as regards time, mode, and place, but also as regards the way in which his people both live and die. 

2. I have observed that, as a general rule, those who live well die well; and that those who honour God most by their life are most honoured by him in their death; though when I say this, I bear strongly in mind the sovereignty of God, who owes no man anything, and acts as he pleases with and toward his people both in providence and in grace. 

3. I have observed that it is not always those who are thought most of, or best of, in the church, who make the best end. In this, as in many other instances, the first are often last, and the last first. 

4. I have also observed that we are apt to think more of those who have a deep or striking experience, and are enabled to speak of it with boldness and confidence, than of others who may know the things of God quite as well, if not so strikingly, and yet from timidity, or want of a gift of utterance, may be less thought of; and that these upon a death-bed often come out in a more conspicuous and blessed manner than those who have been what one might almost call the idols of the church.

Now, good Mrs. Freeman was just one of those characters who make very little show in a church, but are really both its pillars and its ornaments. It will be seen, from the above account, that her experience was neither very deep nor very clear; but it was real, it was genuine, it was wrought in her heart by a divine power, and it manifested itself in an upright and godly walk, a great firmness in and love to the truth,, and a spirituality of mind and conversation. I valued her much myself from the great quietness and consistency of her walk and demeanour; but it was more from the report and high opinion entertained of her by my Ashwell friends, who were well acquainted with her spiritual worth, than my own observation. But her last days, from the sweet account given above, have brought forward more prominently her real character; and, as is truly observed there by a friend, “many Christian excellences were combined in her.” The ornaments of our churches are not the great talkers, but those whom Hart calls “broken hearts and humble walkers.” “We look too much at gifts; the Lord looks at grace.” We admire a faith of assurance; the Lord admires a faith of obedience. We admire the language of the lip; the Lord admires the silent language of the heart; we admire a ready gift in prayer; the Lord admires sighs and groans which cannot be uttered. Thus we need not wonder that a simple, humble, godly woman, like good old Mrs. Freeman, should arise and shine upon her death-bed when the glory of the Lord arises, and is seen upon her, when others, perhaps, who might seem by their gifts to outshine her in life, may leave behind them no such bright and blessed testimony in death.

In making these remarks, I have no personal meaning or allusion to any church, or individual, but merely drop them as having occurred to my mind in connexion with the above Obituary, and as an acknowledgment of the goodness and grace of the Lord, and a slight tribute to the memory of a truly godly woman. 

Joseph C. Philpot