The Life And Death Of Thomas Small
Gospel Standard 1868:
Death. On June 16th, 1868, in the 77th year of his age, Mr. Thomas Small, for many years minister of the gospel at Sherborne, Dorsetshire. His end was peace.
He kept his bed only for a fortnight, although he had been decaying very much for the last twelve months. The last two or three months of his life he suffered greatly in body from a cancer, which, together with debility and a broken constitution, was the second cause of his death.
After leaving Sherborne, he met a few friends who valued his ministry at his own house at Longburton, and spoke once a day on the Sabbath until the last fortnight of his life. When friends visited him in his bedroom, he could not say much to them, being too weak. He said he hoped they would be kept from the delusions of the world and from the false religion of the present day. His work was done, and he appeared to have much sweet communion with his God. He died without moving, and it did not appear to his son and daughter (who were watching at his bedside) for some minutes that he really was gone.
During his ministerial life he was a man that set his face like a flint for the honour of God, of which many that knew him could testify. I recollect hearing him many years ago in Bristol, in the late Mr. Symonds’s pulpit, from those words in the Revelation: “Because thou sayest I am rich,” &c. And whilst he was faithful to the word of God and his own conscience, his ministry being solemnly separating, yet, with a sacred sweetness, he would draw forth the heart’s affections of the poor and needy; and where he could discern the moving of spiritual life he would give the greatest encouragement, his own words often being that a drop of water was the same in quality, though not in quantity, as the vast ocean.
He was a just man, and feared God above many.
“The sweet remembrance of the just
Shall flourish when they sleep in dust.”
T. S.
Bath.
Thomas Small (1791-1868) was a Strict and Particular Baptist preacher. He served as pastor for the church meeting at Sherborne, Dorsetshire.
