What Happened to Hattie?
The Non-Conformist minister, William Rogers, died. He was loved and honored for the faithful saint he was. His son, Timothy Rogers, became well-known as a writer of religious books. He produced a book on religious melancholy. He was known as a dedicated Christian.
One evening, Timothy Rogers sat in the parlor of a house in London, visiting a friend of his, Mrs. Tooley, who was famous for her hospitality to those who loved the Lord. He told her the story of how his father, William Rogers, was facing imprisonment, and a little girl named Hattie had come to his rescue. He explained it as being a matter of divine fate.
Mrs. Tooley listened with great interest. “And are you that Mr. Rogers’ son?” she asked.
“Most certainly, I am,” he replied.
She shook her head in amazement, “As long as I have known you I never realized that. I am the little girl, Hattie, your dear father blessed. It made such an impression on me that I could never forget it. Now let me tell you a story.”
Here is the story she told to Timothy Rogers:
Hattie had inherited great wealth from her grandfather and had lived in the lap of luxury. She had spent some time in Bath, a town in England.
Hattie had great emotional problems. She told a doctor friend of hers of the problems she was experiencing, particularly a lack of peace of mind. She told him of the wealth she possessed and how it did her no good in finding peace for herself. She had chronic depression and was at the point of wanting to kill herself.
His reply was that she needed religion.
She replied that she was not a child.
“No, you are not a child. But you have not lived so many years as I have, and you asked my counsel. Now you can take it or leave it, but that is what I think.”
“What do you suggest I do?”
His suggestion was that she should read the New Testament for her health.
She agreed to do it and promised to finish it.
Hattie kept her promise. But she found no peace. Her lack of peace became worse with the passing of time. Still an intense conviction had taken root in her mind that the answer might be from that source (scripture) after all.
One morning, after her return to London, she called to Jane, her companion, “Get ready, Jane. We’re going to church today.”
Jane looked at her in amazement. This was totally out of character for Hattie.
Putting on appropriate clothing, they began walking through the streets. At last, Jane’s curiosity got the best of her.
“Where is the church we’re going to, Miss Hattie?”
Hattie put off her answer as long as she thought she could. Finally she confessed, “I don’t know. During the night, I had a vivid dream. I was sitting in an old church.”
Hattie’s eyes searched the exteriors of every church they passed.
“If only I could find it!” Hattie’s years of frustration was coming to a head.
They passed the fashionable part of town and turned down a narrow lane called the Old Jewry close to Cheapside. Lots of people here all seemed to be going the same direction. Following the crowd, they found themselves outside a little church.
“It’s the one!” Hattie identified it as the one she had dreamed about. She and Jane went through the door and down the aisle toward the front seats. Jane had to fight against the urge to look down her nose at the simple chapel, but she followed Hattie to a front seat. A minister arrived at the pulpit.
Hattie told Jane, “That’s the very man I saw.” Recalling her dream, she said, “If it’s all true, he’ll preach on the text, ‘Return unto your rest, O my soul.’”
The minister prayed, lifting his hands up. Hattie and Jane listened in amazement as he announced his text: “Return unto your rest, O my soul.”
Concluding the story she was telling to Timothy Rogers, she said, “That day I met my Lord and found the rest my soul so long had sought. God heard your father’s prayer. That blessing has followed me all my life, and I doubt not that it will accompany me to the world to come.”
Information Sources:
Calamy, Edmund, The Non-Conformist’s Memorial, 1802 Button and Son and T Hurst, London, England, United Kingdom
Dugger, Andrew, A History of the True Religion, © 1972 Andrew Dugger and C O Dodd, Jerusalem, Israel
Editors, Persecution of William Rogers, Eschatology Journal, Volume 7, Number 1, © 2005 AFSS Corporation, Ocala, FL, United States
Phillips, Wilson, Footprints, 2006 Abundant Life, Springfield, MO, United States
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