2 Timothy 4:13 The cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus, when you come, bring with you, and the books, but especially the parchments. An incident of my own experience has often interested me, and may not be without interest to you. I learnt one evening in London — it was at an evening party at which many persons were assembled — from a friend of mine that a friend of his and mine was lying dangerously, and, as it turned out, fatally ill in his chambers in the Temple. That friend of mine was the late Sir David Dundas, who was for many years in Parliament, and with whose friendship for many years I was favoured. I went down the next morning to ask after him, and, if it were proper, to see him. He invited me, through his servant, into his room, and I found him upon his bed of sickness, feeble, not able to talk much, and scarcely able to turn himself in his bed. We had some little conversation, and in the course of it he offered to me something like a benediction. He said — I remember his words very well — "I have never pretended to be a learned man or a scholar, but God has given me a great love for books." He then referred to the writings of the celebrated Lord Bacon, and taking a quotation from a letter which that eminent person had written to a friend, he turned to me and said, "May God lead you by the hand." That was one of the passages fixed in his mind from his reading of the words of Lord Bacon. Now, that was a solemn hour with my friend — if I may quote a very expressive and beautiful line from one of Scotland's real, but one of her minor poets, Michael Bruce — "When dim in his breast life's dying taper burns." At that solemn hour, reviewing his past life, reviewing the enjoyment he had partaken of, he thanked God for having given him "a great love of books." Two days after that — I think the second or third after that interview — that "dying taper" was extinguished, and my friend passed into the unseen world. (John Bright.) Parallel Verses KJV: The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments. |
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