Companions for a Quiet Hour. PRIVATE THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. BY THE REV. THOMAS ADAM, LATE RECTOR OF WINTRINGHAM. THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY: 56, PATERNOSTER Row; 65, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD; PREFACE. HE Rev. Thomas Adam, author of this volume, was born in 1701 at Leeds, where his father, a lawyer, was town clerk. He received his education first at the grammar-school of that town, and afterwards at Wakefield. Thence he went to Christ's College, Cambridge, and after two years removed to Hart Hall, now Hertford College, Oxford. He was presented to the living of Wintringham in 1724; and though influential friends sought to put him in the way of advancement in the Church, he steadily refused all offers, holding it to be his duty to abide with his flock at Wintringham. He died in March, 1784, in the 84th year of his age. For many years, although Mr. Adam was regular in the discharge of his public duties, and living among the people, "neither his life nor his doctrine," he himself says in his diary, "could be of any peculiar use to them, for he lived in a conformity to the world, and his doctrine was contrary to the cross of Christ." In another place he speaks of his "absolute unfitness for the ministry, his ignorance of Christ, and great unconcern for the salvation of souls." This state seems to have continued for many years. |