The Life And Testimony Of Samuel Cox
Earthen Vessel 1880:
The Late Samuel Cox
For Forty Years A Hearer At The Surrey Tabernacle
We had the honour of speaking a few words over the remains of that venerable man, Mr. Samuel Cox, when his beloved family laid the mortal part in the grave, just at the rear of dear James Wells’s vault in Nunhead cemetery, on Friday, June 18, 1880. We have attended funerals since 1820—sixty years since—we never saw one more respectably or consistently conducted. We refer not to the religions department, but to the decorum, propriety, affection, and honour of the bereaved family. Mr. Wood, the noted Surrey Tabernacle under-taker, had the entire management, which was highly satisfactory. Not “privately for fear of the Jews,” but more for fear of himself, Mr. Samuel Cox had worshipped in what we may call the three Surrey Tabernacles for over forty years, only as a hearer. He was no bold adventurer, but a steady, humble follower of our Lord and Saviour JESU8 CHRIST; and in conversation with him a few days before his decease, we were truly thankful to find that, although he had passed his ninety-seventh year in the wilderness, his faculties were as clear, his conversation as edifying, his faith in the eternal God—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—as sincere and as simple as though he had been in the prime of life, and in the best of health. His one only concern was to realise in his soul’s freedom and enjoyment the CERTAINTY of being found in Christ, with Christ, and like unto Christ in the higher and happier kingdom. His faith for many years had been sharply tried. When we buried his son, the late Mr. James Cox (the once indefatigable chapel-keeper of the Dorough-road Surrey Tabernacle), on that occasion we had free and truthful fellowship with the then extremely aged disciple, and we are persuadecl he died in the faith of that true heavenly Gospel he had listened to, had received, and heartily believed for nearly half a century. We believe he was the oldest surviving friend of the late most intensely beloved Surrey Tabernacle minister, MR. JAMES WELLS.
As we were thinking over his funeral
THREE VOICES
distinctly sounded through the inner regions of thought.
The first expressed the afflicted godly man’s resignation, as found in Job 30:23: “I know that THOU wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.” Job believed God would not leave him to bring himself to death. How many poor wretches, if they cannot have just what they desire, hurl themselves to a double destruction. Our friend, Samuel Cox, for ninety-seven years was preserved from such a calamity; he came calmly, gradually, by the gentle hand of God down into the valley, and without groan or complaint he fell asleep in the body, while the spirit returned to God who gave it. As I attempted to follow the soul, over and over, and over again, the words echoed and re-echoed in me—
“Imagination’s utmost stretch
In wonder dies away.”
The second voice which, with a ray of light I never had before, said, “For so He giveth His beloved sleep.” There is the child of God put to bed by his heavenly Father in a blessed forgetfulness of all the toil and sorrow of the world. I could not express the meaning of this singularly sweet sentence at the funeral; but I do hope the Lord will permit me to give it in a future number, for it soothed, instructed, and satisfied me greatly.
The third voice was this: “And Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.” The three vails here referred to, as hanging between man’s soul and the throne of glory, must also be reserved for next month, if sparing mercy is lengthened out to
Charles Waters Banks.
Samuel Cox (1787-1880) was a Strict and Particular Baptist believer. He was for forty years a faithful member of the Surrey Tabernacle, having witnessed the growth of the congregation under the gospel ministry of James Wells, exchanging three times chapels large enough to accommodate the church. He was as faithful a hearer of the good news as James Wells was a preacher. He was buried at the rear of James Wells’s vault in Nunhead Cemetery.
