Digory

Only as a result of my summer holiday in Cornwall did I learn the interesting story of Digory Isbell, a stonemason who, with his wife Elizabeth, opened their little cottage as a preaching station for John Wesley, the great evangelist.

Their gravestone at Altarnun church bears this inscription, which somehow manages to encompass the meaning of Christian marriage, sacrifice, spiritual warfare, obedience, promises and glory.  A kind of introductory course on Christianity written by two lives and a memorial,

Reader, may thine End be like theirs.

From early Life, under the Guidance and Influence of divine Grace, 

They strengthened each others Hands in God, 

uniting to bear their Redeemer's Cross 

and promote the interests of his Kingdom 

in the face of an opposing World, 

thus estimating Scriptural Christianity; 

in Youth, Health and Strength 

their conduct was regulated by its precepts;

in Age, Infirmity and Death 

They were supported by its Consolations 

And in a happy Immortality 

They enjoy their rewards.