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Favell Lee Mortimer
Favell Lee Mortimer (July 14, 1802 – August 22, 1878) was a British author and educator whose evangelical writings preached salvation and moral instruction to children across the 19th century. Born in London, England, to David Bevan, a Barclays bank co-founder, and Favell Bourke Lee, she was the third of eight children in a wealthy Quaker family that moved to Hale End, Walthamstow, when she was six. Raised under evangelical influences like Rev. George Collison, she oversaw religious education on her father’s estates in Wiltshire and East Barnet, deepening her faith after a conversion in 1827. Mortimer’s preaching career took shape through her pen after marrying Rev. Thomas Mortimer in 1841, a popular London preacher whose ministry she supported until his death in 1850. Her sermons emerged in best-selling books like The Peep of Day (1833), which sold over 500,000 copies and was translated into 37 languages, delivering simple gospel truths to young minds with a stern emphasis on sin and hell. Works like Line Upon Line and More About Jesus extended her reach, blending education with evangelistic zeal, while later geographic titles like Near Home reflected her moral worldview. Widowed, she adopted a son, Lethbridge Charles E. Moore, and died at age 76 in West Runton, Norfolk, England.
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Favell Lee Mortimer preaches about the tender love and care that God has for His little ones, even the weakest believers, who are served by angels and are the objects of Christ's saving grace. Believers are compared to infant princes with angels as their nurses, who will one day rise above angels in glory. Each saint is a precious purchase of Christ's blood, sought after and brought into the fold of grace by the Son of God, who will not allow His little ones to perish.
Matthew 18:10-14. Christ Declares How Precious the Little Ones Are in the Father's Sight.
These verses form part of a most interesting conversation that our Lord held with his own disciple in his house at Capernaum. Some passages in that conversation are calculated to alarm the stoutest heart; but others are of the most soothing and endearing nature. How delightful it is to know that God regards with the tenderest love even the little ones of his family! These little ones are true believers, however weak in faith, and imperfect in knowledge. They have angels for their servants. "Their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven." We understand what is meant by this verse, from the declaration of Paul concerning angels—"Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation?" The angels are ministering spirits, or servants—they serve the heirs of salvation—believers upon earth. They may be compared to the nurses of infant princes; for they wait upon those who shall hereafter be greater than themselves. Believers shall, in some respects, rise above angels in the world of glory; they shall stand nearer the throne, and sing that song which none can learn, but those who are redeemed from the earth, even the song of redeeming love. Do we believe that each saint has angels for his servants? Can we then despise any saint? An unconverted monarch may have lords and ladies to attend on him; but a converted beggar has angels to wait on him. How much higher is his state! These angels shall shortly convey his soul into the assembly of the saints, and at the last day shall separate him from the wicked forever and ever. But there is a still higher light in which we may view the saints;—as those whom Christ came to seek and to save. Each saint is the purchase of Christ's blood. As the shepherd with anxious care seeks for his wandering sheep; so the Son of God, by his Spirit, has sought for each believer when wandering among the dark mountains of sin and death, and has brought him into the fold of grace, and has bidden angels rejoice over him. If we ourselves are among the children of God, we have been the objects of all this care. There is none of us that has not gone astray; the holy angels alone have never wandered. We never should have desired to return, had not God sent his Spirit into our hearts. We never should have been able to return, had he not borne us home in his own loving arms. Having taken all this care for us, will he permit us to perish? No! it is not the will of our Father in heaven that his little ones should perish. But for what purpose did Jesus speak of his love to his little ones on this occasion? To remind the disciples of the love they ought to bear to all the saints. The ambition still cherished in their hearts, led them to despise many other believers, especially those who followed not with them; therefore their Master set forth in their hearing the tender love his Father bears to all true believers. Could they despise those whom the Father honored? Whenever we see a believer, however weak and mean, we should consider, "Here is one whom angels serve, whom Jesus came down from heaven to save, whom the Father will not suffer to perish, but whom He guards with his all-seeing eye."
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Favell Lee Mortimer (July 14, 1802 – August 22, 1878) was a British author and educator whose evangelical writings preached salvation and moral instruction to children across the 19th century. Born in London, England, to David Bevan, a Barclays bank co-founder, and Favell Bourke Lee, she was the third of eight children in a wealthy Quaker family that moved to Hale End, Walthamstow, when she was six. Raised under evangelical influences like Rev. George Collison, she oversaw religious education on her father’s estates in Wiltshire and East Barnet, deepening her faith after a conversion in 1827. Mortimer’s preaching career took shape through her pen after marrying Rev. Thomas Mortimer in 1841, a popular London preacher whose ministry she supported until his death in 1850. Her sermons emerged in best-selling books like The Peep of Day (1833), which sold over 500,000 copies and was translated into 37 languages, delivering simple gospel truths to young minds with a stern emphasis on sin and hell. Works like Line Upon Line and More About Jesus extended her reach, blending education with evangelistic zeal, while later geographic titles like Near Home reflected her moral worldview. Widowed, she adopted a son, Lethbridge Charles E. Moore, and died at age 76 in West Runton, Norfolk, England.