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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 a solemn warning from Jesus, emphasizing the importance of doing the will of God to enter heaven. Jesus reveals himself as the Judge of men, declaring that many will be lost by merely professing faith without true obedience. Mortimer highlights the necessity of seeking grace from God, being born again, and having the Spirit of God to sincerely seek to please Him out of love. The sermon urges self-examination to ensure being born again, washed by Christ's blood, filled with the Spirit, and actively doing God's will to avoid the severe disappointment of missing out on heaven.
Matthew 7:21-23. He Predicts the Rejection of the False Professor.
In this passage, Jesus gave a solemn warning to his own disciples, to those who professed to believe in him, and to those who called him "Lord, Lord." At the beginning of this sermon, he had declared, that except their righteousness should exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, they could not be saved. He had shown that the righteousness of the Pharisees was a mere outward form of religion, and he had warned his own followers against being satisfied with a mere form also. He declared that many would be lost through this sad mistake. "Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name?" and I will profess unto them, "I never knew you." In these words Jesus revealed himself as the Judge of men—even as the Son of God. Now let us hear what our Judge says. He declares that none shall enter heaven, but those who do the will of his Father. Does this make us tremble? Surely we must feel (if we know ourselves at all) that we often sin. But, "doing the Father's will," does not mean never being overtaken by a fault; for Christ declared to his Father in his last prayer for his disciples before his crucifixion, (John 17,) that they "had kept his word." Yet we know that they had often fallen into sin, such as disputing which should be the greatest, desiring to resent injuries, and sending away poor suppliants. But what is it to do the will of God? It is sincerely to seek to please him from LOVE to his name. None do this but those who have received the Spirit of God, those who are born again. Jesus did not explain this subject fully in this sermon; but he said enough to show that we must seek for grace from God in order to be saved. Did he not say, "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness?" and also, "Ask, and you shall receive; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you?" If we would do the will of God, we must seek for new hearts. There is a passage in the epistles, which shows clearly that nothing short of the power of God working in our hearts can enable us to perform any action acceptable in his sight. (Heb. 13:20, 21.) "Now the God of peace which brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, (that great Shepherd of the sheep,) through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever. Amen." These verses show us that the power of that God who raised Christ from the dead, must work in our hearts to enable us to do his will. Neither can we do it, but through faith in Christ's blood, which was shed for us according to his everlasting promise or covenant. Do we dread the idea of meeting with a repulse at the last day? Now is the time to examine whether we have been born again; whether the blood of Christ has washed away our sins; whether the Spirit has been shed abroad in our hearts; and whether we are doing the will of God. It is possible to depart out of this world, imagining we are going to heaven, and after all be disappointed. Many will suffer the severest of all disappointments. Will any of the lost spirits weep as bitterly as those who thought, until the very last, that they were going to be admitted into the mansions of bliss? Jesus would save us from receiving this agonizing refusal. He warns us beforehand not to be satisfied with a mere 'form of religion', but to seek for a new heart and a right spirit.
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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.