The Life of Frederick Smith

by: Frederick Smith

Frederick Smith (1757-1823) was not born into the Society of Friends, and according to his own account, spent the first part of his life in great rebellion against both the convictions of the Spirit and the admonitions of his parents. By nine years of age, he had become “a little monster of iniquity,” and by twenty, he claims “there were few that exceeded me in vicious conduct.” But the Lord, in His mercy, met him in the path of destruction and called him down from the heights of his pride and ambition. And though changing his course after such a career of iniquity brought him into many “agonizing tortures” in both family and career, and into judgments mixed with mercy in the depths of his own heart, his life became an undeniable instance of the “washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.” (Original title: Memoirs of Frederick Smith Who Died at Croydon in Surrey The 22nd of The Fourth Month, 1823.)