SABBATH EVENING AT FAIRMOUNT.
I n the estimation of Mr. Stevens, who was educated within the pale of the Church of England, and who had imbibed from his parents an intolerant spirit, the Dissenters were unworthy of the toleration which had been granted to them; as he believed they were decidedly inimical not only to the religious, but the political constitution of the state. Hence he often blamed the government for granting them so much religious liberty. And even after he had felt the spiritual change, which forms the great line of distinction in the human character, he retained, for a long time, too many of his old prejudices against them. But, becoming an active agent of the Bible Society, he was unexpectedly brought into contact with some whom he found to be men of sense, of piety, of zeal, and of candour; more disposed to disseminate the pure faith of Christianity, than propagate their own peculiar tenets. He now rose superior to his long indulged antipathies; and though he still gave a decided preference to the church of which he was a member, yet he felt convinced that there were many wise and good men belonging to other religious communities. As he was by nature of an open and generous disposition, the spirit of liberality found in his heart a congenial soil for its growth and expansion. He would often repeat, with peculiar warmth of expression, the following verses:—
"Be that bigotry far from our breast,
Which would Christian from Christian divide;
Which by blind party zeal is caress'd,
The offspring of folly and pride.
"Names, parties, and sects disappear,
With their separate int'rests and laws,
No name, but of Christ, would we bear,
No int'rest but that of his cause."
Happily for him, and for the neighbourhood in which he lived, his pastor, the Rev. Mr. Ingleby, was a man of a most catholic spirit, who viewed the circumstantial differences which prevail among Christians as of little consequence, in comparison with the more important truths on which they are agreed. He felt a stronger attachment to the Redeemer than to the formula of the church of which he was a minister; and though he was a man of order, and conscientious in the observance of all ecclesiastical laws, yet he thought that the Word of God ought not to be bound by human restrictions.
As the population of the parish was large, and the gospel was not preached within the distance of two miles from Mr. Stevens' villa, he, at the suggestion of his amiable lady, conceived the design of building a small chapel in its immediate vicinity, for a religious service on Sabbath evenings. He was aware that he should subject himself to the sarcasms, if not to the contempt, of the more fashionable and bigoted; but he esteemed the reproach of Christ a greater honour than the applause of men; and seeing the people around him perishing for lack of the knowledge of the way of salvation, he thought it his duty to do all in his power to make it known to them. But he did not venture on the execution of his plan till he had first consulted his pastor, who, instead of censuring him for his zeal, or presuming to silence him for not possessing the mysterious charm of office, grace, encouraged him to proceed. "If," said the holy man, "you can get the people to love the gospel in the evening, they will soon come to church to hear it in the morning; and if they should be converted through the instrumentality of lay preaching, they will love the Saviour as much, and be at last as happy in heaven, as though the great change were produced through the instrumentality of clerical preaching."
The chapel was built on an elevated spot of ground near the roadside, so that it was visible from the most populous parts of the hamlet; and though the building of it gave great offence to a few, yet it pleased the majority. At first, Mr. Stevens read a sermon to the congregation; but after a while he composed discourses, which he delivered extempore; and being a man of reading, and of a ready utterance, his labours gave very general satisfaction. Some of the thoughtless had become serious, and some of the dissipated had become religious, which he considered a satisfactory proof of the Divine blessing; and though he was much importuned by some of his friends to abandon what they called his wild project, and resume his more orderly habits of a regular churchman, yet he steadily refused to do so. His reply to the gainsayer was, "The love of Christ constraineth me."
"Yes, and he reaps the fruit of all his toil,
He sows the seed, and God has bless'd the soil;
He sees the wicked man forsake his ways;
The scoffing tongue has learned to perfect praise;
The drunken quits his revelry and strife,
And meekly listens to the word of life;
The noisy village, wanton and profane,
Grows neat and decent, peace and order reign;
At length wide districts hail the gospel rays,
And the once savage miner kneels and prays;
Through his dark caverns shines the heavenly light,
And prejudice grows silent at the sight."
On the Sabbath evening we were at Fairmount, the Rev. Mr. Morris was expected to preach a charity sermon for the school which was established and superintended by Mrs. Stevens. He came early in the afternoon, and after tea, while he withdrew to prepare for the pulpit, I retired for meditation; and in passing through the hall, my attention was arrested by a female, who was waiting with her little girl to see Mrs. Stevens. She informed me that her parents had never given her any religious instruction; that no one ever taught her to read the Scriptures, or keep holy the Sabbath day; and that, till recently, she had no expectation of living in another world after death. When about eighteen years of age, having lost her father and mother, she married a soldier, who belonged to a foot regiment, and she was permitted to go with him to the continent. While sojourning among strangers, she was exposed to the most extreme hardships; but her greatest trial was the death of her husband, who was killed just before the birth of her child. After his decease she returned to England, and settled in her native village; where, like the majority around her, she lived without God, without Christ, and without hope, till after the erection of the chapel. Having often felt the disadvantages of her inability to read or write, she resolved, if possible, to give her child an education; and as soon as she heard of the establishment of this school, she applied for her admission, and her request was granted. The children were taught in the afternoon of the Sabbath, and they usually attended the public service in the evening, with their parents.
On one occasion Mr. Stevens addressed his rustic audience from the following words: "Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?" (John iv. 29). As he proceeded to unveil the hidden mysteries of the heart, the conscience of this widow began to smite her; she could not imagine from what source he had derived such an accurate knowledge of her character and history; she felt self-condemned; and had it not been for the invitation which was given to the weary and heavy laden, to come to Jesus Christ, she must, to quote her own language, "have gone home in despair." But the wound was no sooner inflicted than it was healed; and though her views of the scheme of salvation were circumscribed, yet they were clear, and operated with so much force on her moral character, that she was become a new creature in Christ Jesus.
Thus, while the sons of science pour contempt on the gospel as beneath their notice, and the patrons of ecclesiastical order condemn all departures from the restrictions and limitations of human authority, yet its history demonstrates that the God of all grace will employ it as the means of converting sinners, even when it is preached by men who have not studied theology within the walls of a college, and also when it is preached in places which have not been invested with the charm of human consecration.
From the garden in which I was walking I had an extensive view of the surrounding country, and watched with peculiar delight the people advancing in every direction towards the house of prayer. It indeed was a lovely sight! The old and the young, the healthy and the infirm, the poor, and a few of the rich, were pressing onward, with eagerness and decorum, apparently conscious that they were going to worship the Lord of hosts.
The children commenced the service by singing a hymn, composed for the occasion; and such was the effect which it produced on the crowded congregation, that many wept—not tears of grief, but of joy. The Rev. Mr. Morris preached a very judicious sermon, from the words of Solomon: "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Prov. xxii. 6). When enforcing on parents the importance of training up their children in the way in which they should go, he said, "You may be denied the gratification of seeing any immediate advantage resulting from your labours; but you ought not, therefore, to conclude that they will prove useless. The religious principles which you instil into their minds may lie concealed for a long time without being destroyed, as the seed which the husbandman casts in the ground remains inactive till called forth into expansion and growth under a mild and genial influence. They may be striking root, and shooting up into active life, at the time when you are despairing of ever reaping the reward of your labour." He illustrated and confirmed these remarks by a quotation taken from Cecil's Remains. "Where," says Cecil, "parental influence does not convert, it hampers. It hangs on the wheels of evil. I had a pious mother, who dropped things in my way. I could never rid myself of them. I was a professed infidel; but then I liked to be an infidel in company, rather than when alone. I was wretched when by myself. These principles and maxims spoiled my pleasure. With my companions I would sometimes stifle them; like embers, we kept one another warm. Besides, I was here a sort of a hero. I had beguiled several of my associates into my own opinions, and I had to maintain a character before them. But I could not divest myself of my better principles. I went with one of my companions to see the Minor; he could laugh heartily, but I could not. The ridicule on regeneration was high sport to him—to me it was none; it could not move my features. He knew no difference between regeneration and transubstantiation. I did. I knew there was such a thing. I was afraid and ashamed to laugh at it. Parental influence thus cleaves to a man; it harasses him; it throws itself continually in his way."
On walking from the chapel, after the close of the service, I overtook a gentleman, who confessed that he had been hostile to the benevolent designs of Mr. Stevens, but that, in future, he would co-operate with him.
"And why, Sir," I asked, "were you hostile to them?"
"Because I did not understand them; and it is to this cause, I have no doubt, that we may attribute much of the opposition he has met with."
"The world," I replied, "is governed by prejudice, and not by reason; and hence, what is excellent and beneficial is often condemned and often opposed, because prejudice has been excited against it by misrepresentation or misconception. Prejudice led Nathaniel to exclaim, when the advent of the Saviour was announced to him, 'Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?' And prejudice often induces many, in modern times, to say, 'Can any good result from teaching children to read, or from preaching the truth in any other place than in a church?'"
"Yes, Sir," was the reply; "and it is very difficult to dislodge prejudice after it has taken possession of the mind; for though there are seasons when its absurdity is admitted, yet the dread of abandoning old opinions, which have received the sanction of ages, and of adopting new ones, which are held in general contempt, operates with such force, that but few are courageous enough to overcome it. The following lines of a modern poet may be thought severe, but they are correct:—
'Though man a thinking being is defin'd,
Few use the grand prerogative of mind:
How few think justly of the thinking few!
How many never think, who think they do!
Opinion, therefore—such our mental dearth—
Depends on mere locality or birth.'"
"True, Sir; but the few who burst the bonds of prejudice, and claim the privilege of thinking, and judging, and acting for themselves, though contemned and reproached by the multitude, are the pioneers of an adventurous and ever active benevolence, the ornaments and benefactors of the age and the country in which they live. Suppose Mr. Stevens had been held in subjection by the bigoted opinions of others, the children who are now taught to fear God and honour man, would be left to rise up in life without any accurate perceptions of their duties; and the village, which now enjoys the light of life, would still be sitting in the shadow of death. He may be ridiculed for his zeal, and reprobated for his irregularities as a member of the Established Church; but can any one who believes the truth of the Scripture, suppose that his conduct is displeasing to Him who requires all his disciples to do what they can to hasten the coming of His kingdom?"
"I knew Mr. Stevens," said the stranger, "when he was a man of gaiety and of pleasure, and I have known him since he has been a religious man; and although unable to account for the amazing change which has been produced in him, yet I always gave him credit for meaning well. Some religious people are ashamed of their principles, but he has professed them openly; some contend for them in a rude, dogmatic, and antichristian manner, but he has displayed as much amiability of temper as he has decision of conduct; and while many whom I know have conformed as much as possible to the customs and habits of the world to avoid its censures, he has uniformly paid as much respect to the preceptive parts of Christianity, as he has discovered zeal in the propagation of its doctrinal tenets. And it is this uniform consistency of conduct on his part, that induced me to attend the Union Chapel this evening, and I do not hesitate to say that I have been gratified and instructed."
When I reached Fairmount I had the pleasure of being introduced to Miss Roscoe, who had ventured, for the first time, to attend the chapel. This young lady united in her person the fascinations of beauty with superior mental accomplishments; and though she would occasionally intermingle with the gay and the fashionable, and participate in their pleasures, yet she was more attached to reading and retirement. This disposition was cherished by her father, who was a man of close study, and passionately fond of disputation. He would sometimes relax from the ardour of intellectual pursuits, and enter into the amusements of the theatre, the ball-room, and the card party, with energy and vivacity; but soon he would grow weary of such pastimes, and return to his more rational employments. He was well read in history—a good botanist—had acquired an extensive knowledge of the science of geology—had studied Blackstone and Burn with attention; but the largest portion of his time was devoted to the investigation of the Scriptures. After Miss Roscoe had finished her education at a boarding-school, she pursued her studies under the superintendence of her father, who was eminently qualified to enrich her mind with the treasures of knowledge and of wisdom. Thus months and years rolled on in regular succession, with but few incidents of a painful nature, till He
"Who waits his own well chosen hour,
Th' intended mercy to display,"
inflicted a wound in her heart, which was attended with an unusual depression of spirit. She felt the stroke, but knew not from whence it came, nor could her father tell her who could heal it. He was advised to try what effect a change of air and society would have on her spirits; and hence he removed his family to Dawlish in Devonshire, where they spent the whole of the summer; but still her morbid melancholy increased, and the physician recommended a visit to Bath for the winter, as the only expedient which was likely to prevent the entire loss of health, if not of her reason. Here she was hurried, by the ardour of parental solicitude, into scenes of gaiety and amusement, which now had lost their charm; and though she often refused to go, saying that they could afford her no pleasure, yet, her reluctance being regarded as an inveterate symptom of her complaint, she was compelled to yield, till she frankly said, "If you wish me to regain my long-lost tranquillity, cease to force me where the gaiety of others increases my mental depression, and let me return home, that, in the retirement of solitude, I may find rest from the aggravating amusements of human gaiety and folly."
Mrs. Stevens, who was intimate with the family, and had held some religious conversation with Miss Roscoe before she left home, made a morning call on her return, when she found her alone. Referring to Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, which she had presented to her on a former occasion, she received a reply which gave her great pleasure; and, from some incidental expressions, she was convinced that the cause of her depression lay in the deep recesses of her heart. She therefore suggested to her, as the only effectual means of its removal, a perusal of the Scriptures. "I once felt," she said, "what you now feel, and though my mental anguish was not so acute as yours, nor so overwhelming in its influence, yet I should have sunk under it, had it not been for the consolations of mercy which I found in the Bible."
This communication, which was not less unexpected than the appearance of the angel of God to Hagar, as she sat in the solitude of maternal grief, mourning over her child in the agonies of death, raised the spirit of Miss Roscoe from beneath that load of depression which was sinking her into despair, and she inquired, with singular emphasis of expression:—
"And do you indeed think that the Bible will afford me any relief? I have not been permitted to see it since the commencement of my illness; but if you recommend it, I will peruse it."
"Yes, my dear; that book, which a thoughtless world despises, is Heaven's best gift to man.
'I know and feel it is a blessed book;
And I remember how it stopp'd my tears
In days of former sorrow; like some herb
Of sov'reign virtue to a wound applied.'"
"But," said Miss Roscoe, whose independent mind had not lost its intellectual vigour during the gloomy night of mental sadness, "what does the Bible reveal, which is so peculiarly appropriate to me?"
"It reveals a Saviour, who came into the world to save sinners."
"That truth I know, and I cannot banish it from my recollection; but I cannot perceive how the belief of it is calculated to bring back my long-lost happiness."
"But, my dear, if you did believe it, in the scriptural acceptation of the term, it would not only remove the depression of your spirits, but raise you into a higher and a purer state of felicity than that from whence you are fallen."
"I do believe it, and what more is required?"
"What more, my dear Miss Roscoe? You should reduce your belief to a practical operation, and, in the most simple and humble form of speech, plead the merits of the Saviour's death for the remission of your sins, for peace of conscience, and for eternal life. 'For through Him we have access by one Spirit unto the Father.' You are unhappy, but know not the cause; and that morbid melancholy which has destroyed your health, and laid waste the vivacity of your spirits, has hitherto set at defiance every expedient which you have employed for its removal; but such is the mysterious efficacy of the death of Jesus Christ, when the design of his death is perceived, that it makes the wounded spirit whole, and it calms the troubled breast. The state of your mind is neither hopeless nor singular; and though at present you may not be able to perceive how your mental anguish can issue in mental peace, yet, if you try the efficacy of prayer, you will see 'the darkened cloud withdraw;' and then you will adore the grace which humbles to exalt, which impoverishes to enrich, and which renders our sources of earthly pleasure incapable of affording delight, that we may be compelled to derive our supreme felicity from fellowship with the Father, and his Son Jesus Christ."
This intercourse led to an intimacy, which soon ripened into a strong attachment; and that morbid melancholy, which had withstood the rural charms of Dawlish, and the captivating amusements of Bath, began to give way under the religious communications of a friend, who had often been ridiculed for her zeal, and sometimes reproached for attempting to disturb the peace of those whose happiness she lived to promote.
Mr. and Mrs. Roscoe saw, with no ordinary emotions of delight, the dawning of serenity on the countenance of their beloved child, but knew not the cause till they accidentally saw her reading the Bible, which they had been recommended to keep from her. In the evening, as they were sitting together, Mr. Roscoe said, "I think, my dear Sophia, that you are regaining your former vivacity."
"I am more happy than I was, but not so happy as I wish to be."
"The light of bliss, I hope, my dear, is shining on you, but I fear lest it should again depart. You must be cautious what you read; and if you will permit me to offer you my advice, I would recommend you light reading, which, I think, would just now have a good effect."
"I thank you, my dear father, for your advice, but such reading would bring back the gloom which the light of revealed truth is scattering from around my mind. There is no book which I read with so much pleasure as the Bible."
"The Bible contains much important history; it abounds with interesting narratives; it makes us familiar with the customs of ancient times, and supplies us with some inimitable specimens of good composition; but I would advise you not to read the Epistles of the New Testament, lest they should perplex and bewilder you, and lead you off into a state of mental distraction, which no human skill would be able to control or subdue."
"You know, my dear father, that no human skill has been able to control or remove that fixed melancholy under which I have been labouring for nine months; but I feel now greatly relieved from it; and I assure you that it is the perusal of that portion of the Scripture which you wish me to avoid, to which I attribute, under the blessing of God, the delightful change which has taken place in the state and frame of my mind."