"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."