B.A. course. And I scarcely dare allow myself to wish that you may be
in the 1st class, or at least to wish it with any degree of earnestness
or still less of anxiety. The Almighty has been so signally kind to me
even in my worldly affairs, and so much more gracious than I deserved
in my domestic concerns, that it would indicate a heart never to be
satisfied were I not disposed in all that concerns my children, to cast
all my care on Him: indeed, you pleased me not a little by stating your
persuasion that it _might be_ better for you ultimately not to have
succeeded (to the utmost) on this very occasion. And I rejoice the more
in this impression of yours, because I am sure it does not in your
instance arise from the want of feeling; from that cold-blooded and
torpid temperament that often tends to indolence, and if it sometimes
saves its proprietor a disappointment, estranges him from many who
might otherwise attach themselves to him, and shuts him out from many
sources of pure and virtuous pleasure.
"Your dear mother in all weather that is not bad enough to drive the
labourers within doors, is herself _sub dio_, studying the grounds,
giving directions for new walks, new plantations, flower-beds, &c. And
I am thankful for being able to say that the exposure to cold and dew
hitherto has not hurt her--perhaps it has been beneficial."
"_August 25, 1827._
"I was lately looking into Wrangham's 'British Biography,' and I
was forcibly struck by observing that by far the larger part of the
worthies the work commemorates were carried off before they reached
to the age I have attained to. And yet, as I think, I must have told
you, Dr. Warren, the first medical authority of that day, declared in
1788 that I could not then last above two or three weeks, not so much
from the violence of an illness from which I had then suffered, as
from the utter want of stamina. Yet a gracious Providence has not only
spared my life, but permitted me to see several of my dear children
advancing into life, and you, my dear Samuel, as well as Robert,
about to enter into Holy Orders so early that if it should please God
to spare my life for about a couple of years, which according to my
present state of health seems by no means improbable, I may have the
first and great pleasure of witnessing your performance of the sacred
service of the Church. It is little in me--I mean a very ordinary
proof of my preference of spiritual to earthly things, of my desiring
to walk rather by faith than by sight--that I rejoice in the prospect
of your becoming a clergyman rather than a lawyer, which appeared the
alternative in your instance; but it is due to you, my dear Samuel,
to say that it is a very striking proof of your having been enabled
by, I humbly trust, the highest of all influences, to form this
decision, when from your talents and qualifications it appeared by no
means improbable that in the legal line you might not improbably rise
into the enjoyment of rank and affluence. It is but too true that my
feelings would, at your time of life, have been powerfully active in
another direction. Perhaps this very determination may have been in
part produced by that connection to which you look forward. And may it
please God, my dear Samuel, to grant you the desire of your heart in
this particular and to render the union conducive to your spiritual
benefit and that of your partner also, so that it may be looked back
upon with gratitude even in a better world, as that which has tended
not only to your mutual happiness during the journey of life, but has
contributed to bring you both after its blessed termination to the
enjoyment of the rest that remaineth for the people of God."
This letter refers to Samuel Wilberforce's marriage with Emily Sargent,
as to which his father remarks: "Viewed in a worldly light, the
connection cannot be deemed favourable to either of you."
"_March 20, 1828._
"The cheerfulness, which at an earlier period of my life might have
been a copious spring supplying my letters with a stream of pleasant
sentiments and feelings, has been chilled even to freezing by advancing
years, and yet, to do myself justice, though this may have dulled the
activity and liveliness of my epistles, I think it has not cooled the
kindly warmth of heart with which I write to my friends and least of
all to my children."
"_July 22, 1828._
"I am glad that any opportunity for your coming forward as a public
speaker has occurred, I mean an opportunity proper for you to
embrace, in which you were rather a drawn (though not a pressed) man
and not a volunteer. We have had the great pleasure of having dear
Robert officiate twice, both in the reading-desk and the pulpit.
The apparent, as well as real, simplicity of his whole performance
must have impressed every observant and feeling hearer with a very
favourable view of his character. His language remarkably simple,
much every way in his sermon to esteem and love. It suggested one
or two important topics for consideration, which I shall be glad to
talk over with you hereafter, as well as with Robert himself. One is,
whether he did not fall into what I have often thought an error in the
sermons of sound divines, and in those perhaps of Oxonians more than
Cantabs--that I mean of addressing their congregations as being all
real Christians--children of God, &c.--who needed (to use our Saviour's
figure in John xiii.) only to have their feet washed. Whatever may be
the right doctrinal opinion as to baptismal regeneration, all really
orthodox men will grant, I presume, that as people grow up they may
lose that privilege of being children of God which we trust they who
were baptised in their infancy did enjoy, and would have reaped the
benefit of it had they died before, by the gradual development of their
mental powers, they became moral agents capable of responsibility.
And if so, should not their particular sins of disposition, temper,
or conduct be used rather to convince them of their being in a sinful
state, and as therefore requiring the converting grace of God, than as
merely wanting a little reformation?"
"_November 20, 1828._
"Has Sargent[56] heard of the fresh explosion in the British and
Foreign Bible Society? I truly and deeply regret it. It has proceeded
from a proposal to print the Septuagint. In the discussion that
took place on that topic it was perhaps unwarily said there was no
proper standard of the Holy Scriptures. No standard!!!!! Then we
have no Bible! You see how a little Christian candour would have
prevented this rupture. Oh that they would all remember that the end
of the commandment is Love. I fear this is not the test by which in
our days Christians are to be ascertained: may we all cultivate in
ourselves this blessed principle and pray for it more earnestly. I
am quite pleased myself, Robert is delighted, by the appointment to
the Professorship (Hebrew) of Pusey--above £1,200 per annum. Pusey
had opposition, and is appointed by the Duke of Wellington, solely we
suppose on the ground of superior merit."
"_February 20, 1829._
"Legh Richmond,[57] though an excellent man, was not a man of
refinement or of taste. I cannot deny the justice of your remarks
as far as I can fairly allow myself to form a judgment without
referring to the book. I entirely concur in your censure of Richmond's
commonplace, I had almost termed it profane, way in which he speaks of
the Evil Spirit. This falls under the condemnation justly pronounced by
Paley against levity in religion.
"When I can spare a little eyesight or time, I feel myself warranted
to indulge the pleasure I always have in the exercise of the domestic
affections, and in gratifying you (as I hope it is not vanity to think
I do) in writing to you at a time when you are in circumstances of more
quiet than usual, though I am aware that a man of your age, who is
spending his first year of married life with a partner, between whom
and himself there was great mutual attachment, grounded on esteem, and
a mutual acquaintance with each other's characters and dispositions,
can never be so happy as when he is enjoying a _tête-à-tête_ with his
bride. By the way, do you keep anything in the nature of a journal?
A commonplace book I take it for granted you keep; and speaking of
books, let me strongly urge you to keep your accounts regularly, and
somewhat at least in the mode in which we keep ours--under different
heads. If you have not the plan, tell me and I will send it to you.
Its excellence is that it enables you with ease to see how your money
goes; and remember we live in days in which a single sovereign given by
an individual is often productive of great effects. Where is it that a
single drop (stalactite) from a roof, falling into the ocean, is made
to bemoan itself on being lost in the abyss of waters, when afterwards
it became the seminal principle of the great pearl that constituted the
glory of the Great Mogul? And now also, remember the Church Missionary
Society is so poor, that it will be compelled to quit some fields
whitening to the harvest, unless it can have its funds considerably
augmented."
[Illustration: SAMUEL WILBERFORCE, Aged 29.]
The next letter refers to the offer of the vicarage of Ribchester,
near Preston, in Lancashire, made by the Bishop of Chester to Samuel
Wilberforce.
"_March 3, 1829._
"Whether regarded in relation to your bodily strength, your spiritual
interests, or to prudence in affairs, I should be disposed to advise
you to decline, with a due sense of kindness, &c., the Bishop's offer.
Your constitution is not a strong one, and it is highly desirable in
that view alone that you should for a time officiate in a small sphere,
and if it may be in a place where, as from your vicinity to Oxford,
you can have assistance when you are not equal yourself to the whole
duty. With such a scattered population, there must be a call I conceive
for great bodily strength. Secondly, the situation appears to me still
less eligible considered on higher grounds. It is no ground of blame
to you that your studies have not hitherto been of divinity. Supply
all that I should say under that head, were I not writing to one who
is capable himself of suggesting it to his own mind. Again, you cannot
have that acquaintance with human nature, either in general, or in
your own self, which it would be desirable for any one to possess who
was to be placed in so wide and populous a field, especially in one so
circumstanced as this particular place. Then you would be at a distance
from almost all your friends, which I mention now in reference to
the spiritual disadvantages of the situation, not in relation to your
comfort and Emily's, in which, however, it may be fairly admitted to
some weight. Again, _I_ should much regret your being placed where you
would naturally be called to study controversial anti-Roman Catholic
divinity, rather than that which expects the cultivation of personal
holiness in yourself and your parishioners. I could say much on this
head. Thirdly, Mr. Neale sees the objections on the ground of pecuniary
interest, as alone of so much weight, as to warrant your refusing the
offer--a vicarage. Its income is commonly derived from small payments,
and in that district probably of poor people whom you would not, could
not squeeze, and yet without squeezing from whom you probably would get
nothing. Most likely a curate would be indispensable."
On the same topic Wilberforce writes again:--
"_March 17th, 1829._
"I ought to tell you that in the reasons I assigned to the Bishop
for declining his offer, one, and in itself perhaps the strongest,
(nay, certainly so, not perhaps,) was my persuasion that for any
one educated and associated as you have been, it was of very great
importance with a view to your spiritual state, (more especially for
the cultivation of devotional feelings and spirituality of mind,)
that he should in the outset of his ministerial course be for some
time in a quiet and retired situation, where he could live in the
enjoyment of domestic comfort, of leisure for religious reading and
meditation, and devotional exercises; while, on the contrary, it was
very undesirable in lieu of these to be placed in circumstances in
which he would almost necessarily be almost incessantly arguing for
Protestant principles--in short, would be occupied in the religion of
the head rather than of the heart. I own to you in confidence (though
I believe I shall make the avowal to my dear Robert himself) that I am
sometimes uneasy on a ground somewhat congenial with this, about the
tutor of Oriel. For though I doubt not the solidity of his religious
character, yet I fear his situation is far from favourable to the
growth in grace, and would, alas! need every help we can have for the
advancement of personal religion within us, and can scarcely bear
without injury any circumstances that have an unfavourable tendency. I
trust my dear Samuel will himself consider that he is now responsible
for living in circumstances peculiarly favourable to the growth of
personal piety, and therefore that he should use his utmost endeavours
to derive the benefits that appear, (humanly speaking,) to be placed
within his reach. Oh, my dearest boy, we are all too sadly lukewarm,
sadly too little urging forward with the earnestness that might justly
be expected from those that are contending for an incorruptible crown.
Did you ever read Owen on spiritual-mindedness? There are some passages
that to me appear almost unintelligible (one at least), but it is in
the main, I think, a highly useful book. I need not say how sorry we
are to hear of Emily being poorly. But our gourds must have something
to alloy their sweets. D. G. your mother is recovering gradually,
and now profits much from a jumbling pony-chair; its shaking quality
renders its value to her double what it would be otherwise."[58]
"_March 19, 1829._
"In speaking of Whately's book I ought to have said that I had not got
to the part in which he speaks of imputed righteousness. I remember it
was an objection made to my 'Practical View' by a certain strange head
of a college that I was silent on that point. The honest truth is, I
never considered it. I have always been disposed to believe it to be
in some sort true, but not to deem it a matter of importance, if the
doctrine of free grace and justification by faith be held, which are,
I believe, of primary importance. Hooker, unless I forget, is clearly
for it; see his sermon on Justification. I trust I need not fear your
misconstruing me, and supposing I can be advising you, either to be
roguish, or shabbily reserved. But really I do think that you may
produce an unfavourable and false impression of your principles and
professional character, by talking unguardedly about _Methodistical_
persons and opinions. Mrs. R. may report you as UNSOUND to the Bishop
of Winchester, and he imbibe a prejudice against you. Besides, my
dear Samuel, I am sure you will not _fire_ when I say that you may
see reason on farther reading, and reflection, and more experience to
change or qualify some of the opinions you may now hold. I own, (I
should not be honest if I did not say so,) that I think I have myself
witnessed occasions which have strengthened with me the impression that
you may need this hint.... Have you any parishioners who have been
used to hear Methodists or Dissenters, or have you any who appear to
have had, or still to have, much feeling of religion? I cannot help
suspecting that it is a mistaken notion that the lower orders are to
be chiefly instructed in the ordinary practical duties of religion,
whereas I own I believe them to be quite capable of impressions on
their affections: on the infinite love of their God and Redeemer, and
of their corresponding obligation to Love and Obedience. We found
peasants more open to attacks on their consciences, on the score of
being wanting in gratitude, than on any other."
"_April 3, 1829._
"Articles sent to Mr. Samuel--Bewick, Venn's Sermons (2 vols.), White's
'Selborne' (2 vols. bound in one), 2nd vol. of 'The Monastery.' A
lending library is, I think, likely to be considerably beneficial.
It cannot but have a tendency to generate in the poor a disposition
favourable to domestic habits and pleasures, and to seek their
enjoyments at home rather than in the alehouse, and it strikes me as
likely to confirm this taste, to encourage the poor people's children
to read to them. Send me a list of any books you will like to have for
your lending library, and I will by degrees pick them up for you....
"We ought to be always making it our endeavour to be experiencing peace
and joy in believing, and that we do not enjoy more of this sunshine
of the breast is, I fear, almost always our own fault. We ought not to
acquiesce quietly in the want of them, whereas we are too apt to be
satisfied if our consciences do not reproach us with anything wrong,
if we can on good grounds entertain the persuasion that we are safe;
and we do not sufficiently consider that we serve a gracious and kind
master who is willing that we should taste that He is gracious. Both
in St. John's first general Epistle, and in our Lord's declaration in
John xv., we are assured that our Lord's object and the apostles' in
telling us of our having spiritual supplies and communion, is that
our joy may be full. It is a great comfort to me to reflect that you
are in circumstances peculiarly favourable to your best interests. To
be spiritually-minded is both life and peace. How much happier would
your dear mother be if she were living the quiet life you and Emily do,
instead of being cumbered about many things; yet she is in the path of
duty, and that is all in all."
"_September 7, 1829._
"An admirable expedient has this moment suggested itself to me, which
will supersede the necessity for my giving expression to sentiments and
feelings, for which you will give me full credit, though unexpressed.
It is that of following the precedent set by a candidate for the City
of Bristol in conjunction with Mr. Burke. The latter had addressed his
electors in a fuller effusion of eloquence than was used to flow even
from his lips, when his colleague, conscious that he should appear to
great disadvantage were he to attempt a speech, very wisely confined
himself to, 'Gentlemen, you have heard Mr. Burke's excellent speech. I
say ditto to the whole of it.' Sure I am that no language of mine could
give you warmer or more sincere assurances of parental affection than
you will have received in the letter of your dear mother, which she
has just put into my hands to be inserted into my letter. To all she
has said, therefore, I say ditto. My dear Samuel, I must tell you the
pleasure with which I look back on what I witnessed at Checkendon,[59]
and how it combines with, and augments the joyful gratulations with
which I welcome the 7th of September.[60] I hope I am deeply thankful
to the bountiful Giver of all good for having granted me in you a
son to whose future course I can look with so much humble hope, and
even joyful confidence. It is also with no little thankfulness that
I reflect on your domestic prospects, from the excellent qualities
of your, let me say _our_, dear Emily. I must stop, the rest shall
be prayer, prayer for both of you, that your course in this life may
be useful and honourable, and that you may at length, accompanied by
a large assemblage of the sheep of Christ, whom you have been the
honoured instrument of bringing to the fold of Christ, have an abundant
entrance into the everlasting kingdom of God."
"_September 28, 1829._
"How much do they lose of comfort, as well as, I believe, in incentives
to gratitude and love, and if it be not their own fault thereby in
the means of practical improvement, who do not accustom themselves to
watch the operations of the Divine Hand. I have often thought that,
had it not been for the positive declarations of the Holy Scriptures
concerning the attention of the Almighty Governor of the universe to
our minutest comforts and interests enforced by a comparison with
the στοργἡ of parental affection, we should not dare to be so
presumptuous as to believe, that He who rolls the spheres along,
would condescend thus to sympathise with our feelings, and attend
to our minutest interests. Here also Dr. Chalmers' suggestions,
derived from the discoveries made to us through the microscope, come
in to confirm the same delightful persuasion. I am persuaded that
many true Christians lose much pleasure they might otherwise enjoy
from not sufficiently watching the various events of their lives,
more especially in those little incidents, as we rather unfitly term
them; for, considering them as links in the chain, they maintain the
continuity, as much as those which we are apt to regard as of greater
size and consequence."
"_November 21, 1829._
"We have been for a few days at Battersea Rise. But your mother will, I
doubt not, have told you the memorabilia of this visit, and especially
the inexhaustible conversational powers of Sir James Mackintosh. I
wish I may be able, some time or other, to enable you to hear these
powers exerted. Poor fellow! he is, however, the victim of his own
social dispositions and excellences. For I cannot but believe, that
the superfluous hours dissipated in these talks, might suffice for
the performance of a great work. They are to him, what, alas! in some
degree, my letters were to me during my Parliamentary life, and even to
this day."
"_December 17, 1829._
"We ought not to expect this life to flow on smoothly without rubs
or mortification. Indeed, it is a sentiment which I often inculcate
on myself that, to use a familiar phrase, we here have more than our
bargain, as Christians, in the days in which we live; for I apprehend
the promise of the life that now is, combined with that which is to
come, was meant to refer rather to mental peace and comfort, than to
temporal prosperity. My thoughts have been of late often led into
reflections on the degree in which we are wanting to ourselves, in
relation to the rich and bright prospects set before us as attainable
in the Word of God. More especially I refer to that of the Christian's
hope and peace and joy. Again and again we are assured that joy is
ordinarily and generally to be the portion of the Christian. Yet how
prone are but too commonly those, whom we really believe to be entitled
to the name of Christians, disposed to remain contented without the
possession of this delightful state of heart; and to regard it as the
privilege of some rarely gifted, and eminently favoured Christians,
rather than as the general character of all, yet I believe that except
for some hypochondriacal affection, or state of spirits arising from
bodily ailments, every Christian ought to be very distrustful of
himself, _and to call himself to account, as it were_, if he is not
able to maintain a settled frame of 'inward peace,' if not joy. It is
to be obtained through the Holy Spirit, and therefore when St. Paul
prays for the Roman Christians that they may be filled with all _peace_
and _joy_ in believing, and may abound in hope, it is added, through
the power of the Holy Ghost."
"HIGHWOOD HILL,
"_December 31, 1829._