The little quiet village of Camden stands under the brow of a
rugged hill in one of the most picturesque parts of New England;
and its regular, honest, and industrious villagers were not a
little surprised and pleased that Mr. James, a rich man, and
pleasant-spoken withal, had concluded to take up his residence among
them. He brought with him a pretty, genteel wife, and a group of
rosy, romping, but amiable children; and there was so much of good
nature and kindness about the manners of every member of the family,
that the whole neighborhood were prepossessed in their favor. Mr.
James was a man of somewhat visionary and theoretical turn of
mind, and very much in the habit of following out his own ideas of
right and wrong, without troubling himself particularly as to the
appearance his course might make in the eyes of others. He was a
supporter of the ordinances of religion, and always ready to give
both time and money to promote any benevolent object; and though
he had never made any public profession of religion, or connected
himself with any particular set of Christians, still he seemed
to possess great reverence for God, and to worship him in spirit
and in truth, and he professed to make the Bible the guide of his
life. Mr. James had been brought up under a system of injudicious
religious restraint. He had determined, in educating his children,
to adopt an exactly opposite course, and to make religion and all
its institutions sources of enjoyment. His aim, doubtless, was an
appropriate one; but his method of carrying it out, to say the
least, was one which was not a safe model for general imitation.
In regard to the Sabbath, for example, he considered that, although
the plan of going to church twice a day, and keeping all the family
quiet within doors the rest of the time, was good, other methods
would be much better. Accordingly, after the morning service, which
he and his whole family regularly attended, he would spend the rest
of the day with his children. In bad weather he would instruct
them in natural history, show them pictures, and read them various
accounts of the works of God, combining all with such religious
instruction and influence as a devotional mind might furnish. When
the weather permitted, he would range with them through the fields,
collecting minerals and plants, or sail with them on the lake,
meanwhile directing the thoughts of his young listeners upward
to God, by the many beautiful traces of his presence and agency,
which superior knowledge and observation enabled him to discover
and point out. These Sunday strolls were seasons of most delightful
enjoyment to the children. Though it was with some difficulty that
their father could restrain them from loud and noisy demonstrations
of delight, and he saw with some regret that the mere animal
excitement of the stroll seemed to draw the attention too much from
religious considerations, and, in particular, to make the exercises
of the morning seem like a preparatory penance to the enjoyments
of the afternoon, nevertheless, when Mr. James looked back to his
own boyhood, and remembered the frigid restraint, the entire want
of any kind of mental or bodily excitement, which had made the
Sabbath so much a weariness to him, he could not but congratulate
himself when he perceived his children looking forward to Sunday
as a day of delight, and found himself on that day continually
surrounded by a circle of smiling and cheerful faces. His talent of
imparting religious instruction in a simple and interesting form
was remarkably happy, and it is probable that there was among his
children an uncommon degree of real thought and feeling on religious
subjects as the result.
The good people of Camden, however, knew not what to think of
a course that appeared to them an entire violation of all the
requirements of the Sabbath. The first impulse of human nature is to
condemn at once all who vary from what has been commonly regarded
as the right way; and, accordingly, Mr. James was unsparingly
denounced, by many good people, as a Sabbath breaker, and infidel,
and an opposer to religion.
Such was the character heard of him by Mr. Richards, a young
clergyman, who, shortly after Mr. James fixed his residence in
Camden, accepted the pastoral charge of the village. It happened
that Mr. Richards had known Mr. James in college, and, remembering
him as a remarkably serious, amiable, and conscientious man, he
resolved to ascertain from himself the views which had led him
to the course of conduct so offensive to the good people of the
neighborhood.
"This is all very well, my good friend," said he, after he had
listened to Mr. James's eloquent account of his own system of
religious instruction, and its effects upon his family, "I do not
doubt that this system does very well for yourself and family;
but there are other things to be taken into consideration besides
personal and family improvement. Do you not know, Mr. James, that
the most worthless and careless part of my congregation quote your
example as a respectable precedent for allowing their families
to violate the order of the Sabbath? You and your children sail
about on the lake, with minds and hearts, I doubt not, elevated
and tranquilized by its quiet repose; but Ben Dakes, and his idle,
profane army of children, consider themselves as doing very much the
same thing when they lie lolling about, sunning themselves on its
shore, or skipping stones over its surface the whole of a Sunday
afternoon."
"Let every one answer to his own conscience," replied Mr. James.
"If I keep the Sabbath conscientiously, I am approved of God; if
another transgresses his conscience, 'to his own master he standeth
or falleth.' I am not responsible for all the abuses that idle or
evil-disposed persons may fall into, in consequence of my doing what
is right."
"Let me quote an answer from the same chapter," said Mr. Richards.
"'Let no man put a stumbling-block, or an occasion to fall, in his
brother's way: let not your good be evil spoken of. It is good
neither to eat flesh nor drink wine, nor anything whereby thy
brother stumbleth, or is offended, or made weak.' Now, my good
friend, you happen to be endowed with a certain tone of mind which
enables you to carry through your mode of keeping the Sabbath with
little comparative evil, and much good, so far as your family
is concerned; but how many persons in this neighborhood, do you
suppose, would succeed equally well if they were to attempt it? If
it were the common custom for families to absent themselves from
public worship in the afternoon, and to stroll about the fields,
or ride, or sail, how many parents, do you suppose, would have the
dexterity and talent to check all that was inconsistent with the
duties of the day? Is it not your ready command of language, your
uncommon tact in simplifying and illustrating, your knowledge of
natural history and of Biblical literature, that enable you to
accomplish the results that you do? And is there one parent in a
hundred that could do the same? Now, just imagine our neighbor,
'Squire Hart, with his ten boys and girls, turned out into the
fields on a Sunday afternoon to profit withal: you know he can
never finish a sentence without stopping to begin it again half a
dozen times. What progress would he make in instructing them? And
so of a dozen others I could name along this very street here.
Now, you men of cultivated minds must give your countenance to
courses which would be best for society at large, or, as the
sentiment was expressed by St. Paul, 'We that are strong ought to
bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves,
for even Christ pleased not himself.' Think, my dear sir, if our
Saviour had gone only on the principle of avoiding what might be
injurious to his own improvement, how unsafe his example might
have proved to less elevated minds. Doubtless he might have made
a Sabbath day fishing excursion an occasion of much elevated and
impressive instruction; but, although he declared himself 'Lord
of the Sabbath day,' and at liberty to suspend its obligation at
his own discretion, yet he never violated the received method of
observing it, except in cases where superstitious tradition trenched
directly on those interests which the Sabbath was given to promote.
He asserted the right to relieve pressing bodily wants, and to
administer to the necessities of others on the Sabbath, but beyond
that he allowed himself in no deviation from established custom."
Mr. James looked thoughtful. "I have not reflected on the subject in
this view," he replied. "But, my dear sir, considering how little of
the public services of the Sabbath is on a level with the capacity
of younger children, it seems to me almost a pity to take them to
church the whole of the day."
"I have thought of that myself," replied Mr. Richards, "and have
sometimes thought that, could persons be found to conduct such a
thing, it would be desirable to institute a separate service for
children, in which the exercises should be particularly adapted to
them."
"I should like to be minister to a congregation of children," said
Mr. James warmly.
"Well," replied Mr. Richards, "give our good people time to get
acquainted with you, and do away the prejudices which your
extraordinary mode of proceeding has induced, and I think I could
easily assemble such a company for you every Sabbath."
After this, much to the surprise of the village, Mr. James and his
family were regular attendants at both the services of the Sabbath.
Mr. Richards explained to the good people of his congregation the
motives which had led their neighbor to the adoption of what,
to them, seemed so unchristian a course; and, upon reflection,
they came to the perception of the truth, that a man may depart
very widely from the received standard of right for other
reasons than being an infidel or an opposer of religion. A ready
return of cordial feeling was the result; and as Mr. James found
himself treated with respect and confidence, he began to feel,
notwithstanding his fastidiousness, that there were strong points of
congeniality between all real and warm-hearted Christians, however
different might be their intellectual culture, and in all simplicity
united himself with the little church of Camden. A year from the
time of his first residence there, every Sabbath afternoon saw him
surrounded by a congregation of young children, for whose benefit
he had, at his own expense, provided a room, fitted up with maps,
Scriptural pictures, and every convenience for the illustration of
Biblical knowledge; and the parents or guardians who from time to
time attended their children during these exercises often confessed
themselves as much interested and benefited as any of their youthful
companions.