venerable servant of God, Hannah More. We had for some time
corresponded, and she had afforded me great encouragement in my humble
labors, taking an especial interest in my attempts to instruct the deaf
and dumb children. I had now the pleasure of showing her the progress
made with Jack, who delighted her greatly, and who, to the last day of
his mortal existence, most fondly cherished the memory of that sweet old
lady. She was, indeed, one of the excellent of the earth, permitted long
to beautify the church which she had so mainly helped to strengthen and
advance, and to be an honor to the land where she had nobly stood forth
to repel the assaults of revolutionizing impiety. I often wonder that so
little stress is laid upon this branch of Mrs. More's extensive labors.
We hear much of her schools, her charities, her letters, her devotional
and educational publications, and all of these deserve the full
celebrity that they have attained. But England should especially bear in
mind her effective championship of the good cause, by means most
admirably adapted to its furtherance among the most dangerous, and
generally speaking the most unapproachable class--a class who
congregated in ale-houses to hear the inflammatory harangues of
seditious traitors, while as yet Bibles were scarce, religious tracts
not in existence, and district visiting unthought of. In a lady of
refined taste, and rare accomplishments in the higher style of writing,
to volunteer in a work so new, and to furnish the press with a series of
plain truths dressed in a most homely phrase, rendered attractive by
lively narrative and even drollery, and the whole brought down to the
level of coarse, uninformed minds, while circulated in a form to come
within the narrow means of the lowest mechanics--this was an enterprise
worthy especial note, even had not God openly blessed it to the turning
of that formidable tide. When I looked upon the placid but animated
countenance of the aged saint, as she sat in her bow-window looking out
upon the fair fields, the still inviolate shores of her beloved country,
I thought more of her "Cheap Repository Tracts" than of all her other
works combined. There lay the Bristol Channel, that noble inlet to our
isle, by which the commerce of the world was even then finding its
peaceful way to the great mart of Bristol; and there sat the aged lady,
so long the presiding spirit of the place, with one hand, as it were,
gathering the lambs of the flock into green pastures among the distant
hills, that formed a beautiful feature in the landscape; with the other
vigorously repulsing the wolf from the field. If I could have
discovered, which I could not, a single trait of consciousness that she
was a distinguished being, exalted into eminence by public acclaim, I
must have conceived her to be dwelling upon this branch of her many
privileges, that she had been a Deborah where many a Barak shrunk from
the post of honor and skulked behind a woman. She took that lively
interest in the public, secular affairs of her country that Jeremiah and
Ezekiel did of old; and on the same plain ground--that where the state
professes to be modelled and the executive to act on principles of God's
instilling, with a view that peace and happiness, truth and justice,
religion and piety, may be established among us, nothing done by the
state can be indifferent to the church, or unworthy the anxious watchful
regard of Christians. To be called a carnal politician by those whose
minds, at least on religious subjects, could contain, but one idea, was
certainly a light affliction to balance against the joyous consciousness
of having materially aided in preserving those cavillers' homes from the
hand of the spoiler, and their Bibles from that of the Atheist.
When I saw Hannah More, she was really at ease in her possessions; and
none who loved her less than the Lord himself did, would have laid a
sorrow upon her grey hairs. Man would have decreed that such a full-ripe
shock of corn should be brought into the garner without further ruffling
or shaking. She had suffered exceedingly from rheumatism and other
ailments, and yet more from the tongue of calumny and the hand of
ingratitude. She was an illustration of that striking couplet,
"Envy will merit as its shade pursue,
And, like the shadow, prove the substance true."
She had, however, triumphed over all by meekly committing her cause to
Him who judgeth righteously; and now she seemed to be placed beyond the
reach of further molestation, and about to end her useful life in peace.
But she had another lesson to give to the people of God, another fire in
which to glorify him: and not long after I saw her reclining in that
lovely retreat which had grown up about her, a perfect bower from slips
and seeds of her own planting, as she delighted to tell us, she was
actually driven out of her little paradise, compelled to leave the
shadow of her nursling trees, and to cast a tearful farewell look on the
smiling flowers, and to turn away from the bright sea and the waving
line of her Cheddar hills, to find a lodging in the neighboring town;
and all through treachery, domestic treachery against her whose whole
life had been a course of unsparing beneficence towards others. Hannah
More perhaps needed to be again reminded, that she must do all her works
"as to the Lord," looking to him alone for acceptance of them; or if she
needed it not, others did; and often since she entered into her
Saviour's presence, "to go no more out," has the scene of the last trial
to which her generous, confiding, affectionate spirit was subjected,
been blessed to the consolation of others. God's children find that it
is good for themselves that they should be afflicted; but they do not
always remember how good it is for the church, that they should be so.
They look within, and seeing so much there daily, "justly deserving
God's wrath and condemnation," they lie still in his hand, willing and
thankful to have the dross purged out, and the tin taken away. Their
fellows look on, and not seeing the desperate wickedness of their
hearts, but fondly believing them to be as near perfection as human
frailty will permit, they argue, "If such a saint as ---- be thus
chastened and corrected, what must a sinner like me expect?" So they
learn watchfulness and fear in the day of prosperity; and when adversity
comes, they are enabled more lovingly to kiss the rod. Oh, if we could
see but a little of the Lord's dealings, in all their bearings, how
should we praise him for his goodness and the wonders that he doeth unto
the children of men. What profit, what pleasure has he in afflicting us?
Surely it is, so to speak, more trouble to correct than to leave us
alone; and he would not twine the small cords into a scourge, unless to
cleanse and sanctify his temple.
I have said that my brother's return home was delayed. A hurt received
in shooting, with its consequences, detained him in Lisbon nearly a
year; but his family came over, and I had a new delicious employment, a
solace under many sorrows, an unfailing source of interest and delight,
in teaching his eldest surviving boy the accomplishments of walking and
talking. I almost expected Jack to be jealous of such a rival, but I
wronged him: nothing could exceed his fondness for "baby boy," or the
zeal of his Irish devotion to the little gentleman. Knowing that in the
event of my removal, Jack must earn his bread by some laborious or
servile occupation, I had kept him humble. He ate in the same room with
us, because I never suffered him to associate with servants; but at a
side-table; and he was expected to do every little household work that
befitted his age and strength. A kind shake of the hand, morning and
evening, was his peculiar privilege; and the omission a punishment too
severe to be inflicted, except on occasions of most flagrant
delinquency, such as rebelling against orders, or expressing any angry
emotion, to which he was constitutionally liable, by yells and howls
that almost frightened our hosts from their propriety. He had, of
course, no idea of the strength of his own lungs, nor of the effect
produced by giving them full play in a fit of passion; but the commotion
into which it threw the whole house seemed to flatter his vanity, and he
became a vocalist on very trifling occasions. This neither agreed with
our dear invalid landlady, nor was a fitting example for "baby boy," who
speedily tried his own little treble in admiring imitation of Jack's
deafening bass; and recourse was at last had to the aid of a young
friend, who bestowed a few gentle raps on his head with the bent end of
a hooked cane, and then locked him up in a dark kitchen for half an
hour, saying to me, rather regretfully, "I suppose my popularity is at
an end now. Poor fellow, I shall be sorry to lose his affection." But
this was so far from being the case, that to his closing scene Jack
retained a grateful remembrance of the proceeding. He used to say, "Good
Mr. W----; good little stick beat Jack's head; made bad Jack good. Jack
love good Mr. W----." At the very time, as soon as he saw his kind
corrector after the business, he very gracefully and cordially thanked
him, kissing his hand, with a bow, and saying, "Jack no more cry;" and
as he really was hardly touched, and full well knew we had not the heart
to be severe, it was a proof of that openness to rebuke which is a
lovely mark of true Christianity.
Montgomery beautifully says,
"Prayer is the Christian's vital breath,
The Christian's native air."
And so it eminently was with the dumb boy. Under every form of condition
and circumstance, in health and sickness, in joy, in grief, in danger,
in perplexity--over his food, his studies, his work, his amusements, he
was ever turning a look of peculiar sweetness on me, with the two words,
"Jack pray." He always smiled when so engaged, and a look of
inexpressible eagerness, mingled with satisfaction and the triumph of
one who feels that he has taken a secure stand, told me when he was
praying, without any change of position, or looking up. There was always
a mixture of anxiety in his aspect when he tried to make himself
understood by his fellow-creatures; this gave place to something the
reverse of anxiety when he was "talking to God," as he sometimes
expressed it. He oftener looked down than up; and very often did I see
his eye fixed upon the "baby boy," when, as his looks bespoke, and as he
afterwards told me, he was "tell God" about him, and that he was too
little to know about Jesus Christ yet. Many a prayer of that grateful
dumb boy even now descends in blessings on the head of my brother's
"baby," and long may the hallowed stream continue to flow down, until
they rejoice together before the throne of the Lamb.
One of Jack's lovely thoughts was this: he told me that when little
children began to walk, Jesus Christ held them by the hand to teach
them; and that if they fell, he put his hand between their heads and the
ground to prevent their being hurt. Then, as if he saw this proceeding,
he would look up, and with the fondest expression say, "_Good_
Jesus Christ, Jack very much loves Jesus Christ." I hope you are not
tired of Jack; I have much to tell about him. God made me the humble
means of plucking this precious brand from the burning; and I owe it to
the Lord to show what a tenfold blessing I reaped in it. Jack was not
the only one of whom He has, in the dispensations of his providence,
said to me, "Nurse this child for me, and I will give thee thy wages." I
have found him a noble Paymaster.
And now I come to a period of my life that I have scarcely courage to go
over. Many and sharp and bitter were the trials left unrecorded here;
and shame be to the hand that shall ever DARE to lift the veil that
tender charity would cast over what was God's doing, let the instruments
be what and who they might. It is enough to say, that even now I know
there was not one superfluous stroke of the rod, nor one drop of bitter
that could have been spared from the wholesome cup. Besides, he dealt
most mercifully with me; those two rich blessings, health and
cheerfulness, were never withdrawn. I had not a day's illness through
years of tribulation; and though my spirits would now and then fail, it
was but a momentary depression; light and buoyant, they soon danced on
the crest of the wave that had for an instant ingulfed them.
It is of joy I have to tell: safety, peace, prosperity, under the
restored sunshine that had made my early career so bright. Never did a
sister more fondly love a brother; never was a brother more formed to be
the delight, the pride, the blessing of a sister. He was of most rare
beauty from the cradle, increasing in loveliness as he grew up, and
becoming the very model of a splendid man; very tall, large, commanding,
with a face of perfect beauty, glowing, animated, mirthful--a gait so
essentially military, that it was once remarked by an officer, "If B----
were disguised as a washerwoman, any soldier would give him the salute."
He had also served in the Peninsula with the highest possible credit,
regarded by those in command as one of the best officers in the service,
and most ardently loved by the men under him. Many a bloody battle-field
had he seen; but never did a wound reach him. On one occasion--at
Albuhera--his gallant regiment went into action 800 strong, and on the
following day only 96 men were able to draw rations. He became on the
field a lieutenant, from being the youngest ensign; and alike in all
circumstances he shone out as an honor to his profession. He had also
been an especial favorite with John VI. of Portugal, and the high polish
of a court was superadded to all the rest, without in the smallest
degree changing the exceedingly playful, unaffected joyousness of the
most sunshiny character I ever met with.
Ten years' absence had produced the effect on my sisterly love that
Burns describes:
"Time but th' impression stronger makes,
As streams their channels deeper wear."
I had also many personal reasons for looking forward to his return with
peculiar anxiety; and its uncertainty increased the feeling. I had been
spending the day with a sick friend, and ran home at night to the
lodging occupied by my mother and myself, and there I found my brother.
What a dream those ten years' trials appeared!
We remained but a short time in Clifton, and soon bent our way towards
the metropolis, where he expected, as is usual, to dance a long and
wearisome attendance on the Horse Guards, for a regimental appointment.
He had refused that of aid-de-camp to king John, with any military rank
and title that he might desire; preferring a half-pay unattached company
in the British, to any thing that a foreign service could offer; but he
was mistaken: his merits were well known to the Duke of York, and before
he could well state to Sir Herbert Taylor his wishes, that estimable man
told him he had only to select out of two or three regiments lately
returned from foreign service, and he would be gazetted on the following
Tuesday. He chose the 75th, and was immediately appointed to it, with
leave to study for two years in the senior department of the Military
college at Sandhurst, the better to qualify himself for a future staff
situation.
A sweet cottage, standing isolated on the verge of Bagshot-heath,
sheltered by tall trees and opening on a beautiful lawn, with a distant
but full view of the college, became our abode. A delightful room was
selected for me, with an injunction to sit down and make the most of my
time while he was in the halls of study, that I might be at leisure to
walk, to ride, to garden, to farm with him--my brother--my restored
brother, whose eye beamed protection, and whose smile diffused gladness,
and whose society was what in our happy childhood it had ever been, just
instead of all the world to me. If one thing was wanting, and wanting it
was, to knit us in a tie more enduring than any of this world's bonds
could possibly be, that very sense of want furnished a stimulus to more
importunate prayer on his behalf. Some of the good people who for lack
of a relay of ideas borrow one of their neighbors and ride it to death,
treated me to a leaf from the book of Job's comforters, when the
calamity fell on me of that precious brother's death, by telling me I
had made an idol of him. It was equally false and foolish. An idol is
something that either usurps God's place, or withdraws our thoughts and
devotions from him. The very reverse of this was my case. I had an
additional motive for continually seeking the Lord, not only in prayer
for the enlightening influences of the Holy Spirit on behalf of one so
dear, but also for grace to walk most circumspectly myself, lest I
should cast any stumbling-block in his way, or give him occasion to
suspect that my religious profession was a name, and not a reality. That
was surely a profitable idol which kept me always prayerful before God,
watchful over myself, diligent in the discharge of duties, and in
continual thanksgiving for the mercies I had received. Do I repent
loving my brother so well? I wish it had been possible to love him
better. These warm affections of the heart are among the sweetest relics
of a lost Eden, and I would sooner tear up the flowers that God has left
to smile in our daily path through a sin-blighted wilderness, far sooner
than I would cease to cherish, to foster, to delight in the brighter,
sweeter flowers of domestic love, carried to the full extent of all its
endearing capabilities.
The Lord knoweth our frame; he deals with us not according to what we
are not, but according to what we are. He sets before us various duties,
and to the end that we may the better fulfil them, he gives us aids not
contrary to, but accordant with our natural feelings. Men set up a
standard, often a just and scriptural one, to which they sorrowfully
confess that because of the weakness of their nature they cannot
themselves attain; but according to which they sternly judge their
neighbors. A person has a path assigned to him, a steep ascent strewed
with thorns and crowded with obstacles, before which he often pauses and
waxes faint. God gives him a companion for his way, even as he sent
forth the disciples two and two, and the pilgrim is cheered. He quickens
his pace; another besides himself will be benefited by his progress, and
if he fails, another will suffer in his loss. So he goes on thankful,
rejoicing, and endued with double energy for the toilsome achievement.
But he sees a neighbor to whom the Lord has also granted help through
human means, perhaps not exactly similar to that which he has received;
he sees his neighbor likewise openly rejoicing in the possession of such
a staff; and bringing him to the tests of that perfect law which
requires an entire devotedness to and dependence on the Lord, he raises
a cry of "mixed motives," "the arm of flesh," "idolatry," and so forth.
No doubt he is so far right, that perverse humanity will ever abuse
God's gifts, and often make them occasions of sin; but this outcry of
the beam against the mote, which is so grievously prevalent in the
religious world, is very unseemly. Oh, how infinitely more tender is the
Lord to us than we to one another.
Hitherto, many impediments had been thrown in the way of my literary
labors. Anxiety, apprehension, and the restlessness of feeling resulting
from a continual change of abode, had broken the train of thought, and
rendered my work very uncertain. Indeed, it would often have been wholly
inadequate to my support, but for the watchful kindness of friends whom
the Lord raised up to me, foremost among whom always stood the estimable
Mr. Sandford, who never ceased to regard me with paternal affection and
care. To he wholly independent was the first earthly wish of my heart;
and now a fair opportunity was given of testing my willingness to labor
diligently. The result was so far, satisfactory, that in the course of
the two years and two months of my residence under my brother's roof, I
wrote the Rockite, the System, Izram, Consistency, Perseverance, Allen
McLeod, Zadoc, and upwards of thirty little books and tracts, besides
contributions to various periodicals. I was going on most prosperously,
when an attempt was suddenly made from another quarter to establish a
claim to the profits of my pen. The demand was probably legal, according
to the strict letter of existing statutes, though circumstances would
have weighed strongly in my favor. But it greatly reduced the value of
my copyrights for the time being, and I found myself checked in my
career at a juncture when it was especially my desire to go on steadily.
This brought upon me two temptations, the force of which was greatly
increased by the circumstances under which they found me.
LETTER X.
SANDHURST.
When I first began to write, it was with a simple desire to instruct the
poor in the blessed truths of the gospel. My own situation soon rendered
it needful to turn the little talent I possessed to account. This I did,
still keeping in view the grand object of promoting God's glory; and my
attempts having been well received, I found a ready market for whatever
I wrote, so that the name was considered a sufficient guarantee for the
book. Now, I could no longer safely use that name, and anonymous writing
became the only feasible plan. A friend, who did not look upon the main
subject in the light that I did, made, through my brother, a proposal
that I should become a contributor to the most popular magazine of the
day, supplying tales, etc., the purport of which was to be as moral as I
pleased, but with no direct mention of religion. The terms offered were
very high: the strict _incognito_ to be preserved would secure me
from any charge of inconsistency, and coming as it did when my regular
source of income was suddenly closed, and when the idea of being
burdensome to my generous brother with his increasing family was hardly
supportable, it was thought I could not demur.
Nevertheless, I did; the Lord in his gracious providence had said to me,
"Go work to-day In my vineyard," and I had for upwards of four years
enjoyed that blessed privilege. It was now withdrawn, certainly not
without his permission; and how did I know that it was not to try my
faith? The idea of hiring myself out to another master--to engage in the
service of that world the friendship of which is enmity with God--to
cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before those whom by the pen
I addressed--to refrain from setting forth Jesus Christ and him
crucified to a perishing world, and give the reins to an imagination
ever prone to wander after folly and romance, but now subdued to a
better rule--all this was so contrary to my views of Christian
principle, that, after much earnest prayer to God, I decided rather to
work gratuitously in the good cause, trusting to Him who knew all my
necessity, than to entangle myself with things on which I could not ask
a blessing. The conflict was indeed severe; no one attempted to oppose
my resolve; but as yet no one could at all understand its real ground;
and it was a very trying position in which I stood, thus seemingly
spurning an honorable means of independence and leaving myself
destitute. But the trial was short: my first friends, the Christian
"Dublin Tract Society," exercising that faith which has distinguished
all their acts, determined to brave the consequences, and still publish
my little books. This, though, the profit was not then very good, I
hailed as a gracious intimation of the Lord's purpose still to continue
me in his service; and I was the more strengthened to meet the second
trial, which coming at a time when the sum proffered would he doubly
acceptable, and the refusal involving the loss of a very old and kind
friend, was rather a sharp one; more especially as the offence given
would and did alienate him from others who had no share in the
proceeding, and whose interests were far dearer to me than my own.
Many years before, that friend had published a novel: not a flimsy love-
story, but of a class above the common run. I had, as a girl, been very
fond of it, and often delighted the amiable author by expressing an
admiration that was not general; for the work had failed, and was
unsold. Now, finding I had been myself successful with the pen, and
full, even, in old age, of natural love for his literary offspring, he
had formed a plan, in which he never dreamed of encountering opposition.
He wished me to rewrite it, to cast the characters anew, enliven the
style, add variety to the incidents, and, in short, make a new work out
of his materials. Still it was to be a novel; and as it had been
originally published in his name, it was to be so now. My share in the
work would never be known; and as he was abundantly wealthy, and equally
generous, a _carte blanche_ as to terms was before me.
On the former occasion I had paused, and thought much: on this I did
not. The path was plain before me, but dreadfully painful to pursue. A
hundred pounds just then would have been more to me than a thousand at
another time; and private feeling was most distressingly involved, both
as regarded myself and others. It was in an agony of prayer, and after
many bitter tears, that I brought myself to do what, nevertheless, I had
not a wish to leave undone. I wrote a faithful letter to the friend in
question, most unequivocally stating the ground of my refusal--the
responsibility under which I conceived we all lay before God for the
application of talents committed by him; the evils of novel-reading;
and, as far as I could, I declared the whole gospel of Christ to one
whom I had no reason to consider as taking any thought whatever for his
soul. I heard no more from him to the day of his death, which took place
ten years after. I had reason to believe that his intentions towards me
were very liberal in the final distribution of his property; for he had
known and loved me from my cradle, and he had no family; but my
conscience bore a happy testimony in the matter; and I am fully
persuaded that the whole was a snare of Satan to betray me into an
acceptance of unhallowed gains, by catering to the worldly tastes of
those who forget God. No doubt, the business would have been a
profitable one, and the inducement to persevere made strong in
proportion as I sacrificed principle to lucre. "All these things will I
give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me." I should neither do
justice to the Lord's rich goodness nor to the honored instrument of his
bounty if I omitted to add, that, shortly after, my munificent friend
Mr. Sandford sent me a gift that left me no loser by having done my
duty.