EMPLOYMENT.
How is it that Christians so often complain they can find nothing to do
for their Master? To hear some of them bemoaning their unprofitableness,
we might conclude that the harvest indeed is small, and the laborers
many. So many servants out of employ is a bad sign; and to obviate the
difficulty complained of, I purpose showing you two or three ways in
which those who are so inclined may bestir themselves for the good of
others. What a blessing were a working church! and by a church I mean,
"the company of all faithful people," whosoever and wheresoever they be.
In the village where I lived, there was a very good national-school,
well attended; also a Sunday-school; and the poorer inhabitants
generally were of a respectable class, with many of a higher grade, such
as small tradesmen, and the families of those in subordinate offices
about the Military College. I always took a great interest in the young;
and as love usually produces love, there was no lack of affectionate
feeling on their part. It occurred to me, as the Sunday was much devoted
by most of them to idling about, that assembling such of them as wished
it at my cottage would afford an opportunity for scriptural instruction;
and without any thing resembling a school, or any regular proposal, I
found a little party of six or seven children assembled in the
afternoon, to hear a chapter read, answer a few questions upon it, and
join in a short prayer. Making it as cheerful and unrestrained as
possible, I found my little guests greatly pleased; and on the next
Sabbath my party was doubled, solely through the favorable report spread
by them. One had asked me, "Please, ma'am, may I bring my little
sister?" and on the reply being given, "You may bring any body and every
body you like," a general beating up for recruits followed. In three or
four weeks my assemblage amounted to sixty, only one half of whom could
be crowded into the parlor of my small cottage. What was to be done? The
work was rather arduous, but as I too had been complaining not long
before of having little to do for the Lord, except with the pen, I
resolved to brave a little extra labor. I desired the girls to come at
four, the boys at six, and allowing an interval of half an hour between,
we got through it very well. A long table was set across the room, from
corner to corner; round this they were seated, each with a Bible, I
being at the head of the table. I found this easy and sociable way of
proceeding highly gratified the children: they never called, never
thought it a school--they came bustling in with looks of great glee,
particularly the boys, and greeted me with the affectionate freedom of
young friends. A few words of introductory prayer were followed by the
reading of one or more chapters, so that each had a verse or two; and
then we talked over the portion of Scripture very closely, mutually
questioning each other. Many of the girls were as old as sixteen or
seventeen, beautiful creatures, and very well dressed: and what a
privilege it was so to gather and so to arm them in a place where, alas,
innumerable snares beset their path. We concluded with a hymn; and long
before the half-hour had expired that preceded the boys' entrance, they
were clustering like bees at the gate, impatient for the joyous rush;
and to seat themselves round their dear table, with all that free
confidence without which I never could succeed in really commanding the
attention of boys.
Our choice of chapters was peculiar. I found they wanted stirring
subjects, and I gave them Gideon, Samson, Jonathan, Nehemiah, Boaz,
Mordecai, Daniel, all the most manly characters of Old Testament
history, with the rich gospel that lies wrapped in every page of that
precious volume. Even in the New Testament I found that individualizing
as much as possible the speaker or the narrative produced, great
effects. Our blessed Lord himself, John the Baptist, Paul--all were
brought before them as vividly as possible; and I can assure those who
try to teach boys as they would teach girls, that they are pursuing a
wrong method. Mine have often coaxed an extra hour from me; and I never
once saw them willing to go, during the fifteen months of our happy
meetings. If the least symptom of unruliness appeared, I had only to
tell them they were my guests, and I appealed to their feelings of
manliness, whether a lady had not some claim to forbearance and respect.
Nothing rights a boy of ten or twelve years like putting him on his
manhood; and really my little lads became gentlemen in mind and manners,
while, blessed be God, not a few became, I trust, wise unto salvation.
Their greatest temptation to disorderly doings was in the laughable,
authoritative style of Jack's superintendence. He was now rapidly
fading, but in mind brighter than ever. Seated in a large chair, a
little to the rear of me, he kept strict watch over the party, and any
deviation from what he considered correct conduct was noticed with a
threat of punishment, conveyed by pinching his own ear, slapping his own
face, kicking out his foot, and similar indications of chastisement,
with a knowing nod at the offender. But if he saw an approach to levity
over the word of God, his manner wholly changed. Tears filled his eyes,
he looked all grief and entreaty, and the words, "God see," were
earnestly spelled on his uplifted hands. No one could stand the appeal;
and very rarely had he occasion to make it. I am sure his prayers helped
forward the work mightily. It was wonderful to see thirty-two robust,
boisterous fellows, from nine to seventeen years old, sitting in perfect
delight and perfect order, for two and even three hours, on a fine
Sunday evening, never looking dissatisfied till they were told to go.
I cannot help recording an event on which I look back with great
thankfulness, though it was a terrible trial to me at the time. Two of
my boys had a quarrel one week-day. One of them was very teasing, the
other very passionate. The latter ran to a butcher's window close by,
seized the large knife, and plunged it into the left side of his
companion. Most mercifully the wound was not dangerous: the keenness of
the knife was in his favor; it penetrated to within a short distance of
the heart, but separated no large vein, and within a few days the boy
was out again. The Sunday after it occurred my party were exceedingly
moved; they expressed great anger, and not a few threats were, uttered
against the culprit, whose parents had locked him up. On the following
Sabbath I resolved to make an effort to avert bad consequences, and also
to arrest the poor boy in his dangerous course. He had rather justified
himself than otherwise, and had shown a spirit sadly unsubdued, and
unthankful for his escape from a deadly crime and its awful
consequences. I sent word to him to come to my party: he replied he
would not. I repeated the summons, saying I should be exceedingly hurt
if he did not. No answer was returned. The place next but one to me
belonged to the wounded boy, that below it to his assailant; and the
former was present, pale, indeed, but well. I lost no time in announcing
to them that I expected P----, which occasioned a burst of indignation,
some saying they would not stay in the room with him, and the rest
seeming to assent. "Then," said I, "you must go, for he wants
instruction most: and the very feeling that makes you shrink from
associating with him proves that you are better taught. So if you will
leave me, do; I must admit him." Just then P---- was seen coming down
the little garden: he entered, his walk very erect, his eyes
unflinching, and his dark brows knitted. The looks of my young lads were
very eloquent; his bold bearing exasperated them much. My heart seemed
bursting its boundary with the violent palpitation of alarm, and other
emotions which I could scarcely suppress; but I motioned to P---- to
take his usual place, and instantly rising offered up the usual prayer,
with a petition for the spirit of mutual compassion, forgiveness, and
love. I ceased, all remained standing, and certainly it was a period of
most fearful interest. I looked imploringly at the wounded boy; he
hesitated a moment, then suddenly turned, and with an air of noble
frankness, held out his hand to P----, who took it directly. I then
offered him mine; he grasped it, and burst into tears. A delightful
scene followed, each pressing to seal his forgiveness in the same
manner, while Jack's countenance shone with almost heavenly beauty on a
spectacle so congenial to his loving heart. We had a most happy
evening, and I could not but tell my dear boys how much I rejoiced over
them. Whatever may have been the effect on the characters of those
concerned, I know not. I am persuaded the proceeding was a means of
averting much mischief. Boys are noble creatures when placed on their
right footing; but they are pugnacious animals and require prudent
management. News was brought me one evening, while they waited for
admission, that two of them had stripped off their jackets to fight, the
dispute being which loved their teacher most. "Exclude them both to-
night," said a friend, "and threaten to expel them." Instead of which, I
sent word that the one who first put on his jacket loved me most, and
that I was ready to begin. In they both came, smiling, and they got
their lecture in due time, when a passage in point came before us.
Now, who complains of non-employment while there are so many neglected
children, and so many who, in the dull routine of a school, get only a
mechanical knowledge of what would deeply interest them if brought
before them with the help of a little personal condescension and care?
It is a branch of Christian duty for which all are competent who know
the gospel; and two, three, or four young people invited to come in for
an hour or so at stated times, to sit down at a table and _talk_
over the passages of Scripture which may appear best calculated to
engage their pleased attention, may often prove the foundation for a
noble work. * * * Ladies do not like to instruct boys: they are very
wrong. Female influence is a powerful thing, and freely exerted for
evil--why not for good? We brought sin into the world, involving man in
the ruin he was not the first to seek; and it is the least we can do to
offer him a little good now. I never yet met with a boy--and thanks be
to God I have taught many--who would be rude to a female earnestly and
kindly seeking his welfare, without attempting to crush that
independence of spirit which is man's prerogative, and which no woman
has a right to crush.
I need not say that in the foregoing, and in all similar works where the
Lord permitted me to engage, I labored diligently to make my young
friends something more than nominal Protestants. To omit this, in giving
instruction, is the very madness of inconsistent folly and cruelty.
A few weeks after the commencement of my weekly assemblages, I was
called to the metropolis in search of medical aid for a dear little
child of my brother's. I found it, and all that Christian kindness could
add to render it doubly valuable, at the hands of an estimable
physician, near whom I resolved to stay for a few weeks; and while
secretly lamenting that here, at least, I should find nothing to do, an
answer was given to my unbelief that might well shame it. To the same
end I will record this also, the circumstances being already well known,
but not the delightful encouragements that are afforded when a project
is entered upon in single, simple reliance on the help of Him for whose
glory his people desire to work. Unbelief in his willingness--for we
dare not doubt his power to prosper our poor attempts--is the real bar
to our success. Such mistrust is infinitely dishonoring to him.
Six years had elapsed since I left Ireland, but my affection for the
country and people was unchanged, unchangeable. The very centre of the
isle had become the grave of my beloved brother, and this only added
tenfold to the touching interest excited by the very mention of that
land. Strange to say, I had never heard of the Irish Society, nor
considered of what vast importance it would be to make the language of
the natives a medium of conveying spiritual instruction to them. The
annual meeting was about to be held, and among the Irish clergymen
forming the deputation to London, was the Rev. Charles Seymour, the
venerable and every-way estimable pastor under whose ministry my brother
had been placed at Castlebar, and from whom I had received letters,
fully confirmatory of my sanguine hope that he had indeed and wholly
embraced the gospel of Christ. Longing to see Mr. Seymour, I went to him
on the morning of the meeting; and most sweet was the testimony he had
to give; most tender the sympathy he evinced in all my sorrow and all my
gladness. After a conversation that left me overflowing with gratitude
for the blessings vouchsafed to my precious brother, he asked me to
attend the meeting, and I went prepared to take a lively interest in
whatever might be said respecting Ireland. How great was my astonishment
when, for the first time, I heard the story of Bishop Bedell, of the
Irish Bible, and of the good work in rapid progress among the aborigines
of the land. The extent and inveteracy of the disease, I well knew; but
the suitability of the remedy had never been set before me. In fact, I
hardly knew that the Irish was a written language; and strange it
seemed, to have passed three years in a part of the country where it is
extensively spoken, and in the house of one who always conversed in that
tongue with the rustic frequenters of her shop, yet to be so grossly
ignorant of all relating to it. I resolved to become an active partisan
of the Irish Society in Ireland; but a different turn was soon given to
my sympathies. Mr. Seymour spoke after the others: he said much
calculated to prove the power of the language in preaching the gospel;
but suddenly reverting to the state of the many thousands of his poor
countrymen congregated in London, he drew a most affecting picture of
their destitute, degraded condition. He appealed to us as Christians;
and reminding us of our many privileges, bade us take care that the
souls of his poor countrymen did not rise up in judgment to condemn us
for allowing them to perish in the heart of our metropolis. "Open," he
said, "a bread-shop in St. Giles's; deal forth a little of the bread of
life to their starving souls. Ye English Christians, I appeal to you for
them: Oh, pity my poor lost countrymen, open but a bread-shop in St.
Giles's!" Tears ran down his venerable face, as he lifted his clasped
hands, and bent towards us. The effect of his words on me was electric:
I looked at him, and silently but fervently said, "So God help me as I
will open you a bread-shop in St. Giles's, if He does but permit!" Again
and again did I repeat the pledge; and when Lord Roden spoke--the first
time of my seeing that noble Irishman--and heartily seconded the appeal,
I renewed the secret promise, with such purpose of heart as rarely fails
to accomplish its object.
For some days I tried in vain to do any thing towards it; but on the
Sunday, passing from Great Russell-street to Long-acre, through the
worst part of St. Giles's, I saw the awful state of that district, and
declared to my companion, himself a devoted Irishman, my fixed resolve
to have a church there. He warmly encouraged it, extravagant as the idea
appeared; and I began to pray earnestly for direction from above. Two
nights after, a thought struck me; I wrote an appeal on behalf of the
miserable Irish Papists in that place, likening their case among us to
that of Lazarus lying at the rich man's gate, and imploring means to
give them the gospel in their own tongue. This I had printed, and sent
copies as I could to various friends. Some smiled at my enthusiasm;
others pointed out the work among distant heathen as far more important.
Many wished me success; a few rebuked me for desiring to proselytize the
members of another church; and still fewer gave me money. At the end of
a fortnight's hard begging, I had got just seven pounds towards building
a church! This was slow work. One day, dining at the table of my dear
friend Dr. P----, he heard many bantering me for being so sanguine, and
said, "You remind me of Columbus going to the cathedral of Seville to
ask a blessing on his romantic project of discovering a new world.
Everybody laughed at him. Nevertheless, Columbus succeeded, _and so
will you_." At that moment a gentleman sitting next me laid a
sovereign on my piece of bread; and the coincidence of the gold and the
"bread-shop," combined with the doctor's confident prediction, put new
life into me, and I boldly said, "I WILL succeed."
With the sum of seven pounds in hand, I wrote to the bishop of Lichfield
and Coventry, begging him to ask the bishop of London if he would
license my Irish church and an Irish clergyman, if I provided both. Lord
Mountsandford took this letter to him, and the next day he brought me
this rather startling message: "The bishop of London will license your
church: Lichfield sends his love to you, and desires you will summon the
gentlemen who are assisting you in this undertaking--half a dozen or so
--to meet him in Sackville-street on Saturday next, and be there
yourself. He will see what can be done to forward it." Half a dozen
gentlemen! where was I to find them? My only helpers were Mr. Maxwell,
Dr. Pidduck, and Lord Mountsandford himself. However, I went to work,
praying incessantly, and solacing myself with that beautiful text, "Go
up to the mountain, and bring wood and build the house; and I will take
pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord." I suppose I
repeated that verse a hundred times a day, in my solitude, attending the
sick child and writing letters till I nearly fell from my seat with
exhaustion.
Saturday arrived: I had no idea how far my applications might have
succeeded; but if I had as many gentlemen there as pounds in my
treasury, namely, seven, it would be sufficient. I went trembling with
hope and fear, accompanied by two warmhearted young Irish barristers
whom my good friend Mr. Maxwell had pressed into the service. Oh what
could I render unto the Lord for all his goodness to me, when I saw the
glorious spectacle presented to my view at the hour appointed! There sat
the good Bishop Ryder in the chair; beside him the bishop of Bath and
Wells; lords Lorton, Lifford, Bexley, Mountsandford, and Carberry; and
of other clergymen and gentlemen upwards of forty. "Let us ask a
blessing," said the bishop of Lichfield; and when, we all kneeled down
to commit unto the LORD a work so new, so strange, and to poor human
reason so hopelessly wild as this had appeared two days before, I
thought I might as well die then as not; I could never die happier.
All was zeal, love, unanimity; they placed it on a good basis, and my
seven pounds were multiplied by more than seven before we broke up. They
did not take the work out of my hands, but formed themselves into a body
for aiding in carrying it on: the rector of St. Giles's came forward
voluntarily to give his hearty consent, and ten pounds; and if there was
a pillow of roses in London that night, I surely slept on it. In six
weeks my memorable seven pounds swelled to thirteen hundred; a church
was bought, a pastor engaged; and a noble meeting held in Freemason's
Hall, to incorporate the new project with the Irish Society. I went back
to Sandhurst elated with joy, and lost no time in putting up, most
conspicuously written out on card, over my study fireplace, the lines
that I had so often repeated during the preceding two months:
"Victorious Faith, the promise sees,
And looks to God alone;
Laughs at impossibilities,
And says, 'IT SHALL BE DONE!"
In the following November the Irish Episcopal church in St. Giles's was
opened for divine service on Advent Sunday, the Rev. H.H. Beamish
officiating. A more eloquent and fluent preacher, a more gifted and
devoted man, the whole church of God could not have supplied. He
preached the whole gospel in Irish to the listening, wondering people,
who hung with delight upon accents so dear to them; and he attacked
their pestilent heresies with the bold faithfulness of one who meant
what he said, when vowing to drive away all erroneous and strange
doctrines from those under his charge. God blessed most richly his
ministry: many were awakened, several truly converted to Christ, and not
a small number fully convinced of the falsehood of their own
superstition, which they forsook. We had forty communicants from among
the most wretchedly ignorant and bigoted of the Irish Romanists, before
Mr. Beamish left his post; and one of them had even endured a cruel
martyrdom for the truth's sake. A bread-shop in deed it was: and the old
Christian, whose fervent appeal had given rise to its establishment,
himself preached there in Irish to a delighted congregation, before the
Lord took him to himself. * * *
LETTER XIII.
A SUNSET.
I come now to the period of my delivering up a sacred trust into the
hands of Him who committed it to me. Jack had lingered long, and sunk
very gradually; but now he faded apace. His eldest sister, a very
decided Romanist, came over for the purpose of seeing him, and to take
care that he had "the rites of the church." Had the abbé remained, it is
probable we should have soon found ourselves deep in controversy; for,
as priest, he never should have crossed my threshold, to bring upon my
house the curse attached to idolatrous worship: and there was happily no
other within reach. Jack requested me to promise him in his sister's
presence that no Romish priest should come near him: I willingly did so;
and moreover informed her that if she was herself dying and asked for
one, he would not be admitted under my roof. The abomination that maketh
desolate stands in many places where it ought not, but where I have
authority it never did, nor by God's grace ever shall. I have toleration
full and free for every form of Christianity, but none for antichrist,
come in what form he may.