Page images
PDF
EPUB

with him, as before, at Cardington. He had travelled, since quitting home, about 4500 miles. He conti, nued, however, to make an occasional visit of inspection to some of our own prisons; and availed himself for this purpose of a journey which he took to Nottingham, to place his son under the care of the Rev. Mr. Walker, of that place. We have felt disposed occasionally to express astonishment in passing over the pages of this memoir, at the vast sums of money which Mr. Howard must have expended in these tours of benevolence, and in the payment of the fees of numberless debtors confined for small debts, and others detained after trial and acquittal for the jailor's fees. But then it has cccurred to us, that probably far larger sums than these are annually spent by multitudes in our fashionable circles on their own gratification and amusement; and our astonishment at Howard, who had motive and reason enough for all his self-denial, and labour, and expenditure of money, and whose end was worthy of his pains to accomplish it, is thus diverted into another channel, and rests on those who, with any power of reflection at all, or any taste for the pleasure of benevolence (to take no higher ground) can be content to lavish the talent and wealth for which they are as responsible to the God who made them as their own stewards are to themselves, on giddy vanities and airy nothings, which not only perish in the using, but even frequently excite disgust in the very enjoyment. Ob, that for their own sakes, they knew the pure pleasure of doing good; the luxury, as has been quaintly said, of "eating with many mouths at once."

We have mentioned the cases of those who were confined in prison for small debts and jailors' fees. One instance occurs in the memoir, so truly disgraceful that we must mention it for the sake of the warning.

"In the city jail at Coventry, one of

[ocr errors]

the felons had received his Majesty's free pardon, on condition of going to sea: but the clerk of assize wrote on the letter which enclosed that pardon, The secretary of state's fee is 11. 7s., and my fee 17. 18., which you'll take care to receive on the back of the pardon from the officer who receives him ;' but as no officer would take him on condition of paying these and the jailor's and under-sheriff's fees of 19s. 4d., Mr. Howard found this poor wretch still languishing in prison on his pound of bread a day, more than eight months after this free pardon had been received." pp. 346, 347.

Mr. Howard soon set off on another tour to Ireland, visited again the jails, and afterwards some of the Protestant charter-schools there. The effect of this visit was the rectification of various abuses, and the passing of a bill in Parliament for the discharge of prisoners then in custody for their fees. He excited such a sense of the value of his services in the University of Dublin, that that learned body conferred on him the honorary degree of doctor of laws, a mark of respect that he said he should always reflect upon with pleasure. On his return to England, we find him again hastening all over the country, and then through Scotland, discovering fresh miseries and unjustifiable severities, and correcting and diminishing them all. He did, indeed, justify the eulogium of Burke, "comparing and collating the distresses of all men in all countries;" and when the year 1782 closed, he had travelled for these purposes of mercy 8,165 miles.

(To be continued.)

Morning Thoughts in Prose and Verse, on single Verses in the successive Chapters in the Gospel of St. Matthew By J. W. CUN-NINGHAM, M. A. Vicar of Harrow, &c. &c. Second edition. Hatchard: London. 1824.

WE are much indebted to Mr. Cunningham for this addition to the "Golden Treasuries" of former ages.

We know nothing in which minds of the best feeling and richest structure can be more worthily employed than in concentrating, not necessarily reducing, their powers to minute but effective efforts for the instruction and consolation of mankind. The same quarry which supplies the grandest masses for the construction of palaces and temples, may also furnish the most valuable fragments for the polisher and the statuary; and the present author, whose mental stores might suffice for the construction of more extensive works, is not less worthily employed in adorning and furnishing our Christian temple with smaller vessels, of value at once for use and beauty.

Bogatzki's "Golden Treasury" has, for many long years, been highly prized in sacred literature: it contains matter most congenial to the feelings of every Christian mind; and it has been thought worthy to be enlarged, as it would seem, by many successive hands. It is constructed much on the same plan which Mr. Cunningham has adopted; containing, for every day in the year, what Mr. Cunningham's book does for egery chapter in St. Matthew, a verse as a text; a little running, practical, and devotional comment on the words; and an appropriate stanza or two of versicles at the end, which, in the case of Mr. Cunningham's work, rise to the dignity of a hymn or sonnet. We are not aware that any imitation was intended of the former production in the latter; and indeed the plan is sufficiently obvious to any pious and reflecting mind, whether, like Mr. Cunningham, discoursing in "Morning Thoughts" with Him who "maketh the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice;" or whether, like the authors of the Golden Treasury, circling the live-long year with expressions of praise, and feelings of trust and devout adoration towards Him who "crowneth the year with his goodness."

It has been, perhaps, too much
CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 270.

the reproach of Christians in these later ages, that the present plan of scriptural meditation has not been more familiar than it is. The devout reflections of the humble Christian upon the words of Scripture, and in the attitude of prayer or adoration, can never fail to be attended with appropriate feelings of sacred delight. His meditations on God are "sweet;" he "delights in the Lord." At the same time, to conduct these meditations to a profitable conclusion, is a work which requires much abstraction, and habitual separation in heart and spirit from the world; and hence we are not surprised to find them flourish most among the sainted worthies of former and more simple ages. From St. Austin to St. Anselm, or St. Alcuin, if we may attribute to them the saintship, which, though far from claiming, they would by no means have despised, we find the richest specimens of similar effusions-not to mention those of the seraphic Archbishop of Cambray, with his prototypes, à or dè Kempis, or the admirably pathetic and truly evangelical effusions, in a similar form, of Quesnel, and his Port-Royal brotherhood and sisterhood. fact is, that seclusion at least, if not depression, and a large experience of the trials of this our earthly pilgrimage, with a small share of its occasional prosperity, will be found to be the soil where these fruits

The

chiefly grow. It is in the escape

from the shadows of time, to use Mr. Cunningham's frequent expression, into the rays of a hoped and longed for eternity; it is in that state of life, to which deep devotion very often led the pious Catholic of old, though with many misconceptions as to the nature of religious retirement, but to which we may fashion a resemblance, and indeed a far superior counterpart, in voluntary seclusion from the noise of vanity, folly, and vice; that such meditations spring up most favourably in a devout and sensitive mind. Indeed it may shew the wisdom and

3 E

rious forms, is marked out for the worldly aspirant. More especially, it separates the Christian minister from what is often his greatest snare, a desire to make his feelings and expressions on religious subjects subservient to the end of rearing up the fabric of his earthly fortunes.

mercy of Him who does far better for us than we for ourselves, that the seclusion, which in those instances was voluntary, is in others forced upon us, at least occasionally, by the allotments of Divine Providence. So far from modern Christians retiring too much from the world, it were well if they did so more: too often they wait till the world retires from them, as it will inevitably do if their conduct comports with their principles. Spiritual duties and secular views mu tually repel each other; and whichever of the two may happen to make the first move, if both dispositions are maintained in characteristic liveliness, a separation must certainly ensue. Then, perhaps, without intending it, the devout Christian finds himself in the situation most favourable to the exercise of his spiritual feelings. He has not monastically, it might have been proudly, separated himself from other men; but still he is separated. He is less under the sway of worldly examples and principles. He finds himself gradually emerging from the current of worldly fashions and feelings, of worldly honours and emoluments. He may think himself for a moment overlooked, disesteemed, dishonoured. He may turn even with some reluctance to those spiritual exercises to which his circumstances conduct him; but he finds them, at last, to be just the point to which his Heavenly Father intended he should be led; and they become "the joy and rejoicing of his heart." This state of things affords, though necessarily a more rare, yet still a more valuable mode of religious devotion, perhaps, than any other. It exhibits the proper general result of true Christianity. It places a man just in accordance with the allotment of his Saviour: "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world; but that thou should keep them from the evil." It separates him from that incessant round of ambition and covetousness, which, under va

An English clergyman, moderately but not profusely beneficed, indeed (if we may venture a further remark, now that we seem to be conducted to that point), is, or ought to be, above all men favourably situated in these respects. His subsistence depends neither on courting the popular voice, often most tyrannical, nor on following any humanly prescribed course of instruction, except so far as not to oppose the doctrines and discipline of his church, which will usefully assist and regulate his conduct without fettering his conscience. In general, he is placed equally distant from poverty and affluence; and is thus favourably circumstanced for the cultivation of those retired habits and silent exercises of Christian piety from which the meditations in question most readily grow. Beyond this competency all is, generally speaking, bustlea and business, and publicity, if not worse; and this in the getting, and often in the using. With such a giddy secularity the man of truly Christian spirit would willingly have nothing to do. Circumstances may happen to force him into it; but, for the most part, the mutual repulsion above mentioned here takes place, and the faithful follower of his Saviour may often expect full leisure to meditate in private, while the road to honours and preferments will be trodden by persons of less opportunity for his pursuits. From these last, indeed, may often originate what shall inform the head, reform the manners, and even assist the faith of believers; but from the other class we should most fitly expect whatever may awaken the slumbering conscience, or heal the broken heart." Si vis me flere ;" and we may carry on the

remark to the effects and benefits of Christian sorrow; "dolendum primum est ipse tibi."

If the dignified, and at the same time devout and exquisitely élegant, Bishop Horne affords an illustrious exception to the above remarks, we are happy to say, that he but led the way to an illustrious series of writers among the later members of our Protestant Establishment, and that in all ranks, who have wiped off the reproach above alluded to. Who is not acquainted with the Christian Remembrancer of Searle amongst our devout laymen? And who ought not to be acquainted with two very spiritual and edifying little works, which we should be glad to bring under the notice of our readers, by the devout Dr. Peers, an aged clergyman in Surrey? one entitled "Minutiæ, addressed to the Poor of Christ's Flock;" the other, "Short Introductory Observations on the Collects," headed by a text, and closed with the collect itself, in the place of Mr. Cunningham's hymn. If Mr. Cunningham justly recommends the perusal of a chapter in St. Matthew each morning, with the devotional use of his own short commentary on one text in the chapter, we should as warmly recommend the same pious use of the other excellent work just mentioned, on the morning of each Sunday; to which day we cannot think of a more appropriate opening for a churchman than the use of his own scriptural collect, thus brought back, as it were, to its primitive source, the Bible, to catch fresh warmth and sweetness from such renewed contact. From Dr. Peers's Minutiæ, perhaps, we may be allowed to extract a "morning thought," as an introduction to those not less devout Morning Thoughts, befitting Mr. Cunningham's "Sweet hour of Prime," to which we shall then return.

[ocr errors][merged small]

"Is not the Lord giving me fresh occasion every morning to subscribe to this? I awake-I find myself a monument of God's sparing mercy. I feel I am indulged with the continuance of the use of the members of my body: and when I reflect how often I have made them the instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, I admire the grace of God in his mercy to me a sinner, and that what I have forfeited all right and title to, should be thus continued, thus preserved to me. I see the light again surrounding me; and I consider, how many less sinful than myself have closed their eyes in everlasting night, and died the children of darkness. The thought speaks, Why art thou spared, but that thou mayst live more to the glory of God, and, redeeming time out of the service of thine enemies, devote it to God; be serving the Lord with fear; and be rejoicing before him with trembling? I hear the cock crow; I think of him who denied his Master; I see myself in him, self-confident, self-deceived, and falling. I think of Him who turned and looked upon this disciple; and I feel a secret hope that I am not rejected, that my Saviour's eye is upon me, and I weep. The sun rises, and I behold nature smiling under his reviving beams: I look to Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness, that he would arise and shine upon my soul, and comfort my heart with the beams of his love. He gives me a hope that in the morning of the resurrection I shall shine forth in the kingdom of my Father. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”

Mr. Cunningham, in "committing his little volume to the care and blessing of that most compassionate Being who can give efficacy to the very simplest and humblest instruments," would have done well to have abstained from the use of so important a word as that of "commentary;" particularly in giving us

the agrecable promise of similar commentaries on the other Evangelists. His reflections are not com

mentaries, but Thoughts on single

Verses: and it would have been unreasonable to have departed so far from the spirit of the verse, as to have embraced the substance of the chapter which contains it: while it may contribute much to the innocent interest kept up, in previously reading the chapter, to conjecture on what verse, or what topic, it will have happened to the author to have been meditating. We shall not anticipate the satisfaction of that discovery, by giving any hint beyond what we actually quote. We earnestly hope, that the fable of the agriculturalist digging all over his farm for a hidden treasure, and finding the treasure only in the effects of his own labour, inay be realised by many, who shall be directed by anticipation to "thoughts" of their own on particular verses of each chapter, which they may afterwards find were not the verses selected by the author. In chapter third, from which we begin our selection, Mr. Cunningham prefers the hoverings of the gentle dove to the stern message and awful threats of the preacher in the wilderness.

66

Chap. i. ver. 16. And lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him.'

"When the Holy Spirit descended upon the Son of God, he borrowed the semblance, not of a bird of prey, but of the mourning and tender dove." And thus, when he now descends to stamp his sacred image on the soul, the impression which he leaves is not that of fierceness and intolerance, but of gentleness, and tenderness, and love. He is the Spirit, not of contention, but of order, and of a sound mind, and of the charity which never faileth'-the Spirit which maketh men to be of one mind in an house.' Shall not those, therefore, who profess to follow his guidance, be harmless as doves? Shall they not cultivate the tenderness and gentleness of Him to whom the Spirit was given without measure? Shall they not put on that charity' which is the bond

of perfectness?' Shall they not remember they are 'brethren, and see that they 'fall not out by the way?' To those who the 'Sanctifier' will become a 'Comforter." are thus cherishing the graces of the Spirit,

As the dove brought to Noah the intelligence of the subsiding of the waters, so will the tidings that the tempest of eternal wrath no Heavenly Dove convey to the soul the glad longer sweeps over her path.-Oh, may he bring us the olive-branch of hope and peace! May He 'bear witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God! May He shake from his 'wings' of 'silver' every gift and blessing which the soul desires or needs! And may all men see that He is with us, by the seal of the Spirit imprest on our lives and tempers! Almost every object or individual, brought under some new and powerful influence, discovers, by a corresponding change, the force of the instruments to which it is subjected. The desert awakes to life and beauty under the beam of the sun. The heavenly bodies obey the law of gravity, and move on in lustre. uninterrupted harmony and unclouded The poor wandering prodigal softens under the influence of a mother's love. The slave discovers a thousand new energies and sympathies and powers as his chains fall from him. And thus, in the case of every man really brought under the influence of the Spirit, the desert of the mind is clothed with new verdure;

[ocr errors]

the wandering heart is brought back again to God; the slave to his corruptions [of corruption] breaks from his terrible bondage, and walks abroad in all the glorious liberty of the children of God. The moral change, figuratively described by the Prophet, is accomplished: The eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped: then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the torgue of the dumb sing; for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.' A new man, in fact, arises under this new and sanctifying influence, clothed in the righteousness and reflecting the image of his Redeemer.

[blocks in formation]
« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »