Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

it a pity that Ada had not some of his beauty, but if they stayed a week or two they seemed to forget how plain she was, and to think Josey was fast losing his good looks. The fact is, people are never good looking unless they look good; and they who have a scowl of impatience or sullenness, constantly, or even occasionally, on their features, must look disagreeable. Supposing they have a smile for visitors, it is not appreciated on acquaintance. Thus it was with Joseph, he reserved his brightest smiles for strangers, while the dear friends who loved him best, suffered from his ill-nature. Nothing seemed to give him pleasure long at a time.

He and his sister slept each in their own little room at the head of the stairs. In the morning when the sun was shining brightly, and the happy birds were singing their songs of praise in the trees, close to the cottage, Mrs. Green would call from the foot of the stairs, "Josey, Ada, get up, darlings, it is a lovely morning."

"Yes, mamma," would come from Ada's room, but not a grunt from Josey's.

The little girl would rise, and throwing open her window, dress herself quickly; then kneeling down she would thank God for taking care of her through the night, and

I pray that she might learn to be good. As she passed her brother's room she would call him, "Josey dear, get up, it is a bright morning, and the breakfast is waiting."

"Well, well, I ain't deaf," Joseph would growl, and as he heard her last steps on the stairs he would begin to think about prayers. "What's the use of saying 'em, just to tire a fellow?" but he had been taught to pray, and so from habit he muttered them over.

"Don't see anything wonderful in the morning, I am sure," Joseph would say as he entered the breakfast room. "Another scalding day."

"Yes, and how fast 'twill ripen the strawberries, Josey," would chime in Ada in her sweet silver voice.

"I wish they were ripe now, that we might have something fit to eat," the cross boy would say; "bread and butter and milk, I don't like such things."

"Will you take a cup of chocolate, my son?" the mother would ask, and Ada would run for another cup. "I hate chocolate."

"Try a bit of tongue, Bub, 'tis very

nice," Ada would say. Thus it was from morning till night, except at brief intervals when the young gentleman would conclude to play a while with his sister; such times would usually end as the scene did we opened with.

Poor

Mrs. Green was pained and perplexed at the unhappy disposition of her boy,-doubly so, now that her husband, on whose firmness she depended to assist her in guiding him aright, was prostrated with disease. Her presence was necessary in the sickroom, so that the children were left almost entirely to their own guidance. woman, her task was a severe one; it was not difficult to decide from whom the peevish boy inherited his disposition, for now that sickness had bowed the strong man, his patient, uncomplaining wife, found it difficult to please him in any way; not that he was unkind, only nervous and irritable. Unlike his wife, he had nothing to support him under affliction but a cold Philosophy, frail, and heartless enough, in the time of health and prosperity, but a very spider's web now that the evil day had come upon him. Behind was a life of fruitless toil, since it had failed to lay up treasure in heaven; the present was pain and regret, and the future was dark and untried. God pity thee, poor woman, and in mercy send thee godly sorrow to work life and health to thy soul !

Ellen May, whom we spoke of as a cripple in our last chapter, was not always a poor crippled invalid. Two years before she was as healthy, gay, and light-hearted as Adaline Green. Her parents doated on her and her good-natured brother, and being wealthy furnished everything to amuse and instruct them. They were lovely and intelligent, and their parents designed they should Occupy high stations in the world of wealth and fashion. Alas, for human hopes! On the eighth birthday of little Ellen, a gay dashing cousin wished to take her out to ride. "See my beautiful gray, aunty, and my new tandem; Ellen and I will ride out to Oak Hill, and then I will return and dine with her." "But your horse, Augustine, is mettlesome, I am afraid to have you take her," said her mother. Ellen, however, added her entreaties to Augustine's, and the lively boy drove off with her, she laughing gaily, and kissing her little hand to her mother. An hour after she was borne into the house senselessand motionless, having been thrown from

the carriage while the horse was going at a furious rate. We need not describe the agony of the afflicted parents; suffice it to say, that every remedy that skill could prescribe, or gold procure, was tried to restore the poor child to health; as a last resort, country air was recommended, and that was why the family of the Mays were living in the village of G-.

The inhabitants of the village were not forward in making the acquaintance of their new neighbours; they had heard that they were rich, and feared they might be haughty and aristocratic, and so they left them to their own resources, -all but Mrs. Green. Prompted by real christian benevolence, no sooner did she hear from the children that the "new lady" had a little girl that had not walked for two years, than she called, introduced herself, and enquired after the invalid. Mrs. May received her with more than politeness, and begged that her children might sometimes come and see her sick daughter. And Ada and Joseph were often permitted to play with Mrs. May's children.

One afternoon Ada, being quite alone, wandered out to look at her little bed of wild strawberries. She found it dotted all over with crimson fruit which had been slyly ripening in those "scalding days." The glad child bounded home, and taking two little mugs, returned and filled them with the delicious fruit, and got back into the house just as her mother came out to see what had become of her.

"Oh, some strawberries for father," said Mrs. Green, looking kindly at the smiling girl.

"Yes, these are for father," said she, holding out one mug.

"And those are for the little gatherer,"

replied her mother. "Well, that is but fair."

"For me?" said Ada in surprise; "no, indeed! not till there are enough for you and Josey too; these are for poor Ellen, if you please, dear mother."

"I do please, my generous child, and you shall take them over yourself, with some fresh cream." Her mother set them into a basket with a pitcher of cream, and the little girl proceeded on her errand of love. She found Ellen quite alone, propped on her couch near the window, from which she was waving her pretty flag. There were traces of tears on her pale cheek.

"Oh, Ada, how glad I am to see you. I have been alone this hour, mother had the headache, and I begged her to lay down, saying, I would ring for Peggy, if I wanted anything, but I don't like Peggy, so I waved the flag for Eddy, but he don't see it; and oh, I am so tired, and my neck aches."

Ada, though younger than Ellen, was strong, and easily lifted her further upon the pillows, so as to relieve her aching neck; she then put back the heavy masses of hair that clung around her hat, face, and neck, and fanned her till she smiled, and said, "she felt a great deal better." Ada then brought forward her basket and exhibited its treasures; "They are for you, dear," said she, "I meant that you should have the first that ripened."

Ellen clapped her hands in ecstasies, "Just what I have wanted this long time; father promised to send me a box from the city as soon as he could find them." Just then Mrs. May came in; she thanked Ada many times, and said she should remember her when she went to the city. (To be continued.)

Miscellaneous.

THE FEAR OF DEATH.-"Many fear death, much less than the operation of dying. People form the most singular conception of the last struggle, the separation of the soul from the body, and the like. But this is all void of foundation. No man ever certainly felt what death is; and as insensibly as we enter into life, equally insensibly do we leave it. The beginning and the end are here united. My proofs are as follow:-First, man can have no sensation of dying; for to die, means nothing more than to lose the vital power;

In

and it is the vital power by which the soul communicates sensation to the body. proportion as the vital power decreases, we lose the power of sensation and of consciousness, and we cannot lose life, without at the same time, or rather before, losing our vital sensation, which requires the assistance of the tenderest organs. We are taught also by experience, that all those who ever passed through the first stage of death, and were again brought to life, unanimously asserted that they felt nothing of dying, but sunk at once into a state of

insensibility. Let us not be led into a mistake by the convulsive throbs, the rattling in the throat, and the apparent pangs of death, which are observed in many persons when in a dying state. These symptoms are painful only to the spectators, and not to the dying, who are not sensible of them. The case here is the same as if one, from the dreadful contortions of a person in an epileptic fit, should form a conclusion respecting his internal feelings. From what affects us so much, he suffers nothing." Perhaps this may help to comfort some, who "through the fear of death have been all their lifetime subject to bondage."

"HOLD ON, MOTHER."-Such was the exhortation of a sailor to his widowed mother. She had several children, for whom "she prayed day and night exceedingly." Manifestly in answer to her prayers, one after another was awakened by the Spirit of God, convinced of sin, and subdued into saving reconciliation through the medium of Christ crucified.

One of

her sons followed the seas for eleven years. Much had she prayed for her "poor sailor boy," and many a letter had she written him, rich with maternal counsel and solicitude. When at home, she had taken unwearied pains, such as none but a pious mother would take, to draw him from all improper associations, and to interest him in whatsoever things are pure, and true, and lovely. At length she received letters from him, which breathed a new spirit, and spoke a new language. I listened to the voice of that mother, as, with "joy unspeakable," she read to me three of those letters, richly expressive of the views and feelings of a new-born soul. In them all he acknowledged his special indebtedness to her faithful warnings, and persevering prayers. In one he spoke of the condition and prospects of her children who still remained impenitent; and in order to encourage her to do for them as she had done for him, he says, "Hold on, Mother; your prayers may yet be answered in their conversion."

THE MONTH.

Entelligence.

The great fact of the month is undoubtedly the census report of the Religious Statistics of the country. For the first time we have a statement on authority, as nearly accurate as possible, of the amount of church and chapel accommodation, including the number both of buildings and the sittings contained in them; of the number of persons who attended each service on Sunday, 31st March, 1851; of the numbers of buildings, sittings, and attendants belonging to each sect; and a series of tables arranging the details in every serviceable form, to exhibit the religious condition of England and Wales, so far as relates to public worship, and the proportions of religious instruction and advantages contributed by each denomination. Our friends ought to know that all the information any of them will desire, they may find in a shilling edition, published by the authority of the Registrar General himself. We are confident that every intelligent reader will think it an extraordinarily cheap and instructive shilling's worth. He will find in it not only the religious statistics of every single town, and county exclusive of the towns, in England and Wales, but also an accurate and truly impartial account of the sentiments of each denomination, and of its retrogression or progress during the last half century. Its sincerely, and yet judicially fair, religious spirit, is not amongst its least commendations. It exhibits the irreligion of the masses in the most convincing light, adverts to the probable causes of it in frank and faithful language, and indeed it will, we are persuaded, prove more arousing to good men than any number of sermons on the matter.

Our readers will perhaps ask first about Dissent generally, as compared with the Church of England, and then about their own denomination. The answer to the first question will be gratifying to those who have been at so much expense to propagate what they deem truth, and to uphold a pure worship. Protestant Dissenters, on this side the Tweed, fully equal the Church of England. At the most numerously attended services of each on the 31st March, 1851, the Protestant Dissenters' attendances were 3,110,782; the Church of England, 2,971,258. Again, in the number of places of worship, the Church is in a decided minority. The grand total of such buildings is 34,467, of which the Church provides only 13,854. The Roman Catholics, 570. Mormons, 222! Jews, &c., about 90. All the rest, except 11 foreign churches, are provided by Protestant Dissenters. In sittings, the Church has a majority-4,922,412 out of a total of 9,467,738. This is to be accounted for, we suppose, by the large amount of utterly useless room, particularly in the country, in old parish churches. since the attendants are on the whole more numerous amongst Dissenters. It corroborates this view, that, as is shewn in Table M, the Dissenters make much more use of their sittings than the Church does. The Church on the Sunday referred to, used only about 33 per cent. of her sittings. The Independent Methodists, 46 per cent. Wesleyan Reformers, 45 per cent. Particular Baptists, 42 per cent. Independents, 38 per cent.

Perhaps this will suffice at present as shewing that Protestant Dissenters hold an equal place with the State-endowed Church, as religious instructors of the people.

They do so in England and Wales, where even this report represents State Church endowments as amounting to £5,000,000 per annum. They amount, in truth, to vastly more. But when Scotland with its Free Church, and Ireland with its Catholics, are taken into account, the VOLUNTARIES will certainly be found on the most irrefragable statistical evidence, to be an IMMENSE MAJORITY. The effect of the knowledge of this fact must be serious. It may not appear for some time, but it must ultimately. The Free-trade contest has imbued the minds of all our legislators who have minds, with the grand idea of equal legislation for all. As surely as the repeal of protective colonial duties, and of protective navigation laws, followed the repeal of the corn laws, so surely will the repeal of ecclesiastical monopoly laws follow in its time. That time is, under Providence, dependent on the faithfulness of Dissenters to their principles. They have now the whole of the argument from experience in their hands. They can point also to the immense increase of the Church itself by the voluntary principle. The facts are these during the 30 years preceding 1831, the new churches erected amounted to 500, costing £6000 each, or £3,000,000 in all, of which £1,152,044 was contributed by the State, the rest by voluntary efforts. During the next 20 years, to 1851, not less than 2029 churches were built, at an average cost of £3000, but the cheapness and the number seems attributable to the cessation of State aid; for it amounted to only about half a million in the earlier part of the time, and the voluntary benefactions, to £5,575,616!

The VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE is thus statistically proved to have been the right hand of Church extension, and the right and left hand, too, of Protestant Dissent, the Free Church, and of Roman Catholicism. Not till State grants were lopped off did the Church begin to shew decided vigour, and to emulate the zeal of the unendowed sects. The inference is too plain to be evaded.

The

As to our own denomination, it stands third amongst the Protestant Dissenters. The Wesleyans (including all their secession communities) number 11,007 places of worship, 2,194,298 sittings. Independents, 3,244 chapels, 1,067,760 sittings; and the Baptists (including General Baptists, &c.) 2,789 chapels, with 752,343 sittings. number of Particular Baptist chapels is 1,947, with 740,752 sittings; and, the New Connexion General Baptists have 182 chapels, 64,321 sittings. It is interesting to notice the rate per cent. of the increase.of places of worship and sittings. Taking the five periods of ten years each since 1800, it stands thus, omitting fractions:

1801 to-1811 1821 1831 1841 1851

[blocks in formation]

We might extract a great many, particulars of much interest, but our limits this month will not allow us to do so. We trust that these few remarks and imperfect specimens of what may be found in it will lead to the purchase of the Report itself, by all who can afford a shilling. Every sect, every town, and every county, will find all particulars relating to itself, as well as to all denominations and the whole kingdom.

In the PUBLIC EVENTS of the month there has been little of novelty. At the time we go to press Russia and Turkey remain at war, and we professedly helping Turkey. The Turks have again signally defeated the Russians on the Danube, even storming their intrenchments, and driving them out with great loss. Our navy has entered the Black Sea, but is ordered to be very polite to Russia, and only to protect the Turkish coasts; and, we are sorry to say, our Ministers have joined the faithless despots of Austria and Prussia, compelling Turkey to offer peace, on condition of leaving things as they were before the war; that is, leaving Russia in possession of the mischievous treaties she has wrested from Turkey, the very basis of the present disputes, and not demanding the instant evacuation of the provinces seized by the Czar ! We are ashamed of our Government thus far. We hope when Parliament meets the case will appear better than it now does. Meantime the circumstances are such, that every day a declaration of war on the part either of England or Russia is anxiously looked for.

Three distinguished men belonging to our Independent brethren have followed our own Dr. Cox since our last; first, Dr. Wardlaw, then Mr. Jay, and, afterwards, Dr. Collyer; all full of years, and in a good old age. All of them have been so long before the public, that their merits as preachers and authors, the two latter of sermons chiefly, are well known. The last two were preachers only, and in that capacity few have enjoyed more and better deserved popularity. Mr. Jay continued to preach as long as he was able to ascend the pulpit at all; and none who have ever heard him can forget the peculiar manner which enhanced the interest and fixed in the recollection the graphic or pithy sentences which he delighted to utter. Dr. Collyer was completely the court preacher, while Jay equally interested every hearer. Dr. Wardlaw was well known as a polemical writer as well as a preacher. His works are characterised by the perfection of Scotch divinity and logic; but, though beautifully clear and neat, they have always appeared to us wanting in the higher characteristics of thought, and there is scarcely any originality in them. He was a noble advocate, however, of every cause he fully believed in; and his consistent and selfdenying opposition to national establishments will not be among the least of his merits with another generation.

CANNON STREET CHAPEL, BIRMINGHAM. The Annual Social Tea Meetings of the friends worshipping in Cannon Street

Chapel, Birmingham, took place on Monday and Tuesday Evenings, January 9th and 10th, under the presidency of their revered pastor, the Rev. T. Swan. The occasion was one of more than ordinary interest, from the fact that the Rev. T. Swan had just completed the twenty-fifth year of his pastorate in connection with the place. As a memorial of this event, Mr. J. W. Showell, the senior deacon of the Baptist denomination in Birmingham, had prepared a manuscript history of the Cannon Street cause since its commencement in 1737, replete with valuable and elaborate details relating to the progress and present eminence of the church. From this inte

Mr.

resting work we learn the following facts. The first body of Particular Baptists in Birmingham, numbering seventeen persons, assembled for worship in a house at the back of High Street. In the year 1738, they erected a chapel on the site of the present one in Cannon Street. The chapel was enlarged in 1780, and rebuilt in 1806, during the ministry of the Rev. T. Morgan. There have been nine pastors, including the Revs. S. Pearce, T. Morgan, I. Birt, and the present one, Thomas Swan. The number of members when Mr. Pearce was chosen minister was 242, and he added 335 new members. Morgan baptized, or received by testimony, 240 persons, and the accession during Mr. Birt's pastorate was 438. Mr. Swan entered upon his pastoral duties in January, 1829, and since that period he has received no less than 1140 members into church fellowship. Of these, 625 are now living, which, with 113 survivors of those who were admitted by previous ministers, forms a total of 738, the present number of members. It appears also that thirty-one young men from the church have been called to the work of the ministry, many of whom have distinguished themselves by pulpit eloquence and general acquisition. Another valuable feature in the history is the number of collections which have taken place in the chapel for the last twenty-five years, with the purposes to which the cash has been applied. One item alone shews that nearly £1,500 has been contributed at the monthly sacraments in aid of the poor, besides many hundreds of pounds to the sick society, the benevolent society, and kindred institutions for the relief of the destitute. Of course there have also been collections for the missionary societies, the Sabbath schools, and in aid of the funds for defraying the contingent expenses connected with public worship. In addition to the ordinary expenditure devolving upon the congregation, several thousand pounds have been subscribed towards the erection of other Baptist chapels in the town, as well as at Avechurch, King's Norton, and Shirley Street, near Birmingham. Mr. Showell presented the volume with suitable remarks to Mr. Swan. Addresses were also delivered by the Rev. W. Stokes, secretary to the London Peace Association, the Rev. T. Hands, late missionary in the island of Jamaica (both

of whom are members of Cannon Street church), the deacons of the church, and other gentlemen.

EAGLE STREET CHAPEL, LONDON.

On Tuesday, January 10th, about 150 of the members of the church and congregation worshipping in the above chapel took tea together, after which, the project for the rebuilding of their ancient sanctuary on a better site, so as to be seen from Holborn, was presented to the consideration of the friends. The meeting having been opened with praise and prayer, Richard Cartwright, Esq., was requested to preside. The chairman expressed his hearty approbation of the contemplated object, and called upon the Rev. Francis Wills, the pastor, to present to the meeting the statement which he had prepared. This statement entered fully into the particulars respecting the ancient edifice where they were now assembled; it having been erected nearly 120 years, and repeatedly altered and enlarged as the church increased; and during the whole of which period the church had only five pastors, three of whom had been called from their labours in the church in Eagle Street to their rest and reward in the church in heaven. In continuation, he stated the circumstances which had led to the present movement, and the united co-operation of the church and congregation in the proposed object; with an account of what the committee had already accomplished in the prospectus, which had been carefully prepared and highly recommended by many of the most honoured and influential ministers of the Baptist denomination in the metropolis. Collecting cards were then taken by many of the friends, which are to be returned by the end of March with the sums collected; subscriptions were also promised, amounting in the whole, at this first meeting, to about £400. Several addresses were delivered, and all the friends appeared to be highly gratified with the prospect of having a more eligible place of worship ere long, and they earnestly solicit all the friends of the Redeemer kindly and promptly to help them to accomplish this desirable object.

CHESTERTON, CAMBRIDGESHIRE.

The teachers of the Sunday school in this village, feeling the importance of enlisting in their work the sympathy and goodwill of the parents of their scholars, invited them, together with the old scholars, to a tea meeting in the school room adjoining the Baptist Chapel, on the 20th of January. Upwards of 200 (a number very far exceeding the expectation of the teachers) assembled on the occasion, including many who are never seen within the walls of the House of God, and amongst the old scholars some who seem, on leaving the school, to have abandoned all regard to anything like religion. Addresses, simple but earnest, and very appropriate to the occasion, were delivered by Messrs. Shippey, Mansfield, Burton, Vinter, and Warrington, and

« AnteriorContinuar »