THE CHRISTIAN HERALD.

VOL. IV.] Saturday, November 8, 1817.

Speech of the Rev. MR. THORPE at the First Anniversary Meeting of the REYNOLDS COMMEMORATION SOCIETY at Bristol (England.)

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For an account of the late Richard Reynolds, the great philanthropist whose name adorns the above mentioned Society, see No. 10, page 150, in the second volume of this publication. Those who have read the excellent speech of the Rev. Mr. Thorpe at the formation of this Institution, which is given in the Number above mentioned, or any other of the eloquent productions of that masterly genius, will doubtless be prepared to anticipate a rare pleasure in the perusal of the following specimen of his rhetorical powers, exerted in favour of a subject so worthy of them: nor will that expectation be disappointed. For a copy of this speech we are indebted to our valuable correspondent at the above pla ce.

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The Rev. Mr. Thorpe spoke as follows:

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"Mr. Chairman, The. righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance. Such is the dictate of inspiration, and such is the language of your Society. But while we render all due honours to the memory of the righteous man, whose virtues we this day commemorate, let us not forget to give glory to that God who be stowed upon his honoured servant so fair an image of himself. When a person of brilliant and dazzling talents is suddenly thrown upon the world, as in the case of a phenomenon in the heavens, it is common to seek after some solution of him ;-to inquire into his birth and parentage; his education and manner of life; the incidents of his childhood, and of his youth; to analyze, if I may so speak, the elements of which his character is composed; to mark the steps by which he rose to that point, from which he burst upon society; in a word, to examine and re-examine the validity of his claims to public attention. In like manner, when a character of singular and transcendent moral excellence is held up to public view, and attracts universal admiration, it is natural to inquire into his origin and connexions; the principles by which he was actuated, and the school whence those principles where derived. SUCH A CHARACTER WAS, RICHARD REYNOLDS. So modest, and yet so dignified; so judicious, and yet so liberal in the dis tribution of his bounties; so discriminating and successful in the detection of imposture, and yet so unbounded in his benevolence; combining as he did such unbending integrity with so much tenderness of heart" take him all in all, we ne'er shall look upon his like again." In a world like this, defiled by sin and sunk in selfishness, such exalted characters are rarely to be found.

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98 Speech of Rev. Mr. Thorpe at the 1st Anniversary

The same rank that MILTON holds among the poets; the same rank that NELSON holds among the commanders of the British navy; the same rank, but shining with a milder lustre, does REYNOLDS hold amongst the philanthropists, who, in different ages, have appeared the delight and wonder of mankind. We admire the imagination of the poet: we are astonished at the bravery of the warrior: but love, reverence, and admiration, exert all their powers, and rise into rapture, while we contemplate the virtues and the labours of the philanthropist. We become weary amidst the imaginary scenes and imaginary worlds into which we are conducted by the enchanting wand of the poet; and gladly descend to earth again, that we may hold converse with beings like ourselves. We turn with horror and consternation from the blood and carnage, the piercing shrieks, the dying groans, the mutilated limbs, and all the mighty havoc inflicted by the sword of the conqueror. But we follow without weariness the footsteps of the philanthropist, whithersoever he goes. With silent wonder we attend him in his visits to the hut of cheerless poverty; the abodes of age and decrepitude; the cottage of industry, sunk in disease and maimed by misfortune; the habitation of the weeping widow, and her helpless unconscious orphans; the hovel of wretchedness and black despair; and without reluctance-nay with cheerful steps, we descend with him to the dungeon of misery and guilt, the last, the lowest stage of infamy and wo. With pleasure, such as charity only knows, we behold a new creation in the moral world, rising before the godlike man. The furrowed cheek is smoothed, and the winter of age wears the aspect of spring; the hut of poverty is no longer cheerless ; industry is restored to health and vigour, and plies its wonted task; the widow wipes away her tears, and smiles; her orphans have enough, and her house is no longer the house of mourning; hope illumines and expands the countenance, where despair had darkened and contracted every muscle; and penitence descends to enlighten the dungeon, to break the chains of guilt, and by its kindly influence to dissolve the heart of the guilty criminal. What are the fascinations of the poet, or the exploits of the warrior, compared with scenes like these? We find it good to be here. The place whereon we stand is holy. We taste the joys and imbibe the spirit of the good man himself. We seem to rise above the selfishness of nature. We catch a portion of the flame that glows in his bo som. We mingle our tears with his tears, we share his trials, and exultingly exclaim, "Oh the luxury of doing good!" But we do not stop here; we rise higher still, and lift the veil of the heavenly sanctuary, to take a more than distant glimpse of that more than mortal glory that glows behind. We ascend to the Original of all good, whose image is impressed on the blessed inhabi tants of glory, and transmitted to an inhabitant of this world. We forget our sorrows, and lose ourselves in the contemplation and enjoyment of the loving kindness of the infinite Majesty of the Universe. This was the exalted source of all the excellence by

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which the venerable REYNOL nothing but what he had recei to acknowledge, that he was a Humility was the most pro Although the whole empire fe industriously were his charitie many were heard to ask the q nolds ?" It was not until the titudes who had never heard | origin and connexions; the pr character, and the school whe To these inquiries there is of RICHARD REYOLDS WAS A CI influence of Christianity he be he was nurtured, under her whole career of his benevolen cal exemplification of the less under her tuition, and by her

ters ever were, or ever can be formed.

How odious when placed with the names of Howard, Hanway, Thornton, and Reynolds, are those of Paine, Voltaire, Hume, Bolingbroke, and of the whole race of infidels. Here you recognize angels of mercy amidst fiends of wrath; saviours amidst the destroyers of mankind. In vain will you search for men like them amongst the heroes, sages, and patriots of antiquity, whose names and virtues are emblazoned, and held up to the admiration of future ages. It is a remarkable fact, that heathenism never founded an hospital, or endowed an alms-house. Look at mighty Athens, and you will every where perceive monuments of taste and genius, and elegance! Look at imperial Pagan Rome in all her glory! You will behold all the grandeur of the human intellect unfolded in her temples, her palaces, and her ampitheatres. You will find no hospital or infirmary; no asylum for the aged and the infirm, the fatherless and the widow; the blind, the dumb, the deaf; the outcast and the destitate. How vastly superior in this respect is Bristol to Athens, is London to Rome. These, Christianity, are thy triumphs! These are thy lovely offspring! they all bear the lineaments of their common parent. Their family likeness proves the sameness of their origin. Mercy conjoined with purity is the darling attribute of our holy religion. Its great founder was mercy embodied in a human form. His incarnation was the condescension of mercy. His miracles were the omnipotence of mercy. His tears were the dew drops of mercy. His death was the channel of mercy, and his exaltation is the high ground whence mercy descends in copious streams to cheer, and bless, and save, a ruined world. His followers are conformed to his image. Those virtues which shone in him shone in Reynolds also; though with a diminished lustre, when compared with his great original :-yet in a brighter lustre than in the rest of mankind.

But whence, it may be demanded, came it to pass that this man

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98 Speech of Rev. Met. Thorpe, at the 1st Anniversary

The same rank the great mass of professed Christians? The rank that NELSON The great mass of professed Christians are navy; the samy profession. Reynolds was a Christian in reality. NOLDS hold ty was cordial ;-ardent ;-energetic. Not an emp have appea barren speculation; but a vital principle. Vital the imanity is not so much a solitary beauty, as it is an assemblage the beauty. Here faith and hope, joy and peace, fortitude, po-perance, and patience; awe, reverence, and devotion; suTeme love to God, and kindness to man; abborrence of all sin, and pity for the sinner; mingle their beams, and shine with united glory. It combines the wisdom of the serpent with the innocence of the dove; the gentleness of the lamb with the courage of the lion. It adds a charm to the bloom of youth, and converts the hoary head into a crown of glory. It gives dignity to the palace, and brings all heaven into the cottage. The king upon the throue is not so venerable by the crown that encircles his brow, as by the religion that renders him the father of his people, and the obedient servant of the Sovereign of the World.

Such was the religion of the man whom we loved. He was indeed a good man in the scriptural sense of the expression.-Perhaps there is no term in the English language that is more generally misunderstood than this. How various are the rales by which goodness is estimated! To how many opposite characters is the epithet of good indiscriminately applied! If a man be punctual in the payment of his just and lawful debts, though his honesty should only be the effect of sound policy; if he be regular in his attendance on religious ordinances, though his religion should be a mere empty form unconnected with the power of godliness; if he be ready to support and patronize public charitable institutions, though his benevolence should be the effect of ostenfation; if he be affable and good-humoured in his general intercourse with society, though his affability should be the result of natural feeling, or a tissue of time-serving insincerity; he will seldom fail to obtain the appellation of "As good a man as ever hived." But while his, claims to this honourable character are universally admitted; when weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, it is possible that he will be found destitute of a single atom of real goodness. The goodness of Richard Reynolds was of a higher order, and derived from a nobler source. It was a new creation of the heart. It was a little drop from the immense-ocean of God's everlasting love. It was the opening of a glorious day, which shall brighten with fresh accessions of glory through the longthening ages of eternity.It was not the love of the world exerting itself under a specious form, but the love of Christ constraining him to the service of God and man. He saw the mild radiance of infinite beneficence beaming from the face of Emanuel, and changing him into the same image from glory into glory. But after all, Richard Reynolds was a man of like passions with ourselves. His religion was not the religion of an angel, but of a sinner; a sinner saved by grace; and dependent upon grace to

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the last moment of his mortal existence. He groaned like us, under the body of this death; and encountered many a hard condict in subduing the flesh, that the spirit might rise unto God his Saviour. Conscious of the imperfection and sinfulness attendant upon his best actions, in the propitiation of his Redeemer he reposed all his hopes of a blessed immortality. And now his disimprisoned spirit, mingling with angels and archangels, and all the blessed company of heaven, presents the first fruits of eternal bliss before the eternal throne, and with joy, and wonder, and adoration, joins in the song of the lamb, Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, and hast made us Kings unto God the Father; and we shall reign for ever and ever. Not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name be all the praise, for thy mercy and thy truth's sake.

If then we must panegeryze, let this be done in the way that best comports with the most ardent wishes of our departed friend while on earth, and now he is in heaven; that is, by promoting the cause of mercy and benevolence to which his heart and life were devoted. At the formation of your Society considerable regret was felt that the contributions were so feeble, so unworthy of the character of the man; so inadequate to the magnitude of your object; and I will candidly confess, that when I have been asked in different parts of the kingdom, what was the amount of the subscriptions to the REYNOLDS'S COMMEMORATION SOCIETY, I have often blushed while forming an answer. But may we not indulge the pleasing hope, that from henceforward the aldermen, merchants, gentlemen, tradesmen, and citizens of Bristol, will have no more occasion to blush, when the same inquiry is repeated? Is it not extraordinary and disgraceful, that the benevolence of the whole city is insufficient to supply the deficiency of one distinguished individual? Where, I know not, but this censure must fall somewhere, and most certainly upon the multitudes who have hitherto done nothing. Sir, I implore pardon for my temerity, but I feel for the honour of departed worth; I feel for the credit of Bristol; I feel for the sufferings of humanity all around. Let these feelings my apology. When the claims of the Society are clearly and properly urged, I entertain the most sanguine confidence, that the voice of complaint will be heard no more, and that numbers of our fellow-citizens will come forward and follow the example which has been set them by those who have already enrolled their names on the list of donors and subscribers. Thus the resources of your Society will be abundantly augmented; its foundations will be strengthened and enlarged; and its sphere of usefulness greatly extended. Thus will you transmit the name of Reynolds coupled with benevolence, down to the latest posterity. Thus you will erect noble monument bearing the inscription "Glory to God in the highest; on earth peace and good will towards men." And thus you will be still rendering to the Author of all good, as ages roll by, the tribute of gratitude which his unceasing mercies demand, untit the mystery of his love is finished and the wonders of eternity are

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