Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

should not live by bread alone, but by ye Word of God. He would of himselfe select ye most pathetic psalms, and chapters out of Job, to reade to his mayde during his sicknesse, telling her when she pitied him that all God's children must suffer affliction. He declaim'd against ye vanities of ye world before he had seene any. Often he would desire those who came to see him to pray by him, and a yeare before he fell sick, to kneel and pray with him alone in some corner. How thankfully would he receive admonition! how soone be reconcil'd! how indifferent, yet continually cherefull! He would give grave advice to his brother John, beare with his impertinencies, and say he was but a child.

If he heard of or saw any new thing he was unquiet till he was told how it was made; he brought to us all such difficulties as he found in books to be expounded. He had learn'd by heart divers sentences in Latin and Greeke, which on occasion he would produce even to wonder. He was all life, all prettinesse, far from morose, sullen, or childish in any thing he said or did. The last time he had ben at church (wch was at Greenwich,) I ask'd him, according to costome, what he remembered of yo sermon ; 'two good things, father, said he, bonum gratiæ, and bonum gloriæ,' with a just account of what ye preacher said.

The day before he died he cal'd to me, and in a more serious manner than usual told me that for all I loved him so dearly I should give my house, land, and all my fine things, to his brother Jack, he should have none of them; and next morning, when he found himself ill, and that I persuaded him to keepe his hands in bed, he demanded whether he might pray to God with his hands un-joyn'd; and a little after, whilst in greate agonie, whether he should not offend God by using his holy name so often calling for ease. What shall I say of his frequent pathetical ejaculations utter'd of himselfe ; "Sweete Jesus save me, deliver me, pardon my sinns, let thine angels receive me!' So early knowledge, so much piety and perfection! But thus God having dress'd up a Saint fit for himselfe, would not longer permit him with us, unworthy of ye future fruites of this incomparable hopefull blossome. Such a child I never saw! for such a child I blesse God in whose bosome he is! May I and mine become as this little child which now follows the child Jesus that Lamb of God, in a white robe, withersoever He goes; Even so, Lord Jesus,

thy will be done! Thou gavest him to us, Thou hast taken him from us, blessed be ye name of ye Lord! That I had any thing acceptable to Thee was from thy grace alone, since from me he had nothing but sin, but that thou hast pardoned! Blessed be my God for ever, amen!'

We are no advocates for setting up any standard for imitation short of that perfect example furnished in the life of Him who knew no sin. And yet we cannot be indifferent to those exhibitions which we sometimes meet with in the walk of our fellow creatures, that are strikingly illustrative of the power and beauty of Divine grace. But when we bring them forward, we do so with no other motive than that of giving glory to whom all glory is due, and of magnifying the loving-kindness of that God, who is often pleased out of the mouths even of babes and sucklings to perfect his high praise.

We never remember to have met with so striking an instance of this kind, as that presented to us in the preceding short, sensible, tender, and affecting memoir of little Richard Evelyn. In reading it, our young friends, whilst they look beyond the child himself to the brightness of that glory he was privileged to reflect on all around him, cannot fail to see how great a blessing the parent must possess in such a son, and how much they owe it to the kindness of their fathers and mothers, to endeavour, by a similar course of conduct, to rejoice their hearts by returning such full measure into their bosoms.

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;" and we cannot for a moment doubt that the child whose earliest years are directed to the holy truths of the Bible, will advance more rapidly in the paths of knowledge than those who give all their energies to mere human acquirements. "The entrance of Thy word giveth light," said one who well knew what he was affirming, since he actually possessed that knowledge which made him wiser than the ancients. And in the instance now before us, what a beautiful illustration is presented of the working of that "wisdom which cometh down from above and is pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy." We speak of the working of this wisdom; for we are determined to know religion by no other name than that principle which makes us better in all the relations of life. "Show

me thy faith by thy works," is not our demand, but God's; and
we would rather see the rudiments of this belief in action, than
hear its intricacies discussed with all the graces of oratory.
Easy, indeed, it were to reach

A mansion in the courts above,
If burning words and fluent speech,
Might serve instead of faith and love.

But none shall reach that blissful place,

Or God's unclouded glory see,

Who talk of free and sovereign grace,

UNLESS THAT GRACE HAS MADE THEM FREE.

But let us see how this lovely principle was carried out in the life of Richard Evelyn. Christ calls us to "follow," not to "profess;" and this dear child was a living commentary on the invitation; his religion was, as ours should be,

1. Pure." He declaimed," says his sorrowing biographer, "against the vanities of the world, before he had seen any;" and how anxiously he desired to be holy as God is holy, when, upon his dying bed, he prayed for pardon of his sins, and a speedy entrance to his inheritance with the saints in light! Do our young readers thus breathe after the sinlessness of heaven, and struggle with those temptations that await them here? Do they look upon their Father's house above as their only home, and study, as little Richard studied, to avoid even the appearance of evil?

2. Peaceable." He would give grave advice to his brother John, bear with his impertinencies, and say he was yet a child!" We think if some of our young friends were aware of the sorrow which they sometimes suffer on account of angry feelings, before they indulged in them, we should see less of that bitterness, clamour, wrath, malice and evil speaking, which often disgrace the play-room and the parlour. The lesson is a hard one; but there was ONE who kept it, and if any be destitute of His Spirit, they are none of His.

3. Gentle." All God's children," said this little one, 66 must suffer affliction." It was the cost of his adoption, and he bore it sweetly. Young people are particularly apt to break this rule, because their spirits are naturally strong and lively. When sorrow touches them, they are up in arms against it, and feel as if, at present, they had no right to kiss the rod. But God is a tender

father notwithstanding: clouds are the dust of his feet, and the excellent brightness of his presence is behind them.

4. Easy to be entreated." How thankfully would he receive admonition, and how soon be reconciled!" Children are very apt to ask advice, when they only want approval. They find it much easier to give an opinion, than to take one; but Christ, when he sat amidst the doctors in the temple, heard them, as well as asked them questions. We have seen fathers wearied with begging "favors," as they have foolishly called them, of their children; and whilst we cannot quite justify their assuming this position, we are very, very far from imagining that their little ones were what they ought to be. Let them look to Him, who, though he 'made the worlds,' pleased not himself, but learned obedience by the things which he suffered.

5. Full of good fruits.-Knowledge is an excellent gift, but it is only a means, and not an end. It helps us to glorify God, but it does nothing more. The talents of little Richard were so surprising, that we might have some reason to doubt them were they recorded by another hand, and with less of detail. His excellence did not, however, consist in this simple fact, but in its application to the noblest ends. He valued his acquirements in proportion as they enabled him to do good; and yet he cultivated them with astonishing eagerness and care. "Work while it is called to-day," was the motto of this lovely child; and his talents were all brought into delightful exercise-his head reflected, his heart felt, his hands wrought; and his eyes, unlike those of too many of our readers, were all wakefulness, enquiry, and activity, in the cause for which God had given them! Well, after reading this memoir, might we take up the language of one whose sorrow was not as that of those who have no hope, "THAT HE HAD ANY THING ACCEPTABLE TO THEE, O LORD! WAS FROM THY GRACE ALONE; SINCE FROM US HE HAD NOTHING BUT THE SIN WHICH THOU HAST PARDONED. BLESSED BE MY GOD FOR EVER! AMEN."

"OF SUCH IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN."

How oft upon the infant's brow the shades of grief appear,
The stern destroyer's hand has chang'd the cradle to the bier,
And laid upon the scarce-formed limbs its cold and dead'ning power,
And blighted in its smiling bud, the yet unfolded flower.

Though fast above the early wreck the bursting tide may flow,
A tender hand has sealed the doom, and mercy urged the blow;
For who would wish the word unsaid or blame the granted boon,
Which shuts a day of heaviness before its sunless noon.

To view the untrodden path with dread, the past with fruitless tears;
To droop, deserted and alone, along the vale of years;

To pine beneath the shaft of grief, or envy's secret rage ;-
Such are the fruits of manhood's course,—and such the lot of age!

But they, whose spirits but assume this earthly form, to rest;
For whom the Earth, with parent care, prepares her greenest breast,
And bids again the storm of guilt her sheltering caverns close ;-
How envied are their peaceful beds,-how calm their deep repose!

They cannot feel the sharpen'd thorns which blighted hopes prepare ;
They cannot taste the mingled gall which all alike must share ;—
While yet their placid lips have left the venomed draught untried,
The arm of Heaven, in mercy raised, has dashed the cup aside!

O! refuge sure, though rude in sight; desired, though rayless gloom!
Calm of the still and early grave !-contentment of the tomb!
How often while with double wrath the impending tempest low'rs,
The wearied heart desires to claim so blest a fate as ours!

ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF IDOLATRY.

(From Wetherall's Orations.)

THAT the great God had made man upright, but they had sought out many inventions, was an assertion of the wisest of men, after he had spent many years, not only in discovering the various properties of the animal and vegetable creation, but in experimentally scrutinizing the latent meanders of the human heart. And were we, carefully and without prejudice, to examine the various pages of antiquity; not only those, whose image and superscription bespeak their divine Original, but even those which claim no higher birth than that of a human pen; even they would afford sufficient evidence to prove the assertion of Solomon. Eccles. vii. 29.

But should it be asked, To which of all the numerous progeny of human inventions, (which the teeming womb of a depraved imagination has brought forth,) may wretched mankind say, as VOL. IX. 3rd SERIES. H

« ZurückWeiter »