in Laxington. There were, also, two or three who appeared to be substantial shopkeepers, but with somewhat of a more intellectual look and less portly appearance than usually belongs to their class. There were one or two young lawyers, and several clerks and apprentices. These, my friend told me, were invaluable assistants to him in his school and parish, relieving him from an immense burden in the management of his parochial societies; and, without their aid, he should never have accomplished his daily prayers, together with his full services on festivals. The rest of the congregation was composed chiefly of servants and artisans, and persons of the poorer class. Amongst the latter there was one group which engaged my especial attention. It consisted of a young man, who supported the tottering steps of an aged woman, apparently his mother, and led her to her place with a mixture of respect and affection which much delighted me. The young man's features were intelligent and strongly marked-the sort of features which, when once seen, are not easily forgotten. Grief or passion appeared to have made deep furrows; yet was there a mild and subdued lustre in his eye, which spoke of storms subsided, and a heart at rest. In outward appearance he was decent and respectable, seeming by his dress to be a better sort of mechanic. I made particular inquiry respecting him. "That," said my friend, "is my most regular attendant at the daily prayers: he generally brings his aged mother with him; but when she is prevented from coming by her infirmities, still he himself is always punctual. He is a man who has seen great changes in life. In early youth he had been led into deep errors, but is now, if any man ever was, a sincere penitent—a lost sheep brought back to the fold." My friend gave me some further account of the young man, which so much interested me, that, during my visit at Laxington, I made acquaintance with him, and learned the history of his life from his own lips. On my return home I wrote down the particulars of his story in the following narrative, which may be described as the life of a Man of the Nineteenth Century. CHAPTER II. Church-Matters at Larington. Church of resigned obedience! Rome may prize Keep thou meek Mary's mien, divinely fair, The voice that crieth in the streets, the stare The Cathedral. THE little town of Laxington, like a good many other places in England, fell during the last century into a sort of spiritual slumber. It would take us too long to trace the causes, social and political, which led to this state of things. Certain it is, that, for some time, a partial obscuration of truth and falling-off of principle very generally prevailed amongst all classes of people in the land, laity as well as clergy. Laxington suffered from the prevailing epidemic. No doubt there were many conscientious, well-meaning persons amongst its inhabitants, but they wanted both energy and unity of action. The church was very indifferently attended. There was no well ordered school. The population increased considerably, but no additional place of worship was built, except a small dissenting chapel. No new clergy man was appointed by the government; and the people never thought of requesting the bishop to appoint one, and subscribing for his salary. The vicar, who in his best days had been a good sort of quiet man, but, like his neighbours, not very active, was in his declining age quite incompetent to perform in an efficient manner the duties of his office. For many years this state of things continued. At last a change took place. Men's minds began to awake from their torpor. The living came into the hands of a young clergyman of very different habits from the former incumbent. Mr. Wilson, the new vicar, soon established a well-deserved reputation for diligence and zeal. His exertions were unwearied: his time was devoted to the work of the ministry. His attendance to his parishioners was most constant. A flourishing school rose up under his auspices. A Bible Society and Missionary Society were established through his exertions. The church was crowded on the Lord's day and as to his sermons, all acknowledged them to be excellent-so searching, so subduing, so edifying, so charming. Mr. Wilson had only one great failing, and that was a grievous one, though quite unperceived by himself or his congregation, -he was unsound in Church-principles; rather, he entirely omitted Church-principles from his scheme of gospel-truth. He could thread the mazy path of evangelical doctrine in a sermon taken from the Epistles. He could bring the fire of prophetic de nunciation to bear on the sinner's heart. But he never dwelt on the other part of the divine system,—the efficacy of the sacraments—the scriptural doctrine of the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, and the duties and privileges of its members, which are so simply detailed in the Acts of the Apostles, and illustrated throughout the Epistles. The Bible, and the Bible alone (as he would often state), was the religion of Protestants. But he never considered, -what one would think was too evident to escape observation, that many sects of Protestants, taking, as they suppose, the Bible for their guide, but mistaking their own private opinion for the meaning of the Bible, have fallen into worse errors than the Romanists, even "denying the Lord who bought them." Mr. Wilson's grand fault was, that he knew nothing of the Church as "the pillar and ground of the truth." God, in His great mercy, has given us both the Bible and the Church; and so long as we keep to both we are safe. But if, like the Romanist, we hear the Church without hearing or reading the Bible; or, like the ultra-Protestant, reject the teaching of the Church, and interpret the Bible according to our own fancy, we are sure to fall into grievous errors. We should always remember, that "the word of God is truth;" and that the Church is the "pillar” on which that truth is, as it were, inscribed and upheld before the people. 11 Tim. iii. 15. |