Part 5 (2/2)

Several friends have remarked that during their last interview with him, the conversation turned to the highest subjects, in some cases terminating by a short striking remark on his part, too valuable to be forgotten. A slight instance of this occurred in his last conversation with the friend just quoted. It happened to be on a subject often discussed before,--art in connection with religion as exemplified in the fine old ecclesiastical structures of our country. No one possessed a deeper sense of their beauty than himself, but his mind at the same time comprehended the possibility of losing sight of the spiritual in admiration of the material, and at the close of the conversation, his last words were, ”Well good bye, remember _we must not wors.h.i.+p wood and stone_.” The aptness of the remark, the tone in which it was uttered, fixed it in the memory of the listener, and it is now treasured as a parting warning. There is a sacred pleasure in dwelling on conversations like these, involving high moral truths, elements of the intercourse yet to be renewed.

It was always in a circle narrower than that of general society, that he was seen to most advantage. When he felt he was surrounded only by those of congenial tastes he came out truly himself. His conversation then flowed without any restraint, he blended the ideal with the real in a way that showed a spirit gifted

”To pierce the mist o'er life's deep meanings spread.”

A distinguished essayist of the present century compares himself to those toys which we sometimes see formed of box within box. His outer character he tells us was visible to all; to friends in proportion to their intimacy he threw off case after case; the sight of the innermost was reserved for himself, or for only one other. So here too was a narrower circle within that of closest friends.h.i.+p, where one more covering cast aside, his character displayed itself without any reserve.

What he might have been to the _valet_ ”who looked at him with valet eyes,” the writer knows not, but by one to whom that character was bared as to none besides, so far from seeming any less from the intimate acquaintance of daily life, its true n.o.bleness was only then fully recognised. It is not every character that bears the near scrutiny afforded by insight through the little things of life. Fewer still grow ”right wors.h.i.+pful” under such inspection. _He_ did both. His feelings repressed, as we have seen in childhood, he had not been in the habit of expressing them freely to the objects of his affection. The writer learned far more of the strength of his love for his children, from remarks he made when alone with her, and from the regard he paid to the effect which any step he took might have on their welfare, than from any ordinary demonstrations to them. The anxiety he evinced during the first holidays his boys spent with her, that she should understand them, and the pains he took to draw out the most interesting points of their characters, told more forcibly than words, his concern for their happiness. Though he rarely joined in their amus.e.m.e.nts himself, yet the quiet delight with which he would stand and watch when she happened to do anything of the kind showed how dear even their pleasures were to him.

It has been a common reproach against literary men, that they are undesirable companions in private life, p.r.o.ne to betray unworthy jealousy of the talents of those around them; though brilliant in society, fretful or unsocial at home. Here was one more added to the many examples of the contrary. Neither mirth nor talents, courtesy nor generous feeling, nor any thing that adorns or makes life happy, was reserved like holiday attire for going abroad. One who though admitting he could not brook defeat at his favourite chess, from any other lady, would yet say he should have lost the game to his wife with pleasure, because he should feel her triumph his own, could not have been an undesirable home companion.

It is by trifles such as these, that what the gifted are in private life is seen. That it may not invariably be thus is admitted, but the solution is easy. Fireside happiness depends not on the presence or absence of talent, but on the harmony of natural disposition, character, and taste. Genius neither commands this, nor can supply its deficiency.

It only renders its possessor more keenly alive to the want of congeniality, and those around perchance more wretched from the conscious lack of power to make its happiness. The man of genius may not only make home the most blessed spot on earth, but with the blessing of G.o.d give a brilliancy and an intensity to domestic happiness, which none besides can; peopling the wastes of every day life, with bright thoughts that never die, till little is left of mortal existence, that is not to be continued in the higher life to come.

But there were yet higher endowments--talents are but as the beautiful lamp, spiritual life the light they enshrine; and when that light glows with an intensity, that throws out the fair form, and exquisitely-moulded figures, till the very lamp becomes brilliant, a light-giving thing, then indeed is it a vessel ”fit for the Master's use,” to the glory of His name whose _workmans.h.i.+p_ the lamp is, but whose _breath_ the light within. And that to all the rich gifts already described, was added that which is pre-eminently THE GIFT OF G.o.d, even ”Eternal Life through Christ Jesus our Lord,” is the point of deepest interest. Taught as we have seen by the discipline of suffering, his were the convictions of experience, not those of the understanding merely; he felt throughout his whole nature, his utter powerlessness to erect himself into a consciously virtuous being, and he felt as strongly that in the salvation of Christ alone was that which at once bringing pardon and imparting holiness, meets all the deep-seated wants of our nature, and raises us to the dignity of ”sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty.” With a heart thrilling to its very centre with a sense of unutterable need, he clung to the promises of the Gospel. And as time advanced and the hidden life grew stronger, and daily intercourse united the spirit more closely to G.o.d as its Father, through faith in Christ Jesus, his character a.s.sumed more and more of the likeness of that blessed state which it has now entered. Deep humility and self-distrust habitually marked his religion. In a letter dated April 1849, after detailing a circ.u.mstance which occurred during a short stay at Clifton, very gratifying to him as an author, he adds ”I may say all this to _you_ because you understand me.... But I feel it is not safe to _indulge_ in it. A momentary glance at one's position--and then back again into the only safe place,--low at the Master's feet in love and humiliation, 'What hast thou, that thou hast not received?'” ”I am so afraid of _myself_” was an expression he often used in the most intimate conversation. He felt it was only by the daily impartation of a strength greater than his own, that spiritual life was sustained. All those sentiments in the inspired writings, which ordinarily to the men of the world, are either mysteries or meaningless phrases, now comprehended in the fulness of their truth, had become the utterances of his own soul.

”The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the SON of G.o.d, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” He went to the scriptures for his code of morality, as well as for the promise of the life to come. Never under any circ.u.mstances did he shrink from performing what he considered to be Christian duty, or from avowing what he believed to be religious truth. The tone of Cowper's hymns harmonised more with the prevailing cast of his mind than that of any other sacred lyrics. Those of them which are to be found in Lady Huntingdon's collection, were a.s.sociated with his earliest recollections, and when his spirit was all unconsciously preparing itself for a speedy and unlooked-for summons into the immediate presence of G.o.d, the strains of the poet, who so emphatically learned ”in suffering” what he taught ”in song,” cheered and animated one kindred in spirit, as in faith. There is something pleasant in the thought that the strains which his mother might have sung by his cradle, were the latest given forth by his own rich voice.

While lowliness of mind before G.o.d, and a constant desire to serve his fellow-men, were perhaps the most conspicuous features of his religious character, the over-flowings of a grateful spirit must not be overlooked. Thanksgiving formed an essential part of his religion; neither the simple pleasures nor the richer blessings of life were lost upon him. Day by day he seemed as though he would never be thankful enough. His recognition of the hand of G.o.d in all he enjoyed was very vivid.

How far back the religious element of his character may be traced, it is impossible to say. The human mind is susceptible of the fear of G.o.d, and doubtless the actions may be modified thereby, long before any distinct consecration to his service, or, which must ordinarily precede it, that true self-knowledge which makes the need of a Saviour felt. That best of blessings the example of a Christian life in his parents, was around his earliest days, so that his first ideas of right and wrong must have taken a Christian tone. And that as he rose into life, the claims of a Creator and Saviour on his love and service occupied his attention, the writer is aware. Never indeed will be forgotten the intensity of feeling with which, within the last twelvemonths of his life he would sometimes refer to one among his youthful a.s.sociates, who at that early period encouraged him in the practice of spiritual duties. He knew what a life pa.s.sed amid the stir of the world was, how the hot noon dries up the current of early feeling, and the thorns of care choke the hidden life; and vivid anxiety for his friend's spiritual state, mingled with the grateful remembrance of forty years ago. A sentiment which now burst forth fresher than ever, because he knew as he had never done before, from what the salvation of G.o.d is a deliverance.

His sympathy for others in a religious point of view was very strong; the deep pity, amounting to personal grief, which he has expressed in intimate conversation, when speaking of any whose life or avowed principles, testified they were ”without hope, and without G.o.d in the world,” showed that his religion drew him the nearer to all his race.

Strongly as principle and feeling alike led him to seek to promote in any way in his power the highest good of his fellow-creatures, the remembrance of his deep spiritual suffering caused him to take a deeper interest in those whose minds were in any degree agonised and bewildered as his had been. He would have considered no amount of mental effort or physical fatigue too great to encounter, could he thereby have ”ministered to a mind diseased.” In 1848 when visiting friends in the south of England, he was told of a poor old woman whose distress of mind had baffled every attempt to relieve it. He went to her cottage, sat down and listened to her complaints, antic.i.p.ating them in great measure from his own vividly-remembered distress. She was cheered by finding another, who could tell beforehand what she was going to say; and when he reached down the Bible, and began reading his own favourite pa.s.sages, ”When the poor and needy seek water and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the LORD will hear them, I the G.o.d of Israel will not forsake them, I will open rivers in high places and fountains in the midst of the valleys” &c., and entering into her feelings, showed her that the glorious promises of G.o.d were made to the wretched and self-condemning, light seemed to burst upon her mind, and her thankfulness and delight knew no bounds; and second only to hers, were his own.--The most brilliant success in society had never afforded a pleasure like this. He seldom referred to his own past suffering, when he did so it was in a brief but touching manner: thus in a letter dated March 1849 he writes, ”Pray give my very best remembrance to Mrs. ---- and tell her that when I come to ---- I _intend_ sitting once more in her arm chair, now with what different feelings. I had not then found 'a hiding place from the storm, and a covert from the tempest.' Now however I hope I have found Christ as 'the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.'”

The true lowliness of spirit and willingness to be set aside, with which he commenced any undertaking, evinced a chastened spirit, which showed that he had not suffered in vain. ”How thankful,” wrote he to a friend, ”we ought to be that we are permitted even to attempt any thing for Him _who has given us all_, and though apparently we fail, yet, as you say, we are secure from disappointment; and, depend on it, some good will arise probably to ourselves, if not to others, from our least efforts; at any rate, if they lead us to more humility and dependence on Him, one great end will have been answered.” And two months later, writing to the same friend, he observed:--”It does seem part of the discipline of life that we should aim at duty--just embark in what seems the very path we ought to pursue for our own and other's good, and then plainly be sent back to learn one very important lesson we are too apt to forget,--viz.

that the great Master can do his work without us.”[G]

In a letter dated February 22nd, 1850, after speaking of the happiness he had enjoyed of late in communion with G.o.d, and expressing his desire to serve Him, especially by comforting ”the weary,” he adds, ”but they 'do His will who only stand and wait;' I am watching the course of events, and when HE has work for me to do, I shall be appointed to it.

In the meantime I am working with my pen what may be useful at one time or another.”

The repose which belongs to maturity of character, indicated by the last extract, was not unnoticed at the time. It was one of those traits then marked, but now fully understood. Many things which the writer took for philosophic superiority to trifles, and admired as such at the time, she now recognises as Christian elevation of character. There was about him an air--not exactly of indifference to the world or of separation from it, for he entered with zest into the social pleasures and all the higher pursuits of life--but of something like a consciousness of still n.o.bler relations than any which connected his spirit with earth, an abiding recognition of a world to which he more properly belonged and still better than this which he so much enjoyed; and he seemed to stand with one foot uplifted ready to enter on that not distant world. It was a fulfilling of the divine precept, ”Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning, and ye yourselves like unto men waiting for their Lord.”

An intimate friend when referring to daily intercourse with him, enjoyed for some time during the last autumn of his life, writes: ”The advance in all things connected with the spiritual good of himself, or of others, was very striking--there was a dignity of deportment, a seriousness when treating of divine things, and an anxious desire for the religious improvement of all whom he could influence, that, superadded to his natural cheerfulness and lively wit, made him a most delightful companion. Still this increase of grace was chiefly preparing him for the approaching removal: he was taken because he was _ready_.

Never did a bed of languis.h.i.+ng sickness more evidently fit the sufferer for 'going home' than did his beautiful frame of mind during the happy months that preceded his sudden removal.” Not better chosen could one expression of the above have been, had the writer of the note recollected Mr. Roby's crest--a sheaf of corn (_garb_), and motto ”I AM READY.” Rapid had the ripening been--those years of suffering had done their work and the brief, but bright, suns.h.i.+ne that followed, made the sheaf ready for the garner.[H]

The mind lingers on this aspect of his character. Most precious to dwell upon now is--not the memory of his rich talents--not the recollection of his warm and generous affection, which, like the sunset glow, invests all connected with him, with a brightness that seems as if it would never grow dim, but--the thought that he was, in the true, not merely in the conventional, sense of the word, a CHRISTIAN. This alone can connect the beloved ones who are ”gone home” with all that is real in comfort.--The workings of the sorrowful heart are no longer vague guesses and fruitless longings, but sure and living hopes founded on ”the true sayings of G.o.d.” And when the voice whose music stirred the very depths of the soul, as none other had power to do, can be no longer heard, the ear of the spirit is quickened for voiceless intercourse. And since those sayings a.s.sure us that those whom we call the dead still live, in all the integrity of their spiritual being, we feel that they can scarcely be said to be gone--that the one in spirit are one for eternity--that their love for, and interest in us are not shaken--and if neither ear nor eye can catch sound or glimpse of what was dearer than life, still we are not without tokens of their presence. The intercourse of spirit with spirit is not destroyed because one veil of flesh is dropped; rather it is so much the nearer. The flow of reciprocated affection, the joy as truly shared, and sorrow as tenderly lightened with whispered a.s.surances of sympathy, all tell of an union over which death hath no power. Henceforward no abiding sense of loneliness, can weigh down the heart made strong in an affection which,

”Doth draw the very soul into itself,”

and brings it into companions.h.i.+p with ”the spirits of just men made perfect” in the presence of their Father and our Father. All that remains for earth is ”the Patience of Hope.” Death to the survivor as well as to his victim has ”lost his sting.” Thanks be unto G.o.d, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.[I]

Thus faintly and inadequately have been pourtrayed the life and character of one whom his Maker had endowed with genius, and sent forth for life's brief day. His appointed task was to go to his fellow men, when the fever of earth's turmoil is on them, and, by transporting them into other scenes, to charm away their cares and weariness for a while; bringing one character after another, and adventures in quick succession, before the reader, till he rises refreshed, and with new spirit goes forth again to the conflict of life; having found too, during his brief sojourn in that ideal region, many a hint of valuable information, many a true moral principle.

And if increasing light from that world towards which he was so rapidly advancing showed him how more distinctly to place before his fellow men the characteristic truths of Christianity as the foundation of all that is good and enduring, and to consecrate his talents to the highest interests of mankind, and then, with all his plans and purposes ripening, G.o.d called him away, it was only to enter on worthier labours in that world, where ”His servants serve Him day and night.” Strange as such a cutting short of a life so lately renewed in physical vigour, and devoted to the high service of G.o.d appears, the very suddenness was in keeping with the whole tenor of an existence which knew no idle moments--as if not an hour of such a spirit was to be wasted--to-day working here in the full vigour of his mortal life, to-morrow on the other side of death, an immortal spirit serving in its appointed rank before the throne of G.o.d.

Sense would fain follow, and, amid the shadowy forms of that world, catch a sight of one so dear: but the eye is strained in vain. Yet Faith can hear her Father's voice: ”BLESSED are the dead that die in the Lord,” and she is content: for ”THEY SHALL HUNGER NO MORE, NEITHER THIRST ANY MORE; NEITHER SHALL THE SUN LIGHT ON THEM, NOR ANY HEAT. FOR THE LAMB WHICH IS IN THE MIDST OF THE THRONE SHALL FEED THEM, AND SHALL LEAD THEM UNTO LIVING FOUNTAINS OF WATERS, AND G.o.d SHALL WIPE AWAY ALL TEARS FROM THEIR EYES.”

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