Part 18 (1/2)
”In our precious children my desolate heart found a sweet response to its love They have savedinto some new and untried and unsanctified effort to let off the fire that consumed me Crushed, mutilated, torn, they comforted and cheered me, and furnished me with objects of interest which drewFather, and that to love and cherish thehest rew, the parents began to feel the difficulty of educating them properly without other companions, and it was at last decided to take a few children into the fainning of another important chapter in their lives As educators Mr and Mrs Weld very soon developed such rare ability, that although they had thought of li the number of pupils to two or three, so ood reasons for their acceptance, that the two or three becaure In this new life their trials were reat, and the pecuniary co to read froe--”always ready to take the heaviest end of every burden,” and of Angelina's cheerfulness; and froelina the frequent testimony to Sarah's patience and fidelity It took this dear Aunt Sai , especially as she never had any talent for governing, save by love, and this method was not always appreciated
With their new and exacting work, the fariven up, and was finally sold
In 1852 the Raritan Bay association, consisting of thirty or forty educated and cultured faleswood, near Perth Amboy, New Jersey; and a year later Mr and Mrs Weld were invited to join the association, and take charge of its educational departreater social advantages for themselves and their children, with less responsibility and less labor; for of these last the husband, wife, and sister, in their Belleville school, had had er Their desire and plan was to establish, with the children of the residents at Eagleswood, a school also for others, and to charge such a moderate compensation only as would enable the middle classes to profit by it In this project, as with every other, no selfish aleswood in the autu the end of my narrative, this seeious views into which the two sisters finally settled We have followed theh their various conflicts froe, and have seen in their several changes of belief that there was no fickleness, no real inconsistency They sought the truth, and at different tiht in Christ Jesus, the si and practice of love for God, and for the meanest, the weakest, the lowest of His children The spiritual conflicts through which they passed, prepared theness of all outward forms, and they came at last to reject the so-called orthodox creed, and to look only to God for help and co the entire period of Sarah's connection with religious organizations, and even froious impressions, she found it difficult to accept the doctrine of the Atonement; and yet she professed and tried to think she believed it, but only because the Bible, which she accepted as a revelation froainst it is shown in her frequent prayers to be delivered froreat temptation of the arch enemy, and her deep repentance whenever she lapsed into a state of doubt The fear that she ma was--at least up to the time when she was driven fro her at intervals ether But the worshi+pful ele in Sarah that she could not, even after her reason had satisfied her conscience on this point, give up this Christ at whose feet she had learned her entleness and long-suffering, and whom she had accepted and adored as her intermediary before an awful Jehovah In her whole life there appears tolove of Jesus, and I believe it to have been the inspiration always of all that was loveliest and grandest in her character In one of her letters, written while at Belleville, she says:--
”I cannot grasp the idea of an Infinite Being; but, without perplexingaround ent, law-abiding Law-giver, and I believe implicitly in his power and his love But I ain: ”In one sense, as Creator and Benefactor, I feel this Infinite Being to be my Father, but I want a Jesus whom I can approach as a fellow creature, yet who is so nearly allied to God that I can look up to Him with reverence, and love Him and lie in His bosom”
And later, in a letter to Gerrit Smith, she says:--
”God is love, and whoso dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him O friends, but for this faith, this anchor to the soul both sure and steadfast, I know not ould have become of us in the shich there has been of e called the doctrines of Christianity froht, but the glorious truth rereat peace have they who do His will”
Their increasingly liberal views, and their growing indifference to ion, drew upon them the severe censure of their Charleston relatives, and finally, when, about 1847, it caer considered the Sabbath in a sacred light, their sister Eliza wrote to them that all personal intercourse must end between theainst thees of foolscap, was most affectionate; but, while she expressed her sorrow at the feeling excited against theht fro all the best authorities concerning the substitution of the Christian for the Jewish Sabbath, and against their sister's assertion that the foran to understand,” she says, ”what the gift of the Holy Spirit really was, then all outwardisument or example of others, but all reverence for them died in my heart I could not help it; it was unexpected to one And now, to give to God alone the ceaseless worshi+p of my life is all my creed, all my desire Oh, for this pure, exalted state, how my soul pants after it!
Into the co the fretfulness and ardness of my children, oh, for the pure worshi+p of the soul which can enable me to meet and bear all the _little_ trials of life in quietness and love and patience This is the religion of Christ, and I feel that no other can satisfy me or meet the wants of human nature I cannot sanction any other, and I dare not teach any other to my precious children”
Thus it came to pass with them and with Theodore also, that to love Jesus more, and to follow ion With increasing years and wider experiences, their views broadened into the h worshi+p of an infinite God, and the sweet reverence for his purest disciple never left them
CHAPTER XVII
In a letter to Dr Harriot Hunt, Sarah Grileswood:--
”It was aspot Situated on the Raritan Bay and River, just twenty-five ht of the beautiful lower bay and of the dark Neversink Hills, all its surroundings appeal to h the woods or along the shore, new char face of the bay alone is a source of ceaseless enjoy i softly, the eye, the ear, and the soul are filled onder and delight”
In this beautiful spot a co was erected, suitable for association purposes One end was divided into flats for a limited number of families; the other into school-rooms, dormitories, and parlors for social uses, while the centre contained the refectory for pupils and teachers, of who-rooms for the other residents and their visitors
Several faence and culture resided in the i much to the social life of the place All ere so fortunate as to beMr
Weld's administration must often look back with the keenest pleasure to the days passed there It seems to me there can never be such a centre to such a circle as the Welds drew around theathered, at different tihtest, the broadest , Henry W Bellows, OB Frothingham, Dr Chapin, Wm H Furness, Wm Cullen Bryant, the Collyers, Horace Greeley, Gerrit Smith, Moncure D Conway, Jas, Youhout the land Here, too, came artists and poets for a few days' inspiration, and weary men of business for a little rest and intellectual refreshment, and leaders of reform movements, attracted by the liberal atmosphere of the place
Nearly all of these, invited by Mr Weld, gave to the pupils and their fa of themselves,--some personal experience, perhaps, or a lecture or short essay, or an insight into their own especial work and hoas done
The amount of pleasant and profitable instruction thus imparted was incalculable; while the after discussions and conversation were as enjoyable as ht be expected from the friction of such minds
Seldos said or higher topics treated than in the Eagleswood parlors All the rights and wrongs of humanity received here earnest consideration; while questions of general interest, politics, religion, the arts and sciences, even the last new novel or poeleswood, and spoke often to the pupils; and A Bronson Alcott gave them a series of his familiar lectures
Here, on Sundays, Theodore D Weld delivered lay serht and love, of precious lessons of contempt for all littleness, of patience with the weaknesses of our fellow-her and holier purposes in life