RELIGION AND MORALS A CENTURY AGO. 141 triumphed in the mercy of God to these poor outcasts (for he hath called them a people who were not a people) and in the accomplishment of that Scripture, Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.' 'How gladly do the poor receive the gospel! We hardly know how to part.' 6 Though there had been no riots [at this time] nor any open persecution of the Methodists in Bristol, yet many individuals, who had become serious, and changed the whole course of their lives, suffered considerably. This was partly occasioned by the inflammatory discourses of some of the clergy - Christianity (observes Chas. Wesley) flourishes under the cross. None who follow Christ are without that badge of discipleship. Wives and children are beaten and turned out of doors, and the persecutors are the complainers! It is always the Lamb that troubles the waters. [See the Fable at the end of No. 5.] Every sunday, damnation is denounced against all who hear us: for we are Papists, Jesuits, seducers and bringers in of the Pretender. The Clergy murmur also at the number of communicants, and threaten to repel them. Yet will not the world bear that we should talk of persecution. No-for the world now is Christian-and the offence of the cross has ceased! Alas! what would they do further? Some lose their bread, some their habitations: one suffers stripes, another confinement -yet we must not call this persecution. Doubtless they will find some other name for it when they shall think they do God service by killing us.' Omitting some disgraceful instances, in this part of the book, of personal opposition in public, of raising and encouraging riots against the public ministry of the two brothers, on the part of clergymen of the Establishment, I shall conclude my extracts with the following. Many of the colliers who had been abandoned to every kind of wickedness (even to a proverb) were now become pious, and zealous for the things of God. A great number of them, at this time, came to the churches in Bristol on a Lord's day for the benefit of the sacrament : but most of the Bristol ministers repelled them [once, indeed, Charles Wesley himself was so treated] because they did not belong to their parishes. Setting religion aside, common humanity would have taught them to rejoice in so remarkable a reformation among those wretched people. But these watchmen of Israel did not choose to have any increase of trouble. Can we wonder that the Methodists had such great success in preaching to the middling and lower orders of the people, when such lazy drones as these had the care of most of the parishes in England?" The case, I believe, is now considerably altered for the better. There is more religious knowledge, more candour and more attention to propriety of conduct, on these occasions, both among the Clergy and the people; and the preaching and discipline of the Methodists, (braving the storm of contempt and ridicule) have been the principal means of working the change: but a deep-rooted, secret and effective opposition to the free preaching of the word, yet exists in very many who pretend zeal for the Church, yea, to the ministry itself at this day: and we have yet constant heavy complaints of iminorality, and numerous offences against the laws. Why, then, not take the field again, John? This is the way to put down 'Twopenny Trash' and 'sabbath-breaking. Has the Sun at length got thy travelling cloak off thee, though the boisterous wind failed to do it? I am not so young as not to remember a Methodist Preacher, with a great audience, in the open air in Moorfields-nor so old as not to indulge a hope, that I may yet live to see others (where they ought to be, to do their proper work effectually) in the highways and hedges. Ed. ART. VI. The Church and Dissenters: their Relative Positions and Interests. 'There can be no cheaper or more meritorious popularity than that which arises from consulting the people as to the choice of their Ministers. If this compliance [of the Government with the wishes of the nation] was at all times desirable, it has now become necessary.' 'If however, deaf to the warning which the times are holding out to it [the Church should] make no preparation for the coming storm, and trust to that wealth for its sole protection which will then be its ruin, still the interests of religion will survive its fall. Its Ministers for a time will not possess less learning or ability; and freed from every obstacle [which ease and abundance may have presented] to their exertions, they will possess the strength and the fire of a new sect, with the acquirements of a rightly endowed hierarchy; and their influence would probably never be greater over the public mind, than at the moment when their enemies imagined that their power was broken for ever.' Douglas's Appeal to the Clergy: Ecclesiastical Review, Feb. 1832. 'But alas! (the Reviewer proceeds to say) the strength and the fire of a new sect soon attain their zenith, and the acquirements of a richly endowed hierarchy perish with the second generation of those who are excluded from its advantages. Thus was it with the Nonconformists of other days. The voluntary principle [of association] so strong under persecution, became enfeebled and powerless as the counteracting force of oppression and intolerance was lessened, and freer scope was afforded for its vigorous development. A new sect became necessary to wake the dormant energies of the Church.'All sects (whatever have been their errors) have recommended themselves by seizing upon some neglected truth; and the strength of a sect has generally been proportionate to the previous ignorance and formalism. When religious truth shall be more generally diffused, and more vigorously embraced in all its fulness and simplicity, the occasion for sects will cease with the causes which originate division, and the Church shall be ONE. And being apparently [evidently] so, the world will believe her testimony concerning Him whom the Father hath sent. ' It may be doubted (I add to these remarks of the Reviewer) whether those sects which have any thing solid to add to the existing edifice, do so quickly pass away. In all these changes, we must not forget, there exists the guidance of a hand unseen'; which still represses what is wrong, and preserves the right from destructionand this, from age to age. God will have his witnesses to the Truth on earth: and when some decline from their first estate, and lay down the Testimony, he raises up others in their stead: yet so as that they who succeed in the same profession to zealous and laborious predecessors, doing the work in faithfulness, though not in like peril, remain associated, forming integral parts of the Universal Church; as the provinces of a great empire, though newly acquired, or situate beyond the seas, are yet parts of the same body politic. The 6 fulness and simplicity' of 'religious truth' as it is set forth in Holy Scripture, prevented not the overwhelming tide of traditions and ceremonies of Judaism and Heathenism, from flowing in upon the Church. And when this was at length checked, and Reformation was to follow, it pleased not Infinite Wisdom to let mankind see the whole extent of the lapse at once; but rather that the light should gradually return as the dawning of a new day. And in this way, in successive generations, have many neglected truths' been seized upon' and held up afresh to notice, in spite of power and intoleranceto the renewing of the testimony and perpetuating of Divine revelation. Light in this way seems to have been more especially furnished by some, and heat by others: and thus has the body been, in considerable measure, relieved both from the palsy of worldly mindedness, and the blindness of religious error. Ed. 6 ART. VII. John Newton on the Invisible World. < "As I am not a Sadducee, the account you give of the music which entertained you on the road [he is writing to a lady who had lost a friend by death, and the term entertained' is to be understood seriously] does not put my dependence either on your veracity or your judgment to any trial. We live upon the confines of the invisible world, or rather perhaps in the midst of it. [See Young and Milton.] That unseen agents have a power of operating upon our minds, at least upon that mysterious faculty we call the imagination, is with me not merely a point of opinion, or even of faith, but of experience. That evil spirits can, when permitted, disturb, distress and defile us, I know as well as I know the fire burns me. And though this interposition is perhaps more easily and certainly distinguishable, yet from analogy I conclude that good spirits [for which the bad ones are ever ready to put off themselves] are equally willing, and equally able [I should say much more able] to employ their kind offices for our relief and comfort. I have formed in my mind a kind of system upon this subject, which, for the most part, I keep pretty much to myself: but I can entrust my thoughts to you, as they occasionally occur. I apprehend that some persons (and those particularly who rank under the class of nervous) are more open and accessible to these impressions than others; and probably the same persons, more at one time than at others. And though we frequently distinguish between imaginary and real (which is the reason why nervous people are so seldom pitied) yet an impression upon the imagination may, as to the agent that produces, and the person that receives it, be as much a reality as any of the sensible objects around him : though a bystander, not being able to share in the perception [here is a wrong use of the term, I believe: it should be conception] may account it a mere whim, and suppose it might be avoided or removed by an act of the will. Nor have any a right to withhold their assent, to what the Scriptures teach, and many sober persons declare, of this invisible agency, merely because we cannot answer the questions, How, or why? The thing may be certain [to us] though we cannot easily explain it; and there may be just and important reasons for it, though we should not be able to assign them. If what you heard (or, which in my view is much the same, what you thought you heard) had a tendency to compose your spirit, and to encourage your application to the Lord for help, at the time you were about to stand in need of essential assistance, then there is a sufficient and suitable reason assigned for it at once, without looking further. It would be dangerous to make impressions a rule of duty-but if they strengthen and assist us in the performance of what we know to be our duty, we may be thankful for them." Cardiphonia: Nov. 1778. ART. VIII. FABLES, &C. IN VERSE AND PROSE.-CONTINUED. The Boaster. Esop. A man, returned from his travels, was boasting of his exploits abroad; and, among other things, of a leap which he had taken at Rhodes, in which not one of the Rhodians, who are famous for that exercise, could come up to him. For this, he said, he had witnesses at Rhodes: but one present observed, there was no need to call witnesses from such a distance, to a fact so easy of demonstration. "Let us only have the leap over again!" The Application. There can be no doubt that our boaster was completely silenced by the proposal: and the surest way to obtain a respite from the annoyance of one of these pretenders is, to follow him attentively till he comes upon practical ground, and then put him upon immediate demonstration. Two things, however, are desirable in the practice of this colloquial stratagem; that the person attacked be really a boaster, taking advantage of the credulous, (and not an inquisitive man talking a little out of his depth for the sake of information;) and that the attack be made in good humour, and with as little of disingenuous art as appears in the example before us. The Husbandman and his Sons. A husbandman, being near his end, called his Sons to his bedside. "My children," said he, "I am now about to depart out of this life. I would have you make diligent search in the vineyard for something which I have left buried there, and which, if you take pains enough, you will find." The old man died, without explaining himself further. Concluding that a treasure of some kind must have been concealed beneath the surface, the youths took care to dig the ground well over. They found neither gold nor silver; but the surface being thoroughly stirred and loosened, the vines, when the season came, produced a most abundant crop; which was the treasure contemplated by their aged parent. The Application. The true riches of a country lie in the soil; yet not so, but that the labour of man is required to bring them forth. In other words, the increase of food, clothing, timber, and other necessaries, obtained by means of the culture bestowed upon a fruitful soil, is the staff of life, the main spring of commerce, and the solid basis of national prosperity; on which commerce itself, and the arts, merely raise a superstructure. Communications may be addressed, POST-PAID, "For the Editor of the Yorkshireman, "at the Printer's, Pontefract; at Longman and Co.'s, London; John Baines and Co.'s' Leeds; and W. Simpson's, York. CHARLES ELCOCK, PRINTER, PONTEFRACT. THE YORKSHIREMAN, A RELIGIOUS AND LITERARY JOURNAL No. X. BY A FRIEND. PRO PATRIA. SEVENTH DAY, 1st TWELFTH Mo. 1832 PRICE 4d. ART. I.-Letter of the three denominations of Dissenters in favour of the Quakers: Case of Samuel Bownas: Conduct of Geo. Keith. Anno. 1704. 66 Among the many clamours raised about this time against the Dissenters, one was, that they did not deserve to have liberty themselves, because they were enemies to the liberty of others. This was started as a maxim; that they that would be for straitening of others, if they were able, could not reasonably expect liberty from those that were in power, when they differed from them. I shall not set myself to debate this maxim, or consider what might be objected against it, but shall let the world understand, that the dissenters took another way to answer it. For they were applied to by some of the denomination of Quakers, who complained to them, that in New England there were some severe laws, of a long standing, not re pealed, though not of late rigorously put in execution against persons of their character; which they desired their kind interposition to screen them from; as they would manifest they were real friends of liberty, and not for confining it to themselves. Hereupon the following letter was drawn up, and signed by several of the other three denominations of dissenters, and sent in their common name to some ministers of reputation in New England, to be communicated to their brethren. 66 You may from the enclosed gather the occasion of our giving you this trouble. As for an application to the Queen, therein desired, we could by no means count it agreeable to the respect we have for our brethren of New England, had we thought it ever so suitable to our more private station, and ministerial character. We pretend not to form a judgment in the present case; which would not be just, without a full hearing of both sides: much less would we presume to dictate measures to you about it. T |