Page images
PDF
EPUB

expect no such thing. For it is self-evident, that Doctor Gull might continue to visit me, in this manner, till doom's-day, without my realizing any benefit whatever from his skill. What I do expect, is, that he will examine ME, personally and thoroughly, and kill my disease if he can, however painful his treatment may be.

Well, now take the preacher, who is a doctor too, though he gets his diploma from another place. We send for him; of course we are sick, or we shouldn't want him at all.

Now, gentlemen, I want to know what you expected of Doctor Chester here? You assumed that you were sick when you engaged his services, and he-knowing that you were-treated you as a wise and faithful doctor should; and now, behold the return you have made! Finding the prescription bitter, you have rejected it altogether, and taken up clubs to beat the honest physician for having offered it! To say nothing about the ingratitude and injustice of your course, how do you ever expect to get CURED, at this rate, gentlemen ?"

The views of the Bubbleton pastor in relation to parochial duty, accord with our ideas of the New Testament instruction. To preach is not the minister's chief work. He may hold a congregation, a steady or a shifting one, by this means; but not a church or society personally near to him. He may be a popular speaker to thousands, and yet not a true pastor of his flock. The requirements of such a pastor are fulfilled mainly through personal acquaintance and intercourse with his people. This is one of the secrets of ministerial power in cases where the highest order of pulpit talent may not be found, and which, we will venture to say, may not be needful for the salvation of that people where such a pastor officiates and dwells. This social talent on the part of a minister, if it be blessed with the unction of a heavenly spirit, is worth more to a people than all other clerical accomplishments can be without it. Here is a passage from the "Records,” which we seriously commend to the most serious consideration of certain ministers, who have been heard to use the very objections here recognized.

"I know ministers who consider this the most unpleasant duty they have to fulfil. To go about from house to house, with the persistence of a tax-gatherer, ringing door-bells, bowing, smiling, shaking hands with ladies, patting the heads of children, (perhaps kissing them, if their faces happen to be clean), asking pastoral questions, answering compliments, talking about the weather, the parish, the

late minister, hearing Mrs. A.'s complaints about her rheumatism, Mrs. B.'s narrative of the "rappings," Mrs. C.'s murmurs at the want of good society, Mrs. D.'s praises of her son who is in college, in short, plunging, again and again, into a chaos of small talk, and a labyrinth of confused interests, these things seem, to some men, the hardest of all mortal afflictions.

But, for my own part, I rather enjoy the mild excitement and diversified sensations produced by these friendly visits.

What is more agreeable than to take the hands of those who have agreed to be your friends-to give a candid hearing to your counsel, to repose in you the tenderest confidence? What is more pleasant than to be familiar with the HOMES of those to whom you are connected by the holiest and friendliest of ties,-to see countenances light up when you appear, and regrets betrayed when you depart,― to have perplexing cares committed to your wisdom, and heart-breaking troubles reposed on your faithful affection? What can be more interesting than to observe the innumerable phases in which our common humanity exhibits itself, in the different families with which you become acquainted, and under the pressure of various and everchanging circumstances?

Many a sermon, which no book could suggest, have I obtained from these very "calls," which so many stigmatize as "frivolous."

Some poet speaks of finding sermons in stones, and I have often queried whether the allusion might not be to the lap-stones of certain shoemakers whom I visit. However that may be, I can bear witness that excellent sermons are to be had of wash-tubs, if one but has the tact to interpret their spiritual significance."

The instructions gained by the pastor in his ministries with the sick, are finely expressed in the account of Herrick, the poor invalid, of acute suffering and hopeless prostration, dependent upon the toil of a devoted wife, and the charity of a few devoted neighbors.

"His disease involved a muscular contraction of the limbs, which, at times, was so great as to produce an agony almost beyond human endurance, and which rendered him an object of most painful commiseration.

Still, there was a look of cheerfulness in the sick man's face, and an utterance of submissive trust in his voice, that seemed to divert one's attention from his bodily affliction. The power of Christian faith transfigured his distorted and emaciated frame. He evidently possessed that strength of which the strong man cannot boast, and that peace which the fortunate never know."

"His mind was a kingdom, and the sovereignty he exercised was blessed."

"Often, during my residence in Bubbleton, when worn down by ex

hausting cares, irritated by petty persecutions, and tormented by cruel anxieties, and almost ready to fly from the field, have I entered the sick room of Brother Herrick, and found that strength and courage which were elsewhere denied.

Such are some of the expositions of our author, through the parish reminiscences, of the work of the Christian minister with his people. They involve the mutual action of both. And well and truly are they summed up in the address of Rev. Oracular Blunt to the society in Freemasonport, on the settlement of Mr. Stringent among them. It is a model direction, and we have room for the closing section only.

"Unite yourselves to him, brethren, both in brotherly sympathy with his cares, and in manly co-operation with his efforts. Don't expect him to do his own work and yours besides. Let each bear the burden proper to him. It is his to suggest, recommend, and illustrate divine virtues, for your pursuit and attainment. This is all he can do. He cannot break for you the thrall of worldliness, or enter your hearts and vanquish the habits and predispositions of years. This is your work, and you alone must perform it. . . . God grant unto him all needed wisdom to show the heavenly way, and unto you the humble and patient spirit that wanders not astray.”

In a chapter representing a revival scene,—such a scene as, we regret to know, must have had its original in more parishes than one in New England within the last twenty years, we find this very judicious and comprehensive statement of that religiousness most conducive to the spiritual good of mortals, in all parishes, and with all men.

"It may be safely affirmed, I think, that American Christianity suffers to this day-in the estimation of a respectable class of community-not only from the errors that were propagated during those exciting scenes, but from the re-action of that overstrained feeling and morbid exertion which they induced. It is as unwise to overtask the religious sensibilities, as to exhaust the mental or bodily powers. Nature demands reparation for every kind of excess. Why should we expect a frequent recurrence of the Day of Pentecost? It is not the aim of Providence to develop the Christian life in the soul by a succession of spasms. It is a growth-not to be realized, or even favored, by tumultuous excitement, frantic appeals to fear and selfishness, awful threatenings and terrific alarms-but secured under the conscious shelter of Divine Love, in the calm discourse of reason, in the serenity that unveils the heart to the renovating light and blessed harmonies of the universe.”

We ought not, perhaps, to make any more references by quotation. But there is one passage, which, although not exactly answering to any special question involving ministerial duty, is, nevertheless, so particularly nice and cool an application to a very well-known dread of allusions by dwellers in the old world, to our national wrongs, that we do not like to withhold it. It is a part of Harry Hanson's vindication of the free speech of foreigners in reference to our country. We commend it to the fastidious women of our land, who have sometimes worried themselves about the interference of some British Duchess or other critic, with our "peculiar institution," and to our equally fastidious gentlemen Americans who have helped them scold against such outlandish audacity.

"Now, gentlemen, just clear your sight of the miserable scales of prejudice which your national conceit has hung around your reason, and look at this business, for an instant, through my eye-glass: Here is Mr. Thompson about to allege against us certain sins, and to exhort us to repent and get rid of them. Grant that our self-constituted monitor belongs to rather an ungracious family,-grant that he is supposed to have a prejudice or so against us. Is there any human reason why we should not hear him? If he misstates our case, here we are to set him right. If he accuses us wrongfully, here we are with the amplest opportunity to justify ourselves. But if he puts the case exactly as it is, however it may cut our selfesteem-if we are actually guilty of what he accuses us, and if the whole universe knows that we are-why then, gentlemen, in the name of God, what is our best course? Will it do us any good to set the dogs on this plain-spoken fellow, and so drown his voice for a moment in a beastly bow-wow? Don't you see that this course would neither help us to get free of our sins, nor induce the world to overlook our guilt?—but that it would only render us as pusillanimous as we are criminal? And yet this is just the course which our Christian and intellectual city of Boston saw fit to pursue towards cousin Thompson; and here you are, gentlemen, giving it your sanction! Lord! we are not a whit wiser than the Jews!"

Success, we say, to these pleasant and unpleasant "Records of the Bubbleton Parish." We are glad that they have come to us in this day and at this hour, with their attractions of form and of spirit, their appeals to the good Christian taste and common sense of a reading public. We predict for their author, whoever he may be, a course in the future that shall keep him from unnecessary obscuri32

VOL. XI.

ty, and bless him with encouragements to new and still higher efforts of his genius, which we pray may be more and more deeply and humbly consecrated to the gospel of Christ. We welcome them as a praiseworthy contribution to the means now in operation, having for their end the just vindication of the Christian ministry in the midst of a prevalent materialism and skepticism, and in view of the spiritual hungering of the human mind for "the true God and eternal life;"-a vindication which would free the Christian church from the charge of heartless formality, expedient piety, and sectarian littleness, brought against it by an unbelieving world.

J. G. A.

ART. XXV.

Prayer and Providence.

The Christian Doctrine of Prayer. An Essay. By James Freeman Clarke. Boston: Published by Crosby, Nichols & Co. For the Executive Committee of the American Unitarian Association. 1854.

We have read this book, as we read the author's short treatise on Forgiveness, with great interest, satisfaction and profit. It is one of the few religious books in which a clear analysis and a vigorous faithfulness to logical method, do not chill the earnestness of the writer, or cramp the truth that is illustrated and conveyed. We shall do our readers a favor by calling their attention to it, and cordially commending it to them. And we propose, in connection with it, to offer some thoughts of our own upon the subject which it treats, that were written as we print them some time before Mr. Clarke's work was issued.

It is a singular and most interesting fact that the Saviour never asserted and defended the fundamental elements of religion, as though they could be matters of dispute. He assumed them. His work was to interpret them, to disengage corrupting errors from them, and to make men recognize them more steadily and acknowledge their authority.

« PreviousContinue »