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 THE TRAVELLERS 
 
 IK 
 
 1Ri)C B^0HVt 
 
 ' 1 appeared unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacos, BAAL SHADAI, 
 is the Lord ALL-BouNTiruL; but by my name JEHOVAH I was not (yet- 
 experimentally) " known to them." Gen : vi. 5. 
 
 Frintedlri/ Joseph Clark, 11, Newgale StreM. 
 
 MDCCCXXXI.
 
 ^/r 
 
 THE TRAVELLERS 
 
 IN 
 
 THE DESART. 
 
 What means yon murky cloud uprising high 
 Now spreading wide now towering to the sky- 
 Now onward moving with impetuous haste, 
 And pouring hfe o'er all the barren waste ? 
 A groupc discordant a huge living mass. 
 Of ev'ry age and aspect, kind and class. 
 Beating with terror's steps th' astonish'd ground, 
 Their loud'ning foot-tramp echoing all around, 
 Whilst joy, and praise, and fear, and pale despair, 
 In strange commingling looks their various thoughts 
 declare ? 
 
 Reaming wi'h grateful joy, one eye is seen 
 
 L'pthrown to heav'n bursting thro' this terrene - 
 
 And instant travelling to tlie throne of God, 
 
 Adoring, rests in faith, it's anxious load ; 
 
 And still, with look unciuivcriiig, Hui docs view 
 
 WJio will it's every foe, or soon, or late, subdue. 
 
 AVith faltering tixad and half-desjjonding mien, 
 
 Divided 'twixt this world and tiiat briglit scene 
 
 To wliicli it's languid faith soiiK'times asj)ires 
 
 A\'itli fainting hopes and iialf-avcrt desire^, 
 
 .V doubting visage follows : whilst a fhird, 
 
 A vciv V. oiulluig, wjio cannot ungird 
 
 Time's cares, lift's low-ljorn |)K'asui"es, stjl! lov'd lid'. 
 
 Tlit I'L'ar-.-tnic-k \icsini i:- oC jjalsyiiiM- u';be!ivt', 
 
 t } 4 /<.. .
 
 ( 4 ) 
 
 Curs'd tyranny behind and want before, 
 He lingers and would linger evermore. 
 
 'Tis Israel's Host the Host of God's Elect 
 His care peculiar, and His fold protect 
 The Honoured of the Lohd His chosen few 
 From all Earth's Nations, that He might endue 
 Their name with glory, and their end with joy, 
 And magnify His grace in all their life's employ. 
 Thro' all Creation's range 'tis that one race. 
 Select, to worship 'fore Jkhovah's face 
 His knowledge gain, His highest blessings share. 
 And tradite, thro' all time, Jehovah's Heir. 
 Their's is the " Sonship"* Servants all the i-est 
 Their's with Shekinah's " glory" to be bright invest. 
 Their's are " the Covenants" Creation's Loud 
 Deigns to bestow, confirm'd by His dread Word : 
 Their's, too, " the Law," midst Sinai's thunders given, 
 With pomp and circumstance direct from heaven. 
 Their's is " the Service" full of meanings deep 
 Of man's first loss of future good to reap. 
 The " promises" are their's, with mercies fraught 
 By Sacrificial Sufferings to be bought. 
 Their's are "the Fathers," in light's earliest reicn. 
 Wisdom's first-born, Guides in her blessings' train : 
 And their^s " Messiah," with their flesh invest 
 Emmanuel, God o'er all, for ever bless'd ! 
 
 Loos'd from the Tyrant's lash, th' insatiate claim, 
 Th' inexorable frown, th' opprobrious name, 
 Tir unceasing goadings of a mind depraved, 
 (^For once the ecjuul Laws of God out-braved 
 
 Horn ; ix. -i.
 
 ( ^ ) 
 
 If man oVr man usurp despotic ire 
 
 Heligion, Virtue, Honor, all expire. 
 
 'Tis HeavVs deep stigma he may read who flies 
 
 Where Slavery lives each nobler feeling dies.) 
 
 Now Liberty"'s light air expands the breast. 
 
 And every mental throe sinks down to rest. 
 
 Now Nature wears a new and glad array, 
 
 And scatters joys oVr all their arid way. 
 
 Now burst are all the bonds of lawless pow'r 
 
 " The voice of the Oppressor heard no more." 
 
 O Slavery ! thou very spawn of Hell 
 
 How deep thy crime thy guilt what tongue can tell [ 
 
 Whether in Asia's wastes, or Tropic Isles, 
 
 Where Nature burns in winds, or beams in smiles, 
 
 Or lowly birth, or darker tint of skin. 
 
 Or War's hard fortune, makes th"" unpardoned sin 
 
 Thou madly punishest, beyond esca{)c, 
 
 With wretchedness and death in evVy varied shape. 
 
 Claiming the powVs and attributes of God, 
 
 Thou, demon-like, dost wield them with a rod 
 
 Of iron dipp\l in diabolic rage, 
 
 Not knowing rule, nor limits, time, nor gauge. 
 
 Nature's most sacred rights thou dost desjiise ; 
 
 And IIi.M, whose image front-raised to the skies 
 
 Demands thy reverence,* thine Atheist-will 
 
 Insults alike in precept and creative skill. 
 
 A ])eacefid pause now follows fioni all toil 
 
 All pains and grief, and the swift flight's turmoil ; 
 
 The good adore, the timid learn to trust, 
 
 And all, their hopes concentre in the Jlst 
 
 And Holy one, whose flat broke their bonds, 
 
 l. I'Lter II. 17.
 
 ( 6 ) 
 
 And whose soft love to ev'ry prayer responds. 
 
 Disrupt from evVy earthly prop and stay, 
 
 And caird o'er dreary plains to thread their way, 
 
 Which nought administer to life's first want. 
 
 But which a thousand deaths around it plant, 
 
 A mighty multitude to be sustained, 
 
 Protected, guided, taught, impell'd, restrain'd. 
 
 By means miraculous from hands unseen 
 
 Must call for hcav'n-directed Faith's unwearying mien. 
 
 The Faithiul rest in God ; all cares they leave 
 
 AVith Him who never can, or did, deceive, 
 
 Who ne'er prov'd false and e'en their sharpest pains 
 
 Urge but to holier strife for heavenly gains. 
 
 To greater self-addiction, purer prayer. 
 
 And treading each day's walk with nicer care. 
 
 A pyre of hallow'd flame breaks on their sight. 
 Illumes and gladdens thro' the lonely night. 
 And guards whilst ev'ry pow'r's in rest unbent, 
 Yet yields no light to whom it was not sent. 
 Bv day, strange metamorphose, it becomes 
 A cloud defensive, fraught with vapoury fumes 
 "^Vhich oft in grateful show'rs it charge bedews, 
 And r.Iercy^s memory blissfully renews. 
 
 And now a scene of deep concern draws nigli, 
 
 A\'^l;ich ev'ry single soul shall keenly try ; 
 
 A sure criterion point of closest test 
 
 When confidence, caU'd forth, sl.all soar to rest, 
 
 When feigned faith shall fall to fell despair. 
 
 And RcIk'Is' dark distrust fill all the air 
 
 AN'itli nuM'nnniiigs loud af^ainsf their Gon and guide, 
 
 "W hose n!i;^ht. and love, ar.;l truth are all anaigiri,! denied
 
 ( 7 ) 
 
 The sounding hoofs of Pharaoh"'s warlike train, 
 
 In hot pursuit, loud battering o'er the plain, 
 
 Instant destruction but too sure portend 
 
 Fi'om one whose ruthless wrath no prayers forefend. 
 
 Whilst all beyond, a vast expanse of sea, 
 
 Yields but a change of deathful destiny. 
 
 No refuge, no resource, from fate's dread powV, 
 
 x\ll tinge with black'ning hue it's hastening hour. 
 
 1*he pallid look, the trembling, failing knee. 
 
 The wildly-roving eye that nought can see 
 
 But all-engulphing ruin rushing down. 
 
 The whole scene wrapped in one dread sombrous frown. 
 
 Unaided Nature's humbled port display. 
 
 In fierce calamity's hard-trying day. 
 
 The grave the grave the unprepared-for grave 
 
 Wide-yawning, waits, alike, the coward and the brave. 
 
 Calm and unmoved the Man of God alone, 
 
 Faith's mystic ties fast bind to Heaven's firm throne ; 
 
 His basis stable, as his prospect clear, 
 
 He darts thro' time's short vistc life's brief career 
 
 And, dropping all within earth's narrow pale. 
 
 Clings to His promise that can never fail. 
 
 Fears fly doubts vanish cares all sink to rest 
 
 And holy peace reigns thro' his hallow'd breast. 
 
 '' Move on confide fear not obey my word 
 All earth must bow before her Sov'reign Loud." 
 Thus Moses spake, tlie Legate of the skies 
 His voice the echo of the Deity's 
 And, to the marge now come with firm advance, 
 With a slight twig he strikes the vast expanse, 
 ( A thing at once of nought or boundless pow'r. 
 When heaven-directed, in eventful hour )
 
 ( 8 ) 
 
 Instant the smitten sea her Maker's might 
 
 Feels to her base and back recoils in fright, 
 
 Uprising on each side in walls of glass, 
 
 A bright transparent, glowing. Crystal mass. 
 
 Terrific, beauteous, death-fraught yet secure, 
 
 Unknown before, unparalelPd, yet sure, 
 
 Proclaims a God the God who gave her laws, 
 
 And now them all suspends in awful pause. 
 
 A parching wind, the wonder to complete. 
 
 Leaves not a humid trace beneath their feet ! 
 
 The briny ""habitants within restrained, 
 
 As though by bars of adamant enchain''d. 
 
 See pass th' illustrious travellers in amaze. 
 
 And join their silent song of ardent praise. 
 
 Th' abyss, by miracle, they safely cross. 
 
 And touch the Nhore unknowing harm or loss ; 
 
 With anxious eyes and curious next they turn 
 
 To gaze on their fierce foes last earthly bourne. 
 
 Down the dark shelly shore they swiftly glide 
 
 In all the pageantry of martial pride 
 
 Their glittering chariots crowd the vista's mouth, 
 
 Fiird with th' noblest flower of Egypt's youth. 
 
 Loud threatening slaughter, desolation, death. 
 
 Or worse, vile, endless bondage, with each breath. 
 
 Haughtily confident, they still advance 
 
 Till, all embosomM in the dread expanse, 
 
 Jehovah"'s hand their wrathful route impedes. 
 
 They flag, they weary anger, fright, succeeds 
 
 When in the midst of passion-boiling blood, A 
 
 The mystic pow'r rccalPd that bound the flood v 
 
 They rush into the presence of a sin-avenging God ! 1 
 
 One wild, ungovern d, shriek of black despair 
 
 Breaks from all lips thro' the fugacious air.
 
 ( 9 ) 
 
 One dreadful, hopeless, struggle ""gainst their fate, 
 So lonir, so often, threatened now too late 
 And all sink into sleep the sleep of death 
 Of deaths the worst the second death nor breath. 
 Does I'nofer or returns in dolVous sighs 
 To tell what is that " death that never dies." 
 
 The Tyrnnt slain the saved lift up their voice 
 
 In grateful song, and tremblingly rejoice. 
 
 Tiiey own their thankless, heartless, guilty fears 
 
 Of Him whose truthful, faithful love, ne'er veers 
 
 From His liedeem'd are humbled and again 
 
 Their onward way pursue o'er the drear, leafless, plain. 
 
 Bless'd be that Providence for ever bless'd ! 
 
 Whose mercy, goodness, bounty, stand confessed 
 
 Through every age, in every tongue rever'd. 
 
 And always to the good man most endear'd. 
 
 No want too lowly for it's love to meet. 
 
 No wish too lofty for it's powV to greet 
 
 With glad response, where holy motives reign. 
 
 And wills resigned still follow in the train. 
 
 Choirs of angelic Hosts has God sent down 
 
 Tluir foes to baffle, or their labours crown. 
 
 The hearts of Kings, touchM by His softning sway, 
 
 Have bent, and bow'd His blessings to convey. 
 
 Wen Nature's sternest elements must yield. 
 
 When God His Faithful, or would bless, or shield ; 
 
 The Rock gives water ; or the water, fire ; 
 
 And instant serve His will with glad desire. 
 
 Afllictions sorrows sometimes, for wise end, 
 
 lie makes, indeed, his children close attend. 
 
 To humble, [)urify, unearth the soul,
 
 ( 10 ) 
 
 And speed its progress to its happier goal. 
 Still ruoviDEXOK presides and, soon or late, 
 His shrouded, changeless, love does vindicate. 
 
 *' Hark to my words, with diligent attcnt'"* 
 Jehovah said, "humbly obedient; 
 Shun Idols, sin ; observe my statutes whole 
 I your Physician am for body soul.""' 
 
 Grateful His bounteous promise they receive, 
 And in it's plighted truth joyful believe. 
 But ah ! how soon His promise is forgot, 
 His truth denied, His precepts set at nought, 
 His love disown\l. His empire overthrown, 
 And faithless, loud, reproach is heard alone ! 
 
 Not so with MosES, confidence prevails. 
 Heaven's truth, to those who trust it, never fails. 
 
 How mighty in the mind of feeble man 
 Is Faith in Heav'n's i-edeeming INIercy's plan ? 
 Far-fetch'd Exotic in the human soul 
 As far removed from sense as pole from pole 
 Far above reason* passing hope assured 
 Of God implanted, nurtured, and matured-|- 
 Warm'd by thy beams, thou Sun of Righteousness- 
 llefrcshM by showers of vitalizing grace 
 UprcarVl by ceaseless culture, jealous care 
 And vigorous growth sought in luifainting prayer 
 The puny plant, by-blown of ev'ry wind 
 Of doubt, or fear, in man's vagarious mind 
 A stately tree becomes, deep-struck its roots 
 In promises divine, Avith upward fruits 
 Of sanctity, and sacred j^cace, and love, 
 * 1 Cor. u, 5. t Col ; n. I's,
 
 11 
 
 And blissful joys that bloom in realms above. 
 
 Still Love prevails long-minded IMercy reigns, 
 And righteous wrath upbinds in her soft chains. 
 Not like the swift-lit, angry, thoughts of man, 
 With fierce revenge high-breathing in the van, 
 Nor like his ways the thoughts and ways of God : 
 His pity yearns, tho'' still he shake the rod. 
 His thoughts are thouglits of love, His ways are peace, 
 And all His wish towVd man is but to bless. 
 
 The dulcet date, at thirsty noon-tide hour, 
 
 Gives to tlie bitter pool refreshing jiower. 
 
 In desolating famine's dreariest mood 
 
 The clouds break fortli and shower down Angels' food.* 
 
 Or do the burning skies the live-day-long 
 
 Yield not a drop to cool the parched tongue, 
 
 A Granite-block, Earth's flint foundation-stone, 
 
 Shall send forth streams of living lym])h adown. 
 
 Quench every nnirniuring, unbelieving, IVud, 
 
 And fill with joy the fainting multitude : 
 
 Nay e'en their fragile garments strength receive, 
 
 l!iiperislKi])le strength, their end t' acliieve, 
 
 (ii'ow with their growth, nor wear nor age do tell, 
 
 lUit live before their eyes a daily miracle. 
 
 Thus, clothed with Gon Him all armind they see 
 AVraj)t in a cii'CLnnaml)icnt Deity 
 Fed from lii> hand ])i"()tccted ])V his nsight 
 Hi> tiloriuus sii-ns and wondei's press their si<i-lit 
 'l'\\v bread of Heaven," l)roke to each (i-ue l)Hli('V('r '- 
 "^Jhat ulioso took might " v;\{ aiui live for ever."' 
 'J1,c '- liock that foMowM them," llic fiille > Uo-k. 
 I'ountains cf living watei's" to the (lock 
 
 ' 1'). l.\\VIII, '^',, ' ] I'l. \, ',.1.
 
 ( 12 ) 
 
 Of its (Treat Archetype did never fail 
 
 Glailness and strength to yield toiPs ample countervail 
 
 His voice in the loud-pealing thunder heard, 
 
 Or inly \vhisp''ring where His name was fear^l, 
 
 ISIonitions, still yet strong, would oft convey, 
 
 And mark to future bliss the surer way. 
 
 Yea, splendid signs on sign?, unending, wrought, 
 
 His love to reminiscense daily brought. 
 
 Jehovah'^s *'Akgkl," riim in whom the "name"'"* 
 And "fullness of the Godhead" dwelt the same. 
 The " Word of God,"' the Messenger'' of grace. 
 He " bare and carried"" -f- them in their distress, 
 CheerM in the sinkin<y hour, screen^l from their foes. 
 And deejily sympathized in all their woes : 
 The wayward ilc rebuked, roused the remises. 
 And every dying saved caught to innriortal bliss. 
 
 Happy, l>cyond compute, the favoured soul 
 Who e'er delights his Saviour to extol. 
 Whose eye of faith on Him is, moveless, fi\\]_. 
 Whose every joy is with liis name inunixM ; 
 AVho every gift receives as thro' His merit, 
 Ami waits the transformation of His Syiirit. 
 " The Lamb of Goil" he, ceaselessly, beholds 
 Who in His arms each faithful sou! enfolds, 
 Sevurclv keeps it while in Him it dwells, 
 I^Mch aid imparts, each enemy repels. 
 Needs he repentance? CiiiiisT docs ever live, 
 " A Triiice and Saviour'" penitence to give. 
 Or (la,'fs ills faith ? to Chimst his prayers ascend, 
 FaitiTs author, (iuishcr it s object, end. 
 
 * lixol ; xxiiu 20-'^C, Exod: xii. 2-4. Acts vxj. 3. j- Is; ixi'i. 9.
 
 ( 13 ) 
 
 Halm of each sorrow to the broken heart, 
 
 A sure relief in grief's most poignant smart. 
 
 Light in the darkest hour, the mind*'s firm stay 
 
 Tho' Earth"'s foundations sink, or melt away. 
 
 Source, still, of bliss, in hope's most sunshine morn, 
 
 Each joy to heighten beauty to adorn. 
 
 Subject of contemplation, ever new, 
 
 With glory bright, clad in each heav'nly hue, 
 
 Expansive, purifying, lifting high 
 
 In adoration's holiest ecstacy. 
 
 For present pardon, and attendant peace, 
 
 'J itle to present grace, and future bliss. 
 
 All hopes in Chhisx do centre, and from Him 
 
 The power descends to hail thejoyous beam 
 
 Of light that to the waiting soul makes known 
 
 The glorious truths, and stamps them all it's own. 
 
 Whether in shades of deepest solitude. 
 
 Or the world's din, whirl'd in the giddy crowd. 
 
 Whether in lif(?'s warm converse eager caught, 
 
 Or wrapp'd in silent study's lonely thought, 
 
 " Fairest oer thousands" still that image dear 
 
 The " altogether lovely" does appear. 
 
 Spreads a soft, sacred, calm o'er a'l the soid. 
 
 Lives in each sense, and animates the whole. 
 
 Ilu^ oft, alas ! they spurn\l Ilis gracious checks, 
 i\i)(l oft His Holy Spirit sore did vex.* 
 'I'o hateful imbelief, to guilt, self-givrn, 
 'i'liev daringly calld down just wrnth from heaven. 
 Ott to vsild anarchy a senseless pr<'y. 
 Or lawlc's^ j)K'asure's self-destroving swav, 
 -cSlligi'jncc to their (joil and J''riend thrown off, 
 IJeb. n. e.
 
 ( li ) 
 
 Their holiest ties were changed to impious scoff. 
 
 An eyeless, earless, idol, at command, 
 
 Or boiPd, or bakVl, or carven with the hand, 
 
 Is altar-rais'd, and down before it fall 
 
 It's vot'ries blind, in sordid homage all. 
 
 Forsake they all their guide, their stay, their staff, 
 
 Tiie God of all their mercies, for a golden calf.* 
 
 Lord ! what is man, e'en in his best estate. 
 
 If left of thee ? an erring, vile, ingrate. 
 
 In some glad hour uplifted by thy grace, 
 
 BlessM by thy smile, and fiU'd vvith sacred peace, 
 
 New views, new motives, planted in his soul, 
 
 New aims, delights, affections a new whole 
 
 With humble boldness and attempered joy 
 
 He bounds oV'r each allurement, or decoy ; 
 
 The witcheries of Sin have lost their cliarm, 
 
 The world its guiles, t'euchant, or to alarm 
 
 Alike superior to it's laugli, or frown, 
 
 Heav'n's love alone he seeks, and it's renown : 
 
 Temptation's pow'r has dwindl'd to a span, 
 
 Strong in his Saviouii's might, the inner man : 
 
 With jealous self-mistrust his course he keeps. 
 
 And pray'rful vigilance that never sleeps ; 
 
 Leans he on Heav'n's Belov'd in fearless faith, 
 
 And safely walks midst darkness, snares, and death, 
 
 But giddy pride, ov vain conceit, creeps in. 
 
 The world's aj)plause, or some old darling sin, 
 
 No lonoer Gon to him is "all in all," 
 
 Guilt's pow'r mci-iifVous 'gins the soul t'enthral, 
 
 Jlh fainting strcii'tli, his marr'd, departing peace, 
 
 nis faith and hr.r.c thrown up, of fiiture bliss; 
 
 The heav'nly iniiuite banish\l from lii^ breast 
 
 Acls vji. 'H.
 
 y 
 
 ( 15 ) 
 
 That formed a Paradise of joy and rest ; 
 
 lie sinks, a prey to vile temptation's might, 
 
 Iniplung'd in wretchedness and rayless night, 
 
 Yea, tho' the sacred vestments he should wear, 
 
 Or a divine-commission'd character, 
 
 Th' accelerated motion in descent 
 
 ]]ut hurls him deeper in the dread disparagement. 
 
 Oft did the slauohterino; sword vengeance maintain. 
 And strew the wilderness with guilty slain ;* 
 Cat off in righteous ire, and instant sent I 
 
 To their dread doom by the supreme IJellipotent-f- 
 From his most glorious power eternal banishment. 
 
 li.ow'z tho' Me suffer in His love august 
 '- A God all mercy were a God unjust." 
 Convictions, warnings, wholesome doubts and fears. 
 Misgivings, terrors, heart-wrung sighs and tears, 
 The dread of death of everlasting woe 
 jMinds ill at ease or care-toss'd to and fro 
 1 Taunted by dire alarms true peace unknown 
 From one false refuge to another thrown 
 Pursued by chastisements, by pain, or loss 
 Still finding in each worldly joy a cross 
 The gall and wormwood Sin docs e'er effuse 
 On all thinos tjuit from God the soul obduce 
 Such have a thousand times the soul address'd 
 In language unniistakcn tho' unbless'd 
 'J'ill, like the des])'rate mean disease to thwart, 
 'J'lity " life to life," or " death to death," impart :- 
 Ok low that soul falls 'fore the Saviouu's feet. 
 Ami (inds in I'aitli in IIim a birst rt treat 
 From all it's soi'cows and eartirs vain decovs, 
 
 Htbr. m, 17. 1 CVi. i. 5, i;)- f '^' ixi"- ^''-
 
 ( ic ) 
 
 To all His safety, peace, and Iioly joys ; 
 
 Or it does flounder on from sin to sin. 
 
 Flying more wide from good's sole origin, 
 
 EVr plunging deeper down to worse from ill. 
 
 And blind, grow blinder, hard, yet harder still ; 
 
 Guilt, folly, unbelief, enter a flood, 
 
 The inverse ratio of departing good 
 
 Till oft-scorn\l mercy take it"'s final flight, 
 
 And leave the soul to death and endless night. 
 
 Forty long years His pitying love attest 
 
 He swears, at last, they shall not enter on His rest, 
 
 " Let us then fear,"* such is Heav'n's warning voice. 
 Urging Salvation on man's instant choice 
 " Let us then fear," lest, tho' a promise left 
 Of entering into rest, by sin bereft. 
 Or unbeli'jf, -f- or mad presum})tion"'s guile, 
 We lose the glorious hope midst earth's turmoil. 
 *' Let us then labour" | now to enter in 
 To Faith's blest rest redeeming from all sin- 
 All sorrow quenching loosing from all care- 
 All guilt absolving bursting every snare 
 And onwards looking with her eagle-eye "^ 
 
 To joys unknown, unfelt, that never die '_ 
 
 Faith's high fruition through Kteuxitv^ i 
 
 Ileb. IV. U t Jude, v5. \ Ilcb. iy. ! 
 
 FINIS.
 
 THOMAS CURRY, 
 
 ^lous Heelman. 
 
 [AN AUTHENTIC NARRATIVE] 
 
 " NO SOU, i.iKr; puveuty, kou growth divine, 
 
 " Ah LEANEST EANIJ Sl'IMM.IES THE RICHEST WINE." 
 
 Coiupcr. 
 
 NEWCASTLE : 
 
 PlilNltl) I5Y FDMArtl) WALKER, 
 
 i'ii,<.i!i.M-sini;iyr. 
 
 1S22.
 
 THOMAS CURRY, 
 
 THZ 
 
 X H BLESSINGS OF POVERTY and of AFFLICTION form a 
 clafs of human mercies but little valued. The exemption 
 from the fnare of riches, and from the difficulties, and dan" 
 gers, and curfes which they can, and too often do, procure 
 to the foul, is feldom confidered ; whilft the inconveniencies, 
 and difadvantages, and fufferings of vs^ant, are rarely view^ed 
 in connexion with that confidence in God, and that looking 
 for another and happier world, to which they are meant to 
 lead. The awful declaration, " Hoiv hardly Jhall they that 
 have riches enter the kingdom of Heaven" is admitted only as 
 an unwelcome or overftrained truth, and one which we 
 ftiould be glad of an opportunity to difprove ; whilft another 
 divine declaration, full of grace and mercy, that "the 
 poor" " God hath rhofen to be rich in faith, and heirs of his 
 kingdom" is heard with cold indifference, or witli an anxious 
 hope that we may never be in circumftances to claim its 
 peculiar blefTmgs. 
 
 The benevolent nature of God is in \X.{iM. a pledge of his love 
 and pity to the i)oor ; and of the most abundant beftowment 
 of thcfe where the deepejl diftrefs exifts. Hence it is that, in 
 the revelation of his will to mankind, by far the greater 
 
 A 2
 
 part of the promifes are directed, not to the rich, the great, 
 the apparently happy, and thofe that are at eafe in their pof- 
 feffions ; but to the poor, the miferable, and the deftitute 
 the friendlefs, the afflicted, and thofe who are deferted of 
 all. To diem, he is " bowels of mercy." He views their 
 privations and fuiFerings with a look full of tendernefs and 
 compaffion ; and waits to impart to them the choiceft confo- 
 lations and fupports of his grace. All that He requires of 
 them is, that they confefs themfelves to be " wretched, and 
 miferable, and poor, and blind, and naked ;" that they re- 
 nounce all felf-dependance ; that the pride of their nature be 
 laid in the duft ; the ftubbornnefs of felf-will be bowed down 
 in fubmiffion ; and that they come in humble, perfevering, 
 prayer, to the feet of Almighty God, with lowly, penitent, 
 and obedient hearts, imploring His forgivenefs of their fms, 
 for the fake and through the merits of Jesus Christ, and 
 begging for that faving faith in Chriji, and that divine 
 peace, and holy hope, and heavenly joy and comfort, which 
 are entirely the gift of God, but which He delights to be- 
 ftow on every humble, fmcere, fupplicant. 
 
 Wi\i).fuch an approach to God, and in fuch a fpirit, their 
 afflictions will become fanctified to their fpiritual and ever- 
 lafting good ; and one of thefe two things will infallibly fol- 
 low, either God will take away their poverty, and pain, and 
 ficknefs, and give to them a fufficiency, and eafe and health, 
 or He will infufe into their fouls fuch a peaceful and re- 
 figned fpirit, and endue them with fuch ftrength and fup- 
 port under their trials, as will enable them cheerfully to 
 bear them, or even to " rejoice in tribulation," and to look 
 beyond their " hght and momentary" afflictions, to an 
 * eternal nueight of Glory," which every hour of patient 
 fuffering will then for ever increafe. Indeed, to a mind 
 pofTefTed of but very little reflection, it is perfectly evident 
 that thefe vifits of affliction are eminently vifits of mercy, and
 
 fpeak with a voice as plain as if an angel fpoke. They de- 
 clare to the object vifited, tliat this fcene is but a land of 
 fliadows a world of painted outfides ; and that all earthly 
 good is hollow and deceiving, or at bed fleeting and uncer- 
 tain. They would embitter to him every fmful pleafure, 
 and plant a fling in every guilty gratification. They cut off 
 from him thofe delights which were formerly to him " in 
 the place of God," or they " hedge up his way" to them 
 " with thorns," and almoft drive him to confideration and 
 thought " in the day of adverfity," and to an anxious, 
 eameft inquiry, why and whence thefe troubles came, and 
 whither they would lead him. Happy ! happy ! if, inftead 
 of murmuring againft the mingled " feverity and goodnefs of 
 God," the afflicted foul is led to mourn for his manifold Jins 
 and trans grejjions. Happy ! if thefe chaftifements, inftead of 
 exciting him, through his own perverfe mifufe of them, to 
 further and more heinous acts of rebellion againft God, and 
 tlius leading to deepened guilt and mifery through all eter- 
 nity, bring him a weeping penitent to the foot of the crofs, 
 confefsing with brokenncfs of heart that he has " fmned and 
 it profited him not," and looking in faith to " the Lamb of 
 God that taketh away the fm of the world." Thrice happy 
 the individual to whom fanftified poverty and fandified ad- 
 verfity are thus made the bleifed inftrument of freeing him 
 from the curfe of a broken law, and the coming wrath of an 
 off"cnded God, and of bringing into his foul a prefent Hea- 
 ven, and a title, through the merits of his Redeemer, to a 
 tlirone and crown in glory, ;md to an incorruptible and un- 
 fading inheritance in the realms of light and love. 
 
 Inftanccs there have been. Indeed, and thefe not a few. In 
 which every flream of earthly good has been dried up, and 
 every hope of succour from the creature extingulflied, and 
 the feverely-tried fuiferer has looked around him in vain for 
 deliverance, when happily he has cast his eye upwards to
 
 the great first cause of all his forrows, a God of infinite 
 benevolence and mercy, who had thus, by confpiring cir- 
 cumftances, reduced him to an extremity, that he might 
 bring him to a knowledge of his fallen, and loft, and helplefs 
 condition, to the end, that he might " forgive his iniqui- 
 ties" " heal all his difeafes" " redeem his life from de- 
 ftrudion" and eventually " crown him with loving kind- 
 nefs and tender mercies :" in fhort, that he might make him 
 a happy believer in the Lord Jesus Christ a trophy of 
 his fovereign grace and mercy. To fuch, he has blefledly 
 faid, " I have chofen you in the furnace of afflidion ;"* 
 * I will caufe you to pafs under the rod, and I will bring 
 you into the bond of the covenant, "f 
 
 That a humble condition in life is attended with fewer, 
 and lefs dangerous fnares, than a higher one, is evident, 
 from the circumftance of few perfons being able to bear a 
 rife in life without perceptible injury to themfelves; and it 
 has been frequently remarked by even pious individuals, 
 who have undergone many fucceffive changes, that, whilft the 
 ftorms of adverfity feemed but to purify their religion, and 
 to excite them to ftronger confidence in God, and greater 
 devotednefs of heart and life to his fervice, the fun of pros- 
 perity has but too often melted away their holieft purpofes ; 
 they have declined, and become weak as other men, and 
 needed again the vifitation of the rod, to preferve them 
 from abfolute deftruction. Such, too, has been the expe- 
 rience of the church of Chrift colle&ively. Whilft under the 
 fevereft perfecutions from temporal power, it has generally 
 been feen to bloflbm in the very " rigour of its fate," and to 
 give higher indications of internal vigour and health in pro- 
 portion as it was loaded with reproach, and attempted to be 
 crufhed by oppofition : but when honour, and afiluence, and 
 
 * Is. xlviii. 10. f Ezek. xx. 37.
 
 fuperfluities, have been accumulated on its members, it has 
 funk into floth and torpidity, approaching to a ftate of 
 fpiritual death. 
 
 Another folemn, and indeed awful truth, that ftrongly 
 bears upon this fubjed is, that a very fmall proportion of 
 the rich embrace die Gofpel, to that of the poor who come 
 under its faving influence. The felf-denying fpirit which it 
 inculcates, and the painful facrifices it demands of them, 
 prove fatal difHculties in the progrefs of many ; where the 
 cares of this world, and the deceitfulnefs of riches, had not 
 already choked the word of life : they " go away forrowful, 
 having great poflefTions :" whilft the poor, groaning under 
 the pinching effects of want, and perhaps ftripped of every 
 little comfort which they once held dear to them, will often 
 fly to the confolations of the Gofpel with eagemefs, when 
 once clearly difcemed, and will anxioufly retain them, be- 
 caufe they happily prove that they have in them far more 
 than a counterbalance to all the outward ills of life. 
 
 One fingle confideration more fhall be mentioned on this 
 head ; but it is one which fhould teach the poor to reve- 
 rence their condition ; and that is, that when the Saviour 
 OF MKN, the Lord and Maker of the universe,* defcended 
 from Heaven to take upon Him our form, to the end, that 
 he mi^ht make atonement for our fins, and at once fatisfy 
 the JuJIice, and fecure to us the mercy of God, he chofe to 
 become a poor man. He who might have claimed the 
 loftieft throne on earth for his footftool, and commanded 
 into his attendance the whole holl of Heaven, is at first 
 heard of as being " laid in a manger " and afterwards fre- 
 quently not haying even fuch a place wherein to repofe his 
 wearied frame as voluntarily, enduring for our fakes, all 
 the hardfliip.i, and necelhties, and fuffcrings, of the humblell 
 
 * John i. 3. Colos. i. 16'. Heb. i. 2.
 
 8 
 
 condition in life. By fuch an act he ennobled poverty, he 
 dignified the loweft ftate of want and neceffity, and for 
 ever fwept away all plea for murmuring, or repining, at the 
 providential occurrence of thefe to others. 
 
 Thomas Curry was a poor man; and at different pe- 
 riods of his life, was reduced to extreme poverty. Yet his fi- 
 tuation was exactly that which an all-wife and merciful God 
 saw it bed to place him in. 
 
 "God gives to every man 
 
 The gifts that best will fit him for his post ; 
 Then lifts him into life, and lets him fall 
 Just in the niche he was ordain'd to fill." 
 
 He was born in Framwellgate, in the City of Durham, in 
 the year 1752, and being one of a numerous family, (the 
 youngefl of 15 children,) he was from boyhood fent out to 
 labour for his own fubfiftence. He continued, during his 
 youth, working at hufbandry bufmefs in the neighbourhood 
 of Durham, and at Ferryhill ; after which he was a jfhort 
 time employed in the keels on the River Tyne, and then 
 went to work at the Alum Works, near Whitby. 
 
 Up to this time, the period of manhood, there is every 
 realon to believe that he was fober, honeft, and induftrious, 
 moral in his condud, and confcientious in the difcharge of 
 whatever prefented itfelf in the form of duty. But he was 
 unenlightened, untaught of God, unconverted, uniiived 
 nay unfufpeding that he was by nature " a child of wrath, 
 and an heir of Hell," and wholly unacquainted with the 
 awful import of that declaration of the Son of God, " ex- 
 cept a man be born again", be he who he may, or 'what he 
 may, "he cannot fee the kingdom of God."* " Harlots 
 and publicans," renouncing their fins, and flying for mercy 
 
 * John iii. 3.
 
 to a crucified Saviour, Ihall fooner find falvation than the 
 moft rigidly righteous Pharifee, who builds his hopes on the 
 falfe and hollow bafis of the fancied merit of his own good 
 works. 
 
 In his new iltuation, Thomas was noticed by a Mr R , 
 
 a gentleman who had formerly been a purfer in the navy, 
 but who was then in the employment of Lord M., and who 
 invited him to go to a neighbouring village, to hear a fer- 
 mon from Mr . Thomas was ftruck with the con- 
 cern thus fhewn for him, and went ; and in one fhort, happy 
 hour, it pleafed God, by the preaching of his fervant, to 
 fliew him the moral hlindnefs in which he had hitherto lived, 
 ignorant of himfelf and of God, and of every tiling that 
 affected his eternal condition and to open to him the glo- 
 rious plan of redemption by Jesus Christ, giving new 
 views to his underftanding, new attractions to his heart, and 
 from that hour, a new direction to his whole life. 
 
 How important is the talent of influence ! In how 
 many inftances has a kind look from a fuperior, a courteous 
 expreflion, or a condefcending act, touched the inmoft foul 
 of the perfon to whom it was directed, and, on fome occa- 
 fions, as on this, been made productive of confequences, in- 
 finite in their extent, and endlefs in their duration. 
 
 It is true that Ihortly after this time, he was for fome 
 days ftaggered by the inconfiftencies of a religious profe/Tor, 
 (inconfiftcncies which probably himfelf afterwards deeply 
 deplored) ; but he wifely confidered that to throw up hts 
 own hope of Heaven, because another had madly put to 
 hazard his, would be but to add folly to folly, and to take 
 to himfelf the punifhmcnt due elfewhere. 
 
 He continued fo.- fome months, it is believed, a fmcere 
 Seeker of Salvation, diligently wailing on the Lord in liis 
 various ordinances, and efpecially in that of private prayer, 
 affured that " the Lord is good, and ready to forgive, and 
 
 u
 
 10 
 
 plenteous in mercy to all that call upon him,'** that *' vrho- 
 foever fhall call upon His name {hall be faved."f His 
 deepening views of the malignity of fm, of the holinefs of 
 God, of the extenfive requirements of the divine law, and 
 of his own innumerable tranfgreffions of that law, which 
 condemns him who violates it in the smalkjl point as guilty 
 of the breach of the w/jok^X led him to fee more clearly the 
 utter hopelefsnefs of his condition feparate from the atoning 
 blood-fhedding and righteoufnefs of Christ, and drove 
 him, with increafing earneftnefs, to the throne of mercy, in 
 humble prayer for deliverance from the bondage of fm and 
 unbelief. *' The law," indeed, he faw was " fp'tr'ttual," 
 but he was " carnal, fold under fui ;" and his cry was, 
 " O wretched man that I am, who fhall deliver me from 
 the body of this death ?" He refled, however, on the truth 
 of the divine promifes, " if thou fhalt seek the Lord thy 
 God, thou fhalt find him ; if thouy^ifi him nuith all thy hearty 
 and 'with all thy foul ; " Ye fhall feek me, and find me, 
 nvhen ye Jhall Jearch for me nuith all your heart." \\ It was 
 under a fermon, in the year 1791, at Swalwell, near 
 Newcastle (to which place he had then removed) , that 
 thefe promifes were made good to him, and that he was 
 numbered among the rejoicing heirs of falvation. No 
 fooner was the text pronounced, " Arife, fhine, for thy light 
 is come, and the glory of the Lord Is rifen upon thee,'* 
 than he was filled with joy unp eakable, in the divine af- 
 furance, that his fins were pardoned, through the merits of 
 his Saviour, and his name was written in His " Book of 
 Life." Though prevloufly " tied and bound with the 
 chain of his fms," God of " the pitifulness of his great 
 mercy loofed" him, and gave him blelTedly to prove that 
 
 Ps. Ixxxvi. 5. i Rom. X. 13. \ James ii. 10. Dcut. iv. i!9. 
 11 Jer. xxix. 13.
 
 11 
 
 ** he whom the Son makes free, Is free indeed" His foul 
 now " magnified the Lord," and his " fpirit rejoiced in 
 God his Saviour." To ufe his own fimple language, " his 
 heart was like to jump out of his body." For long after, 
 whenever he mentioned this, his burfting heart found relief 
 alone in a torrent of tears. Nor was it to be wondered at. 
 It was the dawning o eternal day upon his foul. It was the 
 firft influx of that /acred hl'ifs which was to be confummated 
 in everlafting Glory. It was the commencement of the 
 bright v'l/ions of Faith, at times, indeed, to be fhrouded and 
 bedimmed by the interv^ening veil of the flefh, but which 
 were ultimately to be matured into the pure fpiritual Jight 
 of the grandeur and fublimities of Heaven, in all their 
 glorious effulgence. 
 
 The circumjiances of conversion are various in different 
 cafes. In fome, the work is inftantaneous, powerful, and 
 ftrongly featured ; and a mighty revolution takes place in 
 the moral man in a moment. In others, the change is lefs 
 diftinctly commenced, of flower progrefs, and lefs strikingly 
 characterized in its completion. In all, the eJJlSs are th 
 fame a new heart, and a new life. The Bible, in thefe 
 refpeds, a great fyftem of emblems, and parallels, and ana- 
 logies, contains inftances of them a//. Let no one imagine 
 the mere clrcumjlances of the work cffential to the ivork itfelf. 
 But let no one fit down content whhout fat isf ado ry evidence 
 that the work is effected in him without that divinely- 
 wrought conlcioufnefs, that internal perfuaflon produced 
 by the Holy Spirit that " knowledge of falvation by the 
 remillion of fnis" wliich the whole afpecl of the New Telta- 
 mcnt invites to as his privilege, aiid enjoins as his duty : 
 that *' fure trull and confidence in God's merciful pro- 
 miles," that he fhall be " laved from everlafting damnaliou 
 by Christ."* 
 
 Homily on Salvation part third. 
 
 b 2
 
 12 
 
 Thomas now ran, with delight, in the way of God's 
 commands. Prayer and praife formed the very " meat 
 and drink" of his foul ; and fo much fo, that one of his old 
 religious aflbciates remarks, that, when even 'weary iv'tth 
 labour, he often forgot his neceflary food whilft talking of 
 the amazing goodnefs of God to him, a poor miferable fm- 
 ner, and of the infinite love of Christ in having given himfelf 
 for him, and in having " opened his eyes, and turned him 
 from darknefs to light, and from the power of Satan un- 
 to God," and in having blefled him with *' the forgive- 
 nefs of fins, and an inheritance among them which are 
 fanctified by faith in Chrift."* He now enjoyed the 
 * communion of faints ;" he felt " the forgivenefs of fms ;" 
 and looked with feelings of holy exultation to death, judg- 
 ment, and " eternal life." He had now " meat to eat," 
 which the world " knew not of;" and he knew that it was 
 the will of God " evermore" to break to him " this bread," 
 that he might " eat, and live for ever." He now under- 
 ftood what it was to " feed on Christ in his heart, by 
 faith, with thankfgiving," and daily to derive from him 
 fuccours of fpiritual ftrength, and health, and life. 
 
 From this time to the period of his death, all who knew 
 him concur in teftifying that his whole life was character- 
 ized by great ferioufnefs and devotednefs to God, fincerity, 
 fimplicity, and an extraordinary tendernefs of fpirit. Under 
 the fermons of the miniftry, under which he fat, he was 
 generally feen weeping from the beginning to the end of 
 the fervice ; and, fometimes, his full heart could not entire- 
 ly be reftrained from breaking out into an involuntary fob, 
 or fubdued expreflion of delight, whilft the overfpreading 
 *' banner of divine love," and the rich " droppings of the 
 fanctuary," gladdened and made grateful his heaven-bom 
 
 * Acts XX vi. 18.
 
 13 
 
 fpirit. He was eminent, too, for that, without which no 
 chriftian ever did, or ever can profper, diligence in prayer. 
 Numberlefs times has he been heard in his little dwelling, 
 from four o'clock in a morning onwards, pleading aloud 
 with God for every bleffing which his wants taught him to 
 cry for, for himfelf, and his family ; and then making in- 
 terceflion for his friends, his neighbours, the church, 
 his enemies, the whole world, and in particular^ fupplication 
 for the fpread of the Gofpel, and the univerfal eftablifhment 
 of the Redeemer's kingdom. 
 
 His life, however, was not to be a fcene of unmixed en- 
 joyment ; on the contrary, he was at laft to be found among 
 thofe that have "come out of great tribulation." Bo- 
 dily difeafes, domeftic trials, reduced circumjlances almoft to 
 abfolute ivant, uncertain employment, and imminent dangers, 
 were his appointed portion ; but, ftrong in the faith of 
 Christ, and living in clofe communion with Him, he came 
 off " more than conqueror" from them all. Not only did he 
 " poflefs his foul in patience^^ and fay, from his heart, " thy 
 will be done ;" but he had learned fomething of the more 
 difficult and higher lefTon, to '' rejoice in tribulation," to 
 "^/ory in the Crofs of Chrift," to " count it ^// yoj that he 
 fell into divers temptations." " Tribulation," with him, 
 wrought a fclf-refigning " patience ;" " patience," increafed 
 "experience" of the mighty efficacy of divine grace; and 
 this " experience," a confirmed " hope" of deliverance in fu- 
 ture difficulties. He emerged from the Hery trials with a 
 purified fpirit, with deepened humility, and ftrengthened 
 confidence, and with increafed longings after his heavenly 
 inheritance. 
 
 Oftener than once, his life was attempted by perfons ex- 
 tremely oppofed to him on account of his religious profef- 
 fion, and jealous becaufe of the kind attentions that were
 
 14 
 
 fliewn him. But the fafe-guard of the everlaftlng amis" 
 was around him. 
 
 On one occafion, he had gone down, in his keel, to 
 Shields, when a man in a neighbouring keel, in a fit of an- 
 ger, from fome imagined caufe, feized a boat-hook, and 
 made a thruft at him. Good Thomas, partly perhaps in 
 fclf-defence, and partly from being flung with the injuflice 
 of fuch treatment, {looped to fnatch up a large coal, to 
 throw at him. Immediately that pafTage rufhed into his 
 mind, " Vengeance is mine, I will repay, faith the Lord." 
 He dropped the coal, jimiped down into his little cabin, got 
 upon his knees, and tliough the blood was flreaming from 
 his fide, prayed so loud and so long for the man who had 
 injured him (- true fplrit of his Saviour ) that the cap- 
 tain of the fhip alongfide of which he was, and his wife, 
 overheard him, and had him taken on board, and after 
 drefUng his wound, being themfelves pious people, they all 
 joined in prayer together ; and Thomas was accuftomed af- 
 terwards to obferve, that he had never enjoyed a happier fea- 
 fon in his whole life. He faid it was to him " a Heaven 
 begun on Earth." 
 
 At another time when at Shields, a violent florm came 
 on, and funk the keel, in which himfelf and three others 
 were. Happily the depth of water was not so confiderable 
 as to cover them ; though, at times, it was with the greatefl 
 difficulty they could keep it out of their mouths. In this 
 perilous fituation they continued from ten o'clock in the 
 morning till four in the afternoon, without the pofTibility of 
 any affiftance being rendered them, Thomas, all the time, 
 praying earneflly for his companions, ( none of whom were 
 in a faved flate,) and pointing them to Christ, the Saviour 
 of fmners, but telling them that, for himfelf, his profpects 
 of Heaven were bright without a cloud, that for him " to 
 live" would be " Chrifl," but " to die" eternal " gain."
 
 15 
 
 The ftorm abated ; and one of the three furvivors, who has 
 fmce been brought to a knowledge of the truth, and rvho 
 gives this relation, adds, that they fang praifes to God all 
 the way home. 
 
 Thomas was deeply interefted for the falvation of the laft 
 perfon alluded to, a young relative of his own ; and poured 
 forth many a prayer on his behalf, and addrefTed to him 
 many an eameftexhortation. At laft the defire of the good 
 man's heart was granted him. 
 
 One Sunday morning, his young friend was entering 
 Newcastle, when perceiving his uncle on the road before 
 him, and thinking it would delight him to hear that he was 
 going to church, he went up and accofted him. The good 
 old man, unexpectedly, turned round with a look of fome 
 feverity, and faid, '* I do not like people that wear two 
 faces ;" giving him to underftand that he meant by it his 
 living in fmful pleafures during the greater part of the 
 week, and then putting on religion as a cloak on the Sun- 
 days. The words sunk into the young man's mind. They 
 were as arrows of conviftion infixed by divine power in his 
 foul, to give a death-wound to his guilty purfuits and his 
 carnal fecurity, and to bring him a repentant criminal to the 
 feet of Christ, where, it is believed, the promifed mercy of 
 the Gofpel was extended to him. 
 
 Nor was this -Afolitary inftance, it is believed, by feveral^ 
 in which he was made the honoured inftrument of the con- 
 Terfion of immortal fouls, in the hands of Him, who, whilft 
 he " calls" but few of the " wife," and " mighty," and " no- 
 ble" of the earth, yet '' choofcs^'' the reputedly "foolifh," and 
 "weak," and " bafe," and almoft " non-exiftent," to accom- 
 plifli the great purpofes of his will, that " no flefh fhould 
 glory in liis jirefcnce"* that "the excellency of the power'' 
 
 * 1 Corir.th. i. 26 29.
 
 16 
 
 may be acknowledged to be entirely " of Himfelf." Let no 
 POOR MAN, who is a fincere follower of Christ, defpair of 
 making himfelf a blefllng to fociety ! It was to Jlaves that 
 it was originally faid, "that ye may adorn the doctrine of 
 God your Saviour, in all things." 
 
 Thomas continued to refide at Swalwell for 5 or 6 
 years, during which time he married (and fubfequently had 9 
 children) : he afterwards removed to near the Ouse Burn, 
 in the neighbourhood of Newcastle, where he remained 
 till his death. 
 
 The difeafe by which it pleafed God to take him to him- 
 felf, was for fome time obfcure, but at length proved to be 
 a very painful affection of the heart, producing dropfy, and 
 general weaknefs. To the laft, he was to be a child of for- 
 row, and of mercy. His fufferings were great ; but every 
 alleviation that chriftian fympathy could obtain for him was 
 had ; and a pledge was given that were his illnefs pro- 
 tracted, the affiftance rendered fhould not be withdrawn. 
 * He that trufteth in the Lord, mercy fhall compafs him 
 about."* " None of them that truft in Him fhall be 
 defolate."f 
 
 During the early part of his illnefs he often faid, he had 
 " much rather die than live," if it were the will of God. 
 He " longed to be diflblved, and be with Chrift." 
 
 After being for fome weeks in that excellent inftitution 
 the Newcaftle Infirmary, where he had endeavoured to do 
 all the fpirltual good he could to the fouls of all who came 
 within his reach, but without deriving material medical 
 benefit himfelf, he returned to his little abode, to die. 
 
 The writer of this, who had long felt an intereft in his 
 welfare, vifited him fomewhat frequently, and noted down, 
 as they occurred, the following particulars of his laft feve- 
 
 Ps, xxxii. 10. f Ps. xxxiv. 22.
 
 17 
 
 ral, vifits to him, confcientloufly preferving his own words 
 and expreflions. 
 
 During the whole of thefe, he feemed to be in a very 
 devout and heavenly ftate of mind, humbly rejoicing in 
 God his Saviour, carried above all the fufferings of a pain- 
 ful and oppreffive difeafe (fo greatly was he ftrengthened 
 by the Spirit's " might in the inner man,") and viewing 
 by the ftrong and fteady eye of faith the glorious inheri- 
 tance on which he was fliortly to enter. He often ad- 
 verted with a feeling heart, and with weeping eyes, to the 
 great and manifold mercies which the Lord had beftowed 
 upon him during a long life, and feemed deeply grateful 
 for the comforts that furrounded him, and for every little 
 attention that went to foften his afflictions. 
 
 " O how good the Lord has been to me,*' he would 
 often fay, " how has he taken care of me, and never let me 
 " want ! In all my trials he has helped me, and in all my 
 *' temptations made a way for my efcape, and in all my 
 " diftrefles raised me up fome friend, or fent me relief; and 
 " now when I am very ill, and can do nothing for myfelf, 
 " he has provided every thing comfortable about me ! 
 " How fweet has his word been to me ! How often have 
 *' I fat under the droppings of the fanctuary with delight ; 
 *' and when I have come home and gone to private prayer, 
 " and to meditate on what I had heard, how often has it 
 " been again blefTed to me, and applied with power, and 
 " the Lord has faid to me, thy name fhall no longer be 
 " called Jacob, but Israel. His word has been fweetcr 
 " to me than honey or the honey-comb. I have known 
 " what that meant, * Great peace have they that love thy 
 " ' law, and nothing fhall offend them.' " 
 
 Alluding to the clearnefs with which he apprehended the 
 prefence and blefllng of God, and to the brightnejs of the 
 glorious profpect before him, he often faid, " O, the light 
 Ihincs fo clear the light fhincs fo clear.
 
 18 
 
 " Not cloud does arise 
 " To darken the skies, 
 " Or hide, for a moment, my Lord from mj ejet. 
 
 " I am going to glory. I fliall foon be there. And I 
 
 fliall fee Brother B 11, and Brother E tt, and 
 
 Brother P n, and Brother H n, and thofe that I took 
 
 fweet counfel with when on earth ; and then we will talk 
 of the wonders of redeeming love, and eternity will feem as 
 a day." 
 
 Thomas had never learned to read, which he often deep- 
 ly regretted, but always imagined he faw difficulties in the 
 way of it too great to be overcome. He had certainly, 
 however, done the next beft thing within his reach he had 
 richly ftored his memory with the mod important pafFages 
 of Scripture which he heard read or quoted, with its moft 
 encouraging promifes, and gracious declarations, and fo- 
 lemn precepts ; and recited them with extraordinary readi- 
 nefs and aptnefs of application, and exprefled himfelf as 
 deriving great happinefs from revolving them in his mind in 
 the folitude of retirement, and in the darknefs of the night. 
 He had alfo acquired witli great exactnefs a number of 
 choice and beautiful hymns, and during his illnefs quoted 
 extracts from them, or repeated them in full, on many 
 happy occafions. In particular he delighted in a Hymn, of 
 which the following are fome of the ftanzas : 
 
 " Spirit of Faith come down, 
 
 Reveal the things of God ; 
 And make to us the Godhead known, 
 
 And witness with the blood. 
 
 No man can truly say, 
 That Jesus is the Lord ; 
 Unless thou take the reil awy. 
 And breathe the living word.
 
 19 
 
 Then, only then, we feel 
 Our interest in his blood, 
 And cry, with joy unspeakable, 
 " Thou art my Lord, my God !" 
 
 On another occafion, he repeated with great energy a 
 hymn, which concludes with 
 
 " Bold I approach th' eternal throne, 
 
 " And claim the crown, through Christ, my own." 
 
 Which words he delivered at once with the holy confidence 
 and humility of a triumphant believer in Chrift. 
 
 His anxiety for the falvation of all that came near him, 
 led him to exhort and admonifh them, and to pray for them 
 as long as he had breath. To one he faid, after expreffing 
 himfelf deeply grateful for fome little kindnefTes that had 
 been done him, " O live to God. Be watchful. Be upon 
 your guard. You are continually on my mind. I can 
 never forget your kindnefs. I have been praying earneftly 
 that God would fpare your life 15 years. He will make 
 you a blefflng to many. But O ! watch and pray ! We 
 fhall meet in Heaven. I am as fure of it as I fee that before 
 me. We fliall meet in glory.*' He prayed with great fer- 
 vour for difFerent individuals by name, and with great en- 
 largement of mind and particularity. 
 
 His family lay near his heart, efpecially that part of them 
 that had not yet happily embraced die Gofpel, and all 
 his tendered feelings and all his deepeft anxieties were called 
 forth when he spoke of them ; and he expreffed a hope that 
 his dying intreaties and liis dying prayers might avail for that 
 for which his life had been ineffectual. 
 
 He frequently fpoke with great intcrefl; of the weeks 
 tliat he had paffcd in the Infirmary ; of the advan- 
 tages he there poifcffed, and of the kindnefs he experienced, 
 and with fpeci;il gratitude he mentioned the friendly atten- 
 
 c 2
 
 20 
 
 tions of the refident medical oflScer of the houfe, both as to 
 his great humanity, and regard for his fpiritual welfare. 
 
 He had often been brought into great ftraits and difficul- 
 ties, he faid, from flacknefs of work and other caufes, but 
 the Lord had never let him want. He had always raifed 
 him up fome friend in his need, or provided him help from 
 fome quarter, and given him caufe, in the event, to rejoice 
 in the truth and faithfulnefs of the divine promifes. Prayer, 
 he faid, had been his conftant refuge in all his troubles, 
 and many times he had received particular and immediate 
 anfwers. 
 
 Two young ladies vifited him about this time, one of 
 whom remarks, that " though extremely weak, and fuffer- 
 ing much from pain, and want of fleep, on being afked to 
 pray with them, his bodily oppieffion feemed all forgotten, 
 and he engaged in the delightful fervice with a fervour, pro- 
 priety, and expanfion of mind, which aftonifhed and eleva- 
 ted thofe who united with him. He alluded to the Saviour 
 under almoft every title and type by which he is proclaimed, 
 or exhibited, in the whole Sacred Volume. His advice to 
 them, on their leaving him (to meet no more till the morn- 
 ing of the refurrection) was, " Keep the world under your 
 feet. Heaven in your eye, and Jesus in your hearts." 
 
 On vifiting him on Tuefday evening, he feemed very ill, 
 and for fome time did not know the perfon addreffing him, 
 but on dilcovering who it was by the tone of voice, he im- 
 mediately threw out both his arms, and began to weep ; and 
 then clafping his hands, intimated his wifh for prayer. 
 
 On Thurfday evening, he feemed a little revived, but in 
 much pain. He faid he was " very ill," and " did not 
 know where to put himfelf ;" but added, " O the comfort, 
 the comfort ! When I am weak, then am I ftrong. The 
 Lord has kept me in the way thefe 37 years, and never let 
 me depart from him. Do you think I fhall be with him 
 tliis night ?" He fpoke with great delight of the death of
 
 21 
 
 a former friend and fellow-pilgrim, who had died fome 
 years before in the Infirmary, happy in God; and witli 
 whom he faid he had pafled many happy feafons. 
 
 On Friday evening, he was perceptibly worfe. Great 
 reftleffnefs, with fome other fymptoms, indicated the pro- 
 bability that death was at no great diftance. He faid 
 he had been tempted during the day ; but afterwards, in re- 
 ply to a queftion, added, the temptation had no power. 
 His fufferings being great, he was afked if he did not find 
 his faith and patience fometimes like to fail i He faid, " No," 
 and after a paufe, added, 
 
 " Jesu, thy blood and righteousness 
 My beauty are, my glorious dress ; 
 Midst flaming worlds, in these array'd, 
 I shall, with joy, lift up my head." 
 
 He was told that it might not be long before death would 
 releafe him from his afilided body, and was afked whether 
 he had any fear of death ? To this momentous queftion, on 
 a fubject involving in it infinite and everlafting confequences, 
 :ind which, in circumftances like his, would have carried 
 with it terror and dilrnay to the hearts of millions, he an- 
 fwered with promptnefs and perfect brevity, " No." It 
 was added, " Tlien the fting of death is drawn :" He faid, 
 " Yes, long fincc." The habit of faith was so eftablifhed, 
 and fo intuitive was the confcioufnefs of a long life of clofe 
 and humble obedience to the precepts of the Gofpel, that he 
 had not an anfwer to fee k, and needed not to modify or to 
 qualify one. No momentary mifgiving took place in his 
 mind. No altered lineament was feen in his countenance. 
 The great hutinefs of life was done. The fight whs fought, 
 and he was about to be numbered among ihem that have 
 " overcome?^ The race was run, and the goal of eternal 
 bleflednefs was full in view. The foul was ftrong and fe- 
 cure in the keeping of Omnipotence neither da/./lcd by 
 the j)rolpecl ol that glory of which it was about to partake.
 
 22 
 
 nor difquieted by one apprehenfion that it might fail of its 
 attainment; nor yet borne down by the wrecked, and 
 perifhing, and finking body, in which it was yet imprifon- 
 ed. Christ, the ftrong hold of his people, and their un- 
 failing fupport, and fure defence, and final deliverer, was 
 glorioufly prefent, and enabled his fervant to fet his foot on 
 the neck of his " laft enemy,'* and to magnify the Lord 
 in the fires." This aged faint was, indeed, among the 
 happy few, who 
 
 " Trample death beneath their feet, 
 " And gladly die their Lord to meet." 
 
 On Saturday evening, he was confiderably worfe la- 
 bouring for breath and it had become difficult to under- 
 ftand him. He faid, " he was very ill. Half of him was 
 dead. He knew not where to put himfelf." But, in a firm 
 tone of voice, he further faid, " it will not be long ;" 
 
 " Angels beckon me away, 
 " And Jesus bids me come." 
 
 " My anchor is caft" " I fhall weather out the ftorm." 
 He faid he had " endured many a ftorm oi perfecution ; but 
 the Lord had ftood by him." He had been " beaten with 
 flicks by a dozen men at a time" had " had his fhirt torn 
 ofi^ his back" his " mouth filled with dirt" and his 
 " keel cut adrift ;" but he had been enabled " to bear all 
 in the fpirit of meeknefs." [This unrejijling conduct, under 
 all the ill-treatment he had met with, was the more emi- 
 nently chriftian, inafmuch as he was a man of almofl gi- 
 gantic ftrength and make, and who had, by his amazing 
 bodily powers, repeatedly done things that were deemed im- 
 poffible to a fingle individual.] He exclaimed, " O ! the 
 Love of Chrift ! The Love of Chrift !" This, the con- 
 ftraining Love of Christ," that had been through fo large 
 a portion of his life " the ruling paffion of his foul," was now 
 felt " ftrong in death." And it was peculiarly ftriking to
 
 23 
 
 hear him add, confidering tlie ftate of weaknefs and difeafe 
 to which he was reduced, and the increafing pofleflion 
 which all the humiliating fymptoms of approaching death 
 had taken of him, " O that all the world could experience 
 what I now experience !" It was the expreffion of a foul 
 towering above the ruins of its mortal tenement, and di- 
 vinely afTured that it was on the verge of Heaven. 
 
 On Sunday, he was found gradually finking, and in great 
 weaknefs and pain. He faid he had had no fleep, and was 
 .very ill. He was " up, and up, and up," but got '* no 
 relief." The lines of his countenance were becoming deep, 
 and its prominent parts fharp ; and the peculiarity of vifage 
 that precedes death was ftrongly marked. Remarking to 
 him that I hoped the Lord was ftill with him, he faid, 
 Yes. He is my compafs and guide." If God keeps 
 us we are quite fecure." He fhortly after repeated, with 
 great animation, the following Hymn, (though with fome 
 indiftindlnefs,) and looking wiftfully and expreffively as he 
 recited fome particular lines of it, as feeling that they were 
 the language of his own happy, faved Spirit. 
 
 " Though nature's strength decay, 
 
 And earth and hell withstand, 
 To Canaan's bounds I urge my way, 
 
 At Christ's command. 
 The wat'rt/ deep I pass, 
 
 }fith Jesus in my view ; 
 And through the howling wildemeas 
 
 My way pursue. 
 
 ThB eOODLT LaVD I 81X, 
 
 With peace and plenty blest ; 
 A land of sacred liberty, 
 
 And endless rest : 
 Tliere milk and hotiey flow, 
 
 And oil and wine abound. 
 And trees of life for ever grow. 
 
 With mercy crown'd.
 
 124 
 
 There dwells the Lord our King, 
 
 TuK Lord ouk Righteousness, 
 Triumphant o'er the world and sin. 
 
 The Prince of Peace : 
 On Sion's sacred height 
 
 His kingdom still maintains, 
 And, glorious with his Saints in light, 
 
 For ever reigns." 
 
 He ftill teftified of the all-fufficiency of divine grace to 
 fupport him under the oppreflive and almoft overwhelming 
 circumftances in which he was placed. His faith feemed 
 not to waver for an inftant, neither was the glorious prof- 
 pect before him obfcured by one intervening cloud. He 
 had, indeed, in life, been buffeted by many a ftormy trial, 
 and many a wave of trouble had rolled acrofs his forrowing 
 breaft - and now, at life's clofe, it was truly, 
 
 " Hard toiling to make the bless'd shore;" 
 
 But he was under the conduct of an almighty and unerring 
 pilot, in whom he had unfhaken confidence, and under 
 whofe guidance he knew that he fhould, in a little time, 
 reach the haven of eternal reft, 
 
 " Where all the ship's company meet, 
 " That sailed with the Saviour below ;" 
 
 And that even his prefent fufferings, as himfelf faid, would 
 then be found to have been among the " all things" that 
 had " wrought together" for his good. 
 
 On Monday evening, he was breathing hard, and faid 
 " I long to be gone." In the courfe of the day, he had 
 again affectionately and eameftly exhorted his family and 
 befought them all to give themfelves to God, and prayed 
 with them and for them. He faid many of the fermons he 
 had heard, had been brought back with power to his foul ; 
 and he had felt more than he could exprefs. 
 
 On Tuefday evening, it was evident that the agony of
 
 25 
 
 death was approaching. His eye was glafly, and his coun- 
 tenance hollow ; and he was gafping for breath. But ftill 
 all was serene and placid in his appearance. An air of 
 heavenly peace and calm fubmiflion reigned in his look ; 
 and every feature, and every word, and every movement, 
 fhewed that he was patiently drinking, to its dregs, the bit- 
 ter cup of the fore and fevere fufferings that were to con- 
 clude his mortal exiftence. The holy refignation, and 
 meek, fubdued, fpirit, of this advanced difciple of Jesus, 
 leemed to fay, in every breath, "thy will be done !*' On 
 afking him how he was, he faid, after feveral fruitlefs en- 
 deavours to fpeak, and in a voice fcarcely audible "ill" 
 " happy." He laboured to fay more, but it was unintelli- 
 gible, except the words " bloody fweat, and agony in the 
 garden ;" and, by and bye, '* great drops of blood." He 
 felt himfelf now called upon to grapple with his " lad ene- 
 my," and he feemed to be fummoning to recolledlion the 
 laft fufferings of his Saviour, to animate and encourage him 
 in the combat, and to cheer himfelf with the remembrance 
 of HIS dying love. A fhort while after he faid, with a lit- 
 tle more clearnefs, 
 
 " 'Tis MFRCY all, immense and free, 
 " For () ! my CJod, it found out mc." 
 
 On repeating feme of the declarations of God's love and 
 goodnefs to his people, and adding that efpecially " precious 
 in the fight of the Lord is the death of his faints," he Jeem- 
 ed affeded by the quotation, and faid "yes yes yes." 
 
 The following night was one of great pain antl reftlefs- 
 nefs. The lingering fpirit fccmed witli difliculty to difen- 
 gage itfelf from the powerful frame wliicli it had so long 
 inhabited. 
 
 Towards morning, he faid lils " fight failed." He thi^. 
 repeated the following verfc : 
 
 u
 
 26 
 
 ** He left his Father's throne above, 
 
 (So free, so infinite, his grace !) 
 Emptied himself of all but love, 
 
 And bled for Adam's helpless race ; 
 'Tis Merct all, immense and free, 
 
 For, O my God ! it found out Me ! 
 
 Shortly after this, he quietly " fell afleep." 
 
 Such, my Poor Reader, (and it was for you chiefly that 
 this Tract was defigned) fuch was the fuflFering, laborious, 
 exercifed, jet happy life of this good man ; and fuch was the 
 dignified departure of his fainted fpirit, to everlafting reft. 
 
 " Sweet are the uses of adversity !" 
 
 And out of that adverfity fprang many of the moft delight- 
 ful enjoyments of his life, and of the richeft of his fpiritual 
 bleflings ; but let me caution you not to imagine for a mo- 
 ment that your poverty has any merit in it wherewith it can 
 recommend you to God, or purchafe his favourable regard 
 towards you.* To the Rich falvation is offered equally 
 freely as to yourfelves nay, their thoufands of gold and 
 filver might be converted into tens of thoufands of bleflings 
 to themfelves, and to their fellow-creatures, and the " un- 
 righteous Mammon" might " make" to them numberlefs 
 " friends"f among the rejoicing flock of Chrift; in Heaven, 
 who would fwell their fongs of praife and thankfgiving,and in- 
 creafe their weight of glory, for ever and ever. But think not, 
 on the other hand, that it was without a great and important 
 meaning that fuch repeated and particular mention is made 
 of THE POOR in the Holy Scriptures, and that fo many pro- 
 mifes of protedtion are thrown around them, and declara- 
 tions of love and mercy made to them, and invitations full 
 
 * Levit. xii. 15. f Acts xvi. 9. 1 Tim. vi. 18, 19.
 
 27 
 
 of every tender feeling, and exprefEve of the moft affection- 
 ate concern, are held out to them. Do not fuppofe that it 
 was for nothing that God has caufed it to be written, that it 
 is He who " raifeth the Poor out of the duft ;"* " deliver- 
 eth THE Poor out of his afflidion ;"f that to Him the Poor 
 may with confidence " commit himfelf "\ that he has " pre- 
 pared of his goodnefs for thePoor ;"^ " will fatisfy thePoor 
 withbread;"^ that he will maintain the rights of the Poor ;|| 
 that " the poor of his people ftiall truft in Him,"** that the 
 afflidled and poor fhall trufl in the name of the Lord,-f--|- 
 and that He has invited to the heavenly banquet of Gofpel 
 bleflings in tlie mojl particular manner, " the poor, the 
 maimed, the halt, and the blind," J:); commanding his minif- 
 ters to " bring" them, nay to " compel" them to come 
 in ; forefeeing in the exercrfe of his infinite comprehenfion 
 (awful fubjeft of reflcdion !) that the rich and great would, 
 as a body, be by far too much occupied by their earthly 
 pofTeffions, or engrofled by their earthly enjoyments, to be- 
 ftow a ferious thought on their immortal fouls, or to heed 
 His remonftrances and calls to them to efcape eternal death. 
 It is written, indeed, " whosoever will, let him take the 
 water of life freely ;" (J ^ but, it is only when " the tongue 
 faileth him for thirft, and he looketh for water, and there is 
 none" in the " broken cillerns" of earthly good, that the 
 perifhing iinncr will, generally speaking, be found difpojed 
 to turn to the " fountain of living waters" opened in the 
 boundlefs hlelfings of a Saviour's Merits. You, my poor 
 brother, God has furrounded with the fevcre mercies of 
 earthly afflictions, that he might lead you through the mo- 
 mentary fuffcrings otalliort exigence here, to the enjoy- 
 ment of eternal glf.ry v.itli himfelf hcreufier. He has pre. 
 
 I's. cxiii. 7. I Job xxwi. 1,'. j I\. x. H. I's. Ixviii. |(). 
 \ Ps. cxxxii. 15. II J's. cxl. IL'. " U. xiv. ,-2. ff Zcpli. iii, I -j. 
 \\ Lukexiv. 21. {/^ Ucv. xxii. 17.
 
 28 
 
 ferved you from the delightful, filken, cords of pleafure, 
 wealth, and honour, that bind down millions to everlafting 
 deftruction, that he might attract your heart to himfelf, and 
 for ever unite it to Him by the clofeli ties of adoption, gra- 
 titude, and love. He has fliut up againft you a thoufand 
 gilded doors to perdition and ruin, and has opened to you 
 one by Jesus Christ,* the " new and living way,"f to 
 endlefs blifs. He has fet forth this way to you with entire 
 plainnefs in the Holy Scriptures, which you all have, or 
 may have, in your hands. He is pointing it out to you by 
 his minifters, urging you into it by your neceffities, and is 
 now inviting you to it, (it you never were invited before), 
 by this little Tract. O let it not rise up in judgment a 
 *< fwift witnefs" againft you, at the laft day ! Come to 
 Christ juft as you are ; and he will make you juft what 
 you ought to be. Come with all your guilt, and mifery, 
 and helpleffnefs, to an Almighty and all-merciful Saviour. 
 In the " duft and afhes" of heartfelt repentance, confefs, 
 frankly confefsj your fins, of whatever kind, number, or 
 degree ; and pray that you may be "redeemed" from them 
 all by " the precious blood of Chrift."^ Then will your 
 guilt, and condemnation, and darknefs, and unbelief, be ex- 
 changed for pardon, and peace, and the joys of falvation, 
 and a hope ever blooming with immortality. Then may 
 you live the life of " the righteous" man, juft fketched out 
 to you ; you will " die his death ;" and your " laft end" 
 will be peaceful, triumphant, glorious, " like his."^ 
 
 John X. 9. f Heb. x. 20. \ Prov. xxviii. 13. 1 Peter i. 19. 
 ^ Num. xxiii. 10. 
 
 du:. IVulhcr, Printer, Newcastle,
 
 POETIC SKETCHES. 
 
 " Thou simple Lyre ! Thy music wild 
 
 Has served to charm the weary hour, 
 And many a lonely night has 'guiled 
 When even pain has own'd (and smiled) 
 Its fascinating power." 
 
 s*ia>|a 
 
 llciuragtic upon Cjnie: 
 PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, BY J. CLARK, 
 
 NEWGATE SXaKET. 
 
 MDCCCXXV.
 
 SEARCH AFTER HAPPINESS. 
 
 " Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, 
 Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, 
 To the last syllable of recorded time ; 
 And all our yesterdays have lighted fools 
 The way to dusty death." 
 
 HOW fondly, how vainly, o'er hill and o'er lawn, 
 
 Thro' city and desart, awake in the dream. 
 Did my feet follow Happiness, fleet as the fawn. 
 
 Or the chas'd Hart that pants for the cool living stream. 
 Ihit the Spectre illusive, the Humorist fair. 
 
 Ever jilted my hopes and escaped my embrace. 
 And left me still asking, with wild vacant stare. 
 
 Ah ! which is the way, and where is happiness ? 
 As I puzzl'd, and pondcr'd, and mus'd with myself. 
 Nor knew where to turn the hard task to explain, 
 A bright cloud, di-sparting, presented an elf, 
 
 " The Spirit of Wisdom," descending amain, 
 A fiir, fairy form, with a look full of sweetness, 
 So humbly majestic, so loftily good,
 
 [ 4 ] 
 
 With an eye that beam'd knowledge, pourtraying a meetness 
 For the Spirit-Society, who wisdom as food 
 
 Do daily partake, whilst, 'tis said for their pleasure, 
 They sometimes excurse to our far nether realm, 
 
 And in pity do teach us, in moments of leisure, 
 
 By a whisper, or breath, or they touch reason's helm. 
 
 O ! tell me, I cried, where's the fount of true joy, 
 
 The chief good, the " To pan^'' and my being's great end ? 
 Where, where, the delights that can know no alloy, 
 
 The contentment, soul-sating, that nothing can rend ? 
 Whilst I spake my bright visitor cheeringly smil'd 
 
 And replied, " I will shew thee ^but first let me guide 
 Thee to scenes oi false pleasure, and mark how beguil'd 
 
 Are the sons of your earth whom its follies divide." 
 
 See yon gold-stricken miser whose metalised heart 
 
 Has abandon'd the human, and now forms a part 
 Of the fossils and minerals his coffers that store, 
 
 As unfeeling, and useless, and perhaps somewhat more. 
 For the time will come round when, the two parties parted. 
 
 The wealth shall flow out, by some spendthrift-heir started. 
 And again bless the world, as it flows like a wave, 
 
 Whilst its former fond master but rots in his grave. 
 Mark his pale, care-worn look, and his eye full of fright. 
 
 Lest the worm, or the flame, or the thief of the night. 
 Or ought else, should the devotee's idol remove. 
 
 And widow his soul of its object of love. 
 One step more. Mark th' ascent from the tomb at the last, 
 
 As uproused by the summoning trump's stirring blast. 
 He hears as rewaking, he bursts its incrustments, 
 "Well done thou good servant" with mammon's entrustmcnts.
 
 But the voT'KY of PLEASURE tTue joys surely knows, 
 
 As he swims with the full stream that thro' the world flows, 
 And revels and riots in all its delights. 
 
 And with spirit addicts to them both days and nights 
 In the gaiety of health and the noon-tide of life. 
 
 With the high bounding pulse, as tho' Nature"'s sole strife 
 Were all to concentre, compress, and combine, 
 
 To make the full sun of her happiness shine 
 On the child of her favours. 'Tis true, for a while. 
 
 In the sweet inebriety of the world's smile. 
 And her ev'ry bewiWring charm and allurement, 
 
 A moment's delirium, their worthless procurement. 
 Shall enwrap the lost mind in a frenzied enjoyment, 
 
 "Whilst whirPd in the giddy, destructive decoyment, 
 But the dream, evanescent, must promptly give place. 
 
 To the day of reflection, compunction, distress. 
 Of dreary remembrance and awful account 
 
 Of its guilty delights and their frightful amount. 
 To a conscience reproachful, a body impair'd, 
 
 The present disquiet, the future despair'd, 
 A remnant of this life without joy or peace, 
 
 And the curse of Eternity when it shall cease. 
 
 Not so, 'twill be said, with the heart that is fraught 
 
 ^Vitli the LOVEii's rapt feeling and life-giving thought, 
 His idol's fair image cngrav'd in his breast, 
 
 His own by that idol as dearly caress'd. 
 E'en his griefs and his sorrows are fring'd with deliglit, 
 
 Eike the gold-skirted clouds, the precursors of night. 
 And in virtue's affection, sweet sighs and sweet tears. 
 
 And all love's sharp bitter-sweets,* lialf kilHng jeers, 
 
 ' dolcezze amarissime d'ainorc." cuarini.
 
 [ c ] 
 
 Dismissals, rcturnings, and pleasure-mix'd pains. 
 
 But cement the firm ties and add strengtli to the chains 
 That bind man to happiness. So 'tis believed 
 
 And the truth, as a partial one, must bo received. 
 And rejoic'd in for of all nature's boon's in this life 
 
 Her first, best, and greatest, is sure a good vi-ife. 
 And the way to a blessing, itself so immense. 
 
 Must be strew'd with choice flowers of mind and of sense. 
 But ah ! tis the fate of blind man, on your earth, 
 
 To pervert his best blessings enjoying their worth 
 To forget their bestower, and forget that they're lent 
 On the term of his pleasure, and but to th* intent 
 That the heart, smit with gratitude and love divine. 
 
 Shall glow with more ardor and outwardly shinq 
 In expressive obedience with lustre more clear. 
 
 But mark the devotion, headlong, without fear, 
 To creature-idolatry ; the virtual renouncement 
 
 Of God, and his service, ""till some awful announcement, 
 Of Affliction's sad visits, or the fell monster Death 
 
 Cast down from the throne her, who, of all beneath, 
 Bcigned supreme in affection th' unbearable smart. 
 
 The mix'd pride and madness they term " broken heart" 
 The rebellion 'gainst Ileav'n for resuming the loan, 
 That would, were it able, pluck God from His throne. 
 
 More dignified, noble, more pure and rcfin'd. 
 
 Seems th' immense "love of fame"; and when to mankind 
 It's ends are directed in deeds philanthropic, 
 
 Gen'rous, humane, each presenting a topic 
 For good men's applause and the world's admiration, 
 
 All mark'd, too, by talent's divine fascination ; 
 "When a list'ning assembly, transfix'd with delight. 
 
 Are o'crwhehn'd by an Orator's soid-quelling might.
 
 [ 7 ] 
 
 When all hang on his lips, and in pleasure's sweet thrilling 
 
 Are bow'd to his pleasure, and made joyously willing 
 His projects of mercy and kindness t' adopt, 
 
 Himself in th' inspirings of Genius enwrapt, 
 And caught up to Heav'ns-gate, in feelings extatic 
 
 Without peer or compare in man's whole life erratic, 
 Then 'tis said there's pure bliss. But next mark the disquiet, 
 
 The trembling alarms, the perturb'd mental riot, 
 The keen sensibility, the eager desire, 
 
 To float on the breath of applause, and rise higher 
 And higher in fame's estimation whilst death. 
 
 Or his Ufe, seems to hang on the creature's vain breath : 
 And note from the high-seasoned viands he takes 
 
 How tasteless all minor things to which man wakes 
 Each day in his being. Thus the meteor he follows 
 
 Too oft, thro' life's bogs, o'er its mountains and hollows, 
 And expires in the chase just as Death, the detector. 
 
 Makes him feel that this Glory was nought but a Spectre. 
 
 In the whirlwind of fashion some think they have found 
 
 The supreme of enjoyment, on no other ground 
 To be met with below. On gay folly's light wines 
 
 They flutter and flit, whilst she dances and sings ; 
 They laugh away life to its last hour and care ; 
 
 Then they skip into Heaven, or, it may bo elscwlicre. 
 But the tempest-tossed passions, the frightful " ennui," 
 
 The smartings, the tumults, as tho' hcav\l on a sea 
 Without rudder, or compass the perversion of pow'rs, 
 
 For a high purpose giv'n, with life's valueless hours 
 To Frivolity's Godhead, a vain adoration ; 
 
 Time, Talents, and wealth, pourVl a copious libation
 
 [ 8 ] 
 
 All shew that their Gaiety's madness and folly, 
 
 Their moments of thoughtfulness, moped melancholy; 
 
 That they fly from themselves the more sad to return, 
 And multiply mirth, but more deeply to mourn. 
 
 So devoid of true knowledge on this subject so vast. 
 
 Are ye hapless Sublunaries that, from first to last, 
 Man mistakes the true road, without extrinsic teaching, 
 
 And to opposite extremes, alike wrong, he is reaching 
 For what he yet gains not. All pleasure is found 
 
 In IDLENESS, some think ^and some in a round 
 Of bustle, and noise, and hard occupation ; 
 
 And each follows his system without reservation. 
 In unthinking vacuity life glides away,. 
 
 And th* amount of a year, as with that of a day. 
 Is just nothing with one. He drawls out his being, 
 
 A Vegetable-man, but with hearing and seeing 
 Which, however, are useless, for any good end 
 
 They are ever applied to, tho'' on them depend 
 Eternity's fates : and he finds at the last, 
 
 That life'^s work's to begin when life's period is past. 
 Another deplores man's stupidity here. 
 
 And lauds to the heavens industry's career 
 Of toil without limit of time, strength, or thought, 
 
 And daily he labours as the"' all must be bought 
 For the next world's well-being by the product of this. 
 
 Thus he sweats thro' life's drudgery to call wealth his 
 ^Vhich he never enjoys ; and in th' end of its action 
 
 He discovers he has overlooked life's grand transaction. 
 
 In a gay sparkling dress some think all's to be found 
 That can furnish true pleasure, and on them are bound
 
 [ 9 ] 
 
 All the hues of the rain-bow, chp'd to every form 
 
 As humanity would to a parterre transform ; 
 Tho"' a folly this, rather, perhaps, than a sin, 
 
 For something without where there's little within, 
 May be surely allowed. But the joy, however sweet 
 
 Fades and dies at the thought of the grave's winding sheet. 
 AVhilst others delight in the newness of news, 
 
 And wonder, and pity, and " hope it not true is, " 
 Till life wears away, and their own foolish end 
 
 Makes more news for some gaper to others to vend. 
 
 The expedients and plans that poor, blind, erring man 
 Employs to gain happiness, endless as vain, 
 
 j\[ove the tear of soft pity in the Seraph's mild eye 
 
 And his breast heave with sorrow's compassionate sigh ; 
 
 And if grief within Heaven's portals cou'd find a place, 
 "Would enwrap in its sables the angelic race. 
 
 As I pondered again, and my wonder ran high, 
 
 And with brcatliless expectance I longed to hear more 
 To the question momentous Wisdom's envoy's reply 
 
 Kre again to the realms of pure light he should soar. 
 He full jiauscd and of Virtue the Majesty shone. 
 
 With splendor divine, in his angelic look, 
 Whicli aw'd and attracted at once, as tlie throne 
 
 From whose radiance tliose beamings celestial he took 
 At once whelms and bewilders with holy delight 
 
 And with eye introvert, as the theme deeply feeling, 
 ^'et with modesty fearing to err from the right, 
 
 He rcsum'd cv'ry word with his looks and tones scaling". 
 
 I!
 
 [ 10 ] 
 
 *' The seat of true happiness is in the heart ; 
 
 Her empire self-kept and but merely enjoying 
 Agreeable adjuncts, still distinct and apart, 
 
 And others with prudence for good ends employing. 
 It consists in rigid views that lead up to the source 
 
 Of pure bliss, and right principles these to pursue ; 
 Right affections and tempers, and all these of course 
 To right actions conducting, with a cordial adieu 
 To all evil and doubtful ones. Approach to it is seen 
 
 In man's humble advance to the fount of all good 
 For wisdom, and grace to expurgc the terrene 
 
 From his grovelling Nature, then first understood. 
 At the feet of a saviour now lowly he bows, 
 
 Nor asks he in vain for the gifts he requires, 
 Of him whose munificence freely bestows 
 
 What makes happy, and satiates his largest desires. 
 Thus instructed of Hcav'n, and endued with her might. 
 
 To he happy, he finds, is her will to obey : 
 Tis I'ATiENCK in the storm of affliction's dark night, 
 
 'Tis TiiusT in the trials of life's thorny way. 
 'Tis HUMILITY, when in the stirrings of pride 
 
 Self-will wou'd o'erthrow Heav'ns warfare 'gainst sin ; 
 "Tis CONTENT, whensoever its virtues are tried, 
 
 'Tis GRATITUDE Constantly dwelling within. 
 "Tis temp'raxce in using the blessings you have ; 
 
 'Tis the instant repulsion of sin's guilty bait, 
 'Tis DISCRETION whcn doubtful things concurrence crave; 
 
 And, at times, self denial in every state. 
 'Tis, in fine, man's obedience to heav'n's wise laws 
 
 Thro' a life humbly circumspect, fearing to offend : 
 Tis the foretastes of hope, when his Being's first cause 
 
 Shall recall it for joys without measure or end."
 
 [ 11 ] 
 
 THE FAUHFUL WORD. 
 
 " The word of the Lord endureth for ever." 
 
 " FIDELI CERTA MERGES." 
 
 The lovely day gleams forth, but soon is fled ; 
 
 Night comes her Lethean arms do all embed.. 
 
 Life's moving picture yields to that of death, 
 
 And in one senseless torpor all who the breath 
 
 Of life respire do sink. Comes Summer's Sun, 
 
 And swift to earth's green bosom are seen won 
 
 Myriads of glitt'ring beauties but they die 
 
 And Winter's hoary breath entombs them with a sigh. 
 
 Death's tyrant-hand, relentless, sweeps around, 
 
 Fall friends and foes and thickly plant his ground ; 
 
 And home a land of foreigners appears 
 
 To whom have quickly pass'd a few revolving years. 
 
 IL 
 
 Changing, and changeful, all nought but thy Word, 
 O GOD ! to man remains, changeless assured 
 On nought but this his tossing soul can rest ; 
 In nought but this his trembling hopes invest. 
 Erring, deceived, with disajipointment sore. 
 Or gall'd by treachery without, or more 
 (Remem'brance-sick) by th' follies of the heart witliiu. 
 He looks around, to th' past, onwards, still .Sin 
 With its attendants dire, in varying forms, 
 Ilcmind of suflbrings gone, and point to storms 
 That thickly, yet, in ambush round him lay. 
 As thro' this tearful Vale he wends his woc^wornw;)v
 
 12 ] 
 
 III. 
 
 In life's fair morn, unknowing of it's arts, r 
 
 He soon discerns the object that all hearts 
 
 Could sure make happy, were it once attain'd. 
 
 And instantly resolves it shall be gain'd. 
 
 Too soon he finds a shadow he has grasp'd ; 
 
 It fades on his sight palls on the mental taste. 
 
 Another, more rcfin'd, remov'd from ill. 
 
 Untried, more probable, more specious still, 
 
 Another, and another, rise on his view 
 
 Assuring happiness, each lovely, new ; 
 
 But each and all fiUl soon do make him feel 
 
 That nought on earth but GOD th" immortal soul can fill. 
 
 IV. 
 
 And most of all in that tremendous hour 
 
 When sinks in abject weakness every pow'r, 
 
 When on the bloodless lip sits quiv'ring life. 
 
 Subdued and vanquish'd in the deadly strife, 
 
 And every moment on the wing to fly 
 
 It knows not where, save to it's destiny 
 
 Of dread extremes, infinite pain or joy 
 
 To Angels' arms, or demon-bands, full nigh 
 
 The flitting Spir't to whirl, by their dread might, 
 
 To fields of glory, or the black domain of night, 
 
 O where, great OOl) ! but on thy faithful Word, 
 
 Can rest the death- ^trnck soul, the dreadful gulf to ford.
 
 r 13 1 
 
 V. 
 
 "My word remains for ever", He has said ] 
 
 Who to their Orbs yon won'dring planets led 
 
 In time's beginnings, and the impulse gave 
 
 That hurl'd them thro' the blue ethereal wave, 
 
 And still mantains their strange erratic round 
 
 And will do till, their beings' period found. 
 
 He speaks them to a pause. '' My Word remains'" 
 
 AVill echo loud when earth's own glory wanes. 
 
 And, in her agony, she vainly strives 
 
 To ward the giant-power that onward drives 
 
 Her fabric huge to fell destruction's goal. 
 
 And by one breath her beauty blasts from pole to pole. 
 
 VI. 
 
 " My word remains" ye Sons of GOD attend, 
 
 Vc whom the melting voice of Heav'n did bend, 
 
 And gently turn, and by its plastic pow'rs 
 
 jicncw and still inclines your life's best hours 
 
 Devote to Him to give but oft in fear. 
 
 And mood of tremulous doubt, that ye do err 
 
 () ! think on that blest Word, with bursting Songs, 
 
 And all that to its promise sure l)elongs, 
 
 And clasp them to your heart with clinging faith, 
 
 Nor (|uit thcin c'cn with life's last, faltering, brcatli, 
 
 Assured their saving truth must still remain. 
 
 And endless p;cans raise rnidst Christ's glad, ransom'd train.
 
 [ 14 ] 
 
 WRITTEN IN A NIGHT OF SICKNESS. 
 
 "A Soul ^bruised by adversity." 
 
 Slow moves the minute, and long seems the hour. 
 When Sickness' leaden hands the frame arrest ; 
 The racking head and labouring pulse, sad pow'r 
 To pain do own its tyranny imprest. 
 
 Slow round the ticking watch the pointer glides ; 
 Dim burns the glim'ring wick with sickly glare ; 
 Mute ev'ry object, ill 'twould seem betides 
 Long in approach the morning's fresh'ning air. 
 
 In fever's fiery gripe, restless, I turn. 
 Thought, broken and confused, flies and recoils ; 
 Woo'd Sleep just comes, and at th' oblivious bourne 
 Wheels round and still life's furied current boils. 
 
 O ! it is sweet in such an hour to know 
 That when the mis'ries of this fickle state 
 Shall all forgotten be, and pass'd below, 
 There is a life divinely recreate.
 
 [. 15 ] 
 
 Of roseate health, ease, strength, without decay, 
 
 Of youth eternal, peace without impair ; 
 
 Of joys elate, that never pass away^ 
 
 Of prospects sure as ever bright and fair. 
 
 Of high-rais'd intellect that knows no bound, 
 But roams uncheck'd, and lives, and burns, and glowa, 
 That sweeps thro'' all creation's wide-spread ro' :id, 
 And only to its great orig'nal bows. 
 
 And O ! 'tis great to think the way's assured 
 
 To tliat divine abode, thro' Love divine 
 
 Thro' Him who once in dust himself immur'd. 
 
 And from Heaven's ramparts now waves Vict'rys sign. 
 
 'Tis great, in child-^'ke trust, in him to rest ; 
 On him all cares, and sins, and griefs, to ro^' ; 
 On him who, in himself supremely blest. 
 Delights to bless, and bless, o'er all, the soul. 
 
 ""Tis sweet in sorrowing joy, in weakness"* stren'^th, 
 With gladsome sighs, with pleasure's purest tears. 
 To think on Mercy's depth, and height, and length, 
 And breadth, living throughout eternal years. 
 
 'Tis good to sink annili'latc at the feet, 
 
 Of GOD ; and rise a spirit brightly good and pure 
 
 At the last day, to yon enthroning scat. 
 
 To reign and luvc and praise wliilst ages shall endure.
 
 [ le ] 
 
 TO MY LIBRARY. 
 
 " H.^c studia adolescentiam alunt, scnectutem oblectant, seciindas res ornant, 
 adversis solatium et perfugium prsebent, delectant dortii, non impediunt 
 foris, pernoctant nobiscum> peregrinantui, rusticantur." cicero. 
 
 " Condo etcompono quae niox depromere possim." hok. 
 
 I. 
 
 How I pity the man that delights not in books, 
 Nor roams o'er their pages with rapture in his looks, 
 
 And relish the most gustful in his heart ; 
 Who cares not to beckon up from Rome's vasty deep 
 Or the learned stores of Athens from their long silent sleep, 
 
 And enrich himself at Wisdom's wealthy mart. 
 
 II. 
 
 How I pity the man who in ancient lore unread, 
 Enjoys not the converse of th' illustrious dead, 
 
 Nor, delighted, gazes on the mighty mind 
 That glows in living beauty in the Poets Classic Verse, 
 And creates again M'holc Nations, wliilst their tale he shall 
 rehearse, 
 
 Or shews him where tlie joys of life to find.
 
 [ 17 ] 
 
 III. 
 
 How I pity the man who plods on in life's dull round, 
 Content with the pleasures of taste, and siglit, and sound, 
 
 Nor heeds the priceless gem that in him thinks ; 
 Who, daily unconcern'd, to fair Science's pure spring, 
 To be fed at its fountain, that priceless gem to bring, 
 
 Cares not whilst in folly's streams it sinks. 
 
 TV. 
 
 Ye silent dear Companions, my Library's whole store. 
 Accept the grateftd homage of a heart that still is poor 
 
 In expression, to declare half that it feels ; 
 How oft in dark perplexity your light have ye giv'n, 
 And guided thro' difficulties gainst which 'twere hard t'have 
 striv'n. 
 
 And the knowledge shed that cheers whilst it heals. 
 
 V. 
 
 Witli wliat kindness have ye come, and what rca;lii:css h;;vi 
 
 gone, 
 Asi wished ; or ccas'd to wish, wlicn, your visit's j])joct; doiio, 
 
 Ye retired, and yet left your elioicest hoon ; 
 The wisdom of a life has been given in an hour, 
 And the Sage of olden time luis j)ourM (ortii !ii ; vicu(\;f-. ^hv- 
 
 Yet ye linger'd not, nor (juittcd ine too ':()fj;i.
 
 [ 18 j 
 
 VI. 
 
 Ye wounded not my pride when my ignorance ye saw, 
 Nor the dullness reproach'd of a mind more crude and raw. 
 
 When your deeper views I fail'd to comprehend ; 
 No magisterial looks ye assumed to repel, 
 No pompous cloud of words employ'd to conceal, 
 
 AVhen the school of your instruction I'd attend. 
 
 VII. 
 
 And if idleness prevail'd, ye pardon'd me the Sin, 
 Of absence, or neglect, and again ye took me in 
 
 To the noblest guest-room of your mental feast ; 
 Nor shew'd one angry loolc, nor chid my thoughtless heart, 
 Nor visited th' ingrate with e'en a momentary smart. 
 
 But my cravings 'gain supplied till they ceas'd. 
 
 VIIT. 
 
 Still-yet-with Wisdom's torch O ! hght up my Spirit dark, 
 And daily tow'rds her porch some humble progress mark, 
 
 In enlargement and expansion of the soul ; 
 Enlighten, teach,mature ; and in eacli devoted hour 
 When your sweet pursuits allure, augment the moral power. 
 
 And then give right direction to the whole.
 
 [ 19 ] 
 " O ! GIVE ME MUSIC." 
 
 " Music, for the time, doth change man's nature. 
 O ! it came o'er my ear like the sweet South, 
 That breathes upon a bank of Violets 
 Stealing and giving odour." 
 
 Dulcet sounds, of magic power, 
 Breathe your gentle influence o'er 
 My heart, in this oblivious hour, 
 And soothing harmony restore. 
 
 Lull to rest each ruffl'd feeling. 
 Calm the lab'ring breast to peace ; 
 Tranquillize, your might revealing, 
 Till each throbbing movement cease. 
 
 Raise me, by your rapt'rous thrilling, 
 Till the soul is caught above 
 In melting sighs, a captive willing, 
 Yields itself to joy and love. 
 
 Bear, O ! bear me, to yon Spirit, 
 
 Whose holy harp around it flings 
 
 Notes divinely strange of merit ; 
 
 Whilst Heav'n's high arch, reechoing, rings. 
 
 Lead, to that bright realm, O lead ine. 
 Where the ceaseless Song is pour'd ; 
 Wlicrc music's soul shall love and heed i)r\ 
 Where Love in Music is ador'd.
 
 [ -^0 ] 
 DIVINE MKUCV. 
 
 " WJiereto serves Mercy, 
 But to confront the visage of offence?" 
 
 Pavilion'd high in universal princedom, 
 
 And circl'd in the blaze of thine own glory 
 
 Unapproach'd, O GOD ! tlic loftiest Seraph 
 
 Sink's abash'd before thee, and with both wings 
 
 Veils his eyes. He views thy spotless holiness, 
 
 And trembles aghast ! nor less when he beholds 
 
 The fearful splendors of thy justice. 
 
 He glances at thy wisdom, and retires 
 
 Into himself, lost and confounded. 
 
 Kcturnshe yet again, and countless times 
 
 Thro countless ages drinks in deep draughts of 
 
 ITeav'nly knowledge, with ever-swift'ning mcrease, 
 
 And yet a child, blushing in ignorance and 
 
 Ashari:\'d, he turns him from thee. But full 
 
 He views thy mercy, love, benignity. 
 
 And at once dissolves in sacred sympathy, 
 
 In melting tenderness, adoring praise. 
 
 His kindling soul rises in bursting rapture 
 
 And he sweeps, in choral symphony, his 
 
 Golden harp, with Angel-hand, till Heav'n's 
 
 High canopy, rejoicing, hears and responds 
 
 Tir exulting strain. If such, blest Spirit ! who never 
 
 Tiie defiling touch of Sin didst know, 
 
 Nor dread its damning })Owcr if such, thy gratitude, 
 
 Where should the theme of praise in guilty man 
 
 Beain where end .'
 
 [ 21 ] 
 
 INSCRIPTION ATTACH'D TO A PORTRAIT OF 
 LORD BYRON. 
 
 " Enfant dechu d'une race divine, 
 
 Tu portes sur ton front ta superbe origine. 
 Tout homme, en te voyant, reconnait dans tes yeux 
 Un rayon eclipse de la grandeur des cieux i" 
 
 DE LA MARTINE. 
 
 And can I view thine image, lofty mind, 
 Man's vast superior, kin of Angel-kind, 
 Whose magic Lyre my soul has rapt 
 So oft in wond'ring extasy. 
 With stoFn pow'rs from Heav'n, entrap'd 
 IMy thoughts in airy phantasy. 
 And whirl'd me thro' Creations round, 
 And cuird and glean'd each beauty fair. 
 Or made them where nor were they found 
 Nor ere before aught sought them there 
 And long I not for one inspiring ray, 
 I'OETTf SI'S of this our ncdier world, 
 As in meridian strength thou sink'st away. 
 Thy Glories yet to us but half unfurl'd ! 
 
 ! had'st thou join\l Isaiah's hallow'd flame 
 With the creative splendors of thy tlwught, 
 Not m(jre the world had echoed loud thy fame 
 Than it had hlc.ss"d tlie lessons thou had'st taught 
 
 1 gaze upon tliy (icnius'' miglity deep, 
 J'ntranc'd ;t(haire and love rcHcct and wcej).
 
 [ 22 ] 
 ODE 
 
 TO THE DEPARTING YEAR. 
 
 Written at Midnight December 51 st, 1824. 
 
 With fleet, but silent, step, the shaJow'y year, 
 
 Worn to its latest hour and well nigh gone, 
 Descends into the tomb of ages, where 
 
 Do rest the wreck and remnants of deeds done 
 By valour, mighty griefs sustain'd. 
 Life's torturing hopes, and cheating joys. 
 All lost the spade and mattock gain'd 
 And hushed the world's last, jarring, noise. 
 There sleeps the sighing lover, in whose eye 
 
 Creation's beauties centr'd all in one ; 
 There rests th' ambitious Monarch, and him nigh 
 
 The crouching Slave that sunk before his throne. 
 The peasant, prince, philosopher, and clown 
 
 There mingled rest, the prey of lapsed years ; 
 The youth who danc'd on giddy toe adown. 
 
 The man of years who bath'd each step with tears. 
 The fevVish scene is past, 
 Th' eventful story's told ; 
 The final year at last. 
 Appeared with purpose bold. 
 Seizing her prey. 
 Did haste away, 
 Reckless, confoundint!: a]] in Nature's coinmon niould.
 
 [ 23 ] 
 
 And now thou 'rt gone. The sounding of thy knell 
 
 Beats on the wakeful ear with startling note ; 
 Bidding to all a long, long, last, farewell, 
 
 Thou plung'st into th' eternal flood of years as nought. 
 And nought thou art ; a bursten bubble, 
 A flitting vapour, disappear''d ; 
 A night of sorrow, pain, and trouble, 
 A sickly dream, unbless'd, uncheer'd 
 By one substantial joy, or solid bliss, 
 
 Thou coukrst afford to cheer the pilgrim lorn ; 
 A dark and rugged path i' th* wilderness, 
 
 Devious, and wild, and strew'd with many a thorn. 
 But tho,' of thyself, thou 'rt nought, where hast thou led ? 
 How influenc'd, what impressed, and whither brought 
 Th' undying souls, of whose short life has fled 
 
 Another section huge ? subject of solemn thought. 
 Did heedless folly's round 
 Absorb the passing hour ? 
 The pipe and viol's sound, 
 Subduing by their power, 
 Enslave the soul, 
 Engrossing whole, 
 'I'll"' immortal being that Hcav'n wards .should have ris'n 
 ITcav'n wards bound f
 
 [ 24 ] 
 
 Thou'rt^one. And with the*too have fled thy toils. 
 And cares, and sinking sorrows, ne'er to return ; 
 The heaving bosom's griefs, the heart's recoils 
 
 At the throng'd ills in sad humanity's sojourn. 
 The anxious hope, unrealized, 
 The trembling fear, a spectre vain ; 
 The longing wish, the heart had priz'd 
 O'er all, a self-returning pain. 
 Whate'er beside may cross the track of life. 
 
 The pangs of these shall never be felt more : 
 So far reduced the sum of passing strife, 
 
 In the rough pilgrimage to the tomb's dark door. 
 Perhaps too, as pass'd the loud infuriate storm. 
 
 And hard essay'd to crush, in its wild roar, 
 It but renew'd, in firmer, hardier, form. 
 
 And nerv'd, the soul, with j^ow'rs unfelt before. 
 Th' uplifted hand to Heav'n, 
 The pray'rful, tearful, sigh, 
 Besought the Mercy giv'n 
 That rais'd the Suppliant high, 
 In fervent mind, 
 Of holy kind, 
 To th' Omnipotent for strength and yet with will resign'd.
 
 [ 25 ] 
 
 Happy the being ! on whose concemful heart, 
 
 The last faint streaks of the declining year 
 Are blended with celestial tints, impart 
 
 By th' hand of Him, whose love divine and fear 
 Do sketch his image there, in lines 
 Simple, yet strong tho' hidden, clear- 
 Guiding by silent speech and signs 
 Heav'n-taught, his throne benign to near. 
 Happy the man who, retrospective, reads 
 
 In the fled year a scene in life devote 
 To virtue, science, peace, the general needs 
 
 And weal <lear to his constant wish and thought. 
 And happy he who onwards streams his eye 
 
 Thro' the few troublous, darksome, years to come, 
 To that blcss"d realm where grief and pain do die 
 The sainted Spirit finds a sinless home. 
 There rapt in sacred bliss, 
 The vision of a GOD 
 Does fill witli extacies 
 Redeeming Love's abode ; 
 And, rolling round, 
 Nor term nor bound. 
 Eternity, itself, shall seem too short on llim to gaze. 
 
 n
 
 C 26] 
 
 TO PATIENCE. 
 
 " Diis proximus ille est 
 
 Quem ratio, non ira, movet ; qui, facta rependens, 
 Concilio punire potest." 
 
 Sweet Patience O I love thee, Child of Faith, 
 Of Fortitude, and Resignation meek ! 
 Calm shalt thou dwell far in mine inmost soul. 
 Empress of every passion; and when thick clouds 
 Lowering and dark, of the world's frowns, inclose 
 Me roimd, and blot from my vision all the 
 Soul holds dear, thy hand, radiant with light. 
 Shall point me to the bright Serene beyond, 
 Which Faith makes sure, and joyous hope foretastesj 
 And the swift-gliding stream of time shall soon 
 Bring near. Still hold thy gentle reign within me. 
 And keep my Spirit in thy straitest bonds. 
 And O ! should a flash of ire break in, quench it 
 In tears or surge of sinking grief, glad it 
 With hope and still be my gather'd Spirit wi*apt 
 In thee, till thine own being end !
 
 [ 27 ] 
 
 TRUST IN GOD. 
 
 " Prudens fiituri tepiporis exitum caliginosa nocte premit Deus videtque, si mor- 
 talis ultra fas trepidat." hor. 
 
 " Explorant adversa viros. Perque aspera dura Nititur ad laudem virtus interrita 
 
 Clivo." SIUUS IXAUCUS. 
 
 In God I rest. In Him, omnipotent 
 
 T"" endure, or to perform, all that his wise 
 
 And righteous will exacts, my soul in peace reclines. 
 
 Nor knows one moment portent of ill or fear. 
 
 But will the Sov'reign Pantocrat of worlds, 
 
 In vast humility, deign to bestow 
 
 A look benignant on a guilty worm. 
 
 Who had ten thousand times his grace rejected, 
 
 Scofl'd his monitions, his proffer d love contemn'd, 
 
 And madly rais'd the rebel arm against him ? 
 
 Will he forgive this shghted love, this daring 
 
 Contumacy, this dark ingratitude ? 
 
 Must not, of stern necessity, his Justice 
 
 First visit with some fearful mark of his 
 
 Fell wrath, and smite with dire calamity 
 
 In murky form, ere his soft-smiling pity 
 
 And goodness bountiful can bow and bless ? 
 
 IVIust not the vengeful bolts of his dread ire 
 
 IJc hiirl'd against the victim of his wrath 
 
 Justly aroused who, speechless, self-condcmn'd, nouglit 
 
 Has to offer in leapt extenuation 
 
 Of his endless sins ? Great as his trust is
 
 [ 28 ] 
 
 High and unshaken his reliance- 
 He is mute, and owns th' appalling truth. 
 Great mystery 'twere but Christ has died. 
 Here Myst'ry disappears. He the demands. 
 Rigorous, of Justice, has fulfill'd, 
 Th' indignant frown of an offended God 
 Assuaged, and peace and reconciUation 
 Purchas'd, at a price, nor Heav'n nor Earth 
 Nor all the Universe beside united. 
 Could have devis'd, or equall'd. In Him 
 Do I approach th' eternal throne, and, thro' 
 Him, view the Father's face beaming with love, 
 And pure, unmix'd, benignity. He smiles 
 And calls me His. In mercy's softest accents, 
 Yet with a voice as sure as Sinai's thunders. 
 He breathes the message of reviving peace 
 And joy into the breast. His arm surrounds 
 With a defence, as th' everlasting hills 
 Impregnable ; and his unsleeping eye 
 Watches, and tends, and guides his own. 
 Shall impious doubt then be indulg'd e'en for 
 A moment ? Dare I arraign the truth, the pow'r, 
 The promises of Him, who so hath lov'd me. 
 And, like a vile ingrate, reject them 
 In unbelief? Ah, no ! Let Life's fierce sea, 
 Lash'd into billow'y foam by human passions. 
 Toss me up to the Heavens or let me sink 
 Into the yawning caverns of the Deep, 
 Still I am safe. Th' Omnipotent protects. 
 Let racking pains assail the shiv'ring flesh, 
 Let all tlie subtleties of hellish rage, 
 And all Hell's powr's, (short only of Omnipotence)
 
 [ 29 ] 
 
 Combine t'annihilate, or e'en to harm, 
 
 Not one, the hghtest hair, ( -number'd in Heav'n* 
 
 Amazing Providence ) that plays on th* pennons 
 
 Of the floating breeze, and careless rests again. 
 
 Can be destroy 'd, but with his leave who rules 
 
 O'er all who thron'd in light and powV, yet unseen, 
 
 By hidden, but resistless, springs, governs. 
 
 The Universe. O thou most awful Being ! 
 
 Who guid'st thro trackless fields of iEther 
 
 Yon busy, countless. Orbs, rolling in space 
 
 Immeasurable, yet with one visual ray 
 
 Survey 'st the whole who read'st the thoughts and acts 
 
 Of all on whom tliou breath'st the breath of life. 
 
 Yet looks on each as 'twere thy single care. 
 
 Nor for a moment leaves him to the pow'r 
 
 Of chance or fate, O, look on me ! 
 
 " Give me a heart to love and dread" thy name, 
 
 And ever let my trust attemper'd be 
 
 With holy hate of Sin, and ardent wish 
 
 Thy law to love. But, still let me trust ! 
 
 A bold, advent'rous faith, intrepid, fearless, 
 
 Discerning thee thro' thickest clouds of pain 
 
 And grief, and all the complex ministrations 
 
 Of thy I'rovitlcncc be mine. A faitli that 
 
 Rises o'er the ling'ring, wounding, memory 
 
 Of cancell'd Sin, which tliou hadst sunk in tlic 
 
 Fathomless Ocean of thy Mercy ne'er to be seen 
 
 Again, oblivionized, erased from tliy 
 
 Bcmembrancc-book, and cast bcliind tlicc 
 
 Ne'er more to be beheld Sijis, wliicli art- as 
 
 'J'lio tlicy ne'er had born, Avitli thy free grace.
 
 [ 30 ] 
 
 Give me the faith that reads Eteenity 
 Inscribed on every object, and, seeing in 
 All beside but passing shadows, looks with 
 Suspended hopes and joys to Heav'ns full bliss. 
 Give me the faith that binds the sinner's heart 
 To his Almighty Saviour with strongest ties 
 That links the Redeem'd on earth with them in 
 Heav'n, and surely leads the Soul, in watchful. 
 Humble, joy, to join its sacred throng. 
 
 ,!. CLARK) PRl.VTtKi NKWOATK STRBEf-
 
 THE 
 
 Eeport 
 
 NEWCASTLE 
 
 MEJLIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY, 
 
 FOR THE YEAR 
 
 1817. 
 
 V.'ITH AN EPITOME OF THE PRINCIPAL SPEECHES DELIVERED 
 
 AT THE ANNIVERSARY MEETING, OX THE 
 
 10th of APRIL, J817. 
 
 H'nstimtfD a. S?* I8K'. 
 
 NLK'CASTLE: 
 
 INTED BY GEORGE ANGUS, IN THE SIDE.
 
 RULES. 
 
 1, This Society shall be denominated The RtLicious Tract 
 SociEiY OF Newcastle upon Tyne and its Vicinity: tl)e sole 
 object of which is, the diffusion of religious knotuleilge, and the promotion of 
 wurality, 
 
 I[. Every subscriber of one Shilling., and upwards, per Quarter, shall 
 be a member of this Society. The subscription to be paid quarterly or 
 annually. 
 
 III. The business of this Society shall be conducted by a Committee, 
 formed of a President, two Secretaries, Depositary, Treasurer, and eighteen 
 persons chosen out of the lay-members ; any five of whom shall form a 
 Qtiorum. Ministers who are members may attend and vote at all meetings 
 of the Committee. 
 
 IV. The monies subscribed shall be employed in procuring Religious 
 T/acts, of which every member shall receive, at cost price, to the amount 
 of his subscription, and distribute them so as most effectually to promote 
 the object of the Society. 
 
 V. The Committee shall use their utmost endeavours to induce hawkers 
 and similar persons to sell the hawkers' tracts published by the London 
 Society ; and supply them accordingly, at prime cost. 
 
 VI. The Committee shall meet quarterly for business, viz. on the se- 
 cond Thursday in January, /!prtl, July, and October, at eight o'clock ia 
 the evening. 
 
 VII. An Annual Meeting of the members shall be held on a day pre- 
 viously appointed by the Committee, when the business of the year will 
 be reported, and officers chosen^ This meeting shall be, // possible^ on 
 Easter Monday.
 
 REPORT, &c. 
 
 THE Committee of the Newcastle Religious Tx'act Society, in 
 laying before their constituents and the religious public a state- 
 ment of their proceedings during the past year, beg to introduce 
 it by congratulating their friends and the public at large, on the 
 continued exertions that are made by the religious institutions 
 through the kingdom, and indeed throughout the world, intended 
 to overturn and annihilate the kingdom of darkness, and to 
 promote the universal establishment of the empire of the Messiah 
 among men ; and also, on the continued success with which those 
 exertions are crowned. They feel unmixed delight in alluding to 
 the vast field of labour which seems almost daily widening before 
 that most important Christian institution, " The British and 
 Foreign Bible Society ;" and the provision with which Divine 
 Providence enables it to extend its labours on every side. 
 To every part of the known world, in which any of the family of 
 man can be found, and to which means can be devised of sending 
 the inestimable treasure of the Inspired Volume, is the attention 
 of this society directed. 
 
 When your conjmittee, in the next place, view, in connection 
 with this institution, the labours of the various Missionary So- 
 cieties, the intention of which is to fulfil, in the widest extent, 
 the last con^mand of their crucified Saviour, " Go ye into all the 
 w(K-ld, and preach the (iospel to every creature;" and which .ivc 
 now patronizing and supporting those zealous individual:.; win;
 
 4 
 
 have left their country, their home, and their dearest kindred, to 
 proclaim, in every kingdom and climate of the world, the " glad 
 tidings of great joy," to the perishing heathen, your committee 
 feel increasingly a disposition to congratulate the present meeting 
 on the success of the common and glorious object which these 
 Societies have in view. 
 
 But, in the third place, the Religious Tract Society, of which 
 this Institution has the honour of being an Auxiliary, the com- 
 mittee have peculiar pleasure in introducing, as an instrument of 
 great probable effect, in the hand of the Almighty, in gradually 
 undermining the citadel and strong holds of Satan, and progres- 
 sively diffusing that sacred knowledge which at length is to fill 
 the whole earth. 
 
 The Religious Tract Society, of London, which has now ex- 
 isted for 18 years, prescribes to itself, like the Bible and Mis- 
 sionary Societies, no other limits than those of the world. Its 
 Auxiliary Institutions are upwards of 130. Its example has been 
 followed in many of the principal towns and cities of Europe. 
 Its Tracts are translated into various languages : and, in the dis- 
 tribution of those Tracts, it aids by occasional pecuniary grants. 
 
 Your committee would readily and .cheerfully particularize, in 
 this Report, the numerous exertions of that Society, for diffusing 
 moral and religious instruction, both at home and abroad ; but 
 they wish, on the present occasion, to be brief, to afford opportu- 
 nity for the public expression of sentiment, on the part of their 
 friends, and w'ith which, they have no doubt, the meeting will be 
 interested. 
 
 During the past year, your Committee, in order a little to add 
 lo variety in the subjects of their Tracts, have themselves pub- 
 lished two ; the first, an interesting and affecting Memoir of 
 E. W. Harland, who was executed for forgery, at the Old Bailey, 
 in July, ISI.").- of this Tract they published 1000 copies. The 
 second is an Address of Judge Hardinge, to a young female, on 
 passing sentence on her for a crime, which, your committee has 
 been informed, there is reason to fear is less infrequent than is 
 comnionly imagined. 
 
 They have also, tiiis year, incorporated with the Tracts gene- 
 rally sold, between l- and oOOO ilaixkers' Tracts, folded and cut 
 10 the same size. 
 
 The number of Tracts received into the Depository, this year, 
 IS, of Hawkers' Tracts, 27,020; of Subscribers' Tracts, 31,(iOS; 
 total, 59,528 ; exceeding the preceding year by (iOOO, and the 
 year before that, bv above 20,00C. The cost of the Tracts re- 
 ceived this year, including incidentals, is 721. 18s. 5d.
 
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 ex
 
 AT the Anniversary Meeting of the Society, held at Fletcher's 
 Long Room, Bigg Market, on Thursday Evening, the 10th 
 of April, J 817, 
 
 (Mr C. N. WAWN in the Chair) 
 
 It was resolved unanimously, 
 
 1. That the London Religious Tract Society continues to 
 deserve the patronage and support of the Christian public. 
 
 2. That the Report of the Newcastle Auxiliary Tract Society 
 just read, with such additions as the committee may deem neces- 
 sary, be printed. 
 
 3. That the thanks of this meeting be given to Mr Wawn, 
 the Treasurer, and Mr John Fenwick, the Sub-Treasurer, of the 
 society, for their valuable services during the past year. 
 
 4. That the thanks of this meeting be given to the Rev. R. 
 Pengilly, the Secretary, and to Mr Thomas Brunting, the As- 
 sistant Secretary, of the society, for their important services 
 during the past year. 
 
 5. That the thanks of this meeting be given to Mr Joseph 
 Elliott, the Depositary of the society, for his unwearied attention 
 to the duties of his office. 
 
 6. That the thanks of this meeting be given to the Committee, 
 for their services during the past year. 
 
 7. That the thanks of this meeting be given to the Collectors, 
 for their valuable labours during the past year. 
 
 8. That Mr Wawn be appointed President ; Mr J. Fenwick, 
 Treasurer ; the Rev. R. Pengilly, Secretary ; Mr Thomas Brun- 
 ting, Assistant Secretary ; and, in consequence of Mr Elliott's 
 resignation, that Mr James Finlay be appointed Depositary to 
 tiic society, for the ensuing year. 
 
 9. That the following gentlemen do form the Committee for 
 the year ensuing : viz. Mr G. F. Angas, Mr John Annandale, 
 Mr James Baker, Mr Bargate, Mr Thomas Bonner, Rev. R. Da- 
 -ison, Mr Richard Downing, Jun. Mr Joseph Elliott, Mr J. B. 
 1 alconar, Mr M. Forster, Mr Haggle, Mr Hoy, Mr Lindsay, Rev. 
 p. M'lndoe, Rev. J. Pringle, Mr D. Robertson, Mr W. Robson, 
 hud Mr J. TurnbuU. 
 
 10. That the following persons be requested to fill the office 
 tif Collectors for the ensuing year : viz. Mr Willis, Mr 
 D.uidson, Mr R. Granger, Mr George Haggerston, and Mr 
 ilindhaugh. 
 
 11. That a Committee be formed, to be denominated the 
 T'o:cf-Composilio)i Committee, who shall be selected by the gcne- 
 : -il ConKnittee, and act under their direction.
 
 12. That the Committee, thus formed, shall consist of four or 
 six persons, who unite, to acknowledged piety, some acquirement 
 in literature, and skill in composition ; who shall charge them- 
 selves with inquiring after proper subjects for interesting Religious 
 Tracts ; and shall further solicit the assistance of suitable indivi- 
 duals, in the surrounding neighbourhood, to this desirable end. 
 
 13. That the Tracts, thus drawn up, shall be submitted to the 
 general Committee, for their ulterior revision ; and, if approved, 
 shall be forwarded to the Parent Society, in London, with a re- 
 commendation, that they be added to the Society's list of Tracts. 
 
 14-. That this meeting do warmly recommend to the Parent 
 Society, and to the several Auxiliaries through the kingdom, the 
 adoption of the measure now proposed ; and that they do further 
 respectfully solicit the friendly aid of the editors of the several 
 periodical religious works in giving publicity to it. 
 
 15. That the thanks of this meeting be given to the Chairman 
 for his abl conduct in the chair. 
 
 The course of these proceedings gave rise to much interesting 
 and animated speaking, of which the following is the substance. 
 
 The Chairman opened the business of the meeting by remark- 
 ing, that the commemoration of every institution, which had 
 for its object the good of mankind, must be a source of pleasure , 
 but where that good was of the highest description that man was 
 capable of receiving, and that even Heaven itself could bestow, 
 it afforded the most pure and exalted gratification. This, he 
 trusted, was the case in the present instance ; and he felt happy 
 ill having to congratulate the society on the great extension of 
 its operations. The number of Tracts issued during the last year 
 had nearly doubled that of any preceding one. Some individual 
 members of the society had personally distributed many hundreds 
 of them , and, though no strongly-marked results in particular 
 cases had been witnessed from them, they had the satisfaction of 
 knowing that great numbers of the Tracts had been at least atten- 
 tinehf read s and they confidently committed their little labour 
 of love to Him whose blessing alone could render it productive 
 of spiritual benefit. A large number of Tracts had been distribu- 
 ted through the medium of the country Sunday Schools, each of 
 which was thus converted into a kind of diverging point, from 
 whence evangelical light and truth diffused themselves through 
 the surrounding neighbourhood. Mr W. here took occasion to re- 
 mark on the delightful harmony yZ.nA consentaneous operation which 
 was witnessed in the various existing religious institutions : like 
 the rolling of the spheres, each had its separate orbit, its distinct
 
 path of movement j yet they pleasingly blended and intervolved^ 
 and each added to the beauty and harmony of the whole. Their 
 light was indeed borrowed^ but it was all divine. It emanated to 
 them from their glorious Central Sun, whose resplendent beams at 
 once illumed, and inspired them with vivifying influence. 
 
 It was with much concern, Mr W. here felt himself imperious- 
 ly called upon, to notice an allegation which had been confidently 
 made against the society, and had obtained some currency, that 
 we had become the distributors of Socinian Tracts- Certain, 
 indeed, it was, that a Tract, written by an Unitarian, and published 
 by an Unitarian Society, had, in an inexplicable way, found a 
 place in one of our parcels ; but it was surely sufficient to advert 
 to the sentiments uniformly pervading the Iracts issued by this 
 society, its acknowledged fundamental principles, and the de- 
 scription of persons who supported it, to be satisfied, that such an 
 occurrence must have been purely casual. No ! did we possess 
 the inclination and the power to Un-god the Deity j to unchris- 
 tianize Christianity ; to disembowel the Scriptures, and leave 
 them a meagre lifeless skeleton ; to rob them of every vital and 
 vitalising principle ; and convert the " glorious Gospel of the 
 Blessed God" into a dry system of moral ethics \ then, indeed, 
 we might " deny the Lord who bought us, and count the Blood 
 of the Covenant a common thing ;" iheUi we might deny the 
 Godhead of Him, who himaelf " thought it not robbery to be 
 equal with God /' then, we might deny the vicarious sacrifice of 
 Him who " bore our sins in his oxson body on the tree ," theUy 
 we might deny the expiatorif virt7ie of His Blood, " through 
 which," it is declared, we have " redemption, even the forgive- 
 ness of sins ;" and, concerning which, it is said of " the Church of 
 God," that " he purchased it with his own blood ; but then, we 
 must, completely and for ever, abandon the hope of joining, in 
 the everlasting hallelujah, the blood-bought, blood-washed, 
 throng in Heaven, who, in the ceaseless songs of adoration they 
 oiFer up for their final salvation, so pre-eminently and emphati- 
 cally make their ascriptions of praise " to Him who hath loved 
 them, and washed them from their sins in his own blood" Hav- 
 ing deemed it right to be thus explicit on these great charac- 
 terizing features of Christianity, Mr W, hoped it was scarcely 
 necessary for him to say, that, with regard to the ojyposite doc- 
 trines, we would ever carefully distinguish between them and the 
 persons holding them. He trusted, there breathed not that hu- 
 man being to whom we bore any other feeling than that of perfect 
 good-will ; and to whom we would not the more willingly mani- 
 fest our Christian love, if his conduct to us were the offspring 
 ^f directly contrary feelings or principles. Still, however, though
 
 9 
 
 for the promotion of our common Christianity, we cordially agreed 
 to merge all our little differences of sentiment on the mere cir- 
 cumstantials, and externals, and non-essentials of our holy reli- 
 gion, yet, the speaker hoped, even with life itself, we would 
 not give up one iota of " the truth as it is in Jesus."* 
 
 Mr W. next proceeded to give a rapid sketch of the various 
 foreign operations of the Parent Tract Society, in connexion with 
 its Auxiliaries, in the several European Nations, and in Russia, in 
 Philadelphia, in Canada, in the East and West Indies, and in 
 China ; through which Auxiliary Societies numberless Religious 
 Tracts had been distributed in the respective vernacular tongues 
 of their countries. 
 
 Thus, continued the speaker, are these little winged mes- 
 sengers of mercy encompassing, in their flight, the whole earth j 
 and carrying the glad tidings of a dying, risen Saviour, into its 
 remotest regions. Nor will they visit them in vain. Sent forth 
 originally by an impulse communicated from the divine mind, 
 and diffused and maintained in the same spirit, they cannot fail, 
 in due time, to bring back the soul-gladdening intelligence, that 
 they too have effectually announced the heaven-descended mes- 
 sage, and made known the " only name given under heaven 
 whereby men can be saved." 
 
 In addition to the reasons that ordinarily operate on the 
 Friends of this Society, as incentives to exertion, there are some 
 which the present period presents to them with peculiar force, 
 and which prefer an importunate claim to their attention. The 
 iirst of these is the increasingly wide and almost universal diffu- 
 sion of education, through the numberless schools forming in 
 nearly every part of the kingdom. At once to prevent this be- 
 coming dangerous, and to give it a direction beneficial to society, 
 is an object of the highest moment. The removal of ignorance 
 from any mind, is the removal of mental blindness and imbecility ; 
 it is tlie taking away of moral incapacity, and the investment of 
 that mind with capabilities, which, either by the intensity or the 
 
 The ^eakcr is perfcct'y aware in quoting Acts xx 28, that a gre.ir nujorlty of 
 the bc-t MSS. a* >hc\vii by Wttstein and Griccbacli, read tK-iCKriiTiUi tou Kvpj'u, 
 (ihc (Church of the Lord) ; and not to u eou, (of God). But, admitting the superior 
 authenticity of this various rcaJmg, still, if an hundred other passages did not prove 
 the proper divinity of Chribt, there is deducibic from tljij an irrefragable chain of 
 argument to vhew that the iJlood which availed to the fmrdaie of tuulj could have 
 been, alone, that fhcd by a body in which the l)^lty wa? en^hrinej ; in which, to U'C 
 the ovcrwhtlmliiij kingujjji; of inspiration, "dwelt all the fulness of the GodUcaJ 
 boJily." 
 
 B
 
 10 
 
 continuance of their operation, maybe productive of a serious 
 amount of good or evil. That it is not physical strength by 
 which the public mind is governed, or any of the mighty changes 
 effected that take place in society, is self-evident. Did we see 
 a man whose bodily powers were such, that he could lift the pil- 
 lars of the Temple of Gaza, we should see in him no more an 
 object of dread, than we should in an ox or an elephant. But did 
 we see a man whose powers of mind, though small in themselves, 
 were yet sufficiently considerable to throw a metropolis into a 
 blaze, or to agitate and alarm a whole empire, we should see in 
 him an object of deep and painful interest. Now it is true, de- 
 monstrably true, that we have no right to withhold from the 
 inferior orders of society the blessing of education, on account of 
 their possible perversion or misapplication of it. We have no 
 right to keep any part of the community in a state of vioral sla- 
 ve>ij, enfettered in the chains of ignorance and darkness, because, 
 if they were unloosed, they might possibly abuse their freedom. 
 By a parity of argument, we ought then to withhold education 
 from the rick also ; and from both rich and poor nearly every 
 thing else that is valuable in life ; for what good is there that 
 may not be abused ? But it becomes an object of high considera- 
 tion and solemn duty, that we should, as far as ever human means 
 can operate, endeavour to conjoin with that education, those sound, 
 radical, Christian principles, which, if received, will infallibly give 
 to the mind a right bias, and add its newly acquired powers to 
 the list of general blessings. 
 
 The next reason I would mention, is the afflictive and depres- 
 sed condition in which it has pleased the Great Disposer of 
 events, at this time, to place our country ; and which, it may be 
 thought, may produce a disposition of mind more propitious than 
 any other, to the reception of divine truth. On a superficial view 
 of this circumstance, adduced as an argument to promote the circu- 
 lar ion of Religious Tracts, it might be said, that a generous mind 
 would revolt from the thought of offering a Religious Pamphlet 
 to a fellow-creature in distress, and who might be nearly destitute 
 of food and clothing, as being little better than a mockery of his 
 sufferings. But not so in the estimation of the Most High. He 
 regards the interests of the soul as of transcendently higher im- 
 prrtance than those of the body ; and, in His moral government of 
 the world, so orders and arranges the providential appointments 
 of time, as to incite thereby to aspire after the imperishable glories 
 of eternity. Daily observation shews, that the means which, in 
 the divine hand, are the most generally successful to the accom- 
 plishment of this end, are the sorrows and calamities of life ; and 
 that though the voice of God is addressed to man in a variety of
 
 11 
 
 ways, it is seldom, till after some afflictive visitation has been al- 
 lotted to him, that he can or will understand it. Like Joab in 
 his disregard to the message of Absalom, man often turns a deaf 
 ear to the importunities of Heaven, until his possessions or enjoy- 
 ments become endangered ; until his " barley-field is set on lire -," 
 and then he inquires, Wherefore didst thou thus ? It is then 
 we are required to step in, and, as " the interpreter, the one of 
 a thousand," to unfold the gracious and beneficent design of such 
 visitations ; and to point to " the ransom" that is found," not 
 only from the misery and guilt of the present state, but even 
 from the remorseless power of " the grave" To the utmost of 
 our ability we are bound by duty, and, I trust, equally inclined 
 by principle, to relieve the temporal distresses of our fellow-men j 
 but we have yet a higher object in view ; we wish to direct them 
 to blessings infinitely glorious in their nature, and in duration 
 limitless as eternity itself. 
 
 The last reason I shall particularize, is, the industry with which, 
 at this time, blasphemous and seditious pamphlets are circulated 
 among the poor ; less considerably, I believe, in this neighbour- 
 hood than in some of the more southern Counties ; but suffici- 
 ently so to call upon every one who values the happiness and 
 well-being of society, to endeavour to counteract the force of this 
 moral poison, and to follow the bane with the antidote. The 
 design of such publications is obviously to hold up to derision the 
 most solemn verities of the Christian religion ; and that chiefly 
 by impious parodies on some of the most spiritual and deeply 
 devotional formularies that were ever found in a Christian church ; 
 formularies, in which both the spirit and phraseology of the scrip- 
 tures are largely interfused. Where the effect intended by such 
 publications is obtained, it is evident there is a deliberate apostacy 
 from theChristian religion, and a daring renunciation of its precepts 
 and restraints. In that mind, the throne of theEternal is subverted; 
 Omnipotence is hardily insulted, and the puny arm of rebellion 
 lifted up against him. There exist, to ?'/, no laws but those im- 
 posed by its own inclinations ; it is amenable to no tribunal but 
 one created by its own imagination ; and if, by any means, how- 
 everdcstructive to society,it can effect the promotionof its own plea- 
 sure or interest, it has demonstrably accomplished a meritorious ac- 
 tion. Isit then too much to say, that minds, thus influenced and gain- 
 ed over, are prepared for the perpetration of every species of crime 
 of robbery, murder, treason .'' Let it not be superciliously said, 
 tliat this is attaching too much consequence to a few trifling pam- 
 phlets, and magnifying them into undue importance. Both fictb 
 and arguments rebut the assertion. It was once remarked by a 
 shrewd politician, a man read in the book of human nature, " Let 
 me write the ballads of a nation, and you shall write all its other
 
 12 
 
 works you please." He saw, the fact was obtrusive upon him, 
 that the mass of mankind never sit down to read elaborate, vo- 
 luminous productions ; but any light, passing, fugitive pamphlet 
 or tract, they read, and probably appropriate ; and add therefrom 
 something to the little moral world within, which gives character 
 to their sentiments, and direction to their conduct. Let Chris- 
 tians NEVER FORGET, that it was chiefly by the profuse and wide 
 dispersicni of Tracts, that the combination of Infidels, in a neigh- 
 bouring nation, confidently calculated on not the siibtersto?i, 
 merely, of Christianity, but its extermination ; and though their 
 object was unattainable, yet, by their hell-inspired labours, they 
 so far unprincipled and demoralized the minds of the people, as 
 to convert a nation, reputedly the most polished and urbane 
 in the world, into a horde of assassins ; and their metropolis, the 
 seat of the arts and of every elegance and refinement in life, into 
 a theatre of blood. In that unhappy country, the most exalted 
 geniuses it possessed, the most accomplished wits, and erudite 
 understandings, were leagued together " against the Lord, and 
 against his Anointed." But, " He that sat in the heavens did 
 laugh, and had them in derision." He endured them for a while, 
 and then " dashed them in pieces like a potter's vessel " Their 
 unabating zeal, their restless efforts, for the attainment of their 
 purpose, were worthy of a better cause ; and ought to suffuse 
 the cheek of many Christians with the blush of shame, at the 
 consideration of the comparative littleness of their exertion, with yet 
 the highest incentive to exertion that mortals can have. Mr W. 
 here entered into a detail of the amazingly extensive and power- 
 ful machinery which was brought into play, for the destruction 
 ot the religion of Christ, by this band of atheists, with the arch- 
 infidel Voltaire at their head. In passing, he remarked, that it 
 had occurred to him to know two individuals who were person- 
 ally acquainted with Voltaire, and who visited him at Ferney ; 
 and the account given of his united wit and profaneness, his faci- 
 nating talents, his ribaldry, and blasphemy, were such as led 
 every correctly-feelingand well-regulated mind to fly backtoChris- 
 tianity, with gratitude to God for any, the smallest, acquaintance 
 with it. In the efforts of these men for the annihilation of the 
 truth, they seem to have anticipated this country in all her great 
 religious institutions. Their Bible Society might be said to be 
 found in that which gave birth to their Encyclopedia ; a monument 
 of human learning and industry ; but in which the reader is con- 
 tinually entrapped into disquisitions on irreligion and scepticism. 
 The mischievous consequences likely to accrue from this work, 
 were, of course, speedily discerned ; and it was proscribed by a 
 legislative enactment. Its compilers and friends waited until the
 
 13 
 
 public fears were again lulled into security; and then, mustering 
 afresh all their force and influence, they succeeded in effecting 
 the removal of the proscription, and in obtaining for it a higher 
 celebrity, and more extended circulation than ever. This work 
 was designed to gain over the more intelligent and higher ranks 
 of society. Their niissio?iary labours were directed to the coffee- 
 houses, and places of social resort for young men, where Chris- 
 tianity was attacked and defended, admitted to a momentary tri- 
 umph, and then apparently confuted, ridiculed, and driven out of 
 the field with disgrace ; leaving the listening party to break up un- 
 der an impression that it was a cheat and an imposture. The masters 
 of the village schools were bought over : they were made to have 
 an interest in the spread of infidelity, by being supplied with 
 books containing its principles, at a lower rate than any other they 
 could purchase. These principles, it was trusted, would be early 
 interwoven in the minds of the children ; and would 
 
 " Grow with their growth, and strengthen with their strength." 
 
 And lastly, they laboured with incredible diligence and perse- 
 verance in the diffusion of Tracts^ not only through France, but 
 through all the surrounding countries ; thus, silently, but effec- 
 tually, establishing the reign of scepticism. " Frappez, mais celez 
 la main," " strike, but conceal the hand," was the continual cry 
 of Voltaire to the surrounding philosophists, when he was exci- 
 ting them to exertion to " crush the wretch," (" ecraser l' infame") 
 meaning the Saviour of the world ; and contemplating, with 
 malignant delight, the succes:^ of his diabolical machinations. 
 ISIultitudes, he knew, who had not judgment enough to weigh 
 an argument, or sufficient solidity to sit down to investigate evi- 
 dence, would yet feel all the force of the sinfts of !iis impious wit 
 and satire ; and finding it so much easier to la?i.^h than to reason^ 
 antl to throw off the moral restraints that Christianity imposes, 
 tlian to observe its self-denying precepts, would join the succes- 
 sivfly doubting, daring, deridiiig, blaspheming, throng. And 
 what was the result of all this ? Their horrifying maxim, (attri- 
 buted to Diderot), that " mankind would never be free and hap- 
 py till the last king was strangled in the bowels of the h'^t of 
 priests," seemed to have in it something awfully prophetic. Their 
 king, if not strangled, was beheadcil ; and the priests banislied 
 the coimtry ; and then, they were " free and happv" in cutting 
 each other's throats, and picking c;ich otiier's pockets -, anil in 
 going themselves, or sending their olfspring, into all tiic surround- 
 ing countries to saturate the earth with their blood, or whiten it 
 witli their bones i and to send up whole towns and cities reeking 
 to the throne of eternal justice, to invoke vengeance on the head-; 
 of the guilty aggressors. Lut the sanguinary scene is past, and
 
 14 
 
 will mily be remembered by millions to execrate its primary 
 actors. In this country, too, there was a period, when infidelity 
 stalked abroad with an unblushing front ; and every infidel wit- 
 ling looked for the homage due to superior understanding, and 
 freedom of thought. But that period, too, is past. The good 
 sense and proper feeling of the nation have rallied j and wherever 
 infidelity overtly and audaciously obtrudes itself, it is met by a 
 mark of pointed reprobation. 
 
 Mr W. would not comment on what he had just said. He 
 would leave the circumstances stated to make their own appeal to 
 the judgment of those present. He would just ask, if, to effect 
 the destruction of every thing that was dear and estimable in life, 
 and to blast our every hope of happiness hereafter, men could 
 thus " consume the midnight oil ;" and employ, with such pa- 
 tience and constancy, their noble, but perverted powers; what, 
 with such motives, prospects, means, and occasions, as "we are 
 furnished with, ought to be our exertions ? What, with these 
 invaluable Tracts, for instance, ready formed, offering themselves 
 to our notice, and inviting our use of them, should be our wake- 
 ful inquiry for opportunities for their dispersion ; our zeal in em- 
 bracing these opportunities j our wisdom in improving them ? 
 And, what, Mr W. would solemnly ask, with a zeal and diligence 
 equal to that of the French Infidels, might we not, under the 
 blessing of the Most High, accomplish, even in this town and 
 neighbourhood, towards ameliorating the moral and religious 
 condition of our fellow-immortals ? 
 
 On moving the second Resolution, Mr W. ?I. Angas observed, 
 
 " After what has been heard from the chair, and from the 
 Report just read, I rise, with considerable pleasure, and the more 
 so, when I consider, that the experience of so many years has 
 so abundantly testified to the wisdom and the excellence of the 
 Institution. For the credit of this assertion, we can cheerfully 
 appeal, too, to the periodical Reports already before the public. 
 
 " The Newcastle Tract Society having risen to this goodly 
 eminence, its friends and advocates have not now to ponder upon 
 the past, or to think of difficulties present or to come ; but rather 
 to give each other the hand of hearty congratulation upon the 
 success which has so long attended its progress. Success ! ah, 
 that's a joyful sound, when heard on the side of so noble a cause 
 as that which engages our present attention. But glad as the 
 sound may and must be to every Christian heart, still there is 
 prudence, even in this matter, which bids us beware how we 
 listen to the syren song. How often has it happened, that an
 
 15 
 
 unbroken course of success has been a means of injuring the very 
 cause it seemed at first to favour, either by relaxing the energies 
 of the acting parties, or producing in them a Wind or careless 
 confidence evils which, perhaps, a few timely reverses might 
 have been sufiicient to prevent. Let it be, therefore, our con- 
 stant duty to stir each other up against every thing tending to 
 lessen the activity, or abate the zeal so necessary in the work 
 before us. In accordance with this idea, allow me here to ob- 
 serve, that, although the nature and objects of this institution 
 have been more than once stated, and ably stated, from that chair, 
 and its triumphs many a time resounded within these walls, yet 
 there is one valuable property which it possesses in a degree still, 
 I say, superior to that of any Other institution we know of, and 
 which, in my view, has never been sufiiciently brought out into 
 notice. I refer now to the admirable variety of materials which 
 it has to carry on its operations. There is, for instance, the 
 Bible Society, that prince of all societies ; its high office is to lay 
 at once before the mind the whole body of revealed truth ; and, 
 like the Divine Author who gave it inspiration, it is ever 
 and unalterably the same. Is it not to be apprehended, 
 that, besides the few who peruse the sacred volume in a right 
 spirit, there are many, too many, in whose hands its pages may, 
 through a notion of sameness, become insipid ? Now, by making 
 various selection of the most important of its parts, and ever 
 placing the same truths which they contain in new and striking 
 lights, which it is the genius of a Tract Society to perform, 
 the attention of the reader will be kept alive, and the truth may 
 eventually steal upon his heart. 
 
 <' Since it is chiefly the benefit of the poorer part of the com- 
 munity to which this society professes to direct its attention, it 
 would be highly unseeming the benevolence of its character, not 
 to drop, by the way, a word or two of commiseration for that 
 large class, upon whom so much of the public pressure has fallen. 
 Much, however, as we lament the present calamity to which we 
 allude-, much as we deplore the causes to which they may be 
 referred ; and much as we trust that the pressure will be tem- 
 porary ; yet it is hoped that, in a moral and a spiritual point of 
 view, the trying dispensation may eventually work for good to 
 those upon whom it has chiefly borne. And, indeed, upon the 
 strength of the past favours with which Providence has smiled 
 upon the interests of our country, I have the boldness to believe, 
 for one, that the same over-ruling power will not now suffer her to 
 sink under the weight of her present burden, much less to perish 
 bv the violence of her own hand.
 
 1^ 
 
 As opdning Out a new and extensive field of exertion to tlii!? 
 institution, I am also unwilling that this occasion should go by 
 without adverting to another society, which has been formed in 
 this town within the space of the last 12 months; and which, I 
 am free to think, promises to be more beneficial to the interests 
 of this populous district, than it is in the power of any man 
 to sit down, at this early period of its history, and calculate. I 
 allude to the Newcastle Sunday School Union. The circumstance 
 of from 8 to 10,000 children being now systematically brought 
 together every Sabbath Day, for the purpose of religious and 
 moral instruction, presents an object at once so new in this part, 
 and so interesting, that we think it cannot fail to strike even the 
 most selfish spirit. 
 
 ** These tender plants are coming quickjy up to maturity j 
 numbers of them soon will be of an age to take those stations in 
 Society which Providence has assigned them. Oh ! then, is it not 
 important that they enter active life with minds and morals so 
 formed as to enable them to act their part with comfort to their 
 friends, honour to their country, and credit to themselves ? 
 
 " From these considerations, I hope I may compliment this 
 Society upon the many opportunities of doing good with which 
 they are surrounded. For in some parts of the kingdom this is 
 not so much the case. There Tract Societies are indeed formed 
 as well, and carried on with a vigour and a spirit, perhaps, nothing 
 inferior to the present ; but, owing to the local inconvenience 
 of a thin population about them, their sphere of action is greatly 
 circumscribed. Their busy spirits do not find objects immediate- 
 ly at hand sufficiently numerous to employ the full play of their 
 energy. They may, and perhaps they do remit the surplus of 
 their unemployed capital to a parent fund ; but then they forego, 
 to that extent, the greater and more natural pleasure of first 
 bestowing their favours upon those among whom, perhaps, they 
 have drawn their first breath ; or from whose industry, as the 
 original source, they have drawn the means they possess to do 
 good and to communicate." 
 
 " Let us hope that a feeling so natural as this, to all, and to 
 every populous town and country, will become more and more 
 general. Let us hope that the time is fast upon the wing, when 
 families of distinction, both for rank and affluence, will make it 
 more a pleasing point of conscience to care, first, for the moral 
 and spiritual cultivation of the unlettered poor around them, and 
 consider it as a primary object of their lives. Then may we 
 venture to say, that, after having visited Greece for its classical 
 antiquities, Italy for Its fine arts, Switzerland for the grandeur of 
 its roiiiantic scenery, or other parts of the world for whatever is
 
 ir 
 
 scientific or curious, nothing will be half so dear to their English 
 hearts as the moral beauty of the human scenery that lies in and 
 around their family mansions. 
 
 " Judging from results upon the smaller scale, it is not easy to 
 conceive a system at all so likely to conduce to the moral beauty 
 and strength of a nation, a town, or a neighbourhood, as the one 
 which proposes to raise the moral standard of the lower classes 
 i:pon the elevating principles of Divine Revelation ; and of which 
 5vstem this society may be well considered a powerful branch. 
 A policy, at once so liberal and so enlightened as this, could not 
 iv.\ to bring to light many a sterling genius, who would have 
 been, otherwise, hid by the clouds of ignorance. Ere long we 
 might expect these to sliine, in their respective spheres, with a 
 bright and steady lustre, like stars of superior glory ; whilst the 
 great mass of the people, softened and animated by' the same 
 salutary influence, would, in combination, like the galaxy in the 
 natural heavens, shed a mild anti glowing lustre on the moral 
 heaiisphere." 
 
 The Rev. Mr Edwards, from London, remarked, that he had 
 only that day arrived in Newcastle, after a journey of near 300 
 niiics-, and every one would be aware how unfavourable the 
 fatigues of travelling were to the attempt of appearing before so 
 large and respectable an audience as he was then called to address. 
 'i'he interest of the Newcastle Tract Society was not the imme- 
 diate object for which he had visited these parts ; yet, so con- 
 vinced was he of the great good which had resulted from similar 
 institutions, in different parts of the kingdoni, that he could not 
 consiiJer himself in the way of duty if he were silent in their 
 cause, v.'hen an opportunity like the present presented itself. 
 
 Previous to the origin of Tract Societies in this country, it 
 would be recollected, to what an alarming extent lewd songs, 
 silly tales, and all manner of low and vile publications were 
 hawked about and sold among our poor, who, with the disposition 
 to read, were without the means of being supplied with reading 
 of a more solid and instructive character: and the injury which 
 such hurtful publications h;id long produced upon the mhuls and 
 morals of otu- poor was notorious from common observation. 
 
 Now it was the true character of such institutions as the pre- 
 sent, not only that they extend the niost useful knpwledge to all 
 who can read, especially to the most numerous class of the coni- 
 munity, but that they act in so eiFectual a maimer against the 
 jpread of loose publications, as to give a good hope of their being 
 soon superseded altogether. An event, it is presumed, highly 
 
 c
 
 18 
 
 desirable to all who take an interest In the improvement of the 
 public mind and the public morals. 
 
 Were it at all necessary, and were there time for it, a variety 
 of things might be said, and a number of facts in point might be 
 brought forward to support these expectations. As other friends, 
 however, who had to follow on the occasion, would probably 
 supply his defect in this point, he would, for the present, content 
 himself with mentioning but one incident which occurred to him, 
 as shewing, in a particular manner, the amiable tendency of 
 religious instruction : " An English soldier, accidentally in con- 
 versation with some persons with whom he was travelling, ob- 
 served, with considerable regret, that it had been his lot to be 
 long engaged in a profession which appeared so unfriendly to the 
 mild and gentle spirit of Ciiristianity ; but that, amidst the many 
 tragic scenes inwhich he had been led to share so largely, it 
 was some consolation to reflect, that conquest had often afforded 
 the British soldier opportunities of putting the Written Word of 
 Life into the hands of those who had held the deadly weapons of 
 a very different warfare." 
 
 On moving the third Resolution, Mr Brunting spoke to the fol- 
 lowing effect : 
 
 <* That happiness is the object of universal pursuit among 
 mankind, is allowed on all hands j but that few attain the ob- 
 ject sought for, we have many melancholy proofs : nor need 
 we be surprised at the circumstance, when we consider the ill- 
 calculated means used to attain the end. 
 
 " Numbers there are who imagine, that happiness is to be 
 found in what they call rest, which, indeed, is only another word 
 tor inactivity or indolence. Others imagine, that they have dis- 
 covered, by experience, that action is the rest of the soul ; that 
 
 " Cares are employments ; and, without employ, 
 ' The soul is on the rack the rack of rebc." 
 
 These seek it in action, but in action worse than inoccupancy 
 itself. The propriety of doing good is not questioned by any ; 
 but, respecting what is I'eally so, there may be a difference of 
 opinion. It is certainly right to endeavour to ascertain what is 
 good ; and, perhaps, this cannot be done better than by judgifig 
 uj things by their ejficts. This idea seems to comport with the 
 sentiments of the great Paley, who observes, " If we see a useful 
 end, and means adapted to the end, the argument is finished." 
 That the end we have this evening in view, is a useful one, it 
 would be superfluous to attempt to prove ; and the fitness of
 
 19 
 
 these means to accomplish the end aimed at, has been this night, 
 I may say, demonstrated by matter of fact. 
 
 * There is one class of persons, however, on whom I cannot 
 help remarking. They are those who highly approve of good 
 being done, and admire those engaged in doing it ; but, unhappi- 
 ly for society, they conclude, that it is not for themy but for 
 others^ thus to devote themselves. Dr Johnson observes, ** It is 
 our business to consider what beings like us may perform ; each 
 labouring for his own happiness, by promoting, in his circle, 
 however narrov:, the happiness of others." And Mr Locke says, 
 " Every man has a commission to admonish, exhort, and con- 
 vince another of error, and, by reasoning, to draw him into the 
 truth." But those persons are ready to reply, If Mr Locke says 
 every one has a commission, he must take it for granted, that 
 they have the ability likewise. And I would beg leave to ask, 
 are there any, is there one, in this assembly, who has not both 
 the commission and the ability .'' Can we not admonish by the 
 distribution of Religious Tracts ? Can we not exhort by the 
 same means ? Can we not, by the same means, teach whatsoever 
 things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report ? 
 And if we can thus admonish, exhort, and teach, I leave it for 
 this meeting to decide, whether or not it be our bounden duti/.'* 
 
 The Rev. R. Davison, in addressing the meeting, considered 
 the persons who were employed in supporting those societies 
 that have for their object the removal of vice, and the propagii- 
 tion of virtue, as amongst the noblest benefactors of mankind. 
 He highly approved of the object of the Religious Tract Societv, 
 and wished to lend it all the support in his power. He alluded, 
 in terms of high and deserved respect, to the much lamented 
 dcatli of the late Rev, J. Banks, of Monkwearmouth, who was 
 an able and zealous advocate of the Tract Society, and of various 
 public useful institutions. He ardently hoped, that others, endued 
 with a like spirit, would be raised up to succeed him In tliis 
 labour of love. He concluded by expressing his ilrm persuasicn, 
 tliat the combined efforts of Cliristians would, under tlie prosper- 
 ing smile of Heaven, be followed by the most happy and glorious 
 results. 
 
 On seconding the 10th Resolution, the Rev. Robert Ilarjis 
 spoke as follows : 
 
 " We live in an age of constant and progressive exertion. 
 On every hand we contemplate the exertions of all classes of 
 society. But what is of the greatest importance, wc live in
 
 so 
 
 the blaze of gespel clay I A period, in which Christians are 
 adopting schemes of benevolence with growing s2tisf;:ction. 
 The present age is distinguished from all which preceded it ; 
 and we rejoice that Britain, amidst all her imperfections, is 
 favoured with being rich in good works : for there is scarcely 
 anv species, either of physical or moral want, but may lind 
 adequate provision in our highly-favoured isle. 
 
 " We rejoice to see philanthropists uniting their talents and 
 influence to promote the welfare of mankind. And, while they 
 remember the temporal, they do not forget the splritural neces- 
 sities of their fellow creatures. We need no other evidence of 
 this, than the British and Foreign Bible Society, Missionary 
 Societies, and Tracts Societies ; all of which have one object in 
 view, that is, the glory of God, and the salvation of souls. And, 
 when we consider the iniquity that abounds, and the ignorance 
 which exists, every reflecting person must see the propriety of 
 using means to stop the progress of immorality, and remove the 
 clouds of ignorance from the moral world. And what better 
 method can be adopted for such a purpose, in connection with 
 the dissemination of the holy Scriptures, and the regular admi- 
 nistration of the Word of Life, than the circulation of Religious 
 Tracts ? If so, then the Tract Society demands your patronage, 
 and deserves your support, when you consider the illustrious 
 Person these Tracts exhibit. 
 
 *' It will be almost superfluous to say, that these Tracts are, 
 in a general way, purely evangelical ; that they display the dig- 
 nity, and exhibit the mediatorial glory of our common Lord. 
 
 *' We are Christians ; and every attempt to make known ths 
 excellence, to dlft'use the knowledge, and to celebrate the praises 
 of Christ, must be laudable, and the highest honour to which a 
 Christian can consistently and rationally aspire. 
 
 " If the character of Christ be the perfection of excellence, 
 and the Tracts exhibit him, then how laudable your practice to 
 circulate them ! And, while writers of novels and romances 
 expatiate on their feigned heroes, let us not be ashamed to write 
 and speak of the glory of Him whom all the angels of God 
 worship. 
 
 " But, besides, consider their moral tendency. It has been ob- 
 served, that a method which Voltaire and his associates adopted to 
 spread infidelity, was the circulation of pamphlets, which con- 
 tained sceptical, licentious, and infidel prmciples j and that they 
 produced the most baneful effects. The tendency of these Tracts, 
 however, is quite the reverse : there is nothing in them adapted 
 to feed human pride, or produce unholy dispositions ; they are 
 all designed to promote holiness in heart and life. Indeed it Is
 
 21 
 
 inipossible they should be otherwise, seeing they arc streams 
 Issuing from tiiat pure fountain' the Bible. And of many now 
 in circulation, it may be said, they are epitomes of the gospel j 
 and all are adapted to the meanest capacity. In some we have 
 the gi-eat doctrines of the gospel stated and explained, and the 
 most important of all enquires answered, What must I do to be 
 saved ? In others we see the efficacy of these truths in the 
 heart, and exemplified in the life the lion has been changed 
 into a lamb the vulture into a dove and all related with the 
 simplicity of the gospel of Christ. Another furnishes us with, 
 the purest system of morality, and enforces the golden rule, 
 *< As ye would that men do to you, do ye also to them." Others 
 contain the divine threatenings against the finally impenitent ; 
 and such solemn appeals to the conscience can scarcely fail, at. 
 least, to make some slight impression. These silent monitors 
 often produce the most beneficial effects on the minds of those 
 whom the living voice could not reach, and with whom the Bible 
 itself never found countenance. A Tract will often find its way 
 into scenes of dissipation and wretchedness, where the herald of 
 salvation scarcely dares enter, and where the Bible, perhaps, 
 would never be introduced. 
 
 " But, after all, let us consider the grand object of this insti- 
 tution it is nothing less than the salvation of the immortal soul I 
 What some excellent institutions do for the body, this does for 
 the soul; and although they are, of course, excellent in their 
 place ; this, and similar institutions, as far excel them, as the 
 soul excels the body : as the bright lamp of day, which fertilizes 
 and beautifies creation, does the pale glimmering of the moon 
 shining on snow, which at best is but cold and clear. 
 
 *' In a word; the object is, to snatch sinners as brands from 
 the burning ; to translate them from the kingdom of darkness 
 to the kingdom of God's dear Son ; and, ultimately, to translate 
 them from the church militant to the church triumphant. 
 
 *' Let us add to our exertions, sincere and fervent prayer, that 
 that glorious period may speedily arrive, wb.en Tracts shall be 
 useless when our once crucified, but now risen and exalted 
 Lord, shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river 
 to the ends of the earth when the whole earth shall be filled 
 with the Mediator's glory. Amen and Amen." 
 
 The Rev. INIr Ratlibone expressed himself extrenAcly happy in 
 having it in his power to bear his own testiniony to the great 
 usefulness of the society, particularly in the neighbouring villages, 
 where it was his business frequently to preach. He had found 
 *.]iat the reading of Religious Tracts not only set the labouring
 
 22 
 
 rbsscs to think upon the great subject of religion ; hut, as far as 
 he had been concerned in their distribution, he had found them the 
 means of stirring up in the people a spirit of hearing the Word. 
 As he must, therefore, look upon this society as a sort of auxiliary 
 to his itinerant labours, he must be excused the liberty he then 
 took of proposing himself a circulating agent in the village 
 excursions to which he had referred : and further hoped, tiiat 
 the society would confirm to him the honour of that olfice, by 
 not suffering him to go away without a supply of their Tracts -, 
 whilst, on the other hand, he would pledge himself to distribute 
 tliem to the best advantage for the society's interest. 
 
 Preparatory to the resolutions respecting thcAPPOiNTMENT of 
 THE Tract-Composition Committee, the Chairman expressed 
 his firm conviction, that such a measure would, if adopted, be found 
 fraught with benefit to the society ; and not to this only, but to 
 the Parent Institution, and to every Auxiliary in the kingdom. 
 It was not, he begged to say, the fruit of an hour's thought, but 
 the result of some years' consideration ; and had further received 
 the approbation of many highly judicious friends of the society, 
 to whom it had been mentioned. From a slender beginning, this 
 Institution had risen to an extent pf magnitude and efficiency 
 that could not have been anticipated. There seemed to have been 
 but one obstacle that had checked its progress, though that had 
 operated to a rather considerable degree, the "want of a greater 
 variety of Tracts. This was known to every member of the 
 committee, and particulary to the Depositary, to whom the objec- 
 tion had been made by numberless individuals. Mr W. regretted 
 that this objection had been so much dwelt upon ; as he thought, 
 that, with many of the subscribers, a little reflection would have 
 shewn that, though the Tracts were not new to themselves^ yet 
 they would most likely have been entirely so to the parties to 
 whom they might be given. However, we could not be insensi- 
 ble of the/ac/, that this objection did exist, and had not a little 
 influenced the public mind to our disadvantage. We had seen, 
 too, one hopeful society, in a neighbouring town, actually suffered 
 to go down on this alleged ground. 
 
 To obviate this hindrance to our prosperity, Mr W. begged to 
 propose the annexation to our society of a Religio-Literary Com- 
 mittee, to be denominated the "Tract-Composition Committee j" 
 and which should consist of four or six persons of acknowledged 
 piety, talent, and skill in composition, who should charge them- 
 selves with the preparation of suitable Tracts, (particularly, Mr 
 "W. would recommend, biographical sketches ; the combination of 
 incident, with precept, being always found most attractive) ;
 
 2S 
 
 which Tracts should be strictly scrutinized by this committee i 
 and submitted for ulterior revision to the ^r/ic/a/ committee, and, 
 if by them approved, should be sent to the Parent Society, with 
 a recommendation, that they be printed, and added to their list. 
 The advantages resulting from such an appendage to each Auxili- 
 ary Society, Mr W. conceived, would be many. T/ie religious 
 talent of the country xvould be called Jortli, and in a way that 
 might be permanently and unllmitedly useful. Out of the 12.5 
 Auxiliaries now said to be in existence, we might surely hope that 
 there would be found in the 25, at least, talent and disposition 
 suiiicient to co-operate in this plan ; and if each of these were 
 annually to produce but four Tracts, then, instead of 1 30, (of which 
 nearly 40 were of a kind so much directed to particular persons 
 or occasions, as to preclude their being bound up in parcels for 
 promiscuous distribution), we should soon have lOrfO. The al- 
 ii action (if NOFELTr -j^ould he raaintained : and let not any de- 
 voutly-minded Christian present startle at the word. It was true, 
 the newest NewTestament we had was seventeen hundred years old j 
 yet, the gravest and most sober-minded minister did not hesitate 
 to endeavour to give its truths an ever-varying garb, to invest 
 them with the attraction mentioned. This was all we wanted. 
 In every mind there was something of originality^ which moulded 
 ks thoughts into its oxen form, and arrayed them in its ott-vi dressy 
 this was liGVELTY. And ineligible Tracts would be prevented being 
 brought into circulation. It fell to the knowledge of Mr W. that, 
 owing to the want of sufficient variety, some of the Auxiliaries 
 liad now begun to print for themselves \ and certain of their 
 Tracts, which he had seen, were by no means reputable to the 
 Parent Society, with whose publications they were identified, 
 from the mode in which they were issued. They were not un- 
 marked with the ShibboUth (if a sect .- nor was their treatment 
 of their subjects, or style of composition, characterized by that 
 ability, which ought to be found in them, and which was neces- 
 sary to maintain the tone of sentinaent and expression, pervadiiij 
 the Parent Society's publications. 
 
 We were not, thank God, in this town, wanting in talmtf^. 
 There were persons in this society, and probal)ly in the roo;n, 
 tliough Mr W. did not at that uiomeut discover them, whuse 
 writings liad not a little cuntrilnited t:) cnligliteii the public niinJ, 
 and attract it to the high concern of religion. Ncltiier were wl* 
 wanting in suitable subjects for Tracts. Wherever else they are 
 to be found, remarked Mr W. wc see them in our neighboiiriiig 
 cottugeSy and m the cellars, and gunets, of the poor. Wc have- 
 there beheld Chrlstianty rearing her divine form in all her pri- 
 jr.itive purity and lu:>tre -, meeting, with uur.in.-J .u.d diL'uliled
 
 u 
 
 Kibmission, the severest ills of life ; assuming, amidst the keenest 
 sufferings, her fairest, loveliest, mien j and appearing, with a radi- 
 aiTce the more dazzling, from the thickened gloom of exterior 
 aflliction, with which she was surrounded. Like the towering 
 oak, on the summit ot the mountain, when assailed by the infu- 
 riated tempest ; with every successive blast that threatens it with 
 destnrction, it but strikes its fibrous roots the deeper, and the 
 more firmly infixes itself in the moveless basis in which it rests. 
 
 In acknowledging the accustomed vote of thanks to the Chair, 
 the Chairman begged to remind the friends of the society, that 
 rhe value of a meeting of this kind was to be estimated by its 
 product. We had been contemplating a holy and beneficent 
 object ; and each individual had seemed ready to say, in the 
 expressive language of Young, 
 
 " T pnze and ns T geze my mounting goxil 
 " Catches strange tkc and drops the world." 
 
 Let lis bev/are that the feeling, thus produced, elevated and pure 
 as it might be, did not evaporate in barren sympathies and unpro- 
 ductive intentions. Let us give expression to it in ///e, by reno- 
 Tfared zeal and re-invigorated efForts. Mr W. had frequently 
 Beard it said by members of this society, that " they would wil- 
 lingly purchase more Tracts than they did, but that they had no- 
 opportunity of distribi'ting them." But had we no jxmr neigh-- 
 h()7iys that were yet unconverted ? Were there no &ick person^y 
 by whose bed side, a sik-nt, and yet effectual monitor of the 
 truth, might not thus be left ? Were the surrounding villages all 
 supplied ? Were there not numbers of persons in the neigh- 
 bouring collieries yet enwrapt in moral darkness, as profound and 
 opake, as if they Irad been reared in a heathen or pagan country ^ 
 Our shippiugy had it been visited ? And, above all, and that 
 medium of ci-rculation, to which Mr W. most earnestly wished to 
 invite the attention of the meeting, the neighbouring Sunday 
 Schools, formed and forming, among the various denonunations 
 of Christians. Tiirough tliese they might find a double oppor- 
 tupntv of doing good. By occasionally sending out their packets 
 of Tracts to the superintendents of these schools, they would 
 gi\e encotir.igenK'nt to institutions of incalculable benefit to the 
 ge.neration iust springing into life ; and find an easy and happy 
 mrans of conveying evangcli.-al instrMction into thousands of the 
 cu::.:^g'js of tlie poor.
 
 OFFICERS FOR THE ENSUING YEAR. 
 
 Mr C. N. Wawn, President. 
 
 Mr John Fenwick, Treasurer. 
 
 Rev. R Pengilly, Secretary. 
 
 Mr T. Brunting, /Isststant Secretary. 
 
 Mr J, Fin LAY, Mosley Street, Depositary, 
 
 Mr G. F. Angas 
 Mr J. Annandaue 
 Mr J. Baker 
 Mr G. Bargate 
 Mr T. Bonner 
 Rev. R. Davison 
 
 Mr Downing, Jun. 
 Mr J. Elliott 
 Mr J. Turn BULL 
 Mr J. B Falconar 
 Mr M. FoRsrtR 
 Mr Haggie 
 
 Rev. D. M'Indoi 
 
 Rev. J. PRINGLE 
 
 Mr D. Robertson 
 Mr W, RoBsos 
 Mr G Hoy 
 Mr J. Lindsay 
 
 COLLECTORS. 
 
 Mr R. Granger 
 Mr R. Davison 
 
 Mr J. HiNDHAUGH 
 
 Mr G. Haggerstom 
 Mr WiLLta
 
 ANNUAL SUBSCRIBERS 
 
 To the Newcastle Religious Tract Society. 
 
 Mr John Aynsley, Newgate Street _ - - 
 
 Mr Caleb Angas, Westgate Street 
 
 Mr J. L. Angas, Albion Place - - - - 
 
 Mrs J. L. Angas, ditto _ _ _ _ 
 
 INIr W. H. Angas, Westgate Street _ _ - 
 Anonymous, per ditto _ _ _ _ 
 
 Mr G. F, Angas, West Turnpike Gate - ^ - 
 
 Mr W. Angus, Close _ - - _ - 
 
 Mr George Airey, Green Court _ - _ 
 
 Mr Atkinson, Side - _ - _ _ 
 
 Miss Aydon, Pilgrim Street _ _ _ - 
 
 Mr John Aydon, ditto _ . _ _ 
 
 Ivlr John Annandale, Westgate Street 
 
 Mr Joseph Arundale, Gallowgate - - - 
 
 ]Mr John Angus, Hamsterley _ _ - - 
 
 Mr Teasdale Angas, Corn Market 
 
 1^-Ir Joseph Angas, at Mr Dunlop's, Sandhill 
 
 W. Batson, Esq. Northumberland Street 
 
 Mr F. Bell, Northumberland Street - _ - 
 
 Mr Thomas Bonner, Side - - - _ 
 
 Mr James Baker, New Mills _ .. _ - 
 
 Mr Thomas Brunting, Assistant Secretary 
 
 Tvlibs Brunting, Head of the Side _ > - 
 
 iVlr C^cDi ge Bargale, Newgate Street 
 
 Ivlr B rkinshaw ______ 
 
 Ivli:,s Bruce, Feukle Street _ _ _ - . 
 
 ]wr Anthony Barkas, Bigg Market > - _ 
 
 Mrs blackcit, Feiikle S.ncct - - - - 
 
 Jvir Burdon, Side -_--_- 
 ]\liss Boucr, per Rev. R. Pengilly 
 Mrs Blakev, Pudding Chare _ _ _ - 
 
 Mrb M. Brodie, Westgate Street - _ - . 
 
 Mr G. Branuvell, Quayside - _ - - 
 
 I\Ir Cuthbcrc Burnup, Barrus. Bridire, per Mr Bakcr^ 
 
 . 
 
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 27 
 
 Mr Burnup, Westgate Street, per Mr Baker 
 
 Mr Benson, Jun. Pilgrim Street 
 
 Mr J. Blackstone _ _ _ . 
 
 Mr J. Beil, at Angas Sc Cos'. - - . 
 
 Tvliss Common, Westgate Street 
 
 Mr Coulthard, Bill Quay - - - - 
 
 j\Ir John Carr ~ _ - - - 
 
 INIiss Colhoun, Side _ _ _ 
 
 Rev. Mr Crosthvvalte, Houghton-lc-spring 
 
 Mr Joseph Clark, Jun. Newgate Street 
 
 IMr Ilenrv Colbeck ditto 
 
 iSirs E. R. Clarke, Bridge Street 
 
 Ivlr George Cowan, Side _ _ _ 
 
 Miss Cochrane, Forth Street - - _ 
 
 Miss I\I Carr, Pilgrim Street 
 
 Mr Church, House Surgeon, Infirmary 
 
 Mr John Dobson, Mosley Street - 
 
 Miss Dale, Lisle Street _ _ ~ _ 
 
 Mr Dixon, Close _ _ _ _ 
 
 Mr George Dodds, Killingworth 
 
 Mr Robert Duke, Gateshead 
 
 Mr Davidson, Old Flesh Market 
 
 IMr John Dorman, Newgate Street 
 
 Rev. Ralph Davison, Postern 
 
 Mr Joseph Elliott, Mosley Street 
 
 INIr Eggleston, per Mr Hodgson 
 
 Miss Elliott, Close - - - - - 
 
 INIr John Elliott, per Mr T. Brunting 
 
 IVV R Frost, Sen. Elswick - - - 
 
 Mr James Finlay, ^'osley Street, Depositary 
 
 Mr S. M. Frost, Newgate Street 
 
 Mrs Flanders, High Friar Street 
 
 Mr John Fenwick, Treasurer 
 
 Mr Davitl Flintofl", Westgate Street 
 
 Mr Thomas Featherston, Collingwood Street 
 
 Mr John Featherston, Rosemary Lane 
 
 Mr J. B. Falconar, Forth Banks 
 
 Miss Anna Forsyth, (iatcshcad 
 
 iVir John Ferens, N'oslcy Street - - - 
 
 Mr Robert Fair, Ihllast Hills 
 
 Mr R. Featherston, Collingwood Street 
 
 Mr Richard Forster _ _ _ _ . 
 
 Mr Matthew Forster, Westgate Street 
 
 Mr Forsyth, Pilgrin-. Street, per Mr Baker 
 
 Mr Joiin Gee, Dean Street - - 
 
 . 
 
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 28 
 
 Mr John Geddie - - - - 
 
 iNIr Thomas Gibson, Mosley Street - 
 
 iVir George Grundy, Gallowgate - - - 
 
 Mr Thomas Gray, Dean Street 
 
 !Wr William Greaves, New Pandon Street 
 
 ]V!r George Granger, High Friar Street 
 
 William John Gray, Esq. Northumberland Street 
 
 Wr James Galloway, Quayside - - - 
 
 Wr R. Goodlad, Westgate Street 
 
 Mr James Guthrie, Cock's Chare 
 
 ^'!r W. A. Hartley . . - - - 
 
 Thomas Heath, Esq. Northumberland Street 
 
 I^'r Thomas Hogg, Dean Street - - - 
 
 Mr Ralph Hodgson, Forth Street 
 
 Mr Thomas Horn, Head of the Side 
 
 Wr David Haggie, Gateshead .. - - 
 
 Mr Joseph Hedlev, Percy Street - - - 
 
 Mr H. Hall, West Gate . - - - 
 
 ^'rJamesHorsley, ^'osley Street 
 
 Mr Cuthbert Handyside, Head of the Side 
 
 Mr H. Henderson, Gateshead - _ - 
 
 Mr George Hoy, Sandhill - - - 
 
 Mr John Holland, Denton Chare 
 
 Mr William Heppell, Dispensary Square 
 
 Mr Hall, for Burnup Field Sunday School - 
 
 Mr John Hunter, Gateshead _ _ _ 
 
 Mr William Hunter, Sandhill - - - 
 
 Mr George Hoggarth, High Friar Street 
 
 Mrs Haswell, Gateshead _ - - - 
 
 Mr George Haggerston, High Friar Chare 
 
 Mr William Harrison, I^emington 
 
 Miss Hogg, Westgate Street _ _ _ 
 
 Miss Horsier, Head of the Side 
 
 Mrs Hogarth, at Mr Tully's, St John's I-anc - 
 
 Mrs James, Northumberland Street 
 
 Mr Cuthbert Johnson, Union Street 
 
 Mr George Innes, St John's Eane 
 
 A Lady, per Rev. J Pringle _ . _ 
 
 ]\Ir R. E. I^awson, Pudding Cliare 
 
 Mr John Eowes, Bigg Market _ _ _ 
 
 Mr John Lindsay, Newgate Street 
 
 Mr John Lawthcr, Forth Banks , _ - 
 
 Miss E. Landells, l^ilgrim Street 
 
 Mr J Morton 
 
 y !r George Mann, Sandhill _ - - 
 
 . 
 
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 29 
 
 Mr Thomas Moffitt, Dean Street _ - - 
 
 Rev. D. M<Indoe, Strawberry Place - - - 
 
 Mr Macdonald, Newgate Street . - - 
 
 Mr D. Mather, Sen. Head of the Side 
 
 Mr D. Mather, Jun. ditto 
 
 Mr Thomas Mason, No. 7, Dean Street 
 
 Miss Moreland, Westgate Street - - - 
 
 Mr John Millar, High Friar Street 
 
 Mr William Nesbit, Horsley Sunday School 
 
 Mr P. Nairn, Old Flesh Market 
 
 Mr Edward Nicholson, Belsay, per Mr Teasdale Angas 
 
 Miss Oliver, Whickham _ _ _ - 
 
 Mr John Ormsby, Close - - - - - 
 
 Miss Oliver ___--_ 
 
 Mrs Pattison, per Mr R. Hodgson _ - - 
 
 Rev. J. Pringle, Clavering Place - - - 
 
 Rev. R. Pengilly, Bath Cottage, Secretary 
 
 Mr W. Potter, Wallbottle - - . 
 
 Rev. J. Pringle, for Library - _ - - 
 
 Mr F. Porter, Side . - - - - 
 
 Mr Thomas Potts, at Miss Verty's _ _ _ 
 
 Mrs Pattison, per Miss Brunting - - - 
 
 Mr Pringle, Newgate Street _ _ _ _ 
 
 Mr Pallister, Newgate Street, per Mr Baker 
 
 Rev. W. Robertson, Blyth _ _ - _ 
 
 Mr D. Robertson, Castle Garth 
 
 Mr W. Richardson, at Robson & Co.'s 
 
 Mr Thomas Richardson, Pilgrim Street 
 
 Mr John Reay, Carville - - - - - 
 
 Mr William Robson, Sandhill > _ _ 
 
 Mr William Ruttcr, Elswick _ _ - - 
 
 Mr Thomas Rutter, Pilgrim Street 
 
 Mr John Richardson, Carter House - - - 
 
 Miss Rowcll, Pudding Chare _ _ _ 
 
 Mr Ryle, Elswick 
 
 Mrs Robinson, Sandhill _ _ - _ 
 
 Mr P. Robinson, Side _ _ - _ - 
 
 Mr James Rutherford, Tow Bridge 
 Mr Thomas Shaw, I^ow Friar Street 
 Mr 'Hiomas Stanley, at Messrs Eandells and Co.'s 
 Mr A. Sivelain, Forth Street _ - _ - 
 
 Miss Smith, Fenkle Street _ - - - 
 
 Mrs Smith, ditto _ _ , . - 
 
 Mr Smith _'_---- 
 
 Mr William Sandcland, I^ow Elswick 
 
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 30 
 
 . s. d. 
 
 Mr J. Scott, Panclon Bank 40 
 
 Mr Robert Spoor, Glass House Bridge - - 4 
 
 Mr James Sanderson, Jarrow - - - - 4 
 
 Mrs Smith, Pilgrim Street - - - - 4 
 
 Miss Smith, ditto - - - - -10 
 
 Mr Andrew Shaw 040 
 
 Mr F. Sanderson, High Friar Street . . .04 
 
 Mr Scarlet, Westgate Street - - - - 4 
 
 l\^r John Turnbull, Pilgrim Street - - - 4 
 
 Mrs Helen Turnbull 4 
 
 Mr Thompson >----- 
 
 Rev. J. Tyson, Cotfield House, Gateshead - - 10 
 
 Miss Taylor, Northumberland Court - - 4 
 
 Mr John Todd, Groat jMarket - - - - 4 
 
 Mrs Tate, Butcher Bank - - - - 6 
 Tuthill Stairs Sunday School Society- 
 Mrs Uzuld, Dean Street - - - - - 
 Miss Verty, Dean Street - - - - 
 
 Mr John Vickers, Side 10 
 
 Miss Jane Watson, Pilgrim Street - - - 4 
 Mr C. N Wawn, Northumberland Place, President 6 6 
 
 Mr Wear, Nun "Gate 
 
 Rev. C. Whitfield, Hamsterly - - - 
 
 Mr Joseph Wilkinson, Quayside _ 
 
 Mrs Wheatley, per Mr iviather, Head of the Side 4 
 
 Mr John Wright, Newgate Street . . . .040 
 
 Mr D. Walton, St John's Lane . . . . 4 
 
 Mr Edward Ward, Low Friar Chare 
 
 Mr Thomas Widderington, St Nicholas', Church Yard 4 
 
 Mr Robert Wilson, Forth Street . . . .060 
 
 Mrs Young, Dean Street . . . . 4a 
 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 1 1 
 4 
 S 
 
 4 
 4 
 4 
 
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 G. ANGUS, PRINTEEL.
 
 THE 
 
 BENEFITS 
 
 OF 
 
 SUNDAY SCHOOLS, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 ADVANTAGES 
 
 OF 
 
 "UNION S," 
 
 BEMARKED (/PUN IN 
 
 THE SPEECH OF MR C. N. WAWN, 
 
 (from the chair,) 
 
 AT THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF THE CUMBERLAND 
 AND CARLISLE SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION, 
 
 HOLDEN AT 
 
 The Tovon-Hall, Carlisle, on Monday, the 2nd of 
 November, 1818. 
 
 FOURTH EDITION. 
 
 NEWCASTLE 
 
 PKISKIIJ KV MlWARl) WALKIK.
 
 JVIr WAWN, in acknowledging the vote of thanks with 
 which the meeting had juft honored him, declared himfelf 
 amply repaid for any trifling fervice he might be thought to 
 have rendered the fociety, by the inftruftive remarks he had 
 juft heard, and efpecially by the comprehenfive and well- 
 written Report read by his worthy friend the Secretary ; a 
 Report which he was glad to think would be preferred as a 
 valuable piece of information, relative to the exifting means 
 of education among the lower orders, in an extenfive fur- 
 rounding tradt of country. 
 
 To the inftitution of Sunday Schools, Mr W. avowed 
 a fmcere and deep attachment. That attachment was not 
 built on the hope of any diftant or problematical good, or 
 on any abftradt reafoning, or ingenious indudtions made 
 from fpecious but equivocal premifes ; but from having per- 
 fonally witnefled, on a fcale of obfervatlon that it fell to the 
 lot of but few perfons to enjoy, a great number of clear, 
 fpecific, tangible inftances of benefit of the higheft order. 
 The Union, over which Mr W. had the honour to prefide, 
 comprifed in it about 14,000 children and gratuitous teach- 
 ers, diffufed through between 80 and 90 fchools. Such was 
 the afcertained worth of thefe humble but inellimable inlli- 
 tutions ; and it v.us not to be atfefted by llie fneer of tlie 
 infidel, or the fupercilicnis fmile oi unthinking tolly or of 
 fafhionable fVIvolity. To every candid mind, that would 
 take the trouble of Inveiligation, they prefented themfelves 
 as one of the richeft exilling vehicles of intellcdual i^leflings 
 to the poor, and as one of the moft pcnverful inllruments 
 for effefting tlie moral regeneration of the country. To 
 take tlie lozvejl view of the benefits they imparted, there were 
 negalive ones of a valuable kind. A child was preferved 
 jrom defecratiiig the Sabbatli, by drawling it away in lilUefs 
 idlenefs at lionie, or fpending it in wanton mifchiel in the 
 fields, and probably in gambling or pilfering. Mr W . lierc 
 ftated a fact, on his own knowledge, that in one village 
 where a Sund.iy vScliool was likely to go down for want of 
 funds, a neighbouririg farmci', who otherwife, probably, 
 cared but little al)out tlie iVliool, oilcred 5 towards its 
 continued fupport, declaring, that wlicn it was not in ope- 
 
 A 2
 
 ration, the injury done to his corn-ftacks far exceeded that 
 amount. On looking into aBual life, it was an awful truth, 
 that the Sunday was feen to be, in an imnienfe number of ' 
 inllances among the poor, a day of recovery from the un- 
 reftrained intemperance and diffipation of the preceding 
 night ; and their home was a fcene of domeftic broils, and 
 of mutual reproach and crimination. A child was a-witnefs 
 to all tliis unhappy difcord ; and that too, perhaps, on \ht 
 only day that it was much found in the fociety of its parents. 
 Its ears were thus rendered familiar with blafphemy ; it 
 heard recited afts of iniquity ; it beheld human nature in its 
 worft modifications, under the influence of all the bad paf- 
 fions of the human heart. Vice was thus prefented to it in 
 its various fhades and operations, in a perfonified form : and 
 almoft enforced on its adoption, by the weight and fanftion 
 that parental example and authority gave to it, till the re- 
 mains of moral fenfibility in the wretched infant were blunt- 
 ed almoft to extin(ftion. After contemplating fuch a pidture, 
 and one not more afFefting than juft, could we wonder at 
 the prevalence of juvenile delinquency .^ 
 
 Contraft fuch a fituation and fuch circumftances, with the 
 attendance of a child at a Sunday School, and mark further 
 the pofitive benefits thus afforded to it. It was fubjetfted to 
 a ftate of moral difcipline. Its wild and untutored mind and 
 perfon were calmed and quieted, and brought under gentle 
 but Ready fubordination. To the fpeaker it had often been 
 highly interefting to obferve the principle of fclf-control thus 
 Srft acquired in a newly-formed i'chool, and the fubfequent 
 propriety and ftillnefs with which a great body of childreh 
 deported themfelves, who, but a few months before, were 
 as tumultuous as the waves of a ftormy fea. The moral 
 principles of fobriety, honefty, induftry, obedience to parents, 
 fubmiffion to conftituted authorities, and of all the great 
 relative duties of life, were continually inculcated on them, 
 and urged on the only grounds that could enfure their ac- 
 ceptance and their practice, thofe fet forth in the iacred 
 bcripturcs. The ruiiitncnts of ufeful iiiJlru5ion were imparted 
 to thcrn. They were particularly taught to read ; and thus 
 were opened to them the exhauftlefs ftores of that book 
 which had been jnltly defignated as being "the grand depo- 
 iltory of tr'i'di and wifdom, mercy and holinefs." But the 
 moft prominently-beneficent and charadteriftic feature of 
 the fchools was the religious inJlruBion given at each aflem- 
 bling of the children. The effential and diftinguifhing doc- 
 '.riucs of tlie Gofpel, efpecially the fallen and depraved con-
 
 dition of man and his utter moral impotency, and the 
 means of his redemption and reftoration provided in Jefus 
 Chrift, and thefe appHed by the agency of the Holy Spirit, 
 were endeavoured to be preifed on their regard with a iim- 
 plicity and plainnels of expreffion faited to their infantine 
 coniprehenfion. From " line upon line, and precept upon 
 precept," thus adniiniftered, from this iteration and reitera- 
 tion of the moll important truths of Holy Writ, and thefe 
 unfolded and eaiorced, the moft fatisfadory and beneficial 
 refults had been produced. Light had been feen to fteal 
 into the mind, the judgment to become informed, the con- 
 fcience awakened, the heart renewed, and the life had fur- 
 nilhed a practical comment on the faving truths received. 
 Theje, Mr W. begged to remark, were no Utopian inftances 
 of good, fancied and adduced to carry a prefent purpofe. 
 To many hundreds of inftances now in our fchools, we 
 could refer in confirmation of the animating truth, of young 
 perfons who there received their earlieft inftruftion, and 
 their firft religious imprefllons, and who had groAvn up to 
 decilion of charadler and to eminent ufefulnefs in Ibciety, 
 and to whom, it need fcarcely be added, thefe fchools were 
 endeared and attached by the ftrongeft ties. Many others 
 ol them had clofcd a valuable life by a death of peace, or 
 of triumph, had been fafely houfed like the fliocks of corn 
 that had jiift difappeared from our fields. " V/e have feen," 
 faid Mr W., " their piety fpringing up ' in the blade,' 
 fprighily, and beautiful, and intereiting ; we have feen it 
 ' in the ear,' gradually opening and expanding, and fur- 
 nifhing promiie of future excellence and ufefulnefs, yet 
 viewed with trembling iblicitude, left the hopes tluis origi- 
 nated Ihouki never be reali/.ed ; and we have ibcn it, tmder 
 the genial inilucnce of the fun of heaven, ripen into the 
 golden grain, preJenting the ' full corn in the car ;' and as 
 it filleJ, it was ieen to bend, bfiwing, as it were, to the 
 dull, under a ronlcioui'nefs of its utter unwortliinefs of being 
 niad'j the ricli depoTitory of the blefiings received ; and, 
 wlien fully ripe, it w.i'^ gutliered by the icaping angel into 
 the lieavenly g.i; ner." 
 
 'i'h'jrc were, too, ultei'ior and indirect advantages from 
 tliele fclio'.ls, v.hiih ought to l>e ])art'cuhtri/C'J. B.iiU /IJo- 
 :iaU-i<ii -.VLTe generally foruicd ; and from con'.viimtiojis 
 .irili;,:'; o.;i of lin; [icnny (.t half-penny weekly dej^cfits from 
 tlie ("hildren, Mr W . had frequently been aj. plied to to 
 Ix'cotijo ilic medium of purchaHng 20 or .L'.\{) v.orth of 
 l>i:/r.-. In n..iny cafes the elder cliihlrcn ol \ famil} had
 
 purchafed a fecond Bible for the father and mother, and a 
 third for their brothers and fillers. Nor were the vohimes 
 unufed ; their appearance (hewed that they were read ; and 
 on the beft authority, Mr W. had been informed, that in 
 certain places in the coal mines, where almoft every fpecies 
 of wickednefs had formerly prevailed, it was not now unu- 
 fual to find, in their fpare moments, one boy reading a 
 chapter to a furrounding group of attentive lifteners, or 
 they were heard uniting in a hymn of praife. From com- 
 mitting whole chapters to memory, replying to queftions 
 on the interrogation-fyftem after reading, and writing exer- 
 cifes between one Sunday and another in which they were 
 required to cite every pafTage bearing upon fome fpecified 
 dodlrine or duty, the acquaintance of great numbers of the 
 children with the Scriptures was truly aftonifhing, and 
 almoft entitled them to the appellation of a body of young 
 divines. Religious Tr.iSs, too, were thus widely diffufed, 
 frequently irradiating from a fchool, as a centre, through 
 all the furrounding villages. Circulalwg Libraries, confift- 
 ing of ftandard religious works, and thofe of general ufeful- 
 nefs and inftrudtion, were frequently appended to the 
 fchools ; and, in the manner of their being raifed, fumifhed 
 another proof of what had been (fomewhat boldly) termed 
 the " omnipotence of trifles." Three or four hundred 
 children he had known to fubfcribe a farthing a fortnight, and 
 form a valuable little library, and then compliment their 
 teachers with gratis admiflion to it, as a mark of their affec- 
 tionate gratitude. The beft of all was, that feldom was 
 there a fingle book left in the library, in fuch continual 
 reading were they. When fick, the children were vifited at 
 home by feledl appointed vifiters, whofe labours had not un- 
 frequently benefitted the parents, and perfons cafually prefent. 
 The means of perpetuation ofthefe fchools, it would be at once 
 difcerned, were moft effectually fecured in giving energy 
 and ftability to the fchools now in exiftence. To the young 
 fubjects of their beneficial influence, there could not a more 
 natural and acceptable mode of evincing their grateful fen- 
 fibility prefent itfelf, than that of cherifhing and fupjiorting 
 the inftruments by which invaluable blefllngs had been con- 
 veyed to themi'elves. And this important truth he hoped 
 .the conductors of thefe fchools would never ceafe to imprefs, 
 again and aga'n, upon their minds. 
 
 In reference to the worth and efficiency of what lias been 
 termed a Sunday School Union, Mr W. faid, it was an 
 union of intelligence and influence, and of common fympa-
 
 thies and efforts, for the promotion of a common good. It 
 direded Its united powers to the confirmation and improve- 
 ment of exifting Schools, the rearing and re-animating of 
 drooping ones, and the planting of them where they were 
 not. It pofTeffed itfelf of the moft improved modes of teach- 
 ing, and communicated them ; it ftored itfelf with the beft- 
 adapted initiatory books, and fold them at reduced prices ; 
 and it aflifted, occafionally, as it was able, with gratuitous 
 grants of books or of money. It received quarterly Reports, 
 written or oral, from all the Schools in connexion with it, 
 and maintained a ftyftem of fupervifion over the v/hole, by 
 the quarterly vifitations of its Sub-Committees. But it 
 never interfered with the internal management or economy 
 of any one School. It tendered its beft fervices, and in a 
 way the moft friendly and without the flighteft infringement 
 on delicacy or propriety of procedure. It faid, we will 
 render you any or every affiftance in our power, but only in 
 your own ivay. We claim no right of control over you, or 
 of interference with your particular plans. Their objedt, in 
 fine, was to promote a great common good, without aiming 
 at the advancement of individual intereft. That good was 
 the R;;LiGtous Education of the Poor, attempted through 
 .1 channel promifing the greateft meafure of efficiency. 
 
 In remarking on tlie " common good," juft adverted to, 
 Mr W. faid, it was to him a delightful confideration, that 
 minor peculiarities feemed dwindling in importance in the 
 eftimation of the various religious communities, and that 
 ibis w.is the grand objed they were purfuing, with increased 
 limplicity and purity of intention. I: at once hallowed their 
 purpofe, and furnilhed a pledge of its fuccefs. It was like 
 as wlien a man who had been looking round him and ima- 
 gining one obje<5t to be of great importance, and a fecond, 
 and a third, caft his i-ye upward and was met by the full 
 bla/x' of the meridian i'un, it da/./.led into darknefs every 
 fecondary ol)ject they (luiuik intn infignificance, and almofl 
 into non-entity. So when the Chriftian, lofing fight of the 
 mere incicLntals and conromltants ot his profefhon, glanced at 
 the glorious efTulgence of tlie " Sun of Righteoufnefs," 
 wliofe " healing win^s" were charged with a fovereign 
 Ijalm for all the maladies of a dillcnipered world, he was 
 abibibcd and iilmolt loll in the pre-eminent greatnefs of the 
 contemplation. Stili, he contended, there was an honcif 
 agreement in all the gr.md ijftntiah of Chrillian truth, with- 
 out any merging of the claims of conleience. There was 
 co-operation, without compromife cordial concurrence in
 
 8 
 
 iiftion, witliout any commutation of principle. This *^good** 
 liowever, though a " common" one, was real and fubftan- 
 tial. The fpeaker had often been led unconfcioufly to 
 compare the humble unoftentatious labours of a Sunday 
 School teacher with many of the fplendid attainments or 
 performances of men to which the world attached much of 
 importance and of fame, and to afk what, in the eftimatioH 
 of fober reafon and truth, was their relative value ? Sup- 
 pofe a man to have made the mod extenfive acquirements 
 in claffical or mathematical knowledge, or to have become 
 a profound aftronomer, " and travelled Nature up to the 
 fharp peak of her fublimeft height," or to have employed 
 his life in arranging fhells, or claflifying butterflies, all of 
 them doubtlefs produdlive of a certain kind and extent of 
 good, yet in the ifliie, what did it amount to ? Would he 
 not at laft feel compelled to fay with Grotius, " Jh vitam 
 perdidi nihil operofe agtndo" I have fpent my life in laborious 
 trifling ? And, alas ! were not perlons pofieffing the fineft 
 talents too often thus occupied, in 
 
 " dropping buckets into empty wells, 
 
 " And growing old with drawing nothing up." 
 
 Contraft with fuch modes of filling up life, or with the 
 whiling it away in the purfuit of its mere follies, the toil- 
 fome but produBive efforts of one who was labouring to pro- 
 mote the bell:, the higheft, the everlafting interefts of thofe 
 who were to form the men and women of a future day, and 
 of whom it might at lead be hoped, that they would en- 
 deavour to hand down to others, and to diffufe and perpe- 
 tuate the bleffings they had fo happily received, who was 
 driving to infule the mod important knowledge into the 
 infant mind, and above all to cad it into " the mould of 
 heavenly truth," to implant in it, under the divine blefling, 
 thofe principles of our holy religion that would carry it 
 through the fevered fufferings of this life, and fecure its 
 eternal happinefs in the next ; and which would prepon- 
 derate in the edimaticn of enlightened reafon ? Of the 
 unfpeakable value of that P.eligion to the poor, amidd the 
 " thouiand ills" they were fubjeded to, thofe only could 
 judge who had witneffed its effecfts. The fpeaker begged 
 to digrefs for a moment, to relate an anecdote of an aged 
 female. "Poor Mary!" faid he, "I (hall never forget 
 poor Mary ! She was returning home, the pifture of pe- 
 nury and want, thoughtful, yet ferene and placid, when ihe
 
 was joined by a lady of affluence and piety, but who was 
 the fubjeft of fome afflidive vifitations, and was threatened 
 with more. The lady immediately began to relate her for- 
 rows and apprehenfions to poor Mary, who heard her with 
 much attention, and then with all the tendernefs and kind- 
 nefs of Chriftian fympathy befought her to be comforted, 
 reminded her of the goodnefs and fidelity of that God who 
 had promifed never to forfake his people, exhorted her to 
 be grateful for the many mercies fhe notu enjoyed, and to 
 confide in the unchanging mercy and love of God for all 
 future ones. By this time they reached the door of her 
 humble dwelling. Mary begged the lady to walk in, and 
 taking her to a clofet, faid, "pray Ma'am do you fee any 
 thing ?" The lady replied, " No." She took her to ano- 
 ther clofet, and repeated her queftion, " pray Ma'am do 
 you fee any thing ?" The reply again was, " No." She 
 took her to a third clofet, and once more repeated her quef- 
 tion, " pray Ma'am do you fee any thing ?" The lady re- 
 plying, with a look of furprife bordering on difpleafure, 
 " No.'' Then, Madam, faid poor Mary, you fee all I have 
 in the world. But why fhould / be unhappy ? I have 
 Chrift in my heart, and Heaven in my eye. I have the 
 unfailing word of promife, that " bread ihall be given me, 
 and water fhall be fure," whilll: I ftay a little longer in this 
 vale of tears; and when I die, a bright Crown of Glory 
 awaits me through the merits of my Redeemer." 
 
 Jt was the fate, however, of the moft philanthropic infti- 
 tutions, that there were fome who would mifconceive of, and 
 oppofe, them. A fcrupulous falHdioufnefs, or a morbid 
 nicety of opinion, about the means ot doing good, even 
 where the Inroad and general features of thefe means were 
 not only confeli'edly legitimate, but eminently cffecftive, had 
 too often in the religious world moft unhappily cramped 
 and circumfcribed the labours of both individuals and whole 
 bodies. It would be recollected of that Inditution, which 
 was the glory of our country, and the general blefllng of 
 the world, whofe bafis covered tlie earth, and whofe iwm- 
 mit reached to heaven the Britifli and Foreign Bible Soci- 
 ety, that it had had to encounter much of mifreprelenta- 
 tion an 1 of impediment ; and tlie venerable " Society for 
 Promoting Clirillian Knowledge," which now embodied in 
 its patronage nearly the whole of the Hierarchy and of the 
 temporal peerage ot the kingdom, for many years langnifli- 
 ed in a fickly infancy, and it was alriind feared, would have 
 "expireti in life's jiorch." Oiijic TfONs, it was not to be
 
 10 
 
 wondered, ftiould have been made to inftitutions like the 
 prefent. The principal of thofe which had come to Mr W.'s 
 knowledge, he would now briefly remark upon. It had 
 been laid, they were inimical to the Eftablilhcd Church. 
 Sincerely and confcientioufly as he piofe^Fed himfelt" to be 
 attached to the venerable eftablilhment of the country, and 
 cordially as he received, on the ground of convidlion, the 
 dodtrines contained in her articles, in which dodtrines refted 
 at once her vitality and her glory, he muft yet oppofe to 
 fuch an aflertion an unqualified denial. The Sunday School 
 Union fought not tlie injury of the Church. It fought nei- 
 ther the injury nor aggrandifement of any one religious 
 community. It fought the inftrudtion ot the ignorant, and 
 the happinefs of the miferable. It fought the prefent and 
 everlafting well-being of a multitude of poor children, whom 
 nobody cared for, and nobody looked after. It fought the 
 humbfe, toilfome office of imparting bleffings that tens of 
 thoufands were perifhing for the want of; and that without 
 fee or reward. It fought, it could not be too often repeated, 
 fimply the Religious Education of the children of the 
 Poor ; and the necejftty of its endeavours was grounded in 
 the demonllrable inadequacy of exifting means, and the 
 propriety of them was inferred from the bleffed effefts that 
 had hitherto accrued from them. But if perfons 'uwuld thus 
 objedt, why did they not render the Jincerity of their attach- 
 ment to the Church lefs queftionable, by ihaking off their 
 fupinenefs and inertnefs, and zealoufly engaging themfelves 
 in the field of benevolent labour, and in a degree propor- 
 tionate to their opulence, and influence, and talents ; and 
 thus render the exertions of their brethren of other denomi- 
 nations lefs imperioufly needful ? Would they wiih that 
 the two or three hundred thoufand children who were every 
 Sabbath taught in tliefe Schools to read the Holy Scriptures, 
 and inftrudted in the principles of their common Chriftianity, 
 fhould be thrown loofe on fociety, and abandoned to igno- 
 rance and vice ? Or would they have it fuppofed, that this 
 ignorance and vice, with its ufually attendant train of mifer- 
 able confequences, would be countervailed in their difad- 
 vantages to a poor child, by its continuing a nominal mem- 
 ber ot^z/jy religious body ? The day was too tar advanced 
 for fuch fentinicnts to be lifl:ened to. On the projected for- 
 mation of any new School by tlie Union Mr W. was con- 
 nected with, the Committee had, he believed Jyjlcmatically, 
 apprized the refident clergyman of the exifliing necejjity for 
 it, and requefted him either to inilitutc the School himfelf,
 
 11 
 
 or to co-operate with them. And he knew of cafes in wliich 
 clergymen had formerly preached to little more than naked 
 walls and empty pews, until the eftablifliment of a Sunday 
 School, but where the attendance of the children, fubfe- 
 quently producing that of their parents alfo, had refpedtably 
 filled the Church. 
 
 But it was faid, too, that Diffenterifm had in fome in- 
 ftances been injured by it ; and that children were drawn off 
 from one community to another. Bigotry was equally un- 
 amiable and difreputable wherever it was found. It was 
 bottomed in affumed infallibility, and cherifhed by a well- 
 covered, fandlimonious, felfifhnefs. Thoie who were unin- 
 Jluenced by a fedtarian or profelyting fpirit, would lefs look 
 at the particular communities among whom the children 
 were divided, than the great and general benefits to be con- 
 ferred on the children themfelves. 
 
 The other chief objection Mr W. had heard was, that 
 univerfal education would prove an injury, and not a blefs- 
 ing, to fociety. After the real and confiderable good of 
 which education had been Ihewn to be productive, it was a 
 little confounding Jl'ill to hear this objection adduced. He 
 would jud remark, in reply, that if the objeftors to general 
 education, or, in plain language, the advocates of ignorance, 
 would hut ihew us what were the advantages of ignorance, 
 and what the benefits and bleffings of ftupidity and lumpiili- 
 nefs, we fhould then be able to inllitute a comparifon, and, 
 if convinced of our prefent error, would gladly unite with 
 them in not only fupprefling education, but in fluUting the 
 eyes and ears of the lower orders to intelligence, and in 
 flopping up every avenue and channel of information, that 
 they might be put into a fiate of happy retrogreflion to pri- 
 mitive liivagiim, and at length make fuch advances in 
 " blifsful ignorance" as nearly to approximate tlie condition 
 of an oyfter or a cabbage-ftalk, or grow 
 
 " IJke the dull weed, 
 
 I'hat fattens on the banks by Lethe's stream." 
 
 What, liowever, became of tlie y?////Vv of thefe pcrfons, when 
 they would hold a poor fellow-creature refponfible for the 
 obfervance of every law in the whole criminal code of the 
 nation, of every moral principle, and of every precept of 
 Scripture, and \\ould yet cut him off from the means of 
 knowing what lliele nvere ? And what of \\\ii\x conjijlency, 
 when inltead oi Iclecting for ihanjdvts fervants who could
 
 il2 
 
 neither read a fign-board nor the fuperfcription of a letter, 
 nor calculate the price of an article of marketing, they were 
 found to pick out the beft informed and moft intelligent 
 they could meet with ? Was this latter done on a principle 
 oi gencrofuy to the reft of/odety ? When argument on this fub- 
 jed was at a clofe, the Scriptures of truth inform us, "that 
 the foul be without knowledge, is not good." " In malice," 
 it is faid, " be ye children, but in underftanding be ye men." 
 " Wifdom is the principal thing, get wifdom." 
 
 There was yet another objection to thefe Schools he 
 would mention, but it was fo indefinite, that, on infpedion, 
 it refolved itfelf into little more than clamour. The parties 
 holding it feemed to be weary of hearing fo much faid 
 about the Schools, and of the amount of good they were 
 effedting. It reminded him of an anecdote. When Arif- 
 tides was banifhed from Athens by the oftracifm, a man, 
 not knowing even his perfon, prefented him his fhell, on 
 which was to be written the name of the perfon to be exiled, 
 and begged him to write on it Arijlides. Ariftides calmly 
 afked, " pray, friend, what harm did Ariftides ever do to 
 thee ?" " None," faid the man ; " but I am weary with 
 hearing Ariftides always called thejiijl." 
 
 But if there were on the one hand objedtions, there were 
 on the other counterbalancing sanctions of no inconfider- 
 able weight. A few of thefe Mr W. would mention. The 
 late learned and pious Dr Buchanan has obferved refpecting 
 Sunday Schools, " it is not eafy to calculate the fum of 
 good which has been produced to this nation by that fimple 
 Inftitution. The period which has elapfed is juft fufficient 
 to ihew its operation ; for the efFedl is now vifible among the 
 generation who have grown up. Of the general happy opera- 
 tion of this religious inftrudlion, I have myfelf, I thiuk, been 
 a witnefs. On my return from India, I tavelled through a 
 great part of the kingdom, and perceived a change of cir- 
 cumftanccs fmce I left the country, which I could not con- 
 template without admiration." It was a circumftance, too, 
 that fpoke powerfully both to the head and the heart, that at 
 one period, when Dr Buchanan was in India, on a fuppofed 
 death-bed, he expreffed pleafure in the thought, that, if his 
 children were educated in Scotland, they would be brouglit 
 up " in the heart ot Sunday Schools.^' The late celebrated 
 fculptor. Bacon, ufed to remark, that he confidered the in- 
 ftitution of Sunday Schools the moft important objedt he ever 
 engaged in. Did propriety permit, the names of many emi- 
 nent perfons might be cited ; among others, the amiable
 
 13 
 
 and excellent Montgomery, who was known to take a 
 warm perfonal intereft in thefe Schools. The evidence before 
 the education-committee of the houfe of commons was, alfo, 
 highly confirmatory of the beneficent operation of thefe 
 Schools, efpecially in correcting the evils generally attend- 
 ant on pauperifm, and particularly that of mendicity. But 
 Mr W. would not enlarge. He would juft add, there was 
 one other fandlion afforded them, which was tranfcendently 
 more important than all the reft, and than all that men 
 unitedly could confer, and that was the fandion of the 
 Divine approbation plainly and clearly impreffed upon 
 them, by their being made the vehicles of eminent fpiritual 
 bleillngs to numbers of poor children. No one, of adequate 
 opportunity of judging, could deny this with a ftiadow of 
 pretenfion to truth. Nothing but the moft deep-rooted and 
 invincible prejudice could blind the mind to the perception 
 of this fad. Surely, then,' faid the fpeaker, ' we may be 
 allowed to add, where God has fmiled, man ought to be- 
 ware how he frowns.' Where the Great Supreme has affix- 
 ed the obvious mark of his ' good pleafure' on any fpecies 
 of agency, and has made it the inftrumentof communicating 
 his rich bleffings, man ought to beware how he would at- 
 tempt to contravene, or render nugatory, His benevolent 
 defigns. It is written, " Let the potfherds of the earth 
 ftrive with each other, but woe is unto that man who con- 
 tends with his Maker." 
 
 In taking leave of the friends of this inftitution, Mr W. 
 begged to remind them, that it was " good to be zealoufly 
 affeded, always, in a good thing." If they were convinced 
 x}\Atfuch was this Society, in its nature and effeds, they 
 Ihould purfue the objefls it contemplated with an unbend- 
 ing, unwavering, firmnefs of purpofe, united with the ut- 
 nioft Chriftian meeknefs and gendenefs in procedure as far 
 as poflible, " giving none offence." A patient conftancy of 
 mind, equally unmarked by ebullitions of indifcreet zeal 
 and defpondent proltration before rifing difficulties, fhould 
 be evidenced in all their operations. He befought them, 
 too, ever to bear i:i remembrance, that one grand requifite 
 to harmony was humility. This heavenly principle it was 
 continually enjoined on us to cultivate as indivicluah ; it 
 Ihould not lefs characterife us as bodies. To them he would 
 beg to fay, ' if you are called to undertake an arduous tafk, 
 to encounter labour, or to endure reproach, come forward, 
 aud l(-verally ((intend for the largeft fliare of thefe ; but if 
 honour is to lie gained, or mere numbers are to acquired.
 
 14. 
 
 flirink back, turn away. Your aim is a high and holy one, 
 let your motives comport with fuch aim, and delecrate them 
 not by any allowed intermixture oi fordid worldly deiign, or 
 wilh to mix up with your hallowed purfuits the iheer vani- 
 ties of life. Much as had been done in this interetling city 
 and neighbourhood, there yet remained here, as elfowhere, 
 a. moral ciefert to be cultivated ; and fo unnecelFary was any 
 jealous or invidious feeling, that when all had done all they 
 could towards the removal of ignorance, and fm, and mi- 
 fery, they would feel, if they felt aright, more difpofed to 
 fit down and weep over the much that remained undone, 
 than to indulge in any complacent exultation over the little 
 they had accompliihed. It was pofllble that fome Schools, 
 conduced by highly eftimable individuals, and who were 
 not unfriendly to this Society, might yet decline to join it, 
 on the ground of prefumed inexpediency. * In fuch cafe,' 
 faid the fpeaker, ' as you claim the right of freely thinking 
 for yourfelves, you will as freely concede it to others, and 
 will not, I am fure, withdraw one particle of that affe<5tion 
 and efteem with which you have long regarded thofe indi- 
 viduals, much lefs your wifhes and prayers for the profperi- 
 ty of x\\Q\x Jchools, or your endeavours, as far as you may be 
 permitted to ufe them. His young friends prefent, he de- 
 voutly hoped, would dtfcern and /fi?/ the duty of fteadily ex- 
 erting themfelves in thefe inftitutions. He faid duty ; for 
 if the opportunity of ufefulnefs beyond price, the afforded 
 means of effedling that, the convidion or inclination of mind 
 to poifefs the opportunity, and the inconteftible evidence of 
 pait benefits produced, did not feem to them to conllitute 
 the voice of duty, he fhould defpair of their obedience though 
 an angel were fent down from heaven. Chri tianity no 
 where acknowledged an idle or inadlive votary. An indo- 
 lent Chrillian was a contradiction in terms. The zealous 
 performance, and the patient endurance, of the divine will, 
 conftituted the alternate occupations of the Chrillian life. 
 Room, too, was found in thefe fchools for the employment 
 of every defcription of talents. To one individual God had 
 given a talent of fpeech, and woe unto him if he did not 
 I'peak. To a fecond a talent of money, and he whs required 
 to give. To a third a talent of influence, and he muft in- 
 duce others to give. To a fourth a talent of ieifure, and he 
 was required to collect or to vifit. To a fifth a talent of 
 judgment, and he was to counfel and advife. To nearly all 
 a talent of injlrudion, and they mult teach. And to every 
 one, without exception, a talent of prayer, that by the
 
 15 
 
 humble yet efFectual prayer of faith, they might bring down 
 bleflings on the fchools. But the command of God refpect- 
 ing every talent was, " occupy till I come :" and it was only 
 in the honeft and unremitting employment of thofe talents, 
 that the poffefTor could at laft hope to be greeted with " well 
 done, good and/^/V^w/ fervant !" Intrepidly proceed then, 
 he would fay, refting upon the pledged fupport of Omnipo- 
 tence ; fixing your eye on the ' common good' to be effect- 
 ed ; fuffering difficulties to have no other operation than 
 that of exciting you to increafed fimplicity of dependence 
 on divine aid, and more vigorous efforts ; and judicioufly 
 availing yourfelves of every help that prefents itfelf, or can 
 be devifed. And if intricate circumftances, or perplexing 
 difcrepancies occur, remember that even thefe, if rightly 
 ufed, will eventually be made to fubferve the holy purpofe of 
 your labours. 
 
 " Many things, having full reference 
 
 To one consent, may work contrariously, 
 As many arrows loosed several ways 
 Fly to one mark : 
 
 As many several roads meet in one town ; 
 As many fresh streams run in one self sea ; 
 As many lines close in the dial's centre ; 
 So may a thousand actions, once a-foot, 
 End in one purpose." 
 
 That purpofe was, here, the elevation of a multitude of 
 hapleii children, unheeded and unfriended, from a probable 
 life of ignorance, and darknefs, and moral degradation, and 
 guilt, and wretchednei's, in varying proportions and combi- 
 nations, to a ftate of intelligence, and integrity, and piety, 
 and ultimately to all the peace, and purity, and unending 
 bleffediiefs of heaven. 
 
 'V \:\,\\. W.'.l.kER.
 
 CONSIDERATIONS 
 
 ON CERTAIN 
 
 REMARKS 
 
 ON THE 
 IN 
 
 LORD STOWELL 8 
 
 JUDGMENT 
 
 IX THE i'A^E OF THE SLAVE "GRACE." 
 
 liY A BIUIOX. 
 
 " NiMi'oiiTF, n'oi; ir. viknt, poi kvu qi'ii, sf. troivf, itii.f..' 
 
 ^iiwcAs'ii.i: : 
 
 RINTVD KV JOHN MAKSIIAI.I,, ot.O H.KSH MARKKT.
 
 CONSIDERATIONS, 
 
 " It is a command of the Law of Nature, that every Human Being esteem 
 and treat another as one who is by Nature liis equal." 
 
 Plffendorf. 
 
 VV HOEVER would approach the re- consideration of any 
 judicial thoughts of my Lord Stowell, must feel that it 
 becomes him to do so with profound humility and self-mis- 
 trust. Tlie decisions of perhaps no Judge, either in ancient 
 or modern times, have been received with the universal and 
 implicit concurrence that has been accorded to those of the 
 exalted person just named, and that not arising out of any of 
 the merely extraneous and evanescent adjuncts of oratory, 
 attachment to party, &c. but because they have been charac- 
 terised by sound and solid thought, extensive research, con- 
 secutive reasoning, and just and dispassionate conclusion. 
 Fearless as to whom they might offend or please, the powers 
 of an extraordinarily luminous mind, and unwarped con- 
 science, liave been faithfully and unweariedly directed to 
 tlicae higli functional results ; and an amount of imperishable 
 fame has been accumulated that very rarely falls to the lot of 
 an individual. 
 
 A
 
 4 
 
 But infallibility belongs not to our condition ; and the serr* 
 timents of Lord Stowell in the late Slave Case, it is known, 
 have created much of painful and dissatisfied feeling ; and par- 
 ticularly since Lord S. has deemed it right to allbw himself, 
 in this formally-prepared judgment, somewhat to " travel 
 out of his record," in order to remark, generally, upon the 
 Slave-trade and Abolition questions; in which remarks all their 
 tints and hues and entire bearing, as well as the whole weight 
 of his Lordship's high official character and ripened under- 
 standing, are thrown into that scale, which, in its descent, 
 would instamp Slavery with the impress of a spurious sanc- 
 tity, and, on the mere score of expediency, as beiirg impor- 
 tant to the prosperity of National Commerce, would go to 
 perpetuate the cruelties and horrors inseparable from its ge- 
 neral existence. 
 
 There appear to be two points which it is of the last impor- 
 tance fully to understand, and thoroughly to be convinced of, 
 to the right appreciation of the momentous question of Negro 
 Slavery a question in which the dearest rights of so many 
 millions of our fellow-creatures and fellow-subjects are inti- 
 mately involved* 
 
 The first is, that there i& not, neither by possibility can 
 be, a particle of title to property in one human being possess- 
 ed by another, which is founded upon, or in accordance with, 
 revealed religion, or with the birth-rights of human beings 
 with the commands of God, or with the Laws of Nature. 
 The whole aspect of Revelation, as well as every specific de- 
 claration of the Divine Being concerning his Nature and At- 
 tributes, are in direct hostility to such a supposition ; and 
 that dispensation of revealed Religion under which we 
 live, CuniSTiANiTV, throughout, frowns upon it ; or rather, 
 I would say, in the mildness, gentleness, and universal be- 
 nevolence of its nature, weeps over it, but imperatively in-
 
 hibits it. In the earliest ages of mankind. Revelation taught 
 that God " had made of one blood all the Nations of the 
 Earth," and that He " was no respecter of persons." In lat- 
 ter days, every feeling and benevolent intimation of this kind 
 have been embodied into one grand precept for the govern- 
 ment of the Christian World, given with all the authoritative 
 sanction and weight that heaven could impart to it, " What- 
 soever YE WOULD THAT OTHERS SHOULD DO UNTO YOU, 
 
 DO YE EVEN SO UNTO THEM." This Constitutes onc half of 
 the Sacred Code upon which rest " The Law and the Pro- 
 phets ;" comprehending the entire table of duties which is 
 to govern man in his conduct to his fellows. 
 
 The mere supposition, however, of Negro- Slavery, cannot 
 be arrived at, but by trampling under foot this Command of 
 Jehovah. The one cannot find a minute of tolerance in a 
 rightly informed mind until ihe other is banished from its 
 contemplation. To attempt to reconcile these would be the 
 attempt to plunge the material sun into the ocean, or to 
 bring the poles of the earth together. 
 
 The difficulty of proving the " Natural I>ibehty" of a 
 human being to be a right connate with, and inalienable 
 from, his existence, is precisely the difficulty of proving a 
 self-evident proposition. It is tlie difficulty of proving that 
 a man has a right to the u?e c>f his own limbs, that he has a 
 right to i.iliale the air that surrounds him, to receive the light 
 of the sun, or to drink of the waters of the earth. Natui'al 
 Liberty was a common bo.n from the Parent of all to 
 every member of the human familv. 
 
 The bare idea, tliat a being, '' formed in the image of 
 God," and whose existence must run commensurate with 
 that of Deity it-tlf, posscs'-iiig all the elements of mind, 
 (though in circumstances unfavourable for dcvelopcmont) and 
 every attribute ami moral capability de.?ignative of an intel-
 
 lectual and immertal being, can be valued at a certain nnm 
 ber of pounds, shillings, and pence, carries upon it a prima 
 J'acie self-refutation. 
 
 The second point is this ; (and, Avhen fully understood, it 
 establishment involves no contradiction with the first,) thai 
 though there is not, neither can be, any such thing as a title 
 to property in the person of a fellow-creature " de jure," or, 
 if I may be allowed the expression, " ab origine," no title 
 that can be maintained on the ground of Christian principle 
 or natural rights ; yet there does exist, with reference to Ne- 
 groes in the islands of our inter-tropical possessions, a title 
 by concession, a conventional title, a title " de gratia," a title 
 on which innumerable legal instruments are founded in the 
 Colonial Courts, and various legal proceedings and decisions 
 in Courts of Equity in the Parent Country, a title, the prac- 
 tical abnegation and invalidation of which would involve, in 
 one great chaotic mass of ruin and destruction, a large por- 
 tion of society in this kingdom, and inflict on it the most 
 serious injustice would throw into a new and uncontrolled 
 state of existence a multitude of human beings utterly un- 
 prepared for it by previous moral training and culture, and, 
 by one arbitrary act, would reduce to abject poverty a nu- 
 merous class of persons, many of whom are of the highest 
 worth and respectability. It is a title, too, which has prece- 
 dents in remote antiquity. Slavery entered the world as the 
 punishment of Sin. It was predicted and denounced by 
 Noah as a punitory visitation on Ham and his descendants, 
 and appears to have been tolerated by the Supreme, as were 
 polygamy and the practice of divorce, " because of the hard- 
 of their hearts." (The case supposed in Exod. xxi. 21. is 
 very strong. The original word imports " ipsa pecunia.") 
 Since that time, it has more or less prevailed in every quar- 
 ter of the world.
 
 There is, then, a title, a vested right, std generis, yet so 
 inwrought in the very fabric of British Society, that to 
 attempt to tear it out by any sudtlen disruption, would be 
 almost to tear Society to pieces ; and would be followed, 
 demonstrably, by an amount of evil of various kinds of the 
 most serious magnitude. 
 
 Yet this title is at war with the religion of the country. 
 It is at war with its sacred books, which constitute a " part 
 and parcel of the Law <ii' the Land." It is at war with hea- 
 ven. It is at war with every principle of honour, with e- 
 very feeling of generosity, with every dictate of humanity, 
 with every thing worthy of a great and enlightened people. 
 It is at war with our national prosperity, for " That which is 
 morally wrong can never be politically right." It is at war 
 with the common birth-rights of human nature. It is at war 
 with the sentiments of the most eminent legislators, civilians, 
 and philanthropists that have lived. " Nous avons herite des 
 Grecs et des Romains," says a powerful writer in the Ency- 
 clopedic Methodiqne, " de singulieres contradictions d'idees. 
 Nous estimons IHeroisme qui prefere la mort a I'esclavage. 
 Ma vengeance qui s'exposerait ; tout pour punir I'oppresseur 
 de ma lil)erte personelle, seniit done uu actc de Vertu ! Le 
 maitre qui voudrait me rendre son eeclave ferait done un 
 crime ! Kurof)cens inconsequent, accordez vous done avec 
 vous meme !" 
 
 From this extraordinary state of things, what inferences 
 ou'^ht to be maiie ? Surely that, with whatever slowness, 
 with whatever caution and wakeful circumspection, means, 
 energetic and progressive means ouj;!it to be adopted, and 
 fearlessly maintained, for the reclification of those evils, be- 
 fore which reliaion and humanity now lie prostrate ; and, 
 to that end, that the influence and ()j)inions of men of high au- 
 thority should ever, as fai- as possible, be made to throw ove*-
 
 tliese means the wing of protection and patronage, and yield 
 to them their good will and good wishes. That such means 
 are attainable, and may be rendered efficient, has been clear- 
 ly proved by what we have witnessed in the Spanish West 
 India Islands, where great numbers of the slaves, at one 
 period, bought back their own freedom, indemnified their 
 masters for their original cost, and peaceably returned to 
 their work as free labourers. The state of the Maroons in 
 the Blue Mountains in Jamaica, the Charybs, Pensylvanians, 
 Negroes at Nova Scotia afterwards removed to Sierra Leone, 
 the slaves taken in the American War and settled as free 
 labourers at Trinidad, the Colonists of St. Domingo, and, 
 above all, the re-captured Negroes colonized at Sierra Leone, 
 furnish, in varied proportions, much instruction and encour- 
 agement on the subject. Let the slave-holders have their 
 solemn and bounden duty to these their fellow-creatures con- 
 tinually held up before their eyes, and urged on their ob- 
 servance, by the impressive voice of authority. Let the 
 claims of humanity be heard above the clamours for wealth 
 the dictates of duty before the favouritisms of commercial 
 prosperity. Let no overweening regard to momentary na- 
 tional greatness extinguish the recollection, that a flagrant, 
 ci'ying, national sin produces national guilt, which has ever 
 been followed, in the history of the world, by national pun- 
 ishment by national privations, or punitory visitations. 
 Let the intellectual and religious amelioration of the condi- 
 tion of the Negroes be seriously assumed by the planters. 
 Let a discreet, progressive liberation of them be pursued, by 
 selecting, in the several Islands, a limited number of the most 
 meritorious and best informed of them, (for instance, those 
 who are generally appointed tu subordinate offices of trust, 
 as watchmen, boilers, drivers, &c.) for the re-purchase of 
 tUeir freedom, by a day at a time ; re-amalgamating them-
 
 istslves, on such acquirement, with their respective gangs- 
 pursuing this till a gradual and insensible transmutation of the 
 condition of the whole should take place, from that of bond 
 slaves to that of free labourers ; and, then, whatever provable 
 loss the planters might be sul^ject to in the issue, from aged, 
 diseased, inefficient slaves, &c. let a great and wealthy nation 
 despise the idea of suffering to fall upon a set of men who had 
 instituted and effected so noble and praiseworthy a measure. 
 It cannot be questioned that, if no other means of indemnifica- 
 tton presented themselves, a national snbscriplion would in- 
 stantly rise up, or an adequate parliamentary grant be made, 
 for their remuneration. Not a shilling of loss would be sus- 
 tained by the sTave-proprietors, when themselves had, as men 
 and as Christians, fulfilled their duty to their slaves. 
 
 It is remarked by my Lord Slowell, on the subject of West 
 Indian Slavery, " When it is cried out, vialus usus abolendus 
 " est, it is first to be proved that, even in the consideration of 
 " England, llie use of slavery is there considered as a mains 
 " Hsus in the Colonies. Is that a inalus usus which the Court 
 " of King's Privy Council and the Courts of Chancery are 
 " every day carrying into full effect ? Slavery was a very 
 " favoured introduction into the Colonies ; it was deemed a 
 " {Treat source of the mercantile interest of the country a 
 " great source of its wealth and strength was regarded as a 
 *' most eminent source of its riches and power. It was at a 
 " late period of the last century that it was condemned in 
 " England, as an institution not fit to exist here, for reasons 
 " jKculiar to our oivn condition : but it has been continued in 
 " our Colonies, favoured and supported by our own Courts, 
 " which have lihcrallij imparted to it their protection and en- 
 " coura^rctncnt. To such a system, Alrilst it is so supported, 
 " I rather feel it to be too strong to apply the maxim, ' ma/us 
 " uius ahukndns est' Can it be asserted that the law of En<i-
 
 10 
 
 " land does not support, and in a high degree favour, the law 
 " of slavery in the West India Colonies ? Is it not the very 
 "Javouriie trade of this country ? If it be a sin," &c. &c. 
 
 To tell over again the thousand-timcs-told tale of the hor- 
 rors and diabolical cruelties of the Slave trade, which, in its 
 origin, has, thousands of times, bathed Africa in blood and 
 tears from one end to the otiier or of the innumerable mur- 
 ders committed in the middle passage, even to the throwing 
 overboard an hundred or two slaves at a time, from the mere 
 dread of an insufticiency of water for the Captain's tea and 
 grog ; (and then, perhaps, seeking to recover the value of 
 them in a Court of Equity, as a lost part of the cargo !) or of 
 the thousands of Negroes that, in the West Indies, have been 
 burnt alive, torn to pieces by blood-hounds trained for the 
 purpose, flogged to death, put to the torture, and to every 
 sort of misery and cruelty that hell itself could have invented 
 or patronized, and on the mere recollection of which, the 
 mind sickens into a sort of moral dissolution we are com- 
 pelled to ask if any love of money could sanctify such hard- 
 ened guilt? if any sophistry could hlanchify such horrible in- 
 justice ? '\? any results, of any description, however promotive 
 of a nation's riches, could vindicate such a daring rebellion 
 against the first ordinance of heaven, and against every prin- 
 ciple of reason and humanity ? Make Atheism the religion 
 of the land, and commerce the god of its idolatry make 
 expediency the rule of right, and custom an indefeasible 
 argument for wliatevcr would seem to conduce to national 
 prosperity, (ais did Jaslinian,. when framing his Pandects, 
 he enacted that slaves siiould be considered " as nobody," 
 " as dead persons," " as quadrupeds," as unfit objects of 
 " cognation or affinity," over whom their masters were to 
 have the " absolute power of life and death," &c ) and then 
 we may, with some consistency, avow ourselves the friends.
 
 11 
 
 tlie advocates, and abettors of West Indian Slavery. But 
 whilst we profess to believe in Revelation, in a coming day of 
 judgment, and a future state of rewards and punishments; 
 whilst we hold the Christian Scriptures in our hands, and 
 even allege that they are so far a " part and parcel of the law 
 of the land'' ,that nothing in our municipal law militates 
 against them, (if it did, no subject were bound to obey it,) 
 for God's sake let us beware what we say to countenance and 
 promote a system, against which the frown of heaven must 
 always be directed, and which will ever prove itself a curse 
 to the nation that cherishes it. Lord S. is not unaware that 
 the " Av^jiaroJ*,-'!;," a term which was used in the forensic 
 proceedings in the Attic Courts for " Slave-dealer," is the 
 same which is employed in the christian scriptures for "^man- 
 stealer," against whom the divine wrath is denounc^fl,. 
 
 It would not become me to remind Lord StoweUj at any 
 length, of tlie arbitrary, oppressive, uncertain, and capricious 
 nature of most of the Codes of Laws in our West India Colo- 
 nies, and how utterly repugnant they are, in general, to the 
 mild and equable spirit of the laws and constitution of the 
 parent country. A few of their leading features, however, 
 may be particularised. I'ill witliin a few years, (if; indeed, 
 the chaiige have taken place lawyers are at variance on 
 the sui)ject,) in Bdihrnloes, a proprietor of slaves might wan- 
 tonly and wilfully kill and murder any number of them, at 
 the rate of iJlHO per dozMi. A trifling fine of i3 1 5 per head, 
 atoned for that, for whi(;I), in (Jreat Britain, he would have 
 paid the I'orftit of his lite. In Dominica, " maiming, mutila- 
 ting, or cruelly torturing a slave," was, till the ameliorating 
 act of 1818, punishable with a fine of JE. 100 only, when three 
 months imprisonment was added. In Tobago, and in some 
 other of the Islands, tlie lifting up of the hand of a slave to 
 strike a white, was, and I believe yet is, punishable by the
 
 chopptTt^ off' of the hand ; and in some instances it is record- 
 ed, that the judge has even acted as executioner. (A medical 
 resident in this neighbourhood, on one occasion, in pity to the 
 victim, took off the limb by amputation.) After an insurrection 
 in that Ishmd a few years ago, three slaves were condemned to 
 be burnt alive, (though by chance they were prej^iously suffo- 
 cated by the smoke,) and the ringleader to be starved to death 
 in an iron cage. (Poison was, however, conveyed to him by a 
 fellow- slave.) The civil offence of absconditure is, in St. Fin- 
 cent and some other of the Islands, accounted felony, and is 
 punishable with death. The hunting down run-away Negroes, 
 and bringing them in dead or alive, has, in most of the Is- 
 lands, been encouraged by Acts of Assembly ; and, in some 
 instances, the bounty for killing them was made as great as 
 for bringing them in alive. In our Colonies in Guiana, it 
 is affirmelB, that the Indians on the back borders of Demer- 
 ara are required only to bring in an arm of the murdered 
 fugitive to entitle them to the reward. It is added, that, on 
 account of the climate and distance, arms in pickle are re- 
 ceived. In most of the Colonies, when, for any grievous 
 crime, slkves have been sentenced, under the autliority of an 
 order froin the Governor and Council, to undergo what is 
 there called an " exemplary death,'* the most common modes 
 of such executions have been roasting them alive, hanging 
 them uj^ alive in irons on a gibbet to perish by hunger and 
 thirst, &c. in the latter punishment frequently lingering out 
 a dreadful existence six or eight days. 
 
 A late writer, of acute discrimination, and of great legal 
 eminence, has the following natui-a) observations. " Great 
 " and obvious are the dangers which may arise to innocent 
 " men from precipitate trials on loose verbal accusations, and 
 " from sentences which are not even reduced into writing, 
 ** before they are carried into effect. Yet in this loose and
 
 13 
 
 *' haiardous way is criminal justice administered in the Bri- 
 *' tish West Indies against the unfortunate Negroes, even up- 
 " on capital charges. Where not only the evidence, but the 
 " charge, and the conviction itself are unrecorded, and wiiere 
 " no reports of trials at law are published, it is obvious that 
 " a thousand innocent men might be convicted against law 
 " and evidence, and yet no proofs be attainable, by which a 
 " single case of that kind could be established on this side of 
 " the Atlantic." 
 
 Lord Stowell further remarks, upon the analogy between 
 the " two systems of villeinage*' that formerly existed in this 
 kingdom, and the " new form of African Slavery," doubts 
 " whether the resemblance between villeinage and the African 
 " slavery were so close as to effect, by their decay, the fall 
 ""of slavery in England." Remarks, " That it does not ap- 
 " pear that the public was startled at the revival of villeinage 
 " under the new form of African slavery.'' " Thinks it 
 " doubtful whether the emancipation of slaves in England 
 " pronounced at the end of the last century, was not more 
 " owing to the increased refinement of the sentiments and 
 " manners of the age, than to the decay of the two systems 
 " of villeinage." " Thinks, that the arguments in the famed 
 " " Somcrselt" Case, looked no further than at the peculiar na- 
 " ture of our own soil, llie pure air of our Island," &c. 
 
 It is of some importance on this subject to remark, that 
 whilst, almost universally, throughout the West Indies, the 
 testimony ot a Negro slave against a White, even in the most 
 solemn casts, is inadmissible in a Court of Justice ; ( So late 
 as Nov. 1824, a Bill was introrluctd into the Jamaica House 
 of Assembly, for admitting the evidence of Slaves under cer- 
 tain regulations ; and the Governor, the Duke of Manches- 
 ter, expressed his hope that it would pass. On the second 
 reading it was rejected, by a majority of 3i to 1 ) and re-
 
 14 
 
 dress against injury and oppression, therefore, little to be 
 looked for by a slave among our Saxon ancestors, full and 
 complete protection was afforded to the life and limb of the 
 slave. An injured " Villein," or " Niefe," (female slave) 
 might, according to Bracton, implead their Lord, even by 
 appeal : and bodily chastisement for inferior offences, must 
 be inflicted by the Lord's own hands, without power of dele- 
 gation to any one far different from the dreadful cart-whip 
 in the hand of the Negro-driver, with which, at pleasure, he 
 can cut through the skin of an ordinary quadruped. 
 
 That the British Public was not " startled" at the introduc- 
 tion ot African slavery, seems at least questionable. The reign- 
 ing monarch. Queen Elizabeth, appears to have been horrified 
 at the thoughts of it ; and to have felt the most distressing 
 compunction of conscience, foreseeing the frightful evils that it 
 would lead to. When Capt, Hawkins returned from his first 
 voyage to Africa and Hispaniola, whither he had carried 
 slaves, the Queen sent for him, and expressed her concern 
 lest any of the Africans should be carried off without their 
 free consent ; declaring that it would bring down " the ven- 
 geance of Heaven upon the the Undertakers." Capt. Haw- 
 kins pledged his honour to the Queen for the faithful obser- 
 vance of her Majesty's injunctions that such should not be 
 the case, returned to Alrica, infamously violated his word, 
 seized a number of the inhabitants, and carried them off as 
 slaves. And here, (says Hill, in his Naval History,) began 
 the horrible system of African Slavery, " which, so sure as 
 thex'e is vengeance in heaven for the worst of crimes, will 
 sometime be the destruction of all who encourage it." Equal- 
 ly distressed, it would appear, was the French Monarch, 
 Louis XIH. (from what is stated by the Ecclesiastic Labat, 
 in his Account of the Isles of America,) when about to issue 
 the edict, by which all Africans coming into his Colonies
 
 15 
 
 were to be made slaves ; and was only reconciled to it, on the 
 assurance that it was the readiest mode of converting them 
 to the Christian Religion. In truth, all our first English 
 Grants and Acts of Parliament, and all the early foreign 
 edicts, are founded upon the idea that the Africans left their 
 own country voluntarily, and that they were to receive the 
 blessings of Christianity. 
 
 On the " Somersett" Case, Lord Stowell's information 
 seems to be alike defective. It originated, in no degree, in 
 deference to the '' soil" or " air" of England ; neither in 
 the nice sensibilities attendant on " refinement." An up- 
 right, honest, well-read Englishman, the late Granville 
 Shakp, stung with the idea, that in a country, blessed with a 
 Protestant Church and a free Constitution, where Christian- 
 ity was held in its purest form, and where the laws were 
 professedly founded upon, and in accordance with, that Chris- 
 tianity, there could exist such a thing as " a Slave ;" betook 
 himself to earnest research into the subject. He shut him- 
 self up, diligently read the writings of Bructon, Britlon, Glun" 
 ville, Forlescuc, and Flela, and every thing relating to ancient 
 villeinage ; and to its supersession in this kingi'om by its 
 present free form of government. He touk up tiie Case of 
 Somersett, furnished counsel with their most powerful argvi- 
 ments, particularly Hargiiave, (who, with a iioijlc-mindedness 
 that did him everlasting honour, as soon as he heard of the 
 Case, spontaneously offered his gratuitous services), wrote 
 some convincing pamphlets on the subject ; (one of which 
 Mr Dunniiig, on one occasion, trluniplianlly held up in his 
 h:;n;l in court, (h chiring that, " on the ground taken in that 
 pamphlet, lie would carry the cause against all England,") 
 and at last, Lord Mansfield, tlie liberal, enlightened, humane, 
 feeling Lord Mansfield, who had been borne away by the 
 current of blinding prejudice, and who hi;d put off this case
 
 16 
 
 from term to term, urging in private the complaining par* 
 ties to blink the question, by compromising the Case, and, 
 as a hist subterfuge, even in the face of a British Jury, bad 
 clung to this sophistical hypothesis : " If, indeed, persons 
 " coming from a foreign Country to England, were not still 
 " supposed to be under the government of the laws of that 
 " country from whence they had come." (if the grand SuU 
 tan visiting England, did not, indeed, bring with him the 
 law by which he might take off the heads of any 14 persons, 
 per diem, whom he might be pleased to select), at last. Lord 
 Mansfield, beaten out of all his rooted prejudices, and ill foun- 
 ded arguments, bowed, and gracefully bowed, to the convic- 
 tion of truth. His Lordship freely acknowledged, both in 
 public and private, that his established modes of thinking on 
 the subject were completely overthrown, and the views and 
 bias of his mind totally changed, by the arguments that he 
 had heard. After so protracted, so laborious, so full and 
 complete a discussion of the subject, it was never, I will ven- 
 ture to say, imagined, that the principle of that decision 
 would, on any future occasion, be called in question, or 
 assigned to erroneous or insufficient motives. 
 
 The possible existence of such a thing as Slavery in 
 England, except on conviction for crime, and that ciime 
 regularly proved before a British Jury, which some expres- 
 sions of Lord Stowell's palpably tend to countenance, must 
 be, whilst there exist such things as Magna Charta and the 
 13iLL OF Rights, the veriest phantom imaginable.* Whilst 
 
 * " No freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or dissiesed 
 of his freehold, or his liberties, or free customs, or be out- 
 lawed, or exiled, or in any otherwise destroyed; nor will we 
 pass upon him, nor condemn him, unless by the lawful judg-
 
 17 
 
 the rights and immunities of a British subject, his personal 
 liberty, his security of property, his rights of conscience and 
 of private judgment, are so accurately defined, and amply 
 protected by specific Statutes and Charters, (for the obtain- 
 ing of which the blood of our forefathers was freely poured 
 out, as it would again be for their preservation,) it is not pos- 
 sible that we can enter on a course of retrogression to that 
 state of things when our relatives should be found at the 
 great Mart of Slaves, Bristol, " tied with ropes, in long ranks, 
 and daily exposed for sale." (Anglia Sacra, torn. 2. Bed. 
 Hist. Eccl.) The Judgment of my Peers, or the laws of 
 the land, (" Judicium Parium, aut Leges terras,") was the a- 
 dopted motto of the great Lord Camden, when Chief Justice 
 of England, from the most important passage in Magna 
 Charta, and well deserves to be tradited on the arms of 
 every Judge in the kingdom till the end of time. 
 
 ,^^v^>.v^v,. " Think on the Laws, the Rights, 
 The generous plan of power delivered down. 
 From age to age, to your renown'd forefathers ; 
 So dearly bought the price of so much blood ! 
 O let it never perish in your hands !" 
 
 mcnt of his Peers, or by the la%v of the land. To no one will 
 we sell, to no one will we deny, or delay, right or justice." 
 
 .MAGNA ClIAUTA. ( iiap. xxix. 
 
 " No man shall be put to answer without presentment be- 
 fore Jiistice-i, or nialtcr of record of due [/roccss, or writ ori- 
 ginal, accortluig to t!ie ancient law of the land. And if any 
 thing be done t'j tlie contrary, it shall be void in law, and 
 
 belli of error." 
 
 nil L Oi KKiUTS.
 
 18 
 
 In conclusion, Sir, with every becoming feeling of consi- 
 deration and respect for the exalted Judge whose name I have 
 had occasion frequently to adduce, I cannot withhold the re- 
 mark, that, since he who has so largely partaken of the es- 
 teem and regard of the country, must, in the course of na- 
 ture, in a very little time, appear before the Bar of the 
 Eternal, where, with the writer of this, and every other 
 human being, he can alone humbly hope in the mercy of 
 God, ithrough the merits of a Redeemer, for the forgiveness 
 of many sins and errors, will it then be at all consolatory to 
 Lord Stcwell to think that one of the last acts of his accumu- 
 lated powers and judicial career went to rivet, with renewed 
 strength, the slackening manacles of the miserable Negro 
 to drive deeper the iron that had entered his soul to aggra- 
 vate the wounds of his already bleeding heart or, that that 
 act endeavoured to place in a questionable and equivocal 
 light the liberties of a grieved and mourning Nation ? 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 ./. Marshall, Printer, Newcanih.
 
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