would not shrink from making me the partaker of his experiences. Is there not encouragement here for those Christian labourers who are discouraged because of their non-apparent success? 'Be not weary in well-doing, for in due season ye shall reap if ye faint not." دو Miss Hessel's reading, it will have been observed, was multifarious. There was no department of literature which was not laid, more or less, under tribute. Through the kindness of her numerous friends there was scarcely any work of note to which she had not access. The writings of Carlyle and Dr. Channing became accessible about this time. Report had been conflicting concerning the merits of both these writers, and she was glad to have the opportunity of judging for herself. Had the gratification of a morbid curiosity been the object contemplated in their perusal, the writer must have employed a tone of condemnation. But improvement was sought, and, it is believed, secured. She possessed, in an extraordinary degree, a delicate, instinctive sense of the just and true. "She had the happy art," says an intimate friend, "of deriving good wherever it was to be found. Her nice discrimination has often surprised me. Both Carlyle and Channing contributed to her spiritual as well as mental benefit. She saw with the quickest perception, where they deviated from the truth." What intelligent mind could come into contact with the prodigious vigour of the Scotchman, or the lofty and quickening sentiment of the American, without benefit? Before any one quotes Miss Hessel's authority, however, for the perusal of such authors, let them not only exhibit her qualities of head and heart, but contemplate her object. While it may be successfully contended that breadth of view can only be obtained by intercourse with those who differ from us, we ought to have some well-examined principles by which to test new opinions. An excursionist 1855] DR. CHANNING. 203 should not only have a home, but sufficient geographical knowledge to determine the relation of his present locality to it. An invalid must not plead the example of a healthy man as a reason for his exchange of what is easy, for what is difficult, of digestion. To the gentleman who had lent her, somewhat reluctantly, the works of Dr. Channing, she writes: "I have read the ordination address entitled, ‘Unitarian Christianity.' Don't be alarmed when I say, that though I felt as if the ground under me was giving way, by turning to the premises with which he sets out, I was soon re-assured. They are something to this effect: that God, in making a revelation to man, does it in language comprehensible to his intellect,—that such a revelation appeals to his reason, and that it is his bounden duty to exercise that reason upon every part of it. Hence Channing constructs a beautiful system, supported to a wonderful extent by quotations and inferences from Scripture. Vinet writes beautifully on the use of reason, the mysteries of our religion, and the impossibility of a revelation from the Infinite to the finite, which should contain no mysteries. Since it is a mathematical demonstration that a smaller circle cannot contain a larger, I am content to believe that a finite mind cannot grasp the infinite, and that a revelation from God, which relates largely to himself, must of necessity have many mysteries. Stanyan Bigg says 'Could reason scale the battlements of Heaven, And faith a toy for childhood, or the mad.' St. Paul, the prince of strong and original thinkers, sitting on the threshold of that wondrous temple of divine truth into which his eagle eye pierced further than any other mortal's, exclaims: 'Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, believed on in the world, received up into glory.' I prefer him to those who will receive only what is comprehensible. By the bye, there are two things I wonder at. Channing admits the entire harmony of the revelation of nature with that of the Bible. The one he regards as a greater, the other as a lesser, revelation. Did he find the lesser lay open all her secret laws and mysteries to his reason? If not, how presumptuous to expect it of the greater! And then did his reason comprehend how that 'first-born of God,'-the next intelligence in the universe to the One God,' who, he admits, dwelt in the bosom of the Father, became the babe in the manger, the man of sorrows?"-Though Miss Hessel was not utterly unequipped for this controversy, it was not to be expected that the reasonings of this writer were to be disposed of thus summarily. To a mind of her order, for which danger has fascination, they would be sure again and again to recur; and we shall subsequently find that she became unsettled in her views on the subject of Christ's proper divinity, and continued so for some brief period, only, however, to be more firmly because more intelligently established in that all-important truth. An agreement had recently been entered into with Miss S. R- that a paper on some prescribed subject, should occasionally be exchanged. A subject had been mutually accepted. Timely information of failure on her part is sent in the accompanying note. Would not the feeling of disappointment be counterbalanced by the nobility of character exhibited? "It must come the humiliating confession that I cannot master a given mental task. I have battled with this enemy and find him too strong. I have striven to conquer, because I knew such a conquest would be the prelude to many more, but it is in vain. This once I am vanquished, and I fear weakened by the defeat. "There is another subject however on which I have dotted down a few thoughts, but I cannot write a paper by 1855] GAY PARTIES. Monday. Then what is to be done? 205 Prove yourself the noble, generous girl I take you to be, and send me your paper at the time appointed. I will send you mine when it is done. No! I feel it is too bad of me to say that, I will put the proposal in another form. If you don't send it, I will think of you as I have ever done. If you do, I will exalt you to the very pinnacle of my standard of goodness, and from my lowliness admire you henceforth and for ever. Now I leave it with you." A No unbiassed reader will believe that Miss Hessel would divest life of enjoyment. The fact that the Creator causes the earth to produce flowers as well as fruits appeared to her full of significance. Her sprightly temperament prompted to great sympathy with the young in their quest of enjoyment. Her views on some of the sources from which it is sought may therefore justly claim consideration. friend had solicited her opinion on the propriety of attending "gay parties." "My views on this matter are very decided," she replies on July 17th. "Is it not tempting the tempter?' you ask. I think it is. And what a solemn mockery to pray, 'lead us not into temptation,' when we deliberately walk into it! Do you remember Mr. Jay's startling address to his young people on the subject of balls, concerts, gay parties, &c.? If I saw the devil running away with some of you, I could not cry "Stop thief!" You trespass on his territory and thus render yourself his lawful prey!' That is a solemn fact, stated in striking, though to refined ears, perhaps inelegant terms. We walk on enchanted ground when we wander into places of worldly amusement.”. Let those who have had experience ask themselves whether the moral atmosphere of such places is healthy? And let those who have not had experience profit by those who have. Gratification purchased at the cost of mental or moral dissipation is surely too dear. on After expatiating on several topics she tells Mr. F August 9th, that with his talents and energies, he "may rear a noble structure, a monument of usefulness which men and angels shall behold with pleasure and satisfaction. Is it not a stimulating thought that these happy intelligences are watching our struggles, perhaps often aiding us, and warding off unseen danger? Surely amid the many lofty subjects they are permitted to contemplate, that process of discipline by which man is restored to holiness has no mean place. Intimately associated as it is with the glory of God, possibly it holds the highest rank among the subjects they delight to contemplate." Writing of an invalid who had evinced some reluctance to forego a personal gratification for the sake of another enjoying it, she characteristically says: "I tried to put the thing in a right light, and set forth the blessedness of living for others, of sometimes forgetting ourselves in our endeavours to promote another's happiness. Persons who have had much affliction are apt to get the notion that their sole enjoyment consists in being ministered to. It is a great mistake. There are few virtues the exercise of which brings with it such a rich and present reward as that of self-denial." "I have got Vinet's 'Gospel Studies,' she writes to one of her friends on the 15th. "You know what a favourite he is of mine. One of the lectures is on 'the believer completing the sufferings of Christ,' Col. i. 24. He furnishes what I consider a satisfactory explanation of the passage, and gives to the sufferings of believers a higher sublimity than is derived from the notion that they are merely disciplinary. He puts it in something like this form. The church is Christ's successor and representative on earth, she continues His work, part of that work was suffering, and this is the badge of successorship-her distinctive glory. Christ is carrying on His work by the church, suffering, so to speak, in His church, not for the completion of His personal sufferings |
