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CHAPTER IX.

 

EXAMPLES OF EARNESTNESS.

 

 Earnestness means intensity of feeling leading on to vigorous and determined action; and what is so likely to produce this as example? Principles instruct us - precepts guide us - but example moves us. Example is principle and precept embodied, living, and in action. We see not only what is done, and what ought to be done, but what can be done, and how it is done. It appeals to all our faculties at once; it fixes the attention - engages the imagination - instructs the judgment - moves the heart - subdues the will - awakens the conscience - and assists the memory. Its motive power is astonishing. Let us, therefore, look at the examples of earnestness for the people, as in a former volume we have selected some for the ministry.

 

 Were it not undesirable to swell out this volume to an undue extent, it would be well to bring forward some examples of earnestness in the cause of evil, that Christians, by this means, might be stirred up to more full devotedness in the service of God. What intense activity has ever been exhibited by the worshipers of idols, as proved by the facts of history and the records of Scripture. Isaiah xliv.; Jeremiah vii. 17; 1.38. Are Mohammedans usually lacking in zeal for their religion, or lukewarm in professing or diffusing it? What shall we say of Popery, which has breathed such an inspiration into its votaries that every man becomes a zealot as soon as he is a papist?

 

How is it, then, that these votaries of a false religion are more in earnest than so many of the followers of the true one?

 

If we look at the followers after wealth, science, fame, how much do we see that confirms the truth of our Lord's words, "The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light."

 

Happily, however, for the honor of a pure Christianity, we may see among its professors instances of devotedness, not to be surpassed in any other classes or communities on the face of the earth. If we turn to the scenes which followed the day of Pentecost; as described by the historian of "The Acts of the Apostles," chap. ii. 41, 49, we shall find something more lovely than was ever exhibited in our world. Then let us think of the martyr-age, when the Christians went in crowds to the scaffold, the stake, and the lions of the amphitheater. Following on the bloody track of persecution, we may turn our eyes to the Alpine heights of Piedmont, whither the Waldenses retreated from the fury of the Papal Beast. Or if in modern times we would look for instances of earnestness, we may find them in the zeal of "The United Brethren," or Moravians, as they are called, who, when their whole society amounted only to six hundred poor, despised exiles, sent out missions, in the short space of nine years, to Greenland, St. Thomas, St. Croix, Surinam, the Rio de Berbice, the Indians of North America, the Negroes of South Carolina, Lapland, Tartary, Algiers, Guinea, the Cape of Good Hope, and the Island of Ceylon.

 

But as individual instances will have more power than a reference to collective bodies, we will now look at some of these. Have we forgotten John Howard, the philanthropist, who, under the influence of Christian philanthropy - for he was a Christian in the spiritual sense of the term - left his elegant retreat in Bedfordshire, to traverse the length and breadth of Europe, and spend his life in "diving into the depths of dungeons, and plunging into the infection of hospitals, to survey the mansions of sorrow and pain, and to take the gage of misery, depression, and contempt; to remember the forgotten, to attend to the neglected, to visit the forsaken, and to collate and compare the distresses of men of all ages."

 

But perhaps examples bearing more directly upon efforts for the spread of religion will be thought most appropriate, and I proceed, therefore, to exhibit some few of these.

 

I hold up, then, for the imitation of men of wealth, two individuals, worthy to be associated on the same page, and deserving of everlasting remembrance by the church of God. The first is the eminent John Thornton, Esq., of Clapham, a name never to be mentioned, but with reverent affection. This gentleman was a London merchant and who by the high moral principle which guided all his secular pursuits, and the munificent distribution of his large profits, was one of those who inscribe upon their merchandise, "Holiness to the Lord." He was, by profession, a member of the Church of England; but neither his piety, nor his charity, nor his liberality, could be bound up within the limits of any one section of the Christian church. His heart was too large to be confined with any amplitude of narrower dimensions than the universal church. So that the cause of evangelical religion could be promoted, he scarcely asked the question whether it was done by churchman or dissenter; his heart, his lip, his purse, were opened to all alike. Aware that the preaching of the gospel is God's great instrument for the conversion of sinners, he was zealous for the education of pious young men for the work of the Christian ministry, and from his own purse was mainly instrumental in establishing, and for a while supporting, the Dissenting Academy at Newport Pagnell, then under the care of the Rev. T. Bull. What a noble effort of piety and charity for a churchman! In this labor of love he was assisted by his friend, the Rev. John Newton, of St. Mary, Woolnoth. In pursuance of the same object, he purchased church livings, to bestow them upon men who preached the pure gospel; and was ever ready to contribute large sums, or smaller, as the case might require, for the erection or enlargement of churches in the establishment, or chapels among dissenters. He scarcely ever turned away a well accredited case. Often while he was transacting business with captains or with merchants, in his own counting-house, applicants for his bounty would be waiting for their turn of audience in the outer one; and the latter were made as welcome to take away his wealth, as the former were to bring it in, and would be received with a smile as cordial. In his ships large numbers of Bibles and good books were often sent with his merchandise to the distant nations of the earth.

 

In subserviency to religion, and from the most enlarged and expanded philanthropy, Mr. Thornton liberally patronized every undertaking which was intended to relieve the distress, or increase the comfort, of the human species; so that it would have been difficult to mention one private or public charity of his day, to which he was not a benefactor. To support such numerous and expensive designs of usefulness, without embarrassing his affairs, or interfering with the real interests of his family, he avoided all extravagance in his domestic establishments, and acted upon the principle that frugality is the best purveyor for liberality. He spent little upon himself, in order that he might have the more to spend for God and his fellow-creatures. Nor was it only his wealth that he thus devoted, though the sums he spent must have been immense, but he gave also his time and his labor. He lived to do good; he pursued it as a business, and he enjoyed it as a pleasure. He was as earnest in giving, as most men are in getting. Such was the good, the eminent John Thornton, the Christian philanthropist of Clapham.

 

Thomas Wilson, Esq.,[1] of Highbury, whose memory will ever be fondly cherished, as long as liberality in the cause of God shall be esteemed a virtue, set out in life as a Christian tradesman. He was partner in a respectable and lucrative establishment in the silk line, in London. This, when bright prospects of worldly advantage were opening before him, he quitted early in manhood, to devote himself wholly to the cause of God, and the spiritual welfare of his fellow-creatures. It may be justly questioned, whether it would not be better, in most cases, for pious and wealthy tradesmen to remain, like Mr. Thornton, in business, and consecrate their profits to Christ, than retire from it. This would augment their means of usefulness by the acquisition of greater wealth, and by the influence they exert over other men engaged in trade. Occasionally, however, it is well for an individual, as in the present case, to give up altogether secular pursuits, and yield himself, as well as his property, to God. The time and attention of one such man, as well as the property of many other men combined, is needed for the benefit of our institutions. Mr. Wilson's excellent father had been treasurer of the Dissenting College at Hoxton, for the education of ministers, which has been since removed to Highbury. To that office he succeeded at the death of his father, and in which he has been followed by his son, Joshua Wilson, Esq. From the time of his official connection with this important institution, he became, in the best sense of the term, a public man. To his patrimonial inheritance, which was handsome, though not, in the widest meaning of the expression, affluent, he had a large accession by the death of a maternal uncle; which afforded him an opportunity, had he chosen to embrace it, to add much to the splendor of his style of living. He preferred rather to consider it as furnishing him with fresh means for glorifying God, in promoting his cause.

 

Mr. Wilson was one of the fathers and founders of the London Missionary Society, and at the time of his decease was its treasurer. He was a liberal patron of all the religious societies of the day. But the object of his chief attention, care, and solicitude, was the college; and in the cause of this, and what stood connected with it, he embarked his time, his influence, his bodily labor, and to a considerable extent, his fortune. To fill the college with students - to help to support many of them during their academic course - to provide churches for them to settle with - and, where necessary, to build chapels for them to preach in, formed the noble object of his existence. To carry out this end, he had his office, his clerk, and his correspondence; to which he devoted himself with the same assiduity as did the merchants around to their commerce and their gains. In one sense, his office yielded the advantage of a registration for ministers that wanted churches, and churches that wanted pastors; and his private residence, also, was ever accessible to all who had any communication to make, or wished his counsel. What multitudes have been his guests, and have shared his unostentatious, but generous hospitalities!

 

Touched with the destitution of the metropolis, as regards adequate evangelical means of instruction, he erected at his own risk, and mainly at his own cost, four spacious chapels - Hoxton, Paddington, Craven, and Claremont. Nor was his munificence confined to London, for he built new and elegant places of worship at Ipswich, Northampton, Richmond, and Dover. Besides this, he contributed in sums from five hundred pounds to fifty, to the enlargement and erection of eighty other chapels, and in smaller amounts to hundreds more. He could have spent little less than fifty or sixty thousand pounds in the service of his Lord. It was not, however, the amount of money that constituted the whole of his earnestness, but the surrender of all he was, and all he had, to the work of God. He lived for these two objects - to educate ministers, and to build chapels. At home and abroad - by correspondence and personal inspection - by receiving information and seeking it, he was ever laboring to carry out this design. Age did not paralyze the ardor of this devoted and unwearied man, nor dismiss him from his beloved employ. When too feeble to go to his office in town, its business was brought to him at his own habitation. The last interview I had with him, which was not long before his decease, when, though attenuated by disease and suffering from pain, his countenance brightened up, as he showed me a letter which he had just received from a minister encouraging his hopes that his correspondent would settle at one of the chapels he had erected in the metropolis.

 

On reading this brief account, no one can doubt, much less anyone who knew the subject of it, that Mr. Wilson was a fine specimen of an earnest man. Let men of fortune contemplate this bright example, and go and do likewise. Let them here learn the real design of Providence in bestowing wealth, and their own richest enjoyment in appropriating it. What a service does that man render to the cause of religion through all time, and the souls of his fellow-creatures through all eternity, who erects only one place of worship, or educates only one minister for the preaching of the gospel!

 

Men of leisure and of literature will find an admirable example of intense activity and continued labor, in the cause of public usefulness, in the late George Stokes, Esq. This gentleman also commenced life as a partner in a large wholesale silk establishment. He had received a good classical education at Merchant Tailor's School in London. While yet comparatively a young man, and much engaged in business, he connected himself with that inestimably valuable institution, the Religious Tract Society, as one of its committee, and placed no divided heart upon its altar. In addition to the ordinary duties of a committee-man, he, soon brought his literary taste and acquirements under requisition, for the benefit of the Society, and wrote several tracts, which were adopted, printed, and widely circulated. When the society felt any pressure upon its finances, Mr. Stokes' purse was as much at its command as his pen. At the meetings of the committee, he was always present when not prevented by sickness or absence from home; and was often in daily attendance at the depository for a long time together. He wrote several of the annual reports, and proceeded with ever increasing zeal and ingenuity to multiply by his own pen the productions issued by the Society. The series of Hawker's tracts, and children's books, the Tract Magazine, and the subsequent issue of larger works, owed much to his inventive mind and ever active pen. The stereotype plates for some of the earlier issues of religious books cost him six hundred pounds. In all his labors he was most ably assisted by his invaluable friend, and the Society's incomparable agent, Mr. William Lloyd. His greatest work was his preparation of the Society's Commentary upon the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. In the accomplishment of this he employed five years, and was often engaged eight hours a day upon it. It is needless to say he had long since resigned the active duties of worldly business, to devote himself to his gratuitous, extensive, and unwearied labors, in the cause of the Religious Tract Society. Mr. Stokes died at Cheltenham, on the 31st of May, in his fifty-eighth year; soon after which a resolution of sympathy with his family, of gratitude to God, and admiration of his life and labors, was passed by the Society, of which the following is an extract; "The committee now feel it their duty to record upon their minutes the interesting fact, that Mr. Stokes prepared for the Society about two hundred separate tracts, translations, juvenile and other larger volumes; including, 'The Commentary on the Holy Bible;' 'The Writings and Lives of the British Reformers;' 'The English History;' and various works on 'The Manners and Customs of the Jews;' and that in addition to all these important publications, he zealously and disinterestedly discharged, for twenty-two years, the duties of one of the editors of the Tract Magazine and the Child's Companion."

 

 Of these various publications nearly fourteen million copies have been issued by the Society. Well might Mr. Jones, the admirable traveling agent of the Society, in his "Recollections of the late George Stokes, Esq.," remark, we learn here "the power of a single individual to do much good. Mr. Stokes was a man of useful, rather than of splendid, talents. He was not a literary miser. He collected knowledge that he might freely impart it. His light was not put under a bushel, but was seen of men, and gave light to those around. He lived not to himself. Without being fully conscious of it, he so shone before men, through his numerous and useful works, that many were led to glorify his heavenly Father."

 

I now bring forward two instances from humble life, for the instruction and encouragement of those in a similar situation. The first is Thomas Cranfield, of whom an interesting memoir has been published by the Religious Tract Society, under the title of "The Useful Christian." Thomas Cranfield was the son of a journeyman baker in Southwark, and as he grew up to youth, became a wicked, cruel and brutish lad. He absconded from his master, enlisted into the army, and was at the siege of Gibraltar. He was a brave soldier, and reckless of danger but a slave of sin and Satan. On his return to England, he was taken to hear Mr. Romaine preach at Blackfriars. His hard heart was broken down by the hammer of the Word, and his pious parents soon had the ineffable felicity to see their soldier-son enter, heart and soul, into the service of the Captain of our salvation. Having found joy and peace in believing, he became intensely anxious and active for the salvation of others. His first solicitude was for his wife, who soon became a fellow-heir with him of the grace of life. He then sought the conversion of her relatives, as his own were already Christians. The next objects of his pious zeal were the lodgers in the house where he resided, two of whom became, by their conversion, the fruits of his labors. Soon after he acted as clerk to an out-of-door preacher, who proclaimed the glad tidings of salvation to the multitude in Moorfields. Then he joined in setting up a prayer-meeting among the brick-makers at Kingsland. At length, panting for a regular means of doing good, rather than these casual efforts, he opened a Sunday school at Rotherhithe, where he had witnessed some awful scenes of juvenile depravity. Finding, at length, some one to conduct this institution, he directed his views to Tottenham, and opened another there. Founding and conducting Sunday schools now became his vocation, to which he surrendered himself with all the ardor with which he had fought his country's battles on the heights of Gibraltar. School after school was opened by him in many of the darkest and rudest places in the neighborhood of the metropolis, of which he was the teacher, the superintendent, and the purveyor, finding friends to assist with their money, and teachers by their labors. To the duties of a superintendent of Sunday schools, he added those of a visitor of the sick, till Thomas Cranfield became known as a friend of the young, the sick, and the poor, through whole neighborhoods. What he wanted in order and method, he made up in zeal and perseverance. Individual, as well as general, in his attentions, he visited the children at their homes, and wrote letters enough to them to make a volume. He looked after them when they had left the school, followed them to their domiciles, or assembled them at a meeting of "old scholars." At one of these gatherings, amounting to about sixty, it was ascertained that fourteen of those present were members of churches, and that there was scarcely one who did not attend a place of worship. The lodging-houses, those dark domains of Satan, where filth, and ignorance, and vice, seem all condensed together, into their narrowest dimensions, did not escape his notice, or daunt his courage, and he rendered many of them accessible to the light of truth, and the glad tidings of salvation. Thus lived and labored Thomas Cranfield. Time blunted not his religious sensibilities, and he bore fruit to old age - at fourscore he was still lively in desire, though feeble in action, in the cause of his Master. Half a century he had labored as a devoted Sunday school teacher, and tired not to the last. This once profligate youth, and brave but wicked soldier, when he died, was honored with funeral obsequies, which the hero under whom he served at Gibraltar might have coveted in vain to enjoy. O, for more Thomas Cranfields!"[2]

 

Harlan Page is more than worthy to be associated in these biographical etchings, with the last mentioned individual, for though not superior in piety and devotedness to Thomas Cranfield, he was before him, both in talent and in usefulness. Harlan Page was a native of Connecticut, in the United States. His father was a house-joiner, to which trade he also was brought up. He was converted to God when about twenty-two years of age. "When I first obtained a hope," he said on his dying bed, "I felt that I must labor for souls. I prayed year after year that God would make me the means of saving souls." His prayer was soon answered; for who ever presented such a prayer, and followed it up with appropriate and diligent exertions, that had not his desires gratified? Three days after he publicly professed his faith in Christ, he began his useful career by addressing a letter to one who had been long resisting conviction and hardening his heart. Letter-writing now became his chosen means of doing good; and this instrumentality he scarcely ceased, for a single day, to employ. He addressed himself to relations and strangers - to friends and foes - to the rich and the poor - to saints and sinners - to persons in all states and stages of religious experience - and to the young and old - with a diligence that is surprising. No lover of wealth or literature was ever more assiduous in correspondence than was this pious carpenter. When lying on a sick bed, he would employ himself in thinking in what new ways he could be useful; and when recovered, it was his first solicitude to put his plans and purposes into execution. His next means of saving souls was the printing and circulating of small cards, with a short and impressive address, composed by himself, on some of the momentous truths of revelation. The distribution of tracts was added to the circulation of cards. His object then was to promote prayer-meetings and revivals of religion among his fellow-members. On one occasion he had entered in his private memoranda short notices of seventy-nine individuals under concern, among whom he was ever active in promoting their spiritual welfare. His pen was as busy as his tongue, and he was always preparing addresses for publication in some of the religious periodicals; and which were full of point, pathos, and unction. "While working at three shillings a day, here was a mechanic performing his daily task on hire, establishing and sustaining a religious meeting at the boarding-house, on Wednesday evenings; a meeting of the people of God, for prayer, on Sabbath mornings, at sunrise; and though he went three miles to attend public worship, throwing his efforts into a Sabbath school at five pm.; devoting Sabbath evenings to meetings and family visitation; conversing with the sick, the careless, the anxious; distributing tracts; endeavoring to a waken an interest in the religious operations of the day; keeping a brief diary; abounding in prayer; and adopting, with others, an incipient measure for the formation of a church and the settlement of a pastor."

 

At length, Harlan Page was appointed Agent of the General Depository of the American Tract Society, which opened to him a new sphere of activity and usefulness, and which he filled with his accustomed energy. He assembled, from time to time, all the tract distributors, companies of Sunday school teachers, and others, to instruct them, as a kind of drill sergeant in the army of the Captain of Salvation, in their several duties. The great temperance movement received his hearty cooperation. During all these labors for others, he was no less assiduous for his own family, and had the joy of seeing his children walking in the truth. It may be truly said he was animated by as much as is ever found in imperfect humanity, of the passion for saving souls; and for this he would have been willing to become a martyr.

 

Yea, in some sense he was a martyr, for his constant labors wore out a frame, never robust; and after having saved by his varied instrumentality more souls than most of those who bear the ministerial office, he died, at the comparatively early age of forty-two; and has left an example of earnestness in doing good, which were the church of Christ disposed to imitate, our world would soon be rescued from the dominion of sin and Satan, and recovered to its rightful owner, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us hear this dying saint say, "I know it is all of God's grace, and nothing that I have done; but I think that I have had evidence that more than one hundred souls have been converted to God through my own direct and personal instrumentality;"  - and having heard it, let us consider what one man in humble life, with by no means a strong bodily frame, but with a heart burning with an ardent desire to be useful to men's souls, can do, when he is given up to this blessed and sublime occupation. Suppose every Christian congregation were blessed with ten such individuals, yea five, yea one, what a shower of blessings might be expected to fall upon the neighborhood in which they live! Here is earnestness indeed. It would not be easy to think of a means more likely to rouse Christians to a sense of their capacity and obligations for doing good, than the perusal of the cheap memoirs of this wonderful man, which also has been republished in this country by the Religious Tract Society.

 

We will now contemplate two or three examples of female earnestness, which are selected for that sex which has ever distinguished itself for zeal in every good cause, and especially in that of religion. In the time of the Savior they were his most constant and devoted followers, were last at the cross, and first at the sepulcher; and since then, have in every age shown the ardor of their love by distinguished services.

 

The first instance is selected from the peerage, and is the well known Selina, Countess of Huntingdon. This extraordinary woman was from a child of a grave and serious disposition, and maintained, amidst all the elegance and gaiety of Donnington Park, a devout turn of mind. She was, however, for a long time laboring hard to establish her own righteousness; till by conversation with Lady Margaret Hastings, a near relative on her husband's side, she received the knowledge of justification by faith. Whitfield and Wesley were then in the midst of their labors, and the zenith of their popularity and usefulness. Lord and Lady Huntingdon immediately patronized the new doctrine, and were the followers of Whitfield wherever he preached. Connected by her rank with nobility, and by her habits with literary men, wits, poets, and statesmen, what decision, fortitude, and even heroism, it required, not stealthily and by night, but boldly in the face of day, to connect herself with the sect everywhere spoken ill of, and ridiculed as a band of ignorant fanatics! Such qualities were possessed by the subject of this sketch. She became to a certain extent the patroness of the despised preacher at "the Foundry." Her saloon was thrown open to his preaching, where Lord Chesterfield, the high priest of the god of fashion, Lord Bolingbroke, and many other peers and peeresses, would not unfrequently be found, at her ladyship's solicitation, listening to Whitfield, now appointed to be her chaplain. It was while this great man was on a visit to Lady Huntingdon's seat, at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, that the Tabernacle, in London, was planned, and chiefly at her instigation. By this time, her fortune, never very large, and her influence, which was much greater, were both put in requisition to meet the expense of the erection of the Tabernacle, Tottenham Court chapel, and other places of worship. Mr. Berridge, of Everton, Mr. Rowland Hill, Mr. Matthew Wilks, and all others of their style of preaching, whether in or out of the Church of England, became her protegés. She was still professedly a member of that communion, but loved the gospel, and all who preached it, infinitely more than she did the church. Lay preaching, and out of door preaching, met with her entire concurrence and liberal support. Chapels now were engaged by her wherever she could obtain them, to the full extent of her means; and it was her special delight to buy theaters, when they were to be obtained, and so turn those places into houses for saving souls, which had been formerly employed for destroying them. Wherever a revival of religion took place, in the establishment, or in any other denomination, her influence was sure to be engaged.

 

After studding the land with chapels, and supplying them with ministers, supporting them, in many cases, from her own purse, she aimed at nobler game, and established a college, at Trevecca, in South Wales, for the education of ministers; and I have lying before me, at this moment, a list of the names of ministers, and many of them of considerable celebrity, amounting to one hundred and twenty-five, who were educated in this seminary. When the lease of the premises at Trevecca expired, the college was removed to Cheshunt, Herts, where it now continues, under the able presidency of Dr. Harris; and already have nearly two hundred ministers been educated for the preaching of the gospel, in that seat of holy and general literature. A religious connection was formed which bore, and which still bears, the name of this distinguished lady. Her personal exertions in these works of faith, and labors of love, were unbounded. She lived for nothing else. Rank, and fortune, and influence, were valuable in her eyes, only as they enabled her to glorify God, advance the kingdom of Christ, and save immortal souls. All she possessed, she consecrated to the Redeemer of the world, and his cause on earth. She kept no state, she incurred no expense, in order that she might give all to the Saviour. She was often involved in considerable difficulties for want of money, not, like many of the nobility, to meet her debts for gambling or extravagance, but for buying or erecting chapels. Having determined to erect a place of worship at Brighton, and being at the time rather straitened for money, she came to the noble resolution of selling her jewels, and with the produce, amounting to nearly seven hundred pounds, she built the chapel in North Street, in that town, now occupied by the Rev, Joseph Sortain, This was one of the most interesting sacrifices of vanity ever made at the shrine of religion. How truly may it be said of that place of Christian worship, with an alteration of the future into the past time, "I have laid thy stones with fair colors, and thy foundations with sapphires, and I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones."

 

Such was Lady Huntingdon. How correctly has it been said by her biographer, "The value of such a life can never be ascertained, till the heavens and the earth be no more; and when temporal happiness and misery shall have vanished like the illusion of a dream, thousands, and tens of thousands, will be thankful that she lived so long, the faithful servant of God, and the happy instrument of their conversion."

 

Here was earnestness indeed!

 

But few have such opportunities for service in the cause of Christ as this illustrious woman, and we therefore descend to others nearer the ordinary level of human life. From these we select that noble-minded woman, Mrs. Fry. This lady, as is well known, was a member of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, as they are commonly called. After spending her youth in worldliness, vanity, and with an inclination to skepticism, yet still amidst many struggles with a conscience which urged her to higher pursuits, she was converted to God by the preaching and conversation of William Savory, an American Quaker minister, who visited this land on a religious mission. Little did this holy and self-denying servant of the Lord imagine, when he set his foot on the shores of Britain, what a convert he was about to win to the cross of his Master. Had he lived only for that one object, his existence would have been a rich blessing to our world. Mrs. Fry's piety, from the commencement of her religious life, partook of the ardor of her natural temperament. In addition to the contemplative duties of religion, she soon added the assiduities of an active benevolence, and when surrounded by the cares of married life, and the anxieties of a mother with an increasing family, and a feeble constitution, she, notwithstanding, devoted much time to visiting the poor. She grew in grace amidst some bodily suffering, and became eminent for the power of the hidden life. She was soon appointed visitor of the school and work-house of the Society of Friends, at Islington, upon the duties of which, notwithstanding her multiplying cares at home, she entered with alacrity, humility, and self-devotedness. Her active mind soon after this became anxious to form an establishment for the welfare of female servants. That mysterious, interesting, but degraded race, the Gypsies, did not escape her notice, and she visited their little camp as often as it was pitched in her neighborhood; relieving their wants, reproving their sins, and furnishing such as could read with books. After speaking occasionally in their meetings, the Friends acknowledged her ministry as one whom the Lord had called. This devolved upon her new duties and frequent journeys.

 

At length the attention of Mrs. Fry was called to the female prisoners in Newgate, who at that time were in the most deplorable condition, both physically and morally. Hundreds of these wretched beings were huddled together, in filth, vice, and confusion; and often infuriated to madness with ardent spirits, which were then allowed to be sold in the prison, till the place resembled a pandemonium. She was now the mother of eight children, and can she with such a charge find leisure, and for such an object find courage, to venture into that den of revolting and outrageous wickedness? Or could she hope even by her calm and gentle presence to control that band of furies? Against the remonstrances of some, the fears of more, and the despondency of nearly all but her own heaven-moved mind, this angel of mercy descended into that dark domain of vice, which had acquired the designation of "hell above ground." Her presence so benign, her voice so musical, her disposition so affectionate, and her whole manner so gentle and yet so confiding, awed the rude spirits which collected around her. Such a form of sanctity and mercy had never before been seen in that abode of vice and misery; and an immediate impression in her favor was produced upon the minds of the female culprits whom she had gone to instruct. At her instigation, "An Association for the Improvement of the Female Prisoners in Newgate," was formed, of which, of course, she was the chief agent. Their operations were seconded by the civic authorities, and soon evinced that there are no characters so desperate, and no habits of vice so inveterate, which may not be expected to yield to judicious, gentle, firm, and persevering kindness. Mrs. Fry's unwearied labors continued, and with them the reformation at Newgate advanced. But this brought upon her an extensive correspondence, and much additional labor of other kinds, for she had become now a female heroine whose fame had gone out into all the earth; it had penetrated mansions, palaces, and the courts of justice; and drew attention, not only to herself, but, what was still more important, to the subject of prison reform. Her visits were now extended, not only to almost every part of the country, but also to the channel islands. After this, she crossed the Atlantic, and visited America, returning home through France. Scarcely was she quietly and safely at home, before another journey was undertaken to the continent, when she traversed Germany, Holland and Denmark. Thus did this wonderful woman ever go about doing good. No distance, no difficulties, no labors, appalled her, in her efforts to instruct ignorance, to reform vice, and to alleviate wretchedness. Advancing years chilled not her ardor, nor induced her to seek repose. In this noble career she continued till the Master whom she so much loved, and so well served, called her to her rest, and her reward. Such was the woman, who in her last illness made this declaration to her daughter, "I can say one thing - since my heart was turned to the Lord, at the age of seventeen, I believe I have never wakened from sleep, in sickness or in health, by day or by night, without my first waking thoughts being, How shall I best serve my Lord?"

 

Perhaps it will be thought by many that Mrs. Fry's example, though so beautiful, is, like Lady Huntingdon's, too lofty to be approached and imitated, however it may be contemplated and admired, by the readers of this volume. I now, then, exhibit one, altogether worthy to follow Mrs. Fry's, to which no such remark will apply. Sarah Martin, of Great Yarmouth, was brought up to the business of a dress-maker, and followed this vocation in her native town. Her mind was brought under the saving influence of religion at the age of nineteen. Like most others, whose conversion to God is real, she no sooner experienced the blessedness of true religion, than she longed to diffuse it. The first impulse of her zeal was a strong desire to visit the workhouse, and read and pray with its inmates. God, who inspires such wishes, will always make way for their gratification; and it was her felicity not only to gain admission to the house, but to receive a hearty welcome, and a patient attention, from its inmates. In the same year, when passing the jail, she felt a strong inclination to be admitted within its gloomy walls and cells, to read the Scriptures to the prisoners. She kept her wishes a secret, lest her friends should interfere, and hinder her in this work of mercy. God led her, and she consulted none but him. Difficulties presented themselves, but they soon vanished before the power of faith, prayer, and perseverance. The governor, aware of her consistent piety and benevolent character, indulged her in her generous plan of benefiting his guilty charge. Her frequent visits soon became habitual ones. Finding, on one occasion, a female convict, who was soon about to be transported, making a bonnet on the Sabbath, she immediately obtained permission to set up regular Sunday service, which till then had been neglected; and which from that time was conducted by herself.

 

To carry out her schemes for the improvement of the prisoners, she now sacrificed one day's profitable labor, to give it to them. A pious lady, aware of this generous sacrifice, bought another day's labor of her for the jail, by allowing her what she usually received for her day's work. Books were wanting for the instruction of the women, and to obtain these she raised a quarterly subscription among a few friends. In connection with these visits to the jail, she carried on, during an hour or two of the day, the instruction of a few boys and girls, and kept up also her unabated attention to the paupers in the workhouse. As the close sick rooms of that asylum of poverty materially injured her health, she was compelled to relinquish this sphere of benevolence, and take up, in lieu of it, a workhouse school. At length, her whole time was redeemed from making ladies' dresses, and given to the blessed work of instructing and reforming the victims of sin and of justice; for, as may be supposed, her business would naturally and necessarily decline, in consequence of her irregular attention to it. Her support failed with her business, except what she derived from the interest of between two and three hundred pounds. But with strong and unpresumptuous faith, she exclaimed, "The Lord will provide!" And so he did. She had by this time become, quite unintentionally, a public character. The corporation knew, approved, and sanctioned her labors; and did more than this, for they voted her an allowance from the public funds. Her delicate and generous mind was wounded by the offer, and for a while she pertinaciously refused it, till it was literally forced upon her, by her acceptance of it being made the condition of the continuance of her visits to the jail. This, of course, subdued all opposition. In this career she continued, setting up one institution after another in the jail, for the benefit of its inmates, all tending to instruct their minds, to reform their morals, to promote their industry, to soften the rigor of their imprisonment, and to prepare them either for their return to society, or for their banishment into a land of exile. Nor did her solicitude leave them when they were discharged from prison, but followed them with its counsels and its vigilance into whatever situation she could trace them. It was her custom to compose addresses, in the form of short sermons, to be read to them at their Sunday worship, and which did honor to head and heart. A few of these are printed at the end of her Memoirs. So efficient were her services in the jail, that most honorable mention of them was made in the report given to Parliament by the Inspector of Prisons. Her influence, which consisted of the meekness of wisdom and the gentleness of love, was unbounded over her guilty and degraded pupils. Men, as well as women, hardened in crime, would, by their attention and kindness to her, yield the spectacle of the lion crouching at the feet of the Iamb. In this way did this modest and unassuming young woman pursue her beneficial career, struggling all the while with a feeble frame, till, worn out with the efforts of her self-denying zeal, the operations of which were often carried on amidst vermin, filth, and vice, so abhorrent to her physical and moral sensibilities, she ceased from her labors, and entered that world where the wicked cease from troubling; and the weary are at rest. In prospect of her decease, she composed a funeral sermon for herself, to be read to the prisoners after her death, and a touching and beautiful address it is.

 

The name of Sarah Martin will never cease to be mentioned with a tribute of esteem, as long as there are hearts to feel, or tongues to express, a high admiration for pure, disinterested, and self-denying benevolence.

 

Was not this earnestness?[3]

 

Let these sketches of character be considered not merely as giving us information, but as furnishing examples - not merely to be admired, but imitated - not merely to lay down a rule, but to give an impulse. We see what others have done, and learn what we ought to do. We may not have their ten talents, but we learn from them how to employ our five or one. Our opportunity may not be so extensive for doing good as theirs, but our desire may be as ardent. The grace that moved them can move us. If we cannot be a Mr. Wilson, we may, perhaps, become a Thomas Cranfield, or a Harlan Page: and if, my female readers, you cannot be a Lady Huntingdon, or a Mrs. Fry, you may perhaps be a Sarah Martin. May we all, by God's grace, drink in an inspiration to do good from looking at these examples!

 

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[1] This eminent individual, and also Lady Huntingdon, were mentioned in "The Earnest Ministry;" but they are brought forward here, and at greater length, as belonging more to this volume than to that; and had the present work been contemplated when the former one was written, they would have been reserved for this occasion.

[2] "The Useful Christian," by the Tract Society. 1s.

[3] An interesting memoir of this most excellent woman has been published, price one shilling, by the Religious Tract Society.