Transcribed from the 1900 T. Nelson and Sons edition by David Price,email [email protected]
THE ANNALS OF THE POOR
BYTHE REV. LEGH RICHMOND, M.A.,LATE RECTOR OF TURVEY, BEDFORDSHIRE.
"Thou, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor."
PSALM lxviii. 10.
London:T. NELSON AND SONS, PATERNOSTER ROW.EDINBURGH; AND NEW YORK.1900
THE DAIRYMAN'S DAUGHTER.
PART I.
It is a delightful employment to discover and trace the operations ofdivine grace, as they are manifested in the dispositions and lives ofGod's real children. It is peculiarly gratifying to observe howfrequently among the poorer classes of mankind the sunshine of mercybeams upon the heart, and bears witness to the image of Christ which theSpirit of God has impressed thereupon. Among such, the sincerity andsimplicity of the Christian character appear unencumbered by thoseobstacles to spirituality of mind and conversation which too often provea great hindrance to those who live in the higher ranks. Many are thedifficulties which riches, worldly consequence, high connections, and theluxuriant refinements of polished society, throw in the way of religiousprofession. Happy indeed it is (and some such happy instances I know)where grace has so strikingly supported its conflict with natural pride,self-importance, the allurements of luxury, ease, and worldly opinion,that the noble and mighty appear adorned with genuine poverty of spirit,self-denial, humble-mindedness, and deep spirituality of heart.
But, in general, if we want to see religion in its most simple and purecharacter, we must look for it among the poor of this world who are richin faith. How often is the poor man's cottage the palace of God! Manycan truly declare that they have there learned the most valuable lessonsof faith and hope, and there witnessed the most striking demonstrationsof the wisdom, power, and goodness of God.
The character which the present narrative is designed to introduce to thenotice of my readers is given _from real life and circumstances_. Ifirst became acquainted with her by receiving the following letter, whichI transcribe from the original now before me:--
"REV. SIR,
"I take the liberty to write to you. Pray excuse me, for I have never spoken to you. But I once heard you, when you preached at --- Church. I believe you are a faithful preacher to warn sinners to flee from the wrath that will be revealed against all those that live in sin, and die impenitent. Pray go on in the strength of the Lord. And may he bless you, and crown your labour of love with success, and give you souls for your hire!
"The Lord has promised to be with those whom he calls and sends forth to preach his word, to the end of time; for without him we can do nothing. I was much rejoiced to hear of those marks of love and affection to that poor soldier of the S. D. militia. Surely the love of Christ sent you to that poor man. May that love ever dwell richly in you by faith! May it constrain you to seek the wandering souls of men with the fervent desire to spend and be spent for his glory! May the unction of the Holy Spirit attend the word spoken by you with power, and convey deep conviction to the hearts of your hearers! May many of them experience the divine change of being made new creatures in Christ!
"Sir, be fervent in prayer with God for the conversion of sinners. His power is great, and who can withstand it? He has promised to answer the prayer of faith, that is put up in his Son's name. 'Ask what ye will, it shall be granted you.' How this should strengthen our faith, when we are taught by the word and the Spirit how to pray! Oh, that sweet inspiring hope! how it lifts up the fainting spirits, when we look over the precious promises of God! What a mercy if we know Christ and the power of his resurrection in our own hearts! Through faith in Christ we rejoice in hope, and look up in expectation of that time drawing near when all shall know and fear the Lord, and when a nation shall be born in a day.
"What a happy time when Christ's kingdom shall come! Then shall 'his will be done on earth as it is in heaven.' Men shall be daily fed with the manna of his love, and delight themselves with the Lord all the day long. Then what a paradise below they will enjoy! How it animates and enlivens my soul with vigour to pursue the ways of God, that I may even now bear some humble part in giving glory to God and the Lamb!
"Sir, I began to write this on Sunday, being detained from attending on public worship. My dear and only sister, living as a servant with Mrs. ---, was so ill, that I came here to attend in her place and on her. But now she is no more.
"I was going to entreat you to write to her in answer to this, she being convinced of the evil of her past life, and that she had not walked in the ways of God, nor sought to please him. But she earnestly desired to do so. This makes me have a comfortable hope that she is gone to glory, and that she is now joining in sweet concert with the angelic host in heaven to sing the wonders of redeeming love. I hope I may now write, 'Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord.'
"She expressed a desire to receive the Lord's Supper, and commemorate his precious death and sufferings. I told her as well as I was able what it was to receive Christ into her heart; but as her weakness of body increased, she did not mention it again. She seemed quite resigned before she died. I do hope she is gone from a world of death and sin to be with God for ever.
"Sir, I hope you will not be offended with me, a poor ignorant person, to take such a liberty as to write to you. But I trust, as you are called to instruct sinners in the ways of God, you will bear with me, and be so kind to answer this ill-wrote letter, and give me some instruction. It is my heart's desire to have the mind that was in Christ, that when I awake up in his likeness then I may be satisfied.
"My sister expressed a wish that you might bury her. The minister of our parish, whither she will be carried, cannot come. She will lie at ---. She died on Tuesday morning, and will be buried on Friday or Saturday (whichever is most convenient to you), at three o'clock in the afternoon. Please to send an answer by the bearer, to let me know whether you can comply with this request
"From your unworthy servant, "ELIZABETH W---."
I was much struck with the simple and earnest strain of devotion whichthis letter breathed. It was but indifferently written and spelt. Butthis the rather tended to endear the hitherto unknown writer, as itseemed characteristic of the union of humbleness of station with eminenceof piety. I felt quite thankful that I was favoured with a correspondentof this description; the more so, as such characters were at that timevery rare in the neighbourhood. I have often wished that epistolaryintercourse of this kind were more encouraged and practised among us. Ihave the greatest reason to speak well of its effects both on myself andothers. Communication by letter as well as by conversation with thepious poor has often been the instrument of animating and reviving my ownheart in the midst of duty, and of giving me the most profitableinformation for the general conduct of the ministerial office.
As soon as the letter was read I inquired who was the bearer of it.
"He is waiting at the outside of the gate, sir," was the reply.
I went out to speak him, and saw a venerable old man, whose long hoaryhair and deeply wrinkled countenance commanded more than common respect.He was resting his arm upon the gate, and tears were streaming down hischeeks. On my approach he made a low bow, and said,--
"Sir, I have brought you a letter from my daughter, but I fear you willthink us very bold in asking you to take so much trouble."
"By no means," I replied; "I shall be truly glad to oblige you and any ofyour family in this matter, provided it be quite agreeable to theminister of your parish."
"Sir, he told me yesterday that he should be very glad if I coul
d procuresome gentleman to come and bury my poor child for him, as he lives fivemiles off, and has particular business on that day; so when I told mydaughter, she asked me to come to you, sir, and bring that letter, whichwould explain the matter."
I desired him to come into the house, and then said,--
"What is your occupation?"
"Sir, I have lived most of my days in a little cottage at ---, six milesfrom here. I have rented a few acres of ground, and kept some cows,which, in addition to my day-labour, has been the means of supporting andbringing up my family."
"What family have you?"
"A wife, now getting very aged and helpless; two sons, and one daughter;for my other poor dear child is just departed out of this wicked world."
"I hope for a better."
"I hope so too. Poor thing, she did not use to take to such good ways asher sister; but I do believe that her sister's manner of talking with herbefore she died was the means of saving her soul. What a mercy it is tohave such a child as mine is! I never thought about my own soulseriously till she, poor girl, begged me to flee from the wrath to come."
"How old are you?"
"Near seventy, and my wife is older. We are getting old, and almost pastour labour, but our daughter has left a good place, where she lived inservice, on purpose to come home and take care of us and our littledairy. And a dear, dutiful, affectionate girl she is."
"Was she always so?"
"No, sir; when she was very young she was all for the world, andpleasure, and dress, and company. Indeed we were all very ignorant, andthought if we took care for this life, and wronged nobody, we should besure to go to heaven at last. My daughters were both wilful, and, likeourselves, strangers to the ways of God and the word of his grace. Butthe eldest of them went out to service, and some years ago she heard asermon, preached at --- church by a gentleman that was going to --- aschaplain to the colony, and from that time she seemed quite anothercreature. She began to read the Bible, and became sober and steady. Thefirst time she returned home afterwards to see us she brought us aguinea, which she had saved from her wages, and said, as we were gettingold, she was sure we should want help, adding, that she did not wish tospend it in fine clothes as she used to do, only to feed pride andvanity. She said she would rather show gratitude to her dear father andmother, because Christ had shown such mercy to her.
"We wondered to hear her talk, and took great delight in her company; forher temper and behaviour were so humble and kind, she seemed so desirousto do us good both in soul and body, and was so different from what wehad ever seen her before, that careless and ignorant as we had been, webegan to think there must be something real in religion, or it nevercould alter a person so much in a little time.
"Her youngest sister, poor soul! used to laugh and ridicule her at thattime, and said her head was turned with her new ways. 'No, sister,' shewould say, 'not my _head_ but I hope my _heart_ is turned from the loveof sin to the love of God. I wish you may one day see, as I do, thedanger and vanity of your present condition.'
"Her poor sister would reply, 'I do not want to hear any of yourpreaching; I am no worse than other people, and that is enough for me.''Well, sister,' Elizabeth would say, 'if you will not hear me, you cannothinder me from praying for you, which I do with all my heart.'
"And now, sir, I believe those prayers are answered. For when her sisterwas taken ill, Elizabeth went to Mrs. ---'s to wait in her place, andtake care of her. She said a great deal to her about her soul, and thepoor girl began to be so deeply affected and sensible of her past sin,and so thankful for her sister's kind behaviour, that it gave her greathopes indeed for her sake. When my wife and I went to see her as she laysick, she told us how grieved and ashamed she was of her past life, butsaid she had a hope, through grace, that her dear sister's Saviour wouldbe her Saviour too, for she saw her own sinfulness, felt her ownhelplessness, and only wished to cast herself upon Christ as her hope andsalvation.
"And now, sir, she is gone, and I hope and think her sister's prayers forher conversion to God have been answered. The Lord grant the same forher poor father and mother's sake likewise!"
This conversation was a very pleasing commentary upon the letter which Ihad received, and made me anxious both to comply with the request and tobecome acquainted with the writer. I promised the good dairyman toattend on the Friday at the appointed hour; and after some moreconversation respecting his own state of mind under the present trial, hewent away.
He was a reverend old man; his furrowed cheeks, white locks, weepingeyes, bent shoulders, and feeble gait, were characteristic of the agedpilgrim. As he slowly walked onward, supported by a stick, which seemedto have been the companion of many a long year, a train of reflectionsoccurred, which I retrace with pleasure and emotion.
At the appointed hour I arrived at the church, and after a little whilewas summoned to the churchyard gate to meet the funeral procession. Theaged parents, the elder brother, and the sister, with other relatives,formed an affecting group. I was struck with the humble, pious, andpleasing countenance of the young woman from whom I had received theletter. It bore the marks of great seriousness without affectation, andof much serenity mingled with a glow of devotion.
A circumstance occurred during the reading of the Burial Service, which Ithink it right to mention as one among many testimonies of the solemn andimpressive tendency of our truly evangelical Liturgy.
A man of the village, who had hitherto been of a very careless and evenprofligate character, went into the church through mere curiosity, andwith no better purpose than that of vacantly gazing at the ceremony. Hecame likewise to the grave, and during the reading of those prayers whichare appointed for that part of the service, his mind received a deep,serious conviction of his sin and spiritual danger. It was an impressionthat never wore off, but gradually ripened into the most satisfactoryevidence of an entire change, of which I had many and long-continuedproofs. He always referred to the Burial Service, and to some particularsentences of it, as the clearly ascertained instrument of bringing him,through grace, to the knowledge of the truth.
The day was therefore one to be remembered. Remembered let it be bythose who love to hear "the short and simple annals of the poor."
Was there not a manifest and happy connection between the circumstancesthat providentially brought the serious and the careless to the samegrave on that day together? How much do _they_ lose who neglect to tracethe leadings of God in providence as links in the chain of his eternalpurpose of redemption and grace!
"While infidels may scoff, let us adore!"
After the service was concluded I had a short conversation with the goodold couple and their daughter. She told me that she intended to remain aweek or two at the gentleman's house where her sister died till anotherservant should arrive and take her sister's place.
"I shall be truly obliged," said she, "by an opportunity of conversingwith you, either there or at my father's when I return home, which willbe in the course of a fortnight at the furthest. I shall be glad to talkto you about my sister, whom you have just buried."
Her aspect and address were highly interesting. I promised to see hervery soon, and then returned home, quietly reflecting on thecircumstances of the funeral at which I had been engaged. I blessed theGod of the poor, and prayed that the poor might become rich in faith, andthe rich be made poor in spirit.
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