ADVANTAGE OF MAKING A COMMENCEMENT IN LETTER WRITING-CHRISTIAN FORTITUDE THE ONLY SUPPORT IN DISTRESS.

April 5, 1783.

MY DEAR FRIend, When one has a letter to write, there is nothing more useful than to make a beginning. In the first place, because unless it be begun, there is no good reason to hope it will ever be ended; and secondly, because the beginning is half the business; it being much more difficult to put the pen in motion at first, than to continue the progress of it when once moved.

Mrs C's illness, likely to prove mortal, and seizing her at such a time, has excited much compassion in my breast, and in Mrs Unwin's, both for her and her daughter. To have parted with a child she loves so much, intending soon to follow her to find herself arrested before she could set out, and at so great a distance from her most valued relations ner daughter's life, too, threatened by a disorder not often curable, —are circumstances truly affecting. She has indeed much natural fortitude, and to make her condition still more tolerable, a good Christian hope for her support. But so it is, that the distresses of those who least need our pity excite it most; the amiableness of the character engages our sympathy, and we mourn for persons for whom perhaps we might more reasonably rejoice. There is still, however, a possibility that she may recover; an event we must wish for, though for her to depart would be far better. Thus we would always withhold from the skies those who alone can reach them; at least till we are ready to bear them company.

Present our love, if you please, to Miss C. I saw in the Gentleman's Magazine for last month an account of a physician who has discovered a new method of treating consumptive cases, which has succeeded wonderfully in the trial. He finds the seat of the distemper in the stomach, and cures it principally by emetics. The old method of encountering the disorder has proved so unequal to the task, that I should be much inclined to any new practice that comes well recommended. He is spoken of as a sensible and judicious man, but his name I have forgot.

Our love to all under your roof, and in particular to Miss Catlett, if she is with you. Yours, my dear friend,

W. C.

AFFECTATION OF HOMELINESS IN A PREACHER DISPLEASING -NEATNESS IN THE STYLE OF A SERMON.

May 5, 1783.

You may suppose that I did not hear Mr preach, but I heard of him. How different is that plainness of speech, which a spiritual theme requires, from that vulgar dialect which this gentleman has mistaken for it! Affectation of every sort is odious, especially in a minister, and more especially an affectation that betrays him into expressions fit only for the mouths of the illiterate. Truth, indeed, needs no ornament, neither does a beautiful person; but to clothe it, therefore, in rags, when a decent habit was at hand, would be esteemed preposterous and absurd. The best proportioned figure may be made offensive by beggary and filth; and even truths, which came down from heaven, though they cannot forego their nature, may be disguised and disgraced by unsuitable language. It is strange that a pupil of yours should blunder thus. You may be consoled, however, by reflecting, that he could not have erred so grossly, if he had not totally and wilfully departed both from your instruction and example. Were I to describe your style in two words, I should call it plain and neat, simplicem munditiis, and I do not know how I could give it juster praise, or pay it a greater compliment. He that speaks to be understood by a congregation of rustics, and yet in terms that would not offend academical ears, has found the happy medium. This is certainly practicable to men of taste and judgment, and the practice of a few proves it. Hactenus de Concionando.

We are truly glad to hear that Miss C- is better, and heartily wish you more promising accounts from Scotland. Debemur morti nos nostraque. We all acknowledge the debt, but are seldom pleased when those we love are required to pay it. The demand will find you prepared for it. Yours, my dear friend, W. C.

MY DEAR FRiend, A letter written from such a place as this, is a creation; and creation is a work for which mere mortal man is very indifferently qualified. Ex nihilo nihil fit, is a maxim that applies itself in every case where Deity is not concerned. With this view of the matter, I should charge myself with extreme folly for pretending to work without materials, did I not know, that although nothing could be the result, even that nothing will be welcome. If I can tell you no news, I can tell you at least that I esteem you highly; that my friendship with you and yours is the only balm of my life; a comfort, sufficient to reconcile me to an existence destitute of every other. This is not the language of to-day only, the effect of a transient cloud suddenly brought over me, and suddenly to be removed, but punctually expressive of my habitual frame of mind, such as it has been these ten years.

1

*

In the Review of last month, I met with an account of a sermon preached by Mr Paley at the consecration of his friend, Bishop Law.t The critic admires and extols the preacher, and devoutly prays the Lord of the Harvest to send forth more such labourers into his vineyard. I rather differ from him in opinion, not being able to conjecture in what respect the vineyard will be benefited by such a measure. He is certainly ingenious, and has stretched his ingenuity to the uttermost in order to exhibit the church established, consisting of bishops, priests, and deacons, in the most favourable point of view. I lay it down for a rule, that when much ingenuity is necessary to gain an argument credit, that argument is

* William Paley, D.D. Archdeacon of Carlisle, was born 1745, and died in 1805. His chief works are, Elements of Moral and Political Philosophy, Hore Paulina, Evidences of Christianity, and Natural Theology. His Sermons were a posthumous publication, and the one referred to in the text must have been an occasional discourse.

† Edmund Law, Bishop of Carlisle, born 1703, died 1787. His works are, Considerations on the Theory of Religion; Inquiry into our ideas of Time and Space; Tracts; and an Edition of Locke.

unsound at bottom. So is his, and so are all the petty devices by which he seeks to enforce it. He says first, "that the appointment of various orders in the church is attended with this good consequence, that each class of people is supplied with a clergy of their own level and description, with whom they may live and associate on terms of equality." But in order to effect this good purpose, there ought to be, at least, three parsons in every parish,-one for the gentry, one for traders and mechanics, and one for the lowest of the vulgar. Neither is it easy to find many parishes, where the laity at large have any society with their minister at all. This, therefore, is fanciful, and a mere invention. In the next place, he says it gives a dignity to the ministry itself, and the clergy share in the respect paid to their superiors. Much good may such participation do them! They themselves know how little it amounts to. The dignity a parson derives from the lawn sleeves and square cap of his diocesan, will never endanger his humility.

Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow;
The rest is all but leather or prunello.

Again-" "Rich and splendid situations in the church have been justly regarded as prizes, held out to invite persons of good hopes and ingenuous attainments." Agreed. But the prize held out in the Scripture is of a very different kind; and our ecclesiastical baits are too often snapped by the worthless, and persons of no attainments at all. They are, indeed, incentives to avarice and ambition, but not to those acquirements by which only the ministerial function can be adorned, -zeal for the salvation of men, humility, and selfdenial. Mr Paley and I, therefore, cannot agree.— Yours, my dear friend, W. C.

122. -TO JOSEPH HILL, ESQ.

LOSS OF FRIENDS THE WORST ILL OF LONGEVITY.

May 26, 1783.

I FEEL for my uncle, and do not wonder that his loss afflicts him. A connection that has subsisted so many years could not be rent asunder without great pain to the survivor. I hope, however, and doubt not but when he has had a little

more time for recollection, he will find that consolation in his own family, which is not the lot of every father to be blessed with. It seldom happens that married persons live together so long, or so happily; but this, which one feels oneself ready to suggest as matter of alleviation, is the very circumstance that aggravates his distress; therefore he misses her the more, and feels that he can but ill spare her. It is, however, a necessary tax, which all who live long must pay for their longevity, to lose many whom they would be glad to detain, (perhaps those in whom all their happiness is centered,) and to see them step into the grave before them. In one respect, at least, this is a merciful appointment: when life has lost that to which it owed its principal relish, we may ourselves the more cheerfully resign it. I beg you would present him with my most affectionate remembrance, and tell him, if you think fit, how much I wish that the evening of his long day may be serene and happy.

W. C.

123. TO THE REV. JOHN NEWTON.

JOY IN DEATH TO BElievers.

May 31, 1783.

WE rather rejoice than mourn with you on the occasion of Mrs C 's death. In the case of believers, death has lost his sting, not only with respect to those he takes away, but with respect to survivors also. Nature, indeed, will always suggest some causes of sorrow, when an amiable and Christian friend departs: but the Scripture, so many more, and so much more important reasons to rejoice, that on such occasions, perhaps more remarkably than on any other, sorrow is turned into joy. The law of our land is affronted if we say the king dies, and insists on it that he only demises. This, which is a fiction, where a monarch only is in question, in the case of a Christian is reality and truth. He only lays aside a body, which it is his privilege to be encumbered with no longer; and instead of dying, in that moment he begins to live. But this the world does not understand; therefore the kings of it must go on demising to the end of the chapter. W. C.