78

KILHAM AND HIS JUDGES.

WE ought, perhaps, to feel no surprise that the conflict which ended in the formation of the New Connexion, should have left behind it, in the elder body, feelings of asperity; nor even that these feelings should linger for awhile in existence. All observation of our fallen and feeble humanity shows us that this was to be expected, notwithstanding the requirements of that Christianity which dictates largeness of heart, forbearance, forgiveness, a spirit moulded by love. Prejudice, of all things, is the most difficult to destroy. It does not yield to the gentle influence of time, and light cannot dispel it, because by its very nature it excludes the light. Like a bird of night, it shuts its eye against the sun, and lingers in the darkness in which it was born, as best suiting its nature. Thus unjust and injurious impressions are indefinitely perpetuated.

It is well known that the time and circumstances of Mr. Kilham's death were interpreted, as he seems to have anticipated, as a judgment of Heaven on the course he had pursued; and that others who co-operated with him were said, in the same sense, to have died under a cloud. Notwithstanding the long period which has since elapseda period which should have softened the irritation of feeling from which these rash assertions sprung-they are still repeated. At a public meeting, not long since held, these views were expressed by a person of experience and influence in a large circuit, and the attempt thus made to perpetuate à fanatical hostility to the founders of the New Connexion, and to the body itself, would assuredly not be altogether unsuccessful.

It is not our purpose, in the few remarks we wish to make, to refute the statements thus made. "The Jubilee Volume," and "The First Methodist Reformer and his Principles," will do this, we think, to the entire conviction and satisfaction of all who read them. Since, however, this mode of judging the case is still adopted, we wish to say a few words with a view to test its soundness or fallaciousness. That Mr. Kilham died early,. is undoubtedly true. That he was cut off shortly after the formation of the New Connexion, cannot be denied. This is, indeed, we presume, the only tangible fact to which an appeal can be made. It is, without doubt, a very striking fact. The inference drawn from it is, that God disapproved of that part of his conduct which issued in the formation of the New Connexion body, and that the frown of Heaven rests upon its peculiar principles of church polity. Let us, then, see how this mode of judgment will appear when applied to other cases. Henry the Eighth reigned thirty-eight years, whilst his son, Edward the Sixth, was cut off at the age of sixteen, after a brief reign of only six years. Henry the Eighth was, therefore, a good king, and stood high in the divine approval; whilst his son Edward must have been a bad one, since his reign was cut short by Providence at so early an age. Unbounded sensuality, intense selfishness, and brutal tyranny and cruelty were, nevertheless, the distinguishing features of Henry's character, whilst Edward appears to have been a truly pious youth, and a far more genuine Protestant than his father, since the Reformation, which Henry had brought about from selfish

motives, was zealously carried forward for its own sake, from a love of its glorious principles, by that son whose bright and pious reign was yet so brief and so early terminated.

On this mode of judging, what must be thought of the character and enterprise of Columbus? At every step of his immortal career, he was beset with difficulties. At Genoa, his native land, the proposal which issued in the discovery of America was dismissed as the dream of a chimerical projector. At the court of Portugal his designs were stigmatized as equally extravagant and dangerous. In Spain the wisdom of the sages pronounced his scheme the height of presumption, since it was altogether unlikely that the sagacity of former ages should have left the glory of such discoveries as he proposed to make, to an obscure Genoese pilot. And after five years' negotiation at this distinguished court, the aid he solicited was denied. Applications to private persons of high station were equally ineffectual. His brother, whom he had sent to enlist the English monarch in favour of his scheme, fell into the hands of pirates, and for two years was unable to appear at court. Columbus was again invited to the court of Spain, and flattered with a hope of success which was again bitterly disappointed. Thus for the long period of seventeen years was he denied the opportunity of putting his splendid speculations to the test.

Must we not regard this as the opposition of Providence to his plans-the voice of Heaven pronouncing against him? Eventually, however, he obtained the desired assistance, and amidst many threatening and discouraging circumstances, discovered America. But he was sent home in chains from the New World he had discovered, and treated by the monarchs whose dominions he had enlarged, with suspicion, injustice, and cruelty. He sustained disaster and shipwreck at sea, and for a length of time was subjected to extreme peril and suffering; and at last, exhausted and broken down with fatigue and hardship, aggravated by the most ungrateful and injurious treatment, he died "under a cloud." But who will presume to say that Columbus was acting in opposition to the divine will, or that Providence frowned upon his undertaking? Can we doubt that the discovery of America was an important and brilliant link in the vast chain of providential events, or that Columbus was really an instrument in carrying out the divine arrangements? And the more worthy an instrument, as he grappled successfully with an amount of blindness, prejudice, and difficulty, which would have overwhelmed any other man. The wisdom of Columbus was justified by the event, that proved conclusively the strength of his understanding, the soundness of his judgment, the brightness of his vision-he discovered America! His name is linked for ever with the history of that magnificent continent; and his decision of mind, the patience, the courage, the unconquerable firmness and fortitude of his soul, will render him an object of undying admiration and honour. The "cloud" was circumstantial and temporary; the splendour of his fame is essential and abiding.

In that mighty struggle, which Hampden originated, of which Cromwell became the leading spirit, and which, for a time, made this country a republic, Milton espoused the popular cause, vindicated the execution of Charles the first, filled the post of Latin secretary under Cromwell, and assailed with overwhelming power the corruptions of

the church. His latter days were, however, spent, in both the figurative and literal sense, 66 under a cloud." He became blind, and his age was passed amidst that utter darkness which in Samson Agonistes and Paradise Lost he so melodiously but pathetically bewails. The cause, in support of which he had toiled so arduously, and for which he had sacrificed his eye-sight, was overthrown. The Restoration subjected him to poverty, danger, and insult. The king, indeed, seems to have thought him so miserable, that to spare his life was to inflict a severer punishment upon him than to send him at once to execution. Here then was a very plain case; and the royalist did not fail to discover in Milton's calamities a signal expression of Heaven's displeasure against his political course, and the republican cause.* It was, therefore, against the will of Providence that the tyranny of Charles should be resisted; against the will of Providence that any vestige of liberty should continue in the land. Whilst since Providence had at length spoken out, by afflicting Milton with poverty and blindness, and the overthrow of the republic, it must have specially approved the reign of Charles the Second, a reign the most dissolute and ungodly with which England was ever disgraced; during which the caresses of harlots and the jests of buffoons regulated the policy of the state. The government had just ability enough to deceive, and just religion enough to persecute. The principles of liberty were the scoff of every grinning courtier, and the anathema maranatha of every fawning dean. In every high place worship was paid to Charles and James, Belial and Moloch, and England propitiated those obscene and cruel idols with the blood of her best and bravest children. Crime succeeded to crime, and disgrace to disgrace, till the race, accursed of God and man, was a second time driven forth, to wander on the face of the earth, and to be a bye-word and a shaking of the head to the nations." The very works through the composition of which Milton lost his sight, "overplied in liberty's defence," are a rich legacy to the world of the noblest thought and eloquence, a memorial, which can never perish, of the grandeur of his genius, of his enthusiastic love of the highest forms of excellence, and of his self-sacrificing and unwearied devotedness to the cause of human freedom and of gospel purity. And let it never be forgotten that it was "under the cloud" of his eclipsed sight that he wrote "Paradise Lost" and "Paradise Regained," and was thus permitted, in the sublimest strains of sanctified genius, "to assert eternal Providence, and justify the ways of God to man.'

A poem not long since discovered among Milton's remains, and published in a recent edition of his works, shows in a very affecting manner, the view which he himself took of his afflictions.

* Milton showed, however, that this sword is two-edged, and will cut in opposite directions. Charles the Second and his brother once paid him a visit, with the view of extracting a little sport from the blind old republican, as the Philistines went to gaze on Samson. During the interview, they asked him whether he did not regard the loss of his sight as a judgment of God upon him? "How much heavier, then," he replied, "was the judgment of God on the king, your father. I have only lost my sight; he lost his head!"

† Macaulay.

It is not given, we think, to those who are forsaken of God, thus to set their afflictions to music, thus to sublimate their sorrows into rapture. Compare this with the bitter cry of despair which Byron sends up in his last poem, of which a single stanza will be a sufficient specimen :

Instead of this sad tone, Milton's poem is an equal utterance of grace and beauty; an outburst of the noblest intellect, strengthened with an apostle's faith, and soaring with a seraph's fervour.

The tragical end of the missionary Williams is well known. He did not die in his bed in a ripe old age, passing away to glory amidst the tears and blessings of his converts, or cheering his family with expressions of holy confidence and triumphant anticipation. Ah! no. What a cloud was that which suddenly settled upon him, darkening for ever his fondly cherished hopes of future success! Instead of being honoured by Providence to win Erromanga as a trophy of the cross, he falls beneath the clubs of its savage natives, whilst yet in the full vigour of his powers! What can be the meaning of this dreadful event? According to those expounders of the ways of Providence, whose principles of interpretration we are illustrating, it ought to be that God disapproved of the work in which the devoted missionary was engaged, that he frowned upon the labours which were fulfilling his own express command, and which he had previously blessed with an extraordinary measure of success.

These few examples are, we should suppose, sufficient to show the unsoundness of that mode of judging which has been so freely and confidently employed in reference to Mr. Kilham. That there are certain painful facts connected with the history of those distinguished persons whom we have mentioned; that their latter end was afflicted, or their death untimely, may be matter of regret, and may afford important instruction; but to say that it condemns their life's greatest work, that in which all the virtues of their character shone out in the greatest lustre, is the extreme of rashness and absurdity. These afflictive facts simply prove that the subjects of them, notwithstanding their high calling, were not exempt from the operation of natural laws; that they were still liable to the common calamities of human life; that God does not work miracles, even on behalf of his devoted servants; that we have to walk by faith, and not by sight; that the perfect reward of fidelity to God is to be looked for, not in this world, but in that which is to come. And is not this in entire accordance with both the teachings and the facts of the Word of God? Moses was not permitted to enter the promised land. When just within sight of it, he was cut off by sudden death, by the special interposition of God. But who will doubt, on this account, that he was fulfilling a sublime purpose of the Lord's in bringing Israel out of Egypt, and conducting them into that land of promise? How thick and tempestuous a cloud of calamities rested on the Apostle Paul! "In labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods; once was I stoned; thrice I suffered shipwreck; a night and a day I have been in the deep. In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen; in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness." And this life of tribulation and tempest was closed by a martyr's death. But does all this cast a single shadow on the character of