turned out ill; while all things in which I submitted to God's disposal have ministered to my happiness eventually. Thou, dear Lord, Whilst I traced out bright scenes which were to come, Didst spare me, and withhold Thy fearful word; Wiling me year by year, till I am found A pilgrim pale, with Paul's sad girdle bound." As Mr. Lee uttered these words, he ceased speaking, and seemed for a few moments so absorbed in thought that I did not venture to interrupt him. At length I said, "Your history, Mr. Lee, affords a striking excmplification of the truth, that obedience is its own reward; and that the certain fruits of obedience are the possession of that peace which the world can neither give nor take away. To obedience was promised the blessing of conviction as to the truth of our holy faith, If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God:' but surely the manner in which that conviction comes upon the mind arises from the gradual experience that submission to God's law, self-restraint and self-abasement (however painful at the outset), do inevitably promote that 'quietness and confidence' which are the secret of a Christian's happiness. You have said, that it was by slow degrees, and after many efforts, that you were brought to the habits of resignation. I need not ask you whence you derived your strong sense of this duty, for if ever man's religion was drawn from his Bible yours is; and you would be content to follow no lower example than that of Him who prayed that not his own will, but his Father's, should be done. But we have all the Bible in our hands-we have all the pattern of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ set before us continually; and yet how few are there who G make submission the leading feature of their characters! We pray that God's will may be done, and we admire resignation in the abstract, but few of us go much further. Where, let me ask, did you become impressed with the conviction, that on your carrying out this principle into all the minute details of daily life your daily happiness depended ?" I think," said Mr. Lee, with his usual quiet, modest tone, "that the better Churchman I became, the better I was enabled to enter into Gospel-motives and Gospel-principles. The reason of this is obvious. The system which the Church has laid down for her children, is but the development in details of those general rules which the Saviour and his apostles briefly described. The Church bids us follow her as and where she follows Christ. She claims our obedience; and at the time she does it, she says with her Lord, Do, and you shall know.' She bids us continue instant in prayer; and, if we obey her, she knows full well that the blessed Spirit of grace and supplication will give us our reward. She bids us watch, and fast, and pray, and mortify the flesh; and she knows we shall have our recompense in the habits of self-control which they produce. She teaches us to prize the benefits of social worship; for she knows that the more we look upon ourselves as members one of another, the more shall we be inclined to prefer others to ourselves. She bids us live with the past rather than with the present,—with saints, and angels, and the unseen world, rather than with what is temporal, in order that thereby we may be led to set less store on worldly things, and to identify ourselves in thought and feeling with the whole body of the faithful. This is the system which the Church imposes on us; and what is her object in so doing? The setting up of a spiritual despotism? or the promotion of her own glory? Nay, rather the promotion of our good. She is the nurse, by whom his children are led to their heavenly Father; and she would bring them up in such a manner as that they may be most acceptable to Him, and He be most loved and feared by them. She assumes no prerogatives which God has not given her; nor does she claim to herself what is due to the Saviour alone. Nevertheless she has her duty to perform to her Almighty Lord, and from that she turns not aside to the right hand or to the left. She receives us in our infant weakness, as heirs of heaven and immortality; and she makes it her business, under the guiding of the Holy Spirit, so to discipline our minds as to render us capable of enjoying the society of heaven, and the pure services of an eternal temple. The way she mainly does this is by teaching us to conquer self; and, believe me, my dear friend, if the experience of three-score years and ten be worth your notice, it may all be comprised in a single sentence: The more I have hearkened to the Church, the more ready have I been to obey the laws of Christ; the more readily I have obeyed the laws of Christ, the more have I known of that peace which is the choicest gift of Heaven." Such were the lessons that I learned in the woods of Riverscote; and since that day I have never wandered amid their lonely glades, but they have recalled to me the thoughts of my duties and my responsibilities! |