will inform us what passed at Locksbury, that we may know how to act. Hen. Though I have already been telling my father about matters: yet for the sake of your information Sir, I had better relate things from the beginning. Wor I wish you would Mr. Henry. By what we have heard from the letters you sent to your father, I expect it will be a very interesting narration. Hen. Why Sir, as soon as I got to Locksbury, I called first on Mr. Reader, told him who I was, and on what errand I came, and then gave him Mr. Lovegood's letter, and the three books. While he read the letter, he appeared very much affected indeed; and after he had finished it, he cried, "What would I give to know the writer of this letter! What a good man, and a good preacher he must be, to have wrought such a reformation on my poor daughter! And what a character Mr. Worthy must be, to take so kind a part on behalf of that unfortunate girl!" After some other conversation, he observed, [to Mr. Lovegood] that your notions in religion were, till of late, widely different from his; but that he conceived the reason was, that he had been much more engaged in studying the works of men, than the word of God. Loveg. All the errors that abound in the world, arise from mankind bringing their preconceived notions to the word of God, instead of coming in the spirit of a child to be instructed, but after that excellent remark, I think you had better not have given him the books, which were sent for his acceptance. Hen. Why, I could not do otherwise, as they were mentioned in the letter; but I said he was to judge of those books, only by the word of God, and not of the word of God by them. Wor. Did you go to see poor Mr. Chipman, the same day you had the first interview with Mr. Reader? Hen. No Sir; Mr. Reader said, after he had dis misssed his school, he would prepare his son's mind for the visit on the next day. And so he took Mrs. Chipman's letter, and that which you Sir, [to Mr. Lovegood,] wrote to him, that he might read them before I saw him. Loveg. This was a prudent step, but what was the result? Hen. O Sir! the condition poor Mr. Reader was in, on his return that evening, can never be expressed. He told me the grief of his son-in-law was so strong, that he could not leave the house till near midnight, Mr. Chipman's perpetual cry was, "Oh, that my dear Jemima had known Mr. Lovegood before she had met with that horrid profligate, who seduced her!"-It was very affecting to see an old greyheaded mar, crying, sobbing, and sighing, under such a calamity. Wor. After this I suppose the next day you visited Mr. Chipman? Hen. Yes Sir; but before he went to bed, I plucked up courage and said, "Sir, is it not time to go to family prayer?" He blushed exceedingly and then answered, "I generally pray by myself;" and then added: "But if what Mr. Lovegood says be true, I fear I never prayed in all my life." And being but young in years, and much younger still in grace, 1 thought it would look too forward in me to propose prayer myself. I am afraid I was once much more bold as a sailor, than I am now as a christian. After this Mr. Reader showed me to my bed, which he had kindly provided for me, and the next day I went and visited Mr. Chipman. Wor. Poor man! And how did you find him? Hen. O Sir! there I saw one that was but a little while before a fine personable young man, literally dying of a broken heart, and reduced to a skeleton in the last stage of a rapid consumption, with his hands twisted in each other, and his eyes running down with tears. Then he cried, "Oh! that unfeeling wretch, who could take such a cruel advantage What a treasure I on my poor thoughtless wife! once thought I possessed in her! Well, well, I thank God that she is a penitent; and the Lord make me a penitent too! For though I have been kept from all outward acts of injustice between man and man; yet I now see, by Mr. Lovegood's letters, and by some closer attention to my Bible, if I am not saved by mercy, I shall be ruined for ever." And seeing them both so very humble, I took courage, and asked them if I should go to prayer, and they immediately consented. Loveg. And how did they seem after prayer? Hen. Oh! Sir, all the time we were at prayer, poor Mr. Chipman did nothing but sob and cry, till I was almost as much overcome as himself; and Mr. Reader was quite as much affected as either of us.I humbly trust, Sir, through the mercy of God, it was prayer indeed. it Far. [To Mr. Lovegood.] And what a mercy is, that my dear child can make such a distinguishment between real prayer and sham prayer.-The Lord be praised! Loveg. Well, but Mr. Littleworth, with your leave, we should be glad if your son would continue the story. Hen. After I talked to them from my own prayer, experience as well as I could: what wicked hearts we all have, and how we all sin at least by our shortcomings, for as the apostle says, "we come short of his glory" every moment we live; and then I went on telling them of the glorious salvation of our blessed Redeemer, and the need there was that our hearts should be changed, or that we must be regegenerate, and made new creatures in Christ, before we can be taken to glory. And I remember it was just then that Mr. Reader said, it was but the other day he thought it all nonsense to talk about a change of heart, if we were but moral; but that he now shuddered at his own ignorance. Loveg. All this was blessed teaching. The first work of the Divine Spirit is to convince a man of sin: we know nothing, till we know that " we are vile." Hen. Yes Sir, and Mr. Reader seemed to be convinced of this, for he said to me, "I seem to have been doing all my life, and have done nothing right after all. Loveg. Well, well; this knowledge must have been not less profitable, than it was painful. Hen. He even went so far as to say, that nothing shocked him so much as what he once fancied was his righteousness. He was thoroughly convinced, that even his prayers were but mere farce and form; and that, as of late he had been seriously reading over the Church Prayers, he now saw he had been saying a thousand times with his lips, what he had never felt in his heart. Loveg. Nothing but a knowledge of our misery, will ever prompt us to seek for mercy. How different the language of Mr. Reader now, to what it was when our correspondence first commenced. But as it seems by your letters to your father, the family would not let you leave them till after Mr. Chipman's death, you can tell us farther of the good man's experience before his departure. Hen. Why Sir, I first advised him to withdraw all his thoughts from the calamities he had suffered by the seduction of Mrs. Chipman, as all those temporal connexions would soon be dissolved by death. Loveg. That was good advice. Was he able to follow it? Hen. In a great measure he was. Mr. Reader and I went to see him every day, and sometimes oftener. He was never happy but when one of us was with him. Sometimes we went together; and at other times we would take it by turns. And when Mr. Reader was with him, as well as I could, I used to attend on his scholars; for Mr. Chipman was always complaining of his ignorance, and begging us to read to him, when his strength would in any mea sure to enable him to attend. He in general used to engage his father to read out of Beveridge's Private Thoughts; but when I was with him he would scarcely suffer me to take any other book but the Bible. Wor. I suppose to speak the truth, you could tell him the meaning of it a little better than his father. Hen. Why Sir, I did it according to the best of my poor, little ability. But it is amazing what questions he would ask at one time, and what surprise he discovered at the plain reading of the word of God at another. And the nearer he drew to his end, how delighted he seemed to be with the gracious promises of redemption and pardon through Jesus Christ, crying, "Nothing but mercy will now do for me." Then he mentioned those words in St. Jude, Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus unto eter nal life." Loveg. It is happy for us when we are brought to that blessed point. Christ on his mercy-seat, must be all our hope. Hen. How he was charmed with such texts as these : "Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest."-" Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world.”—“ Wherefore he is able to save to the uttermost, them that come unto God by him; seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for us. "Ye are complete in him." And when I was reading that text, "That we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus," I remember how he cried, "Blessed be God, I shall soon be presented perfect in Christ Jesus!" Then he said, "Mr. Littleworth, do I quote that text aright ?""Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? it is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us ?" And then he added the other part of the text, VOL. II. 19 |