Page images
PDF
EPUB

after having been centres of love and interest to a circle in itself so large, have been known and honoured in a circle yet larger, and removed from both by an end so sudden and solemn. Some notion of the general sympathy may be formed by the notices of his death in most of the periodicals of the years 1842, 43, 44, amongst which may be especially mentioned the organs of the two most opposite parties, the extreme Radical, and the extreme Oxford school, with both of which in life he had had so little of friendly intercourse. As a testimony of gratitude to his services in the cause of education, a public subscription was set on foot, under the superintendence of a Committee, consisting of noblemen and gentlemen of different political and ecclesiastical parties, the proceeds of which were applied, after the erection of a monument in Rugby Chapel, to the foundation of scholarships, to be enjoyed in the first instance by his sons in succession, and afterwards dedicated to the promotion of general study at Rugby, and of the pursuit of history at Oxford.

But however wide was the sense of his loss, and the tribute of respect to his memory, it was only in the narrower range of those who knew him, especially of those who had been brought up under his charge, that the solemnity of the event could be fully appreciated. Many were the testimonies borne by them to the greatness of their loss, which it is impossible here to record. But it may be permitted to close this narrative with a letter to his widow, from a former pupil, whose name has already occurred in these pages, which it has been thought allowable to publish, (though of course only the utterance of

the first feelings of private sorrow,) as giving the impression left upon one who had been parted from him for three years in a distant country, and to whom his fellow scholars will, it is felt, willingly leave the expression of thoughts and hopes in which so many will be able more or less to share.

Hobart Town, Van Diemen's Land, Nov. 16, 1842.

MY DEAR MRS. ARNOLD,

If you knew the true affection I had for him whom we have lost, you would not forbid my writing of my grief to one most near and dear to him when here below. No one inspirited and encouraged my undertaking here [as] he did; no letters were so sure to bring fresh hopes and happiness as those which can never come again from him. It was not so much what he said in them, as the sense which they conveyed, that he still was, as he had ever been, the same earnest faithful friend. It was this which made one feel that, while he was alive, it would indeed be pusillanimous to shrink from maintaining what was true and right. This I felt the last time I ever saw him, in the autumn of 1839. He rose early and spent the last hour with me, before we separated for ever; he to his school work and I to my journey here. We were in the dining-room, and I well remember the autumnal dawn-it was calm and overcast, and so impressed itself on my memory, because it agreed with the more than usual quietness; the few words of counsel which still serve me from time to time; the manner in which the commonest kindnesses were

offered to one soon to be out of their reach for ever; the promise of support through evil fortune or good, in few words, once repeated, exceeding my largest deserts; and then the earnest blessing and farewell from lips never again to open in my hearing. His countenance and manner and dress-his hand, and every movement are all before me now more clearly than any picture-and you will understand full well how a quiet scene like this has an impressiveness unrivalled by the greatest excitements. The uncertain consciousness that this parting might be the last hung about it at the time; and preserved the recollection of it, till now that the sad certainty gives a new importance to the slightest particular.

I feel how unequal I am to offer you any consolation that you do not already possess, in the far more solemn and painful parting to which you have been called. But how unhappy would it have been, had you foreseen that each day was drawing nearer and nearer to that fatal event, as surely as you now know that every passing hour is an hour nearer to a happy reunion. Fear not but that he will be himself again -some good men fall asleep in Jesus so full of infirmities, that they cannot but be greatly changed both in body and mind by the healing miracle of the Resurrection. But will not those who die, as Moses and Elias did, in the fulness of their labours and their strength, be as quickly recognised as were Moses and Elias by the faithful in God's holy mount? As our

Saviour's wounds were healed on the morning of the Resurrection, so shall his mortal disease be healed, and all that we most loved in him shall become immortal. The tone of earnestness shall be there, deep

ened perhaps into a more perfect beauty by a closer intercourse with the Son of Man, when his ears have heard the "Verily, verily, I say unto you," that once used to be heard upon the earth-the cheerfulness shall be there without a cloud to dim it throughout all eternity, and how will the most aspiring visions of reformation that ever filled his mind on earth be more than accomplished in that day of the restitution of all things! how will he rejoice in his strength and immortality, as he busies himself to perform the whole counsel of God, no longer doubted or disputed by men! what member of the Divine Body will glory more than he will in the catholic and perfect union of men with each other and with God!

My dear Mrs. Arnold, you have been heretofore a kind friend to one who is neither forgetful nor ungrateful. But, when thus gazing up into heaven after him, I remember that you are his, I pray with a double earnestness that you may follow him, and that, when your time is come, you may present to him the greatest blessing that can now be added to his full cup of joy, yourself and your children perfect before the throne of God. Accept this blessing from your true and sincere friend,

JOHN PHILIP GELL.

APPENDIX.

(A.)

PRAYERS,

WRITTEN BY DR. ARNOLD FOR VARIOUS OCCASIONS IN RUGBY SCHOOL.

I. PRAYER READ EVERY MORNING IN THE SIXTH FORM.

(See vol. i. p. 117.)

O LORD, who by Thy holy Apostle, hast taught us to do all things in the name of the Lord Jesus and to Thy glory, give Thy blessing, we pray Thee, to this our daily work, that we may do it in faith and heartily, as to the Lord and not unto men. All our powers of body and mind are Thine, and we would fain devote them to Thy service. Sanctify them and the work in which they are engaged; let us not be slothful, but fervent in spirit, and do Thou, O Lord, so bless our efforts that they may bring forth in us the fruits of true wisdom. Strengthen the faculties of our minds and dispose us to exert them, but let us always remember to exert them for Thy glory, and for the furtherance of Thy kingdom, and save us from all pride, and vanity, and reliance upon our own power, or wisdom. Teach us to seek after truth and enable us to gain it; but grant that we may ever speak the truth in love :-that, while we know

VOL. II.

« PreviousContinue »