and sensible tone, t and principle, to y think, one of the s they are honest, mengine as your he used to say, would not have my assistance in religious matters, because they so disapprove of my politics; and in the mean time the people, in this hour of their utmost need, get either the cold deism of the Cottage Evenings, or the folly of the Cottager's Monthly Visitor. Would the Committee accept my assistance for those "Cottage Evenings?" I would give a larger sum than I should be thought sane to mention, if I might but once see this great point effected". XXXIII. TO MRS. FLETCHER. (After the death of her Son.) Rugby, August, 1831. I know that you are rich in friends, and it seems like presumption in me to say it; but I intreat you earnestly to remember that M and myself regard you and yours with such cordial respect and affection, that it would give us real pleasure, if either now or hereafter we can be of any use whatever in any arrangements to be made for your grandchildren. I feel that it would be a delight to me to be of any service to fatherless children, contemplating, as I often do, the possibility of myself or their dear mother being taken away from our own little ones. And I feel it the more, because I confess that I think evil days are threatening, insomuch that, whenever I hear of the death of any one that is dear to me, there mixes with my sense of my own loss a sort of joy that he is safe from a From a later letter to the same. "I cannot tell you how much I was delighted by the conclusion of the article on Mirabeau, in the Penny Magazine of May 12. That article is exactly a specimen of what I wished to see, but done far better than I could do it. I never wanted articles on religious subjects half so much as articles on common subjects written with a decidedly Christian tone. History and Biography are far better vehicles of good, I think, than any direct comments on Scripture, or essays on Evidences." the evil to come. Still more strong is my desire that all Christ's servants who are left should draw nearer every day to him, and to one another, in every feeling and every work of love. XXXIV. TO REV. DR. HAWKINS. Skipton, July 11, 1831. The Register is now dead, to revive however in another shape; but I could not afford at once to pay all, and to write all, and my nephew's own business hindered him from attending to it sufficiently, and it thus devolved on the mere publisher, who put in things of which I utterly disapproved. But the thing has excited attention in some quarters just as I wished; all the articles on the labourers were copied at length into one of the Sheffield papers, and, when the Register died, the Sheffield proprietor wrote up to our editor, wishing to engage the writer of those articles to continue them for his own paper. By a strange coincidence I happened to walk into the office of this very paper, at Sheffield, to look at the division on the Reform Bill, knowing nothing of the application made to our editor in town. I saw the long quotation from the Register, and as the proprietor of the paper happened to be in the shop, I talked to him about it, and finally told him who I was, and what were my objects in the Register. He spoke of those articles on the labourers being read with great interest by the mechanics and people of that class, and I have promised to send him a letter or two in continuation. XXXV. TO THE ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN. August 12, 1831. Touching the Magazine, I think it deúтegov Tλouv in comparison with a weekly paper; but πλέον ἥμισυ πάντος. I will join in it gladly, and, if required, try to undertake even the editorship, only let something be done. I found Hipton, July 11, 1631. revive however in at once to pay all, business hindered it thus devolved gs of which I utexcited attention e articles on the of the Sheffield Sheffield proprie gage the writer of wn paper. By a Into the office of e division on the lication made to otation from the paper happened ut it, and finally y objects in the he labourers bemics and people d him a letter or all the articles about the labourers in my Register had been copied into the Sheffield Courant, and the proprietor told me that they had excited some interest. Thus even a little seed may be scattered about, and produce more effect than we might calculate on; by all means let us sow while we can. What do Mayo and you say to the Cholera? Have you read the accounts of the great fifty years' pestilence of the 6th century, or of that of the 14th, both of which seem gradually to have travelled like the cholera? How much we have to learn about the state of the atmosphere and the causes that affect it. It seems to me that there must be a morbus cœli," which at particular periods favours the spread of disorders, and thus, although the cholera is contagious, yet it also originates in certain constitutions under a certain state of atmosphere, and then is communicated by contagion to many who would not have originated it themselves; while many again are so antipathetic to it, that neither contagion nor infection will give it them. Agathias says that the old Persian and Egyptian philosophers held that there were certain periodical revolutions of time, fraught with evil to the human race, and others, during which they were exempt from the worst sort of visitations. This is mysticism; yet, from Thucydides downwards, men have remarked that these visitations do not come single; and, although the connexion between plague and famine is obvious, yet that between plague and volcanic phenomena is not so; and yet these have been coincident in the most famous instances of long travelling pestilences hitherto on record. Nor is there much natural connexion between the ravages of epidemic disease, and a moral and political crisis in men's minds, such as we now seem to be witnessing. XXXVI. TO REV. F. C. BLACKSTONE. (In answer to a question about Irvingism at Port Glasgow.) Rugby, Oct. 25, 1831. .... If the thing be real, I should take it merely as a sign of the coming of the day of the Lord, the only use, as far as I can make out, that ever was derived from the gift of tongues. I do not see that it was ever made a vehicle of instruction, or ever superseded the study of tongues, but that it was merely a sign of the power of God, a man being for the time transformed into a mere instrument to utter sounds which he himself understood not. . . . . However, whether this be a real sign or no, I believe that "the day of the Lord" is coming, i. e. the termination of one of the great άives of the human race; whether the final one of all or not, that I believe no created being knows or can know. The termination of the Jewish adv in the first century, and of the Roman άiv in the fifth and sixth, were each marked by the same concurrence of calamities, wars, tumults, pestilences, earthquakes, &c., all marking the time of one of God's peculiar seasons of visitation 2. And society in Europe seems going on fast for a similar revolution, out of which Christ's Church will emerge in a new position, purified, I trust, and strengthened by the destruction of various earthly and evil mixtures that have corrupted it. But I have not the slightest expectation of what is commonly meant by the Millennium, and I wonder more and more that any one can so understand Scripture as to look for it. As for the signs of the times in England, I look nowhere with confidence: politically speaking, I respect and admire the present government. The ministry, I sincerely believe, would preserve all our institutions a For the same belief in the connexion of physical with moral convulsions, see Niebuhr, Lebers-nach-richten, ii. p. 167. It may be as well to add, that the view above expressed of the apostolical gift of tongues, was founded on a deliberate study of the passages which relate to it, especially 1 Cor. xiv. 14. 13. 28. 21. TONE. Port Glasgow.) only use, as far as the gift of tongues. cle of instruction, es, but that it was being for the time tter sounds which ever, whether this day of the Lord" f the great ant one of all or not, can know. The first century, and sixth, were each lamities, wars, tumarking the time ation. And soa similar revolu emerge in a new ened by the dextures that have st expectation of im, and I wonder erstand Scripture imes in England, cally speaking, I ent. The minis1 institutions our physical with moral n, ii. p. 167. It expressed of the adeliberate study Cor. xiv. 14. 13. by reforming them; but still I cannot pretend to say that XXXVII. TO W. W. HULL, ESQ. Rugby, October 26, 1831. I spear daily, as the Lydians used to play in the famine, that I may at least steal some portion of the day from thought. My family, the school, and, thank God, the town also, are all full of restful and delightful thoughts and images. All there is but the scene of wholesome and happy labour, and has much to refresh the inward man, with as little to disturb him as this earth, since Paradise, could, I believe, ever present to any one individual. But my sense of the evils of the times, and to what prospects I am bringing up my children, is overwhelmingly bitter. All in the moral and physical world appears so exactly to announce the coming of the "great day of the Lord," i. e. a period of fearful visitation to terminate the existing state of things, whether to terminate the whole existence of the human race, neither man nor angel knows,—that no entireness of private happiness can possibly close my mind against the sense of it. Mean time it makes me very anxious to do what work I can, more especially as I think the prospect of the cholera makes life even more than ordinarily uncertain; and I am inclined to think, from my own peculiar constitution, that I should be very likely to be attacked by it. I believe I told you that I am preparing for the press a new volume of Sermons, and I wish a small book on the |