CHAPTER VII.

Life of Dr. Chalmers-Rev. Gervase Smith-Bazaar at EccleshillHer Model of a Woman-How hidden strength is brought outAn Incident turned to good account-Mrs. Stowe's Sunny Memories-An interesting Italian-Phases of Inner Life-The Employments of Heaven-War-Perils of her early Mental History— Parker Willis-Female Authors-A Spiritual Anodyne-Nearness to Christ-Gilfillan's Criticism on "Abijah"-Talfourd's Memorials of Charles Lamb-An Affectionate Appeal to an Unconverted Friend.

MISS Hessel had less leisure for the acquisition of knowledge than would be supposed. The whole household duties were performed by the mother and her two daughters, the younger of whom, in consequence of delicate health, was unable to take her share. The service rendered by Miss Hessel to the "Sowing Society" was considerable—often beyond what prudence warranted. Her large circle of friends entailed an extensive correspondence. Nearly five hundred letters have come into the possession of the writer, most of them containing eight, and many twelve, or more pages of note-paper, closely written. And these, of course, are but a selection. The value placed upon her society involved the consumption of much time in paying and receiving visits. In addition to the active service rendered to her own religious community, she engaged this summer in a general canvass of the village for subscribers to the British and Foreign Bible Society. Supplementary to all this, she frequently assisted efforts in distant places to promote philanthropic and religious projects. A bazaar about to be

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LIFE OF DR. CHALMERS.

135 held at Eccleshill, a village in her brother's circuit, to aid the funds for the erection of a new sanctuary, was now taxing her energies. "I rise between five and six," says she, "sometimes at four, and seem to have my hands quite full during the day."

Her thirst for knowledge was unabated however, amid these pressing calls of active duty. "Though I seem to be fully employed," says she to Miss S. R, on June 12th, 66 I manage to read a little. How, I can scarcely tell you. But I am fixed in my determination that this last blessed boon of my life shall not be wrested from me. My library at present consists of 'Geology of the Isle of Wight,' 'Tasso's Life,' and Jerusalem Delivered,' the last number of the 'London Quarterly,' 'Naomi, or the Last Days of Jerusalem,'-a good tale of the siege, with which you would feel interested-and lastly, I am fascinated beyond measure with the Life of Dr. Chalmers.""

"It is Sabbath afternoon," she writes to the same friend a fortnight later, "a stillness almost oppressive reigns within and without. The rain is falling noiselessly. It has quenched the music of all but one or two daring songsters, whose clear shrill notes are the only sounds which occasionally disturb the unusually audible tick-tick of the time-piece. While I write the rain suddenly descends in noisy torrents, and the courage of my feathered minstrels is fairly squashed.

'Well, at this hour for thought, I review the past, and with a feeling of pensive gratitude record the loving-kindness of my Heavenly Father. The deep cloud under which I had been walking for some time, when I last wrote you, had a silver lining, and soon after my letter was despatched it turned outward a little fringe of light, which has been deepening and widening ever since. One sometimes wonders in the retrospect that the trial should have been felt so keenly. When the deliverance has been wrought out, we

see how much more patience we might have exercised, and how many fears we might have quelled. We could have done this if we had foreseen the issue. Oh how this rebukes our unbelief. How lamentable our want of faith in the power, and wisdom, and love of our Father. Oh! this cursed unbelief-this millstone around our necks, which prevents our aspirations after growth in grace from being realized. May you and I be delivered from it. I am getting on with the second volume of Chalmers, and am deeply interested. I like his views on faith exceedingly. They harmonise most beautifully with the teachings under which I found the way of salvation, and as I, of course, think, with the Word of God. I very much admire his letters to his sister, Mrs. Morton, when passing through that stage of her religious history where she seemed to see men as trees walking.' Here is a precious passage which has abounded with comfort to my own mind: The sun in the firmament is often faintly seen through a cloud, but the spectator may be no less looking to him than when he is seen in full and undiminished effulgence. It is not to him who sees Christ brightly that the promises are made, but to him who looks to Christ. A bright view may minister comfort, but it is the looking which ministers safety.'

"I am wishful to close my long letter as nearly as possible to-night. To-morrow we are going to Tadcaster to their Missionary Anniversary, so that I shall not have much time.

"We have had a blessed Sabbath; an excellent sermon from Mr. Hudson this evening, from 'Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God.' He spoke of individual witnessing for God amid the dishonour cast upon the holy name by those around us; of witnessing as a Christian people against Sabbath desecration; and of witnessing as a nation against the infidelity and indifference manifested towards God. Some of his remarks on individual testimony for God were very striking. Oh! how we undervalue our

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137

own influence. I feel very deeply and painfully on this subject sometimes. I think that I too readily imagine that in using my pen in the service of God I am exonerated from the more difficult, and to me particularly distressing, duty of witnessing with my mouth."-The reader, not personally acquainted with Miss Hessel, will wonder at this concluding statement. The wonder will be dispelled when it is stated that she had an impediment in her utterance. It was contracted in her girlhood by the circumstance, it is believed, of a domestic being thus afflicted. That it had a nervous origin is evinced by the fact that when she became interested in a conversation, it would nearly, if not entirely, disappear.

"I had intended finishing my letter yesterday, but our cab came sooner than I expected, and I had no time for writing in the morning. We had an excellent meeting. Gervase Smith surprised me. I had only heard him preach once. There was nothing in what I then heard to raise the expectation which his speech last night might have warranted. His rapid utterance, though it makes the general effect of his speech more brilliant, leaves you no time to enjoy the detail, or more properly, the component parts. He passed through almost every system of religion in the world, giving a strikingly concise epitome of each, showing its mutability because it was man-made, and that it was only preserved from speedier ruin by the admixture of truth which it contained. And then, taking the Gospel, he led it to every country of the world, and showed its adaptation to the peculiarities of every nation and people, beautifully sustaining his proposition by quotations from the sacred volume. Imagine yourself standing on a lofty Alpine summit, the panorama around is but dimly seen through the mist and darkness; suddenly the lightnings begin to play; they leap from rock to rock, from mountain to mountain, and you catch a vivid but rapid glance of each fire-illumined point, till you

have gone through the whole scene in succession. Thus did Gervase Smith lead us over almost every nation of the earth, flashing the light of the Gospel upon each. I wish you could have heard him."

To her cousin, she says, on June 28th: "I should have written yesterday, but we had a party of seven came in to tea quite unexpectedly, Mrs. W- and three daughters, two ladies from North Shields, and one from Bilston in Staffordshire. They were a pleasant party, and we quite enjoyed their visit. Judge of my tremor however, when one of the ladies from North Shields, a fine, intelligent looking woman, in parting with me at the station, told me that she was so glad to have met me, that she had read some of my pieces, and had had a great wish to see me before she left Yorkshire; giving me also some very encouraging counsel. Her husband is a ship-builder; and she told me how familiar she was with ignorance and wretchedness, which she could but slightly alleviate; said how hardening a tendency the constant witnessing of such scenes had; and added, 'You who write for religion and humanity, whose sympathies are not blunted by familiarity with suffering and degradation, have a work to do, in keeping alive the flame of benevolence in us, who are too apt to pass by as remediless what we are so accustomed to witness.' You may imagine how surprised I felt. Yet, after the train had whirled them out of sight I felt thankful; first, that I was unconscious of this until we were just parting; and secondly, that I had another motive furnished me to work, one which I had never before so vividly realized. It brought before me the sweating sons of toil, wearing away their lives in the dockyards and the collieries; and the responsibilities attaching to their employers for their moral and intellectual culture. "Do not forget, dear Mary, that it is your privilege to say, 'Being justified by faith I have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.' That peace will possess your heart