THE TEARS OF PARENTS.

For the Christian Observer.

THE writer of the cursory letters to a friend, entitled "A Visit to a Cathedral," respectfully submits to the readers of the Christian Observer the following to another friend, on

"James Kemp was a native of Scotland, and was the son of pious parents, who gave his mind an early direction to the path of religion. At a suitable age he entered the Marischal college, Aberdeen, where he completed his education. When he had graduated, a friend made him liberal offers of patronage and assistance, on condition of his remaining in his own country. But, like many others of his young countrymen, he was captivated with the prospects of success and usefulness which were opening in America, on the acknowledgment of the independence of the United States by Great Britain. He accordingly embarked for America, and soon after his arrival engaged as a private tutor in a respectable family in Dorchester county, on the eastern shore of Maryland. In this situation he passed some years. At length, determining to pursue the study of theology, his attention was drawn by the circumstances in which he was then placed, to the Episcopal church. He had been educated a Presbyterian, and till his coming to America had known little or nothing of the Episcopal church. The members of that church, in his own country, suffering under the heavy operation of penal laws, were obliged to withdraw from the light, and to worship in retired places, with closed doors. (?) Of course, there was nothing to remind a young collegian that such a church existed in his native land. But in Maryland it had been, up to the period of the revolutionary war, the established religion, and at the time of his arrival, though suffering from the great changes which the Revolution had produced, her claims to attention presented themselves to Mr. Kemp in a very imposing light. Her mode of worship to him was novel, her institutions were peculiar, and he immediately began the inquiries which would enable him to understand the utility and propriety of these peculiarities. He soon determined to apply for admission to the ministry of the Episcopal church, and having for some time pursued the necessary studies under the instruction of the late Rev. Dr. Bowie, then rector of Great Choptank parish, he was admitto deacon's and priest's orders, by Bishop White, 1789, and the following year, succeeded Dr. Bowie in the charge

of that parish. He remained in the charge of the same parish, greatly esteemed and beloved, till the year 1813, when he was called to succeed the Rev. Dr. Bend, as associate rector of St. Paul's parish, Baltimore. Previously to this removal, he received the diploma of Doctor in Divinity, from Columbia college, New York.

"In 1814, the Convention of Maryland chose him their bishop, to act as suffragan during the life of Dr. J. T. Clagget, the then bishop, who was prevented from fully discharging the duties of his office by great bodily infirmity, and to succeed him on surviving. It is right to state, for it is matter of record, that considerable opposition was made by a portion of the minority of the Convention and others to his consecration; but this, in the case of most of those concerned, was a mere effort of party, though in a few it was doubtless caused by a want of right principles, as well as an absence of Christian feeling. He lived to have full justice done to him in this point, and to see among his most respectful friends, some of those who had on this occasion manifested different feelings towards him. He was consecrated in 1814, by Bishops White, Hobart, and R. C. Moore. On the death of Bishop Clagget, in 1816, he succeeded him as diocesan, and faithfully discharged the duties of that high and important office, till the very sudden dispensation which removed him from the world."

"The late bishop was a well-read divine. He had found time while engaged in his parochial cure in Dorchester, comprising several churches, and although obliged in the early part of his ministry to cultivate a farm, and subsequently engage in teaching, for the support of his family, to read the works of many of the best writers on theology, and its kindred subjects. His letters to Dr. Miller, which were published in the Churchman's Magazine, at New York, in 1809, shew that he had made himself well acquainted with ecclesiastical history, and that his adoption of the Episcopal church was not a mere casual expedient."

"He was an able and instructive preacher. His discourses were prepared with care and patient reflection. He did not view the duty of the pulpit as one which might be carelessly and hastily

events in his hands, and all issues under his controul. We live wisely, we live happily, when we live beneath the shadow of his wings; content to enjoy or to suffer, to diminish or to abound, to live or to die, as He knows best; for He is too wise to mistake, and too merciful willingly to grieve the children of men. In

his favour is life; in his smile is felicity; and approaching him with a true and lively faith as our reconciled God and Father in Christ Jesus, we have a peaceful contentment of spirit, which, as nothing worldly could give, so, blessed be his name, nothing worldly can take

performed. It was not to produce excitement, but to convey instruction that he sought. When, as was sometimes the case in the varied circumstances in which he was occasionally placed, he was called on to address a congregation without time for preparation, he generally confined himself to an exposition of some chapter of the Scriptures, when, with his thorough knowledge of them, fluent speech, and impressive manner, he would fix the attention of all his auditors. His sermons were generally of a practical kind. He avoided himself, and discountenanced in others, the introduction of controversial topics into the pulpit. He loved to dilate on the sacrifice of the blessed Jesus-on the mercies of redemption offered to sinners by the Gospel, and the various duties required of those to whom it is offered. His own mild and subdued feelings led him to set forth a compassionate God and merciful Saviour, rather than the terrors of the Lord-to dwell on the blessings of the Gospel, rather than to display the awful denunciations of the Law. Of a pure and guileless disposition, he was able to form but limited conceptions of the depravity of human nature, and was perhaps too ready to believe that others had hearts as readily accessible to, and as much under, the restraint of Divine grace as his own. Still he shunned not to declare the whole counsel of God, and he did it earnestly, feelingly, as one who knew and felt its inestimable value to those committed to his charge.

Nor

"He was a devoted Christian. His piety was deep, controuling, evident, and unfeigned. No one could have been indulged with a familiar acquaintance with him without feeling this to be true. was it such as to be hidden from the sight of others. His piety was never obtrusive, but it could be readily seen to be a habit of his mind, exhibiting itself naturally, and in the most attractive way. His faith

away. The year that has commenced may be eventful, as indeed what portion of human existence is not eventful? Yet peculiarly may this be so, whether we regard the political, the moral, the religious, or, so to speak, the physical aspect of the times. We have a disturbed political horizon both at home and abroad; there is an universal turmoil for reform, and no reform, and anti-reform, and ultra-reform, and ne-plus-ultra reform: our church is also unsettled; our religious societies are unsettled; rent, trade, tithes, and every species of income and property are unsettled; the public feeling is unsettled, even

was strong and abiding, leading him to overcome the world, and to look forward, in the full assurance of hope, to the rest that remaineth for the people of God. His benevolence was of the most enlarged description. No call was more welcome to him, or met with a more ready attention, than those which led him to the bedside of the sick, the dwellings of poverty, or the house of the mourner. And amid the many and varied employments of his latter days, these were never forgotten. His humility was such as to enable him to walk consistently before the Lord in the land of the living, and was conspicuously seen in his conduct in the Episcopal office. No presuming acts pointed him out as one placed above his fellows. While all proper deference was required, and generally yielded, the rein of authority was not felt, and no act which could be construed into unkindness ever distinguished in his intercourse the 'sometimes disobedient' from the unvarying friend. Without the affectation of proclaiming himself the servant of all,' he was such in reality. Without telling others what should constitute the character of a Christian bishop, he placed before himself the models in the Scriptures, and endeavoured 'so to walk, as those who have them for an example.' The mildness and urbanity of his manners are familiar to all who have been admitted to his society, and won for him general esteem.

"But he who, with such meek and unaffected grace, adorned his station, has been removed from us, in the full vigour of life, and all his faculties; when his character had developed the fulness of its virtues when the tongue of slander had ceased its busy defamations, and none withheld the meed which was his duewhen he had attained an eminence of office and of character which gave ample influence and operation to every quality of his mind, and every virtue of his heart."

to the extreme of alarm, from the fearful prospect of a desolating pestilence in short, what is there settled but that infinite Being who is immutable; that Saviour who is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever; that haven where no storm penetrates, and where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest? In our God we have certainty; in him we have repose; and committing to him our souls, our bodies, our property, our character, our comforts, our beloved families and friends, our distracted country, the universal church, and the whole human weal, we may enjoy amidst every trial a peace which passeth understanding; we can weep with those that weep, and rejoice with those that rejoice; we shall learn to feel happy in the duties and the mercies of the passing day; and contentedly leave the prospects of eighteen hundred and thirty-two, where alone they can be left with safety, in the hands of Him who makes all things to work together for good to them that love him and are the called according to his purpose. And what is that purpose? A purpose of love and mercy in Christ Jesus, to all who in a world of sin and sorrow flee to him for pardon and peace.

To this conclusion, very commonplace I allow, and said and sung times without number, but not on that account the less practically important, had I arrived in my silent meditations at the opening of this new year, surrounded by those domestic blessings which a merciful Father pours so richly into our cup, in order that we may learn to love him more in his gifts. It was not indeed an unbroken circle; alas, my dear friend, what on earth is unbroken? One for whom in Christian paternity you vouched with hallowed vows at the altar of baptism was not present to enliven it; he had joined a circle that is unbroken, and had found there an elder olive branch transplanted from the same table, over whom some thirteen years

since were pledged kindred vows by one who said even then that her lengthened race was run, that that was the last time her name or her pledge was likely to be given to a new denizen of earth; a new heir of immortality; a new candidate for eternal glory: yet such are the fallacies of human computation, while an infant is taken to the bosom of its Saviour, our beloved and revered friend is still spared, or, as the old epitaphs would say, she still " defrauds the skies," to edify, by the mild and holy splendour of her last days, a world which she had so long instructed in lessons of " prayer,' and "Christian morals," and " "practical piety." Memory, my dear friend, on the recurrence of the opening hours of a new year, might turn to scenes like these: anticipation also might be busy in cogitations for the future; but the present moment presented the most interesting and pressing duties; plans were to be laid and vows formed for another year; there were blessings to be acknowledged, and mercies to be enjoyed, and petitions to be offered, and smiles to be met with smiles, and perhaps sorrows to be soothed, and instructions to be gathered, and tokens of affection to be exchanged; and then, when the whole was over, and the group had dispersed, and musing had re-kindled, and the heart had expanded from what was passing around one domestic altar, to the kindred scenes in many a household and many a land, and friends were remembered and their names were heard in heavenward breathings, the pen that addresses you was taken up, and the stream began to flow, and you became destined, little knowing it, to receive as a new-year's gift, or a new-year's infliction, which you will, one or more rambling epistles upon THE JOYS

AND TEARS OF PARENTS.

But the subject is too large-let us leave out at least one half; and which half shall it be? It shall be the joys. And now, have I truncated the

my

dear friend, larger or the

:

lesser portion? There is a thesis for your meditations; I say nothing upon it perhaps in a large number of cases the division is equal, in others it preponderates on the one side or the other; whether by circumstances not under human controul, or more often, perhaps, in consequence of the good or evil conduct of parents themselves. But I must leave the philosophy of the question to your deeper meditations, and hasten to my theme, The tears of parents.

And now that I have cut off one half of it, and chosen the sadder portion, the remainder is still too large. There are tears both of joy and grief, from the first moment of hope to the final adieus of bereavement; the infancy, the childhood, the youth, the riper age, of a son or daughter, are all full of anxieties to the heart of a parent; health, education, worldly prospects, mind, morals, religion, what word is there connected with this hallowed relation but carries with it a scroll,not indeed written wholly within and without for our God is too merciful to allowsuch a desolating tide of bitterness to overflow every blessing-with mourning, lamentation, and woe; but at least blotted on one side with these darker characters, even though the pencil that inscribes the other should be dipt in light and sunshine. To take the whole range would be an encyclopædia; let us narrow it down to one point, and that will be amply large for the grasp of two or three cursory epistles: that point shall be, The tears of parents over the grave of their offspring. These are not, indeed, always the bitterest tears -no, there are others more bitter; but still bitter they are, as you, my friend, can tell, who have not been spared them, as you bent over the tomb of one who bore the name and might by the blessing of God have copied the heavenly virtues of, I believe, the most sainted man who has adorned the annals of the modern Christian church. But I must generalize-yet generalize as we will the heart will individualize; and much in that respect, as in every other,

must we admire that blessed book which is so constructed as not only to tell us all that ever we did, but all that ever we felt, and whose graphic pictures-nay, whose most didactic arguments, become affecting and personal appeals.

To that blessed book then let us first turn, for some memorable illustration of the funereal sorrows of parents. If you have never looked through it in this view, you may be surprised at observing how much of it relates to this very subject. Its opening pages commence with it; for the first history after the Fall is a tale of family woe, and other narratives of bereavement, more or less painful, occupy many a subsequent page. But I pass over ante-diluvians and patriarchs, and the tears of private life, to select a scriptural example in the highest range of human dignity. I will tell you of one who was a king and a conqueror, with every thing that earth could give at his command; but who" went up by the ascent of mount Olivet, and wept as he went up, and had his head covered, and he went barefoot; and all the people that was with him. covered every man his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up;" and all this for an ungrateful and rebellious child. And yet when the welfare, the very existence, both of the monarch and the state depended on the defeat of the young profligate's parricidal enterprise, the parent shed still more agonizing tears at the peril, than he did at the treason, of his child; for he sat between the gates, and gathered every passing rumour from the watchmen, till the nation's deliverance and his own overwhelming grief burst upon him in one thrilling annunciation, "The enemies of my lord the king be as that young man is ;" and then "he went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept; and as he wept, thus he said, O my son Absalom; my son, my son Absalom; would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son." Let us analyse the constituents of bitterness in these

tears in another letter. For the present, I must conclude; but I leave you subjects sufficient for thought, if I recommend you to consider such cases as the following:

the death of pious children, of wicked children, of precocious children, of children dying in infancy, and many others that will occur to your fertile and meditative mind.

The Offices of the Holy Spirit; Four Sermons, preached before the University of Cambridge, in November, 1831. By the Rev. C. SIMEON, M.A. Senior Fellow of King's College.

If the Christian mind has sickened and saddened at the mistaken notions which of late have been obtruded upon the world in relation to the agency of the Divine Spirit of grace and consolation, it will be comforting and instructive to forget all painful scenes and overheated speculations, and to turn to this rich, edifying, and scriptural production of a master in Israel. Mr. Simeon, during a long and eminently useful life, has been endued with grace, wisdom, and courage, to stand up manfully in defence of the Gospel, particularly in reference to some of its essential verities which half a century ago were grievously neglected, deteriorated, perverted, or almost lost sight of in the pulpit ministrations of our Established Church. Among these verities he has been ever assiduous in inculcating the momentous doctrine of the Holy Spirit's influences, and his operations upon the hearts of men, as an Enlightener, a Sanctifier, and a Comforter; convincing them of sin, working in them repentance and faith, leading them to the cross of Christ, regenerating their souls, sustaining them under trial, purifying them, and progressively making them meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. And now, in the work before us, we find this venerable servant of Christ

setting forth the same important theme, with the accumulated scriptural knowledge and practical spiritual wisdom derived from long study, much prayer, and enlarged experience. We cannot but notice the earnest zeal tempered by meekness, sobriety, and equanimity, which are conspicuous in Mr. Simeon's writings. When accused, as once he was wont to be, of fanaticism, because he insisted so strongly upon the doctrine and details of the Holy Spirit's influence; he did not allow himself to be chafed by opposition to an unguarded and overstated manner of explicating this solemn subject, or cease to be practical under a notion of being more spiritual. And now, when fanaticism is really afloat in the world, and certain preachers and writers are reproaching those who have long dwelt upon the necessity of supernatural influence, and of prayer for the effusion of the Holy Spirit, as being blind to the alleged answer to their own petitions, evinced in the late claims to Divine manifestations, and as resisting the very grace they had implored; we find Mr. Simeon equally imperturbable, and not in the least inclined to detract from the pressing importance of the scriptural doctrine on this subject, because it has been lamentably mistaken and abused. To scepticism on the one hand, and to fanaticism on the other, he offers the same reply, and that reply the best-he sets forth solid, simple, Christian truth. Are you doubtful about the nature or reality of Divine influence? it is here described. Are you inclined