THE CONDUCTED UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF MINISTERS AND MEMBERS OF THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH. 66 THE FEAR OF the Lord, thAT IS WISDOM." VOL. I. No. 18. SATURDAY, JULY 2, 1836. ON PROVIDENCE. BY THE REV. WILLIAM SCOTT MONCREIFF, THERE are few words introduced in conversation to which so little meaning is attached, as that which stands at the head of this article. Many, who talk of Providence, seem to consider it as synonymous with chance or fortune; others would appear to adopt it as a convenient veil for the real atheism of their views; while a still more numerous class employ the term at second hand, because they hear it frequently used by the learned and the serious, without giving themselves any trouble as to the propriety of their use or application of it. The number is small indeed of those who employ it with a clear comprehension of its real signification, or a due recollection, that, if they mean any thing at all by it, they must express thereby the holy, wise, and powerful will of God, acting in the operation of all causes, and the determination of every event; or the daily and hourly government of God, exercised over us and all our actions. But admitting that the term Providence is liable to much abuse, it is not in itself objectionable; for, though it is not a word of scriptural authority, it is still a very appropriate and happy expression for that general idea of the divine agency in and over all the objects and events of nature. But then, if we are to employ it, let us see that we do so correctly; for, otherwise, we may thereby come to exclude from our own regards, and those of others, the very being, whose perpetual and universal superintendence it is designed to express. We need not seek to find any better definition of Providence than that given in our Shorter Catechism. "It is God's most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures and all their actions." This is a short and simple explanation of a term so general and abstract; but it presents us with a distinct, accurate, and comprehensive idea, widely different indeed from the confused and indefinite notions of Providence, which are in general entertained. Endeavouring to carry this idea along with us, let us now attempt to point out some of the practical uses of the doctrine which it expresses. It must be very evident to every one, that 66 PRICE 1d. an accurate view of, and a settled belief in, God's providential government of this world, is a point of the very first practical importance. It is not easy, indeed, to conceive a more deplorable state of mind, than that in which this finds no place. It is, to use a Scripture phrase, a living without God in the world." It is to have no confidence of protection, or even of support, for the present, and no ground of hope for the future. What can be more cheerless than to be threatened with dangers, and see no power superior to our own which can avert them? to be overwhelmed with sorrows, and discern no hand able to relieve us from their pressure, or sooth us under their infliction? or to suspect, that after all, virtue is a mere delusion, that might alone is right, that deceit and violence are the surest methods of acquiring or securing the enjoyments of life? to suppose that we are abandoned to the casualties of nature, the violence of mankind, or the caprice of our own passions? to be incapable of perceiving any order, harmony, or beauty, in the history or progression of human affairs? to feel no security in the character of our great moral Governor, that the triumph shall not ultimately be given to unrighteousness over truth and virtue ;-such a state of mind, to a man of any seriousness of reflection, cannot fail to prove one of the most unhappy description. We find, however, that even the most highly favoured of God's saints have occasionally been reduced to this deplorable state of mind. The Psalmist found, as he informs us, the Providence of God a subject too painful for him; he confesses that he was envious at the foolish, when he saw the prosperity of the wicked, because he observed, "that they were not in trouble, as other men, but had more than heart could wish." It would appear that he felt this temptation the more strongly, from the circumstance, that in his days, a marked change had taken place on the character of God's providential dealings with Israel. In the age immediately preceding his own, the Lord had governed his people directly, so to speak, often without the agency of secondary causes, but solely through his own visible, or audible, and immediate direction. No Israelite, therefore, in those days of miraculous dispensation, could, for one moment, misconstrue or reject the doctrine of divine Pro so far forgetting our own weakness and shortsightedness, as to limit the agency of the divine mind in the detail of Providence. Many serious persons shrink from the idea of ascribing the minor details of the world's history directly to God, as if it were unbecoming his dignity to refer them to him. They are willing to ascribe all works of creation to his sole power, but they conceive, that it is a derogation from his dignity to order his creatures' affairs. They would not encumber him, after so great an obligation as their creation has laid them under to him, with the care of them. And yet what is this but to limit the Most High, by conceiving of him as of ourselves? it is to forget, that by no possibility can any thing be too hard for him; or, that as nothing is too vast for his control, so nothing can be too minute for his superintendence. vidence; for the righteous were then obviously re- | Yet ignorant though we confessedly are of the warded, while no less distinct and unequivocal extent and minuteness of the arrangements of was the judicial retribution on the wicked. But, the Almighty, we are in constant danger of in proportion as the Israelites withdrew from God, he removed farther and farther from them, till at last, the impious began to hint their hopes that he had entirely withdrawn himself, that he would neither do good nor evil, and had left them to themselves; while the godly were often discouraged, when it was asked of them, "How does God know; is there knowledge in the Most High?" and when, as in confident reply to the question, the impious enquirers pointed to themselves, and said, "behold the ungodly who prosper in the world, and increase in riches." At that time the Christian's doubts and misapprehensions were removed only by his having recourse to the light of Revealed Truth: "when I thought to know this, it was too painful for me, until I went into the sanctuary of God, then understood I their end." And thus it is still. These clear views of God's providence are, Our blessed Lord, with the occasionally at least, to be found clouding the peace force and simplicity of truth, when impressing and darkening the prospects of sincere Christians; on us the fear of God, rebukes this inconsidernor are they otherwise to be dispelled, than by a ation, by reminding us that there can be nothing simple minded recourse to the sanctuary of God's hid from his knowledge. He states, in the most Word. Natural religion throws little, if any light distinct manner, the direct superintendence of on the mysteries of Providence. To the man the divine mind over all,-" even the very hairs who stands on its heights of observation, God's of your head are all numbered." Now, if we allow ways are indeed "in the sea, and his paths in the God's omniscience, it were foolish in us to deny great waters;" and it is only from the sanctuary his Providence. To suppose that he could forethat we can perceive that they are all " mercy and see any contingency against which he could not truth, unto such as keep his testimonies," and that, provide, were to reduce him to a lower level than through the intricate mass of events, he is causing that which we occupy; and, doubtless, it is just "all things to work together for good to them from his foreseeing and providing for all events, that love him." The Providence of God must, that his ways often appear to us, who foresee nothing, therefore, be ever read and interpreted by the so very complex and mysterious. We must reWord of God. The inspired history, it may be member, that " He sees the end from the begin observed, in that Word, resembles all other history, ning;" "knows all things that are not as though they in being the annals of Providence. It differs from were ;" takes into one clear, simultaneous view, all human compilations chiefly in this, that with a events throughout all ages, the past, the present, detail of the events, there is also a revelation of and the future," one day being to him as a thouthe motives and influences of that all-pervading sand years, and a thousand years as one day." mind, which determines every event. For examOnce grounded and established in this faith in the ple, the restoration of the Jews to their native land, Providence of God, we shall never look on any after the Babylonish captivity, considered as an thing to be so mighty or so minute as to lie out event, might have been recorded by a profane his- of its precincts. It is not that all events are intorian as accurately as it has been by the inspired different to the divine mind, that God is as much Ezra. The circumstance, doubtless, surprised concerned about the hairs of our head, as he is many persons of reflection at the time, and would about the care of our souls, and that to him all be ascribed, by the Assyrian moralists, to a variety things are of equal importance, or rather are alike of political motives. The inspired historian alone disregarded. This were a most dangerous view of discovers to us the real cause, when he says, "that Providence, and certainly a false one, as may be the Word of the Lord, by the mouth of Jeremiah, distinctly perceived from the words of our Lord: might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit" are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and of Cyrus, king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom," &c. Ezra i. 1. And had it pleased God to give us an inspired historian for our own times, a similar key would have been thereby furnished to all the events which now occur. This has been wisely withheld, for if it be presumptuous in a child or a subject to require a reason for every domestic or civil appointment, how much more so for us, to demand the why and the wherefore of the steps of the divine government. not one of them is forgotten before God." And what doctrine do we deduce from this? That God is as attentive to a sparrow as to the soul of man? Far from it. "Fear not, therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows." "God feedeth the raven, how much more are ye better than the fowls?" Because God's Providence extends to every thing, it does not follow that all things, be they great or small, share alike in his attentive regards; but it does follow, and that to most conclusively, that, poor and despised as we are, he thinketh on us, seeing that by him the very fowls of heaven are fed, and the lilies of the field are clad in their more than regal glory. There is one other passage in which our blessed Lord illustrates the doctrine of Providence, which I mention, chiefly, because it may lead us to perceive the connection of that doctrine with prayer. I allude to that admirable form of supplication which he taught his disciples. You will observe, that he presupposes a firm and enlightened belief of God's special providence in the minds of his disciples. We are to enter into our closets, to shut our door, and to pray in secret to our Father, as to one who seeth in secret; and then, what are we pray for? Why, for our daily bread, and to be led, in the course of providence, into no temptation, but to be delivered from all evil; and what is the argument by which we are to enforce our petitions for such minute and special blessings? It is this, "thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory;" that is, "thine, O heavenly Father, is the dominion over all, and the power in all, and the end of all things; and, therefore, however insignificant I, thy suppliant, may be, and however minute my interests, neither I nor they can be overlooked; to ask of thee, day by day, my daily bread, is not to trouble thee with the minute cares of an insignificant individual, for thy kingdom extendeth over all; and thy power is the source, and thy glory is the result, of thy universal administration." If we maintained this constant sense of God's providential government, we should be more instant in prayer; we should more fervently supplicate him in our seasons of distress, and more fervently adore him for his mercies; for the recognition of his sovereignty infers the duty of prayer to him, of implicit trust in him, and unqualified submission to him. But if the doctrine of a special Providence be consistent with that of prayer, it is no less so with the duty of painstaking in every matter in which we are engaged. It is not possible for us, at present, to enter on the wide field of instances in which the doctrine in question is abused and perverted by the fanatical, the antinomian, and the idle. We may meet with not a few, who seem not to perceive that it is as foolish and presumptuous to deny it altogether, as to expect that God's particular Providence will interpose to save their exertions, or excuse their industry. There are others who not only make the plea of trusting Providence a pretence for deserting the path of duty, but who excuse their own imprudence, by pleading a confidence in the leadings, as they call them, of Providence, which is altogether unwarrantable. They forget that the faculties with which God hath endowed us, form, as it were, a part of his Providence. "Doth not the ploughman cast in the principal wheat, and the appointed barley, and the rye, in their place?" And why?" For his God doth instruct him to discre"This also cometh tion, and doth teach him." from the Lord of Hosts, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working." But if, on BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE Formerly of Truro, Cornwall. Samuel Walker was born in the city of Exeter on Exeter. At eighteen he was sent to Exeter College, In the summer of 1746, Mr Walker resigned the that the desire of human applause was the chief motive from which he acted. of his parish without asking his advice. He bore all his trials with the truest Christian resignation, and car During the first year of his incumbency at Truro, Mrried himself with a dignity and mildness that would Walker attracted considerable notice, both as an eloquent preacher and a well-educated man. He was courted, and flattered, and admired; and all this, for no other reason than the extent and variety of his mere human accomplishments. The peculiar doctrines of the Gospel, he tells us, "he knew notionally, but neither felt nor taught them practically." The hardest of all lessons he had yet to learn, that works must be the evidence, not the price of our justification; and accordingly, when, at an after period of his life, his views of divine truth became clearer and more scriptural, he felt, on looking back upon the time he spent at Lanlivery, that he ought to go sorrowing to the grave, upon a review of six years so passed over." Mr Walker had been at least a year in his curacy at Truro, before he began to suspect that there was the slightest deficiency in his mode of exhibiting divine truth. The individual by whose instrumentality his sentiments and whole tone of thinking underwent a complete change, was Mr Conon, master of the grammar school at Truro, of whom he was accustomed ever after to speak in the highest terms. The circumstance which led to this good man's intimacy with Mr Walker is thus narrated :— "Mr Walker received a letter, containing a sum of money which the writer requested him to pay at the custom-house, as justly due to the revenue, for duty on so:ne French wines he had used for his health. He had been unsuccessful in his attempts, in that age of smuggling on the coast, to obtain any on which custom had been paid, but the virtuous conscience of the spiritual Christian remembered his Master's divine command. The letter contained an apology for troubling Mr Walker, but stated that his high character would prevent all suspicion of straightforward honesty in the transaction. Curious to know whether the same happy conscientiousness was manifest in all his doings, Mr Walker sought his acquaintance, and the result was a respect approaching to veneration, for one who exhibited in his daily habits all the true effects of religion on a Christian's heart and actions. The attractions of his conversation and the purity of his life, at length ripened intercourse into intimacy, and the result was the conversion of the minister, through the wise and prudent instrumentality of his pious friend." And the character of Mr Conon is thus depicted :"Mr Conon was one of those rare and devoted Christians, who, in an age of darkness, shone with a lustre little comprehended and greatly opposed; but he was content to be hated without a cause,' and to suffer obloquy and shame for the Lord's sake. 66 Though threatened with the loss of stipend and scholars, a threat afterwards actually carried into effect, he persevered in his course, and, like the glow-worm, shone brightest when the gathering of the dark nightclouds gave warning of an impending tempest. He was persecuted purely for the sake of his Religion, being acknowledged on all hands to be an instructor of youth of extraordinary ability, to whose tuition almost all the gentlemen's sons in the middle and western part of Cornwall had been committed. But he was guilty of the unpardonable crime, in those days, of training up his pupils in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,an error far less venial in the eyes of their ignorant and prejudiced parents, than carelessness of their morals or neglect of discipline. For many years, he walked hand in hand with his pastor and convert, Mr Walker, who never took any step of importance in the management have disarmed the rancour of all enemies, but those who abhor the image of the Saviour wherever they may find it, and whose corrupt nature renders them irreconcileable to spirituality of mind and holiness of life. Speaking of his school, and the treatment he received, he says in a letter, written under the pressure of severe illness, this has shaken my purposes in regard to the school. I am engaged, in honour and conscience, to do all I can for the good of it and the public, and have forgot, and most heartily forgiven, all former bad treatment, and even present unkindness.' The severest blow he ever received was the death of his beloved minister and friend, an event which, coupled with other circumstances in after years, induced him to remove to Padstow, where he undertook the instruction of a select number of pupils. This occupation was his great delight, and he frequently expressed a wish, that, if it pleased God, he might die while employed in his school, and that suddenly. His prayer was heard: one Saturday evening, after endeavouring to prepare the youthful minds of his scholars for the solemnities of the coming Sabbath, he earnestly prayed for a blessing on his labours, when suddenly the stroke of death silenced his voice of supplication, and changed it for that of ceaseless thanksgiving in regions of eternal praise." Such is the brief but interesting history of the man whom Mr Walker frankly acknowledged as his spiritual father in Christ. "He who had long sat in comparative darkness now saw a great light." And himself cheered by the refreshing beams of the Sun of Righteousness, he, from this time, commenced his career as a zealous and unwearied labourer in the Lord's vine yard. It was no small trial of Mr Walker's faith, however, that the very same place which had witnessed him foremost in the scenes of gaiety and mirthful revelry, was now destined to be the scene of his determined opposition to the maxims and the manners of an ungodly world. He knew that ridicule, reproach, and persecution, would be the necessary results of a change so decided. His heart began to fail as he attempted at first to lay open to his people the deceitfulness and desperate wickedness of the human heart, and he felt as if his tongue refused to utter the freeness and the fulness of redeeming grace. He, however, who had called him to be his servant, stood by in the hour of his extremity, delivering him, by the communications of his grace, from" the fear of man which bringeth a snare." Mr Walker's preaching now changed its character. Bold, fearless, uncompromising statements of Gospel truth were unfolded in every sermon, and the result was, in such circumstances, what might have been anticipated. "Addresses of this description could not fail to excite the feelings of those who heard them, and their first ebullition was in anger against the man who now denounced the very path in which, the immoralities excepted, he had cheerfully accompanied them, and proclaimed that the profane, the lustful, and the formalist. were all marching with the multitude on the same broad road to destruction. Still, the earnestness of the preacher, and the striking alteration of his habits, as well as the tone of his sermons, stirred up the curiosity of the people, who, while they were enraged at the fidelity, were enchained by the eloquence, and trembled at the sternness of their reprover. Even out of the pulpit they feared the presence of their minister; the Sabbath loiterers and profane would retire at his approach, saying, let us go, here comes Walker.' His manner is id to have been commanding and solemn in the extreme; and his life was so truly in unison with his precepts, that at length he awed into silence those who were at first most clamorous against him. Such crowds attended his ministry, that the thoroughfares of the town seemed to be deserted during the hours of service, so that it was remarked, you might fire a cannon down every street of Truro, in church-time, without a chance of killing a single human being.'" In consequence of his devoted attention to his ministerial duties, a general awakening, by the blessing of the Spirit, soon took place among the people. The first convert was a young soldier of licentious habits, who be came a consistent follower of Jesus; and it was peculiarly gratifying to Mr Walker, to find that the example of this, his "first and dearest child," as he was wont to term him, was the means of leading others to enquire. At length the enquirers became so numerous, that he was obliged to devote a few evenings in each week to their instruction in private; and such was his anxiety to discharge faithfully this delicate part of his ministerial duty, that he drew up, for his guidance on such occasions, a scheme of private instruction suited to different circumstances. The skill with which Mr Walker ac commodated himself to the various cases which presented themselves, was remarkable; and as an instance of his peculiar sagacity and discernment, we may quote the following, which is thus narrated by the biographer : which afforded an opportunity of speaking on the ministerial office and character, which Mr Walker immediately embraced, and entered on the subject with such acuteness of reasoning, and solemnity of appeal, to his rector, as a fellow-labourer in the Gospel, that he retreated, overwhelmed with confusion, and unable to say a word about the intended dismissal. He was, in consequence, reproached with a breach of his promise, and went a second time to fulfil it. He again retreated without daring to allude to the subject of his visit. He was pressed to go a third time by one of his principal parishioners, but replied, do you go and dismiss him if you can, I cannot. I feel in his presence as if he were a being of a superior order, and am so abashed that I am uneasy till I can retire.' A short time after this, the rector was taken ill, when he sent for Mr Walker, entreated his prayers, acknowledged the propriety of his conduct as a minister, and promised him his hearty support if he recovered; but it is to be feared, his resolution passed away with the alarm of illness. Never was a more striking instance than this of the power of religious consistency,—it is inconsistency that makes us inefficient; while a life suitable to our profession, attracts esteem from the godly, and repels the hostile weapons of our foes. It is when her priests are rejoice and sing; and though the enemies of truth hate clothed with righteousness, that the saints of the church the light of that celestial dress, they retreat overpowered with the bright reflection of its beams." The unwearied assiduity with which Mr Walker fulfilled the duties of his office, endeared him to the Christians in Truro, and such was their affection for him, that it was his earnest wish that he might live and die among them. Soon after he had entered upon the cure, he had been "One of his visitors, for private instruction, was a young man, who stated that he called to thank him for the benefit he had received from his ministry, and to beg his advice. Mr Walker immediately questioned him as to the knowledge he possessed of his own heart, when the youth expressed in general terms, a convic-presented by the trustees of his late patron, Mr Kendall, tion that he was an unworthy sinner. Perceiving, by his manner, that he had never duly experienced that conviction, Mr Walker at once entered into an explanation of the sinner's character, with a personal reference to the individual before him. He dwelt upon his in-nisterial office, he readily resigned the emoluments of a gratitude to God, the evil nature of the motives which charge, the duties of which he was unable to perform. had influenced all his actions, the fruitlessness of his This, of course, reduced his income, but the good man life, the defilement even of his best deeds, and then addwas prepared to make any sacrifice to preserve his inteed, I fear you are secretly displeased with me, be-grity and uprightness. cause I have not commended your good intentions, and to the vicarage of Talland, and had obtained leave of non-residence from the bishop. Now, however, that he became aware of the deep responsibilities of the mi flattered your vanity.' No indeed, Sir,' he replied, "The discerning minister had, however, formed a true judgment of the character before him. The young man acknowledged the next day that he had given a false answer, and that, chagrined by the little account Mr Walker seemed to make of his professions, he had secretly determined to encounter no more the searching questions which exposed his shallowness, and brought low the vain imaginations of his heart. experienced pastor had dealt wisely with him; he was flighty, ostentatious, and injudicious, but afterwards became an exemplary and useful Christian." This Mr Walker's faithfulness as a pastor, while by many it was duly appreciated, soon drew down upon him the reproaches, and called forth the opposition of the enemies of vitál godliness. Foiled in their attempt to injure him with their bishop, they applied to the rector of Truro, and at length extracted from him a promise to dismiss Mr Walker from his cure. The result is curious and interesting :— "When the rector of Truro entered the apartment of his curate, he was received with that elegance and true dignity of manner, which was natural to one who had long been the charm of society, and he became so embarrassed as to be perfectly unable to enter on the subject of his visit. He at length made some remark, "He bore with cheerfulness all the inconveniences of his diminished fortune, relinquished his accustomed declined them all. He could not leave his devoted As another instance of Mr Walker's singular disintęrestedness, we may adduce the following: |