tain thee:' 'The Lord is good; a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.' "About ten days before his death, while suffering dreadfully from violent retching and excessive weakness and oppression, he seemed almost overpowered, and used an expression indicative of his fear lest he should manifest impatience; but instantly checking himself, he began to repeat texts of Scripture. Not my will, but thine, O Lord, be done: The servant is not above his master, nor the disciple above his Lord: My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Grant, Lord, that it may be so.' Mamma said to him, 'You are more than patient.' He replied, 'I desire not merely to feel patience, but submission and cheerful acquiescence in my heavenly Father's will.' Soon after, an interval of ease was granted him. About this time, after a night of suffering, having continued silent for a while, and being evidently engaged in deep thought, he said, I know not how this will end, but the Lord knoweth, and that is enough; it will be as he pleases, and I am resigned.' Throughout his illness he never used either food or medieine without asking the Lord's blessing upon it. There was but one subject connected with earth on which he ever expressed an anxious thought, and that was the possibility of Mamma's strength giving way, so as to prevent her being with him, and attending him constantly; she had never left him day or night in any of his attacks of illness. It pleased the Lord to spare him and her this trial, until nearly the last; but as if to put his patience and submission to the strongest possible test, she was then for two days completely prostrated by fever, brought on by her intense mental suffering when hope was extinguished. It was in the night of Monday, the 19th of April, that her illness altogether disabled her; and she lay from that time till the morning of the 22nd perfectly powerless, having lost all recollection, except of the one subject. During this interval my beloved father gratefully accepted the kind attentions of my aunts; and was still cheerful, and thankful for every thing that was done for him. On the morning of Tuesday, the 20th, when Aunt Ryder (who had arrived from Kilkenny the evening before) approached his bed-side, he said to her, 'I am glad to see you, Eliza; I never expected to see you again in this world; since you were here I have been a sufferer a great one. I have had the CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 63. At whole closing scene laid open before me.' Then turning his head and looking up at her, he added, with great energy and animation,' But it was not a gloomy one.' She said, 'Oh no, and glory at the end.' He caught the word, and said, 'Glory! yes, glory, the end glory! In the course of that day, Aunt Bess said to him, 'I wish you could get a little rest.' Ah!' he said, 'I never expect any rest here.' She replied, Well, there is a rest remaining for you that will meet no interruption.' 'Yes,' he said, that there is.' another time she said, 'What a mercy that your mind is kept in perfect peace.' He said, 'Yes, perfect peace. Many perhaps are now thinking that I am mounting up on wings as eagles; but this is not the case: I never looked to ecstacies. I will tell you what I am : a poor, broken-hearted sinner, resting upon the Rock CHRIST-that is my hope.' On the morning of Wednesday, between four and five o'clock, he asked Aunt Bess was it light; she said, 'Yes; break of day.' 'Break of day,' he said twice over; and then said, I believe this is the Bible-meeting day.' She replied, 'No, this is Wednesday.' 'Ah, then,' he said, it is the meeting of the Sunday-School Society.' He then lifted up his hands and eyes, and prayed that the Lord's blessing might rest upon the meeting, and that He would enable the speakers to testify of Jesus in simplicity and faithfulness to the people. On another occasion Aunt Bess opened the Testament to read for herself, thinking he was dozing, when he said, 'I am glad you are taking up that book-that is the book that makes time glide swiftly on.' When repeating for him that hymn, Wait, my soul, thy Maker's will,' when she came to the line,-Trust in a wise and gracious God,' he said, There is much contained in that little word trust.' On the morning of Thursday the 22nd, Mamma feeling herself able to move in bed, instantly entreated to be allowed to return to him; and after much persuasion, Dr. Swan permitted her to do so. Papa felt this to be an unspeakable comfort: to her it was the only possible alleviation of her sorrow, and for it she felt deep gratitude to the Lord. This was a day of less bodily suffering than the two previous ones he spoke a little to Mamma, and, as his custom was, uttered words of comfort. When night came he was very anxious that she should retire to rest, dreading that her strength would fail if she remained longer, and promising to send for her if he wanted her. She entreated to be allowed to stay; Ꮓ but between eleven and twelve o'clock, which was the hour at which he always wished to be settled for the night, he manifested so much uneasiness at seeing her still out of bed, that she could not bear to distress him, and retired to the next room. "Soon after Mamma had left the room, Aunt Ryder began to read for him the 5th of 2nd Corinthians. She stopped at the end of the 4th verse, thinking him unable to bear more, but he begged of her to go on. She did so, to the end of the 15th. Again he said, 'Go on;' when she finished the last verse he immediately perceived it and said, There now, that will do.' After this he spoke with much difficulty, and said only what was absolutely necessary; but his mind continued perfectly clear, and his countenance bore the same happy expression to the last. A sudden change for the worse took place after one o'clock. Aunt Ryder perceived it, and told Mamma, who went to him instantly, and in a few minutes his spirit was released from its earthly tabernacle, in the most peaceful manner, to be for ever with the Lord." LORD JOHN MANNERS'S PLEA FOR HOLIDAYS. A Plea for National Holidays. By LORD JOHN MANNERS, M.P. 1843. LORD John Manners (Mr. Gladstone's colleague for Newark) is a young senator and a young man, having been born, if a peerage manual to which we have turned be correct, in the year 1818; but "A Plea for National Holidays," dated "Belvoir Castle; The Feast of St. Andrews," by the second son of the owner of that splendid ducal mansion, and a sort of hereditary member of Parliament in virtue of the powerful interest of the house of Rutland, is a sign of the times not to be overlooked merely on the ground that the author cannot bring to his task the fruits of deep research and long experience. We make no doubt that he writes with benevolent, patriotic, and conscientious intentions; but we lament that beneath the surface of his work there lurks, whether he knows it or not, much serious mischief. The Anglican Church has wisely retained a moderate number of "feasts to be observed throughout the year," in addition (though in a far subordinate character) to that divinely appointed weekly festival, the Christian Sabbath. Our Church has gone as far in this matter as was meet, and for edification; setting apart days con nected with certain events in the life of our blessed Lord, and days for commemorating some of those "blessed saints" mentioned in the New Testament, in order that we may strive and pray to follow them, as they followed Christ,— no farther-"in all virtuous and godly living." To have gone farther would have opened a door for the many evils which were generated in the Church of Rome. It would minister to spiritual benefit, if more general advantage were taken of these festivals for public worship; but much of the zeal which has lately sprung up respecting "national holidays," has ulterior objects. History is not an obsolete almanack; and history informs us that in the days of Charles the First the abettors of what has now taken the name of Tractarianism, in their subtle efforts to stifle what scoffers call "Puritanism" or "Evangelicalism," set up man's days against God's day; declaring that the Lord's Day and Saints' Days rest on the same authority-not Divine authority, but the authority of the Church. Hence, as the Church did not forbid lawful sports on Saints' Days, Archbishop Laud induced his royal master to issue his Proclamation licensing them on the Lord's Day; thus placing the human and the Divine festival on precisely the same footing. Laud's chaplain, Dr. Heylin, wrote an elaborate treatise to prove that this is the true theory of the Lord's Day and Saints' Days and that the practice ought to accord with it. And further, as the authority of the "Church" is pleaded by the members of the sect of the Ninety Tracts for whatever they are pleased to call "catholic usage," the judicious limitations of the Anglican Prayer-book are overstepped and sneered at. The old popish "St. Cross Day" has been revived at Leeds; and a new Saint's Day has been calendered in the Oxford Tracts for the nonjuring bishop, Dr. Ken; and Mr. Paget, the Bishop of Oxford's chaplain, affirms that the young men who have been hatched from those Tracts, "date notes to their tailor or green-grocer, from St. Ethelburga's Day, or The morrow of the translation of the boues of St. Symphorosa."" an infant. We say Our allusion to Mr. Paget reminds us that the writer of the pamphlet in our hands was born at the era which Mr. Paget specially marks in the following pas "too many;" for we last month had occasion to exempt the clergy called "Evangelical" from the charge; nor has any change in this respect come over the opinions of the more grave and reverend of those who were called "orthodox." Bishop Jebb of Limerick wrote as strongly against unclerical amusements as Archbishop Trench of Tuam could do; and such a man as our old friend Dr. Gaskin would have been as much shocked to have been classed among "the dancing clergy" or the hunting clergy, or the Newmarket and Ascot clergy, as Mr. Wesley himself. If Lord John Manners's entrance upon public life and authorship is dated from the period when Mr. Paget tells us Puritanism and Methodism having failed; and "Evangelicalism having been weighed in the balances and found wanting;" and men being tempted to embrace "Socialism, or Momonism, or some kindred heresy, which offers for the moment a spiritual resting-place;" Tractarianism happily came to the rescue. the "balance" be "the balance of the Sanctuary," not that of Rome, the doctrines of "the Evangelical curate" are in no danger of being "found wanting" when weighed against Tractarianism, Pagetism, or what, from Mr. Paget's nomenclature respecting those Oxford "blockheads who outrun the Tracts, is likely enough in future to be called "Geeseism." This system, whatever its name, "offers for a moment a spiritual resting place;" but its offers are delusive. It does not lead the penitent sinner to the all-sufficient atonement of the Saviour; it does not place his feet upon the immutable Rock of ages; it offers after baptism no baptism but the laver of tears; its sceptre of hope is the scourge of penance; and it has proved literally only "for a moment" a resting-place to those more clearlyjudging Tractarians who, like Mr. Sibthorp, perceived its slipperiness, and stepped across it to Rome. But our present purpose is not to discuss Tractarianism in general, but to caution the unwary against being led into its precincts by the specious pretext of advocating "national holidays." It is ominous and painful to observe how grievously Tractarianism has placed in abeyance the momentous question of the necessity for improved legislative enactments for the better observance of the Lord's Day. A few years since the subject excited much attention in Parliament, and there was ground to hope that some good measure would be adopted. But now, while our Sabbaths are grossly profaned, we are told that the Lord's Day is only a Church ordinance, just as Saints' Days are; and a desire for the better observance of the Lord's Day is sneered at as "puritanical,” as it was in the days of Laud; and we are told that what is chiefly wanted is a better observance of Saints' Days. "When," said Laud's Proclamation (we call it his, for his royal master was but the puppet in his hands), "when shall the people have leave to exercise," (namely in "dancing, either men or women, archery for men, leaping, vaulting, May-games, Whitsun-ales, Morrisdancing, and the setting-up of May-poles and other sports therewith used") "if not upon Sundays and holidays, seeing they must apply their labour and win their living in all working days?" This irreligious and impudent juxtaposition of "Sundays and holidays," as if there were not the slightest difference between them, either in regard to authority or due observance; and the fencing them both alike from "working days," in which men might lawfully and religiously "win their living;" are historical indications which ought the not to be lost sight of in estimating the opinions and wishes of those of our modern Tractarians who practise some "reserve," in order not too violently to offend the "prejudices," and excite the alarms, of a still Protestant nation. Whether or not Lord John Manners exhibits this prudent reticence, must be judged of by a careful survey of the tendencies of his pamphles; and as it might be said that we are morbidly susceptible in these matters, we will copy the following from a publication which varies its notices of literature and fashion with passages of theological and ecclesiastical discussion, written apparently by some Romanist in disguise, who is obliged to rein in his opinions. The reviewer is setting forth the merits of his Lordship's "Plea for National Holidays." "Sir Andrew Agnew's mission was a crusade against cheerfulness; Lord J. Manners's for the diffusion and encouragement of it. They both indeed desire a better observance of the Sabbath, but they interpret better differently. We, as is well-known, take rank under the banners of Lord John. He advocates the restoration of national holidays and recreations; and though he endeavours to keep clear of the question whether Sunday shall be treated as a holiday, it is obvious that his leaning is in that direction; and he revives, appropriately enough, our recollection of Charles the First's re-issue of his father's Declaration on the subject. Not less for its own merits, than as the sentiments of the only martyr which the English Reformed Church has enrolled in its calendar, we shall quote some portion of that docu on Saturday. On Sunday the 17th July Then follow some passages which Whatever may be Lord John as a pole, the utmost that could be extracted from him in reply, was, that he had not stated his opinion on the subject. Lord John Manners declines saying whether he considers the "Cavaliers or the Puritans were right" in regard to the Book of Sunday Sports. This is to say, in other words, either that he views it as a doubtful matter; or that he regards the question as of no importance; or that he does not think it politic to speak his mind. But silence speaks as loudly as words; for who that reverences the Christian Sabbath as a divinely-appointed institution to be kept holy to the Lord, but denounces that ungodly Proclamation? It was not "Puritans only (if by that term be meant any sect, doctrinal or ecclesiastical) who protested against that unchristian edict; for all the true Anglican Churchmen of the school of the Reformation were beyond. measure afflicted at its promulgation, and refused to comply with it, considering it their duty to obey God rather than man, and submitting to fines and imprisonment for conscience sake. We will, however, quote a few passages from Lord John's pamphlet, from which each reader must collect as he can the particulars of the proposed scheme. "It will be said that I am strangely perverting fact. I shall be told that there never was a period when amusements were so diversified or so refined: whole treatises have been written during the last ten years on every imaginable sport; every county in England possesses its pack of fox-hounds, or its harriersshooting may be said to have reached the pitch of perfection; more game is probably slaughtered now-a-days on a first of September, with all imaginable ease, than was used to be killed with difficulty in a whole year under good Queen Bess; and our breed of racehorses is the admiration of the world. This is all very true; but, with a partial exception in favour of the latter, I must contend that these sports are the sports of the higher, and not of the lower or |