On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    child , arising probably from mere accidental circumstances , and persisted in * in a spirit of vanity and deception , merely because observed to attract attention and applause * It will only be doing Mrs . Sherwood justice to allow her again to speak for herself in her story of " Human Praise , " given as an illustration of the First Commandment . Story , indeed , it scarcel y deserves to be called , for the incidents are few and simple ; but the characters , the scenes , and the moral , are excellent , and they furnish instances of the unsparing manner in which the errors of the religious world are censured . Mr . James Eliot is a

    respectable gentleman who , after residing some years in the interior of India , merely as a merchant or trader , without feeling much interest in the good , moral or religious , of the people around him , is led by a visit to Calcutta , and some intercourse with English Missionaries , to adopt serious religious views , and , on returning to the jungles , sets himself to work in good earnest upon the improvement of the poor natives around his residence . Nay , so far does his Christian charity carry him , that he gives up the idea of returning to England to enjoy the fortune he has acquired , and determines to devote himself to the work which he considers appointed for him to do .

    " He established schools , and built a small place of worship , where , in default of a more duly qualified person , he read and expounded the Scripture himself in the native tongue : he provided readers to go into the neighbouring villages ; he assisted the poor , sick , fatherless and the widows ; and used every lawful means in his power to make himself acceptable to the untaught Heathen round him . He found in this his blessed career many disappointments and some encouragements ,- and though he endured much fatigue , particularly from labouring in a climate so peculiarly relaxing as that of Bengal , yet he

    was blessed with great peace of mind , and an entire freedom from that dejection of spirits to which he , in common with the greater part of the European inhabitants of Bengal , had formerly been very liable . It is true , that , when he read the accounts of what his Christian brethren were doing in other parts of the world , especially of the great anniversaries of the Bible and Missionary Societies in England , where thronging multitudes , made up partly of the great

    and noble among men , were assembled together to promote the work of their heavenly Father * he would sometimes look round from the solitary elevation on which his house was situated , on the villages with their bent roofs and bamboo porches , on the swampy plains , the tops of trees , and the vast meadows on which herds of buffaloes cropped the rank pasturage ; and as he looked he would feel a momentary dejection of spirit at the thought of his entire separation from all Christian society . At these seasons he could not forbear

    crying out , * Had I but one friend , one Christian brother , to whom I mi g ht open my heart , to whom I might relate my perplexities , and tell my difficulties , what consolations and encouragements should I then experience ! ' But while the Almighty saw good to deny him this consolation , he gave him one which was as infinitely superior , as that which is heavenly is above that which is earthly . He led him to feel that he who seeks comfort or encouragement from a fellow-creature , rests his support on that which may break or pierce his hand ; but that he who makes the Lord the Spirit his guide , his friend and comforter , rests on that rock which is able to support Mm * when all the host

    of heavei * shall be dissolved . ' "—II . 232 , 233 . " After Mr . Eliot , " however , " had been working for some years in his solitary situation with great faithfulness , he was visited by a gentleman who had much the same Christian views with Himself ; this gentleman was , of course , much pleased with what he saw and heard of Mr . Eliot's conduct ,- and , on returning to his friends , failed not to give a relation , though with much simplicity , of the blessed work which was going on in the jungles . This relation was by far too interesting to be slightly passed over by those who take

    Untitled Article

    Review . —Mrs . Sherwood ' s Lady ofihe Manor * 201

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1827, page 201, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1794/page/41/