University of Virginia Library

SKETCH SECOND.

The little quiet village of Camden stands under
the brow of a rugged hill, in one of the
most picturesque parts of New-England, and
its regular, honest, and industrious villagers
were not a little surprised and pleased that
Mr. James, a rich man, and pleasant spoken
withal, had concluded to take up his residence
among them. He brought with him a pretty,
genteel wife, and a group of rosy, romping,
but amiable children; and there was so much
of good-nature and kindness about the manners

of every member of the family, that the whole
neighbourhood were prepossessed in their favour.
Mr. James was a man of somewhat visionary
and theoretical turn of mind, and very
much in the habit of following out his own
ideas of right and wrong, without troubling
himself particularly as to the appearance his
course might make in the eyes of others. He
was a supporter of the ordinances of religion,
and always ready to give both time and money
to promote any benevolent object; and though
he had never made any public profession of religion,
nor connected himself with any particular
set of Christians, still he seemed to possess
great reverence for God, and to worship him in
spirit and in truth, and he professed to make
the Bible the guide of his life. Mr. James had
been brought up under a system of injudicious
religious restraint. He had determined, in educating
his children, to adopt an exactly opposite
course, and to make religion and all its
institutions sources of enjoyment. His aim,
doubtless, was an appropriate one, but his method
of carrying it out, to say the least, was one
which was not a safe model for general imitation.
In regard to the Sabbath, for example,
he considered that, although the plan of going
to church twice a day, and keeping all the family
quiet within doors the rest of the time, was
good, other methods would be much better.
Accordingly, after the morning service, which
he and his whole family regularly attended, he
would spend the rest of the day with his children.
In bad weather he would instruct them
in natural history, show them pictures, and
read them various accounts of the works of
God, combining all with such religious instruction
and influence as a devotional mind might
furnish. When the weather permitted, he would
range with them through the fields, collecting
minerals and plants, or sail with them on the
lake, meanwhile directing the thoughts of his
young listeners upward to God, by the many
beautiful traces of his presence and agency,
which superior knowledge and observation enabled
him to discover and point out. These
Sunday strolls were seasons of most delightful
enjoyment to the children. Though it was with
some difficulty that their father could restrain
them from loud and noisy demonstrations of
delight, he saw, with some regret, that the
mere animal excitement of the stroll seemed to
draw the attention too much from religious
considerations, and, in particular, to make the
exercises of the morning seem like a preparatory
penance to the enjoyments of the afternoon.
Nevertheless, when Mr. James looked
back to his own boyhood, and remembered the
frigid restraint, the entire want of any kind of
mental or bodily excitement, which had made
the Sabbath so much a weariness to him, he
could not but congratulate himself when he
perceived his children looking forward to Sunday
as a day of delight, and found himself on
that day continually surrounded by a circle of
smiling and cheerful faces. His talent of imparting
religious instruction in a simple and
interesting form was remarkably happy, and it
is probable that there was among his children
an uncommon degree of real thought and feeling
on religious subjects as the result.

The good people of Camden, however, knew
not what to think of a course that appeared to
them an entire violation of all the requirements
of the Sabbath. The first impulse of human
nature is to condemn at once all who vary from
what has been commonly regarded as the right
way; and, accordingly, Mr. James was unsparingly
denounced, by many good people, as a
Sabbath-breaker, an infidel, and an opposer to
religion.

Such was the character heard of him by Mr.
Richards, a young clergyman, who, shortly after
Mr. James fixed his residence in Camden,

accepted the pastoral charge of the village. It
happened that Mr. Richards had known Mr.
James in college, and, remembering him as a
remarkably serious, amiable, and conscientious
man, he resolved to ascertain from himself the
views which had led him to the course of conduct
so offensive to the good people of the
neighbourhood.

“This is all very well, my good friend,” said
he, after he had listened to Mr. James's eloquent
account of his own system of religious instruction,
and its effects upon his family; “I do
not doubt that this system does very well for
yourself and family; but there are other things
to be taken into consideration besides personal
and family improvement. Do you not know,
Mr. James, that the most worthless and careless
part of my congregation quote your example
as a respectable precedent for allowing their
families to violate the order of the Sabbath?
You and your children sail about on the lake,
with minds and hearts, I doubt not, elevated
and tranquillized by its quiet repose; but Ben
Dakes, and his idle, profane army of children,
consider themselves as doing very much the
same thing when they lie lolling about, sunning
themselves on its shore, or skipping stones
over its surface the whole of a Sunday afternoon.”

“Let every one answer to his own conscience,”
replied Mr. James. “It I keep the
Sabbath conscientiously, I am approved of God;
if another transgresses his conscience, `to his
own master he standeth or falleth.' I am not
responsible for all the abuses that idle or evil-disposed
persons may fall into, in consequence
of my doing what is right.”

“Let me quote an answer from the same
chapter,” said Mr. Richards. “`Let no man
put a stumbling-block, or an occasion to fall, in
his brother's way: let not your good be evil
spoken of. It is good neither to eat flesh nor
drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth,
or is offended, or made weak.' Now, my
good friend, you happen to be endowed with a
certain tone of mind which enables you to carry
through your mode of keeping the Sabbath
with little comparative evil, and much good, so
far as your family is concerned; but how many
persons in this neighbourhood, do you suppose,
would succeed equally well if they were to attempt
it? If it were the common custom for
families to absent themselves from public worship
in the afternoon, and to stroll about the
fields, or ride, or sail, how many parents, do you
suppose, would have the dexterity and talent to
check all that was inconsistent with the duties

of the day? Is it not your ready command of
language, your uncommon tact in simplifying
and illustrating, your knowledge of natural history
and of biblical literature, that enables you
to accomplish the results that you do? And is
there one parent in a hundred that could do
the same? Now, just imagine our neighbour,
Squire Hart, with his ten boys and girls, turned
out into the fields on a Sunday afternoon, to
profit withal: you know he can never finish a
sentence without stopping to begin it again half
a dozen times. What progress would he make
in instructing them? And so of a dozen others
I could name along this very street here. Now
you men of cultivated minds must give your
countenance to courses which would be best
for society at large, or, as the sentiment was expressed
by St. Paul, `We that are strong ought
to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to
please ourselves, for even Christ pleased not himself.'
Think, my dear sir, if our Saviour had
gone only on the principle of avoiding what
might be injurious to his own improvement,
how unsafe his example might have proved to
less elevated minds. Doubtless he might have
made a Sabbath-day fishing excursion an occasion
of much elevated and impressive instruction;
but, although he declared himself `Lore
of the Sabbath-day,' and at liberty to suspend its
obligation at his own discretion, yet he never
violated the received method of observing it,
except in cases where superstitious tradition
trenched directly on those interests which the
Sabbath was given to promote. He asserted
the right to relieve pressing bodily wants, and
to administer to the necessities of others on
the Sabbath, but beyond that he allowed himself
in no deviation from established custom.”

Mr. James looked thoughtful. “I have not
reflected on the subject in this view,” he replied.
“But, my dear sir, considering how little
of the public services of the Sabbath is on
a level with the capacity of younger children,
it seems to me almost a pity to take them to
church the whole of the day.”

“I have thought of that myself,” replied Mr.
Richards, “and have sometimes thought that,
could persons be found to conduct such a thing,
it would be desirable to conduct a separate service
for children, in which the exercises should
be particularly adapted to them.”

“I should like to be minister to a congregation
of children,” said Mr. James, warmly.

“Well,” replied Mr. Richards, “give our
good people time to get acquainted with you,
and do away the prejudices which your extraordinary

mode of proceeding has induced, and
I think I could easily assemble such a company
for you every Sabbath.”

After this, much to the surprise of the village,
Mr. James and his family were regular
attendants at both the services of the Sabbath.
Mr. Richards explained to the good people of
his congregation the motives which had led
their neighbour to the adoption of what, to
them, seemed so unchristian a course; and,
upon reflection, they came to the perception of
the truth, that a man may depart very widely
from the received standard of right for other
reasons than being an infidel or an opposer of
religion. A ready return of cordial feeling was
the result; and as Mr. James found himself
treated with respect and confidence, he began
to feel, notwithstanding his fastidiousness, that
there were strong points of congeniality between
all real and warm-hearted Christians,
however different might be their intellectual
culture, and in all simplicity united himself
with the little church of Camden. A year from
the time of his first residence there, every Sabbath
afternoon saw him surrounded by a congregation
of young children, for whose benefit
he had, at his own expense, provided a room,
fitted up with maps, scriptural pictures, and every

convenience for the illustration of biblical
knowledge; and the parents or guardians who
from time to time attended their children during
these exercises, often confessed themselves
as much interested and benefited as any
of their youthful companions.