1853] HEART-BREATHINGS. 127 embodied her emotions, alike when her mood had given complexion to the scene and received complexion from it! We have one poetic reminiscence written this summer. She entitled it A SONNET, WRITTEN ON THE BANKS OF THE WHARFE. Here is a refuge for the world-worn heart, A quiet nook where peace and plenty reign; Or struggling with the crested waves which rise Of crag and bower, the heart may learn on Thee There are those who would have us believe that to surrender the soul to evangelical religion is to robe it with gloom, and renounce all self-respect. Let such read the following lines-the breathings of Miss Hessel's inmost heart. They were not the utterance of a momentary excitement. She had first recorded the confessions they contain in her diary, and afterwards, as we have seen, she transmitted them, as an act of reciprocity to her friend in Leeds. With such self-abasement as a vivid view of the infinite majesty and purity of the Divine Nature cannot fail to inspire, there is no gloom, no asceticism, no self-despection. On the contrary there is an expression of delightful filial feeling toward God, a deep sympathy with all that is bright and joyous in nature as being but the dim reflection of His ineffable goodness, and a glowing exultation in the prospect of endless existence. It is an unutterable solace to her dearest friends that one so buoyant-whose conduct had not unfrequently exposed her to the charge of frivolity-should now find cherished sustenance for her higher nature in contemplations so tranquilizing and ennobling. Eternal Spirit! Thou who reign'st supreme O'er the wide earth, and the unnumber'd worlds, Thou who hast hung on high those glorious gems Of all that from eternity hath been, And through immense eternity shall be,- My feeble faltering song. And can'st thou deign Father in heaven, all things are Thine,-Thy care All things are Thine, and all Thy sovereign care, In the young fleeting life which Thou hast given. Alone with Thee, I worship and adore. 1853] 66 AN INVOCATION." O Father! Lord! though wide be Thy domain, Thy care and goodness, and forgetting all With which Thy love had blessed me, my proud heart Of 'winged words,' the gift of lofty song. All these hath my young heart desired, in these But now, O Father! wise, and just, and good, 129 CHAPTER VI. One of the remarkable features of the Bible--J. B. Gough-Valuable lessons learnt from annoyances-Longfellow-Misinterpretations of Providence-"The death of Abijah"-Gilfillan's criticism on Abijah"-Southey's Life of Cowper--Alexander Smith's Life-drama-John Howe's remark on Pantheism-Nature an educational-agent-"The Ministering Angel." 66 It is one of the many remarkable features of the Bible, that it supplies materials suited to every variety of thinkers. The philosopher and poet, as well as the divine, may there find large employment for their powers. It is almost as ample a storehouse of themes for the poet as for the preacher. One of its historical events was now engaging the attention of Miss Hessel with a view to a poem. After narrating numerous engagements, she says to Miss N -on August 23rd: "I did, however, spend the whole of yesterday morning in study. My subject was an interesting one-the revolt of the ten tribes-Jeroboam's accession, with the circumstances connected therewith, up to Abijah's death. The result you may see some day in a little blank verse poem, which is now in progress. 66 I suppose you will have heard of our drive to Leeds a week ago. We arrived at the Music Hall at seven, where we met your brother, and managed to find standing room at the extreme end of the hall, and, by the aid of your brother's shoulder, and the kind assistance of a dapper little gentleman from Baines's office, I managed to maintain my equilibrium on the edge of a plank for two mortal hours. But I was abundantly repaid by the eloquent oration of Mr. Gough. I never listened to a man of such diversified natural talents, nor heard a history so strangely romantic. Totally 1853] J. B. GOUGH. 131 uneducated he has been raised from the very depths of social degradation. Stripped of wife, children, and parents; every tie which bound him to humanity wrenched asunder; and degraded, in his own eyes, to a leprous, polluted thing, which it would be an act of mercy to crush out of existence, see him rising at the age of twenty-five; and having startled most of the cities of the Union with his thrilling eloquence, he has come to England by special invitation. Intense study and excessive labour have much impaired his health, but, at thirty years of age, he seems in the full bloom of mental vigour. It requires a more vivid pen than mine to describe his style, since he can apparently adopt any, and be original in all. He will sketch a scene with the most minute and delicate pencilling— burst upon you with a rush of overwhelming eloquence-shrivel up your heart with the most cutting sarcasms, stroke after stroke, each one finer and more pointed than the last-melt you to tears with his thrilling pathos and touching appeals convulse you with laughter at his life-like descriptions and inimitable mimicry and finally, after having touched and wounded up the master chord of every bosom in a vast assembly, with a genuine child-like simplicity he will acknowledge his gratitude to God for the position to which he is raised, and confess that he holds it only by faith in the atonement, and simple, constant reliance on the strength which God supplies. I wish you could have heard him." Her brother, who had now completed his allowed term of ministerial service at Bristol, was naturally wishful to be nearer his widowed mother, and was appointed to the Woodhouse Grove Circuit, to reside at Idle. Miss Hessel, in company with a sister of Mrs. |