Letters, 1827–1828
Lettien — To the SeeraCuy of a Religioas SooBtw — To ft dtmruuk on kwlpeannee of — To tho Provott of Eton — Df. Ooodall’s Reply — To nam on the Memoir of her Sister — To a Fziend on Cheriahing a Spirit of Love Rev. W. H. Michell on the Death of Mr. Lloyd — Memonndam on bcinff Defianded by hit Servant
1827 — 1828.
CORRB8PONDBNCB9 ETC.
To the Secretary of a religious Society.
‘’K.C., ]»iaroh20, 1697.
My dear Sir, —
It is unnecessary for me to come up, because I can express my sentiments on paper better than viva voce; and if I express them with Christian fidelity, I hope the committee will
forgive me. I expressed them fully to Mr., after our last
meeting, and with much anguish of mind, I perceived in the committee a spirit which deeply grieved and humbled me. But I dare not proceed to state my sentiments, lest I should wound and grieve others. I therefore leave mv crimination altogether out of the question, and give only mv advice.
‘’My advice is, tread back your steps — cultivate a spirit of Christian love and liberality — if wronged, why do you not rather take wrong, and cover it even from vour own eyes f yea, do more than they say. Verily the want of this spirit put me to shame and deeply humbled me. When shall we rise to the true standard of Christian morals? Matt. v. 40, 41.
“Your afilicted friend, C. Simeon.
‘’ P. S. I think I made my sentiments known to Mr. M. also. 1 beg pardon of the committee for not protesting against their measures. But who am I that I should dictate 7
“The fault of this whole matter is in the unyielding pertinacity of our own committee. The committee do not stand at a sufficient distance from the object of contention to judge of it aright. You may lay this letter before them. It is the only way in wfich I can atone for my want of fidelity before. Indeed, indeed, even Peter and Barnabas are all wrong in this matter.”
896 DR. OOODALL. [cHAP. ZXTH.
To the Rev. Mr. on ayoiding all appearance of evil.
K. C, Camb June 10, 1827.
My dear Sir, —
* He that believeth shall not make haste.’ There is a straightforward mode of proceeding that will alone satisiy my mind. It is the Lord alone whom I am serving; I have no more personal interest in it than the Emperor of China; and I hare no wish to serve God in a dubious way: He does not require it. If it be His will that I should effect for Him the construction of this temple-^well; the silver and the ffold are His, and He will enable me. If not — well; it was well that it was in my heart: and He will accept the will for the deed.
*’ There are oaths too; and who can tell what rumors might grow out of a dubious, or even innocent transaction?
‘’The P&schal lamb was set apart four days in order that it might undergo the strictest examination; and our blessed Lord for four days underwent this examination, and was pronounced A by His bitterest enemies, who could find no fault in him. Such I wish my sacrifices to be. ‘We must be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.’ I am my dear sir,
“Your very afiTectionate friend, C. Simeon.
“This is the Lord’s work, and fit for a Sabbath-day. I always love to answer by return of post.”
To the Rev. Dr. Goodall, Provost of Eton.
* “Sept 4, 1827.
My dear Friend, —
1 will not be so ungracious again as to send to my Moving friends,’ without a single line to show that the expression when used by me towards yo.urself, is not a mere official courtesy, but a reality. Never have I had in all my life but one feelii towards you; and notwithstanding our pursuits and habits of life have been so different, I verily believe tnat your regards towards me have also been unchanged; and were I nearer to you, I should feel much pleasure in keepmg up a more friendly intercourse than our present distance adinits of. I think, you would receive with kindness any hint which I might suggest respecting our prospects in the eternal world.
It is often with me a matter of regret, that the atmosphere of Eton is so unfavorable for the health of the soul; and that amidst all the attention that is paid to the poets and philosophers of Greece and Rome, scarcely ever by any chance is the name of our blessed Saviour heard, especially in a way of admiration and love; and that whilst earthly honors are held up as prdper objects of our ambition, so little is spoken of heaven as worthy of our pursuit But our college-records of this very year speak loudly to us on cnAP. zxvil] rboakd for db« ooodall. W9 this subject The very occasion on which I send you this letter admonishes us, that in a little time nothing will remain to us of this world, except our responsibility to God for all that we have done in it, and all that we have neglected to do. This is the fourth death that has taken place in our small society in about twice as many months, besides two or three others of quondam fellows; and five of them much younger than ourselves. Through mercv, it is my chief labor here to prevent regret in the eternal world; and I earnestly hope that you also, my dear friend, will, after laboring so honorably and so successfully for the meat that perisheth, labor also for the meat which endureth unto eternal life*’ Will you do me the favor to accept, as a small pledge of my regard, a book* which I had intended as a present to my nephew 7 The preface to it I consider as of very singular value. As for the book itself, the world has already stamped its value so legibly, that I need say nothing respecting it. If either the preface or the book shall prove a source of benefit and comfort to your mind, I beg leave to assure you, that it will ereatly rejoice
Your ofiicially * loving friend,’
“And your truly most affectionate friend, C. Simeon.
^P. S. My very kind and respectful compliments to Mrs. Goodall.”
[Not having received any answer fi-om Dr. Goodall after the interval of a month, Mr. Simeon wrote to him again.]
“Oct 4,1327.
“My dear Friend, —
*’ If any person in the world, or all the people in the world confederate, bad told me that you would take offence at the letter which I wrote you, I should have said. You do not know Dr. Goodall as I do. I have known him almost sixty years: and if ever there was a person that never gave, or took offence, it is he. Instead of being offended at a ‘friendly communication, which bore upon the very face of it nothing but respect and love, he is precisely the man of whom that might be said which was said of Cranmer, * Do my Lord of Canterbury an ill turn, and he will be vour firiend for ever.’ In fact, I cannot conceive what there could be in it to give offence. It was in my apprehension, and certainly in my purpose, as pure an ebullition of perfect friendship as ever proceeded from a warm and affectionate heart It must be taken in connection with the apology which I had recently made you, when you were here, for having, not long before, sent you a special messenger in the usual form without a single line expressive of personal regard.
A similar occasion now again offered itself. The letter announcing a vacancy at King’s I received between eight and nine o’clock; I sent off the special messenger by ten: and whilst the
Waberforee’s Practical View with a Piefkce by the Rev. Daniel Wibon.
880 Di. ooodall’s bbplt. [ohajp. xxth.
official form was preparing, it occurred to the that I ought on no account to omit sending you a few lines. And, as Jesse, when sending David to * look how his brethren fared and to take th6tr pledge,’ sent a present of a few loaves and cheeses to the ’ captain of their thousand,’ without ever dreaming that by such a liberty he should give oflfence, so I, in the innocency of my heart, sent you one of the copies of a most valuable publication which I had ordered from Glasgow, (as presents to my own nephews,) as a small token of my regard. The preface I consider as one of the finest compositions in our language; and therefore, though it might not convey to you anything you did not know before, it might pot the subject in a view which would well repay the perusal. Even if it had been a treatise on the beauties of the Greek language, I should not have expected it to give offence; though there might then have been some reason for offence, because it might be construed as an attempt to convey to you some information on a subject with which you have ben all your life pre-eminently conversant. But on matters of eternal moment, however conversant you were with the subject, I could have no conception of S’ving you offence, because you would of necessity recollect, that e great parent and progenitor of all infallibility (St. Peter,) when writing */o those who had obtained like precious faith with him* says, *1 will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truthJ* In fact, I should have expected you would rather nave been gratified with an opportunity of expressing your concurrence with me, in the great object which both the preface and the book propose to our consideration. At all events, if it were only for Ovid’s sake, I was assured you would forgive me; for you well remember, that when addressing his wife, (whom certainly he did not intend to offend,) he says,
* Qui iDonet ut ftcias quod jam fiiCLS >Ue monendo
Laudat, et hortata comprobat acta suo.’
If however I have given you offence, do me the justice to believe it was quite unintentionally: and believe me to be,
“With truly respectful and very affectionate regard, ever yours,
“C. Simeon.**
Dr. Goodall’s reply.
Cloisters, Windsor Castle, Oct S, 1827.
” My dear Friend, —
“Most sincerely do I entreat your pardon for my protracted silence, which has caused you to entertain a suspicion that I could possibly be offended at so very kind a proof of your regard. That I did not acknowledge your obligmg present and most flattering letter immediately, was entirely owing to an ac-
8 Peter i. 1, 12.
CBAP* ZXVII.] DR. OOODALl’s SSPLY. S61
cidental press of business, which would not allow me to return as full an answer as I wished to do. That I should since have suffered day after day, and week after week, to pass by without expressing how much I was gratified by the very kind interest you took in my welfare, and by vour solicitude that I should not dis-. regard the pearl of inestimable price, would be surprising even to myself, had I not, oftener than ought to be the case, had occasion to apologize for the effects of a procrastinating spirit I could with truth plead much unexpected business, much distress of mind, and an almost uninterrupted demand on my time; but were I to attempt by such pleas to extenuate my apparent inattention and want of a proper sense of your kindness, I should be angry with myself; I have been much to blame: Habes confiteniem,
After this confession it will be needless to assure you, that I did not take ofience at what had I taken offence I should have ill deserved the opinion you have hitherto entertained of me. I acknowledge, with I trust the most proper feeling, my conviction that your address to me was in truth as ’ pure an ebullition of perfect friendship as ever proceeded from a warm and affectionate heart;’ nor was .it necessary that the historiette of the circumstances connected with the cause of vour truly friendly letter should have been detailed. Mrs. Good all is however parcel-guilty (in the first instance) of my silence, though certainly without intention. She begged me so earnestly to let her reperuse your letter, which I read to her, that I consigned the MS. to her care. This she bad so very carefully put up, that on my asking her for it, my request was urged in vain, as she could not recollect where she had contrived to place it so as to elude her search.
“A most violent headache, to which, thanks be to the Almighty, I am little subject, distracts me so at this moment, that it is no hyperbole” to say that I scarcely know what I have written; but to let another post depart, without endeavoring to do away the ill impression which my silence has left, would be worse than inconsiderate.
‘* In better spirits, in a more idle moment, I shall hope to say much which I meant to say when I began this no-apology.
‘* Believe me to be, with the most perfect regard and esteem, and with a just value of your friendship, My dear sir,
“Your obliged and faithful friend,
“J. GOODALL.”
To Mrs. CUNNINOHAM.
E. C^ Monday ETening, Not. 12, 1827.
My very dear Friend, —
Your most kind favor came to hand on Saturday evenmg last; but I would not read it till I should have leisure to consider its contents, and to give myself up to the feelings which it
868 EBLIGIOUS MBMOIBB. [cHAP. XEVUm
is calculated to excite. Often do I intent to peruse this blessed memoir. When your dear sister Catharine read portions of it to me, it almost transported me to heaven; and made me most truly thankful for the lumbago which detained me at home, and gave. me au opportunity of hearing it read to me. This is the religion which I love. I love simplicity: I love contrition: I love affiance: I love the tender breathings of affection. Talkativeness and boasting are not at all to my mind: I am jealous of everything that even in appearance savors of self. Even religion itself I do not love, if it be not cast in a mould of humility and contrition. I love the religion of heaven; to fall on our faces, whilst we adore the Lamb, is the kind of religion which my soul affects; and it was this spirit which I so admired in your ‘beloved sister. How would it have delighted me to hear from her lips some of those blessed expressions which your memoir records! If they bore me to heaven by the recital of them, how would they have transported me, if I had heard them from her own lips I Yet perhaps they would not have affected me so much: for then I should have heard them as from one on earth: whereas I hear them now as from one in heaven.
I am in the habit of accounting religion as the simplest of all concerns, — * To Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto our God, to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever,* expresses the very frame of mind in which I wish both to live and die. In that dear departed saint i saw it all. It seemed to be the very spirit of her mind; it was her meat and drink: and soon, I trust, we shall join her in this blessed song. I greatly rejoice that so many of her family are like-minded with her, having their views of the Saviour alike clear, and their feelings towards Him alike elevated. May you, my dear madam, and I also, drink more and more into her spirit: and may your dear husband also testify of Christ with more devout energy than ever, knowing that His riches are unsearchable, and the joy that He imparts is ’ unspeakable and elorined.’
“Tuesday. — Intending to send this, not by the post but by coach, in a parcel with a little token of my love and gratitude, I deferred the remainder of my letter till this morning, alter I should have again read this memoir, which I have been perusing with tears of joy. I have indeed been just interrupted in the midst of
it by a clergyman, a fellow of college, who has begun to
seek after the Lord, and who came to introduce himself to me. 1 know not what he must think of me with my eyes suffused with tears; but I trust he found my spirit sweetly softened and affectionately solicitous for his welfare. In truth, what is there worth living K)r, but to prepare for such an end as your dear sister found, and to help forward all around us to the attainment of it? Indeed, I am greatly edified and comforted: and I pray God that
OHAP. ZXVa.] CHRI8TIAV TBNSBSNBSB. 868
a double portion of deaf RacheFs spirit may rest on you, and cm Mr. C, and on every member of your mucn*loved family, and on your much indebted friend and brother, C. Simeon,” h(
To a Friend, on cherishing a spirit of love.
‘<Maroh 1,1828.
You did not show dear Mrs. your letter before
CM sent it It would never have received her imprimatur. She as a wisely-tempered and well regulated mind; and love has a dominant possession of her heart
“Why did I not answer your letter about paying my subscription, except by obeying instantly its contents? It was because I felt I ought to say somethings but knew not how to say it, lest I should grieve you. My last I was compelled to write: but read it again, and say whether Paul would have returned to it such an answer as you have sent? I forbear to make any reply, because the slightest reply would be construed as the dictate of a partisan. My dear brother, you do not suspect your own feelings as arising out of your own situation. You saw and mourned over them as existing in poor Mr.; but you are unconscious of any as existing in your own bosom. My dear brother, I could say much if I were sitting by your side, and you could se the delicate hesitation, the affectionate look, the stai’ting tear, that were the evidences of my spirit. But pen and ink cannot hesitate, or look, or weep, or do anything but convey dry sentiments to a pained, and perhaps a prejudiced and offended mind. Hence 1 utter nothing. 1 live in a region in which I would have you also move. Shall I grieve you if I say, that your want of union and kindness
and love to Mr. compels him to act without consulting you?
And did not the same cause compel you also to act in a similar
way towards Mr.? Cherish, my dear brother, a spirit of
fooe, and all your mountains vrill soon become mole-hills, or rather a perfect plain. Ask your beloved wife this question, * Do you not think that if I had more of a spirit of love towards that man of Grod, I might move most easily and sweetly with him? Do you not see in me somewhat of a disposition unlike to what the Apostle Paul would exercise towards nim V
‘’Yes; put this question to your beloved wife, and let her not return an answer till she has passed a night in committing it to God in prayer: and I have no doubt what answer her candid and discerning mind will give.
Then put to her another question: ‘Do you see anything in Mr. Simeon’s last letter, or in this, that should alienate our affections from him, or make us turn a deaf ear to him as a blind and partial judge V I will not believe that*she will answer that in the affirmative, unless I see it in her xpwn hand- writing. If, however,
364 R£Y. T. LLOTD. [CHAP. XXYU.
contrary to my expectation, this letter grieve you, do me one favor: write for me a letter such as a man of Goid ought to write you under these circumstances, that I may see what I ought to have written, and let your beloved wife annex to it her initials with her own hand. I shall be glad to sit at your feet and learn.
With kind love to Mrs., I remain, my dear friend,
“Most affectionately yours, C. Simeon.”
To thoRev. W. H. Michell.
“Cambridge, July 2S, 1828.
” My dear Brother, —
“Two days ago did I receive official notice from the provost for the information of the fellows, respecting the painful event to which your letter refers. And yesterday I read a letter of our dear friend’s to Mr. Hickman, (written but a few days before his death,) wherein he spoke of his own state of mind in most sweet and delightful terms. Respecting his transition to glory I have no more doubt than of the Apostle Paul’s. If I were to write an epitaph for him, it would be this: —
In Memory of
The Rev. THOMAS LLOYD, M.A.,
who was
in the tenor of hie life,
‘ASerrantof Chrift;’
and
in the habit of hia mind,
<The Meekneaa of Wiadom.’
A more perfect character I knew not upon earth. He was pre-eminently dear to me, as being my own son in the faith, the very first fruits of Achaia. He is gone a little, a very little, before us. Through mercy I possess at present very peculiar vigor both of body and mind; both of which I need for the completing of my Appendix of six volumes, or 700 discourses, now in the press. I print and revise a volume of about 600 pages — of my close pages — every month. Three volumes are now finished, and I hope to be out in October: after which time I have a kind of presentiment (which I delight to indulge,) that I shall speedily be called home. But I am willing to wait, and delighted to work while it is day. Never at any period was my work more delightful to me than at this present moment My energy in it even astonishes myself. But I seem to be so near the goal, that I cannot but run with all my might. You, my beloved brother, by your infirmities are precluded from such exertions. But you have the portion which a wise and gracious Father sees best for you. Soon, very soon, shall we meet our beloved brother again, and join with him in everlasting hallelujahs to Grod and to the Lamb.
**1 have written to the dear afBicted widow» whom I greatly love and honor. Believe moy
“Most affectionately yours, C. Sim bon,”
Memorandum.
<<Aagaat 8,1828.
A curious fact occurred last night, which with gratitude to God I will record, because it strongly illustrates, what I know by experience to be the manner in which the Lord often deals with his people, and at the same time confirms what I had been preaching upon not an hour before, * All things shall work together for good to them that love God.’ Rom. viii. 28.)
‘’My coachman, to whom I had shown as much kindness as could well be conceived, has behaved most basely towards me. To encourage him, I had not only given him very good wages, but promised him an increase of £4 every year for five years to come, if he should behave well. I had already increased it twice out of the five times. In a word, it is both my principle and my habit, to win, if possible, the hearts of those that serve me, and to be rather a father to them than a master. But he adopted a way of getting money to a great extent, and with that money gave himself over to the most licentious habits. I kept with him, as with my other servants, a weekly account, that I might not have a bill anywhere. Brooms, brushes, pails, &c., he got for me from time to time; but pocketed the money, and ran me iip bills without my knowledge. He even went to merchants whom I had never seen in my life, and took hay and com which he sold immediately for ready money; and that ran me up bills to the amount of altogether about £100. In this way he would have proceeded still, and have involved me to a far greater amount, had he not
wickedly This was immediately complained of to me;
and he, foreseeing that it must produce a separation between us, set off to London. This was instantly known; and that very same day there poured in bills from every quarter; one of above £40, and another of £20, from persons whose very face I never saw, and who were never authorized to put me down in their books for one penny. These therefore I refused to pay, unless it were decided by a jury that I must: and I felt my mind irritated, so as more than once to designate the conduct of these tradesmen r by a harsher name than perhaps, after all, it deserved. This was the second time in whicn I had been treated in the same way.
All this was painful; but it led me to consider, that this was ii«t man but Grod; even as it was when the Chaldeans and Sabeans robbed Job: and it was, in fact, the Lord saying to me, ‘You have given me thousands in a way agreeable to yourself; now give me an hundred in a way that I please; and do it with cheer-
866 ALL THINGS WOftKINQ TOOBTHBE POE GOOD. [cHAP. XZVIL
fulness as linto me. You have a lesson to learn, which this is designed to teach you. Your spirit is by no means such as it should be. You sadly want the patience of Job. You by no means resemble Him who was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a ’ sheep under the hand of the shearer was dumb.’ — Convinced of my very low proficiency in the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I looked up to God for grace sufficient for me; and I hope I obtained both mercy and grace to help me in the time of need. The assizes ended only on Saturday last: and by acquiescing in the Divine appointment, I avoided all the disquietude of mind which a trial would have occasioned, and which would have been far worse than the loss of many hundreds of pounds, and felt a sweet peace of mind arising from an entire acquiescence in the Divine will. During the last four days I have enjoyed much comfort in the exercise of submission to Grod, and have contrasted the state of my mind with what it would have been even in the event of a successful trial, and much more in the event of a defeat. I had been just preaching on Rom. viii. 28; and on coming home, I found a letter from my lawyer in London, saying, that a person who had defrauded me of many hundreds of pounds, and was a bankrupt and might have been sent to prison, but whom I had commissioned him to spare, if he would only pay £100 towards the expenses to which he had put me in recovering my right, that that person had offered to pay me £200 towards my expenses, if I would release nim from his obligations. Thus has God in His tender mercy, first taught me to check and mortify my unsubdued spirit; and then had no sooner accomplished His gracious will in that particular, than He paid for me, as it were, the very sum of which I had been robbed; so that by this dispensation He has in« structed my mind, humbled my spirit, disposed and enabled me to see His hsmd in everything, given me sweet peace in the stead of trouble, and, at last, restored to me what He had taken away; and preached over again to me, what I had that moment been preaching to my people, * that all things, of whatever kind (except sin,) shall work together for our good.’
“Bless the Lord, O my soul; and remember the lessons which ttiou hast been so mercifully taught.”