Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

taking the house by storm, but our host was very kind and only feared "that this was such a little den of a house," that we should not all be able to see what he would show us.

We waited his coming in the dining-room, recently added, with a bay window at the end, looking up the Lake; and at the side a long window of five lights, stone mullioned between, and with pointed Gothic tops, giving a glimpse down the lake between the trees. The room was not different from the unpretentious but comfortable dining-room of a man fond of paintings.

Indeed I trust there is no lurking idea that Ruskin worship is a sort of eccentric cult, and that his ideas are anything but clear, simple, universal principles of purity, honesty, and order, unflinchingly believed in.

A large portrait of Mr. Ruskin as a child, by Northcote (see "Preterita," page 17, with reference to Blue Hills), supported by portraits of his father and mother, occupies one end. A small painting of Turner by himself, and a striking Doge were the only other pictures I remember.

A good idea for house decoration there was. By the sideboard, on the floor, stood small flower pots containing water. In these stood long sticks out of the woods with growing ivy climbing up them. Ivy, Bacchus, and dining-rooms have gone together from very early times; but, that apart, the idea seems to be a good one to supplement ferns and geraniums with. The device is unpretentious, of course, like everything else at Brantwood.

And that is what a house should be. Solemnity and awe are suitable feelings with which to stand before a temple, a cathedral, or even a great town hall; and there magnificence is in place, but a palatial house is no better to live in, and by its gorgeous outside its owner merely says to the public, "Behold how rich and great I am, and how difficult I find it to spend my money in any useful way to benefit my fellows or myself." It is not unknown to us, either, is it? in the suburbs of any of our towns, that the aid of stucco and paint is called in to make that which is not stone look like stone, and thus add the public telling of a lie to the aforesaid display of the pride of life.

Mr. Ruskin came in while we were in the dining

room.

We are probably familiar from portraits with the refined delicacy of his features, accompanied with a certain shagginess of eyebrow and beard, but the sweetness of his blue eyes and the peculiarly kindly smile were a glad surprise to one who remembered him telling us in "Fors" how old, tired, and sulky he had become. His utterance was sufficiently slow to be perfectly accurate, distinct, and impressive. His lips indeed seemed to make an effort to give every word full force. He is rather short than tall, and has now a very pronounced stoop. He seems to wear a good deal of clothing, and some of the ladies noticed that he had a large and conspicuous Oxford blue tie, and an ornamental waistcoat; which particulars I duly record for those interested therein. An Oxford friend of mine tells me that that blue tie is a very old institution, and was well known in Oxford twenty-five years ago.

I met Mr. Ruskin again in 1896. He has now the appearance of an ancient seer; his beard is long and flowing, and the grey overhanging eyebrows, and uncut locks make up the typical picture of an aged Elijah. His stoop has naturally grown upon him; with the slowest of feeble steps he paces a little on fine days on the road, accompanied by a manservant and a large dog; but if you catch the bright eye, and hear the deep musical voice, as it speaks with admiration of the sunset, you recognize still the ardens ingenium and the rich nature of days gone by. Attacks of cerebral inflammation follow any attempt at doing work, but so long as he does not attempt to write, his days pass in pleasant social intercourse-an old man's holiday, a period of rest at seventy-eight, before the full release of the good and faithful servant from the task work of earth. Datur hora quieti " : "There is more work to do, but not to-day. The plough stands in the furrow; and the laborer passes peacefully from his toil, homewards."

To return to our visit. Our host invited us to come with him into the drawing-room. Over the fireplace hung a study by himself of the inside of the dome of St. Mark's in Venice. By the door was a little painting of the vision of St. Ursula, copied from Victor Carpaccio's at Venice. The story is told in the 20th and 61st numbers of " Fors Clavigera," and Mr. Ruskin talked to us about it, but this paper could not impart to you briefly enough the interest of the story. Incidentally he alluded to the Arabian Nights, but finding we did not respond, he feared we were not up in our Arabian Nights; he said they contained a great deal of moral truth. Next day I bought a copy.

We were shown up into Mr. Ruskin's little bedroom, where that simplicity I spoke of caused certain worthy matrons of our company to marvel greatly. They, good souls, would, if they only could, have gorgeous expanses of Turkey carpet, and much gilding and damask curtaining, and many superfluous couches and ottomans, while it would be difficult to imagine a washing apparatus superior enough for them if only price were no object. But our host slept in a plain mahogany bedstead, destitute of canopies and curtains. One side of the room was occupied by a plain bookcase, containing plain working books. The rest. of the walls were, as one might expect, picture covered. Over the bed four glowing Turners covered the wall space.

We then went into his study, where, among other things, our host said "My greatest concern among my various philanthropic objects is to teach people the right way to treat money: (1) Not to try to get too much of it among the various ways there are now-adays of making a fortune, and (2) to give pure gold when they pretend to. The St. George's Guild (he pronounced it like "wild") is going to issue pure gold coins; we have not quite settled the exact decimal of their weight; but it will shortly be possible for any one who wants a piece of pure gold to have it in that form It is always the sign of a debased state of national life when the coinage is tampered with, when men cease to give honest gold. I will bring you the coin of Flor

ence, which enabled her merchants to keep up their credit all over Europe, and here is the noblest coin that ever was, the noble of Edward III. of England:" and he handed us a gold coin about the size of a penny, but extremely thin. "And for silver, here is the Attic coin with the owl on it." He left us to hand about his valuable coins among ourselves, a large miscellaneous company, anywhere in the house; several expressed their surprise at his trusting thus to strangers' honesty, but I can hardly tell how grateful I felt to him for it, and how this confiding attitude enhanced the pleasure of being in the house.

The apparent failure of his dearest project, the Guild of St. George, to which he alluded above, was a serious trouble to him. It was to have been an association for the uplifting of the people—and more, a community carrying on its daily work, with schools, and tillage by hand or water power, a coinage of its own, simple tastes, plain living and high thinking; and at the beginning each member was to contribute onetenth of his property to the Guild. Ruskin did this himself, and that sum forms the capital of the Guild, and employs artists now. The organization never throve; but its idea remains, written down in detail in "Fors Clavigera," and I am persuaded that it is one of those ideas which will not die; but will rise and fructify in time to come under new forms. "St. George" is no failure.

[ocr errors]

But let us return to our conversation that morning. Beautiful and like a cool hand on the fevered brow of sectarian differences was what he said to us on religious subjects. The company were chiefly Friends, which accounts for the turn the conversation took. He showed us a cast of a Madonna, over the fireplace in his study. "I hope you don't think me idolatrous and superstitious for having it (we hastened to assure him we did not); but its beauty cheers me many a time." Mr. Ruskin often tells us Protestants how intolerant we are in condemning Madonna worship. He says he does not care a fig about its historical falsity; merely that the noble, womanly ideal of it has cheered and sanctified thousands of laborious lives. "See then here," he said, "if you don't mind, look at this illuminated book and see how men honored their Bibles in days gone by." (He forgave them their superstition for their devotion's sake.) "And see here is another large one, a prayer book. The title page invokes a curse on whosoever should steal this book, and a blessing on any one who preserves it; somebody else stole it, and I take care of it. I have written the contents at the beginning myself. You see I can write with fair neatness when I like." The handwriting was clear and plain, but had no clerkly flow, and a young business man at my elbow whispered that he didn't think much of it. "I suppose you Friends try❘ to obey your Bible completely, don't you? Are you sure you obey it in the matter of usury, now?" (with a twinkle in his eye as if he had caught us). I wish parenthetically to remark that Ruskin does not base his objection to interest on the Mosaic commands, even had they been of general, not of tribal, application. He says he knows it without authority, intui

tively, and on its own merits, in obedience to natural good feeling. Let us remember that the fact that you and I, together with Tom, Dick, and Harry, don't agree with him, does not necessarily make Ruskin wrong.

He went on: "I like you Friends very much. But why don't you call yourselves friends of all the world? Ah! Why cannot we drop our little sect and call ourselves simply God-fearing people. When I am at Rome I do as the Romans do; when among the Turks, as the Turks do; for you know each religion sees very clearly one great and valuable truth, and makes it specially its own. The other religions do not see this truth, and then they fight about it. The Mohammedans have a splendid testimony against idolatry, which the Roman Catholics have fallen into, but the Catholics, on the other hand, have their keen sense of the work of Jesus, which the Mohammedans are without. Your early Friends, now, would have carried all before them if they had not run counter to the instinct which is obeyed by the whole of the animal creation, the love of color." the love of color." How we needed the readiness of a newspaper interviewer, but we only managed to get out that we had changed all that now.

A man's study, much more than his dining-room or hall, is the outward expresion of himself. With a wondering interest we entered Ruskin's and were astonished. There was absolutely no untidyness; not a loose paper, not a sheaf of letters, no scraps of manuscript, no pens, no pencils, etc., etc., lying about. This was, without exception, the thing at Brantwood that made the deepest impression upon me. And yet I might have known Ruskin's would be the very expression of order. For order is with him a master passion; and the noisy confusion of so much of our competitive life is what especially galls him in it.

The study is a low-ceilinged room made out of two very small ones, and containing two windows. The immaculate desk, an ordinary knee-table, is near one end and faces down the room, which has the fireplace at the other end. There are several cabinets of little drawers containing valuable minerals and portfolios of sketches. "There," he pointed, "in that shelf over the fireplace, you see a Greek horse with the erect, dressed mane. I often ask why we choose to leave the mane, which the Greeks cared for, and dress up the tail, as if it were the nobler part. I know that one to be genuine. A young man was digging in Cyprus. He was about to give up for want of funds, so I sent him £1,000 on condition of having what he found; that horse was among them." Behind Mr. Ruskin's chair was a large bookcase. "You may take down any volume you like," he said, "rummage among them. Here are my Scott manuscripts. I have a better collection than exists anywhere except at Abbotsford. On account of preserving the incognito these were copied for him, and did not pass through the printer's hands. That is why they are so clean. All are done you see in a neat, clear hand, though a triflle mechanical from long use. Scott was in the middle of this novel, it is 'Woodstock,' when he heard that he was a ruined man. But you do not see a change in the

hand-writing, nor a tremor. I always admire that as a wonderful instance of human fortitude and magnanimity." We noticed that all the books had the date and place of their purchase entered, with the price; an instance of uncommercial frankness and orderly precision characteristic of their owner.

By the study door was Miss Alexander's picture of "Santa Zita; the Miracle at the Well," which illustrates one part of the "Roadside Songs of Tuscany." Ruskin's kindness of heart finds scope in many encouragements to young workers of power. A little girl in London has a remarkable faculty for cutting out in paper the beasts at the Zoo. They were timidly sent to Ruskin and by him warmly commended. He suggested that color should be added to outline. This was done, and the results, which were very beautiful, were lying framed on a chair in the drawing-room. These pleasant little charities form for him and for us a pleasant change from the fierce blast of prophetic denunciation.

After our host had talked to us for three-quarters of an hour, he was evidently fatigued, so we were reluctantly resigned when he said he would take leave of us, but that we might go about the house and examine anything we liked. "And so I will bid you good-bye, unless any one has any question they would like to ask me." He paused, but no one, of course, had the presence of mind to think of a question worth asking at the right moment; so he went away, and we shortly after left, and proceeded to relieve our mental excitement by a climb up the Coniston Old Man.

For Friends' Intelligencer.

SKETCH OF NEW GARDEN MEETING. It is believed that New Garden meeting for worship was first held in the home of John and Mary Miller. They had emigrated from Ireland in 1709, bringing with them nine children, and settled in the western part of the beautiful valley lying south of the Toughkenamon Hill, in the "Manor," later New Garden township, Chester county, Pa., where they had secured a title to 1013 acres of land.

They were of the Religious Society of Friends, and James Starr, Michael Lightfoot, and others of the same religious persuasion settling around them, were accustomed to gather there in religious communion until a meeting house could be provided. The precise date of the erection of the house cannot now be ascertained, but it certainly was not long delayed, as appears from the following minute from the record of Newark Monthly Meeting, within the limits of which they were:

[ocr errors][merged small]

bearing date the Second of Third month, 1717, describes the Meeting-house as being on the southwest corner of James Miller's land.

This building was of hewn logs and served its purpose until 1743.

[ocr errors]

On the 6th and 20th day of ye Tenth month, 1717," James Miller by Deed conveyed unto Simon Hadley and others six acres of the land on which the Meeting-house stood in fee,—and which they appear to have held as tenants in common until 1723, when they executed a Deed of Trust setting forth and acknowledging "that the consideration money, one pound, sixteen shillings, mentioned in the above recited indenture, was the proper money of the people called Quakers belonging to New Garden Monthly Meeting."

"At our Monthly Meeting of New Garden, the 12th of Fifth month, 1718, being the first held distinct from Newark."

From the foregoing data, we conclude that the Meeting-house was built (probably) before John Miller's decease, and used as such, and some portion of the land for a burying-ground, for a decade of years before the Meeting had acquired a legal title thereto.

In 1743, the south end of the present substantial brick structure was built, forty-five by thirty feet, the walls being eighteen inches in thickness. A large stone fireplace in each end facing with the wall on the inside and three or four feet in depth, with brick chimneys carried up on the outside, entirely separate from the walls of the house, were the arrangements made for warming it.

It was thus continued until 1790, when the size of the Meeting had so increased as to require more room. to accommodate it. In that year the north end was taken out and eighteen feet added thereto. Then it was that the ceiling was put on, partitions made to hang on cords and pulleys, and the inside otherwise thoroughly remodeled and improved. Stoves were

then introduced.

Notwithstanding these additional accommodations had been made, the Monthly Meeting was deemed to be too large for its best interest, and in 1792 the members of London Grove preparative meeting were separated from it and constituted a monthly meeting.

The large buttonwood tree which for many years stood near the south end of the house was twice struck by lightning and killed, and in 1868 it and the old decaying Lombardy poplars on the front were taken away and the wide-branching maples of the present planted in their places.

The Meeting-house has been kept in good repair, and its outer appearance has not much changed within the last century. ELLWOOD MICHENER.

No man can ever go forward to a higher belief until he is true to the faith which he already holds. Be the noblest man that your present faith, poor and weak and imperfect as it is, can make you be. Live up to your present growth, your present faith.-Phillips Brooks.

NOTES ON JOSEPH CLARK'S JOURNAL. ANNA L. TILNEY writes us, concerning Joseph Clark and the Indian girls: "Having seen an account of the sequel of his labors, it may be of interest to know that after a stay of a few years, the Indian maidens were again placed in the care of Joseph Clark and taken home, with a Bible for each, and they could read it, a good supply of clothes, which they had themselves made, and a spinning-wheel."

In the volume on the "Work of Friends for the Indians," published by London Yearly Meeting, (the Aborigines' Committee of the Meeting for Sufferings), in 1844, the following account is given :

"Besides the aid rendered to this people at their own settlement, several of their young women and girls were placed in Friends' families at Philadelphia, where they were taught to read and write, and received such other instruction as was likely to be beneficial to them on their return home. To show a specimen of the advancement made by these in school learning, we shall here give a copy of a letter written by one of them about six months after her arrival among Friends :

666

ney, and is deceased. Joseph and Elizabeth (Clark) Townsend's daughter Hannah married Daniel Longstreth, of Warminster, Bucks county, Pa.

In the last instalment of the Journal, Joseph Clark mentions Hannah Barnard, (he writes it Barnett), of Hudson, New York, as preparing for a religious journey abroad. This journey was a famous and very sad episode in the history of Friends. Hannah went abroad the next year, 1798, and spent some two years visiting meetings in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. In the Yearly Meeting, at London, in 1800, she asked for a minute to accompany Elizabeth Coggeshall, another Friend, to the Continent, whereupon David Sands, a minister from New York, and another, objected, on the ground that her views were not sound, -that, as one said, she maintained "opinions not consonant with those of the Society, and especially concerning the divine authority of the Jewish wars," of which the Old Testament contains an account. These views, it appeared, she had given, in conversation, in Ireland, and subsequently the Yearly Meeting at Dublin had given her a clear certificate, the Irish Friend to whom she had spoken, and who now brought up the objection, having been at Dublin and not there objecting.

NEW GARDEN FRIENDS' MEETING-HOUSE, PA.
As it appeared in 1850. Photographed by W. J. Chambers, Kennett Square,
Penna., from a sketch.

"NEW GARDEN, Third month 10, 1798.
My Dear Mother: I will try to let thee know how I do
so far from thee. I have been well ever since I left thee. I
would be glad to see thee, mother. I want to see thee, and
brothers and sisters, and all Stockbridge friends. I want to
see father-I like to live in this country pretty well-and dear
friends clever-me live in clever house, very good man, make
clocks, make porringers and spoons-me like to see him.
can knit stockings and spin. I have made sampler. I know
how to mark my clothes, then I know my own. Three girls
make bonnets and do all work. I work a little, play a little,
go to meeting; sometimes walk, sometimes ride on horseback
when roads are muddy. The girl's mother very good old
woman; I love her, she learns me to work.

[graphic]

MARY PETERS.

I

"My Dear Brother: Me live well at very good house. I love thee and sisters, and mother. I want to see you all. Friends say, may be we all go back to Stockbridge before next winter. I think I have told thee all I can now, so bid thee farewell. "MARY PETERS.

"N. B. This letter my own hand writing, so you may see I learn to write.'

From this point the "Hannah Barnard case" extended into 1801, at London. She was She was disciplined, and after sundry appeals and hearings directed to return home. This she did, and Hudson Monthly Meeting took up her case, and first silenced her as a minister, and then, in 1802, disowned her. She was charged with calling in question "the authenticity of various parts of the Scriptures," and not " acknowledging the truth of that part which relates to the miracles and miraculous miraculous conception of Christ." She lived later, "about twenty-six years, leading a quiet and secluded life." A synopsis of the case will be found in Janney's History of Friends, Volume 4.

James Emlen, of Delaware county, who is mentioned near the close of the Journal, was the son of Joseph Clark and Elizabeth his wife had a daughter George and Ann Emlen, of Philadelphia, and special Elizabeth, who married Joseph Townsend, and a son interest attaches to him from the fact that both he and who lived at Watertown, N. Y. Joseph and Elizabeth his wife died of yellow fever, in Philadelphia, while (Clark) Townsend's son, Samuel Townsend, of Balti- attending Yearly Meeting, she in the terrible visitamore, married Mary G. Sleeper, and their children, tion of 1793, and he in 1798, a year after Joseph C. Townsend, and Martha S. Townsend, are Joseph Clark's visit to him, mentioned in the Journal. well-known Friends of that city. Anna M. Townsend, In 1793 he and his wife had been appointed repreanother daughter (of Samuel) married Joseph J. Jan-sentatives, and though "he felt a choice in his wife's

declining to attend," as the fever was known to be prevailing, “he left her to the exercise of her own judgment," and both decided to go. She fell ill after her return home and died of the fever. In 1798, the experience was repeated as to him, and he died at his home, after returning from the meeting.

FRIENDS' NEW TESTAMENT LESSONS.
SECOND MONTH 6, 1898.-No. 6.
FAITH.

GOLDEN TEXT.-Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the proving of things not seen.-Hebrews II: I. Scripture Reading: Hebrews 11: 1-16.

TEACHING.

The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews gives in the first verse of the eleventh chapter one of the best definitions of faith which has ever been presented to the world, representing it as the "assurance of things hoped for, the evidence, or proving, of things not seen.' Another rendering into English of the original Greek expression, which makes it read "the giving substance to" the things not seen, serves to make the intention of the writer still clearer. After giving this plain and helpful definition the author illustrates it by numerous references to the great characters of Hebrew history. It is especially worthy of notice that in each instance he refers to some act or purpose by which faith was shown, thus showing the intimate connection between the faith which leads toward right action, and the deed which best proves the existence of true faith. These illustrations drawn from history are but another confirmation of the truth that "faith without works is dead, being alone."

This eleventh chapter of Hebrews has been termed the one that best presents the "Heroes of faith.” It is no doubt true that in all history the true heroes have been the heroes of faith,-those who have shown by heroic action the possession of heroic faith, proving their faith by their faithfulness. In our day true faith is best shown by true living; and it remains true that they are the heroes of faith who prove the fact by fidelity to great principles, by loyalty to high ideals of truth and duty,-and this fidelity can be shown as fully in the minor duties of life as in the greater.

Through it (his faith and faithfulness) he being dead yet speaketh." This expression, so often quoted,, gathers fresh meaning from the words with which the sentence begins,-"Through it," i. e., through his faith shown by faithfuness." Every sincere Christian life exerts an influence that is not ended by death, but may be living and strong many years after the faithful soul has passed from works to rewards. The power of Christian faith revealed in holy lives is in truth the power of an endless life."

[ocr errors]

"He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of them that seek after Him." The writer of the Epistle here lays bare the very foundation stone of true faith. The belief that God does indeed exist must of necessity be the underlying conviction of the soul that believes at all. This is the root principle from which all faith grows; the basic truth upon which all true belief rests. From it may

develop such strong conviction of the goodness of God that nothing can shake it; such abiding faith in his watchful providence that faith may almost be said to have passed into knowledge. But even if one should have only this foundation principle in his soul,

-this belief that God is and that he rewards those that seek him,-let such a one take courage and be glad that upon such a foundation the strongest, most confident faith may be reared.

"For he looked for the city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." Christianity has the promise not only of the life that now is, but also of that which is to come. When those whom we love pass onward into the higher life beyond, no thought can be more precious to us than this of the city of the sure foundations, "whose builder and Love immortal which makes immortality worth havmaker is God." This faith in immortality and in the ing, is one of the special gifts of Christianity to the world. Antiquity knew nothing of it. We who do know it, and understand its reasonableness and are sure of its truth, feeling its full harmony with right reason and with Divine Love, should prize it as one of the sure witnesses of the truth of Christian faith. This vision of the city of God, "not made with hands, eternal in the heavens," is one of the strongest incentives toward purity and righteousness of life and thought; that we, too, may fit ourselves for citizenship in such a city and share the companionship of those who have there entered into the enjoyment of the "life that is life indeed.”

SCRIPTURE STUDY AT RACE STREET. Conference Class of Race Street First-day School, Philadelphia.

Syllabus for First month 30, 1898.

Subject for consideration: "Who Were the Prophets?" Presented by Robert M. Janney.

Topics for Study: 1. Prophecy not peculiar to Israel. 2. Prevalent ideas concerning prophecy. 3. Prophecy the center of interest in Jewish history-the root of the flower of Judaism. 4. The revelation of Jehovah, the work of the prophets. 5. The relationship between God and the individual established: individual rather than national consecration required.

REFERENCES.-Smith's Dictionary of the Bible; First Lessons on the Hebrew Prophets-Grubb; Encyclopædia Britannica; The Prophets of Israel-Darmesteter; The Prophets of Israel-W. Robertson Smith.

[No syllabus was printed for First month 23,-by accident.]

TEMPERANCE LESSONS.

HANDICAPS.

I SUPPOSE most of you have seen a foot race; perhaps a horse race. And no doubt you have heard of the Roman chariot races in which four horses were harnessed abreast. There is a fine description of such a race in Wallace's famous book 'Ben Hur." I want you to imagine for a moment such a race. You are in a great amphitheatre and all about you are thousands of eager faces, all intent on the stalls from which the horses and chariots will appear. One of the doors opens and a chariot leaps out which looks like a beam of sunlight, so gorgeous are its trappings. The driver is crowned with a golden helmet and his arms are circled with golden bracelets. His robes are of flaring silk adorned with beautiful gold and silver fastenings. The chariot is brilliant with burnished metal and the harness of the horses glitters and shines in the sunlight. What a shout goes up as the beautiful horses, with

[ocr errors]
« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »