Page images
PDF
EPUB

Securus.

CHAPTER XV.

-Take physic pomp:

Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,
That thou may'st shake the superflux to them,
And shew the Heavens more just.

SHAKSPEARE.

HIGH in health, and recumbent on the downy breast of prosperity and indulgence, SECURUS rejects our Reflections with disdain, and will not, cannot bear to hear of Death, the cruel spoiler of all his circling comforts! "Away with the melancholy strain," he cries; "I cannot endure the voice of this gloomy contemplative. Let him not approach to disturb my repose, nor, like the hoarse and ill-boden raven, croak his fatal admonitions in my ears." Ah, mistaken mortal, what troubles art thou treasuring up for a future

Poor Man.

moment! Pity him, Heaven, who has no pity for himself!-We will leave him then, though with sorrow and compassionate regret, and intreat thy attendance, oh serious and Christian Reader (who art not afraid to view these mournful but instructive scenes) to the sick, the dying bed of the poor man, now that we have visited together the superb vault of the noble. If thou art rich, perhaps thou hath never been called to so sad a scene, and the sight of it will teach thee content: if thou art poor, it will affect thy heart, and lead thee to a serious concern for futurity, that both temporal and eternal evils may not be thy deplorable lot!

Come then, and let me lead thee up these narrow and miserable stairs to the wretched apartment, whither I was ere while led, and where the poor man lies, languishing on the bed of emaciating disease! Seest thou this dismal dwelling, foul, offensive, squalid!

Hear; the wind whistles through the shattered casement, ill defended by vile rags and darkening paper, sure mark of penury and distress.

Seest thou that wretched object, pale, and meagre, with haggard, staring eyes, and beard

Poor Man.

unshaven, stretched upon those flocks, with not a curtain round him, and with scarce a cover to conceal his wasted body.

Turn round and view upon the floor another miserable heap of tatters: it is the bed of two poor children of this afflicted sufferer! and this, this place of woe, is the only habitation which receives and hides the heads of these children, with their mother and himself! That woman, bathed in tears, and clothed in the garments of poverty, is the wife of that husband, is the mother of these children-hapless wife, and still more hapless mother!

But though narrow this apartment, though offensive and foul, it would well suffice, and be but little complained of, did not want, cruel want, here too fix her abode; could the mother supply the importunate demands of her hungry children, or alleviate the pains and sufferings of her oppressed husband. But alas! the parish withholds relief from aliens to its rights; and how shall the charity of the beneficent find out in their populous, but obscure retreats, the stranger and unknown!

Egeno.

Nay, but even poverty itself, with all its dire necessities, might be borne;-well, very well, if dependence upon God was found in the heart; if heavenly hope dwelt in the breast; if there was any prospect of a happy issue, when all these mournful trials are overpast, and the soul safely landed on a future and fortunate shore; but for this we inquire in vain; from the want of it proceeds far the greater part of those evils. When I came to talk with EGENO (so call we this poor man) concerning his soul, his faith, his hope, and future expectations; he fixed his eyes upon me with the most unutterable concern, and elevating his emaciated hand, sighed, "Alas! alas! sir, sure I shall recover!" "But if you should not, as God knows there appears but little probability-what then? what says your conscience, and in what is your trust?" "I cannot tell," he replied, "I have not been so good as I ought but if I live, I will endeavour to be better." I turned to his wife, to ask somewhat of his manner of life; and to know whether during his long illness (for he had long been declining) he had ever shewn any concern for his soul,

Egeno.

or whether she had ever read to him for his instruction?-Weak and wretched as he was, he could reply with abundant acrimony, "She instruct me?—No, she had better first instruct herself; she wants it most!" What greater shock could a human heart feel, than to perceive a fierce altercation likely to ensue between two persons so mutually and so deeply distressed? I interposed with some authority; and endeavoured with all my power to set forth the dread terrors of futurity before the eyes of this unawakened sinner, just, just about to launch-Oh horribleinto its irredeemable gulf!

He heard me with attention, and I perceived at length a tear stealing into his sunken eyes: "I have been miserable, (said the poor unhappy object,) all the days of my life; and now I perceive that I must be miserable through all eternity too!" Upon hearing this, we could none of us refrain from tears. Oh who could refrain, to see a fellow-creature lying in this exquisite distress, soul and body equally estranged from comfort and ease- -Oh who could refrain to see one, for whom Christ died, thus about to perish, ignorant and hopeless, in a land where the glad

« PreviousContinue »