io-s.ii.Auo.27.i9M.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
163
Let these reflexions cheer and comfort us in the
midst of the most trying scenes of this changeable
life : There is but one unchangeable good ! Possest
of that, we may look down on the perishing joys,
we once thought of importance to our happiness.
Yet alas ! whilst I am advising others, 1 want
teaching myself ! Oh ! may God vouchsafe to be
our Instructor, and by whatever means He knows
most conducive to that happy end, lead us effectually
to Himself, through time and eternity ! As to
oh ! may God look upon her, and enable her to look up to Him ! All worldly joys are imbittered in such a situation as hers. Oh ! that she may seek for, and find, the Lord of life and comfort ! who can alone say to the troubled heart, as He did once to the great deep, " Peace, be still !" I hope all will lead to this most desirable end, and then, as St. Paul* says : " These light afflictions, which are but for a moment, will work for her a far more exceed- ing and eternal weight of glory." J Tis a comfort to think we are in His hands, who can turn and change all hearts as it pleases Him, or, as it is better expressed, "as itseemeth beat to His heavenly wisdom, not left to the wild effects of blind chance (as some are willing to suppose), nor to the conduct of that corrupted nature, we brought with us into the world ; this is a comfort indeed.
D 's swift progress to great riches, is amazing ! How many do we see. even of promising parts and abilities, that are yet "all their life-time (as Shake- spearef says) "bound to shallows and to wretched- ness." Well, the all-wise Disposer of all things knows what is best for all ! "The Judge of the whole earth must do right."t O may we ever submit every thought of our hearts, and every action of our lives to His guidance, who is not only wise and good, but is wisdom and goodness in the abstract : when we turn our thoughts to this, how mean must all the boasted merit of the creature appear !
I cannot know too much, nor suffer too much, for those I love, and these trying scenes have all their use, to wean from a world not designed to make us happy ! and I think we ought, instead of praying to God to remove our afflictions,!) rather beseech Him to sanctify them to our souls. I imagine why " faith is sometimes not strongest, when human probabilities are weakest."T It is to shew us how apt we are to lean on them for support and comfort. O may God give us that victorious faith, that shall enable us to look above all to its blessed object ! and then human probabilities will never have power to flatter us with hope, or sink us with despair. We may, and must consider them, in their proper place, but with no degree of depend- ency on them.
Though plunged in ills, and exercised with care,
Yet never let the faithful soul despair.
God can assuage or cure the deepest grief,
Or by unseen expedients, bring relief. ( )]iinion of M[artin] M[adan].
"The works of Richard Baxter are worth read- ing ; he was a very great, learned and pious man ; but the best of men are but men, and therefore
- 2 Cor. iv. 17.
f 'Julius Cfesar,' IV. iii. 218-2 1. I Gen. xviii. '_>.".
Marginal note: "July 19, 17<is." || Corrected from "affections." " Mrs. Cowper's note: "Oh, why is not faith strongest, when human probabilities are weakest !"
their works to be read, with all that sort of caution,
which should lead us ever to square all we h'nd in
them, with the infallible rule of God's word."
Pp. 67-70 :
Letter 13 [should be 15].
No date but wrote tome in Dec r 1768.
Printed in Wright, i. 107-9, out of its order. P. 107, 1. 2 from foot, " left," MS. " left you " - p. 108, 1. 6, "be interested," MS. interest myself"; 1. 8, "a world I know," MS "a world which I know"; 1. 14, " our inquiries," MS. our misguided inquiries " ; 1. 4 from foot, "and attend," MS. "and to attend " 1. 2 from foot, "unsinful," MS. "universal"- p. 109, 1. 5, "but is," MS. " makes me" ; 1 lo' "to bless," MS. "and bless." On the post- script, "N.B. I am not married," Mrs.Cowper notes, " It was reported he was."
Pp. 70-72, 10 Jan., 1769, "a letter from ."
The tone of the letter resembles many of Cowper's. " Self-lamentation " is the burden throughout. But as " my dearest sister " is addressed, p. 71 med., and Mrs. Co wper would- have had no motive in suppressing the name if it had been her cousin's, and the letter is not numbered like the rest, it must nob be included here. I see that the letter, like that on pp. 75-76, is included in inverted commas, and has a little o in the margin These we learn from the fly-leaf 4C are taken from the letters of another dear and valuable friend,"*not Mrs. Cowper's mother. On the fly-leaf of vol. iv. the secret is revealed ; the writer is Mrs. Maitland. Begins : " The sweet reverie, you send me, is one often in my wishes." Ends: "as Pope says, 'What dust we dote on, when 'tis man we love ! ' It has ever proved a most quieting thought to me that 'the creatures are just what it pleaseth the wisdom of God to make them, to us.' " A few lines from the end is the marginal date, " Jan. 9, 1769."
Pp. 73-75 :
Letter 15 [should be 16]. Dated O-y (Olney), Dec' 24, 1768.
MY DEAR AUNT, My cousin Maria tells me, you long to hear from me, and I assure you, I have for a long time desired to write to you. My barrenness in spiritual things, has been the cause of my silence When I can declare, what God hath done for mv soul, with some sense of His goodness, then writing is a pleasant employment; but to mention the blessed name of my Lord and Master with dryness and hardness of heart, is painful and irksome to me He knows, however, that I desire nothing so m uch as to glorify Him, and that my chief burden* is that
.1* 'Olney Hymns,' No. 18, "Hark, my soul ! it is the Lord, " verse 6 :
Lord ! it is my chief complaint, That my love is weak and faint, Yet I love Thee and adore, Oh ! for grace to love Thee more !
