LETTER 37.-FROM THE REV. ROBERT TAYLOR. MISCHIEVOUS DOCTRINE OF PROVIDENCE. DEAR MR. CARLILE,-The excellent letter of Juvenis, in your 15th of the current volume, receives as excellent an illustration in the letter of the Rev. Francis Lynch Blosse, which I find, is going the round of the papers, in detail of the late dreadful accident, as the papers call it; but awful event as it is designated by its clerical historian, which occurred at Clare, on the fifth instant. A reader of" The Lion," would at the first blush, be inclined to think that Juvenis has laid on his colourings with too heavy a hand, and that, absurd as Christians generally are upon the doctrine of Providence, they would observe a little more measure and method in their absurdity, than your correspondent puts to their credit. But, litera scripta manet, I annex the article itself, which speaks the Christian mind in its own utterance; and leave to the reader the arbitration of his own judgment, whether the representations of your correspondent are, or could have been overcharged : THE DREADFUL ACCIDENT IN MAYO. THE following interesting details of the late awful occurrence in the county of Mayo, are from the Clergyman who officiated at the time when the steeple was thrown down, by lightning, on the congregation :: CLAREMORRIS, Oct. 6. "As incorrect accounts of the awful event which yesterday occurred at Clare may be circulated, I hasten to give the public a true statement of what happened; and this I am fenabled to do the more accurately, having been then present. "The congregation was assembled for divine worship, in the newlyerected church, at the usual hour; and I, as the officiating minister, in the absence of Mr. Sirr, the rector of the parish, was reading the Litany, when the heavens were suddenly darkened by a heavy storm, which gathered over • Christ the town. The portion of our most solemn form of supplication, have mercy upon us,' had but just been uttered, when a deafening crash shook every house in the place to its foundation; and, at the same instant, the lofty stone steeple, rent by lightning, was thrown upon the roof, and, together with it, overwhelmed the congregation in ruins. In a moment after all was still, and those who were, as if miraculously, preserved unhurt, saw the danger they had escaped, and the perilous state of the remainder of their fellowworshippers. Not a moment was lost in seeking for those buried under the ruins; but the heart-rending scene I cannot venture to dwell upon; while husbands laboured to extricate their wives, and parents called in despair for their children; much less would I harrow up the feelings of your readers by detailing their mangled appearance, when freed from their awful confine ment. No. 17.-VOL. 2. 2 M "I write with too vivid a recollection of these scenes of horror to enter Into further particulars. "Let me not, however, forget the mercies of God, which I witnessed in the midst of these judgments. After seeing the wounded persons conveyed to their homes, I waited on each individual, for the purpose of offering the consolations of religion, and in no single instance did I hear a murmur against the heavy dispensation of Providence; on the contrary, strange as it may appear to some, it was viewed by all with thankfulness, as the correction of a kind parent; and the pious, humble expressions of adoration edified every one present. The Redeemer's name was on every lip-the prayer of faith ascended from each heart. Feelings of piety so universal, and in many cases under very peculiar circumstances, which there is not time at present to relate, have excited general attention and interest; and these, it must be remembered, were seen in the most afflicting circumstances, when parents, writhing in agony, were bidding farewell to helpless dependent families, and committing them to the care of the Father to the fatherless, prepared themselves to enter into eternity. Here the power, the comfort, of religion was felt; and among us the blessings of the Gospel have been seen and exemplified. Let me mention one case. A valuable member of society, the mother of a respectable family, expired shortly after she was brought to her house; but to the very last gasp, when unable to articulate, she declared to me by signs, that her hope was fixed on Christ, and that she had found rest for her soul. Eleven other persons are still in a dangerous state, yet in most cases we have hopes of their recovery. The good feeling shown by the res pectable inhabitants of the town is above all praise. The members of the medical profession particularly distinguished themselves, by the assiduity with which they attended the wounded. I regret that my feelings at this moment will not allow me to enumerate those most conspicuous in the service of humanity, or to furnish you with a fuller account of this calamity, which has confined many industrious persons to a sick bed, and thereby reduced their families to great distress. In conclusion, I pray that the events of yesterday may produce as beneficial effects on the minds of those who hear of, as of those who suffer under the awful dispensation. "FRANCIS LYNCH BLOSSE." To me, who have no faith in wonderments of any sort, I confess it hardly appeared credible, that Christians of the grade and character of ministers of the Church of England, could be so egregiously absurd. I had thought, that such representations as I hereunto affix, would have been found only in the pages of the Evangelical or Methodist Magazine, or served to give point and pathos to the holy slang of the hypocrites, who are scheming to raise a hell-fire shop, upon the ruins of the Brunswick Theatre. But the document before me, in quadrature with the whole area of the theological welkin, forces on my conviction the fact, that matters are come to dernier extremities with religionists, and that the treaty of alliance between rationality and revelation, can be maintained no longer. The ministers of the Church of England are obliged to join the ranks of the Evangelical faction; and even the would-be philosophical Unitarian, must give in to the necessity of the times, must talk nonsense, or talk nothing; and never hope to put his foot again, on the ground of historical evidence, fair controversy, and free discussion, which the sect once boasted that they alone could stand on. Ah, no! they are beaten from that ground for ever. Their Madges, Mardons, Belshams, Fox's, must now turn up their eyes with the Calvinist, smite the breast with the Papist, and pipe out sanctification" thro' the pressed nostril, spectacle bestrid," with Hezekiah Godman, and Zekiel Brand-out-of-the-burning, or it's all over with the craft, and Othello's occupation's gone. It is found that the partnership of faith and reason, so ingeniously devised by the celebrated Locke, will no longer hold together. Reason has grown saucy, and plainly told Faith, that she's no better than she ought to be; and Faith begins to tell Reason, "that she has done her more harm than good, and has been a wiper in her bosom, ever since she was fool enough not to throttle her in the cradle." So now we must have Protestant miracles, got up under the name of dispensations of Providence; and awful events, divine interferences, righteous judgments, and fatherly visitations are brought into play, to slide the butcher of relics, and charms, holy-water, and powder pimperlimpimp. Providence, however has shown a sort of justice on the Clare congregation, which if he would observe in all cases, there would be no just ground for the complaints of your correspondent. According to Mr. Blosse's account, the falling in of the roof upon the heads of his auditory, was so far from producing any disagreeable effects on them, that they actually liked it! "it was viewed by all with thankfulness," so that we must suppose their skulls to be of such a thickness, as that the falling of a roof upon them might be no material inconvenience. Mr. Blosse very charitably declares his unwillingness to harrow up the feelings of his readers, by detailing the mangled appearance of the congregates when freed from their awful confinement. I, for one of his readers, owe him no thanks for this forbearance; for though my feelings are as accessible as any man's alive, to sympathy with real sorrows, and grievances which are felt to be grievous, by the aggrieved party; yet I never suffered my feelings to be harrowed-up even by the most awful catastrophes that befel Old Mother Hubbard's dog. Because, melancholy as is the detail of her "going to the undertaker's to buy him a coffin," yet, "when she came back, the dog was a laughing." In like manner all the raw-heads and bloody-bones, and mangled appearances of the persons who were dug out of the ruins would to my mind, have only heightened the dramatic effect, and made the better fun of it, when I found the fellows with the mangled carcasses, instead of taking their plight any way in dudgeon, actually liking it, and giving God thanks for it, and considering themselves especial favourites of his tumbledy down Omnipotence. I recollect witnessing just such another awful spectacle at the Olympic Theatre, where Tom Fool clapt me his head through a pane of glass, which his pursuer observing instantly cut it off with a swinging Wellington, and ran away with it; 'whereupon, out came Tom without his head, and danced me the minuet de la cœur, with all the vivacity and spirit of a Harlequin; and I pray God that the event may produce as beneficial effects on the minds of those who hear of it, as it did on those who witnessed the awful dispensation! By the bye, I wanted an adjective to put before that magnificent word, dispensation, and was going to have called it that ludicrous dispensation: but upon weighing its etymological significancy and derivation, I find awful, is the very word that is appropriate. The original awe! is an utterance, produced without any action whatever, of any of the organs of articulation, or of understanding, and consists of merely opening the mouth, and breathing a half laugh and half cry, in expression of equal parts of fear and fun; the would be OH! held in check by a sceptical Ah! and the would be АH! kept under by the fearful Oh. So that the word is really eloquent, as expressive of that state of mind in which a booby would see a scoop't turnip with a candle in it, without judgment enough, to determine whether he should shake with laughter, or quail with fear; whether he should take it for a hoax, or a dispensation; a turnip, or a no laughing matter. In this state of mind, his feelings are truly awful, his nerves as well as his understanding are perfectly paralyzed, his fingers stand astraddle from each other, like the wise men of Greece, each having a different sentiment, his jaw drops on his breast, nor has he strength to hold his jaw, the rheum dribbles out at both ditches, and as 'tis neither completely Oh nor Ah with him, he cries Aw! This is the real etymology of every thing that is called awful; and if it is'nt, I challenge any body who knows better, to tell us what is. But how, i'th' name o'God a'mighty, could parson Blosse, when in the church, know that "the deafening crash shook every house in the place (I suppose he means the town of Clare) to its foundation." "Let me not forget the mercies of God which I witnessed in the midst of these judgments," says the parson; and by my honour, I should say, if his mercies consist in knocking folks on the head, his mercies are cruel. The wounded persons," all concurred in viewing their wounds and bruises with thankfulness, as the correction of a kind parent." Why then, I ask, do they call on us for sympathy, or wish us to be grieved at that which pleases them right well; an' if they like their bumps and bruises, as there's no accounting for other folk's fancies, why should you and I, play dog i' the manger, and envy them a sort of happiness which we never wished for ourselves? For my part, should all the churches in Christendom tumble down upon the heads of their assembled congregations, so the congregations themselves returned God thanks for it, I should thank him too, and thank him all the more for having the goodness to confine his lovingkindnesses of this sort, to those who most desire and most deserve them. Pour down upon them the abundance of thy brick-bat mercies, O Lord! "The Redeemer's name was on every lip," says the parson, whereby we may suppose they screamed out, O Christ! Christ God! Lord Jesus Christ! in a way that on any other occasion might have been indictable, as profane swearing. This might be natural enough, since all physiologists know, that the strong respiration, and blowing of the breath through the clenched teeth in such sounds as ish, and chrish! takes off the tension of the stretched nerves, and affords a mechanical and instantaneous relief to all violent pains; but the rest on't was unnatural in the highest degree, and only to be excused on the supposition, that reason no longer held its empire (if it had ever done so) in the brains of these church o'erwhelmed martyrs ; "they committed their dependent families to the care of that father," who had just shown how much he was to be depended on, by the care of knocking his children on the head: which is much such logic, as if one should say, "trust the thief who plundered your friend! put yourself under the protection of him who slew your father!" I can add nothing to the just reasoning and nervous statements of the article in your pages, which has called my thoughts into this train, but in sober sadness to bewail, as I do, the extensive prevalence of that extreme debility of understanding, and all but idiotish prostration of intellect, which must attend a persuasion so heterogene to all the deductions of reason, so outrageously conflicting with the testimony of actual sensation and experience. There is no truth in my mind's conviction more true, than that all the evils and calamities that afflict the social state, originate in, and are to be traced to this primordial nucleus of all mischief, a belief in Providence. Till this cancer in the breast be utterly eradicated, not merely no health, but the faculty and capacity of having health, cannot be brought into the system. In vain are all Utopian speculations of political reform; in vain the transition from the very worst to the very best form of government that ever existed, or could be conceived to exist. Omnipotence itself could not give freedom to a race of fools. And let the Heavens pour down eternal harvests, and all earth's surface be a granary: be every hill blanched with the fleeces of Merino, and every vale a vineyard, never blow winds again in his annoyance, nor fall an untimely shower upon his head; the slavering bearded baby of Christ Jesus, that hath no more wit than to thank God for bringing a house about his ears, would be a wretch, and a slave, and a beggar, and to all eternity deserve to be so. Riches would not make him rich, nor freedom make him free. With the wealth of Croesus, would he beg his bread, and with the power of Napoléon |