CHAPTER 19.

Mr. Lindsey preaches the assize sermon at York... Communicates his intention to Mr. Mason....His dissuasive arguments and violent opposition....The distress of his friend....Reflections on the power of different situations, to influence the judgment....Opposition and discouragement on every side....Liberal offer of the Earl of Huntingdon. ....Declined by Mr. Lindsey.

ONE of the first persons, I believe, to whom Mr. Lindsey fully communicated his intention of resigning his living, was his former college friend, the late Rev. Wm. Mason, who was at that time, precentor in the cathedral of York, and so justly celebrated for his fine poetical talents. It happened in the following manner: Sir Marmaduke Wyvill, a friend of Mr. L.'s being High Sheriff, he was requested to preach the assize sermon in the Minster, in July, 1773; and being invited to lodge in the house of Mr. M. their former intimacy induced Mr. L. to impart to him the resolution he had made. Mr. Mason was electrified with astonishment and grief. He really loved his old college friend, thought justly of the soundness of his head, and very highly appreciated the goodness of his heart; he was himself a very worthy, respectable character, but having devoted his time more to the study of belles lettres, than of the Scriptures, mixing much in the world, and viewing the subject through the false medium of its mistaken principles, he could not feel the

necessity, nor comprehend the duty, of making such a sacrifice. Strict integrity, he was ready to admit, in all the transactions of social or commercial life, was an indispensible duty; it had ever been the rule of his own conduct; in respect to these, no mental reserve, however slight, ought, on any account, to be allowed; but to extend this to the usage of mere forms, by which no one was injured, and which might be considered as being simply official, was in his mind, to the last degree, visionary and absurd. He was indefatigable therefore, in his endeavours to dissuade his friend from persevering in his resolution he stated to him the deprivations he must suffer; the difficulties he would have to encounter; the obloquy to which he would subject himself; and at length, when he found him immoveable on every consideration that respected his own sufferings, he changed the mode of attack, and asked him if he had a right to subject Mrs. L. to so many inconveniences and hardships? Here he found that his friend was not invulnerable; his final resolution indeed, being the calm and deliberate result of many an anxious hour, he could not shake, but he could pour into the appointed cup, a tenfold portion of bitterness. I was at Catterick when Mr. L. returned thither, and never can I forget his altered looks, and depressed countenance :-his very recollection seemed to be impaired, as he answered our anxious enquiries about his health, as he feebly ascended the few steps leading from the garden to the entrance; "how is all this," he

said" can one indispensible duty ever really be incompatible with another?"-We did every thing in our power to sooth and calm his mind; and, in a very few days, he was enabled to recover his usual serenity.-This was in truth, "his hour of darkness," but it happily soon passed away.

As to myself, I felt nothing but resentment against Mr. M. for taking, as I thought, an undue advantage; but this was perhaps uncandid; I did not sufficiently consider that the motive was kind and friendly, and that he conceived the use of every argument to be justifiable, which could save a self-devoted victim, on the edge of a precipice, from being precipitated to his own destruction.

I would here pause a moment, to remark, what must indeed be observed by every one, who is in the habit of paying the smallest attention to what passes, at different times in his own mind, how much and deeply we are affected in our progress through life, but particularly, before our moral and religious principles are by long consistent practice, become settled habits; by the outward circumstances in which we are placed, and the different associations which in consequence of these, we are led to form. So true it is, that religious and moral, as well as natural objects, alter their size and colour, and change their apparent magnitude and character, according to the relative positions and different mediums, through which they are viewed.

"As things seem large, which we through mists descry." * For instance, if I had heard of Mr. Lindsey's intention of resigning all preferment in the Church, previous to my personal acquaintance with him; when for example, my mind was fascinated with the splendour of Nostel, and elated by the hope, that my brother might one day attain to considerable ecclesiastical promotion, through the interest of family connexions,-should I then have duly appreciated the eminent virtue of this sincere and humble follower of his divine Master? This will not be affirmed. No: the previous discipline of severe disappointment and grief, arising first, from the death of our Nostel patron and friend; secondly, from the deprivations we suffered at Bedale; and thirdly, in my Harrogate affliction, together with the inestimable privilege I enjoyed, of the examples exhibited at Catterick, was necessary to produce this effect. Be it observed, however, that the value and importance of truth, and integrity in the abstract, would have been equally admitted by me at one period as at the other, the difference would have arisen from the different lights thrown on this particular subject, by the comparative altitude of the two situaations; and from the jarring interests of opulence, and worldly prosperity on the one hand, and of sincerity and perfect uprightness, on the other. In fact, it is not the business of an hour, or of a day, to correct the delusive estimates of duty, and of what will really constitute our truest happi

* Pope's Essay on Críticism, 1. 392.

ness, to which, for the wisest reasons, in this state of discipline, we are continually subjected.

What an important lesson then, do not these reflections suggest, of candour towards others, and of the necessity of constant vigilance in every thing which respects ourselves!-How would it soften the censure we too hastily pass on the conduct of many, were we as much as possible, to place ourselves in their circumstances, to consider the impressions to which they have been subjected, and the consequent associations which must in their minds, have necessarily been formed!-Should we not often pity and commiserate, where we are now too apt to censure and con'demn? Respecting our own character, should we not be especially cautious of the intimacies and connexions we form, and of the situations in which we voluntarily place ourselves? and, as parents and guardians, should we not be particularly attentive, as far as may be in our power, to implant such principles in the minds of youth, as may assist them in separating the pure gold from the base metal, so current in the world?

It was not Mr. Mason alone who disapproved of, and discouraged Mr. Lindsey's decision. He had not a friend or relation, who did not either use their utmost endeavours to shake his purpose, or stand aloof in silent dismay, without making one effort to afford him the slightest assistance. Even Mr. Thomas Hollis, that liberal and zealous patron of civil and religious liberty, and with whom Mr. L. had for many years been in constant habits of corresponding, did not answer the