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Show 220 George B. Cheever. lie had long been a student of God's word. lie made it the man of hi counsel, and sought the guidance of God' spirit in pondering its ·acred page ·. IIe seems to have bee~ fat~iliar with every part of it, but by God' own p •culinr gm<.lance of bis mind and heart, was baptized especially with the fire of it benevolence ngainst oppres. ion, and its ~ac rcd sy~pathy in b:half of .tl.1C oppre sed. IIis tender syn1patlues and practiCal chantws abounded towards the poor and needy. An apprentice of his relates the following anecdote of his benevolence. "II.aving heard that a poor man with a large family were suffermg for the necessaries of life, he sent me to his lwuse to inform him that John Brown would sell him provi ion on credit. IIe came at once and got about thirty d~11ars' worth, agreeing to pay in work the next . umrner; but With summer came other calls for his labor than the payment o.f ol~ debts ; so he came to Brown and frankly told him his Situatwn, and that it would be impossible to pay as ao-recd upon. The noble old man said to him, ' Go home and 0 take car~ of your family, and let me hear no more about this ucbt. It zs a part of my 'religion to assist those z'n dist1·ess, and to comj01·t those that mourn.' " A cour ·e of years in the practice of such virtues inuicates the man of God, even if his profession of religion had not been known and read of all· "For by tl1eu· · f rut't s ye s 11 a1 1 know. them, for men do not gather grapes of thorn., nor figs of .thistle ; but every good tree bringeih forth good fruit, wh1le a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit." ~Ie was a man of prayer. lie walked with God even ~mi:1st surro.unding violence. lie was once, it was said, early 1~ hfe, that 1s, at the beginning of his Christian career des~ me~ t~ the ministry, and there is nothing that we kn;w of 1~ lus hfe, amiust the pursuits to which he was turned aside from su~h preparation and such a vocation, inconsistent with the baptism of God's Spirit for the ministration of the Gospel. George B. Cheever. 221 On the contrary, in one g reat point of fitn<'s for thnt work, ho fiecms to have been always growing; incr<'nsing in the knowledge of the 'Vord of od, in a reYcrcntial sul.nni · ion to it, in a scn:e and living experience of it as fire aud power, for thus GO<l evidently was training him. Now with these developments of character, th e. c possession~ of grace, under the e many year~ of disciplin e, this specimen of God's fireworks is . uddcn ly touched into a flame, and rises out of ob. clll·ity into a light that fills the whole atmo!- iphere, and turns the eyes of the ~p 'eta tors of a whole nation to can the SI)cctacle. This man of God breaks out in the most daring venture agninst the mo. t con ·olidatcd, remor. eles:::, pow rful, all-conquering i'ystem of iniquity, that any civilized country ever aw or endured; breaks out in an act, thnt while some declare by God'H ' Vord to be the venture of a man in God's behalf, doing God's work again. t the va.'test of human crimes, others declare to be the act of a madman; others the hallucination of a good m·an ; others the crime of a man po se sed with a devil. But amidst all the hazards and di, a. ter of the outbreak, he i the . arne man that he ever ha been, and aft •r the conflict, amid t hi , wound. , amid ·t his en mics, overpower d, apparently un ucces ful, he j8 a. calm and confid ·nt a. ever in God, and in the ju ticc and sacredn •ss of the canse he has undertaken. And after the di ·astrous failure of his enterprise, in lti , prison, through all the mockery of hi::; trial and sentence, and in all his words, specche. , lettCI·", in all his intercour·e with men, in all hi · d •portment, he is the amo man as before; the. amc Chri tian man confiding in God. lie i · , till seen '"alking with God, and 10d docs not de. crt him. Nay, the cviuenccs of the preRencc and power of God's Spirit in his heart brighten and increase, till they are ublime, attractive, wonderful. Ile sp •ak~ and writ s with an almost superhuman simplicity, digni ty, calmn :s, and depth of feeling; a r estraint, an ab ·ence of all rhetoric, o::;tentaiion, and 1~"" |
