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    CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN A COUNTRY CURATE AND THK BISHOP OF THE DIOCESE.

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    Correspondence Between A Country Curate And Thk Bishop Of The Diocese.

    CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN A COUNTRY CURATE AND THK BISHOP OF THE DIOCESE .

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    THE CURATE ' S LETTER . To the Right Rev . the Bishop of

    Right Reverend Lord , —Presuming upon the grounds of our common belief in the genuine spirit of Christianity ; in its pure charity of feeling , its divine humility , and all those generous sensibilities of the heart , which , when embodied in just and manly actions , are the highest attributes of our nature ; a poor ,

    though honest , and therefore not unworthy minister of the Gospel ,, has ventured to address you this letter . It is induced by deep calamity , and is penned with the strictest reverence for unaffected truth . Do not imagine , my lord , that in thus approaching one so exalted in station above me—a lowly servant of religion—so dignified by birth , relationship , and manifold titles ; so far

    removed , from my humble sphere of humanity ; that I present myself in a mean and unbecoming manner before you . Your vast wealth I do not envy or covet . My own extremely limited means of doing good , I may say of obtaining life ' s necessities , is not a circumstance that would justify me in wishing to become so munificent an almoner as others , since it is the will of Heaven that

    these should be few in number , and that many should be exceeding poor . But to have maintained an unblemished character during fifty and seven years , twenty of which I have passed as curate of this village , gives me some right , in addition to our common calling , of standing unreproved in your presence , albeit a melancholy petitioner .

    Permit me , my lord , to relate to you the brief narrative of my life ; its wayfaring and its pauses ; its not unworthy struggles through the thorny wilderness of the world ; and its painful , yet resolute labours over those flinty cross-roads of adversity , where Despair is often buried with stiff-extended arms . I began with industry and highest hope , and with industry have I persevered

    unto the last , long after temporal hope had faded into the stupendous dreams and Ancient Histories of the things that were . I am now labouring under a complicated disease , which I believe to originate in a complaint of the heart , and our village practitioner is of opinion that I cannot recover . Had not this been my own impression , your lordship ' s ear should not have been troubled with this complaint .

    In 1803 I finished my collegiate studies at Christ ' s , Oxon ; the ex penses of which , a sum of money carefully reserved by my deceased father for the occasion just enabled me to defray . I was most assiduous in my labours ; but I confess they were not devoted so much to the regular routine of scholastic acquirements ,

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    461

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    No . 91 % 2 I *

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1834, page 461, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2635/page/1/