Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine, FOR JULY, 1827. BIOGRAPHY. MEMOIR OF MRS. MARIA CALDER, BY THE REV. WILLIAM M. HARVARD. JOHN MACARTHA SHARPE, Esquire, the father of Mrs. Calder, being the Solicitor-General of Grenada, in the West Indies, that island became the earliest scene of her mortal existence. Her maternal grandfather was the late Sir Gillies Payne, Baronet, of Tempsford-Hall, Bedfordshire; who also possessed considerable property in the West Indies; and the families on both sides have long been extensive proprietors of estates in those colonies. The worthy and benevolent Baronet, who received by inheritance his plantations abroad, cherished an honourable solicitude for the comfort and education of his negroes. In consequence of an unequivocal expression of his sentiments, made to the managers of his estates, the Missionaries of our Society were permitted a ready access to them, for the religious instruction of the slaves: and the results of that permission were highly gratifying. It reflects honour on the parties concerned, that the example of Sir Gillies Payne was followed by other slave-proprietors among his relatives and acquaintance; and that from the earliest establishment of our Missions in the western world, converted Africans on their several estates have been in Christian communion with us. It is now considered. an undoubted fact, that Christianity, properly received by the negro-slave, elevates him in the scale of being. And the experience of many years has taught the world, that, when the natural depravity of the African is made to yield to the force of religious principle, his character frequently presents very valuable and amiable qualities. Attachment to the ordinances of religion, and gratitude to their benefactors, are virtues very commonly displayed by the converted children of Ham; and from feelings of such a description it may easily be supposed that the pious slaves on the Baronet's estate would persevere in offering fervent prayer to God in behalf of him and his family, through whose immediate interference and direction, they were privileged to hear "the word of truth, the Gospel of their salvation;" and were brought to the enjoyment of a spiritual and moral freedom, which sanctified and VOL. VI. Third Series. JULY, 1827. 2 I sweetened their cup of bondage. Of negro gratitude one of our Missionaries has related the following anecdote, which is deserving of record-After preaching one day on an estate belonging to the Baronet, a slave of the congregation presented her infant child for baptism, requesting that it might be named "Sir Gillies Payne;" and on being given to understand that the whole could not be adopted as a Christian name, the grateful negress evinced a painful disappointment, at being unable thus to perpetuate the memory of her valued owner, by having his entire name and title attached to her beloved child. Those who have themselves proved the efficacy of devout prayer, will not think it improbable that the grateful supplications of pious and holy negroes may often have produced favourable effects on the temporal and eternal welfare of their proprietors. Inspiration assures us that "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." That such prayers are sometimes answered in blessings upon those for whom they have been presented to God, may at least be inferred from such narratives as the present. The reader will feel a sacred satisfaction in knowing, that several individuals belonging to the family of Sir Gillies Payne, even in circumstances apparently unfavourable for such a result, have been made partakers of true religion; have been, in life, faithful to their Christian profession; and have borne to the last a satisfactory testimony to the ability and willingness of Christ to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him. We have now the pleasure to trace the saving goodness of Him who heareth prayer, to one individual branch of the Baronet's family. His daughter, Mrs. Sharpe, Mrs. Calder's mother, had been ten years a resident in the West Indies; during the whole of which period, as she has often since observed with suitable regret, she had never read the Bible, and had gone to church but once! It is indeed to be deplored, that the state of European society in the western world, at that time, rendered it possible for a person to move for so many years in its most respectable ranks with so little of Christianity. But though we may hope that in many of our foreign possessions some considerable improvement in regard to religion has taken place, since that time; yet there is reason to fear that, in some few of our colonies, cases are still to be found approaching too nearly to a parallel with this. Such a case presents a distressing evidence of a propensity to live without God, which is common to our nature. And this, however revolting it may appear to a devout and well-regulated mind, is precisely what would be the state and practice of every human being, if left to follow the bias of the unrenewed heart. It is felt that this is not the place to extend an argument on this point; and yet it was impossible not incidentally to notice so marked a confirmation of what the Holy Scriptures invariably teach us, in relation to this solemn and melancholy fact. We should scarcely expect that one in such a state of mind would have imagined herself to be religious; and yet Mrs. Sharpe at that time considered herself to be sufficiently so; and when she was afterwards brought under a general conviction of her sinfulness, she was actually at a loss to account for the feeling, by charging herself with any particular sin so great is the re-action of moral evil, so blinding and hardening is sin, and especially that species of sin which has the Almighty for its immediate and only object. Happily the case assumes a more inviting and gratifying aspect. The respected lady referred to was, by the mercy of God, and possibly in some measure in answer to the prayers of some of those sable and degraded beings she had been accustomed to despise, brought to a better state of mind. In allusion to the change she was led to experience, it may be truly said, that the blind received sight, the dead was raised, and, by a train of circumstances which may be briefly noticed with interest and advantage, the sheep which had been long going astray was ultimately turned to the Shepherd and Bishop of souls. The acts of a gracious and superintending Providence are perhaps never more evident, certainly never more pleasing and instructive, than when they are sometimes beheld in the chain of circumstances, by which families or individuals are brought under the influence of real religion. The Son of God, as Mediator, has received all power both in heaven and on earth, that he may render it subservient to his designs of love to our fallen race. In relation to his providential dispensations there is a sense in which we may hear him, in effect, saying to us, as in another sense he did to his servant Peter, "What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter." Like Job, we look for him on our 66 right hand where he doth work," yet we "behold him not." With a general conviction that he is managing all things for our good, we are nevertheless sometimes unable to trace out the exact course of his proceeding. On all these points we shall know hereafter; either by some elucidating circumstance in the present world, or after our entrance on that more perfect state which awaits us in heaven, where "that which is in part shall be done away," and we shall know even as we are known." But many of the dark and distressing dispensations of Providence towards men before their conversion, are divested of much of their mystery by that single event, and by it are made to appear most prominently in a character of divine compassion, which secures to God in Christ their gratitude and love and devotion to all eternity. The situation in which we have seen Mrs. Sharpe placed, as a West Indian resident, was not one in which her conversion to God would have been deemed an event of probable occurrence. And had she remained in that part of the world, it is more than possible her little family would have risen up deeply marked by all the fashionable Atheism of their |