The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1875-10-27
RICHARD BAXTER.

We must not forget that he whom we now
commemorate with such peaceful unanimity,
in his lifetime lived in whirl of discord and
turmoil. Partly, no doubt, from his own
eager polemics; partly and chiefly from the
perpetual Misunderstanding to which a
character beyond his time is exposed. BY
Quakers he was attacked as a child of dark
ness by Calvinists as a fanatical Quaker !;
by Churchmen as Socinian; by Independents
as Papist by Royalists as traitor doom
ed to the very depths Of hell. All this is
now past. The pamphlets of his assailantS,
his own rejoinders and counter-rejoinders,
have sunk deeper than ever plummet sound
ed. The chaff of his life, the chaff Of his
writings is sifted and winnowed away; and
the wheat, the pure wheat remains to be
gathered into the eternal garner. 1t is
proof of his real gdPess and eminence-
it is pJoof-of .whSs real goodness and emil
nence can aohievs-that the noble rIcdi0ries-
of his character have survived and over
balanced the trivial, the distasteful, the scri-
monious elements with which it was encom-
passed. The admiration of the best spirits
of his own and future time has prevailed
over the violence of petty faction and petty
jealousy, and over his own contentious self.
Sir Matthew Hale in his unfailing friend
ship; Lord William Russell in his dying tes-
timony Burnet in his grateful acknowledg-
ments; Usher when he entreated him to
write the "Call to the Unconverted Eliot,
the apostle of the Indians, when he trans
lated that book next after the Bible; Arthur
Young, who, after brilliant and stirring
life, in old age and blindness, found his peace
at last in the thought of Baxter's soul "re-
posing on the bosom of a Saviour's love-
all these turn out to be more correct judges,
more prescent seers than the narrow parti-
sans who saw in him mere butt for scorn
and slander, or a mere combatant of an op-
poetic school. In this, our day, they have
had an echo in the applauding voice of the
most accomplished and the most eloquent of
our living prelates, the most philosophical
of our divines, the most genial and venera-
BILE of our clergy, whether conforming or
nonconforming. His tall commanding figure,
his gaunt features, by the art of the sculp-
tor, are once more seen among us. They
now recall something higher and more uni
versal even than his efforts after union, or
his struggles for liberty. He and his works
have entered into that everlasting rest for
which he so longed. He has taught US the
way to that rest in words which rise above
the jargon of all sects, and may strike a
chord, in the most philosophic, no less than
in tht most devout mind. His uplifted hand
calls to the unconverted, as of Che seven
teenth, 80 of the nineteenth century, to
turn and live;" to turn and live in accord
ance with the thousand voices Of the Bible,
of conscience, of good example, Of nature;
to turn from all our mean, degrading sins; ;
from all our frivolity, self elfindulgence, idle
ness, corruption, and party spirit; from the
want of charity, and want of truth, and
want of faith, which depreas US all alike, up
wards to the higher and more heavenly frame
of heart, to the peculiar nobleness of spirit,
which, as he truly says, distinguishes not
only men from beasts, or the good from the
bad, but the best of men from the mediocrity
of their kind.
Not only in the turmoil of controversy,
but in the toll and misery of daily life, in
the restlessnesa of this restless age, his se-
rene countenance tells US of that unseen,
better world, where "there remaineth rest
for the people of God" 1t reminds us of
that entire resignation wrung from his lips
in those latest words: "Where thou wilt,
what thou wilt, how thou wilt" 1t reminds
us of the high and humble hope shast' after
the rough and tempestuous day we shall at
last have the quiet, silent night light and
rest together; the quietness of the night
without its darkness" Dean Stanley, in
Macmillan's Magazine.