The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-12-28

Children, live like Christians l leave you
the Covenant to feed upon And again
Lord, Thou knowest if do desire to live
it is to show forth thy praise and declare
Thy words. Once he was heard saying,
: 1t is fearful thing to fall into the hands
of the Living Godr This was spoken
three times, says Harvey. Thrice over
he said this, looking into the Eternal
Kingdom "A fearful thing to fall into
the hands of the Living God 7 But
again F.. The Lord hath filled me with
as much assurance of His pardon and His
love as my soul can hold. >"
On his ath-bed, as during his life,
Cromwell used language which in any
other man we should take as the unmis-
taxable sign of fervent and sincere reli-
glous feeling, and is there the least rea-
son to suppose that the demeanor of an
enthusiast was the mask of hypocrite?
Critics will to the end of time differ in
their estimate of Cromwell's moral worth
but there are, we suspect, few persons, of
whatever school, who, knowing his acts
and words, can now doubt the sincerity
OF his religious fervor. But to grant that
Cromwell's words were the sincere ex-
preston of genuine feeling, and even of
genuine conviction, increases rather than
diminishes the difficulty of fully under
standing his character. He excited by
turns the distrust of almost every emf
nent man in the state. Royalists, Pres
byterians, Republicans, Fifth Monarchy
men, each and all, with reason or without
reason, accused him of treachery. The
difficulties of his position had indeed a
good deal to do with this. He possessed,
it may be urged with some truth, wider
views and wider sympathies than most of
his associates. Still, to suppose that a
whole generation of very able men were
all mistaken in their Judgment of the
leading man Of his country, involves
something very like an absurdity. We
may be sure that if Cromwell was dis
trusted by men like Fairfax, Lambert,
and Harrison, who had stood by him at
the most desperate crises of his career.
there was something in him which in
spired distrust. Nor, you look the mat
ter fairly in the face, is it hard to discov-
er what this something" was.
Cromwell's intellect was subtle, and his
whole manner of dealing with men in
direct. AT every stage of his career may
be seen traces Of that sort of artfulness
which admirers may term policy, but
which foes call craft He had, as Mr..
Cornish has we'll brought out extraordi-
nary skill In managing others. No
man ever used men more for his own
ends. We believe that his ends were in
the main wise and good, and that he
sought them sincerely, but he used men
as he found them, and turned the folly of
fools and the knavery OF knaves to his
own ends without scruple; and this he
held to be lawful" Combine this power
OF management, or, in other words, taste
for intrigue, with the kind of subtlety of
ten accompanying intense religious en-
thusiasm, and you have Just the man
who legitmately enough excites suspicion
among his fellows. Any one who also
remembers that Cromwell avowedly
looked upon outward success as the sign of
heavens favor, and almost certainly be-
ieved that, to use Mr. Cornish's language,
" he had been raised up from among
the people to accomplish a work for God
who had prospered it in his hands and
borne witness to it, and that to God and
not to men he was responsible for his
ends which he knew were great, and his
means which were not those of common
men, will partly at least understand how
1t happened that the Protector, who ex-
torted admiration from his foes, and who
was the one man upon whom his adhe-
rents could rely for the support of the
good cause, was never able to convince
either enemies or supporters Of his perfect
sincerity.
Cromwell aptly compared himself to
chief constable. His function was to give
rest to the country, torn by factions and
exhausted by civil war. The aim of his
policy was, from his own point of view, to
effect a permanent settlement, which
should unite England, Scotland, and Ire
land in one state, should create strong
executive and we'll chosen Parliament,
and should above all things permanently
secure to all Protestants freedom of con-
science. That this was in the main Crom-
wells view of the end to be attained is
clearly seen from the instrument Of
government, or constitution of 1858.
which more truly than any other of the
arrangements which he attempted to eff
feet expresses Cromwell's own ideal be-
fore he was corrupted by despotic power,
OF the kind of government required by
England His conception of the object
to be aimed at was noble one, and
marked by sound Judgment and wisdom.