THE METHODIST MAGAZINE, FOR OCTOBER, 1816. BIOGRAPHY. A SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF To the Editor of the Methodist Magazine. REV. SIR, IT has been long and impatiently expected by many, that to the number of those persons who were once the excellent of the earth, the record of whose holy and useful lives, and happy and triumphant deaths, adorns your pages; their memory living, and their example glowing, to instruct and inspire generations yet unborn; that of Lady MAXWELL would have been added; who for her station in society, strong and cultivated mind, and extensive benevolence, had few equals-as a member, friend, and ornament of the Methodist Connexion, has not been surpassed; while for depth and solidity of piety, she was perhaps second to none in the christian world. It has been expected that with such a record you would have been furnished by the hand of some of her numerous religious acquaintances, who knew her well, and admired her character while she lived; who venerate her memory, now that she is dead; and who are supposed to be the most capable of giving, at least an outline of her life, and a sketch of her excellent character. But hitherto expectation has been disappointed. It is true, that to attempt a history of Lady Maxwell's life, must be made under circumstances of great difficulty. For notwithstanding she wrote much, and religion was her principal and favourite subject, yet what she has written seems doomed to remain very partially known. This, however, appears certain, that her voluminous writings furnish no account of her early experience, nor of the various transactions of her life. She kept a regular diary for upwards of forty years; but this rather records the progress of her religious experience, than the hisVOL. XXXIX. OCTOBER, 1816. tory of her life and actions. It fully shews, and it only shews, a person's uniformly walking with God, having constant access into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, and there (to employ her own words) holding fellowship with the whole Deity, Father, Son, and Spirit. As little can be collected from documents, neither can much be gathered from oral testimony; as those persons who were her Ladyship's acquaintances, during the greater and most interesting part of her life, have long since slept with their fathers; so that who were her first associates in the kingdom and patience of the Redeemer, is now very difficult to learn. To this may be added, that kind of life, which she imposed on herself to lead, being such as, in its very nature, must supply but little incident. For although in name and character she was well known, yet as a person figuring on the stage of the world, or exercising authority in the church, she was not known. Her influence was great, and her usefulness extensive; but it was silent, gentle, and unobtrusive as the fall of the evening due. Confined by choice to her native country, from which she seldom moved, but when business called, or health demanded, and then but for a short time; she lived in retired privacy, secluded from the gay and busy world. Being easy in her worldly circumstances, select and happy in her acquaintances, her path through life was generally even, and her sky serene; presenting none of those varieties which are to be found in the lives of the principal actors on the stage of this world; nor of those whose path is checquered with every variety of light and shade; their horizon having experienced every vicissitude between the cloudless noon of prosperity, and the starless midnight of adverity. Her life had a sameness, the sameness of matured, established piety, a blessed monotony of being, and getting, and doing good. To pourtray her character would be a task not less arduous than to trace her history: yet had the attempt been made at an earlier period, it would have been done with greater promises of success; lapse of time must have effaced many important recol lections, and deprived some of the brightest images of her excellencies of a considerable portion of their vividness; while distance from the place where she resided, forbids access to persons who might furnish useful hints, as also from those things, the presence of which would not fail to be attended with valuable associations. It is true, that a person of inventive mind, or a lively imagination, might draw an ideal character, combining whatsoever things are pure, pious, amiable, and of good report; and by applying this to Lady Maxwell, fancy would become reality, and fiction would be sober narrative of fact; for her character and conduct would bear him out triumphant. Yet as there is something pe culiar to every person, something which is properly their own, and their ownselves; as untransferable as personal identity, and by which their acquaintance will easily recognise them in the crowd; so the person who has an eye that can catch these peculiarities, and a hand which can throw them on the canvass, each in its proper light, natural attitude, and just proportions, that person is a real painter of character; and to such an one, that of Lady Maxwell would be a subject worthy of the best efforts of his greatest powers. As a master's hand is not expected, the present rude sketch is drawn with equal diffidence and reluctance, arising from a knowledge of the greatness of the subject; the high expectations which the religious public may justly entertain from so distinguished a person as Lady Maxwell; the extreme scantiness of materials, which are little more than bare recollections; and above all, from the awkwardness of the delineator's hand. Nor would this have been undertaken at all, but for the pressing solicitations of her Ladyship's most intimate friends, who deem it criminal to allow the remembrance of so much intellectual, moral, and religious worth to sink into oblivion, and who are determined that her memory shall not altogether perish among the Methodists. There is no doubt, that those persons who knew her Ladyship's worth, and who still cherish her memory, will feel deep concern that so little is said of her, and this in a manner as far below the subject. That the life is meagre, and the character miserably imperfect, is readily granted; but there appeared no alternative between this and none; for had any other hand undertaken it, this would never have been attempted. There is, however, one consolation even in failure; it is a failure where full success was never contemplated, and where its attainment, under more favourable circumstances, would have been next to impossible. No; God only, who knew her public and private life, who saw all the pious movements of her mind towards himself, and all the efforts of her zeal to promote his glory; he only could do her justice, and that justice she will amply receive in that day, when they that be wise shall shine as the sun, and when a cup of water given to a disciple, in the name of his master, shall not lose its reward. Lady Maxwell's maiden name was Miss Darcy Brisbane; she was the youngest daughter of the late Thomas Brisbane, Esq. of Brisbane, in Ayrshire. There was nothing in her childhood which could augur her future distinguished eminence in piety; for to the drawings of the Father, the teachings of the Spirit, and the first influences of grace, she appears to have been inattentive; while to the strong remonstrances of the mind against itself, and against the conduct, she was an entire stranger, until a farther stage in life. She was indeed from a child dis * 4 Y 2* |