Part 9 (1/2)
It was not possible, however, for Mrs. Fry to suffer without experiencing an unwonted measure of sympathy from all cla.s.ses of the community. Many hearts followed her most lovingly in these hours of humiliation and sorrow; and when it was known that she must leave Plashet House, the tide of deep sympathy overflowed more than one heart.
As a preliminary step the family moved, first to St. Mildred's Court, then to the home of their eldest son. The business which had been carried on there by Mr. Fry and his father was now conducted by his sons; and by this the young men were enabled to provide for the comfort of their parents. Their bidding good-bye to Plashet, however, entailed very much that was sad to others. The schools. .h.i.therto supported by the Frys were handed over to the care of the vicar of the parish; many old pensioners and servants had to be given over to the kindness of others, or in some cases, possibly, to the not very tender mercies of ”the parish;” while she herself, who had always laid it down as an indispensable rule to be _just_ before being generous, was compelled to conform her manner of life to somewhat narrow means.
Shakespeare says: ”Sorrow comes not in single spies but in battalions,”
and experience proves the adage to be true. William Fry, the eldest son of the family, was thrown upon a bed of illness, as the result of an over-strained and exhausted brain; soon after, sickness spread through the whole family, until the house, and even Plashet,--which, being empty, afforded them a temporary shelter,--became a hospital on a small scale. Yet at this time the kindly letters of sympathy and condolence received from all quarters must have comforted and cheered her anguished spirit. From a number of such communications we give two, one from William Wilberforce, the other from Mrs. Opie. Wilberforce wrote:--
You, I doubt not, will be enabled to _feel_, as well as to know, that even this event will be one of those which, in your instance, are working for good. You have been enabled to exhibit a bright specimen of Christian excellence in _doing_ the will of G.o.d, and, I doubt not, you will manifest a similar specimen in the harder and more difficult exercise of _suffering_ it. I have often thought that we are sometimes apt to forget that key, for unlocking what we deem to be very mysterious dispensations of Providence, in the misfortunes and afflictions of eminent servants of G.o.d, that is afforded by a pa.s.sage in St. Paul's Epistle to his beloved Phillipians: ”Unto you it is given, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake.” It is the strong only that will be selected for exhibiting these graces which require peculiar strength. May you, my dear friend (indeed, I doubt not you will), be enabled to bear the whole will of G.o.d with cheerful confidence in His unerring wisdom and unfailing goodness. May every loss of this world's wealth be more than compensated by a larger measure of the unsearchable riches of Christ.... Meanwhile you are richly provided with relatives and friends whom you love so well as to relish receiving kindnesses from them, as well as the far easier office of doing them....
In reply to this, it would seem that Mrs. Fry, while thankful for the sympathy manifested on all hands, doubted the advisability of resuming her benevolent labors among prisons and hospitals. Mr. Wilberforce proved himself again a wise and far-seeing counsellor. He wrote:--
I cannot delay a.s.suring you that I do not see how it is possible for any reasonable being to doubt the propriety ... or, rather, let me say _the absolute duty_--of your renewing your prison visitations. A gracious Providence has blessed you with success in your endeavors to impress a set of miserables, whose character and circ.u.mstances might almost have extinguished hope, and you will return to them, if with diminished pecuniary powers, yet, we may trust, through the mercy and goodness of our Heavenly Father, with powers of a far higher order unimpaired, and with the augmented respect and regard of every sound judgment ... for having borne with becoming disposition a far harder trial certainly than any stroke which proceeds immediately from the hand of G.o.d. May you continue, my dear Madam, to be the honored instrument of great and rare benefits to almost the most pitiable of your fellow-creatures.
The _Record_ newspaper had suggested that additional contributions should be sent to the chief of the societies which had been inaugurated by Mrs. Fry, and so largely supported by her. The Marquis of Cholmondeley wrote to Mrs. Opie, inquiring of that lady fuller particulars of the disaster, in so far as it affected or was likely to affect Mrs. Fry's benevolent work. He had been a staunch friend of her labors, having seconded them many times when the life of a wretched felon was at stake; and now, continuing the interest which he had hitherto exhibited, he was fearful lest this business calamity would put a stop to many of those labors. Mrs. Opie, whose friends.h.i.+p dated from the old Norwich days, lost no time in writing as follows to her suffering friend:--
Though I have not hitherto felt free in mind to write to thee, my very dear friend, under thy present most severe trial, thou hast been continually, I may say, in my thoughts, brought feelingly and solemnly before me, both day and night. I must also tell thee that, two nights ago, I had a pleasing, cheering dream of thee:--I saw thee looking thy best, dressed with peculiar care and neatness, and smiling so brightly that I could not help stroking thy cheek, and saying, ”Dear friend! it is quite delightful to me to see thee looking thus again, so like the Betsey Fry of former days;” and then I woke. But this sweet image of thee lives with me still....
Since your trials were known, I have rarely, if ever, opened a page of Scripture without finding some promise applicable to thee and thine. I do not believe that I was looking for them, but they presented themselves unsought, and gave me comfort and confidence.
Do not suppose, dear friend, that I am not fully aware of the peculiar bitterness and suffering which attends this trial in thy situation to thy own individual feeling; but, then, how precious and how cheering to thee must be the evidence it has called forth, of the love and respect of those who are near and dear to thee, and of the public at large. Adversity is indeed the time to try the hearts of our friends; and it must be now, or will be in future, a cordial to thee to remember that thou hast proved how truly and generally thou art beloved and reverenced.
Mrs. Fry's health failed very much during the dreary months which followed. Nor was this all, for trials, mental and spiritual, seemed to crowd around her. It was indeed, though on a scale fitted to her capacity, ”the hour and power of darkness.” She says in her journal, that her soul was bowed down within her, and her eyes were red with weeping. Yet she rallied again. After spending some months with their eldest son, William, at Mildred's Court, Mr. and Mrs. Fry removed to a small but convenient villa in Upton Lane, nearly adjoining the house and grounds of her brother, Samuel Gurney. This house was not only to be a place of refuge in the dark and cloudy days of calamity, but to become, in its turn, famous for the visits of princes and n.o.bles, who thus sought to do honor to her who dwelt in it. Writing in her journal, on June 10th, 1829, Mrs. Fry said:--
We are now nearly settled in this, our new abode; and I may say, although the house and garden are small, yet it is pleasant and convenient and I am fully satisfied, and, I hope, thankful for such a home. I have at times been favored to feel great peace, and I may say joy in the Lord--a sort of seal to the important step taken; though at others the extreme disorder into which our things have been brought by all these changes, the pain of leaving Plashet, the difficulty of making new arrangements, has hara.s.sed and tried me.
But I trust it will please a kind Providence to bless my endeavor to have and to keep my house in order. Place is a matter of small importance, if that peace which the world cannot give be our portion.... Although a large garden is now my allotment, I feel pleasure in having even a small one; and my acute relish for the beautiful in nature and art is on a clear day almost constantly gratified by a view of Greenwich Hospital and Park, and other parts of Kent; the s.h.i.+pping on the river, as well as the cattle feeding in the meadows. So that in small things as well as great, spiritual and temporal, I have yet reason to ... bless and magnify the name of my Lord.
Two of her nieces accompanied her, in 1834, upon a mission to the Friends' Meetings in Dorset and Hants; and recalling this journey some time later, one of them said, speaking of her aunt's peculiar mission of ministering to the tried and afflicted: ”There was no weakness or trouble of mind or body, which might not safely be unveiled to her.
Whatever various or opposite views, feelings, or wishes might be confided to her, all came out again tinged with her own loving, hopeful spirit. Bitterness of every kind died when entrusted to her; it never re-appeared. The most favorable construction possible was always put upon every transaction. No doubt her feeling lay this way; but did it not give her and her example a wonderful influence? Was it not the very secret of her power with the wretched and degraded prisoners? She could always see hope for everyone; she invariably found or made some point of light. The most abandoned must have felt she did not despair for them, either for this world or for another; and this it was which made her irresistible.”
In taking a view of this good woman's religious life and character, it will be helpful to see her as she appeared to herself--to enter into her own feelings at different periods of her life, and to listen to her heart-felt expressions of humility and perplexity. Thus, in relation to the ups and downs of life with her, we find in her journal this pa.s.sage:--
The difference between last winter and this winter has been striking! How did the righteous compa.s.s me about, from the Sovereign, the Princes, and the Princesses, down to the poorest, lowest, and most dest.i.tute; how did poor sinners of almost every description seek after me, and cleave to me? What was not said of me? What was not thought of me, may I not say, in public and in private, in innumerable publications? This winter I have had the bed of languis.h.i.+ng; deep, very deep, prostration of soul and body; instead of being a helper to others, ready to lean upon all, glad even to be diverted by a child's book. In addition to this, I find the tongue of slander has been ready to attack me. The work that was made so much of before, some try to lessen now. My faith is that He will not give me over to the will of my enemies, nor let me be utterly cast down.
In relation to her conscientious fear of the admixture of sin with her service of G.o.d and of humanity, she wrote:--
I apprehend that all would not understand me, but many who are much engaged in what we call works of righteousness, will understand the reason that in the Jewish dispensation there was an offering made for the iniquity of _holy things_.
In regard to marriage she writes:--
We have had the subject of marriage much before us this year; it has brought us to some test of our feelings and principles respecting it. That it is highly desirable to have young persons settle in marriage, I cannot doubt, and that it is one of the most likely means of their preservation, religiously, morally, temporally. Moreover, it is highly desirable to settle with one of the same religious views, habits, and education, as themselves, more particularly for those who have been brought up as Friends, because their mode of education is peculiar. But if any young persons, upon arriving at an age of discretion, do not feel themselves really attached to our peculiar views and habits, then, I think, their parents have no right to use undue influence with them as to the connections they may incline to form, provided they be with persons of religious lives and conversation. I am of opinion that parents are apt to exercise too much authority upon the subject of marriage, and that there would be really more happy unions if young persons were left more to their own feelings and discretion. Marriage is too much treated like a business concern, and love, that essential ingredient, too little respected in it. I disapprove of the rule of our Society which disowns persons for allowing a child to marry one who is not a Friend; it is a most undue and unchristian restraint, as far as I can judge of it.
As the time pa.s.sed, and her family got scattered up and down in the world, the idea occurred to her that, although members of different sects and churches, they could unite in fireside wors.h.i.+p and study of the Bible, _as Christians_. Many of them were within suitable distances for occasional or frequent meetings, according to their circ.u.mstances; while some of the grandchildren were of an age to understand, and possibly profit by, the exercises. In response to the motherly communication which follows, these family gatherings were arranged, and succeeded beyond the original expectations of she who suggested them.
They continued, under the t.i.tle of ”philanthropic evenings,” to cement the family circle, after Mrs. Fry had pa.s.sed away. The tone of the letter inviting their co-operation is that of a philanthropist, a mother, and a Christian. It shows plainly that with all her engagements, worries and trials, she had not absorbed or lost the spirit of the docile Mary in that of the careful Martha.
MY DEAREST CHILDREN:
Many of you know that for some time I have felt and expressed the want of our social intercourse at times, leading to religious union and communion among us. It has pleased the Almighty to permit that by far the larger number of you no longer walk with me in my religious course. Except very occasionally, we do not meet together for the solemn purpose of wors.h.i.+p, and upon some other points we do not see eye to eye; and whilst I feel deeply sensible that, notwithstanding this diversity among us, we are truly united in our Holy Head, there are times when, in my declining years, I seriously feel the loss of not having more of the spiritual help and encouragement of those I have brought up, and truly sought to nurture in the Lord. This has led me to many serious considerations how the case may, under present circ.u.mstances, be in any way met.
My conclusion is that, believing as we do in the Lord as our Saviour, one Holy Spirit as our Sanctifier, and one G.o.d and Father of us all, our points of union are surely strong; and if we are members of one living Church, and expect to be such for ever, we may profitably unite in some religious engagements here below.