Part 1

The Pearl of Days.

“The Sundays of man’s life, Threaded together on Time’s string, Make bracelets to adorn the wife Of the eternal glorious King. On Sundays heaven’s door stands ope, Blessings are plentiful and rife, More plentiful than hope.”

GEORGE HERBERT.

[Illustration]

THE

PEARL OF DAYS:

OR,

THE ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH TO

THE WORKING CLASSES

BY A LABOURER’S DAUGHTER.

WITH A SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR’S LIFE, BY HERSELF,

AND

A Preface by an American Clergyman.

NEW-YORK: EDWARD H. FLETCHER, 141 NASSAU STREET.

MDCCCL.

[Illustration]

TO THE

=Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty=:

Madam--

Humble as is this tribute of loyalty, it is not without significance. No sovereign ever presented stronger claims to the love and allegiance of her industrious subjects; and it tells how happy is our Constitution, and how condescending is our Monarch, that pages written by a labourer’s daughter should find a Patron in the Queen.

Nor will the Tract itself be without its interest to your Majesty, to whose Royal Halls such glory is added by the piety, virtue, and domestic affections so often found in Britain’s lowliest homes.

This Tract discusses the Temporal Advantages of the Sabbath Day. The same topic has recently engaged the pens of nearly a thousand working men. And it is not the least advantage of the Lord’s day, that every labourer who learns to keep it holy is another peaceful citizen gained to the community, and another added to those best subjects who, in their weekly assemblies, pray, GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.

I have the honour to be

Your Majesty’s

Most obedient and very humble Servant,

THE PROPOSER OF THE ESSAY.

JULY, 1848.

PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

I have been requested by the publisher to introduce this little volume to the notice of American readers. “THE PEARL OF DAYS; _The Advantages of the Sabbath to the Working Classes_. By a Labourer’s Daughter.” How much is expressed in such a title-page! Does the book realize the hopes which at once suggest themselves to the intelligent and benevolent mind?

To do this, the book should indicate on the part of the author a degree of cultivation not usual in her sphere of life, and attest this cultivation as the fruit of proper Sabbath observance. And such cannot fail to be the results to which every reader will arrive. These pages will reveal a mind of singular discipline and acuteness, of large observation and much philosophical power,--a heart imbued with sentiments of devout and cheerful piety, contented with its lot on earth, and looking for its better inheritance in heaven;--and all these in necessary connection with a domestic training, in which a labouring man’s cottage illustrates the true idea of the Christian Sabbath.

I commend the “Pearl of Days” to readers of every class, but particularly I commend it

I. TO PARENTS. To them its Sketch of the Author’s Life will exhibit hints and illustrations pertaining to domestic discipline and happiness, such as convince by their wisdom, and win by their beauty, such as adapt themselves equally to the homes of princes and peasants, and indicate the true methods of training children for any grade of life in which their lot may be cast.

II. TO THE FRIENDS OF SOCIAL PROGRESS. The evils of society have awakened the sympathy of the benevolent. The best methods of removing them, especially of removing such as oppress the working classes, are subjects which everywhere task the thoughts of the wise and good. Let all such sit at the feet of the Labourer’s Daughter. She has received wisdom at the feet of Christ. She teaches the true social regeneration. Philosophers, economists, statesmen, can develop no theories of progress so certainly promising and assuring virtue, order, industry, plenty, concord, happiness.

III. TO THE WORKING CLASSES THEMSELVES. In America, more than in any other land on earth, the working classes may work out for themselves an honourable destiny. To a wide extent, these classes are conscious of their opportunities. Many a mother in the hut of poverty presses her child to her heart, and anticipates for him a sphere of life higher than her own. How shall she place his feet in the path which leads to it? This question starts in her thoughts a thousand times. Here she may solve it. Asking a higher destiny, the working classes cry, “Who will show us any good?” And responses come back to them in numberless forms,--one telling them that their rise in the social scale is to be secured by the triumph of a political party, or by the success of certain measures of public policy,--another bidding them seek relief in “Unions” for the regulation of the wages of labour, and for mutual protection against the oppressions of employers--and another declaring that their depression is the fruit of a false social organization, and will find its remedy in the schemes of “Association.” But these are not responses of wisdom and truth. The labouring classes must work out their own rise, through their own intelligence and virtue. Intelligent and virtuous, they will command respect; they will be neither the dupes of the designing, nor the slaves of the tyrannical. On these points they will find this little volume, from one of their own class, full of counsels gathered from the source of all truth. Let them ponder thoughtfully its pages.

I need not explain the occasion of the publication of this Essay in England. That is sufficiently explained in the Introduction which follows. It has had a large circulation in that country, under the patronage of the great and good, and dedicated, by her own cheerful permission, to the excellent woman who sits upon the British throne, and exalts her lofty position by her exemplary piety. I cannot doubt that the Essay will be equally acceptable on this side of the water, and as fruitful in beneficent influences.

_New York, Nov. 15 1848._

INTRODUCTION.

The circumstances out of which the following Essay, with its accompanying Sketch of the Author’s Life, originated, are as remarkable as they are deeply interesting and hopeful. Jealous for the honour of God’s Sabbath, which men of the world were periling--jealous for the privileges to man conferred by the Sabbath--jealous for the labouring man, whose feelings respecting the Sabbath were often misrepresented to his disadvantage, a layman resolved to afford an opportunity for the working classes to speak their own mind freely on the matter, and to bear their testimony to the blessings and privileges of the day, and thereby to the glory of God, the author and giver of it. With these views, he put forth a proposal, about the end of the year 1847, offering three prizes--of £25, £15, and £10, respectively--for the three best Essays on the subject, written by labouring men. Although this is the first instance upon record of persons of that class being invited to become competitors in literature, and for literary honours; and although comparatively a very brief time was allowed for preparing and sending in the Essays, yet three months--the first three of the year 1848--sufficed to produce the astonishing number of more than nine hundred and fifty compositions, manifesting by the single fact, without reference to the merits of these productions, the wide-spread interest and deeply-rooted principles with which the holy day of God is reverenced, loved, and honoured, by the labouring people.

Amongst the Essays received was one from a female, accompanied by a letter, which will be found at the conclusion of this Introduction, and which the reader will peruse with interest, as indicating the habitual tone of Divine and filial piety which pervades the mind of the writer. The Essay itself was found to be correspondent in tone and spirit with the letter. It is, indeed, a composition of no ordinary kind, whether we regard the source from whence it came, the instructive matter it contains, or the manner in which the materials are worked up in the composition, and the diction in which they are expressed. The Adjudicators, although, in faithfulness to the other competitors, constrained to lay it aside, as the work of a female, yet felt at the same time that it was a production which ought not to be withheld from the world, and that it was a duty as much to humanity as to the talented writer herself, not to suffer it to return to privacy and forgetfulness. It was, therefore, proposed to her to allow of its publication, independently of the forthcoming Prize Essays when adjudged, and she was requested, at the same time, to write a sketch of her life to prefix to the Essay when published. In both of these proposals she willingly acquiesced; and the reader has before him two equally remarkable and interesting compositions, the Essay and the Sketch.[1]

[1] It may be proper to state, that in preparing the Essay and Sketch for publication, no liberty has been taken with the author’s composition, farther than to render the language correct. For the satisfaction of any persons who may wish to see the manuscript, it can be inspected at the publishers.--ED.

To an ordinary mind the preparation of the latter would have been even more difficult than the former. Here was the opportunity for and danger of egotism. But here also was the opportunity for the exhibition and proof of real talent, and of genuine piety. To sink self, and to elevate principles, should be the sole object of autobiography. To effect this in a sketch is even more difficult than in a tale of life. It requires the hand of a master to give off with the pencil those few but telling touches that convert surface into substance, and place on the blank void forms of life, and grace, and comeliness. And no less talent does it demand to portray in words those truthful and instructive scenes which the homes of the godly present, amid which our authoress lived and was nourished, and of which it may justly be said that she is herself one of their noblest ornaments.

Our authoress has learned by experience, and has ably developed in her sketch, some of the most useful and valuable lessons of life. One of these is beautifully and powerfully given in the following words: “How often are opportunities of doing small acts of kindness and usefulness let slip, while we are sighing over our narrow sphere and our limited means of serving God or benefiting man!” Would it not be a melancholy and unwholesome sentimentality that should sit down and lament over itself as having no space capacious enough for its designs, and no arena worthy of its visions, instead of contenting itself with the many common opportunities of doing good which every-day life supplies? It may sound, indeed, well to sigh over oneself in such circumstances,

“Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air;”

and, by appropriating the idea to our own condition, hug ourselves with the fancy that we would, if we might, make ourselves widely useful in our generation; but far nobler, surely, and far more worthy of our imitation, is the devout and holy thought expressed in the following stanza:

“The trivial round, the common task, Should furnish all we ought to ask; Room to deny ourselves; a road To bring us, daily, nearer God.”

How admirably are brought out, in every part of this Sketch, some of those lessons most profitable for the wife and the mother to practise! What a valuable one, for example, is this! My mother “used to say that it was disagreeable and improper to be bustling about while father was within; and when he was gone out, the work must be done up.” Oh that wives and mothers understood and practised this wisely and well! What different scenes would the cottager’s home present if they did! How many a man would be saved from the alehouse fireside, where comfort and convenience are studied to seduce him into sin, if wives and mothers would but so order their households that when the father returns his coming shall be welcomed by cleanliness and peace, and his home shall be made to him the most blessed and grateful place that he can find!

What a beautiful family picture is this whole Sketch! No wonder that our authoress is capable of being such a daughter, when she has had such a mother to instruct her. Think, reader, of the child repeating her lessons beside the wash-tub, and gleaning the rudiments of learning in so simple a school, and from such a preceptor; and then turn to the pages of this Sketch and Essay, and as you read, and admire, and wonder, as you must, adore humbly as you ought, and exclaim, What hath God wrought! It is His work. It is the edifying effect and power of His grace. To Him be all the glory and the praise!

LETTER REFERRED TO IN PAGE 15.

“SIR,--I have thought it unnecessary to inquire whether a female might be permitted to enter among the competitors for the prizes offered in your advertisement. The subject of the Essay is of equal interest to woman as to man; and this being the case, I have looked upon your restriction as merely confining this effort to the working classes. Whether I judge rightly or not, matters but little; the effort I have made to gather a few thoughts together upon this subject will at least be of use to myself; and should you consider these sheets as containing any thoughts of value, they are at your disposal. They cannot be expected to be free from errors, both in diction and orthography, as this is the first effort of the kind I have ever made; and I may say I am one of those who never enjoyed the advantage of attending school in early days, except for two years, or rather for one; for it was but for two years that one of my sisters and myself attended a sewing-school alternately; one of us remaining at home one week, to assist mother with household labour, or in attending to the younger children, and going to school next week, while the other remained at home. Since that time I have been constantly occupied in household labour, either in my father’s house, or as a servant in other families; and thus I may truly say, that all the education I have enjoyed, was received at the fireside of hard-working parents. While memory lasts I shall never forget the indefatigable exertions of our beloved mother to impart intelligence to our minds, and implant moral principle in her children. How we used to enjoy our Sabbaths! When our father bent his knees, with his children around, on the morning of the Lord’s day, how fervently he used to thank the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for its blessed hours! That father is gone from among his children; but his voice yet falls upon my ear, and his form yet rises before my eye, as upon the first day of the week he used to read to us the sacred page, and lead our devotions.”

SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR’S LIFE.

The following sketch of my past history, which, at your request, I furnish, can be of little interest or value, any farther than perhaps leading the minds of Christian parents properly to estimate the importance of the duties devolving upon them, and begetting a higher appreciation of the value of the weekly rest, as affording an opportunity to all Christians, however poor their circumstances, or laborious their employment, of imparting instruction to their offspring. It may tend also to show that no Christian mother, with the Bible in her hand, and possessing the power of reading and understanding the blessed truths it reveals, can plead excuse if she allow her children to grow up in ignorance of those truths, the knowledge of which would lead them in safety and happiness through all the temptations to which youth is exposed in this world of folly and wickedness.

If she properly estimates the importance of the blessings imparted by the knowledge of God, and really feels the power of the love of God in her own heart, poverty may surround her, the pressure of domestic cares may lie heavily upon her, or she may be engaged in the most menial and laborious employment, but, in the midst of all this, she will find opportunity to awaken and enlighten the young minds of her offspring. It is the duty of Christian parents, in whatever situation in life, to train up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; and it is a duty which they can entrust to no one else without a direct violation of the command of their Saviour, and incurring a fearful risk as regards the well-being of their children.

Is it not a strange sight, to see a Christian parent so deeply involved in business, so engrossed with the cares of this life, or so occupied with other matters, however important, that he is compelled to entrust the moral and religious training of his children to a hireling?--a preacher so much engaged in proclaiming the Gospel to sinners in the world, that he has no time to lead his own little ones to the feet of Jesus?--a father so occupied with the improvement of his neighbours, with Sabbath-schools, prayer and class meetings, or evening lectures and sermons, that he has no leisure to lead, in proper season, the devotions of his own little circle at home? Such a man substitutes his own way for the will of God; and, in so far as he does so, the consequences will be seen in the future character of his children; and even he himself will suffer loss in the health of his own soul.

Parents, with the Bible in their hands, and the word of God hidden in their hearts, having the blessed hours of Sabbath rest as their birthright, however humble their circumstances or toilsome their life, can never be entirely destitute of an opportunity for training and instructing their offspring.

In glancing back on the years of childhood, and tracing the influences which have surrounded me through youth, I am convinced, that, in so far as my mind has been awakened to intelligence, and my character formed to virtue, under God, I owe all to my parents, but especially to my mother: her earnest and indefatigable exertions, in the face of difficulties which would have deterred any common mind from attempting such a task, together with her ceaseless watchfulness, secured for us such an amount of knowledge, and formed in us such habits, as raised us above the temptations which usually beset youth in the humble walks of life. While the constant necessity existed, as soon as we were able to do anything--for all our exertions toward the support of the family allowed us little time to cultivate acquaintances, whether injurious or beneficial--our mother’s constant endeavour was, even through the very early years of childhood, to keep our hands and heads fully employed.

Memory carries me back to a period when my parents, with five little ones around them, tenanted an obscure garret in the outskirts of one of the principal towns of Scotland. By some of those vicissitudes common to all, my father was, at this time, out of employment; hardships were endured, pinching want sometimes visited their fireside. Of these things I have heard, but have no recollection of them, as I could not then be much more than four years old. Yet a shadowy vision sometimes rises before me of a broad paved street, along which I was running on before our father in joyful haste, that I might be the first to apprise mother that the meeting was dismissed; but as to whether the place of assembly we had just left was an upper chamber where a handful of disciples met together, or a large and fashionable edifice, memory supplies nothing. A dim dreary scene, too, sometimes passes before me of some back yard or lane where I was standing with my hand in my father’s, gazing with childish delight, and, at the same time, with a feeling of awe and admiration, upon the starry heavens. I know not what, at that moment, led my eye to the bright scene over head; nor yet what fixed these two incidents of my childhood so indelibly upon my memory, for they are associated, in my mind, with nothing particular of which I ever heard any one speak; but they are almost the only recollections I have of the short time spent in this place.

I think that before this time I must have been pretty far advanced in reading, as I have no remembrance of ever learning, or having any difficulty with common books. Our father, at the time alluded to, was exerting himself to find a settled situation as a gardener, and, in the mean time, taking whatever work he could get in the small gardens in the neighbourhood. He was soon noticed as an active and tasteful gardener, and received into the employment of a gentleman whose property lay in that part of Scotland known by the name of Strathmore, or “the great valley.”

The dwelling we now entered was very pleasantly situated near a river called the South Esk, which flows through that part of the country. Between it and the highway was a large field, with a belt of trees on the side next the house; on the other side lay the garden; while beneath the garden, stretching to the river, was what we used to call the haugh, a flat little meadow.

Our dwelling in appearance was not unlike one of those houses which are tenanted by farmers in the south-east of Scotland. Its dimensions, its blue slated roof, and its smooth grass plot, encircled with a gravel walk before the door, bespoke it the abode, if not of affluence, at least of competence. It had not, when planned, been intended as the abode of a servant, but as a residence for the proprietor’s mother, who having been removed by death, we were permitted to occupy it. Had the reader visited that spot in the spring of the year, when the young plantations were arrayed in bright green, the music of wild birds welcoming the morning, while the cowslip, the meadow-crocus, and the primrose studded the banks, and the butter-ball, the wild geranium, and numberless flowers besides, were shooting up amid the tangled maze of yellow whins and broom, wild rose, and scented sweet brier, which covered that little haugh; or had he sauntered down to the river, walked along the pebbles on its shore, and seen the little trout sparkling in the sunbeam as it leaped at the insects that sported upon the surface of the water, he would have called it a pleasant dwelling-place. It was indeed a sunny spot, and the gay children who used to ramble at will amid its beauties, were as happy a little band as could have been found.