in it, they would feel no
inclination to change employments." "A Christian should never plead
spirituality for being a sloven; if he be but a shoe-cleaner, he should
be the best in the parish." "My principal method for defeating heresy
is by establishing truth. One proposes to fill a bushel with tares;
now if I can fill it first with wheat, I shall defy his attempts." That
his Calvinism was not very dark or sulphureous, seems to be shown from
his repeating with gusto the saying of one of the old women of Olney
when some preacher dwelt on the doctrine of predestination--"Ah, I have
long settled that point; for if God had not chosen me before I was
born, I am sure he would have seen nothing to have chosen me for
afterwards." That he had too much sense to take mere profession for
religion appears from his describing the Calvinists of Olney as of two
sorts, which reminded him of the two baskets of Jeremiah's figs. The
iron constitution which had carried him through so many hardships,
enabled him to continue in his ministry to extreme old age. A friend
at length counselled him to stop before he found himself stopped by
being able to speak no longer. "I cannot stop," he said, raising his
voice. "What! shall the old African blasphemer stop while he can
speak?"

At the instance of a common friend, Newton had paid Mrs. Unwin a visit
at Huntingdon, after her husband's death, and had at once established
the ascendancy of a powerful character over her and Cowper. He now
beckoned the pair to his side, placed them in the house adjoining his
own, and opened a private door between the two gardens, so as to have
his spiritual children always beneath his eye. Under this, in the most
essential respect, unhappy influence, Cowper and Mrs. Unwin together
entered on "a decided course of Christian happiness." That is to say
they spent all their days in a round of religious exercises without
relaxation or relief. On fine summer evenings, as the sensible Lady
Hesketh saw with dismay, instead of a walk, there was a prayer-meeting.
Cowper himself was made to do violence to his intense shyness by
leading in prayer. He was also made to visit the poor at once on
spiritual missions, and on that of almsgiving, for which Thornton, the
religious philanthropist, supplied Newton and his disciples with means.
This, which Southey appears to think about the worst part of Newton's
regimen, was probably its redeeming feature. The effect of doing g