408

THE CHURCH A BRIDE.

one's sluggish heart a spur. I feel what we really need, both to enable us to carry out, and to suffer, all God's will, is realization of the things we know. How searching is our Lord's word, 'If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.'"

While no one was more alive than Mr. Groves to the com. fort of friendship, he was very jealous of any attachment to himself, which did not spring from love to Christ. He writes of some who were expected to reside in Chittoor :

"They are anxious to come back; it would be a strange turn in the wheel of events if they did; they are most kind, and would, I am sure, attach themselves to me, and to us all; but I have no joy at present in the thought, because I cannot feel that their love to us is accompanied by an enlightened, loving attachment to the truth as it is in Jesus."

In reference to some who spoke of the Church of Christ as a widow, he writes:

"I look on the Church as the expecting bride of a living and victorious, yet contending Lord, and not, as some think, a widow, nor can she be reduced to the feeling of widowhood, but through the dominancy of unbelief. It is our privilege to rejoice in a loving, risen Lord of glory, and while mourning His absence, to be expecting Him as a loving bride assured of final union, and eternal happiness and glory with her Lord.

"I trust M'Cheyne's life will refresh you it is so deeply spiritual and true, free from all those questions of doubtful disputations, which wither the soul's sweetest affections, and make every man the judge of his brother, and in reality, if not in word, say, 'stand by, for I am holier than thou.' I have also been reading a rather interesting paper on the general stagnation of Methodism in all its divisions, or rather going back from its original design. It seems as though love of refinement, love of power, and consequent love of money, were sapping its spiritual strength. How plainly we can see everywhere that the absence of spiritual enjoyment of God, and finding all-sufficiency in Him, is the real source of all declension spiritual affections must be cultivated, for they grow not. so as to render their fruits to the careless husbandman; warı

RECEIVE ALL CHRIST RECEIVES.

409

and true affections toward God, are indeed a spring of unmixed joy, yet how seldom with most are they in lively exercise. The surest way of attaining all we need is in pouring forth prayer in God's ear, under the sweet and firm assurance that Jesus helps our infirmities and directs our petitions; this is so wonderful a grace that nothing but grievous unbelief prevents our enjoying it—and ob! how little do I enjoy! how little do I pray with undistracted thoughts and undisturbed feelings! and yet the conviction that the Lord is with us, if truly felt, would drive away every misgiving. I believe we know little of Satan's power to hinder communion with God."

Writing to his friend, Mr. G. Walker of Teignmouth, he

says:

"One point only is fixed on my mind; to receive all, as Christ receives them, to the glory of God the Father. More than twenty years this point has been deepening in my mind; and all I hear and see makes it more precious: indeed amidst so much weakness and infirmity, with such partial and imperfect views of truth, I see no other way but committing all judgment to the Son, to whom the Father hath committed it. May the Lord give us truly humbled hearts, under our great and grievous sins. How have we abused His gifts. How seldom owned Him in those we have received at His hands! How often made them the instruments of our own selfish, and often sinful, gratification! I feel sure the Lord is waiting to be gracious, and will hear when we seek Him with the whole heart. I much need your prayers that my soul may be kept stayed on Jesus; that I may abound in faith, knowledge, brotherly kindness, love, and that I may be a vessel meet for my Master's use. I am so glad to hear so pleasant an account of your brother's ministry; may he ever hate strifes, divisions, separations, and all those tendencies of the heart which make a brother an offender for a word. Instead of this being a day in which love 'THINKETH NO evil,' it seems to me a day in which man glories in paradoxes; shows how love, not only exists, but that it is an eminent proof of it, to think nothing good, but everything evil of a brother; to diminish nought but

T

410

UNION IN A COMMON LIFE.

exaggerate everything; to call nothing by a gentle name, but to designate the most ordinary acts by the most vituperative appellations; and that 'separation' is God's principle of unity. I am sure, as man now uses it, it is the devil's main spring of confusion. We have five little churches here, and at Poonamalee, among which I am trying to establish a principle of mutual visiting in love; everything here that once was trying is gone, and at present all is harmony and love between us all. Some at home say we are common dissenters. For myself I feel there is nothing I design so little, as to be modelled after any human pattern; but I am very happy when in any matter we think like our brethren, and only wish we could do so more fully." In another letter to the same friend, he says:

"What I feel daily more and more is, that it is the substance of the truth of God, even the revelation of the Father and Son by the Spirit, that the soul needs to live by. There is nothing

I dread more than the systematic imputation of motives which can only be, in ordinary circumstances, known to God. The power of a union in a common life is so strong, that evils, endless in variety, and often intense in character, are not sufficient to divide, when this life is felt to exist. This, surely, is the nature of the unity of God's love with all the members of the one body; nothing should divide when Christ unites. I shall return to my native land with the very feelings I left it, eleven years ago, only strengthened tenfold by experience."

CHAPTER XVII.

A.D. 1846, 1847.

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SUCCESS OF VARIOUS PLANS FOR CARRYING ON THE CHITTOOR MISSION MRS. GROVES'S RETURN TO ENGLAND SUDDEN REVERSE IN CIRCUMSTANCES MR. GROVES'S EXPERIENCE UNDER TRIALS DETAILED IN LETTERS TO HIS SON AND TO MRS. GROVES VISIT TO MADRAS -MINISTRY THERE AMONG CHRISTIANS ARRIVAL OF MR. AND MRS. F. GROVES-RETURN TO CHITTOOR VISIT TO BANGALORE.

It was ever a leading desire of Mr. Groves's heart, and one in which his sons fully participated, not to present to God that which cost him nothing; and by every means to make "the gospel of Christ without charge." (1 Cor. ix, 18.) This was the chief source of that energy in labour which was now displayed; and earnest were the efforts to retrieve the losses which had been sustained, so as to pay all their due and to carry on the work of God independently of help from others.

Rice fields and extensive cocoa-nut plantations succeeded the mulberry trees, which were no longer needed; but Mr. Groves ceased to cultivate the land himself, letting it out on favourable terms both to Christian and heathen cultivators, called in India ryots, who thus earned an honest maintenance, and were brought under Christian instruction. Mr. Groves's faithful servant, Hannai, superintended the planting of the cocoa-nut trees and other work on the farm: she also, under Mr. Groves's direction, let out the land; and when, at the close of 1845, and in 1846, the purchase and shipment of raw sugar, produced in the vicinity, seemed to offer her master an opportunity of speedily recovering his losses, it was she who acted as buyer. For a time all appeared to prosper, and in February 1847, Mrs. Groves went

412

SERIOUS LOSSES IN 1847.

home, by way of the Cape, with her youngest son, then seven years old, expecting that her husband, after finishing certain business, would set out by the overland route, and arrive in England nearly as soon as herself.

Shortly after her departure the largest shipment was made; it was a year well known for sudden and unexpected depression in the sugar market, and Mr. Groves, instead of gaining as before, sustained very serious losses. Thus the Lord's hand seemed again stretched out to afflict His servant; but it is evident from his letters and journals, that God, as in former trials, was dealing with him, not in anger but in love, so that the time of difficulty became literally the time not only of blessing to his own soul, but of natural deliverance. It was in this year that Mr. F. A. Groves arrived with his wife in India, and the Paulhully Sugar Works commenced, which have not only proved a means of help to themselves, but of benefit to others.

Yet before all was arranged, many were the trials that Mr. Groves had to endure, and the circumstance of his being detained in India a year, in separation from his wife, greatly added to his afflictions.

The trials enumerated above are but a part of those he had to bear; over the others it is well to draw a veil, as they have to do with some who are still alive. It is enough to remember this one fact, that all were appointed him of God for his blessing; all were sanctified to him by prayer; all turned into the very dew and rain which caused the life of Christ to flourish ; but the enemy, who ever takes advantage of these times of sorrow, tempted him to look on the past ten years, more in connection with the much trial and little fruit they had brought to him, than in the aspect in which doubtless they stood before God, who looks ever at the purpose toward Himself in all; and he judged himself severely for any mistakes made by him in relation to the past. It was truly a "day of trouble and of rebuke" to him, but withal a time of love; a time of chastening, but also of consolation; of bringing down, and yet raising up. His feelings at this time may be gathered from letters to his eldest son. He writes: