" tiA POOR MAN'S FAMILY BOOK."

"THIS book was intended for the use of poor families which have neither money to buy many nor time to read them." So wrote Richard Baxter, 239 years ago, when he sent the "Poor Man's Family Book" in its entirety to the press. One of the greatest objects of his life had been to raise the standard of life among the agricultural population. History witnesses to the amazing effect for good of his ministry in the district around Kidderminster. From this book the diligent reader can gather not only to what state Baxter desired to bring his parishioners, but in what state he found them. The scheme of the work is :catechetical. The teacher proceeds by means of question and answer, and imaginary conversations are set down which take place between the parson and the landlord—and between the parson and the tenant.

Sir Elymas Dives is supposed to be a typical rich man of the period, a landowner and a great enemy of the puritans, whom he regards as "levellers." The author is not alto- gether unfair to his creation—except in the matter of his name. Though he is of course created as a warning, Sir Ely- mas is made to give a reasonable and concise account of his theory of life—of that " quiet and sober religion " which the rich "are for." It is, he says, " to love God and my neighbour, and to do as I would be done by, and to go to Church and say my prayers, and when I have sinned repent and cry God mercy, and trust in Christ, and so be quiet and trouble myself no further." The parson disturbs his quiet by asking him to consider the condition of those tenants whom he has just professed to love. "Pardon me for telling you that I am much among them, and I find : 1. That some of them drink nothing but water, or beer that is little better, and use a diet so unwholesome that it breedeth dropsies, consumptions and deadly sicknesses, having not fire and clothes to keep them warm. 2. That many are so full of cares how to pay their rents and debts that they have no heart to think of the greater business of their souls ; and many are so tired with their excessive labour that when they should pray, or read a chapter, or instruct their families, either they have no time or they are presently with weariness asleep ; yea, tired on the Lord's day with the week's labour. 3. And worst of all they cannot spare their children from work while they learn to read, though I offer them to pay the schoolmaster myself ; much less have they time to catechise and teach them ; so that poverty causeth a generation of barbarians." Elymas is not unnaturally incensed. He abuses his instructor for a hypocrite and adds, " It is the trick of you all to claw the vul- gar by accusing the gentry and nobility of oppression." He has no patience with this new nonsense about the diet and housing of the poor. " The poor live in their way as well as we in ours; their diet and their labour is as suitable to them as ours is to us." Moreover, he thinks it does

great harm to turn their minds so resolutely to religion. What have the ignorant to do with controversial points ?

The parson denies that he ever mentions a controversial point to a poor man, nor does he care in the least to what sect of Christians such an one may belong. There will always be differences of opinion, and he is not a wise man who will

urge upon a friend to delay a journey " which is for his estate or his life till all the clocks in London strike together."

Elymas is soon tired of his interlocutor, and a simple device wipes him out of the book. He catches a fever and dies in his sins, and we hear no more about him.

But what was the poor man like who was brought up under his rule ? Baxter gives us an excellent portrait of him. He is not " grossly wicked nor unconscionable," though he has marked faults. He does not think much about religion because he considers the subject to be " melancholy," and fears it might make him " mopish" ; on the other hand, "he will never scorn nor rail at godliness." He does not rebuke " the merry sensualist," but he does not therefore approve him. He is fond of his children, but criminally careless whatki

company they keep. He will now and then overreach some one in a bargain, and will "drop a petty oath" when he is angry, but he is neither a foul-mouthed nor a cruel man, and "seldom vicious." He does not take offence, as Elymas does, when the minister would have him look at no very favourable portrait of himself—he does not see that it is so very ugly. "I perceive," says his instructor, "that you are all for your- self, though you are quiet and a good neighbour. You speak best of those that do you any good, be they what they will in other respects, and you have always an ill word for those that have fallen out with you, or that think ill or meanly of you, let them be never so honest in all other respects." The poor man admits all this ; but submits that he is always sorry for his sins, and, though he does not leave them, as his conscience and the Scriptures command, he has an inborn conviction that "God will be better than his word "and not deal hardly with him. Secretly we feel that the parson likes him very much, though all he tells him is that his spiritual case "is not remedyless." The rest of the book, together with a pamphlet called "The Catechising of Families," which is bound up with it and con- stantly alluded to in it, is concerned with the remedy.

As Baxter warms to his work, he loses sight—he admits as much in the preface—of the really poor man and addresses himself to a hard-worked and struggling tenant-farmer, whose rent hangs over him like a cloud, but who is in a small way a man in authority, with a labourer or two under him; a man who can read, and if he cannot afford to buy would yet be very glad to borrow a few books. The instruction begins on the spiritual side—and the instructor admits that some of the theology may be beyond his pupil. He therefore recommends him to go forward and return to that first part when he has grasped the more practical portion, remembering that " God is both the beginning and the end." Turning then to his practical advice, the parson would have him forsake the ale- house and give his spare time to his family. The schools— both the village schools and those of the richer sort—are, in Baxter's opinion, very faulty. Religion and morals occupy only two hours in the week, whereas they should be taught every day—how the old controversies come round! Our author likewise laments the amount of time spent upon Latin. The only safe course, then, is to teach religion at home. For thorough teaching time may fail, but every man has time to lead "an answerable life," and all children have time to take example, especially good example—" Knowledge and goodness have a communicative nature." Besides, education does not all depend upon the father, who is presumably overworked—indeed, the mother's share in the work is the larger. "For this [the education of their children] is the moat eminent service that women can do in the world ; and it is so great that they have no cause to grudge at God for the lowness of their place and gifts." Priests and Presbyters all belittle the intellect, but not the influence, of the opposite sex. " Godly mothers may educate children for the magis- tracy, ministry, and all public services by helping them to that honest and holy disposition which is the chief thing neces- sary in every relation to the common good; and so they may become chief instruments of the reformation and welfare of churches and kingdoms and of the world." But, apart from influence, it is the duty of every head of a family to see that his children and servants know the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, and to prove by questioning that they understand them. If possible, he ought also to read aloud to them at stated intervals some "lively book" (several names are suggested), so as to give them something to think about. The conference, however, should not be long enough nor solemn enough to " overwhelm " them—which we gather to mean bore them to death—for the father is bound. to " use all due means to make religion pleasant." Children's moral ambition is to be quickened by the praise of good men, and by the "just disgrace of sots." Parents are warned against such severity as may " discourage " and " disaffect " their children. They are to allow them outdoor recreation, but no games of a nature to make them "subtle," such as cards.

Meanwhile the directions for an "answerable life" continue —all "careless tossing" of the name of.God "in common talk!' is deprecated, but Baxter is less. hard.on swearing than we should have expected. He will not "make a man an offender. for a word." God's name is more fearfully taken in vain by action than speech, he thinks, mike instances the murderers

of heretics, who "father their work on God." His readers have for the most part no temptation to persecute, but he warns them not to be " censorious " nor to " separate from any further than he doth separate from Christ."

The " rules for avoiding sinful injury by buying and selling " are excellent. The first is, " That you work not on the ignor- ance or necessity of another to get more or take less than the worth." No " false words or wiles " are permissible. " If a man be overseen" (make an oversight) it is wrong to hold him to his bargain, "if you can release him without a greater loss." On the other hand, " you must stand to your own word if ho will not discharge you." Usury is not unlawful, but " un- mercif ulness " is. " The law of Moses is dead and done away," but the law of charity may not be broken. Suppose, the hearer asks, that a man has stolen and repented. Baxter is very stern here. He must confess and restore (he makes an exception of the " small " and " usual " offence of orchard robbing by a boy). Is he bound to confess to " a malicious man that will disgrace or ruin him" P The parson thinks the case will seldom occur. "There are few so inhuman as to undo such a penitent "—but in case such a wretch exists the money may be secretly sent. A right.

minded man will probably refuse to accept restitution.

Anyhow, he will not despise the restorer, knowing that "repentance is the greatest honour next to innocence." There are many thieves, he points out, not generally known for such : for instance, dishonest merchants who are worse than " high- way robbers that are hanged," and those who by " quirks in law contrary to equity do beguile men of their right." Again, " it is thievery " to borrow with small hope of repaying, unless a man " acquaint the lender " of his circumstances.

But " what if it would crack my credit and ruin my trade to reveal the hazard and weakness of my estate P " " You must not rob others for fear of ruin to yourself."

The "divers degrees of lying or culpable false speaking " are also duly explained. "It is a sin to drop a falsehood," but " much greater " to write it or " dispute for it." " It is a sin to lie in private talk, but much more to lie. to a magistrate or judge." "False witness in judgment" is a terrible offence—and our instructor marvels at its commonness, and marvels still more that "so few are cut off by it," considering how many are ready to swear away a man's life. He regards the fact as an instance of God's special providence—Who, he warns the reader, "bath revenged false witness on many and made conscience a terrible accuser for this crime." Even "silent self-saving " is by no means safe. On the vexed subject of authority we get a great deal of common-sense. Children are to obey their parents, but there will come a time when places must in a measure change and cLildren must maintain their parents in their-old age, showing them all reverence. Sometimes the same thing occurs where people and rulers are concerned. He does not believe in divine right. It may be true that "There is no power but of God," but "governing power is nothing but right and obligation to rule the people in order to the common good," therefore "destroying the common good is not ruling, nor any act of power given by God." Baxter regarded both the tyranny and the execution of Charles I. as unlawful.

In the matter of divorce our parson sticks closely to the words of the New Testament. He admits hard eases with modern alacrity, yet is certain that the common good and Scripture agree. The great helps, he tells his hearers, to the keeping of the seventh commandment are the grace of God and " constant diligence in a lawful calling."

In his preface Baxter begs his rich readers to bestow his book of domestic instruction " or a better " upon their poorer neighbours. Of what " better " was he thinking—or has it yet to be written P