CONCLUSION. Summary of the Faith and Character...
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CONCLUSION.
Summary of the Faith and Character of Mr. Davis.
This Memoir evidences that Richard Davis was A MAN OF GENUINE HUMILITY. He was humble in his own estimation. He lay passive in the hands of his covenant God. He sought not high things for himself. The ardent desire of his soul was not exaltation, but self-devotion to the cause of Christ, and usefulness in his day and generation. Many heartfelt expressions of deepest humility have been omitted in the transcripts of his letters and Journal to avoid a too frequent repetition of the same topic, as well as to obviate all possible misapprehension--that none might form a lower estimate of his character and missionary labours than they justly merit.
This Memoir evidences that he was A MAN OF PEACE. He enjoyed peace with God, assured by the inward witness of the Spirit of his individual interest in the finished salvation of Christ. Having peace with God and peace in his own soul, he sought to live peaceably with all men. His peaceful disposition was manifested by the meekness with which he endured the contradiction of sinners at Stourton Caundle, his insulting persecution during the voyage from Greenwich to Port Jackson, and the gross
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neglect of himself and family, where such neglect could scarcely have been anticipated. For his pacific self-denying conduct under most trying circumstances in New Zealand, especially in regard to the litigated Land Question, and his habitual promotion of peace and goodwill among all the members of the mission family, I confidently appeal to the Right Rev. W. Williams, Bishop of Waiapu, and to the Venerable H. Williams, Archdeacon of Waimate, his former associates in missionary labours, whom he highly respected and most dearly loved. And I must add my own testimony, that during my prolonged personal intercourse and epistolary correspondence with him, from 1816 to 1863--a space of forty-seven years,--not one unpleasant word nor one difference ever occurred between us.
This Memoir evidences that he was A MAN OF A CATHOLIC SPIRIT. He loved all of every denomination who I loved Christ and reflected His image. Witness his kindness to James Crocker, whose first religious impressions were the product of Wesleyan teaching. Witness how harmoniously he wrought with the Wesleyan Mission in New Zealand, ever ready to counsel, advise, and assist them. The presence of his eldest daughter (now Mrs. Matthews), and her recognition by one of the chiefs, preserved the lives of the Wesleyan missionaries when their I property was despoiled in the Bay of Islands. Yet no man could be further removed from their denominational peculiarities. The doctrinal writings of Owen, Hervey, Whitfield, Romaine, and Scott in England, and of Brainerd and President Edwards in America, were dear to his soul, animated him in his missionary labours, and had his cor-
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dial acquiescence and concurrence. The sovereignty of Jehovah in providence and grace, upholding, directing, and controlling all things here below, was ever the anchor of his hope, the sustentation of his faith.
This Memoir evidences that, in the pursuit of religious knowledge, he was A MAN OF AN INDEPENDENT SPIRIT, not implicitly adopting the sentiments of others, but testing the fallible word of man by the infallible Word of God,-- the unerring standard of faith and practice. Witness his caution against the misuse of commentaries, a misuse calculated rather to produce head-knowledge than saving faith in the heart (p. 121). Witness his contrariety to the practice of this age in his condemnation of religious novels and works of fiction, because they gratify the fancy, but edify not the soul (pp. 214 and 371). Witness his protest against excessive imitation of the image of Christ IMPERFECTLY reflected in the lives and writings of His holy ones, and his exhortation to imitation of that image PERFECTLY delineated in the Scriptures of truth (p. 408).
This Memoir evidences that his self-denying, persevering, and successful missionary exertion resulted from the conviction, deeply impressed on his mind, that THE GOSPEL PROCLAIMED IN FAITH AND INTEGRITY CAN NEVER BE PREACHED IN VAIN. The Dorsetshire farmer spurned the utilitarian maxim, that AN AXE WAS THE BEST MISSIONARY FOR NEW ZEALAND. (See p. 106.) He rejected the groundless figment, that civilisation must precede evangelization, and prepare the Maoris for the reception of the ever-blessed Gospel. He boldly uplifted the banner of the cross. In season and out of season, in public and in pri-
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vate, he proclaimed Christ the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He obeyed Christ's command, "Follow Me." In him was pre-eminently fulfilled the promise made by Christ, "I will make you fishers of men." He believed all faithful ministers and missionaries to be heaven-sent, heaven-taught, heaven-commissioned messengers of God, guided by His providence and sanctified by His Spirit. He believed that God never sends the Gospel to any place in vain, but that it is always an effective call to the soul or souls, for whom, and to whom, God especially designed it. On this habitual persuasion he acted, and, according to his faith, he experienced, that the seed sown, and instruction given, returned not void, but accomplished that gracious purpose for which God had sent him.
This Memoir evidences that he both felt in his own heart, and proclaimed to others, THE FULL ASSURANCE OF UNDERSTANDING, FAITH, AND HOPE. He inculcated and reiterated this Divine truth in the privacy of correspondence, and the publicity of preaching. He enforced assurance as an efficient cause of holiness, separation from the world, and habitual communion with Jesus, as well as the essential prerequisite to rejoicing in Christ, to joy and peace in believing. From his earliest religious experience to his dying hour he habitually realized in his own heart, and maintained without wavering, that "the work of righteousness is PEACE, and the effect of righteousness QUIETNESS and ASSURANCE FOR EVER" (Isa. xxxii. 17). He could say with the royal Psalmist, "He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: this is all MY salvation and all MY desire " (2 Sam. xxiii. 5).
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This Memoir evidences that the habitual and pre-eminent desire of his soul was centered in THE REUNION AND RECOGNITION OF SAINTS IN GLORY at the predicted Epiphany of Jehovah-Jesus, when all the redeemed shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Christ will drink wine new with them in His Father's kingdom. His creed was Christ crucified and Christ glorified. By faith he embraced the former, by hope he realized the latter. "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly," was his constant prayer. His last words, "MEET ME IN HEAVEN," addressed to his weeping family surrounding his bed of death, manifest the ardent desire of his soul in extremis, that all his family, and all his Christian friends should meet him in perfection of knowledge, sanctification, and glory, and with him should enter into that Sabbatic rest which remaineth to the people of God.
His life exemplifies the sovereignty of Divine grace in imparting conviction, conversion, and salvation. " I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain."
His life exemplifies the watchful providence of the good Shepherd over His sheep, howsoever circumstanced, and wheresoever situated in this wilderness-world, causing all things to work together for their spiritual and eternal good, providing them with spiritual food, manifesting to them His presence as He does not to the world, working in them to will and to do according to His good pleasure, and finally conducting them to that haven of rest, where
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they would be. "I know My sheep, and am known of Mine."
His life exemplifies how the great Head of the Church sends forth missionary labourers into His vineyard, paves the way for their departure from their native shores, qualifies them intellectually and spiritually for their assigned work, and crowns their labours with superabundant fruit, some thirty, some sixty, and some an hundred fold. "I will work, and who shall let it?--not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts."
His life is a sure prognostic of that blissful era, when Richard Davis who has sown, and the many Maoris who have reaped, converted unto God by his instrumentality, his hope and joy and crown of rejoicing, shall ascribe their common salvation "unto Him that loved them, and washed them from their sins in His own blood, and hath made them kings and priests unto God His Father; to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." (Rev. i. 5, 6.) "These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple: and He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes" (Rev. vii. 14-17).
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