Memoirs of the Life and Labours of the Rev. Samuel Marsden, of Paramatta, Senior Chaplain of New South Wales; and of His Early Connexion with the Missions to New Zealand and TahitiMarsden, Samuel
Religion
Memoirs of the Life and Labours of the Rev. Samuel Marsden, of Paramatta, Senior Chaplain of New South Wales; and of His Early Connexion with the Missions to New Zealand and Tahiti
Marsden, Samuel
Marsden, Samuel, 1765-1838; Missions -- French Polynesia -- Tahiti (Island); Missions -- New Zealand; Māori (New Zealand people)
and the bench of magistrates grew at length ashamed, in the presence of
the chaplain of Paramatta, of its own hitherto unabashed licentiousness.
But the cost was great. He was involved in secular business from day to
day, and that often of the most painful kind. His equal-handed justice
made him a host of personal enemies in those whose vices he punished;
and, still more, in those whose corrupt and partial administration of
the law was rebuked by the example of his integrity. In the share he was
obliged to take in the civil affairs of the colony differences of
opinion would naturally arise, and angry feelings would, as usual
follow. Of course he was not free from human infirmity, his own temper
was sometimes disturbed. Thus for years, especially during his early
residence in New South Wales, he was in frequent collision with the
magistrates, and occasionally even with the governor. Again and again he
would have resigned his commission, but was not allowed to do so;
meanwhile his mind was often distracted and his character maligned. To
these trials we shall be obliged to refer as we trace his steps through
life; but we mean to do so as seldom as we can, for the subject is
painful, and, since few men can ever be placed in his circumstances, to
most of us unprofitable.
[C] Lord Brougham.
Another point on which Mr. Marsden's conduct has been severely, and yet
most unjustly blamed, is that he was engaged in the cultivation of a
considerable tract of land. Avarice and secularity were roundly charged
upon him in consequence; for it was his painful lot through life to be
incessantly accused not only of failings of which he was quite
guiltless, but of those which were the most opposite to his real
character. A more purely disinterested and unselfish man perhaps never
lived. One who under the constant disturbance of every kind of business
and employment, still "walked" more "humbly with his God," is not often
to be found. Yet the cry once raised against him was never hushed; until
at length, having rung in his ears through life, as a warning to him, no
doubt, even in his brightest moments of success, that he should "cease
from man," it was suddenly put to shame at last and buried with him in
his grave.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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