,illustration3 ,,theodore ,,ledyard ,,cuyler ,,recollections ,,of ,a ,,long ,,life ,,an ,,autobiography ,,by ,,theodore ,,ledyard ,,cuyler1 ,d4,d41 ,,ll4,d4 ,author of ,god's ,light on ,dark ,clouds1 ,heart ,life1 ,etc4 #aijb4 ,,contents ,i ,,boyhood ,,and ,,college ,,life ,,ii ,,great ,,britain ,,sixty ,,years ,,ago ,wordsworth--,dickens--,the ,land of ,burns1 etc4 ,,iii ,,great ,,britain ,,sixty ,,years ,,ago 7,continued7 ,carlyle--,mrs4 ,baillie--,the ,young ,queen--,napoleon ,,iv ,,hymn-,,writers ,i ,,have ,,known ,montgomery--,bonar--,bowring--,palmer and others4 ,v ,,the ,,temperance ,,reform ,,and ,,my ,,co-,,workers ,,vi ,,work ,,in ,,the ,,pulpit ,,vii ,,experience ,,in ,,revivals ,,viii ,,authorship ,,ix ,,some ,,famous ,,people ,,abroad ,gladstone--,dr4 ,brown--,dean ,stanley--,shaftesbury1 etc4 ,x ,,some ,,famous ,,people ,,at ,,home ,irving--,whittier--,webster--,greeley1 etc4 ,,xi ,,the ,,civil ,,war ,,and ,,abraham ,,lincoln ,,xii ,,pastoral ,,work ,,xiii ,,some ,,famous ,,preachers ,,in ,,britain ,binney--,hamilton--,guthrie--,hall--,sp urgeon--,duff and others4 ,,xiv ,,some ,,famous ,,american ,,preachers ,the ,alexanders--,dr4 ,tyng--,dr4 ,cox--,dr4 ,adams --,dr4 ,storrs--,mr4 ,beecher1 ,mr4 ,finney and ,dr4 ,b4,m4 ,palmer4 ,,xv ,,summering ,,at ,,saratoga ,,and ,,mohonk ,bishop ,haven--,dr4 ,schaff--,president ,mc,cook4 ,,xvi ,a ,,retrospect ,,xvii ,a ,,retrospect 7,continued7 ,,xviii ,,home ,,life ,,xix ,,life ,,at ,,home ,,and ,,friends ,,abroad ,,xx ,,the ,,joys ,,of ,,the ,,christian ,,ministry ,a ,valedictory ,discourse ,delivered to the ,lafayette ,avenue ,church1 ,april #f1 #ahij4 ,,illustrations4 ,,theodore ,,ledyard ,,cuyler ,,dr4 ,,cuyler ,,when ,,pastor ,,of ,,the ,,market ,,st4 ,,church ,,dr ,,cuyler ,,at #ej ,,lafayette ,,avenue ,,church ,,dr4 ,,cuyler ,,at #hj ,,recollections ,,of ,a ,,long ,,life ,,chapter ,i ,,my ,,boyhood ,,and ,,college ,,life ,washington ,irving has somewhere said that it is a happy thing to have been born near some noble mountain or attractive river or lake1 which should be a landmark through all the journey of life1 and to which we could tether our memory4 ,i have always been thankful that the place of my nativity was the beautiful village of ,aurora1 on the shores of the ,cayuga ,lake in ,western ,new ,york4 ,my great-grandfather1 ,general ,benjamin ,ledyard1 was one of its first settlers1 and came there in #agid4 ,he was a native of ,new ,london ,county1 ,ct41 a nephew of ,col4 ,william ,ledyard1 the heroic martyr of ,fort ,griswold1 and the cousin of ,john ,ledyard1 the celebrated traveller1 whose biography was written by ,jared ,sparks4 ,when ,general ,ledyard came to ,aurora some of the ,cayuga tribe of ,indians were still lingering along the lakeside1 and an ,indian chief said to my great-grandfather1 ,general ,ledyard1 ,i see that your daughters are very pretty squaws4 ,the eldest of these comely daughters1 ,mary ,forman ,ledyard1 was married to my grandfather1 ,glen ,cuyler1 who was the principal lawyer of the village1 and their eldest son was my father1 ,benjamin ,ledyard ,cuyler4 ,he became a student of ,hamilton ,college1 excelled in elocution1 and was a room-mate of the ,hon4 ,gerrit ,smith1 afterward eminent as the champion of anti-slavery4 ,on a certain ,sabbath1 the student just home from college was called upon to read a sermon in the village church of ,aurora1 in the absence of the pastor1 and his handsome visage and graceful delivery won the admiration of a young lady of sixteen1 who was on a visit to ,aurora4 ,three years afterward they were married4 ,my mother1 ,louisa ,frances ,morrell1 was a native of ,morristown1 ,new ,jersey2 and her ancestors were among the founders of that beautiful town4 ,her maternal great-grandfather was the ,rev4 ,dr4 ,timothy ,johnes1 the pastor of the ,presbyterian ,church1 who administered the sacrament of the ,lord's ,supper to ,general ,washington4 ,her paternal great-grandfather was the ,rev4 ,azariah ,horton1 pastor of a church near ,morristown1 and an intimate friend of the great ,president ,edwards4 ,the early settlers of ,aurora were people of culture and refinement2 and the village is now widely known as the site of ,wells ,college1 among whose graduates is the popular wife of ex-,president ,cleveland4 ,in the days of my childhood the march of modern improvements had hardly begun4 ,there was a small steamboat plying on the ,cayuga ,lake4 ,there was not a single railway in the whole ,state4 ,when ,i went away to school in ,new ,jersey1 at the age of thirteen1 the tedious journey by the stagecoach required three days and two nights2 every letter from home cost eighteen cents for postage2 and the youngsters pored over ,webster's spelling-books and ,morse's geography by tallow candles2 for no gas lamps had been dreamed of and the wood fires were covered1 in most houses1 by nine o'clock on a winter evening4 ,there was plain living then1 but not a little high thinking4 ,if books were not so superabundant as in these days1 they were more thoroughly appreciated and digested4 ,my father1 who was just winning a brilliant position at the ,cayuga ,county ,bar1 died in ,june1 #ahbf1 at the early age of twenty-eight1 when ,i was but four and one-half years old4 ,the only distinct recollections that ,i have of him are his leading me to school in the morning1 and that he once punished me for using a profane word that ,i had heard from some rough boys4 ,that wholesome bit of discipline kept me from ever breaking the ,third ,commandment again4 ,after his death1 ,i passed entirely into the care of one of the best mothers that ,god ever gave to an only son4 ,she was more to me than school1 pastor or church1 or all combined4 ,god made mothers before ,he made ministers2 the progress of ,christ's kingdom depends more upon the influence of faithful1 wise1 and pious mothers than upon any other human agency4 ,as ,i was an only child1 my widowed mother gave up her house and took me to the pleasant home of her father1 ,mr4 ,charles ,horton ,morrell1 on the banks of the lake1 a few miles south of ,aurora4 ,how thankful ,i have always been that the next seven or eight years of my happy childhood were spent on the beautiful farm of my grandfather6 ,i had the free pure air of the country1 and the simple pleasures of the farmhouse2 my grandfather was a cultured gentleman with a good library1 and at his fireside was plenty of profitable conversation4 ,out of school hours ,i did some work on the farm that suited a boy2 ,i drove the cows to the pasture1 and rode the horses sometimes in the hay-field1 and carried in the stock of firewood on winter afternoons4 ,my intimate friends were the house-dog1 the chickens1 the kittens and a few pet sheep in my grandfather's flocks4 ,that early work on the farm did much toward providing a stock of physical health that has enabled me to preach for fifty-six years without ever having spent a single ,sabbath on a sick-bed6 ,my ,sabbaths in that rural home were like the good old ,puritan ,sabbaths1 serene and sacred1 with neither work nor play4 ,our church 7,presbyterian7 was three miles away1 and in the winter our family often fought our way through deep mud1 or through snow-drifts piled as high as the fences4 ,i was the only child among grown-up uncles and aunts1 and the first ,sunday-school that ,i ever attended had only one scholar1 and my good mother was the superintendent4 ,she gave me several verses of the ,bible to commit thoroughly to memory and explained them to me2 ,i also studied the ,westminster ,catechism4 ,i was expected to study ,god's ,book for myself1 and not to sit and be crammed by a teacher1 after the fashion of too many ,sunday-schools in these days1 where the scholars swallow down what the teacher brings to them1 as young birds open their mouths and swallow what the old bird brings to the nest4 ,there is a lamentable ignorance of the language of ,scripture among the rising generation of ,america1 and too often among the children of professedly ,christian families4 ,the books that ,i had to feast on in the long winter evenings were ,robinson ,crusoe1 ,sanford and ,merton1 ,the ,pilgrim's ,progress1 and the few volumes in my grandfather's library that were within the comprehension of a child of eight or ten years old4 ,i wept over ,paul and ,virginia1 and laughed over ,john ,gilpin1 the scene of whose memorable ride ,i have since visited at the ,bell of ,edmonton1 ,during the first quarter of the nineteenth century drunkenness was fearfully prevalent in ,america2 and the drinking customs wrought their sad havoc in every circle of society4 ,my grandfather was one of the first agriculturists to banish intoxicants from his farm1 and ,i signed a pledge of total abstinence when ,i was only ten or eleven years old4 ,previously to that1 ,i had got a taste of prohibition that made a profound impression on me4 ,one day ,i discovered some cherrybounce in a wine-glass on my grandfather's sideboard1 and ,i ventured to swallow the tempting liquor4 ,when my vigilant mother discovered what ,i had done1 she administered a dose of ,solomon's regimen in a way that made me bounce most merrily4 ,that wholesome chastisement for an act of disobedience1 and in the direction of tippling1 made me a teetotaller for life2 and1 let me add1 that the first public address ,i ever delivered was at a great temperance gathering 7with ,father ,theobald ,mathew7 in the ,city ,hall of ,glasgow during the summer of #ahdb4 ,my mother's discipline was loving but thorough2 she never bribed me to good conduct with sugar-plums2 she praised every commendable deed heartily1 for she held that an ounce of honest praise is often worth more than many pounds of punishment4 ,during my infancy that godly mother had dedicated me to the ,lord1 as truly as ,hannah ever dedicated her son ,samuel4 ,when my paternal grandfather1 who was a lawyer1 offered to bequeath his law-library to me1 my mother declined the tempting offer1 and said to him3 ,i fully expect that my little boy will yet be a minister4 ,this was her constant aim and perpetual prayer1 and ,god graciously answered her prayer of faith in ,his own good time and way4 ,i cannot now name any time1 day1 or place when ,i was converted4 ,it was my faithful mother's steady and constant influence that led me gradually along1 and ,i grew into a religious life under her potent training1 and by the power of the ,holy ,spirit working through her agency4 ,a few years ago ,i gratefully placed in that noble ,lafayette ,avenue ,presbyterian ,church of ,brooklyn 7of which ,i was the founder and pastor for thirty years7 a beautiful memorial window to my beloved mother representing ,hannah and her child ,samuel1 and the fitting inscription3 ,as long as he liveth ,i have lent him to the ,lord4 ,for several good reasons ,i did not make a public profession of my faith in ,jesus ,christ until ,i left school and entered the college at ,princeton1 ,new ,jersey4 ,the religious impressions that began at home continued and deepened until ,i united1 at the age of seventeen1 with the ,church of the ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,as an effectual instruction in righteousness1 my faithful mother's letters to me when a schoolboy were more than any sermons that ,i heard during all those years4 ,i feel now that the happy fifty-six years that ,i have spent in the glorious ministry of the ,gospel of ,redemption is the direct outcome of that beloved mother's prayers1 teaching example1 and holy influence4 ,my preparation for college was partly under the private tutorship of the good old ,dutch dominie1 the ,rev4 ,gerrit ,mandeville1 who smoked his pipe tranquilly while ,i recited to him my lessons in ,caesar's ,commentaries1 and ,virgil2 and partly in the well-known ,hill ,top ,school1 at ,mendham1 ,n4,j4 ,i entered ,princeton college at the age of sixteen and graduated at nineteen1 for in those days the curriculum in our schools and universities was more brief than at present4 ,the ,princeton college to which ,i came was rather a primitive institution in comparison with the splendid structures that now crown the ,university heights4 ,there were only seven or eight plain buildings surrounding the campus1 the two society-halls being the only ones that boasted architectural beauty4 ,in endowments the college was as poor as a church mouse4 ,there were no college clubs1 no inter-collegiate games1 thronged by thousands of people from all over the land2 but the period of my connection with the college was really a golden period in its history4 ,never were its chairs held by more distinguished occupants4 ,the president of the college was ,dr4 ,carnahan1 who1 although without a spark of genius1 was yet a man of huge common sense1 kindness of heart and excellent executive ability4 ,in the chair of the vice-president sat dear old ,uncle ,johnny ,mc,lean1 the best-loved man that ever trod the streets of ,princeton4 ,he was the policeman of the faculty1 and his astuteness in detecting the pranks of the students was only equalled by his anxiety to befriend them after they were detected4 ,the polished culture of ,dr4 ,james ,w4 ,alexander then adorned the ,chair of the ,latin ,language and ,english ,literature4 ,dr4 ,john ,torrey held the chemical professorship4 ,he was engaged with ,dr4 ,gray in preparing the history of ,american ,flora4 ,stephen ,alexander's modest eye had watched ,orion and the ,seven ,stars through the telescope of the astronomer2 the flashing wit and silvery voice of ,albert ,b4 ,dod1 then in his splendid prime1 threw a magnetic charm over the higher mathematics4 ,and in that old laboratory1 with negro ,sam as his assistant1 reigned ,joseph ,henry1 the acknowledged king of ,american scientists4 ,when1 soon after1 he gave me a note of ,introduction to ,sir ,michael ,faraday1 ,faraday said to me3 ,by far the greatest man of science your country has produced since ,benjamin ,franklin is ,professor ,henry4 ,with ,professor ,henry ,i formed a very intimate friendship1 and after he became the head of the ,smithsonian ,institution ,i found a home with him whenever ,i went to ,washington4 ,our class1 which graduated in #ahda1 contained several members who have since made a deep mark in church and commonwealth4 ,professor ,archibald ,alexander ,hodge was one of us4 ,he inherited the name and much of the power of his distinguished father4 ,also ,general ,francis ,p4 ,blair1 who rendered heroic service on the battle-field4 ,john ,t4 ,nixon brought to the bench of the ,united ,states ,court1 and ,edward ,w4 ,scudder brought to the ,supreme ,court ,bench of ,new ,jersey1 legal learning and ,christian consciences4 ,richard ,w4 ,walker became a distinguished man in the ,southern ,confederacy4 ,our class sent four men to professor's chairs in ,princeton4 ,my best beloved classmate was ,john ,t4 ,duffield1 who1 after a half century of service as professor of mathematics in the ,university1 closed his noble and beneficent career on the #ajth of ,april1 #aija4 ,i delivered the memorial tribute to him soon afterward in the ,second ,presbyterian ,church in the presence of the authorities of the ,university4 ,another intimate friend was the ,hon4 ,amzi ,dodd1 ex-chancellor of ,new ,jersey and the ex-president of the ,new ,jersey ,life ,insurance ,company4 ,he is still a resident of that ,state4 ,during the past three-score years it has been my privilege to deliver between sixty and seventy sermons or addresses in ,princeton1 either to the students of the ,university or of the ,theological ,seminary1 or to the residents of the town4 ,the place has become inexpressibly dear to me as a magnificent stronghold of ,christian culture and orthodox faith1 on the walls of whose institutions the smile of ,god gleams like the light of the morning4 ,o ,princeton1 ,princeton6 in the name of the thousands of thy loyal sons1 let me gratefully say1 ,if we forget thee1 may our right hands forget their cunning1 and our tongues cleave to the roofs of our mouths6 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,great ,,britain ,,sixty ,,years ,,ago ,wordsworth--,dickens--,the ,land of ,burns1 etc4 ,the year after leaving college ,i made a visit to ,europe1 which1 in those days1 was a notable event4 ,as the stormy ,atlantic had not yet been carpeted by six-day steamers1 ,i crossed in a fine new packet-ship1 the ,patrick ,henry1 of the ,grinnell ,minturn ,line4 ,captain ,joseph ,c4 ,delano was a gentleman of high intelligence and culture who1 after he had abandoned salt water1 became an active member of the ,american ,association of ,science4 ,after twenty-one days under canvas and the instructions of the captain1 ,i learned more of nautical affairs and of the ocean and its ways than in a dozen subsequent passages in the steamships4 ,on the second morning after our arrival in ,liverpool ,i breakfasted with that eminent clergyman1 ,dr4 ,raffles1 who boasted the possession of one of the finest collections of autographs in ,england4 ,he showed me the signature of ,john ,bunyan2 the original manuscript of one of ,sir ,walter ,scott's novels2 the original of ,burns' poem addressed to the parasite on a lady's bonnet1 which contained the famous lines3 ,oh wad some power the giftie gie us ,to see our sel's as others see us1 besides several other manuscripts by the same poet1 and also the autograph of a challenge sent by ,byron to ,lord ,brougham for alleged insult1 a fact to which no reference has been made in ,byron's biography4 ,from ,liverpool1 with my friends ,professor ,renwick and ,professor ,cuningham1 ,i set out on a journey to the lakes of ,england4 ,we reached ,bowness1 on ,lake ,windermere1 in the evening4 ,the next morning we went up to ,elleray1 the country residence of ,professor ,wilson 7,christopher ,north71 who1 unfortunately1 was absent in ,edinburgh4 ,we hired a boatman to row us through exquisitely beautiful ,windermere1 and in the evening reached the ,salutation ,inn1 at the foot of the lake4 ,my great interest in visiting ,ambleside was to see the venerable poet1 ,wordsworth1 who lived about a mile from the village4 ,i happened1 just before supper1 to look out of the window of the traveller's room and espied an old man in a blue cloak and ,glengarry cap1 with a bunch of heather stuck jauntily in the top1 driving by in a little brown phaeton from ,rydal ,mount4 ,perhaps1 thought ,i to myself1 that may be the patriarch himself1 and sure enough it was4 ,for1 when ,i inquired about ,mr4 ,wordsworth1 the landlord said to me1 ,a few minutes ago he went by here in his little carriage4 ,the next morning ,i called upon him4 ,the walk to his cottage was delightful1 with the dew still lingering in the shady nooks by the roadside1 and the morning songs of thanksgiving bursting forth from every grove4 ,at the summit of a deeply shaded hill ,i found ,rydal ,mount cottage4 ,i was shown1 at once1 into the sitting-room1 where ,i found him with his wife1 who sat sewing beside him4 ,the old man rose and received me graciously4 ,by his appearance ,i was somewhat startled4 ,instead of a grave recluse in scholastic black1 whom ,i expected to see1 ,i found an affable and lovable old man dressed in the roughest coat of blue with metal buttons1 and checked trousers1 more like a ,new ,york farmer than an ,english poet4 ,his nose was very large1 his forehead a lofty dome of thought1 and his long white locks hung over his stooping shoulders2 his eyes presented a singular1 half closed appearance4 ,we entered at once into a delightful conversation4 ,he made many inquiries about ,irving1 ,mrs4 ,sigourney and our other ,american authors1 and spoke1 with great vehemence1 in favor of an international copyright law4 ,he said that at one time he had hoped to visit ,america1 but the duties of a small office which he held 7,distributer of ,stamps71 and upon which he was partly dependent1 prevented the undertaking4 ,he occasionally made a trip to ,london to see the few survivors of the friends of his early days1 but he told me that his last excursion had proved a wearisome effort4 ,his library was small but select4 ,he took down an ,american edition of his works1 edited by ,professor ,reed1 and told me that ,london had never produced an edition equal to it4 ,when ,i was about to leave1 the good old poet got his broad slouched hat and put on his double purple glasses to protect his eyes1 and we went out to enjoy the neighboring views4 ,we walked about from one point to another and kept up a lively conversation4 ,he displayed such a winning familiarity that1 in the language of his own poem1 we seemed ,a pair of friends1 though ,i was young1 ,and he was seventy-four4 ,from the rear of his court-yard he showed me ,rydal ,water1 a little lake about a mile long1 the beautiful church1 and beyond it1 ,grassmere1 and still further beyond1 ,helvelyn1 the mountain-king with a retinue of a hundred hills4 ,i might have spent the whole day in delightful intercourse with the old man1 but my fellow-travellers were going1 and ,i could make no longer inroads upon their time4 ,when we returned to the door of his cottage1 he gave me a parting blessing2 he picked a small yellow flower and handed it to me1 and ,i still preserve it in my edition of his works1 as a relic of the most profound and the most sublime poet that ,england has produced during the nineteenth century ,i know of but one other living ,american who has ever visited ,wordsworth at ,rydal ,mount4 ,after passing through ,keswick1 where the venerable poet ,southey was still lingering in sadly failing intelligence1 we reached ,carlisle the same evening4 ,from ,carlisle we took the mail-coach for ,edinburgh by the same route over which ,sir ,walter ,scott was accustomed to make his journeys up to ,london4 ,the driver1 who might have answered to ,washington ,irving's description1 pointed out to me ,netherby ,hall1 the mansion of the ,grahams1 on ,cannobie lea1 over which the young ,lochinvar bore away his stolen bride4 ,we passed also ,branksome ,tower1 the scene of the ,lay of the ,last ,minstrel1 and reached ,selkirk in the early evening4 ,the next day ,i spent at ,abbotsford4 ,the ,great ,magician had been dead only ten years1 and his family still occupied the house with some of his old employees who figure in ,lockhart's biography4 ,i sat in the great arm-chair where ,sir ,walter ,scott wrote many of his novels1 and looked out of the window of his bedchamber1 through which came the rippling murmurs of the ,tweed1 that consoled his dying hours4 ,i heartily subscribe to the opinion1 expressed by ,tennyson1 that ,sir ,walter ,scott was the most extraordinary man in ,british literature since the days of ,shakespeare4 ,after reaching ,glasgow ,i made a brief trip into the ,land of ,burns4 ,at the town of ,ayr ,i found an omnibus waiting to take me down to the birthplace of the poet4 ,at that time the number of visitors to these regions was comparatively few1 and the birthplace of the poet had not been transformed1 as now1 into a crowded museum4 ,on reaching a slight elevation1 since consecrated by the muse of ,burns1 there broke upon the view his monument1 his native cottage1 ,alloway ,kirk1 the scene of the inimitable ,tam o' ,shanter1 and behind them all the ,banks and ,braes of ,bonnie ,doon4 ,i went first to the monument1 within which on a centre table are the two volumes of the ,bible given by ,burns to ,highland ,mary when they lived one day of parting love beneath the hawthorn of ,coilsfield4 ,one of the volumes contains1 in ,burns' handwriting1 ,thou shalt not forswear thyself1 but shalt perform unto the ,lord thy vows1 and a lock of ,mary's hair1 of a light brown color1 given at the time1 is preserved in the treasured volumes4 ,a few steps away is ,alloway ,kirk4 ,the old sexton was standing by the grave of ,burns' father1 and described to me the route of ,tam o' ,shanter4 ,he showed me the chinks in the sides through which the kirk seemed all in a bleeze1 and he pointed out the identical place on the wall where ,old ,nick was presiding over the midnight revels of the beldames when-- ,louder and louder the piper blew1 ,swifter and swifter the dancers flew4 ,after the old man had finished his recital1 ,i asked him whether he had ever seen the poet4 ,only aince1 he replied4 ,that was one day when he was ridin' on a road near here4 ,i met a friend who told me to hurry up1 for ,rabbie ,burns was just ahead4 ,i whippit up my horse1 and came up to a roughly dressed man1 ridin' slowly along1 with his blue bonnet pulled down over his forehead1 and his eyes turned toward the groond4 ,didn't you speak to him8 ,i said4 ,nay1 nay1 replied the man1 in a tone of deep reverence1 he was ,rabbie ,burns4 ,i dare na speak to him4 ,if he had been any other mon ,i would have said 'good morrow to ye4' ,beautiful and eloquent tribute1 paid by an unlettered peasant1 not to rank or to wealth1 but to a soul--a mighty soul though clad in hodden grey like himself6 ,the most interesting object was yet to be visited--the cottage of his birth1 ,i entered it with reverence2 and a well dressed1 but very old1 woman welcomed me in4 ,this is the room1 she said4 ,i looked around on the rough stone walls and could not believe that it ever contained such a soul2 for the cottage1 with all its subsequent repairs1 was hardly equal to the generality of our early log cabins4 ,the old lady was very affable4 ,in her early life she had been connected with an inn at ,mauchline1 and had seen the poet often4 ,rabbie was a funny fellow1 she said2 ,i ken'd him weel2 and he stoppit at our hoose on his way up to ,edinburgh to see the lairds4 ,i asked her if he was not always humorous4 ,nae1 nae1 she replied1 he used to come in and sit doun wi' his hands in his lap like a bashful country lad2 very glum1 till he got a drap o' whuskey1 or heard a gude story1 and then he was aff6 ,he was very poorly in his latter days4 ,those closing days in ,dumfries1 steeped in poverty to the lips1 forms one of the most tragic chapters in literary history2 and ,i know scarcely anything in our language more pathetic than the letter which he wrote describing his wretched bondage to the dominion of strong drink4 ,an old lady of ,kilmarnock told my friend1 the late ,dr4 ,taylor of ,new ,york1 that when a young woman she had gone to ,burns' house to assist in preparations for his funeral1 and stated that there was not enough decent linen in the house to lay out the most splendid genius in all ,scotland6 ,when ,i was at ,ayr1 a sister of ,burns1 ,mrs4 ,begg1 was still living1 and ,i am always regretting that ,i did not call upon her4 ,his widow1 ,jean ,armour1 had died but a few years before2 and when a certain pert ,american who called upon the old lady had the audacity to ask her3 ,can you show me any relics of the poet8 answered with majestic dignity3 ,sir1 ,i am the only relic of ,robert ,burns4 ,i went abroad on this first visit to ,europe keen for lion hunting1 and with an eager desire to see some of the men who had been my literary benefactors4 ,on my arrival in ,london1 having a letter of introduction to ,charles ,dickens1 which a mutual friend had given to me1 ,i resolved to present it4 ,charles ,dickens was an idol of my college days1 and ,i had spent a few minutes with him in ,philadelphia during his recent visit to the ,united ,states4 ,he had returned from his triumphal tour about a month before ,i landed in ,liverpool4 ,i called at his house1 but he was not at home4 ,the next day he did me the honor to call on me at ,morley's ,hotel1 and1 not finding me in1 invited me up to his house near ,york ,gate1 ,regents ,park4 ,it was a dingy1 brick house surrounded by a high wall1 but cheerful and cozy within4 ,i found him in his sanctum1 a singularly shaped room1 with statuettes of ,sam ,weller and others of his creations on the mantelpiece4 ,a portrait of his beautiful wife was upon the wall--that wife1 the separation from whom threw a strange1 sad shadow over his home4 ,how handsome he was then6 ,with his deep1 dark1 lustrous eyes1 that you saw yourself in1 and the merry mouth wreathed with laughter1 and the luxuriant mass of dark hair that he wore in a sort of stack over his lofty forehead6 ,he had a slight lisp in his pleasant voice1 and ran on in rapid talk for an hour1 with a shy reluctance to talk about his own works1 but with the most superabounding vivacity ,i have ever met with in any man4 ,his two daughters1 one of whom afterward married the younger ,collins1 a brother novelist1 were then schoolgirls of eight and ten years1 came in1 with books in their hands1 to give their father a good-morning kiss4 ,after parting with him1 when ,i had reached his gate1 he called after me in a very loud voice1 ,if you see ,mrs4 ,lucretia ,mott1 tell her that ,i have not forgotten the slave4 ,his ,american ,notes appeared the next week4 ,there were some things in that hasty and faulty volume for which ,i sent him a cordial note of thanks1 and ,i speedily received the following characteristic reply1 which ,i still prize as a precious relic of the man3 ,i ,,devonshire ,,terrace1 ,,regents ,,park1 ,oct4 #bfth1 #ahdb4 ,,my ,,dear ,,sir3--,i am heartily obliged to you for your frank and manly letter4 ,i shall always remember it in connection with my ,american book2 and never--believe me--save in the foremost rank of its pleasant and honorable associations4 ,let me subscribe myself1 as ,i really am ,faithfully your ,friend1 ,,charles ,,dickens4 ,mr4 ,theodore ,ledyard ,cuyler4 ,i hold that ,dickens was the most original genius in our fictitious literature since the days of ,walter ,scott4 ,as a social reformer his fame is quite as great as it is as a master of romance4 ,his pen was mighty to the pulling down of many a social abuse1 and from the loving kindness of his writings has been got many an inspiration to deeds of charity4 ,but how could a man who went so far as he did go no further8 ,how could the reformer who struck at so many social wrongs spare that hideous fountain-head of misery in ,london1 the dram-shop8 ,and how could he descend to scurrilously satirize all societies formed for the promotion of temperance8 ,a still greater marvel is that so kind-hearted a man as ,mr4 ,dickens1 who sought honestly the amelioration of the condition of his fellow-men1 could utterly ignore the transforming power of ,christianity4 ,he did not cast contempt on the ,bible1 and never soiled his pages with infidelity1 neither did he ever enlighten1 and warm and vivify them with evangelical uplifting truth4 ,only a few feet of earth separate the grave of ,charles ,dickens from the grave of ,william ,wilberforce4 ,both loved their fellow-men2 but the great difference between them was that one of them invoked the spiritual power of the ,gospel of ,christ1 which the other lamentably ignored4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,great ,,britain ,,sixty ,,years ,,ago 7,continued7 ,carlyle--,mrs4 ,baillie--,the ,young ,queen--,napoleon ,one of the lions of whom ,i was in pursuit was ,thomas ,carlyle4 ,very few ,americans at that time had ever seen him1 for he lived a very secluded and laborious life in a little brick house at ,chelsea1 in the southwest of ,london2 and he rarely kept open doors4 ,his life was the opposite to that of ,dickens and ,macaulay1 and he was never lionized1 except when he went to ,edinburgh to deliver his address before the ,university1 years afterwards4 ,i sent him a note in which ,i informed him of the enthusiastic admiration which we college students felt for him1 and that ,i desired to call and pay him my respects4 ,to my note he responded promptly3 ,you will be welcome to-morrow at three o'clock1 the hour when ,i become accessible in my garret here4 ,i found his garret to be a comfortable front room on the second floor of his modest home4 ,it was well lined with books1 and a portrait of ,oliver ,cromwell hung behind his study chair4 ,he was seated at his table with a huge ,german volume open before him4 ,his greeting was very hearty1 but1 with a comical look of surprise1 he said in broad ,scotch3 ,you are a verra young mon4 ,i told him of the appetite we college boys had for his books1 and he assured me at once that while he had met some of our eminent literary men he had never happened to meet a college boy before4 ,your ,mr4 ,longfellow1 said he1 called to see me yesterday4 ,he is a man skilled in the tongues4 ,your own name ,i see is ,dootch4 ,the word ',cuyler' means a delver1 or one who digs underground4 ,you must be a ,dutchman4 ,i told him that my ancestors had come over from ,holland a couple of centuries ago1 and ,i was proud of my lineage2 for my grandfather1 ,glen ,cuyler1 was a descendant of ,hendrick ,cuyler1 one of the early ,dutch settlers of ,albany1 who came there in #affg4 ,ah1 said he1 the ,dootch are the brawvest people of modern times4 ,the world has been rinnin' after a red rag of a ,frenchman2 but he was nothing to ,william the ,silent4 ,when ,pheelip of ,spain sent his ,duke of ,alva to squelch those ,dutchmen they joost squelched him like a rotten egg--aye1 they did4 ,i asked him why he didn't visit ,america1 and told him that ,i had observed his name registered at ,ambleside1 on ,lake ,windermere4 ,nae1 nae1 said he1 ,i never scrabble my name in public places4 ,i explained that it was on the hotel register that ,i had seen ,thomas ,carlyle4 ,it was not mine1 he replied1 ,i never travel only when ,i ride on a horse in the teeth of the wind to get out of this smoky ,london4 ,i would like to see ,america4 ,you may boast of your ,dimocracy1 or any other 'cracy1 or any other kind of political roobish1 but the reason why your laboring folk are so happy is that you have a vast deal of land for a very few people4 ,in this racy1 picturesque vein he ran on for an hour in the most cordial1 good humor4 ,he was then in his prime1 hale and athletic1 with a remarkably keen blue eye1 a strong lower jaw and stiff iron gray hair1 brushed up from a capacious forehead2 and he had a look of a sturdy country deacon dressed up on a ,sunday morning for church4 ,he was very carefully attired in a new suit that day for visiting1 and1 as ,i rose to leave1 he said to me3 ,i am going up into ,london and ,i will walk wi' ye4 ,we sallied out and he strode the pavement with long strides like a plowman4 ,i told him ,i had just come from the land of ,burns1 and that the old man at the native cottage of the poet had drunk himself to death by drinking to the memory of ,burns4 ,at this ,carlyle laughed loudly1 and remarked3 ,was that the end of him8 ,ah1 a wee bit drap will send a mon a lang way4 ,he then told me that when he was a lad he used to go into the ,kirkyard at ,dumfries and1 hunting out the poet's tomb1 he loved to stand and just read over the name--,rabbert ,burns--,rabbert ,burns4 ,he pronounced the name with deep reverence4 ,that picture of the country lad in his earliest act of hero-worship at the grave of ,burns would have been a good subject for the pencil of ,millais or of ,holman ,hunt4 ,at the corner of ,hyde ,park ,i parted from ,mr4 ,carlyle1 and watched him striding away1 as if1 like the ,de'il in ,tam ,o',shanter1 he had business on his hand4 ,thirty years afterwards1 in ,june1 #ahgb1 ,i felt an irrepressible desire to see the grand old man once more1 and ,i accordingly addressed him a note requesting the favor of a few minutes' interview4 ,his reply was1 perhaps1 the briefest letter ever written4 ,it was simply3 ,three ,p4,m4 ,t4,c4 ,he told me afterwards that his hand had become so tremulous that he seldom touched a pen4 ,my beloved friend1 the ,rev4 ,newman ,hall1 asked the privilege of accompanying me1 as1 like most ,londoners1 he had never put his eye on the recluse philosopher4 ,we found the same old brick house1 ,no4 #e ,cheyne ,row1 ,chelsea1 without the slightest change outside or in4 ,but1 during those thirty years the gifted wife had departed1 and a sad change had come over the once hale1 stalwart man4 ,after we had waited some time1 a feeble1 stooping figure1 attired in a long blue flannel gown1 moved slowly into the room4 ,his gray hair was unkempt1 his blue eyes were still keen and piercing1 and a bright hectic spot of red appeared on each of his hollow cheeks4 ,his hands were tremulous1 and his voice deep and husky4 ,after a few personal inquiries the old man launched out into a most extraordinary and characteristic harangue on the wretched degeneracy of these evil days4 ,the prophet1 ,jeremiah1 was cheerfulness itself in comparison with him4 ,many of the raciest things he regaled us with were entirely too personal for publication4 ,he amused us with a description of half a night's debate with ,john ,bright on political economy1 while he said1 ,bright theed and thoud with me for hours1 while his ,quaker wife sat up hearin' us baith4 ,i tell ye1 ,john ,bright got as gude as he gie that night2 and ,i have no doubt that he did4 ,most of his extraordinary harangue was like an eruption of ,vesuvius1 but the laugh he occasionally gave showed that he was talking about as much for his own amusement as for ours4 ,he was terribly severe on ,parliament1 which he described as endless babblement and windy talk--the same hurdy-gurdies grinding out lies and inanities4 ,the only man he had ever heard in ,parliament that at all satisfied him was the ,old ,iron ,duke4 ,he gat up and stammered away for fifteen minutes2 but ,i tell ye1 he was the only mon in ,parliament who gie us any credible portraiture of the facts4 ,he looked up at the portrait of ,oliver ,cromwell behind him1 and exclaimed with great vehemence3 ,i ha' gone doon to the verra bottom of ,oliver's speeches1 and naething in ,demosthenes or in any other mon will compare wi' ,cromwell in penetrating into the veritable core of the fact4 ,noo1 ,parliament1 as they ca' it1 is joost everlasting babblement and lies4 ,we led him to discuss the labor question and the condition of the working classes4 ,he said that the turmoil about labor is only a lazy trick of master and man to do just as little honest work and to get just as much for it as they possibly can--that is the labor question4 ,it did my soul good1 as a teetotaler1 to hear his scathing denunciation of the liquor traffic4 ,he was fierce in his wrath against the horrible and detestable damnation of whuskie and every kind of strong drink4 ,in this strain the thin and weird looking old ,iconoclast went on for an hour until he wound up with declaring1 ,england has joost gane clear doon into an abominable cesspool of lies1 shoddies and shams--down to a bottomless damnation4 ,ye may gie whatever meaning to that word that ye like4 ,he could not refrain from laughing heartily himself at the conclusion of this eulogy on his countrymen4 ,if we had not known that ,mr4 ,carlyle had a habit of exercising himself in this kind of talk1 we should have felt a sort of consternation4 ,as it was we enjoyed it as a postscript to ,sartor ,resartus or the ,latter ,day pamphlets1 and listened and laughed accordingly4 ,as we were about parting from him with a cordial and tender farewell1 my friend1 ,newman ,hall1 handed him a copy of his celebrated little book1 ,come to ,jesus1 ,mr4 ,carlyle1 leaning over his table1 fixed his eye upon the inscription on the outside of the booklet1 and as we left the room1 we heard him repeating to himself the title ,coom to ,jesus--,coom to ,jesus4 ,about ,carlyle's voluminous works1 his glorious eulogies of ,luther1 ,knox and ,cromwell1 his vivid histories1 his pessimistic utterances1 his hatred of falsehood and his true1 pure and laborious life1 ,i have no time or space to write4 ,he was the last of the giants in one department of ,british literature4 ,he will outlive many an author who slumbers in the great ,abbey4 ,i owe him grateful thanks for many quickening1 stimulating thoughts1 and shall always be thankful that ,i grasped the strong hand of ,thomas ,carlyle4 ,one of the literary celebrities to whom ,i had credentials was the venerable ,mrs4 ,joanna ,baillie1 not now much read1 but then well known from her writings and her intimacy with ,sir ,walter ,scott1 and to whom ,lockhart devotes a considerable space in the biography4 ,her residence was in ,hampstead1 and ,i was obliged1 after leaving the omnibus1 to walk nearly a mile across open fields which are now completely built over by mighty ,london4 ,the walk proved a highly profitable one from the society of an intelligent stranger who1 like every true ,english gentleman1 when properly approached1 was led to give all the information in his power4 ,when ,i reached the suburban village of ,hampstead1 after passing over stiles and through fields1 ,i at last succeeded in finding her residence1 a quiet little cottage1 with a little parlor which had been honored by some of the first characters of our age4 ,the female ,shakespeare1 as she was sometimes called in those days1 was at home and tripped into the room with the elastic step of a girl1 although she was considerably over three score years and ten4 ,she was very petite and fair1 with a sweet benignant countenance that inspired at once admiration and affection4 ,almost her first words to me were3 ,what a pity you did not come ten minutes sooner2 for if you had you would have seen ,mr4 ,thomas ,campbell1 who has just gone away4 ,i was exceedingly sorry to have missed a sight of the author of ,hohenlinden and the incomparable ,battle of the ,baltic1 but was quite surprised that he was still seeking much society2 for in those days he was lamentably addicted to intoxicants4 ,on more than one public occasion he was the worse for his cups2 and when1 after his death1 a subscription was started to place his statue in ,westminster ,abbey1 ,samuel ,rogers1 the poet1 cynically said1 ,yes1 ,i will gladly give twenty pounds any day to see dear old ,tom ,campbell stand steady on his legs4 ,it is a matter of congratulation that the most eminent men of the ,victorian era have not fallen into some of the unhappy habits of their predecessors at the beginning of the last century4 ,mrs4 ,baillie entertained me with lively descriptions of ,sir ,walter ,scott1 and of her old friend1 ,mr4 ,wordsworth1 who was her guest whenever he came up to ,london4 ,she expressed the warmest admiration for the moral and political1 though not all of the religious1 writings of our ,dr4 ,channing1 whom she pronounced the finest essayist of the time4 ,she also felt a curious interest 7which ,i discovered in many other notable people in ,england7 to learn what she could in regard to our ,american ,indians1 and expressed much admiration when ,i gave her some quotations from the picturesque eloquence of our sons of the forest4 ,every ,american who visited ,london in those days felt a laudable curiosity to see the young ,queen1 who had been crowned but four years before4 ,i went up to ,windsor ,castle1 and after inspecting it1 joined a little group of people who were standing at the gateway which leads out to the ,long ,drive and ,virginia ,water4 ,they were waiting to get a look at the young ,queen1 who always drove out at four o'clock4 ,presently the gate opened and a low carriage1 preceded by three horsemen1 passed through4 ,it contained a plump baby1 nearly two years of age1 wrapped in a buff cloak and held up in the arms of its nurse4 ,that baby became the ,empress ,dowager of ,germany1 the mother of the present ,kaiser and of ,prince ,henry1 who has lately been our guest4 ,in a few minutes afterwards a pony phaeton1 with two horses1 passed through the gate and we all doffed our hats4 ,it was driven by handsome young ,prince ,albert1 dressed in a gray overcoat and silk hat4 ,to this day ,i think of him as about the most captivating young husband that ,i have ever seen4 ,by his side sat his young wife1 dressed in a small white bonnet with pink feather and wrapped in a white shawl4 ,her complexion was exceedingly fresh and fair4 ,her light brown hair was dressed in the ,grecian style1 and as she bowed gracefully ,i observed the peculiarity of her smile--that she showed her teeth very distinctly4 ,this resulted from the shortness of her upper lip4 ,a pretty girl she is too was the remark ,i heard from the visitors as the carriage went on down the drive4 ,that was my first glimpse of royalty1 and ,i little dreamed that she was to be the longest lived sovereign that ever sat on the ,british throne1 and the most popular woman in all modern times4 ,thirty years rolled away and ,i saw the good ,queen again4 ,the ,albert ,memorial1 erected to the handsome ,prince ,consort1 whom she idolized1 had just been completed1 and one morning the ,queen came incognito to make her first private inspection of the memorial4 ,through the intimation of a friend ,i hurried at once to the ,park1 and found a small company of people gathered there4 ,her ,majesty had just come1 accompanied by ,prince ,arthur1 the ,princess ,louise and the young ,princess ,beatrice2 and they were examining the gorgeous new structure4 ,the ,queen wore a plain black silk dress and her children were very plainly attired1 so that they looked like a group of good1 honest republicans4 ,the only evidence of royalty was that the company of gentlemen who were pointing out to the ,queen the various beauties of the monument just completed were careful not to turn their backs upon ,her ,majesty4 ,i observed that when her children bade her good morning they kneeled and kissed her hand4 ,she remained sitting in her carriage for some time1 chatting and laughing with her daughter ,beatrice4 ,her countenance had become very florid and her figure very stout4 ,the last time that ,i saw her driving in the ,park her full1 rubicund face made her look not only like the venerable grandmother of a host of descendants1 but of the whole vast empire on which the sun never sets4 ,last year the most beloved sovereign that has ever occupied the ,british throne was laid in the gorgeous mausoleum at ,frogmore beside the husband of her youth and the sharer of twenty-two years of happy and holy wedlock4 ,all ,christendom was a mourner beside that royal tomb4 ,from ,london ,i went on a very brief visit to ,paris1 at the time when ,louis ,phillipe was at the height of his power and apparently securely seated on his throne4 ,within a half a dozen years from that time he was a refugee in disguise1 and the kingdom of ,france was followed by the ,republic of ,lamartine4 ,my brief visit to ,paris was made more agreeable by the fact that my kinsman1 the ,hon4 ,henry ,ledyard1 was then in charge of the ,american ,embassy1 in the absence of his father-in-law1 ,general ,lewis ,cass1 our ,ambassador1 who had returned to ,america for a visit4 ,the one memorable incident of that brief sojourn in ,paris that ,i shall recall was a visit to the tomb of ,napoleon1 whose remains had been brought home the year before from the ,island of ,st4 ,helena4 ,passing through the ,place de la ,concord and crossing the ,seine1 a ten minutes' walk brought me to the ,hospital des ,invalides4 ,i reached it in the morning when the court in front was filled with about three hundred veterans on an early parade4 ,many of them were the shattered relics of ,napoleon's ,grand ,army--glorious old fellows in cocked hats and long blue coats1 and weather-beaten as the walls around them4 ,after a few moments ,i hurried into the ,rotunda1 which is nearly one hundred feet in height1 surrounded by six small recesses1 or alcoves4 ,where is ,napoleon8 said ,i to one of the sentinels4 ,there1 said he1 pointing to a recess1 or small chapel1 hung with dark purple velvet and lighted by one glimmering lamp4 ,i approached the iron railing and1 there before me1 almost within arm's length1 in the marble coffin covered by his gray riding coat of ,marengo1 lay all that was mortal of the great ,emperor4 ,at his feet was a small urn containing his heart1 and upon it lay his sword and the military cap worn at the battle of ,eylau4 ,beside the coffin was gathered a group of tattered banners captured by him in many a victorious fight4 ,three gray-haired veterans1 whose breasts were covered with medals1 were pacing slowly on guard in front of the alcove4 ,i said to them in ,french3 ,were you at ,austerlitz8 ,oui1 oui1 they said4 ,were you at ,jena8 ,oui1 oui4 ,at ,wagram8 ,oui1 oui1 they replied4 ,i lingered long at the spot1 listening to the inspiring strains of the soldiery without1 and recalling to my mind the stirring days when the lifeless clay beside me was dashing forward at the head of those very troops through the passes of the ,alps and over the bridge at ,lodi4 ,it seemed to me as a dream1 and ,i could scarcely realize that ,i stood within a few feet of the actual body of that colossal wonder-worker whose extraordinary combination of military and civil genius surpassed that of any other man in modern history4 ,and yet1 when all shall be summoned at last before the ,great ,tribunal1 a ,wilberforce1 a ,shaftesbury1 or an ,abraham ,lincoln will never desire to change places with him4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,hymn-,,writers ,i ,,have ,,known ,montgomery--,bonar--,bowring--,palmer and ,others ,hymnology has always been a favorite study with me1 and it has been my privilege to be acquainted with several of the most eminent hymn-writers within the last sixty or seventy years4 ,it is a remarkable fact that among the distinguished ,english-speaking poets1 ,cowper and ,montgomery are the only ones who have been successful in producing many popular hymns2 while the greatest hymns have been the compositions either of ministers of the ,gospel1 like ,watts1 ,wesley1 ,toplady1 ,doddridge1 ,newman1 ,lyte1 ,bonar and ,ray ,palmer1 or by godly women1 like ,charlotte ,elliott1 ,mrs4 ,sarah ,f4 ,adams1 ,miss ,havergal and ,mrs4 ,prentiss4 ,during my visit to ,great ,britain in the summer of #ahdb1 ,i spent a few weeks at ,sheffield as the guest of ,mr4 ,edward ,vickers1 the ex-,mayor of the city4 ,his near neighbor was the venerable ,james ,montgomery1 whose pupil he had been during the short time that the poet conducted a school4 ,mr4 ,vickers took me to visit the poet at his residence at ,the ,mount4 ,a short1 brisk1 cheery old man1 then seventy-one1 came into the room with a spry step4 ,he wore a suit of black1 with old-fashioned dress ruffles1 and a high cravat that looked as if it choked him4 ,his complexion was fresh1 and snowy hair crowned a noble forehead4 ,he had never married1 but resided with a relative4 ,we chatted about ,america1 and ,i told him that in all our churches his hymns were great favorites4 ,i unfortunately happened to mention that when lately in ,glasgow ,i had gone to hear the ,rev4 ,robert ,montgomery1 the author of ,satan1 and other poems4 ,it was this ,satan ,montgomery whom ,macaulay had scalped with merciless criticism in the ,edinburgh ,review4 ,the mention of his name aroused the old poet's ire4 ,would you believe it8 he exclaimed1 indignantly1 they attribute some of that fellow's performances to me1 and lately a lady wrote to me in reference to one of his most pompous poems1 and said it was the best that ,i had ever written6 ,i do not wonder at my venerable friend's vexation1 for there was a world-wide contrast between his own chaste simplicity and the stilted pomposity of his ,glasgow namesake4 ,montgomery1 though born a ,moravian and educated at a ,moravian school1 was a constant worshipper at ,st4 ,george's ,episcopal ,church1 in ,sheffield4 ,the people of the town were very proud of their celebrated townsman1 and after his death gave him a public funeral1 and erected a bronze statue to his memory4 ,while he was the author of several volumes of poetry1 his enduring fame rests on his hymns1 some of which will be sung in all lands through coming generations4 ,four hundred own his parentage and one hundred at least are in common use throughout ,christendom4 ,he produced a single verse that has hardly been surpassed in all hymnology3 ,here in the body pent ,absent from ,him ,i roam4 ,yet nightly pitch my moving-tent1 ,a day's march nearer home4 ,hymnology has known no denominational barriers4 ,while ,toplady was an ,episcopalian1 ,wesley a ,methodist4 ,newman and ,faber ,roman ,catholics1 ,montgomery a ,moravian1 and ,bonar a ,presbyterian1 the magnificent hymn1 ,in the cross of ,christ ,i glory1 was written by a ,unitarian4 ,i had the great satisfaction of meeting its author1 ,sir ,john ,bowring1 at a public dinner in ,london during the summer of #ahgb4 ,a fresh1 handsome veteran he was1 too--tall and straight as a ramrod1 and exceedingly winsome in his manners4 ,he had been famous as the editor of the ,westminster ,review and quite famous in civil life1 for he was a member of the ,british ,parliament and once had been the ,governor of ,hong ,kong4 ,he produced several volumes1 but will owe his immortality to half a dozen superb hymns4 ,of these the best is ,in the cross of ,christ ,i glory2 but we also owe to him that fine missionary hymn1 ,watchman1 tell us of the night ,he told my ,presbyterian friend1 ,dr4 ,harper1 in ,china1 that the first time he ever heard it sung was at a prayer meeting of ,american missionaries in ,turkey4 ,sir ,john died about four months after ,i had met him1 at the ripe age of eighty1 and on his monument is inscribed only this single appropriate line1 ,in the cross of ,christ ,i glory4 ,the first time ,i ever saw ,dr4 ,horatius ,bonar was in ,may1 #ahgb1 when ,i was attending the ,free ,church ,general ,assembly of ,scotland as a delegate from the ,presbyterian ,church in the ,united ,states4 ,a warm discussion was going on in the ,assembly anent proposals of union with the ,u4,p4 body1 and the ,anti-,unionists sat together on the left hand of the ,moderator's chair4 ,in the third row sat a short1 broad-shouldered man with noble forehead and soft dark eyes4 ,but behind that benign countenance was a spirit as pugnacious in ecclesiastical controversy as that of the ,roman ,horatius who kept the bridge in the brave days of old4 ,i was glad to be introduced to him1 for ,i was an enthusiastic admirer of his hymns1 and ,i had a personal affection for his brother1 ,andrew1 the author of the delightful ,life of ,m',cheyne4 ,although ,horatius had won his world-wide fame as a composer of hymns1 he was1 at that time1 stoutly opposed to the use of anything but the old ,scotch version of the ,psalms in church worship4 ,during my address to the ,assembly ,i said3 ,we ,presbyterians in ,america sing the good old psalms of ,david4 ,at this point ,dr4 ,bonar led in a round of applause1 and then ,i continued3 ,we also sing the ,gospel of ,jesus ,christ as versified by ,watts1 ,wesley1 ,cowper1 ,toplady and your own ,horatius ,bonar6 ,there was a burst of laughter1 and then ,i rather mischievously added3 ,my own people have the privilege1 not accorded to my brother's congregation1 of singing his magnificent hymns4 ,by this time the whole house came down in a perfect roar1 and the confused blush on ,bonar's face puzzled us--whether it was on account of the compliment1 or on account of his own inconsistency4 ,however1 before his death he consented to have his own congregation sing his own hymns1 although it is said that two pragmatical elders rose and strode indignantly down the aisle of the church4 ,in ,august1 #ahhi1 when ,i was on a visit to ,chillingham ,castle1 ,lady ,tankerville said to me3 ,our dear ,bonar is dead4 ,i left the next day for ,edinburgh and reached there in time to bear an humble part in the funeral services4 ,on the day of his obsequies there was a tremendous downpour1 which reminded me of the story of the ,scotchman1 who1 on arriving in ,australia1 met one of his countrymen1 who said to him3 ,hae ye joost come fra ,scotland and is it rainin' yet8 ,but in spite of the storm the ,morningside ,church1 by the entrance to the ,grange ,cemetery1 was well filled by a representative assembly4 ,the service was confined to the reading of the ,scriptures1 to two prayers and the singing of ,bonar's beautiful hymn1 the last verse of which is ,broken ,death's dread hands that bound us1 ,life and victory around us2 ,christ the ,king ,himself hath crown'd us1 ,ah1 'tis ,heaven at last4 ,as ,i was the only ,american present ,i was requested to close the service with a brief word of prayer2 and ,i rode down to the ,canongate ,cemetery with grand old ,principal ,john ,cairns 7who ,dr4 ,mc,cosh told me had the best head in ,scotland71 and ,bonar's colleague1 the ,rev4 ,mr4 ,sloane4 ,on our way to the place of burial ,mr4 ,sloane told me that ,bonar's two finest hymns1 ,i heard the voice of ,jesus say1 etc44 and ,i lay my sins on ,jesus1 etc1 were originally composed for the children of his ,sabbath school4 ,and yet they are the productions by which he has become most widely known throughout ,christendom4 ,the storm-swept streets that day were lined with silent mourners2 and1 under weeping skies1 we laid down to his rest the mortal remains of the man who attuned more voices to the melodies of praise than any ,scotchman of the century4 ,our own country has been very prolific in the production of hymns4 ,the venerable and devout blind songstress1 ,fanny ,crosby 7whom ,i often meet at the house of my beloved neighbor1 ,mr4 ,ira ,d4 ,sankey71 has produced very many hundreds of them--none of very high poetic merit1 but many of them of such rich spiritual savour1 and set to such stirring airs1 that they are sung by millions around the globe4 ,by common consent in all ,american hymnology the hymn commencing ,my faith looks up to ,thee1 ,thou ,lamb of ,calvary1 etc1 is the best4 ,its author1 ,dr4 ,ray ,palmer1 when a young man1 teaching in a school for girls in ,new ,york1 one day sat down in his room and wrote in his pocket memorandum book the four verses which he told me were born of my own soul1 and put the memorandum book back into his vest pocket and for two years carried the verses there1 little dreaming that he was carrying his own passport to immortality4 ,dr4 ,lowell ,mason1 the celebrated composer of ,boston1 asked him to furnish a new hymn for his next volume of ,spiritual ,songs for social worship1 and young ,palmer drew out the four verses from his pocket4 ,mason composed for them the noble tune1 ,olivet1 and to that air they were wedded for ever more4 ,he met ,palmer afterwards1 and said to him3 ,sir1 you may live many years1 and do many things1 but you will be best known to posterity as the author of ',my faith looks up to ,thee4' ,the prediction proved true4 ,his devoted heart flowed out in that one matchless lily that has filled so many hearts and sanctuaries with its rich fragrance4 ,dr4 ,palmer preached several times in my ,brooklyn pulpit4 ,he was once with us on a sacramental ,sabbath4 ,while the deacons were passing the sacred elements among the congregation the dear old man broke out in a tremulous voice and sang his own heavenly lines3 ,my faith looks up to ,thee ,thou ,lamb of ,calvary1 ,saviour ,divine4 ,it was like listening to a rehearsal for the celestial choir1 and the whole assembly was most deeply moved4 ,dr4 ,palmer was short in stature1 but his erect form and habit of brushing his hair high over his forehead gave him a commanding look4 ,he was the impersonation of genuine enthusiasm4 ,some of his letters ,i shall always prize4 ,they were the outpourings of his own warm heart on paper4 ,he fell asleep just before he reached a round four score1 and of our many hymn-writers no one has yet taken away his crown4 ,it is quite fitting to follow this sketch of one noble veteran with a brief reminiscence of an equally noble one1 who bore the name of an ,episcopalian1 although he was very undenominational in his broad sympathies4 ,dr4 ,william ,augustus ,muhlenberg was one of the most apostolic men ,i have ever known in appearance and spirit4 ,his gray head all men knew in ,new ,york4 ,he commanded attention everywhere by his genial face and hearty manner of speech4 ,i used to meet him at the anniversaries of the ,five ,points ,home of ,industry4 ,everybody loved him at first sight4 ,all the world knows he was the founder of ,st4 ,luke's ,hospital in ,new ,york1 and the extensive institutions of charity at ,st4 ,johnsland1 on ,long ,island4 ,of his hymns the most popular is ,i would not live alway1 etc4 ,it was first written as an impromptu for a lady's album1 and afterwards amended into its present form4 ,in his later years he regarded the tone of that hymn as too lugubrious2 and in a pleasant note to me he said3 ,paul's ',for me to live is ,christ' is far better than ,job's ',i would not live alway4' ,my favorite among his productions is the one on ,noah's ,dove1 commencing1 ,o cease1 my wandering soul2 but the man was greater than any song he ever wrote4 ,as he was a bachelor he lived in his ,st4 ,luke's ,hospital2 and once1 when he was carrying a tray of dishes down to the kitchen and some one protested1 the patriarch replied3 ,why not2 what am ,i but a waiter here in the ,lord's hotel8 ,when very near his end the ,chaplain of the hospital prayed at his bedside for his recovery4 ,let us have an understanding about this1 said ,muhlenberg4 ,you are asking ,god to restore me1 and ,i am asking ,god to take me home4 ,there must not be any contradiction in our prayers1 for it is evident that ,he cannot answer them both4 ,this was characteristic of his bluff frankness1 as well as of his heavenly-mindedness--he would not live alway4 ,in ,july1 #ahha1 ,i was visiting ,stockholm1 and was invited to go on an excursion to the ,university of ,upsala with ,dr4 ,samuel ,f4 ,smith4 ,i had never before met my celebrated countryman about whom his ,harvard classmate1 ,oliver ,wendell ,holmes1 once wrote3 ,and there's a nice youngster of excellent pith-- ,fate tried to conceal him by naming him ,smith2 ,but he shouted a song for the brave and the free-- ,just read on his medal--',my ,country--of ,thee' ,the song he thus shouted was written for the ,fourth of ,july celebration1 in ,park ,street ,church1 ,boston1 in #ahcb1 and has become our national hymn4 ,when ,i met the genial old man in ,sweden1 and travelled with him for several days1 he was on his way home from a missionary tour in ,india and ,burmah4 ,he told me that he had heard the ,burmese and ,telugus sing in their native tongue his grand missionary hymn1 ,the ,morning ,light is ,breaking4 ,he was a native ,bostonian1 and was born a few days before ,ray ,palmer4 ,he was a ,baptist pastor1 editor1 college professor1 and spent the tranquil summer evening of his life at ,newton1 ,mass42 and at a railway station in ,boston1 by sudden heart failure1 he was translated to his heavenly home4 ,he illustrated his own sweet evening hymn1 ,softly ,fades the ,twilight ,ray4 ,among the elect-ladies who have produced great uplifting hymns that were not born to die was ,mrs4 ,elizabeth ,payson ,prentiss1 the daughter of the saintly ,dr4 ,edward ,payson1 of ,portland1 ,maine4 ,her prose works were very popular1 and ,stepping ,heavenward had found its way into thousands of hearts4 ,but one day she--in a few hours--won her immortality by writing a hymn1 beginning with the lines1 ,more love to ,thee1 ,o ,christ1 ,more love to ,thee ,it was printed on a fly-sheet1 for a few friends1 then found its way into a hymn-book1 edited by my well-beloved friend1 ,dr4 ,edwin ,f4 ,hatfield1 and then it took wing and flew over the world into many foreign languages4 ,i often met ,mrs4 ,prentiss at the home of her husband1 ,dr4 ,george ,l4 ,prentiss1 an eminent professor in the ,union ,theological ,seminary4 ,she was a very bright-eyed little woman1 with a keen sense of humor1 who cared more to shine in her own happy household than in a wide circle of society4 ,her absolutely perfect hymn--for such it truly is--was born of her own deep longings for a fuller inflow of that love that casteth out all fear4 ,this has been the genesis of all the soul-songs that devout disciples of our ,lord chant into the ears of their ,master in their hours of sweetest and closest fellowship4 ,mrs4 ,prentiss has put a new song into the mouths of a multitude of those who are stepping heavenward4 ,,chapter ,v ,,the ,,temperance ,,reform ,,and ,,my ,,co-,,workers ,as stated in the first chapter of this book1 ,i became a teetotaler when ,i was a child1 and ,i also stated that the first public address ,i ever delivered was in behalf of temperance4 ,when ,i made my first visit to ,edinburgh in #ahdb ,i learned that a temperance society of that city was about to go over to ,glasgow to greet the celebrated ,father ,theobald ,mathew1 who was making his first visit to ,scotland4 ,i joined my ,edinburgh friends1 and on arriving in ,glasgow we found a multitude of over fifty thousand people assembled on the green4 ,in an open barouche1 drawn by four horses1 stood a short1 stout ,irishman1 with a handsome1 benevolent countenance1 and attired in a long black coat with a silver medal hanging upon his breast4 ,after the procession1 headed by his carriage1 had forced its way through the densely thronged street1 it halted in a small open square4 ,father ,mathew dismounted1 and began to administer the pledge of abstinence to those who were willing to receive it4 ,they kneeled on the ground in platoons2 the pledge was read aloud to them2 ,father ,mathew laid his hands upon them and pronounced a benediction4 ,from the necks of many a small medal attached to a cord was suspended4 ,in this rapid manner the pledge was administered to many hundreds of persons within an hour1 and fresh crowds continually came forward4 ,when ,i was introduced to the good man as an ,american1 he spoke a few kind words and gave me an apostolic kiss upon my cheek4 ,as ,i was about to make the first public speech of my life1 ,i suppose that ,i may regard that act of the great ,irish apostle as a sort of ordination to the ministry of preaching the ,gospel of total abstinence4 ,the administration of the pledge was followed by a grand meeting of welcome in the city hall4 ,father ,mathew spoke with modest simplicity and deep emotion1 attributing all his wonderful success to the direct blessings of ,god upon his efforts to persuade his fellow-men to throw off the despotism of the bottle4 ,after delivering my maiden speech ,i hastened back to ,edinburgh with the deputation from ,auld ,reekie1 and ,i never saw ,father ,mathew again4 ,he was1 unquestionably1 the most remarkable temperance reformer who has yet appeared4 ,while a ,catholic priest in ,cork1 a ,quaker friend1 ,mr4 ,martin1 who met him in an almshouse1 said to him1 ,father ,theobald1 why not give thyself to the work of saving men from the drink8 ,father ,mathew immediately commenced his enterprise4 ,it spread over ,ireland like wildfire4 ,it is computed that no less than five millions of people took the pledge of total abstinence from intoxicating poisons by his influence4 ,the revolution wrought in his day1 in his own time and country1 was marvellous1 and1 to this day1 his influence is perpetuated in the vast number of ,father ,mathew ,benevolent ,temperance ,societies4 ,illustration3 ,,dr ,,cuyler ,,at #cb 7,when ,pastor of the ,market ,st ,church1 ,new ,york7 ,second only to ,father ,mathew in the number of converts which he has made to total abstinence was that brilliant and dramatic platform orator1 ,john ,b4 ,gough4 ,when he was a reckless young sot in ,worcester1 ,massachusetts1 he had owed his conversion to a touch on his shoulder by a shoemaker1 named ,joel ,stratton1 who had invited him to a ,washingtonian temperance meeting4 ,soon after that time he owed his conversion1 under ,god1 to the influence of ,miss ,mary ,whitcomb1 the daughter of a ,boylston farmer in the neighborhood4 ,he formed her acquaintance very soon after he signed the temperance pledge in ,worcester1 and she consented to assume the risk of becoming his wife4 ,in the summer of #ahef ,i visited my beloved friend ,gough at his beautiful ,boylston home to aid him in revival services1 which he was conducting in his own church1 then without a pastor4 ,he was ,sunday-school superintendent1 pastor and leader of inquiry meetings--all in himself4 ,one evening he took me to the house of his neighbor1 ,captain ,flagg1 and said to me3 ,here1 in this house1 ,mary and ,i did our brief two or three weeks of courting4 ,we didn't talk of love1 but only religion and about the welfare of my soul4 ,we prayed together every time we met2 and it was such serious business that ,i do not think ,i even kissed her until we were married4 ,she took me on trust1 with three dollars in my pocket1 and has been to me the best wife ,god ever made4 ,when they went to ,boston1 ,dr4 ,edward ,n4 ,kirk received ,mr4 ,gough into the ,mt4 ,vernon ,street ,church1 just as many years afterwards he received ,mr4 ,moody to the same communion table4 ,of ,mr4 ,gough's extraordinary platform powers ,i need not speak while there are so many now living that sat under the enchantment of his eloquence4 ,a man who could crowd an opera house in ,london to listen to so unpopular a theme as temperance while a score or more of coroneted carriages were waiting about the door must have been no ordinary master of oratory4 ,as an actor he might have been a second ,garrick2 as a preacher of the ,gospel he would have been a second ,whitefield4 ,my house was his home when visiting our city for many years1 and he used to tell me that my letters to him were carried in his breast pocket until they were worn to fragments4 ,his last speech1 delivered in ,philadelphia1 displayed much of his early power1 and the last sentence1 ,young man1 keep a clean record1 rung out as he fell stricken with apoplexy1 and the eloquent voice was silent forever4 ,god's messenger met him where every true warrior may well desire to be met--in the heat of the battle1 and with the harness on4 ,my acquaintance with ,neal ,dow began in the early winter of #aheb4 ,he had been chosen ,mayor of ,portland in the spring of the year1 and then he struck the bold stroke which was heard round the world and made him famous as the father of ,prohibition4 ,he had drafted a bill for the suppression of tippling houses and placed in it a claim of the right of the civil authorities to search all premises where it was suspected that intoxicating liquors were kept for sale1 and to seize and confiscate them on the spot4 ,it was this sharp scimitar of search and seizure which gave the original ,maine law its deadly power4 ,he took his bill to the seat of government and it was promptly passed by the legislature4 ,he brought it home in triumph1 and in less than three months there was not an open dram shop or distillery in ,portland6 ,he invited me to visit him1 and drove me over the city1 whose pure air was not polluted with the faintest smell of alcohol4 ,it seemed like the first whiff of a temperance millennium4 ,an invitation was extended to him to a magnificent public meeting in ,tripler ,hall1 ,new ,york4 ,at that meeting a large array of distinguished speakers1 including ,general ,houston1 of ,texas2 the ,hon4 ,horace ,mann1 of ,massachusetts2 ,henry ,ward ,beecher1 ,dr4 ,chapin and several other celebrities1 appeared4 ,on that evening ,i delivered my first public address in ,new ,york1 and have been told that it was the occasion of my call to be a pastor in that city two years afterwards4 ,a gold medal was presented to ,neal ,dow that evening4 ,he went home with me to ,trenton1 and from that time our intimacy was so great and our correspondence so constant that if ,i had preserved all his letters they would make a history of the prohibition movement from #ahea to #aheg1 the years of its widest successes4 ,with him ,i addressed the legislature of ,new ,york1 who passed a law of prohibition very soon afterwards4 ,a forceful1 magnetic man was ,general ,dow1 thoroughly honest and courageous1 with a womanly tenderness in his sympathies4 ,i have been permitted to know intimately many of the leaders in great moral reforms on both sides of the ocean2 but a braver1 sounder heart was not to be found than that which throbbed in the breast of ,neal ,dow4 ,on his ninetieth birthday the hale veteran sent my wife his photograph4 ,she placed his white locks alongside of the photograph which ,gladstone gave her1 and she calls them her duet of grand old men4 ,the closing years of ,general ,dow's life1 like the closing years of ,martin ,luther1 were clouded with anxiety4 ,he saw the great movement which he had championed checked by many difficulties and suffering some disastrous reverses4 ,some ,states which had enacted total prohibition forty years before had repealed the law4 ,in the five ,states which retained it on their statute books its salutary enforcement was dependent on the moral sentiments in the various localities4 ,in his own1 beloved ,maine1 his own beloved law had been trampled down in some places2 in others made the football of designing politicians4 ,these reverses saddened the old hero's heart1 and he sent to the public meeting in ,portland which celebrated his ninety-third birthday this message3 ,that the purpose of my life work will be fully accomplished at some time ,i do not doubt1 and my hope and expectation is that the obstacles which now obstruct us will not long block the way4 ,the name of ,neal ,dow will be always memorable as one of the truest1 bravest and purest philanthropists of the nineteenth century4 ,the most important organization for the promotion of temperance in our country is the ,national ,temperance ,society and ,publication ,house1 which was founded in #ahfe4 ,i prepared its constitution1 and the committee which organized it met in the counting room of that eminent ,christian merchant1 the late ,hon4 ,william ,e4 ,dodge4 ,i once introduced him to the ,earl of ,shaftesbury at a ,lord ,mayor's reception in ,london in these words3 ,my lord1 let me introduce you to ,william ,e4 ,dodge1 the ,shaftesbury of ,america4 ,to this day he is remembered as an ideal ,christian merchant and philanthropist4 ,with him conscience ruled everything1 and ,god ruled conscience4 ,he was one of the founders of a great railway and cut the first sod for its construction4 ,long afterwards the ,board of ,directors of the road proposed to drive their trains and traffic through the ,lord's day4 ,mr4 ,dodge said to his fellow directors3 ,then1 gentlemen1 put a flag on every locomotive with these words inscribed on it1 ',we break ,god's law for a dividend4' ,as for me1 ,i go out4 ,he did go out1 and disposed of his stock4 ,within a few years the road went into the hands of a receiver1 and the stock sank to thirty cents on the dollar4 ,during the ,civil ,war1 ,general ,dix and his military staff gave ,mr4 ,dodge a complimentary dinner at ,fortress ,monroe4 ,general ,dix rapped on the table and said to his brother officers3 ,gentlemen1 you are aware that our honored guest is a water-drinker4 ,i propose that to-day we join him in his favorite beverage4 ,forthwith every wine-glass was turned upside down as a silent tribute to the ,christian conscience of their guest4 ,when the whole ,christian community of ,america shall imitate the wise example of that great philanthropist it will exert a tremendous influence for the banishment of all intoxicants from the public and private hospitalities of society4 ,mr4 ,dodge was elected the first president of the ,national ,temperance ,society1 and served it for eighteen years and bestowed upon it his liberal donations4 ,he closed his useful and beneficent life in ,february1 #ahhc1 and he was succeeded in the presidency of the ,society by ,dr4 ,mark ,hopkins of ,williams ,college1 by the writer of this book1 by ,general ,o4,o4 ,howard and by ,joshua ,l4 ,bailey1 who is at present the head of the organization4 ,the society has done a vast and benevolent work1 receiving and expending a million and a half dollars1 publishing many hundreds of valuable volumes1 and widely circulated tracts4 ,the limits of this chapter will not allow me to pay my tribute to the venerable ,dr4 ,charles ,jewett1 ,dr4 ,cheever1 ,albert ,barnes1 ,dr4 ,tyng and the great ,christian statesman1 ,theodore ,frelinghuysen1 ,miss ,frances ,willard1 ,lady ,henry ,somerset1 ,joseph ,cook and many others who have been prominent in the promotion of this great ,christian reform4 ,it has been my privilege to labor for it through my whole public life4 ,i have prepared thirty or forty tracts1 written a great number of articles and delivered hundreds of addresses in behalf of it1 and preached many a discourse from my own pulpit4 ,i have always held that every church is as much bound to have a temperance wheel in its machinery as to have a ,sabbath school or a missionary organization4 ,it is of vital importance that the young should be saved1 and therefore ,i have urged temperance lessons in the ,sunday school and the early adoption of a total abstinence pledge4 ,the temperance reform movement made its greatest progress when churches and ,sunday schools laid hold of it and when the total abstinence pledge was widely and wisely used4 ,the social drink customs are coming back again and a fresh education of the ,american people as to the deadly drink evil is the necessity of the hour1 and that must be given in the home1 in the schools and from the pulpit and from the public press4 ,i have become convinced from long labor in this reform that the ordinary license system is only a poultice to the dram seller's conscience1 and for restraining intemperance it is a ghastly failure4 ,institutions and patent medicines to cure drinkers have only had a partial success4 ,the only sure cure for drunkenness is to stop before you begin4 ,entire legal suppression of the dram shop is successful where a stiff1 righteous1 public sentiment thoroughly enforces it4 ,otherwise it may become a delusion and a farce4 ,the best method of prohibition is what is known as local option1 where the question is submitted to each community1 whether the liquor traffic shall be legalized or suppressed by public authority4 ,of late years friends of our cause have fallen into the sad mistake of directing their main assaults upon liquor selling instead of keeping up also their fire upon the use of intoxicants4 ,legal enactments are right2 but to attempt to dam up a torrent and neglect the fountain-head is surely insanity4 ,the fountain-head of drunkenness is the drinking usages which create and sustain the saloons1 which are often the doorways to hell4 ,in theory ,i always have been1 and am to-day1 a legal suppressionist2 but the most vital remedy of all is to break up the demand for intoxicants1 and to persuade people from wishing to buy and drink them4 ,that goes to the root of the evil4 ,in endeavoring to remove the saloon1 it is the duty of all philanthropists to do their utmost to provide safe places of resort--as the ,holly-,tree ,inns and other temperance coffee houses--for the working people4 ,and another beneficent plan is for corporations and employers to make abstinence from drink an essential to employment4 ,my generous friend1 ,mr4 ,andrew ,carnegie1 when he recently gave a liberal donation to our ,national ,temperance ,society1 said to me3 ,the best temperance lecture ,i have delivered was when ,i agreed to pay ten per cent premium to all the employees on my ,scottish estates who would practice entire abstinence from intoxicants4 ,the experience of three-score years has taught me the inestimable value of total abstinence2 the benefit of the righteous law when it is well enforced1 and also that the church of ,christ has no more right to ignore the drink evil than it has to ignore theft1 or ,sabbath desecration1 or murder4 ,let me add also my grateful acknowledgment of the very effective and ,heaven-blessed work wrought by that noble organization1 the ,woman's ,christian ,temperance ,union4 ,as woman has been the sorest sufferer from the drink-curse1 it is her province and her duty to do her utmost for its removal4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,,my ,,work ,,in ,,the ,,pulpit ,during the first eighteen months after ,i graduated from ,princeton ,college ,i was balancing between the law and the ministry4 ,many of my relatives urged me to become a lawyer1 as my father and grandfather had been1 but my godly mother had dedicated me to the ministry from infancy1 and her influence all went in the same line with her prayers4 ,with the exception of my venerated and beloved kinsman1 ,dr4 ,cornelius ,c4 ,cuyler1 ,pastor of the ,second ,presbyterian ,church of ,philadelphia1 who died in #ahej1 no other man of my name has stood in an ,american pulpit4 ,during the winter of my return from ,europe to my home on the ,cayuga ,lake1 one of my uncles invited me to go down and attend an afternoon prayer service in the neighboring village of ,ludlowville4 ,there was a spiritual awakening in the church1 and the meeting was held in the parlor of a private house4 ,i arose and spoke for ten minutes4 ,when the meeting was over1 more than one came to me and said3 ,your talk did me good4 ,on my way home1 as ,i drove along in my sleigh1 the thought flashed into my mind1 ,if ten minutes' talk to-day helped a few souls1 why not preach all the time8 ,that one thought decided the vexed question on the spot4 ,our lives turn on small pivots1 and if we let ,god lead us1 the path will open before our footsteps4 ,i reached home that day1 and informed my good mother of my decision4 ,she had always expected it and quietly remarked1 ,then1 ,i have already spoken to ,mr4 ,ford for his room for you in the ,princeton ,seminary4 ,my three years in the ,seminary were full of joy and profit4 ,i made it a rule to go out as often as possible and address little meetings in the neighboring school-houses1 and found this a very beneficial method of gaining practice4 ,a young preacher must get accustomed to the sound of his own voice2 if naturally timid1 he must learn to face an audience and must first learn to speak2 afterwards he may learn to speak well4 ,it is a wise thing for a young man to begin his labors in a small congregation2 he has more time for study1 a better chance to become intimately acquainted with individual characters1 and also a smaller audience to face4 ,the first congregation that ,i was called to take charge of1 in ,burlington1 ,n4,j4 contained about forty families4 ,three or four of these were wealthy and cultivated1 the rest were plain mechanics1 with a few gardeners and coachmen4 ,i made my sermons to suit the comprehension of the gardeners and coachmen at the end of the house1 leaving the cultivated portion to gain what they could from the sermon on its way4 ,one of the wealthy attendants was ,mr4 ,charles ,chauncey1 a distinguished ,philadelphia lawyer1 who spent the summer months in ,burlington4 ,once after ,i had delivered a very simple and earnest sermon on the ,worth of the ,soul1 ,i went home and said to myself1 ,lawyer ,chauncey must have thought that was only a camp-meeting exhortation4 ,he met me during the week and to my astonishment he said to me3 ,my young friend1 ,i thank you for that sermon last ,sunday2 it had the two best qualities of preaching--simplicity and down-right earnestness4 ,if ,i had a student in my law-office who was not more in earnest to win his first ten dollar suit before a ,justice of the ,peace than some men seem to be in trying to save souls ,i would kick such a student out of my office4 ,that eminent lawyer's remark did me more service than any month's study in the ,seminary4 ,it taught me that cultivated audiences relished plain1 simple scriptural truths as much as did the illiterate1 and that down-right earnestness to save souls hides a multitude of sins in raw young preachers4 ,another instance that occurred in my early ministry did me a world of good4 ,i was invited to preach in the ,presbyterian ,church at ,saratoga ,springs about two years after ,i was licensed4 ,my topics were ,trusting ,jesus ,christ in the morning and ,the ,day of ,judgment at the evening service4 ,the next day1 when ,i was buying my ticket at the railway station to leave the town1 a plain man 7who was a baker in the village7 said to me3 ,are you not the young man who spoke yesterday in our meeting-house8 ,i told him that ,i was4 ,well1 said he1 ,i never felt more sorry for any one in my life4 ,why so8 ,i asked4 ,his answer was3 ,i said to myself1 there is a youth just out of the ,seminary1 and he does not know that a ,saratoga audience is made up of highly educated people from all parts of the land2 but ,i have noticed that if a minister1 during his first ten minutes1 can convince the people that he is only trying to save their souls he kills all the critics in the house4 ,i have never ceased to thank ,god for the remark of that shrewd ,saratoga baker1 who1 ,i was told1 had come there from ,new ,haven1 ,connecticut1 and was a man of remarkable sagacity4 ,that was one of the profoundest bits of sound philosophy on the art of preaching that ,i have ever encountered1 and ,i have quoted it in every ,theological ,seminary that ,i have ever addressed4 ,if we ministers pour the living truths of the ,gospel red-hot into the ears and consciences of our audiences1 they will have enough to do to look out for themselves and will have no time to level criticisms at us or our mode of preaching4 ,cowards1 also1 are never more pitiable than when in the pulpit4 ,i will not enter here into the endless controversy about the comparative merits of written or extemporized sermons4 ,my own observation and experience has been that no rule is the best rule4 ,every man must find out by practice which method he can use to the best advantage and then pursue it4 ,no man ever fails who understands his forte1 and no man succeeds who does not4 ,some men cannot extemporize effectively if they try ever so hard2 there are others who1 like ,gladstone1 can think best when they are on their legs and are inspired by an audience4 ,during the first few years of my ministry ,i wrote out nearly all of my sermons4 ,the advantage of doing that is that it enables a young beginner to form his own style at the outset by careful and systematic writing4 ,spurgeon1 often when a youth1 read some of his sermons1 although afterwards he never premeditated a single sentence for the pulpit4 ,dr4 ,richard ,s4 ,storrs was a most fluent extemporaneous speaker1 but for twenty years he carefully wrote all his discourses4 ,my own habit1 after a time1 was to write a portion of the sermon and turn away from my notes to interject thoughts that came in the heat of the moment and then turn to my manuscript4 ,this was generally the habit of ,henry ,ward ,beecher4 ,after thirty years in the ministry ,i discarded writing sermons entirely and adopted the plan of preparing a few heads on a bit of note-paper1 and tacking it into a ,bagster's ,bible4 ,dr4 ,john ,hall wrote carefully1 leaving his manuscript at home2 and so does ,dr4 ,alexander ,mc,laren1 of ,manchester1 who is to-day by far the most superb sermonizer in ,great ,britain4 ,the eloquent ,guthrie1 of ,scotland1 committed his discourses to memory1 and delivered them in a torrent of ,godly emotion4 ,in preparing my sermons my custom was1 after taking some rest on ,monday1 to get into my study early on ,tuesday morning4 ,to every student the best hours of the day are those before the sun has reached the meridian4 ,then the mind is the most clear and vigorous4 ,i have never in my life prepared sermons a dozen times after my supper4 ,severe mental work in the evening is apt to destroy sound sleep2 thousands of brain workers are wrecked by insomnia4 ,to secure freedom from needless interruption ,i pinned on my study door ,very ,busy4 ,this had the wholesome effect of shutting out all time-killers1 and of shortening necessary calls of those who had some important errand4 ,instead of leaving the selection of my topic to the risk of any contingency1 ,i usually chose my text on ,tuesday morning1 and laid the keel of the sermon4 ,i kept a large note-book in which ,i could enter any passage of ,scripture that would furnish a good theme for pulpit consumption4 ,i also found it a good practice to jot down thoughts that occurred to me on any important topic that ,i could use when ,i came to prepare my sermons4 ,by this method ,i had a treasury of texts from which ,i could draw every week4 ,let my readers be careful to notice that word ,text4 ,i have known men to prepare an elaborate essay1 theological1 ethical or sociological1 and then to perch a text from the ,bible on top of it4 ,preach my word does not signify the clapping of a few syllables as a figure-head on a long treatise spun out of a preacher's brain4 ,the best discourses are not manufactured1 they are a growth4 ,god's inspired and infallible ,book must furnish the text4 ,the connection between every good sermon and its text is just as vital as the connection between a peach-tree and its root4 ,sometimes an indolent minister tries to palm off an old sermon for a pretended new one by changing the text1 but this shallow device ought to expose itself as if he should decapitate a dog and undertake to clap on the head of some other animal4 ,intelligent audiences see through such tricks and despise them4 ,be sure your sin will find you out4 ,when a passage from the ,holy ,scripture has been planted as a root and well watered with prayer1 the sermon should spring naturally from it4 ,the central thought of the text being the central thought of the sermon and all argument1 all instruction and exhortation are only the boughs branching off from the central trunk1 giving unity1 vigor and spiritual beauty to the whole organic production4 ,the unity and spiritual power of a discourse usually depend upon the adherence to the great divine truth contained in the inspired ,book4 ,the ,bible text is ,god's part of our sermon2 and the more thoroughly we get the text into our own souls1 the more will we get it into the sermon1 and into the consciences of our hearers4 ,to keep out of a rut ,i studied the infinite variety of ,sacred ,scripture2 its narratives and matchless biographies1 its jubilant ,psalms1 its profound doctrines1 its tender pathos1 its rolling thunder of ,sinai1 and its sweet melodies of ,calvary's redeeming love4 ,i laid hold of the great themes1 and ,i found a half hour of earnest prayer was more helpful than two or three hours of study4 ,it sometimes let a flash from the ,throne flame over the page ,i was writing4 ,to me1 when preparing my ,sabbath messages1 ,god's ,holy ,word was the sum of all knowledge1 and a ,thus saith the ,lord was my invariable guide4 ,i found that in theology the true things were not new1 and most of the new things were not true4 ,i remember how a visitor in ,new ,haven was looking for a certain house1 and found himself in front of the residence of ,professor ,olmstead1 the eminent astronomer1 whose stoves were then very popular4 ,the visitor inquired of an ,irishman1 who was working in front of the house1 ,who lives here8 ,the very ,hibernian answer was1 ,shure1 sur1 'tis ,profissor ,olmstead1 a very great man2 he invents comets1 and has discovered a new stove4 ,in searching the ,scriptures ,i used the very best spiritual telescopes in my possession1 and gladly availed myself of all discoveries of divine truths made by profounder intellects and keener visions than my own2 but ,i leave this self-styled advanced age to invent its own comets1 and follow its own meteors4 ,in one respect ,i have not followed the practice of many of my brethren1 for ,i never have wasted a single moment in defending ,god's ,word in my pulpit4 ,i have always held that the ,bible is a self-evidencing book2 ,god will take care of ,his ,word if we ministers only take care to preach it4 ,we are no more called upon to defend the ,bible than we are to defend the law of gravitation4 ,my beloved friend1 ,dr4 ,mc,laren1 of ,manchester1 has well said that if ministers1 instead of trying to prop the ,cross of ,christ1 would simply point men to that ,cross1 more souls would be saved4 ,the vast proportion of volumes of ,apologetics are a waste of ink and paper4 ,if they could all be kindled into a huge bonfire1 they would shed more light than they ever did before4 ,it is not our business to answer every sceptic who shies a stone at the solid fortress of truth in which ,god places ,his ambassadors4 ,if ,tobiah and ,sanballat are challenging us to come down into the plain1 and meet them on their level1 our answer must ever be3 ,i am ,god's messenger1 preaching ,god's word and doing ,god's work4 ,i cannot stop to go down and prove that your swords are made of lath4 ,to my younger brethren ,i would say3 ,preach the ,word1 preach it with all your soul1 preach it in the strength of ,jehovah's ,spirit1 and ,he will give it the victory4 ,i found the effectiveness of my sermons increased by the use of every good illustration ,i could get hold of1 but ,i tried to be careful that they illustrated something4 ,where such are lugged into the sermon merely for the sake of ornament1 they are as much out of place as a bouquet would be tied fast to a plough-handle4 ,the ,divine ,teacher set us the example of making vital truths intelligible by illustrations1 when he spoke so often in parables1 and sometimes recalled historical incidents4 ,all congregations relish incidents and stories1 when they are pat to the purpose1 and serious enough for ,god's house1 and help to drive the truth into the hearts of the audience ,during my early ministry ,i delivered a discourse to young men at ,saratoga ,springs1 and closed it with a solemn story of a man who died of remorse at the exposure of his crime4 ,the ,hon4 ,john ,mc,lean1 a judge of the ,united ,states ,supreme ,court and a prominent man in the ,methodist ,church1 was in the congregation1 and the next day ,i called at the ,united ,states ,hotel to pay my respects to him4 ,he said to me1 ,my young friend ,i was very much interested in that story last evening2 it clinched the sermon4 ,our ministers in ,cincinnati used to introduce illustrative anecdotes1 but it seems to have gone out of fashion and ,i am sorry for it4 ,i replied to him1 ,well ,judge1 ,i am glad to have the decision of the ,supreme ,court of the ,united ,states in favor of telling a story or a personal incident in the pulpit4 ,there is one principle that covers all cases4 ,it is this3 ,whatever makes the ,gospel or ,jesus ,christ more clear to the understanding1 more effective in arousing sinners1 in converting souls1 in edifying believers and in promoting pure honest living is never out of place in the pulpit4 ,when we are preaching for souls we may use any and every weapon of truth within our reach4 ,those who have sat before my pulpit will testify that ,i never spared my lungs or their ears in the delivery of my discourses4 ,the preaching of the ,gospel is spiritual gunnery1 and many a well-loaded cartridge has failed to reach its mark from lack of powder to propel it4 ,the prime duty of ,god's ambassador is to arouse the attention of souls before his pulpit2 to stir those who are indifferent2 to awaken those who are impenitent2 to cheer the sorrow-stricken2 to strengthen the weak1 and edify believers ,an advocate in a criminal trial puts his grip on every juryman's ear ,so must every herald of ,gospel-truth demand and command a hearing1 cost what it may3 but that hearing he never will secure while he addresses an audience in a cold1 formal1 perfunctory manner4 ,certainly the great apostle at ,ephesus aimed at the emotions and the conscience as well as the reason of his hearers when he ceased not to warn them night and day with tears4 ,i cannot impress it too strongly on every young minister that the delivery of his sermon is half the battle4 ,why load your gun at all if you cannot send your charge to the mark8 ,many a discourse containing much valuable thought has fallen dead on drowsy ears when it might have produced great effect if the preacher had only had inspiration and perspiration4 ,a sermon that is but ordinary as a production may have an extraordinary effect by direct and fervid delivery4 ,the minister who never warms himself will never warm up his congregation4 ,i once asked ,albert ,barnes1 of ,philadelphia1 ,who is the greatest preacher you have ever heard8 ,mr4 ,barnes1 who was a very clear-headed thinker1 replied3 ,i cannot answer your question exactly1 but the greatest specimen of preaching ,i ever heard was by the ,rev4 ,edward ,n4 ,kirk before my congregation during a revival2 it produced a tremendous effect4 ,those of us that knew ,kirk knew that he was not a man of genius or profound scholarship2 but he was a true orator with a superb voice and a sweet persuasiveness1 and his whole soul was on fire with the love of ,jesus and the love of souls4 ,it is not easy to define what that subtle something is which we call pulpit magnetism4 ,as near as ,i can come to a definition ,i would say it is the quality or faculty in the speaker that arouses the attention and strengthens the interest of his auditors and which1 when aided by the ,holy ,spirit1 produces conviction in their minds by the truth that is in ,jesus4 ,the heart in the speaker's voice sends that voice into the hearts of his hearers4 ,it is an undoubted fact that pulpit fervor has been a characteristic of almost all the preachers of a soul-winning ,gospel4 ,the fire was kindled in the pulpit that kindled the pews4 ,the discourses of ,frederick ,w4 ,robertson1 of ,brighton1 were masterpieces of fresh thought1 but the crowds were drawn to his church because they were delivered with a fiery glow4 ,the king of living sermon-makers is ,dr4 ,mc,laren1 of ,manchester4 ,his vigorous thought is put into vigorous language and then vigorously spoken4 ,he commits his grand sermons to memory1 and then looks his audience in the eyes1 and sends his strong voice to the furthest gallery4 ,last year after ,i had thanked him for his powerful ,address on ,preaching to a thousand ministers in ,london1 he wrote to me3 ,it was an effort2 for ,i could not trust myself to do without a manuscript1 and ,i am so unaccustomed to reading what ,i have to say that it was like dancing a hornpipe in fetters1 ,yet manuscripts are not always fetters2 for ,dr4 ,chalmers read every line of his sermons with thrilling and tremendous effect4 ,so did ,dr4 ,charles ,wadsworth in ,philadelphia1 and so did ,phillips ,brooks in ,boston4 ,in my own experience ,i have as often found spiritual results from the discourses partly or mainly written out as from those spoken extemporaneously4 ,while much may depend upon the conditions in the congregation and much aid may be drawn from the intercessory prayers of our people1 the main thing is to have a baptism of fire in our own hearts4 ,sometimes a sermon may produce but little impression1 yet the same sermon at another time and place may deeply move an audience1 and yield rich spiritual results4 ,physical condition may have some influence on a minister's delivery2 but the chief element in the eloquence that awakens and converts sinners and strengthens ,christians is the unction of the ,holy ,spirit4 ,our best power is the power from on high4 ,i would say to young ministers--look at your auditors as bound to the judgment seat and see the light of eternity flash into their faces4 ,then the more fervor of soul you put into your preaching the more souls you will win to your ,lord and ,saviour ,jesus ,christ4 ,as ,i look back over the last sixty years ,i think ,i discover some very marked changes in the methods of the ,american pulpit since the days of my youth4 ,in the first place the average preacher in those days was more doctrinal than at the present time4 ,the masters in ,israel evidently held with ,phillips ,brooks that no exhortation to a good life that does not put behind it some great truth1 as deep as eternity1 can seize and hold the conscience1 ,therefore they pushed to the front such deep and mighty themes as the ,attributes of ,god1 the ,divinity of ,jesus ,christ1 the ,nature and ,desert of ,sin1 the ,atonement1 ,regeneration1 ,faith1 ,resurrection1 and ,judgment to come1 with ,heaven and ,hell as tremendous realities4 ,they emphasized the heinousness and the desert of sin as a great argument for repentance and acceptance of ,jesus ,christ4 ,a lapse from that style of preaching is to be deplored2 for as ,gladstone truly remarked1 the decline or decay of a sense of sin against ,god is one of the most serious symptoms of these times4 ,charles ,g4 ,finney1 who was at the zenith of his power sixty years ago1 bombarded the consciences of sinners with a prodigious broadside of pulpit doctrine2 and many acute lawyers and eminent merchants were converted under his discourses4 ,no two finer examples of doctrinal preaching--once so prevalent--could be cited than ,dr4 ,lyman ,beecher and ,dr4 ,horace ,bushnell4 ,the celebrated sermon by the former of these two giants on the ,moral ,government of ,god was characterized by ,thomas ,h4 ,skinner as the mightiest discourse he had ever heard4 ,henry ,ward ,beecher hardly exaggerated when he once said to me1 ,put all of his children together and we do not equal my father at his best4 ,dr4 ,bushnell's masterly discourses with all their exquisite poetry and insight into human hearts were largely bottomed and built on a theological basis4 ,to those two great doctrinal preachers ,i might add the names of my beloved instructors1 ,dr4 ,archibald ,alexander and ,dr4 ,charles ,hodge1 of ,princeton1 ,albert ,barnes and ,professor ,park1 ,dr4 ,thornwell1 ,dr4 ,bethune1 ,dr4 ,john ,todd1 ,dr4 ,g4,t4 ,bedell1 ,bishop ,simpson and ,president ,stephen ,olin4 ,has the ,american pulpit grown in spiritual power since those days8 ,have the churches thriven whose pastors have become more invertebrate in their theology8 ,another characteristic of the average preacher sixty years ago was that sermons were generally aimed at awakening the impenitent1 and bringing them to ,jesus ,christ4 ,the evil of sin was emphasized2 the way of salvation explained2 the claims of ,christianity were presented2 and people were urged to immediate decision4 ,nowadays a large portion of sermons are addressed to professing ,christians2 many others are addressed to nobody in particular1 but there is less of faithful1 fervid1 loving and persuasive discourses to the unconverted4 ,this is one of the reasons for the lamentable decrease in the number of conversions4 ,if ministers are set to be watchmen of souls1 how shall they escape if they neglect the salvation of souls8 ,i think1 too1 that we cannot be mistaken in saying that there has been a decline in impassioned pulpit eloquence4 ,there is a change in the fashions of preaching4 ,students are now taught to be calm and colloquial2 to aim at producing epigrammatical essays2 to discuss sociological problems and address the intellects of their auditors rather in the style of the lecture platform or college class room4 ,the great ,dr4 ,chalmers making the rafters roar is as much a bygone tradition in many quarters as faith in the ,mosaic authorship of the ,pentateuch4 ,i have often wished that the young ,edward ,n4 ,kirk1 who melted to tears the professors and students of ,yale during the revival there1 could come back to us and teach candidates for the ministry how to preach4 ,there was no stentorian shouting or rhetorical exhortation2 but there was an intense1 solemn1 white-heat earnestness that made his auditors feel not only that life was worth living1 but that the soul was worth saving and ,jesus ,christ was worth serving1 and ,heaven was worth securing1 and that for all these things ,god will bring us into judgment4 ,if ,lyman ,beecher and ,dr4 ,edward ,dorr ,griffin and ,finney did not possess all of ,kirk's grace of delivery1 they possessed his fire1 and they made the ,gospel doctrines glow with a living heat that burned into the hearts and consciences of their auditors4 ,may ,god send into our churches not only a revival of pure and undefiled religion1 but also a revival of old-fashioned soul-inspiring pulpit eloquence6 ,it is rather a delicate subject to touch upon1 but ,i am happy to say that in my early ministry the preachers of ,god's ,word were not hamstrung by any doubt of the divine inspiration or infallibility of the ,book that lay before them on their pulpits4 ,the questions1 ,have we got any ,bible8 and ,if any ,bible1 how much8 had not been hatched4 ,when ,i was in ,princeton ,seminary1 our profoundly learned ,hebrew ,professor1 ,dr4 ,j4 ,addison ,alexander no more disturbed us with the much-vaunted conjectural ,biblical criticisms than he disturbed us with ,joe ,smith's golden plates at ,nauvoo4 ,for this fact ,i feel deeply thankful2 and ,i comfort myself with the reflection that the great ,british preachers of the last dozen years--,dr4 ,mc,laren1 ,charles ,h4 ,spurgeon1 ,newman ,hall1 ,canon ,liddon1 ,dr4 ,dale and ,dr4 ,joseph ,parker--have suffered no more from the virulent attacks of the radical and revolutionary higher criticism than ,i have1 during my long and happy ministry4 ,ministers had some advantages sixty or seventy years ago over their successors of our day4 ,they had a more uninterrupted opportunity for the preparation of their sermons and for thorough personal visitation of their flocks4 ,they were not importuned so often to serve on committees and to be participants in all sorts of social schemes of charity4 ,every pastor ought to keep abreast of reformatory movements as long as they do not trench upon the vital and imperative duties of his high calling4 ,this one thing ,i do1 said single-hearted ,paul2 and if ,paul were a pastor now in ,new ,york or ,boston or ,chicago1 he would make short work of many an intrusive rap of a time-killer at his study door4 ,i have noted frankly a few of the changes that ,i have observed in the methods of our ,american pulpit during my long life1 but not1 ,i trust1 in a pessimistic or censorious spirit ,god forbid that ,i should disparage the noble1 conscientious1 self-denying and ,heaven-blessed labors of thousands of ,christ's ministers in our broad land6 ,they have greater difficulties to encounter than ,i had when ,i began my work4 ,they are surrounded with an atmosphere of intense materialism4 ,the ambition for the seen things increasingly blinds men to the things that are unseen and eternal4 ,wealth and worldliness unspiritualize thousands of professed ,christians4 ,the present artificial arrangements of society antagonize devotional meetings and special efforts to promote revivals4 ,on ,sabbath mornings many a minister has to shovel out scores of his congregation from under the drifts 7not very clean snow either7 of the mammoth ,sunday newspapers4 ,the zealous pastor of to-day has to contend with the lowered popular faith in the authority of ,god's ,word2 with the lowered reverence for ,god's day and a diminished habit of attending upon ,god's worship4 ,do these increased difficulties demand a new ,gospel8 ,no2 but rather a mightier faith in the one we have4 ,do they demand new doctrines8 ,no2 but more power in preaching the truths that have outlived nineteen centuries4 ,do we need a new revelation of ,jesus ,christ8 ,yes1 yes1 in the fuller manifestation of ,him2 in the more loving1 courageous and consecrated lives of ,his followers4 ,do we need a new ,baptism of the ,holy ,spirit8 ,verily we do need it2 and then our pulpits will be clothed with power1 and our preachers will have tongues of fire1 and every change will be a change for the better advancement and enlargement of the ,kingdom of our adorable ,lord4 ,,chapter ,,vii ,,my ,,experience ,,in ,,revivals4 ,i have always counted it a matter for thankfulness that ,i made my preparation for the ministry at ,princeton ,theological ,seminary4 ,the period that ,i spent there1 from ,september1 #ahdc1 to ,may1 #ahdf1 was a golden period in its history4 ,the venerable ,archibald ,alexander1 wonderfully endowed with sagacity and spiritual insight1 instructed us in the duties of the preacher and the pastor4 ,dr4 ,charles ,hodge1 the king of ,presbyterian theologians1 was in the prime of his power4 ,his teachings have since been embodied in his masterful volume on ,systematic ,theology4 ,dr4 ,joseph ,addison ,alexander1 who1 ,dr4 ,hodge said1 was1 taking him all in all1 the most gifted man with whom ,i was ever personally acquainted1 was in the chair of ,hebrew and ,old ,testament literature4 ,urbane1 old ,dr4 ,samuel ,miller1 was the ,professor of ,ecclesiastical ,history4 ,those wise men taught us not only to think1 but to believe4 ,all education is atmospheric1 and the atmosphere of ,princeton ,seminary was deeply and sweetly ,evangelical4 ,at five o'clock on the morning after ,i received my diploma1 ,i was off for ,wyoming ,valley in ,pennsylvania1 the ,arcadian spot made famous in the volume of ,campbell's ,gertrude of ,wyoming4 ,i spent five months there supplying the pulpit of the ,rev4 ,mr4 ,mitchell1 who was absent to recruit his health4 ,in the ,autumn ,i received an invitation to take charge of the ,presbyterian ,church of ,burlington1 ,n4,j41 founded by the princely and philanthropic ,dr4 ,cortland ,van ,rensellaer1 son of the ,patroon at ,albany4 ,it was the very place for a young preacher to begin his work4 ,the congregation was small1 and1 therefore1 ,i obtained an opportunity to study individual character4 ,it was a very difficult field of labor1 and it is good for a minister to bear the yoke in his youth4 ,my work at first was attended with many discouragements4 ,i preached as pungently as ,i was able1 but no visible results seemed to follow4 ,one day the wife of one of my two church elders came to me in my study1 and told me that her son had been awakened by the faithful talk of a young ,christian girl1 who had brought some work to her husband's shoe store4 ,i said to the elder's wife3 ,the ,holy ,spirit is evidently working on one soul--let us have a prayer meeting at your house to-night4 ,we spent the afternoon in gathering our small congregation together1 and when ,i got to her house it was packed to the door4 ,i have attended thousands of prayer meetings since then1 but never one that had a more distinct resemblance to the ,pentecostal gathering in the upper room at ,jerusalem4 ,the atmosphere seemed to be charged with a divine electricity that affected almost every one in the house4 ,three times over ,i closed the meeting with a benediction1 but it began again1 and the people lingered until a very late hour1 melted together by a baptism of fire4 ,that wonderful meeting was followed by special services every night1 and the ,holy ,spirit descended with great power4 ,my little church was doubled in numbers1 and ,i learned more practical theology in a month than any seminary could teach me in a year4 ,that revival was an illustration of the truth that a good work of grace often begins with the personal effort of one or two individuals4 ,the ,burlington awakening began with the little girl and the elder's wife4 ,we ministers must never despise or neglect the day of small things4 ,every pastor ought to be constantly on the watch1 with open eye and ear1 for the first signs of an especial manifestation of the ,spirit's presence4 ,elijah1 on ,carmel1 did not only pray2 he kept his eyes open to see the rising cloud4 ,the moment that there is a manifestation of the ,spirit's presence1 it must be followed up promptly4 ,for example1 during my pastorate in the ,market ,street ,church1 ,new ,york1 7from #ahec to #ahfj71 ,i was out one afternoon making calls1 and ,i discovered that in two or three families there were anxious seekers for salvation4 ,i immediately called together the officers of the church1 stated to them my observations1 instituted a series of meetings for almost every evening1 followed them with conversation with enquirers1 and a large ingathering of souls rewarded our efforts and prayers4 ,i have no doubt that very often a spark of divine influence is allowed to die for want of being fanned by prayer and prompt labors1 whereas1 it is sometimes dashed out1 as by a bucket of cold water thrown on by inconsistent or quarrelsome church members4 ,it was to ,christians that ,st4 ,paul sent the message1 ,quench not the ,spirit4 ,in #aheh there began a marvelous work of grace1 which extended not only throughout the churches in ,new ,york1 but throughout the whole country4 ,the flame was kindled at the beginning of the year in a noon-day prayer meeting1 instituted by that single-eyed servant of ,christ1 ,jeremiah ,c4 ,lamphier1 who had once been a singer in the choir of my church4 ,the flame thus kindled in that meeting soon extended to my church in ,market ,street1 and presently spread over the whole city4 ,the special feature of the revival of #aheh was the noon-day prayer meeting4 ,it was my privilege to conduct the first noon meeting in ,burton's old theatre in ,chambers ,street1 and in a few days after1 a similar one in the ,collegiate ,church in ,ninth ,street1 and also the first prayer meeting in a warehouse at the lower end of ,broadway4 ,it is not too much to say that often there were not less than #h1jjj to #aj1jjj of ,god's people1 who came together at the noon-tide hour with the spirit of supplication and prayer4 ,the flame1 having spread over the city1 then leaped to ,philadelphia1 and ,jayne's ,hall1 on ,chestnut ,street1 was thronged by an immense number of people1 led by ,george ,h4 ,stuart4 ,and so it went on from town to town1 and from city to city1 over the length and breadth of our land4 ,the revival crossed the ocean and extended to ,ireland4 ,on a visit to ,belfast ,i saw handbills on the streets calling the people to noon-day gatherings4 ,i began my ministry in ,lafayette ,avenue ,presbyterian ,church1 ,brooklyn1 as its first pastor1 in ,april1 #ahfj4 ,from the start ,i struck for souls2 and when our new edifice was dedicated we were under a refreshing shower of the ,divine ,spirit4 ,six years after my installation as pastor1 ,god blessed us with an extraordinary downpour4 ,the first drops were followed by an abundance of rain4 ,that revival began where revivals often begin1--in the prayer meeting4 ,it was on the evening of the #hth of ,january1 the first evening of the week of prayer1 which is generally observed over the land4 ,the meeting was held under the direction of our ,young ,people's ,association1--that same body of young ,christian workers which gave the ,rev ,francis ,e4 ,clark both the inspiration and practical hints for the formation of his first society of ,christian ,endeavor4 ,what a fearful bitter night was that #hth of ,january6 ,through that stinging ,arctic atmosphere came a goodly number with hearts on fire with the love of ,jesus4 ,the prayers that night were well aimed2 and a man1 who afterwards became a useful officer of the church1 was converted on the spot4 ,on the ,friday evening of that week our lecture-room was packed1 and when the elder requested that any who desired special prayer should rise1 two very prominent men in this community were on their feet in an instant4 ,the meeting was electrified2 every one saw that ,god was with us4 ,there was no extraordinary excitement2 the feeling was too deep for that4 ,we felt as the ancient ,hebrew prophet felt when he heard the still small voice from heaven1 and went out ready for action4 ,i felt at once that a great work for ,christ had commenced4 ,i called our officers together at once1 and1 to use the naval phrase1 we cleared the decks for action4 ,as the good work had begun in our own church1 without any external assistance1 we determined to carry on the work ourselves2 and during the next five months1 ,i never had any pulpit help except on two evenings during the week1 when two fervid1 discreet neighboring pastors preached for me4 ,commonly1 every church should do its own spiritual harvesting--just as much as every pair of young lovers should do their own love-making1 and wise parents their own family training4 ,looking outside is a temptation to shirk responsibility4 ,if a preacher can preach the ,gospel of ,jesus ,christ faithfully1 and the ,lord ,god is with him1 why rob him of the joy of the harvest by sending away for any stranger8 ,my plan of action was this4 ,twice on each ,sabbath1 and on two evenings in the week1 ,i preached as clearly and pungently as ,i could2 sometimes to awakened souls1 sometimes to backsliders1 sometimes to the impenitent1 sometimes to souls who were seeking salvation4 ,i spoke of the great central truths3--personal guilt1 ,christ's atoning work1 the offices of the ,spirit1 redemption1 the claims of the ,saviour1 the necessity of immediate repentance1 immediate acceptance of ,christ and the joy and power of an useful ,christian life4 ,during a revival1 sermons make themselves2 they grow spontaneously4 ,on the ,monday evening of each week our young people had the field with their regular gatherings1 and new converts were encouraged to narrate their experiences4 ,on three other evenings of the week the whole church had a service for prayer and exhortation1 conducted by our laymen4 ,the praying women met on one afternoon2 the girls by themselves on another afternoon1 and the boys on another4 ,during each week1 from eleven to twelve1 different meetings were held1 and in so large a congregation1 these sub-divisions were necessary4 ,after every public service ,i held an inquiry meeting4 ,i invited people to converse with me in the study during the day1 and ,i made as much pastoral visitation from house to house as possible4 ,so built we the walls 444 for the people had a mind to work4 ,for five months that blessed work went forward1 and as a result a very great number were added to the church1 of whom about one hundred were heads of families4 ,our sacramental ,sabbaths were holy1 joyous feasts1 and the sheaves were brought in with singing4 ,some of the new converts banded themselves in a new organization1 and to perpetuate the memory of that glorious spiritual outpouring1 they called it the ,memorial ,presbyterian ,church4 ,it now worships in the beautiful edifice on ,seventh ,avenue1 and is one of the most flourishing churches in ,brooklyn4 ,the effect of that work of grace reached on into eternity4 ,one of its first effects1 on the writer of these lines1 was to confirm him in the opinion that the living ,gospel1 sent by the ,holy ,spirit1 is the one only way to save sinners2 that a church must back up a minister by its personal efforts1 and when preacher and people work together only for ,god's glory1 ,he is as sure to answer prayer as the morrow's sun is to rise in the heavens4 ,it has not been my practice to invite the labors of an evangelist2 but in ,january1 #ahgb1 ,mr4 ,dwight ,l4 ,moody1 with whom ,i had as yet but a slight acquaintance1 but whom ,i since have honored and loved with my whole heart1 said to the superintendent of our ,mission ,chapel3 ,what a nice place this is to hold some meetings in4 ,he was cordially invited2 and at the end of a week about twenty persons had been mustered together on the sharp winter evenings4 ,this seems slow work1 ,i said to him4 ,very true1 replied my sagacious brother4 ,it is slow1 but if you want to kindle a fire1 you collect a handful of sticks1 light them with a match1 and keep on blowing till they blaze4 ,then you may heap on the wood4 ,i am working here with a handful of ,christians1 endeavoring to warm them up with love for ,christ2 and1 if they keep well kindled1 a general revival will come1 and outside sinners will be converted4 ,he was right2 the revival did come4 ,it spread into the parent church1 and over one hundred converts made their public confession of ,christ before our communion table4 ,it was in those little chapel meetings that my beloved brother1 ,moody1 prepared his first ,bible ,readings1 which afterward became so celebrated in this country and in ,great ,britain4 ,a few months afterward ,i met ,mr4 ,moody in ,london4 ,coming one day into my room1 he said to me3 ,they wish me to come over here and preach in ,england4 ,i urged him at once to do so2 for1 ,i said1 these ,english people are the best people to preach to in the world4 ,moody then said1 ,i will go home1--secure somebody to sing1 and come over and make the experiment4 ,he did come home1--he secured my neighbor1 ,mr4 ,sankey1--returned to ,england1 and commenced the most extraordinary revival campaign that had been known in ,great ,britain since the days of ,whitefield4 ,i cannot dismiss this heaven-honored name without a word of honest1 loving tribute to the man and his magnificent work4 ,d4,l4 ,moody was by far the most extraordinary proclaimer of the ,gospel that ,america has produced during the last century1 as ,spurgeon was the most extraordinary in ,great ,britain4 ,those two heralds of salvation led the column4 ,they reached millions by their eloquent tongues1 and their printed words went out to the ends of the earth4 ,the single aim of both was to point to the cross of ,christ1 and to save souls2 all their educational and benevolent enterprises were subordinate to this one great sovereign purpose4 ,neither one of them ever entered a college or theological seminary2 yet they commanded the ear of ,christendom4 ,the simple reason was--they were both ,god-made preachers1 and were both endowed with immense common sense1 and executive ability4 ,,chapter ,,viii ,,authorship ,printers' ink stained my fingers in my boyhood2 for1 at the age of fifteen1 ,i ventured into a controversy on the slavery question1 in the columns of our county newspaper2 and1 in the same paper1 published a series of letters from ,europe1 in #ahdb4 ,during my course of study in the ,princeton ,theological ,seminary1 ,i was a contributor to several papers1 to ,godey's ,magazine in ,philadelphia1 and to the ,new ,englander1 a literary and theological review published at ,new ,haven4 ,i wrote the first article for the first number of the ,nassau ,monthly1 a ,princeton ,college publication1 which still exists under another name4 ,up to the year #ahdg all my contributions had been to secular periodicals1 but in that year ,i ventured to send from ,burlington1 ,n4,j41 where ,i was then preaching1 a short article to the ,new ,york ,observer1 signed by my initials4 ,this was followed by several others which1 falling under the eye of my beloved friend1 the ,rev4 ,dr4 ,cortland ,van ,rensellaer1 led him to say to me3 ,you are on the right track now2 work on that as long as you live1 and ,i have obeyed his injunction4 ,within a year or two ,i began to write for the ,presbyterian at ,philadelphia4 ,its proprietor urged me to accept an editorial position1 but ,i declined his proposal1 as ,i have declined several other requests to assume editorial positions since4 ,i would always rather write when ,i choose than write when ,i must1 and ,i have never felt at liberty to hold any other position while ,i was a pastor of a church4 ,my contributions to the press never hindered my work as a minister1 for writing for the press promotes perspicuity in preparing for the pulpit4 ,in the summer of #ahec ,i was called from the ,third ,presbyterian ,church of ,trenton to the ,market ,street ,reformed ,church of ,new ,york ,city4 ,as a loyal ,dutchman1 ,i began to write at once for the ,christian ,intelligencer1 and have continued in its clean hospitable columns to this day4 ,at the urgent request of ,mr4 ,henry ,c4 ,bowen ,i began to write for his ,independent1 and sent to its columns over six hundred articles2 but of all my associate contributors in those days1 not a solitary one survives4 ,in ,may1 #ahfj1 ,my first article appeared in the ,new ,york ,evangelist1 and during these forty-two years ,i have tested the patience of its readers by imposing on them more than eighteen hundred of my lubrications4 ,as ,i was preparing one of my earliest articles1 ,i happened to spy the blossoms of the catalpa tree before my window1 and for want of a title ,i headed it ,under the ,catalpa4 ,the tree flourishes still1 and bids fair to blossom after the hand that pens these lines has turned to dust4 ,i need not recapitulate the names of all the many journals to which ,i have sent contributions1--many of which have been republished in ,great ,britain1 ,australia and other parts of the civilized world4 ,i once gave to my friend1 ,mr4 ,arthur ,b4 ,cook1 the eminent stenographer1 some statistics of the number of my articles1 and the various journals in which they had appeared in this and other countries4 ,he made an estimate of the extent of their publication1 and then said to me3 ,it would be within bounds to say that your four thousand articles have been printed in at least two hundred millions of copies4 ,the production of these articles involved no small labor1 but has brought its own reward4 ,to enter a multitude of homes week after week2 to converse with the inmates about many of the most vital questions in morals and religion2 to speak words of guidance to the perplexed2 of comfort to the troubled1 and of exhortation to the saints and to the sinful--all these involved a solemn responsibility4 ,that this life-work with the pen has not been without fruit ,i gratefully acknowledge4 ,when a group of railway employees1 at a station in ,england1 gathered around me to tender their thanks for spiritual help afforded them by my articles1 ,i felt repaid for hours of extra labor spent in preaching through the press4 ,my first attempt at book-making was during my ministry at ,trenton1 ,new ,jersey1 when ,i published a small volume entitled ,stray ,arrows4 ,this was followed at different times by several volumes of an experimental and devotional character4 ,in the spring of #ahfg one of our beautiful twin boys1 at the age of four and a half years1 was taken from us by a very brief and violent attack of scarlet fever4 ,we received a large number of tender letters of condolence1 which gave us so much comfort that my wife suggested that they should be printed with the hope that they might be equally comforting to other people in affliction4 ,i accordingly selected a number of them1 added the simple story of our precious child's short career1 and handed the package to my beloved friend and publisher1 the late ,mr4 ,peter ,carter1 with the request that they be printed for private distribution4 ,he urged1 after reading them1 that ,i should allow him to publish them1 which he did under the title of ,the ,empty ,crib1 a ,book of ,consolation4 ,that simple story of a sweet child's life has travelled widely over the world and made our little ,georgie known in many a home4 ,mrs4 ,gladstone told me that when she and her husband had read it1 it recalled their own loss of a child under similar circumstances4 ,dean ,stanley read it aloud to ,lady ,augusta ,stanley in the ,deanery of ,westminster2 and when ,i took him to our own unrivalled ,greenwood ,cemetery he asked to be driven to the spot where the dust of our dear boy is slumbering4 ,many thousands have visited that grave and gazed with tender admiration on the exquisite marble medallion of the childface1--by the sculptor1 ,charles ,calverley1--which adorns the monument4 ,fourteen years afterwards1 in the autumn of #ahha1 the four corners of my house were smitten again with a heart-breaking bereavement in the death1 by typhoid fever1 of our second daughter1 ,louise ,ledyard ,cuyler1 at the age of twenty-two1 who possessed a most inexpressible beauty of person and character4 ,her playful humor1 her fascinating charm of manner1 and her many noble qualities drew to her the admiration of a large circle of friends1 as well as the pride of our parental hearts4 ,after her departure ,i wrote1 through many tears1 a small volume entitled ,god's ,light on ,dark ,clouds1 with the hope that it might bring some rays of comfort into those homes that were shadowed in grief4 ,judging from the numberless letters that have come to me ,i cannot but believe that1 of all the volumes which ,i have written1 this one has been the most honored of ,god as a message-bearer to that largest of all households--the household of the sorrowing4 ,let me add that ,i have published a single volume of sermons1 entitled ,the ,eagle's ,nest1 and a volume of foreign travel1 ,from the ,nile to ,norway2 but all the remainder of my score of volumes have been of a practical and devotional character4 ,of the twenty-two volumes that ,i have written1 six have been translated into ,swedish1 and two into the language of my ,dutch ancestors4 ,thanks be to ,god for the precious privilege of preaching ,his glorious ,gospel with the types that out-reach ten thousand tongues6 ,and thanks also to a number of friends1 whose faces ,i never saw1 but whose kind words have cheered me through more than a half century of happy labors4 ,i cannot conclude this brief chapter without expressing my deep obligations to that noble organization1 the ,american ,tract ,society1 which has given a wide circulation to many of my books--including ,heart-,life1 ,newly ,enlisted2 or1 ,counsels to ,young ,converts--and ,beulah-,land1 a volume of good cheer to aged pilgrims on their journey heavenward4 ,,chapter ,,ix ,,some ,,famous ,,people ,,abroad4 ,gladstone4--,dr4 ,brown4--,dean ,stanley4--,shaftesbury1 etc4 ,in a former chapter of this volume ,i gave my reminiscences of some celebrities in ,great ,britain sixty years ago4 ,in the present chapter ,i group together several distinguished persons whom ,i met during subsequent visits4 ,the first time ,i ever saw ,mr4 ,gladstone was in ,august1 #aheg1 when ,lord ,kinnaird kindly took me into the ,house of ,commons1 and pointed out to me from a side gallery the most prominent celebrities4 ,a tall1 finely formed man1 in a clear resonant voice1 addressed the ,house for a few moments4 ,that is ,gladstone1 whispered ,lord ,kinnaird4 ,mr4 ,gladstone had already won fame as a great financier in the role of ,chancellor of the ,exchequer2 but was at this time out of office1 occupying an independent position4 ,he was already beginning to break loose from ,toryism1 and ere long became the most brilliant and powerful leader that the ,british ,liberal party has ever followed4 ,as an orator he is ranked next to ,bright2 as a party manager1 he was always a match for ,disraeli1 and as a statesman he has won the foremost place in ,british annals during the last half century4 ,in ,june1 #ahgb1 ,i happened to be in ,london at the time of the great excitement over the famous ,alabama difficulty4 ,the ,court of ,arbitration was sitting at ,geneva2 things were not going smoothly1 and there was danger of a rupture with the ,united ,states4 ,at an anniversary meeting at ,exeter ,hall ,i had made a speech in which ,i spoke of the cordial feeling of my countrymen1 and their desire to avoid a conflict with the mother country4 ,it was suggested to me that ,i should call on ,mr4 ,gladstone1 who was then ,premier2 and my friend1 ,dr4 ,newman ,hall1--who had always had a warm personal attachment to ,gladstone1--accompanied me4 ,the ,premier then occupied a stately mansion in ,carlton ,house ,terrace1 next to the ,duke of ,york's column4 ,we found him in his private sitting room with a cup of coffee before him and a morning newspaper in his hand4 ,fifteen years had made a great change in his appearance4 ,he had become stouter and broader shouldered4 ,his thin hair was turned gray1 and his large eyes and magnificent brow reminded me of ,daniel ,webster4 ,he received me cordially1 and we spent half an hour in conversation about the difficulties that seemed to be obstructing an amicable settlement of the ,alabama controversy4 ,mr4 ,gladstone appeared to be puzzled about a recent belligerent speech delivered by ,mr4 ,charles ,sumner in our ,senate chamber1 and ,i was glad to give him a hint or two in regard to some of our eloquent ,senator's idiosyncrasies4 ,what impressed me most in ,gladstone's free1 earnest talk was its solemn and thoroughly ,christian tone--he was longing for peace on principle4 ,on my telling him playfully that the time which belonged to the ,british ,empire was too precious for further talk1 he said3 ,come and breakfast with me to-morrow morning1 and we will finish our conversation4 ,the next morning ,dr4 ,hall and myself presented ourselves at ten o'clock in ,mr4 ,gladstone's parlor4 ,we had a very pleasant chat with ,mrs4 ,gladstone 7a tall1 slender lady1 whose only claim to beauty was her benevolent countenance71 about the schemes of charity in which she was deeply interested4 ,at the breakfast table opposite to us were the venerable ,dean ,ramsey1 of ,edinburgh1 and ,professor ,talbot1 of ,oxford ,university4 ,the ,premier indulged in some jocose remarks which encouraged me to tell him stories about our ,southern negroes1 in whom he seemed to be much interested4 ,he laughed over the story of the eloquent colored brother who1 when asked how he came to preach so well1 said3 ,well1 ,boss1 ,i takes de text fust2 ,i splains it2 den ,i spounds it1 and den ,i puts in de rousements4 ,gladstone was quite delighted with this1 and said it was about the best description of real parliamentary eloquence4 ,he told us that one secret of his own marvelous health was his talent for sound1 unbroken sleep4 ,i lock all my public cares outside my chamber door1 said he1 and nothing ever disturbs my slumbers4 ,while we were at breakfast a package of dispatches was brought in and laid beside ,mr4 ,gladstone's plate4 ,he left them quietly alone until the meal was over and then1 taking them to a corner of the parlor1 perused them intently4 ,i saw that his face was lighted up with a pleasant smile4 ,beckoning me to come to him he said1 with much enthusiasm3 ,doctor1 here is good news from the arbitrators at ,geneva4 ,the worst is over4 ,i do not pretend to know the purposes of ,providence1 but ,i am sure that no earthly power can now prevent an honorable peace between your country and mine4 ,it has always been a matter of thankfulness that ,i should have been with the greatest of living ,englishmen when his warm heart was relieved of the apprehension of the danger of a conflict with ,america4 ,after entering our names in the autograph book on the parlor table1 we withdrew1 and at the door we met the ,duke of ,argyll1 a member of the ,premier's ,cabinet1 who was calling on official business4 ,illustration3 ,,dr ,,cuyler ,,at #ej4 ,my next meeting with ,gladstone was a very brief one1 in the summer of #ahhe4 ,he had lately resigned his third ,premiership2 his health was badly impaired1 his splendid voice was apparently ruined by an attack of bronchitis1 and the world supposed that his public career was ended4 ,i called at his house in ,whitehall ,terrace1 and the servant informed me at the door that the physicians had forbidden ,mr4 ,gladstone to see any one4 ,i handed in my card1 and said to the servant3 ,i leave for ,america to-morrow1 and only called to say good-bye to ,mr4 ,gladstone4 ,he overheard my voice 7not one of the feeblest71 and1 coming out into the hall1 greeted me most warmly1 but in a voice almost inaudible from hoarseness4 ,i told him3 ,do not attempt to speak1 ,mr4 ,gladstone2 the future of the ,british ,empire depends upon your throat4 ,he hoarsely whispered1 ,no1 no1 my friend1 it does not1 and with a very hearty handshake we parted4 ,my prediction came true4 ,within a year the marvelous old man had recovered his voice1 recovered his popularity1 resumed the ,liberal leadership1 and for the fourth time was ,prime ,minister of ,great ,britain4 ,i supposed that ,i should never see the veteran statesman again1 but four years afterward1 in ,july1 #ahhi1 he kindly invited me to come and see him1 and to bring my wife4 ,it was the week before the celebration of his golden wedding4 ,he was occupying1 temporarily1 a house near ,buckingham ,palace4 ,mrs4 ,gladstone1 the good angel of his long life and happy home1 received us warmly1 and1 bringing out a lot of photographs of her children and grandchildren1 gave us a family talk4 ,when her husband came in1 ,i was startled to observe how much thinner he had become and how loosely his clothes hung upon him4 ,but as soon as he began to talk1 the old fire flamed up1 and he discoursed eloquently about ,irish ,home-,rule1 the divorce question1 7one of his hobbies71 and the dangers that threatened ,america from plutocracy and laxity of wedlock1 and the facilities of divorce that sap the sanctities of domestic life4 ,it was during that conversation that ,gladstone tittered the sentence that ,i have often had occasion to quote4 ,he said3 ,amid all the pressure of public cares and duties1 ,i thank ,god for the ,sabbath with its rest for the body and the soul4 ,one reason for his wonderful longevity was that he had never robbed his brain of the benefits of ,god's appointed day of rest4 ,after our delightful talk was ended1 the ,grand ,old ,man went off in pursuit of an imperial photograph1 which he kindly signed with his autograph1 and gave to my wife1 and it now graces the walls of the room in which ,i am writing4 ,many men have been great in some direction3 ,william ,ewart ,gladstone was great in nearly all directions4 ,born in the same year with our ,lincoln1 he was a great muscular man and horseman2 a great orator1 a great political strategist1 a great scholar1 a great writer1 great statesman and a great ,christian4 ,the crowning glory of his character was a stalwart faith in ,god's ,word1 and in the cross of ,jesus ,christ4 ,he honored his ,lord1 and his ,lord honored him4 ,wordsworth drew a truthful picture of ,gladstone when he portrayed ,the man who lifted high ,conspicuous object in a nation's eye1 ,who1 with a toward or untoward lot1 ,prosperous or adverse1 to his wish or not1 ,plays in the many games of life1 that one ,where what he most doth value must be won2 ,whom neither shape of danger can dismay1 ,nor thought of tender happiness betray2 ,and while the mortal mist is gathering1 draws ,his breath in confidence of ,heaven's applause4 ,who has not wept over the brilliant and beloved ,dr4 ,john ,brown's unrivalled story1 ,rab and ,his ,friends1 and been charmed with his picture of ,pet ,marjorie8 ,what student of style will deny that his ,monograph of his father is the finest specimen of condensed and vivid biography in our language8 ,when his ,spare ,hours appeared in ,america ,i published an article in the ,independent entitled1 ,the ,last of the ,john ,browns1 several copies of which had been forwarded to him by his friends in this country4 ,on my arrival in ,edinburgh1 ,july1 #ahfb1 he called on me at the ,waverly ,hotel and invited me to breakfast with him4 ,he had the fair ,saxon features of ,scotland1 with a smile like a ,summer morning4 ,not tall in stature1 his head was somewhat bald1 and he bore a striking resemblance to our ex-,president1 ,van ,buren4 ,he showed me in his house some choice literary treasures2 among them a little ,greek ,testament1 given to his great-grandfather1 the famous ,john ,brown1 of ,haddington1 the eminent commentator4 ,its history was curious3 ,brown of1 ,haddington1 was a poor shepherd boy1 and once he walked twenty miles through the night to ,st4 ,andrews to get a copy of the ,greek ,testament4 ,the book-seller at first laughed at him and said3 ,boy1 if you can read a verse in this book1 you may have it4 ,forthwith the lad read the verse off glibly1 and was permitted to carry off the ,testament in triumph4 ,you may well suppose that the little volume is a sacred heirloom in the ,brown family1 which for four generations has been famous4 ,of course1 the author of ,rab and ,his ,friends had several pictures of the illustrious dog that figured in his beautiful story1 and ,i noticed a pet spaniel lying on the sofa in the drawing room4 ,a day or two after1 ,dr4 ,brown called on me1 and kindly took me on a drive with him through ,edinburgh2 and it was pleasant to see how the people on the sidewalk had cheery salutes for the author of ,rab as he rode by4 ,we went up to ,calton ,hill and made a call on ,sir ,george ,harvey1 the famous artist1 whom we found in his studio1 with brush in hand1 and working on an ,highland landscape4 ,sir ,george was a hearty old fellow1 and the two friends had a merry crack together4 ,when ,i asked ,harvey if he had seen any of our best ,american paintings1 he replied ,no1 ,i have not2 the best ,american productions ,i have ever seen have been some of your missionaries4 ,i met some of them2 they were noble characters4 ,on our return from the drive ,dr4 ,brown gave me an elegant edition of ,rab1 with ,harvey's portrait of the immortal dog1 whose body was thickset like a little bull1 and who had fought his way to absolute supremacy1--like ,julius ,caesar or the ,duke of ,wellington4 ,when in ,edinburgh ten years afterwards1 as a delegate to the ,general ,assemblies1 ,i was so constantly occupied that ,i was able to see but little of my genial friend1 ,dr4 ,brown4 ,i sent him a copy of the little book1 ,the ,empty ,crib1 which had been recently published1 and received from him the following characteristic reply3 #be ,,rutland ,,street1 ,,edinburgh1 ,may #be1 #ahgb4 ,my ,dear ,dr4 ,cuyler ,very many thanks for your kind note1 and the little book4 ,it will be my own fault if ,i am not the better for reading it4 ,i have seen nothing lovelier or more touching than the pictures of those twin heads like unto the angels2 even there ,georgie looks nearer the better world than his brother4 ,there is something perilous about his eyes with their wistful beauty4 ,with him it is far better now1 and may it be meet for ,theodore to be long with you here4 ,i hoped to leave with you a book of my father's on the same subject1 entitled1 ,comfortable ,words1 but it is out of print4 ,if ,i can get a copy1 ,i will send it you4 ,there are some letters of ,bengel's which1 if you do not know1 you will enjoy4 ,i send you a note of introduction to ,john ,ruskin1 and ,i hope to hear you to-morrow in ,mr4 ,candlish's church4 ,with much regret and best thanks1 yours very truly1 ,,john ,,brown ,p4,s4 ,i was in ,glen-,garry the other week1 and quite felt that look of nakedness1 and as if it just came from the ,maker's hand2 it was very impressive ,during the closing years of the ,doctor's life he was often shadowed by fits of deep melancholy4 ,one day he was walking with a lady1 who was also subject to depression of spirits1 and he said to her3 ,tell me why ,i am like a ,jew8 ,she could not answer and he replied3 ,because ,i am sad-you-see ,tears and mirth dwelt very closely together in his keen1 fervid1 sensitive spirit4 ,it is remarkable that one who devoted himself so assiduously to his exacting profession should have been able to master such an immense amount of miscellaneous reading1 and to have won such a splendid name in literature4 ,it is the attribute of true genius that it can do great things easily1 and can accomplish its feats in an incredibly short time4 ,he affirms that the immortal story of ,rab was written in a few hours6 ,the precious relics of my friend that ,i now possess are portraits of his father and of ,dr4 ,chalmers1 and of ,hugh ,miller1 which he presented to me1 and which now adorn my study walls4 ,while ,i have always dissented from some of his theological views and utterances1 ,i have always had an intense admiration for ,dean ,stanley1 in whose character was blended the gentleness of a sweet girl with occasional display of the courage of a lion4 ,froude once said to me3 ,i wish that ,stanley was a little better hater4 ,my reply was3 ,it is not in ,stanley to hate anybody but the devil4 ,my acquaintance with the ,dean of ,westminster dates from the summer of #ahgb4 ,the ,rev4 ,samuel ,minton1 a very broad ,church of ,england clergyman1 was in the habit of inviting ministers of the ,established church and non-conformists to meet at lunch parties with a view of bringing them to a better understanding4 ,one day ,i was invited by ,mr4 ,minton to attend one of these lunch parties1 and ,i found that day at his table1 ,dr4 ,donald ,frazer1 ,dr4 ,newman ,hall1 ,dr4 ,joseph ,parker1 ,dean ,stanley and ,dr4 ,howard ,wilkinson1 afterwards ,bishop of ,truro4 ,stanley felt perfectly at home among these dissenters and asked me to give the company some account of a remarkable discourse1 which1 he was told1 ,bishop ,mc,ilvaine1 of ,ohio1 had recently delivered in my ,lafayette ,presbyterian ,church1 ,brooklyn1 on ,christian ,unity4 ,in the discourse1 ,bishop ,mc,ilvaine had said3 ,the only difference between the ,presbyterian denomination1 and ,episcopal denomination1 is their difference as to the orders of the ministry4 ,the ,dean was delighted with my account1 and said3 ,just imagine the ,bishop of ,london preaching such a sermon in ,newman ,hall's or ,spurgeon's pulpit2 it would rock the old dome of ,st4 ,paul's4 ,in all of his intercourse with his dissenting brethren the ,dean never put on any airs of patronage1 for though a loyal ,episcopalian1 he recognized their equally divine ordination as ministers of ,jesus ,christ4 ,a few days afterwards ,i went up to get a look at ,holly ,lodge1 the residence of ,lord ,macaulay1 in a side street just off ,campden ,hill4 ,i met the ,dean just coming out of the gate4 ,he had been attending a garden party given by ,lord ,airlie1 who then occupied the lodge4 ,it was a pleasant coincidence to meet the most brilliant ecclesiastical historian at the door of the most brilliant civil historian of ,england4 ,the ,dean stopped and chatted about ,macaulay1 of whom he was very fond1 and then said3 ,just beyond is ,holland ,house4 ,we went a few paces and got a glimpse of the famous mansion in which ,lord ,holland had entertained the celebrities of ,america and ,europe4 ,one of the best hours ,i ever spent with ,stanley was at his own table in the ,deanery4 ,he was the most delightful of hosts4 ,lady ,augusta ,stanley1 daughter of the ,earl of ,elgin1 had been a favorite ,maid of ,honor to the ,queen1 and the ,dean had accompanied the ,prince of ,wales on his tour to the ,orient4 ,the ,queen quite frequently slipped away from the palace for a quiet chat at the ,deanery with this pair whom she so loved4 ,a marble bust of ,victoria1 by her daughter1 the ,princess ,louise1 stood in the parlor1 a gift of the ,queen4 ,if the ,dean was very broad in his theology1 his cultured wife was as decidedly evangelical in hers and her religious influence was very tonic in all respects4 ,after lunch that day the ,dean very kindly took me into the famous ,jerusalem chamber and showed me where the ,westminster ,assembly had sat for six years to give birth to our ,presbyterian ,confession of ,faith and ,catechism4 ,i was surprised at the small size of the room that had held seventy or eighty commissioners4 ,as ,i was very desirous of hearing the ,dean preach in the ,abbey1 he sent me a very kind invitation to come on the next ,sabbath to the ,deanery before the service1 and on account of my deafness ,lady ,augusta would take me into a seat close to his pulpit4 ,accordingly she stowed me in a small box-pew1 which was close against the pulpit1 and within arms' length of the ,dean4 ,his sermon was a beautiful essay on ,solomon and great men1 and in the course of it he said3 ,such was the greatness of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,i felt so pained by what he did not say that ,i ventured to write him a most frank and loving note1 in which ,i expressed my deep regret that when he referred to the greatness of our ,saviour he had so entirely ignored what was infinitely ,his most sublime work1--that of our human redemption by ,his atoning death on ,calvary4 ,the dear ,dean1 instead of taking offense1 accepted the frank letter in the same spirit in which it was written4 ,a day or two after he sent me a characteristic note1 whose peculiar hieroglyphics1 after much labor1 ,i was able to decipher2 for it has been often said that the only reason why he was never made a bishop was that no clergyman in his diocese would ever have been able to read his letters4 ,,the ,,deanery ,,of ,,westminster1 ,july #bb1 #ahgb ,dear ,doctor---,pray accept my sincere thanks for your very kind note4 ,i quite appreciate your candor in mentioning what you thought a defect in my sermon4 ,it arose from a fixed conviction which ,i have long formed1 that the only chance there is of my sermons doing any good is by taking one topic at a time4 ,the effect and the nature of the death of ,jesus ,christ1 ,i quite agree with you in thinking to be a most important part of the ,christian doctrine1 and ,christian history4 ,but as my sermon was on a different subject--that of the right use of greatness--,i felt that ,i could not speak1 even by way of allusion1 to the other great doctrine on which ,i had often preached before4 ,i sincerely wish that ,i could come to ,america4 ,every year that passes increases the number of my kind friends in the ,new ,world1 and my desire to see the ,united ,states4 ,farewell2 and may all the blessings of our ,state and ,church follow you westward ,yours faithfully1 ,a4,p4 ,,stanley4 ,when ,dean ,stanley visited ,america in the autumn of #ahgh1 ,i met him several times1 and he was especially cordial1 and all the more so because of my out-spoken letter4 ,the first time ,i met him was at the meeting of ministers of ,new ,york to give him a reception1 and hear him deliver a discourse on ,dr4 ,robinson1 the ,oriental geographer4 ,he recognized me in the audience1 came forward to the front of the platform1 beckoned me up1 and gave me a hearty grasp of the hand4 ,i arranged to take him to ,greenwood ,cemetery on the morning before he sailed for home1 and after breakfasting with him at ,cyrus ,w4 ,field's we started for the cemetery4 ,dr4 ,phillip ,schaff and ,dr4 ,henry ,m4 ,field met us at the ferry1 and accompanied us4 ,when we entered the elevated railroad car1 ,stanley exclaimed3 ,this is like the chariots on the walls of ,babylon4 ,with his keen interest in history he inquired when we reached the lower part of the ,bowery1 near the junction of ,chatham ,square ,was it not near here that ,nathan ,hale1 the martyr1 was executed8 and he showed then a more accurate knowledge of our local history than one ,new ,yorker in ten thousand can boast6 ,that was probably the exact locality1 and ,dean ,stanley had never been there before4 ,before entering the ,greenwood ,cemetery he requested me to drive him to the spot where my little child was buried1 whose photograph in ,the ,empty ,crib ,i have referred to in a previous chapter4 ,when we reached the burial lot he got out of the carriage1 and in the driving wind1 of a raw ,november morning1 spent some time in examining the marble medallion of the child1 and in talking with my wife most sweetly about him4 ,i could have hugged the man on the spot4 ,it was so like ,stanley4 ,i do not wonder that everybody loved him4 ,we then drove to the tomb of ,dr4 ,edward ,robinson and the ,dean said to us3 ,in all my travels in ,palestine ,i carried ,dr4 ,robinson's volume1 ',biblical ,researches1' with me on horseback or on my camel2 it was my constant guide book4 ,three years afterward1 on my arrival in ,london1 from ,palestine ,i learned that ,stanley was dangerously ill4 ,on the door of the ,deanery a bulletin was posted3 ,the ,dean is sinking4 ,that night the good1 great man1 died4 ,on the #beth of ,july the august funeral service took place in ,westminster ,abbey4 ,outside the ,abbey thousands of people were assembled1 for the ,dean was loved by all ,london4 ,from a small gallery over the ,poets' ,corner ,i looked down on the group1 which contained ,gladstone1 ,shaftesbury1 ,matthew ,arnold1 and scores of ,england's mightiest and best4 ,after the ,dead ,march1 began a long procession headed by ,stanley's lifelong friend1 ,archbishop ,tait1 of ,canterbury1 and the ,prince of ,wales 7his pupil71 and followed by ,browning1 ,tyndall1 and a long line of bishops1 and poets and scholars moved slowly along under the lofty arches to the tomb in ,henry ,,vii4's ,chapel4 ,a fresh wreath of flowers from the ,queen was laid on the coffin4 ,many a tear was shed on that sad day beside the tomb in which the ,church of ,england laid her most fearless and yet her best beloved son4 ,i never have visited the ,abbey since1 without halting for a few moments beside the chapel in which the ,dean and his beloved wife are slumbering4 ,greater than all his books or literary achievements was ,arthur ,penryn ,stanley1 the modest1 true-hearted1 unselfish1 childlike1 ,christian man4 ,soon after ,i had begun my pastorate in ,new ,york1 ,i became a member of the ,young ,men's ,christian ,association1 which was one of the first that was organized in this country4 ,since that time ,i have delivered more than one hundred addresses1 in behalf of this institution1 in my own country and abroad4 ,in ,june1 #aheg1 the ,new ,york organization honored me with what was then a novelty in ,america--a public breakfast1 and commissioned me as a delegate to the original parent association in ,london4 ,i there met that remarkable ,christian merchant1 ,mr4 ,george ,williams1 who was the founder of the ,association1 and who had got much of his first spiritual inspiration from reading the writings of our ,american1 ,charles ,g4 ,finney4 ,he is now ,sir ,george ,williams1 my much loved friend1 and ,i do not hesitate to say that there is not another man living who has accomplished such a world-wide work for the glory of ,god and the welfare of young men4 ,the ,president of that first organized ,london ,association was the celebrated philanthropist1 the ,earl of ,shaftesbury1 a man whom ,i had long desired to meet4 ,my acquaintance with him began in ,exeter ,hall1 at a ,sabbath service held to reach the non-church going classes4 ,with one or two others we knelt together in a small side room to invoke a blessing on the service in the great hall1 and he prayed most fervently4 ,the ,earl of ,shaftesbury was not only the author of great reformatory legislation in ,parliament1 and the acknowledged leader of the ,low ,church ,party in the ,established ,church4 ,he was also a leader of city missions1 ragged schools1 shoe-black brigades1 and other organizations to benefit the submerged classes in ,london4 ,he once invited all the thieves in ,london to meet him privately in a certain hall1 and there pleaded with them to abandon their wretched occupation1 and promised to aid those who desired to reform4 ,he was fond of telling the story of how1 when his watch was stolen1 the thieves themselves compelled the rascal to come and return it1 because he had been the benefactor of the long-fingered fraternity4 ,the last time that ,i saw the venerable philanthropist was just before his death 7at the age of eighty-four years74 ,he was presiding at a convention of the ,young ,men's ,christian ,association in ,exeter ,hall4 ,in my speech ,i said3 ,to-day ,i have seen ,milton's ,mulberry ,tree at ,cambridge ,university1 and the historic old tree is kept alive by being banked around with earth clear to its boughs2 and so is all ,christendom banking around our honored ,president to-night to keep him warm and hale1 and strong1 amid the frosts of advancing age1 ,the grand old man rewarded me with a bow and a gracious smile1 and the audience responded with a shout of appreciation4 ,,chapter ,x ,,some ,,famous ,,people ,,at ,,home4 ,irvin1--,whittier4--,webster4--,greeley 1 etc4 ,washington ,irving has fairly earned the title of the ,father of our ,american ,literature4 ,the profound philosophical and spiritual treatises of our great ,president ,edwards had secured a reading by theologians and deep thinkers abroad2 but the ,american who first caught the popular ear was the man who wrote ,the ,sketch ,book1 and made the name of ,knickerbocker almost as familiar as ,sir ,walter ,scott made the name of ,waverly4 ,during the summer of #ahef ,i received a cordial invitation from the people of ,tarry town to come up to join them in an annual outing1 with their children1 on board of a steamer on the ,tappan-,zee4 ,i accepted the invitation1 and on arrival found the boat already filled with the good people1 and two or three hundreds of scholars from the ,sabbath schools4 ,to my surprise and delight ,i found ,washington ,irving on board the steamer4 ,the veteran author had laid aside the fourth volume of the ,life of ,washington1 which he was just preparing1 to come away for a bit of rest and recreation4 ,i had never seen him before1 but found him precisely the type of man that ,i had expected4 ,he was short1 rather stout1 and attired in an old fashioned black summer dress1 with pumps and white stockings1 and a broad ,panama hat4 ,as he was no novelty to his neighbors ,i was able to secure more of his time2 and1 like the apostle of old1 ,i was exceedingly filled with his company4 ,he took me to the upper deck of the steamer1 and pointed out a glimpse of his own home--,sunnyside--which he told me was the original of ,baltus ,van ,tassel's homestead in the ,legend of ,sleepy ,hollow4 ,he pointed out the route of poor ,ichabod ,crane on his memorable night ride up the valley1 and so on to the ,kakout1 where his horse should have gone to reach ,sleepy ,hollow4 ,instead of that1 obstinate ,gunpowder plunged down over that bridge where poor ,ichabod encountered his fatal and final catastrophe4 ,the good old man's face was full of fun as he told me the story4 ,irving was so exceedingly shy that he never could face any public ovation1 and yet he had a great deal of quiet enjoyment of his own popularity4 ,for example1 one day when he was going with a young relative up ,broadway1 which was thronged with omnibuses1 he pointed out one of the old ,knickerbocker line of stages to the lad and said3 ,billy1 you see how many coaches ,i own in this city1 and you may take as many rides in them as you like4 ,after refreshments had been served to all the guests on board1 we gathered on the deck for the inevitable ,american practice of speech making4 ,in the course of my speech ,i gave an account of what was being done for poor children in the slums of ,new ,york1 and then introduced as many ,dutch stories as ,i could recollect for the special edification of old ,geoffrey ,crayon4 ,as ,i watched his countenance1 and heard his hearty laughter and saw sometimes the peculiar quizzical expression of his mouth1 ,i fancied that ,i knew precisely how he looked when he drew the inimitable pictures of ,ichabod ,crane1 and ,rip ,van ,winkle4 ,when the excursion ended1 and we drew up to the shore1 ,i bade him a very grateful and affectionate farewell1 and my readers1 ,i hope1 will pardon me if ,i say to them that dear old ,irving whispered quietly in my ear1 ,i should like to be one of your parishioners4 ,three years afterwards1 ,irving was borne by his neighbors at ,tarrytown to his final resting place in the old ,dutch churchyard at the entrance of ,sleepy ,hollow4 ,twenty years afterwards my dear friend1 ,mr4 ,william ,e4 ,dodge1 drove me up from his summer house at ,tarrytown to see the simple tomb of the good old ,geoffrey ,crayon1 whose genius has gladdened innumerable admirers1 and whose writings are as pure as the rivulet which now flows by his resting place4 ,the pleasant little town of ,burlington1 ,n4,j41 in which ,i spent my earliest ministry1 was the headquarters of orthodox ,quakers4 ,i was thrown much into the society of their most eminent people1 and very delightful society ,i found it4 ,the venerable ,stephen ,grellet1 their apostle1 who had held many interviews with the crowned heads of ,europe1 resided a little way from me up the street2 and ,i saw the good old man with broad brimmed hat and straight coat pass my window every day4 ,richard ,mott lived but a little way from the town1 and on the other side resided the widow of the celebrated ,joseph ,john ,gurney4 ,the wittiest ,quaker in the town was my neighbor1 ,william ,j4 ,allinson1 the editor of the ,friends ,review1 and an intimate friend of ,john ,g4 ,whittier4 ,one afternoon he ran over to my room1 and said3 ,friend ,theodore1 ,john ,g4 ,whittier is at my house1 and wants to see thee2 he leaves early in the morning4 ,i hastened across the street and1 in the modest parlor of ,friend ,allinson1 ,i saw1 standing before the fire1 a tall1 slender man in ,quaker dress1 with a very lofty brow1 and the finest eye ,i have ever seen in any ,american1 unless it were the deep ox-like eye of ,abraham ,lincoln4 ,we had a pleasant chat about the anti-slavery1 temperance and other moral reforms2 and ,i went home with something of the feeling that ,walter ,scott says he had after seeing ,rabbie ,burns1 ,whittier was a retiring1 home-keeping man4 ,he never crossed the ocean and seldom went even outside of his native home in ,massachusetts4 ,during the summer of #ahgj he ventured down to ,brooklyn on a visit to his friend1 ,colonel ,julian ,allen4 ,on coming home one day1 my servant said to me1 ,there was a tall ,quaker gentleman called here1 and left his name on this piece of paper4 ,i was quite dumb-founded to read the name of ,john ,g4 ,whittier1 and ,i lost no time in making my way up to the house where he was staying4 ,when ,i inquired how he had come to do me the honor of a call1 he said3 ,well1 yesterday1 when ,i arrived and my friend ,allen drove me up here1 we passed a meeting house with a tall steeple1 and when ,i heard it was thine1 ,i determined to run down to thy house and see thee4 ,as ,i was to have the ,chi ,alpha1 the oldest and the most celebrated clerical association of ,new ,york at my house the next afternoon1 ,i invited him to come and sup with them4 ,he cordially consented1 and it may be supposed that the ,chi ,alpha was very glad to put aside for that evening all other matters1 and listen to the fresh1 racy and humorous talk of the great poet4 ,underneath his grave and shy sobriety1 flowed a most gentle humor4 ,he could tell a good story1 and when he was describing the usages of the ,quakers in regard to ,speaking in ,meetings1 he told us that sometimes the voluntary remarks were not quite to the edification of the meeting4 ,it once happened that a certain ,george ,c---- grew rather wearisome in his exhortations1 and his prudent brethren1 after solemn consultation1 passed the following resolution3 ,it is the sense of this meeting that ,george ,c4---- be advised to remain silent1 until such time as the ,lord shall speak through him more to our satisfaction and profit4 ,a resolution of that kind would not be out of place in some ecclesiastical assemblies1 nor in certain prayer gatherings that ,i wot of4 ,after the circle broke up ,i told him that in addition to the kind and characteristic letters he had written to me ,i wanted a scrap of his poetry to add to those which ,bryant and others had contributed to my collection of autographs4 ,what shall it be8 he said4 ,i told him that1 while some of his hymns and devoutly spiritual pieces1 like ,my soul and ,i1 were very dear to me1 and while ,snow ,bound was his acknowledged masterpiece1 yet none of his verses did ,i oftener quote than this one1 in his poem on ,massachusetts1 ,he smiled at the selection1 and accordingly sat down and wrote3 ,she heeds no skeptic's puny hands1 ,while near the school the church-spire stands1 ,nor fears the bigot's blinded rule1 ,while near the church-spire stands the school4 ,our walk to his place of sojourn in the moonlight was very delightful4 ,on the way ,i told him that not long before1 when ,i quoted a verse of ,bryant's to ,horace ,greeley1 ,mr4 ,greeley replied3 ,bryant is all very well1 but by far the greatest poet this country has produced is ,john ,greenleaf ,whittier4 ,did our friend ,horace say that8 meekly inquired ,whittier1 and a smile of satisfaction flowed over his ,quaker countenance4 ,the man is not born yet who does not like an honest compliment1 especially if it comes from a high quarter4 ,in the course of my life ,i have received several very pleasant letters from my venerable friend1 the ,quaker poet2 but immediately after his eightieth birthday he addressed me the following letter1 which1 believing it to be his last1 ,i framed and hung on the walls of my library3 ,,oak ,,knoll1 #abth month1 #agth1 #ahhg4 ,my dear ,dr4 ,cuyler1 ,i thank thee for thy loving letter to me on my birthday1 which ,i would have answered immediately but for illness2 and1 my friend1 ,i wish ,i was more worthy of the kind and good things said of me4 ,but my prayer is1 ,god be ,merciful to me4 ,and ,i think my prayer will be answered1 for ,his ,mercy and ,his ,justice are one4 ,may the ,lord bless thee4 ,thy friend sincerely1 ,,john ,g4 ,,whittier ,this note1 so redolent of humility1 was written a few days after he had received a most superb birthday ovation from the public men of ,massachusetts1 and from the most eminent literary men in all parts of the nation4 ,in the days of my boyhood the most colossal figure1 physically and intellectually1 in ,american politics1 was ,daniel ,webster4 ,i well remember when ,i first put eye upon him4 ,it was when ,i was pursuing my studies in the ,new ,york ,university ,grammar ,school in preparation for ,princeton ,college4 ,i was strolling one day on the ,battery1 and met a friend who said to me3 ,yonder goes ,daniel ,webster2 he has just landed from that man-of-war2 go and get a good look at him4 ,i hastened my steps and1 as ,i came near him1 ,i was as much awe-stricken as if ,i had been gazing on ,bunker ,hill ,monument1 ,he was unquestionably the most majestic specimen of manhood that ever trod this continent4 ,carlyle called him ,the ,great ,norseman1 and said that his eyes were like great anthracite furnaces that needed blowing up4 ,coal heavers in ,london stopped to stare at him as he stalked by1 and it is well authenticated that ,sydney ,smith said of him1 ,that man is a fraud2 for it is impossible for any one to be as great as he looks4 ,mr4 ,webster1 as ,i saw him that day1 was in the vigor of his splendid prime4 ,when he spoke in the ,senate chamber it was his custom to wear the ,whig uniform1 a blue coat with metal buttons and a buff waistcoat2 but that day he was dressed in a claret colored coat and black trousers4 ,his complexion was a swarthy brown4 ,he used to say that while his handsome brother ,ezekiel was very fair1 he had all the soot of the family in his face4 ,such a mountain of a brow ,i have never seen before or since4 ,i followed behind him until he entered the carriage of ,mr4 ,robert ,minturn that was waiting for him1 and as he rode away he looked like ,jupiter ,olympus4 ,although ,i saw ,mr4 ,webster several times afterwards1 ,i never heard him speak until the closing year of his life4 ,the ,honorable ,lewis ,condit1 of ,morristown1 ,n4,j41 was in ,congress at the time when ,webster had his historic combat with ,senator ,hayne1 of ,south ,carolina1 and was present during the delivery of the most magnificent speech ever delivered in our ,senate4 ,he described the historic scene to me minutely4 ,before twelve o'clock on the #bfth day of ,january1 #ahcj1 the ,senate chamber was overflowing into the rotunda1 and people were offering prices for a few inches of breathing room in the charmed enclosure4 ,senator ,dixon ,h4 ,lewis1 from ,alabama1 who weighed nearly four hundred1 became wedged in behind the ,vice ,president's chair1 unable to move1 and became imbedded in the crowd like a broad-bottomed schooner settled at low tide into the mud4 ,being unable to see1 he drew out his knife and cut a hole through the stained glass screens that flanked the presiding officer's chair4 ,that aperture long remained as a memorial of ,lewis's curiosity to witness the greatest of ,american orators deliver the greatest of ,american orations4 ,the place was worthy of the hour and of the combatants4 ,it was the old ,senate chamber1 now occupied by the ,united ,states ,supreme ,court1 the same hall which had once resounded to the eloquence of ,rufus ,king1 as it afterwards did to the eloquence of ,rufus ,choate1 and which had echoed the bursts of applause that once greeted ,henry ,clay of ,kentucky4 ,on that memorable morning the ,vice-,president's chair was occupied by that intellectual giant of the ,south1 ,john ,c4 ,calhoun4 ,before him were ,van ,buren1 ,forsyth1 ,hayne1 ,clayton1 the omniverous ,benton1 the sturdy ,john ,quincy ,adams1 and1 in the seething crowd1 was the gaunt skeleton form of ,john ,randolph of ,roanoke4 ,mr4 ,condit told me that when ,webster exclaimed3 ,the world knows the history of ,massachusetts by heart4 ,there is ,lexington1 and there is ,bunker ,hill and there they will remain forever1--the group of ,bostonians seated in the gallery before him1 broke down1 and wept like little children4 ,quite as effective as his eulogy of the ,old ,bay ,state1 was his sudden and awful assault upon ,senator ,levi ,woodbury1 of ,new ,hampshire4 ,this representative of ,webster's native ,state had supplied ,colonel ,hayne with a quantity of party pamphlets and documents to be used as ammunition4 ,webster knew this fact and determined to punish him4 ,turning suddenly towards ,woodbury1 he thundered out in a tone of indignant scorn1 as he shook his fist over his head3 ,i employ no scavengers2 and the poor ,new ,hampshire ,senator ducked his bald head as if struck by a bombshell4 ,the closing passage of that memorable speech could not have been extemporized4 ,no mortal man could have thrown off that magnificent piece of ,miltonic prose at the heat1 without some deep premeditation4 ,it is well known now that ,mr4 ,webster afterwards pruned1 amended and decorated it until it is recognized as one of the grandest passages in the ,english language4 ,i take down my ,webster and read it occasionally1 and it has in it the majestic sound of many waters4 ,that great passage is the prelude of the mighty conflict which thirty years afterwards was to be waged on the soil of ,gettysburg and ,chickamauga4 ,it became the condensed creed1 and the battle-cry of the long warfare for the nation's life4 ,well have there been placed in golden letters on the pedestal of ,webster's monument in ,central ,park the last sublime line of that sentence3 ,liberty and ,union1 now and forever3 one and inseparable4 ,mr4 ,webster's power in sarcastic invective was terrific4 ,after he had made his angry and ferocious rejoinder to the charges of ,mr4 ,charles ,j4 ,ingersoll1 of ,pennsylvania1 the witty ,dr4 ,elder was asked1 when he came out of the ,senate chamber3 ,what did you think of that speech8 ,elder's reply was3 ,thunder and lightning are peaches and cream to such a speech as that4 ,mighty as ,webster was in intellectual power he had some lamentable weaknesses4 ,he was indeed a wonderful mixture of clay and iron4 ,the iron was extraordinarily massive1 but the clay was loose and brittle4 ,he had the temptations of very strong animal passions1 and sometimes to his intimate friends he attempted to excuse some of his excesses of that kind4 ,there has been much controversy about ,mr4 ,webster's habits in regard to intoxicants4 ,the simple truth is that during his visit to ,england in #ahdj he was so lionized and feted at public dinners that he brought home some convivial habits which rather grew upon him in advancing years4 ,on several public occasions he gave evidence that he was somewhat under the influence of deep potations4 ,i once saw him when his imperial brain was raked with the chain-shot of alcohol4 ,the sight moved me to tears1 and made me hate more than ever the accursed drink that1 like death1 is no respecter of persons4 ,i heard the last speech that ,mr4 ,webster ever made4 ,it was a few months before his death in #aheb4 ,the speech was delivered at ,trenton1 ,n4,j41 in the celebrated ,india rubber case1 ,goodyear vs4 ,day1 in which ,webster was the leading counsel for ,goodyear1 and ,rufus ,choate headed the list of eloquent advocates in defense of ,mr4 ,day4 ,in that speech ,webster was physically feeble1 so that after speaking an hour1 he was obliged to sit down for a time1 while ,mr4 ,james ,t4 ,brady made a new statement with regard to a portion of the evidence4 ,at that time ,webster was broken in health4 ,the most beautiful passage in his speech was his tribute to woman1 and at another point he indulged in a very ludicrous description of the character of the first ,india rubber1 which was offered as a marketable article4 ,he said3 ,when ,india rubber was first brought to this country we had only the raw material1 and they made overshoes and hats of it4 ,a present was sent to me of a complete suit of clothes made of this ,india rubber1 and on a cold winter day ,i found my rubber overcoat was frozen as rigid as ice4 ,i took it out on my lawn1 set it upright1 put a broad brim hat on top of it1 and there the figure stood erect1 and my neighbors1 as they passed by thought they saw the old farmer of ,marshfield standing out under his trees4 ,some of his sarcastic attacks upon ,mr4 ,day were very bitter1 and when he showed his great1 white teeth he looked like an enraged lion4 ,a few months after that ,trenton speech in ,october1 #aheb1 he went to his ,marshfield home to die4 ,his spirits were broken and he was sore from political disappointments4 ,his last few days were spent in a fight by his powerful constitution against the inevitable4 ,the last time he walked feebly from his bed to his window he called out to his servant man3 ,i want you to moor my yacht down there where ,i can see it from my window2 then ,i want you to hoist the flag at the mast head1 and every night to hang the lamp up in the rigging2 when ,i go down ,i want to go down with my colors flying and my lamp burning4 ,he told them to put on his monument1 ,lord1 ,i believe2 help ,thou my unbelief4 ,in the final moment he started up from his pillow long enough to say3 ,i still live4 ,he does live1 and will ever live in the grateful memories of his countrymen4 ,while no one can deplore more than the writer the weaknesses and mistakes of ,daniel ,webster1 yet when ,i remember his intellectual prowess and his magnificent services in defense of the ,constitution1 and the integrity of our national union1 ,i am ready to say3 ,let us to all his failings and faults be charitably kind and only remember the glorious services he wrought to the country he loved4 ,during the summer of #ahdj1 when ,i was a college student at ,princeton1 ,i went with a friend to the office of the ,log ,cabin1 a ,whig campaign newspaper then published in ,nassau ,street1 ,new ,york4 ,it was during the famous ,tippecanoe campaign1 which resulted in the election of ,general ,harrison4 ,i was introduced to a singular looking man in rustic dress4 ,he was writing an editorial4 ,his face had a peculiar infantile smoothness1 and his long flaxen hair fell down over his shoulders4 ,i little dreamed then that that uncouth man in tow trousers was yet to be the foremost editor in ,america1 and a candidate1 unwisely1 for ,president of the ,united ,states4 ,horace ,greeley1 for it was he1 who sat before me1 has been often described as a man with the face of an angel1 and the walk of a clod-hopper4 ,ten years later ,i became well acquainted with him1 and from that time a most cordial friendship existed until his dying day4 ,he visited me as a speaker at our ,state convention in ,trenton1 ,n4,y4 ,i had him at my house at supper when my mother asked him if he would take coffee4 ,his droll reply was3 ,i hope to drink coffee1 madame1 in heaven1 but ,i cannot stand it in this world4 ,after supper ,i informed my guest that it was customary for my good mother and myself 7for ,i was not yet married71 to have family worship immediately at the close of that meal and asked him whether he would not join us4 ,he cordially replied that he would be most happy to do so1 and it is quite probable that ,i may be one of the few1--perhaps the only--clergyman in this land who ever had ,horace ,greeley kneeling beside him in prayer4 ,he attired himself in the famous old white coat1 and shambled along with my mother to the place of meeting4 ,he quite captivated her with a most pathetic account of his idolized boy ,pickie1 who had died a short time before4 ,mr4 ,greeley was one of the most simple-hearted1 great men whom ,i have ever met2 without a spark of ordinary vanity he was intensely affectionate in his sympathies and loved a genuine kind word that came from the heart4 ,he relished more a quiet talk with an old friend in his home at ,chappaqua than all the glare of public notoriety4 ,come up1 he often said to me1 and spend a ,saturday at the farm4 ,the good boys do come and see me up there sometimes4 ,probably no man lived a purer life than ,horace ,greeley4 ,he was the most devoted of husbands to one of the most eccentric of wives4 ,his defenses of the spiritual sanctity of marriage in reply to ,dale ,owen are among the most powerful productions of his ever powerful pen4 ,it were well that they should be reproduced now at a time when the laxity of wedlock and the wicked facilities for divorce are working such peril to our domestic life4 ,john ,bright once said3 ,horace ,greeley is the greatest of living editors4 ,he once told me that he had written editorials for a dozen papers at one time4 ,he also told me that while he was preparing his history of the ,american ,conflict he was in the habit of writing three columns of editorials every day4 ,his articles were freighted with great power1 for he was one of the strongest writers of the ,english language on this continent4 ,they were always brimful of thought1 for ,mr4 ,greeley seldom wrote on any subject which he had not thoroughly mastered4 ,speaking of a certain popular orator1 who afterwards went as our minister to ,china1 he said to me3 ,mr4 ,b4---- is a pretty man1 a very pretty man1 but he does not study1 and no man ever can have permanent power in this country unless he studies ,mr4 ,greeley prided himself upon his accuracy as an editor1 but one day1 when writing an editorial1 in which he denounced some political misdemeanor in the ,county of ,chatauqua1 by a slip of his pen he wrote the name of the adjoining county ,cattaraugus4 ,the next morning when he saw it in the paper he went up into the composing room in a perfect rage and called out1 ,who put that ,cattaraugus8 ,the printers all gathered around him amused at his anger until one of them pulling down from the hook the original editorial showed him the word ,cattaraugus ,uncle ,horace1 when he saw the word1 with a most inexpressible meekness1 drawled out3 ,will some one please to kick me down those stairs8 ,he abominated mendicancy and1 although his native goodness of heart often led him to give to the hundreds who came to him for pecuniary aid1 he one day said to me3 ,since ,i have lived in ,new ,york ,i have given away money enough to set up a merchant in business1 and ,i sometimes doubt whether ,i have done more good or harm by the operation4 ,i am continually beset by various clubs and societies all over the land to donate to them the ,tribune4 ,i always tell them if it is worth reading it is worth paying for4 ,the curse of this country is the deadhead4 ,i pay for my own ,tribune every morning4 ,from my old friend's theology ,i strongly dissented1 but in practical philanthropy he gave me many a lesson and still better stimulant of his own unselfish example4 ,he was always ready to work in the cause of reform without pay and without applause4 ,when temperance meetings were held in my church he very gladly lent his effective services1 refusing any compensation1 and there was no man in the city whose evening hours were worth more in solid gold than his4 ,it is said that he was once called upon1 in the absence of his minister1 in a ,universalist ,church1 to go into the pulpit4 ,he did so1 and delivered a very pungent sermon on the text1 ,the fool hath said in his heart there is no ,god4 ,the strongest points made by ,mr4 ,greeley in the best of his printed essays are those which emphasize the authority of ,god4 ,a letter in his characteristic hieroglyphics1 the last one he ever wrote to me1 and which now lies before me1 was in reply to one of mine1 criticising the ,tribune for speaking of ,dr4 ,tyng's as a church and of ,dr4 ,adams's house of worship as a meeting house4 ,i told him if one was a church1 then the other was equally so4 ,he replied3 ,i am of ,puritan stock1 on one side1 in ,america since #afdj1 and on the other since #agbj4 ,my people worshiped ,god in a meeting house2 they gave it the name1 not ,i1 and they called the body of believers who met therein 'a church4' ,episcopalians speak otherwise4 ,it is a bad sign that we do not seem disposed to hold fast the form of sound words4 ,i am not aware of any ,scriptural authority for calling a steepled house a church4 ,the last evening ,i ever spent with him was at a temperance meeting of plain working people1 to which he came several miles through a snow storm4 ,he spoke with great power1 and when ,i told him afterwards it was one of the finest addresses ,i had ever heard from him he said to me3 ,i would rather tell some truths to help such plain people as we had to-night than address thousands of the cultured in the ,academy of ,music4 ,as he bade me good-night at yonder corner of ,fulton ,street1 ,i said to him3 ,uncle ,horace1 will you not come and spend the night with me8 ,he said1 ,no1 ,i have much work to do before morning4 ,i am coming over soon to spend a week in ,brooklyn with my brother-in-law1 and ,i will come and have a night with you4 ,alas1 it was not long before he came to spend a night in ,brooklyn1--that night that knows no morning4 ,on a chilly ,november day1 towards twilight1 ,i was one of the crowd that followed him to his resting place in ,greenwood1 and ,i always1 when on my way to my own plot1 stop to gaze on the monument that bears the inscription1 ,founder of the ,new ,york ,tribune4 ,,chapter ,,xi ,,the ,,civil ,,war ,,and ,,abraham ,,lincoln4 ,an enormous quantity of books1 historic and reminiscent1 have been written about our ,civil ,war1 which1 both in regard to the number of combatants engaged1 and the magnitude of the interests involved1 and its far-reaching consequences1 was the most colossal conflict of modern times4 ,before presenting a few of my own personal recollections of the struggle1 let me say that when the struggle was over1 no one was more eager than myself to bury the tomahawk1 and to offer the calumet of peace to our ,southern fellow countrymen and fellow ,christians4 ,whenever ,i have visited them their cordial greeting has warmed the cockles of my heart4 ,i thank ,god that the great gash has been so thoroughly healed1 and that ,i have lived to see the day when the people of the ,north feel a national pride in the splendid prowess of ,lee1 and the heroic ,christian character of ,stonewall ,jackson1 and when some of the noblest tributes to ,abraham ,lincoln have been spoken by such representative ,southerners as ,mr4 ,grady1 of ,georgia1 and ,mr4 ,watterson1 of ,kentucky4 ,i had hoped ere this to see the ,northern and ,southern wings of our venerable ,presbyterian ,church reunited2 but ,i am confident that there are plenty of people now living who will yet witness their happy ecclesiastical nuptials4 ,terrible as was that war in the sacrifice of precious life1 and in the destruction of property1 it was unquestionably inevitable4 ,mr4 ,seward was right when he called the conflict irrepressible4 ,abraham ,lincoln was a true prophet when he declared1 at ,springfield1 ,ill41 in ,june1 #aheh1 that ,a house divided against itself cannot stand2 ,i believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free4 ,when in my early life ,i spoke to my good mother about some anti-slavery addresses that had been delivered1 she said to me1 with wonderful foresight1 ,these speeches will avail but little2 slavery will go down in blood4 ,that it has gone down even at the cost of so much blood and treasure is to-day as much a matter for congratulation in the ,south as it is in the ,north4 ,my first glimpse of the long predicted conflict was the sight of the ,seventh ,regiment1--composed of the flower of ,new ,york1--swinging down ,broadway in ,april1 #ahfa1 on its way to the protection of ,washington1--amid the thundering cheers of the bystanders4 ,before long ,i offered my services to the ,christian commission which had been organized by that noble and godly minded patriot1 ,george ,h4 ,stuart1 of ,philadelphia1 and ,i went on to ,washington to preach to our soldiers4 ,i found ,washington a huge military encampment2 the hills around were white with tents1 and ,pennsylvania ,avenue was filled almost every day with troops of horsemen1 or with trains of artillery4 ,while ,i was in ,washington ,i lodged with my beloved college professor1 that eminent ,christian philosopher1 ,joseph ,henry1--in the ,smithsonian ,institution1 of which he was the head4 ,one night1 after ,i had been out addressing our boys in blue at one of the camps1 and had retired for the night1 ,professor ,henry came into my room and1 sitting down by my bed1 discussed the aspects of the struggle4 ,his mental eye was as sharp in reading the signs of the times as it had been when at ,albany1 thirty years before1 he made his splendid discovery in electro-magnetism4 ,he said to me3 ,this war may last several years1 but it can have only one result1 for it is simply a question of dynamics4 ,the stronger force must pulverize the weaker one1 and the ,north will win the day4 ,when the war is over1 the country will not be what it was before2 the triumph of the union will leave us a prodigiously centralized government1 and the old ,calhoun theory of ',state rights' will be dead4 ,we shall have an inflated currency--an enormous debt with a host of tax-gatherers1 and huge pension rolls4 ,what is most needed now is wise statesmanship1 and the first quality of a statesman is prescience4 ,in my position here1 as head of the ,smithsonian1 ,i cannot be a partisan6 ,i did not vote the ,republican ticket1 but ,i am confident that by a long way the most far-seeing head in this land is on the shoulders of that awkward rail-splitter from ,illinois4 ,every syllable of ,professor ,henry's prognostication proved true1 and nothing more true than his estimate of ,lincoln at a time when there was too much disposition to distrust him4 ,as ,i have had for many years what my friends have playfully called ,lincoln on the brain1 let me say a few words in regard to the most marvellous man that this country has produced in the nineteenth century4 ,his name is to-day a household word in every civilized land4 ,dr4 ,newman ,hall1 of ,london1 has told me that when he had addressed a listless audience1 he found that nothing was so certain to arouse them as to introduce the name of ,abraham ,lincoln4 ,certainly no other name has such electric power over every true heart from ,maine to ,mexico4 ,the first time ,i ever saw the man whom we used to call1 familiarly and affectionately1 ,uncle ,abe1 was at the ,tremont ,house in ,chicago1 a few days after his election to the presidency4 ,his room was very near my own4 ,i sent in my card1 and he greeted me with a characteristic grasp of the hand1 and his first sentence rather touched my soft spot when he said3 ,i have kept up with you nearly every week in the ,new ,york ,independent4 ,his voice had a clear1 magnetic ring1 and his heart seemed to be in his voice4 ,three months afterwards ,i saw him again1 riding down ,broadway1 ,new ,york 7thronged with a gazing multitude71 on his way to assume the presidency at ,washington4 ,he stood up in a barouche holding on with his hand to the seat of the driver4 ,his towering figure was filled out by a long blue cloak1 and a heavy cape which he wore4 ,on his bare head rose a thick mass of black hair--the crown which nature gave to her king4 ,his large1 melancholy eyes had a solemn1 far-away look as if he discerned the toils and trials that awaited him4 ,the great patriot-,president1 moving slowly on toward the conflict1 the glory and the martyrdom1 that were reserved for him1 still remains in my memory1 as the most august and majestic figure that my eyes have ever beheld4 ,he never passed through ,new ,york again until he was borne through tears and broken hearts on his last journey to his ,western tomb4 ,i did not see ,lincoln again until two years afterwards1 when ,i was in ,washington on duty for the ,christian ,commission4 ,it was one of his public levee nights1 and as soon as ,i came up to him1 his first words were3 ,doctor1 ,i have not seen you since we met in the ,tremont ,house in ,chicago4 ,i mention this as an illustration of his marvelous memory2 he never forgot a face or a name or the slightest incident4 ,my mother was with me at the ,smithsonian1 and as she was extremely desirous to see the ,president ,i took her over to the ,white ,house late on the following afternoon4 ,in those war times1 when ,washington was a camp1 the ,white ,house looked more like an army barracks than the ,presidential mansion4 ,in the entrance hall that day were piles of express boxes1 among which was a little lad playing and tumbling them about4 ,will you go and find somebody to take our cards8 said my mother to the child4 ,he ran off and brought the ,irishman1 whose duty it was to receive callers at the door4 ,that was the same ,irishman who1 when the poor soldier's wife was going in to plead for her husband's pardon of a capital offense he had committed1 said to her3 ,be sure to take your baby in with you4 ,when she came out smiling and happy1 ,patrick said to her3 ,ah1 ma'am1 'twas the baby that did it4 ,the shockingly careless appearance of the ,white ,house proved that whatever may have been ,mrs4 ,lincoln's other good qualities1 she hadn't earned the compliment which the ,yankee farmer paid to his wife when he said3 ,ef my wife haint got an ear fer music1 she's got an eye fer dirt4 ,when we reached the room of the ,president's ,private ,secretary1 my old friend1 the ,rev4 ,mr4 ,neill1 of ,st4 ,paul's1 told me that it was military court day1 when the ,president had to decide upon cases of army discipline that came before him and when he received no calls4 ,i told ,neill that my mother could never die happy if she had not seen ,lincoln4 ,he took in our names to the ,president1 who told him to bring us in4 ,we entered the room in which the ,cabinet usually met--and there1 before the fire1 stood the tall1 gaunt form attired in a seedy frock-coat1 with his long hair unkempt1 and his thin face the very picture of distress4 ,how is ,mrs4 ,lincoln8 inquired my mother4 ,oh1 said the ,president1 ,i have not seen her since seven o'clock this morning2 ,tad1 how is your mother8 ,she is pretty well1 replied the little fellow1 who was coiled up then in an arm chair1 the same lad we had seen playing down in the entrance hall4 ,we spent but a few moments with ,mr4 ,lincoln1 and when we came out my mother exclaimed3 ,oh1 what a cruelty to keep that man here6 ,did you ever see such a sad face in your life8 ,i never had1 and ,i have given this account of my call on him in order that my readers may not only understand what democratic customs then prevailed in the ,white ,house1 but may get some faint idea of the terribly trying life that ,mr4 ,lincoln led4 ,dr4 ,bellows1 the ,president of the ,sanitary ,commission1 once said to him3 ,mr4 ,president1 ,i am here at almost every hour of the day or night1 and ,i never saw you at the table1 do you ever eat8 ,i try to1 replied the ,president2 ,i manage to browse about pretty much as ,i can get it4 ,after the long wearing1 nerve-taxing days were over in which he was glad to relieve himself occasionally with a good story or a merry laugh1 came the nights of anxiety when sleep was often banished from his pillow4 ,he frequently wrapped himself in his ,scotch shawl1 and at midnight stole across to the ,war ,office1 and listened to the click of the telegraph instruments1 which brought sometimes good news1 and sometimes terrible tales of defeat4 ,on the day after he heard of the awful slaughter at ,fredericksburg1 he remarked at the ,war ,office3 ,if any of the lost in hell suffered worse than ,i did last night1 ,i pity them4 ,nothing but iron nerves and a dependence on the divine arm bore him through4 ,he once said3 ,i have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that ,i had nowhere else to go2 my own wisdom and that of all around me seemed insufficient for the day4 ,we call him ,our ,martyr ,president1 but the martyrdom lasted for four whole years6 ,the darkest crisis of the whole war was in the summer of #ahfb4 ,i slipped away for a few weeks of relaxation to ,europe1 sailing on the ,cunarder ,china1 the first screw steamer ever built by that company4 ,she was under the command of ,captain ,james ,anderson1 who was afterwards knighted by ,queen ,victoria for his services in laying the ,atlantic cable1 and is better known as ,sir ,james ,anderson4 ,there was no ,atlantic cable in those days1 and our steamer carried out the news of the seven days' battles before ,richmond1 which terminated in the retreat of ,general ,mc,clellan4 ,we had a ,fourth of ,july dinner on board1 but between seasickness and heart sickness it was the toughest experience of making a spread-eagle speech ,i ever had4 ,after landing at ,queenstown ,i went to ,belfast and thence to ,edinburgh4 ,i found the people of ,edinburgh intensely excited over our war and the current of popular sentiment running against us like a mill-race4 ,for instance1 ,i was recognized by my soft hat on the street2 a shoemaker put his head out of the door and shouted as ,i passed3 ,i say1 when are you going to be done with your butchering over there8 ,the ,scotsman was hostile to the ,union cause1 and the old ,caledonian ,mercury was the only paper that stood by us2 but it did so manfully4 ,on the day of my arrival a bulletin was posted in the newspaper offices and on ,change that ,mc,clellan and the ,union army had surrendered4 ,the baleful report was received with no little exultation by all who were engaged in the cotton trade4 ,i sat up until midnight with the editor of the ,mercury1 helping him to squelch the rumor and the next morning expose the falsity of the news in his columns4 ,dr4 ,john ,brown1 the immortal author of ,rab and ,his ,friends1 had called on me at the ,waverly ,hotel1 and that morning ,i breakfasted with him4 ,at the breakfast table ,i made a statement of our side of the conflict and ,dr4 ,brown said3 ,if you will write up that statement1 ,i will get my friend1 ,mr4 ,russell1 the editor of the ,scotsman1 to publish it in his paper4 ,i did so and sent it to the care of ,dr4 ,brown4 ,on the following ,sabbath afternoon ,i attended the great prayer meeting in the ,free ,church ,assembly ,hall1 and ,sir ,james ,simpson was to preside4 ,there was a crowd of over a thousand people present4 ,simpson did not come1 and so some other elder occupied the chair4 ,during the meeting ,i arose and modestly asked that prayer might be offered for my country in this hour of her peril and distress4 ,there was an awful silence6 ,in a few moments the chairman meekly said3 ,perhaps our ,american friend will offer the prayer himself4 ,i did so1 for it was evident that all the ,scotchmen present considered our cause past praying for4 ,on the morning of our departure my letter appeared in the ,scotsman accompanied by a long and bitter reply by the editor4 ,within a week several of the ,scotch newspapers were in full cry1 denouncing that bloody ,presbyterian minister from ,america4 ,after a hurried run to ,switzerland ,i reached ,paris in time to witness the celebration of the imperial birthday and to see ,louis ,napoleon review the splendid army of ,italy with great pomp1 on the ,champs des ,mars4 ,it was a magnificent spectacle4 ,that day ,mr4 ,slidell1 the representative of the ,southern ,confederacy1 hung on the front of his house an immense white canvas on which was inscribed3 ,jefferson ,davis1 the ,first ,president of the ,confederate ,states of ,america4 ,our ambassador1 ,hon4 ,william ,l4 ,dayton1 was a relative of mine1 and ,i had several conversations with him about the perilous situation of affairs at home4 ,dayton said3 ,our prospects are dark enough4 ,all the monarchs and aristocracies are against us2 all the cotton and commercial interests are against us4 ,emperor ,louis ,napoleon is a sphinx1 but he would like to help to acknowledge the ,southern ,confederacy4 ,if he does so ,belgium and other powers will join him2 they will break the blockade2 they will supply the ,confederates with arms and then we must fight ,europe as well as the ,southern ,states4 ,our only real friends are men like ,john ,bright1 and those who believe that we are fighting for freedom as well as for our ,national ,union4 ,mr4 ,lincoln must declare for emancipation and unless he does it within thirty days1 ,i have written to ,mr4 ,seward that our cause is lost4 ,i returned to ,london with a heavy heart2 all of our friends there with whom ,i conversed echoed the sentiments of ,mr4 ,dayton4 ,one of them said to me3 ,earl ,russell has no especial love for your ,union1 but he abominates negro slavery1 and is very reluctant to acknowledge a new slave-owning government4 ,prince ,albert and the ,queen are friendly to you1 but you must emancipate the slaves4 ,my return passage from ,liverpool was on board the ,asia1 and ,captain ,anderson commanded her for that voyage4 ,when we reached ,boston1 we heard the distressing news of the second ,battle of ,bull ,run1 and our prospects were black as midnight4 ,captain ,anderson remarked to me1 in a compassionate tone3 ,well1 ,mr4 ,cuyler1 you ,yankees had better give it up now4 ,never1 never1 ,i replied to him4 ,you will live to see the ,union restored and slavery extinguished4 ,he laughed at me and bid me good-bye4 ,a few years afterwards1 ,i laughed back again when ,i met him in ,new ,york4 ,on ,sunday evening1 ,september #g1 ,i addressed a vast crowd in my own ,lafayette ,avenue ,church1 and told them frankly1 that our only hope was in a proclamation for freedom by ,president ,lincoln4 ,henry ,ward ,beecher invited me to repeat my address on the next ,sunday evening in ,plymouth ,church4 ,i did so and the house was packed clear out to the sidewalk4 ,at the end of my address ,mr4 ,beecher leaned over and said3 ,the ,lord helped you to-night4 ,when the meeting closed ,mr4 ,henry ,c4 ,bowen said1 ,will you and ,mr4 ,beecher not start for ,washington to-morrow morning to urge ,mr4 ,lincoln to proclaim emancipation8 ,we both agreed to go before the week was over1 but could not before4 ,on the ,wednesday of that very week the ,battle of ,antietam was fought1 and on the ,friday morning we opened our papers and read ,president ,lincoln's first ,proclamation of ,emancipation4 ,the great deed was done2 the night was over2 the morning had dawned4 ,from that day onward our cause1 under ,god1 was saved2 but that proclamation saved the ,union4 ,no foreign power dared to oppose us after that1 and ,gettysburg sealed the righteous act of ,lincoln1 the ,liberator1 and decided the victory4 ,at the beginning of this chapter ,i described the thrilling scenes at the opening of the conflict2 let me now narrate a still more thrilling one at its termination4 ,the war began by the surrender of ,fort ,sumter by ,major ,anderson1 ,april #ac1 #ahfa2 the war virtually ended by the restoration of the national flag by the same hand in the same ,fort1 on ,april #ad1 #ahfe4 ,i joined an excursion party from ,new ,york1 on the steamer ,oceanus1 and we went down to witness the impressive ceremonies in ,sumter4 ,we found ,charleston a scene of wretched desolation1 and ,general ,sherman1 who had once resided there1 said he had never realized the horrors of war until he had seen the terrible ruins of that once beautiful city4 ,at the time of my writing1 now1 ,charleston is crowded every day with visitors to its industrial ,exposition1 and the ,president is received with ovations by its people4 ,our party went over to ,fort ,sumter in a steamer commanded by a negro1 who was an emancipated slave1 but very soon became a member of ,congress4 ,the broken walls of ,sumter1 brown1 battered and lonely in the quiet waves were hopelessly scarred1 and all around it on the narrow beach lay a stratum of bullets and broken iron several inches deep4 ,the ,fort that day was crowded with an immense assemblage4 ,among them were the ,hon4 ,henry ,wilson1 afterwards ,vice-,president1 and ,attorney-,general ,holt1 ,judge ,hoxie1 of ,new ,york1 ,william ,lloyd ,garrison and ,george ,thompson1 the famous member of the ,english ,parliament1 who had once been mobbed for his anti-slavery speech in this country4 ,general ,s4,l4 ,woodford was in command for the day4 ,dr4 ,richard ,s4 ,storrs offered an impressive prayer1 and the oration was delivered by direction of the ,government1 by ,henry ,ward ,beecher4 ,when the speech was completed1 ,major ,anderson drew out from a mail bag the identical bunting that he had lowered four years before1 and attached the flag to the halyards1 and when it began to ascend1 ,general ,gilmore grasped the rope behind him1 and1 as it came along to our part of the platform several of us grasped it also4 ,mr4 ,thompson shouted1 ,give ,john ,bull a hold of that rope4 ,when the dear old flag reached the summit of the staff1 and its starry eyes looked out over the broad harbor1 such a volley of cannon from ship and shore burst forth that one might imagine the old battle of the ,monitors was being fought over again4 ,the frantic scene inside the ,fort beggars description4 ,we grasped hands and shouted and my irrepressible old friend1 ,hoxie1 of ,new ,york1 with tears in his eyes1 embraced one after another1 exclaiming3 ,this is the greatest day of my life6 ,in the rainbow of those stars and stripes we read that day the covenant that the deluge of blood was ended1 and that the ark of freedom had rested at length upon its ,ararat4 ,on the next day ,i addressed a thousand negro children1 and when ,i enquired1 ,may ,i send an invitation to the good ,abraham ,lincoln to come down and visit you8 one thousand little black hands went up with a shout4 ,alas1 we knew not that at that very hour their beloved benefactor was lying cold and silent in the ,east room at ,washington6 ,at ,fortress ,monroe1 on our homeward voyage1 the terrible tidings of the ,president's assassination pierced us like a dagger1 on the wharf4 ,near the ,fortress poor negro women had hung pieces of coarse black muslin around every little huckster's tables4 ,yes1 sah1 ,fathah ,lincum's dead4 ,dey killed our bes' fren1 but ,god be libben2 dey can't kill ,him1 ,i's sho ob dat4 ,her simple childlike faith seemed to reach up and grasp the everlasting arm which had led ,lincoln while leading her race out of the house of bondage4 ,upon our arrival in ,new ,york1 we found the city draped in black1 and the mourners going about the streets4 ,when the remains of the murdered ,president reached ,new ,york they were laid in state in the ,city ,hall for one day and night1 and during that whole night the procession passed the coffin--never ceasing for a moment4 ,between three and four o'clock in the morning ,i took my family there1 that they might see the face of our beloved martyr1 and we had to take our place in a line as far away as ,park ,row4 ,it is impossible to give any adequate description of the funeral--whose like was never seen before or since--when eminent authors1 clergymen1 judges and distinguished civilians walked on foot through streets1 shrouded in black to the house tops4 ,the whole journey to ,springfield1 ,ill41 was one constant manifestation of poignant grief4 ,the people rose in the night1 simply to see the funeral train pass by4 ,i do not wonder that when ,emperor ,alexander1 of ,russia 7who was himself afterwards assassinated7 heard the tidings of our ,president's death from an ,american ,ambassador1 he leaped from his chair1 and exclaimed1 ,good ,god1 can it be so8 ,he was the noblest man alive4 ,thirty-seven years have passed away1 and to-day while our nation reveres the name of ,washington1 as the ,father of his ,country2 ,abraham ,lincoln is the best loved man that ever trod this continent4 ,the ,almighty educated him in ,his own ,providence for his high mission4 ,the plain people1 as he called them1 were his ,university2 the ,bible and ,john ,bunyan were his earliest text-books4 ,sometimes his familiarity with the ,scriptures came out very amusingly as when a deputation of bankers called on him1 to negotiate for a loan to the ,government1 and one of them said to him3 ,you know1 ,mr4 ,president1 where the treasure is1 there will the heart be also4 ,i should not wonder1 replied ,lincoln1 if another text would not fit the case better1 ',where the carcass is1 there will the eagles be gathered together1' ,his innumerable jests contained more wisdom than many a philosopher's maxims1 and underneath his plebeian simplicity1 dress and manners1 this great child of nature possessed the most delicate instincts of the perfect gentleman4 ,the only just scale by which to measure any man is the scale of actual achievement2 and in ,lincoln's case some of the most essential instruments had to be fabricated by himself4 ,the first account in the measurement of the man is that with a sublime reliance on ,god1 he conducted an immense nation through the most tremendous civil war ever waged1 and never committed a single serious mistake4 ,the ,illinois backwoodsman did not possess ,hamilton's brilliant genius1 yet ,hamilton never read the future more sagaciously4 ,he made no pretension to ,webster's magnificent oratory2 yet ,webster never put more truth in portable form for popular guidance4 ,he possessed ,benjamin ,franklin's immense common sense1 and gift of terse proverbial speech1 but none of his lusts and sceptical infirmities4 ,the immortal twenty-line address at ,gettysburg is the high water mark of sententious eloquence4 ,with that speech should be placed the pathetic and equally perfect letter of condolence to ,mrs4 ,bixby of ,boston after her five sons had fallen in battle4 ,with that speech also should be read that wonderful second ,inaugural address which even the hostile ,london ,times pronounced to be the most sublime state paper of the century4 ,this second address--his last great production--contained some of the best illustrations of his fondness for balanced antithesis and rhythmical measurement4 ,there is one sentence which may be rendered into rhyme3 ,fondly do we hope1 ,fervently do we pray ,that this mighty scourge of war ,may soon pass away ,terrible as was the tragedy of that ,april night1 thirty-seven years ago1 it may be still true that ,lincoln died at the right time for his own imperishable fame4 ,it was fitting that his own precious blood should be the last to be shed in the stupendous struggle ,he had called over two hundred thousand heroes to lay down their lives and then his own was laid down beside the humblest private soldier1 or drummer boy1 that filled the sacred mould of ,gettysburg and ,chickamauga4 ,in an instant1 as it were1 his career crystalized into that pure white fame which belongs only to the martyr for justice1 law and liberty4 ,for more than a generation his ashes have slumbered in his beloved home at ,springfield1 and as the hearts of millions of the liberated turn toward that tomb1 they may well say to their liberator3 ,we were hungry and thou gavest us the bread of sympathy2 we were thirsty for liberty and thou gavest us to drink2 we were strangers1 and thou didst take us in2 we were sick with two centuries of sorrow1 and thou didst visit us2 we were in the oppressive house of bondage1 and thou earnest unto us2 and the response of ,christendom is3 ,well done1 good and faithful servant1 enter into the joy of the ,lord4 ,in closing this chapter of my reminiscences1 ,i may be allowed to express my strong conviction that our ,congress1 impelled by generous feeling1 and what they regarded as a democratic principle of government1 committed a serious error in bestowing the right of suffrage indiscriminately upon the male negro population of the ,south4 ,a man who had been all his life an ignorant chattel personal was suddenly transformed into a sovereign elector4 ,instead of this precipitate legislation1 it would have been wiser to restrict the suffrage to those who acquire a proper education1 and perhaps also a certain amount of taxable property4 ,this policy would have avoided unhappy friction between the races1 and1 what is more important1 it would have offered a powerful inducement to every colored man to fit himself for the honor and grave responsibility of full citizenship4 ,at this time one of the noblest efforts made by wise philanthropy is that of educating1 elevating and evangelizing our colored fellow countrymen of the ,south4 ,to help the negro to help himself1 is the key-note of these efforts4 ,the time is coming--yea1 it has come already--when to the name of ,abraham ,lincoln1 the grateful negro will add the names of their best benefactor1 ,general ,samuel ,c4 ,armstrong 7the founder of ,hampton ,institute7 and ,booker ,t4 ,washington4 ,,chapter ,,xii4 ,,pastoral ,,work4 ,the work of the faithful minister covers all the round week4 ,on the one day he teaches his people in the house of ,god1 on the remaining days he teaches and guides them in their own houses and wherever he may happen to meet them4 ,his labors1 therefore1 are twofold2 the work of the preacher and the work of the pastor4 ,the two ought to be inseparable2 what the ,providence of ,god and good common sense have joined together let no man venture to put asunder4 ,the great business of every true minister is the winning of souls to ,jesus ,christ1 and to bring them up in godly living4 ,in other words1 to make bad men good1 and good men better4 ,all this cannot be accomplished by two sermons a week1 even if they were the best that ,paul himself could deliver2 in fact1 the best part of ,paul's recorded work was quite other than public preaching4 ,as for our blessed ,master1 ,he has left one extended discourse and a few shorter ones1 but oh1 how many narratives we have of ,his personal visits1 personal conversation and labors of love with the sick1 the sinning1 and the suffering6 ,he was the shepherd who knew every sheep in the flock4 ,the importance of all that portion of a minister's work that lies outside of his pulpit can hardly be overestimated4 ,the great element of power with every faithful ambassador of ,christ should be heart-power and the secret of popularity is to take an interest in everybody4 ,a majority of all congregations1 rich or poor1 is reached1 not so much through the intellect as through the affections4 ,this is an encouraging fact1 that while only one man in ten may have been born to become a very great preacher1 the other nine1 if they love their ,master and love human souls1 can become great pastors4 ,nothing gives a minister such heart-power as personal acquaintance and personal attention to those whom he aims to influence2 especially his personal attention will be welcome in seasons of trial4 ,let the pastor make himself at home in everybody's home4 ,let him go often to visit their sick rooms and kneel beside their empty cribs1 and comfort their broken hearts1 and pray with them4 ,let him go to the business men of his congregation when they have suffered reverses1 and give them a word of cheer2 let him be quick to recognize the poor and the children1 and he will weave a cord around the hearts of his people that will stand a prodigious pressure4 ,his inferior sermons 7for every minister is guilty of such occasionally7 will be kindly condoned1 and he can launch the most pungent truths at his auditors1 and they will not take offense4 ,he will have won their hearts to himself1 and that is a great step toward drawing them to the house of ,god and winning their souls to the ,saviour4 ,a house-going minister1 said ,chalmers1 makes a church-going people4 ,there is still one other potent argument for close intercourse with his congregation that many ministers are in danger of ignoring or underestimating4 ,james ,russell ,lowell has somewhere said that books are1 at best1 but dry fodder1 and that we need to be vitalized by contact with living people4 ,the best practical discourses often are those which a congregation help their minister to prepare4 ,by constant and loving intercourse with the individuals of his church he becomes acquainted with their peculiarities1 and this enlarges his knowledge of human nature4 ,it is second only to a knowledge of ,god's ,word4 ,if a minister is a wise man 7and neither ,god nor man has any use for fools7 he will be made wiser by the lessons and suggestions which he can gain from constant and close intercourse with the immortal beings to whom he preaches4 ,in ,dundee1 ,scotland1 ,i conversed with a gray-headed member of ,st4 ,peter's ,presbyterian ,church who1 in his youth1 listened to the sainted ,robert ,murray ,mc,cheyne4 ,he spoke of him with the deepest reverence and love2 but the one thing that he remembered after forty-six years was that ,mr4 ,mc,cheyne1 a few days before his death1 met him on the street and1 laying hand upon his shoulder1 said to him kindly3 ,jamie1 ,i hope it is well with your soul4 ,how is your sick sister8 ,i am going to see her again shortly4 ,that sentence or two had stuck to the old ,christian for over forty years4 ,it had grappled his pastor to him1 and this little narrative gave me a fresh insight into ,mc,cheyne's wonderful power4 ,his ministry was most richly successful1 and largely because he kept in touch with his people1 and was a great pastor as well as a great preacher4 ,i determined from the very start in my ministry that ,i would be a thorough pastor4 ,a very celebrated preacher once said to me3 ,i envy you your love for pastoral work1 ,i would not do it if ,i could1 ,i could not do it if ,i would2 for a single hour with a family in trouble uses up more of my vitality than to prepare a sermon4 ,my reply to him was3 ,that may be true1 but1 after all1 the business of a minister is to endure these strains upon his nervous system if he would be a comforter1 as well as the teacher of his people4 ,my practice was this3 ,i devoted the forenoon of every day1 except ,monday1 to the preparation of my discourses4 ,my motto was3 ,study ,god's ,word in the morning1 and door-plates in the afternoon4 ,i found the physical exercise in itself a benefit1 and the spiritual benefits were ten-fold more4 ,i secured and kept a complete record of the whereabouts of all my congregation and requested from the pulpit that prompt information be given me of any change of residence1 and also of any case of sickness or trouble of any kind4 ,i encouraged my people to send me word when there was any case of religious interest in their families or any matter of importance to discuss with me4 ,in short1 ,i endeavored to treat my flock exactly as though they were my own family1 and to be perfectly at home in their homes4 ,i managed to visit every family at least once in each year and as much oftener as circumstances required4 ,as ,i had no loafing places1 ,i easily got through my congregation1 which1 in ,brooklyn1 numbered several hundreds of families4 ,spurgeon had an assistant pastor for his immense flock1 but he made it a rule to visit the sick or dying on as many occasions as possible4 ,he once said from his pulpit3 ,i have been this week to visit two of my church members who were near ,eternity1 and both of them were as happy as if they were going to a wedding4 ,oh1 it makes me preach like a lion when ,i see how my people can die4 ,it was always my custom to take a particular neighborhood1 and to call upon every parishioner in that street1 or district1 but ,i seldom found it wise to send word in advance to any family1 that ,i would visit them on a certain day or hour1 for ,i might be prevented from going1 and thus subject them to disappointment2 consequently1 ,i had to run the risk of finding them at home4 ,if they were out ,i left my card1 and tried again at another time4 ,in calling on my people unawares1 ,i found it depended upon myself to secure a cordial welcome1 for ,i went in with a hearty salutation and asked them to allow me to sit down with them wherever they were1 regardless of dress or ceremony1 and soon ,i found myself perfectly at home with them4 ,no one should be so welcome as a faithful pastor4 ,i encouraged them to talk about the affairs of our church1 about the ,sabbath services1 and the truths preached1 and the influences that ,sabbath messages were having upon them4 ,in this way ,i have discovered whether or not the shots were striking2 for the gunnery that hits no one is not worth the powder4 ,fishing for compliments is beneath any man of common sense1 but it does cheer the pastor's heart to be told1 ,your sermon last ,sunday brought me a great blessing2 it helped me all the week4 ,or better still1 ,your sermon brought me to decide for ,christ4 ,in a careful and delicate way1 ,i drew out our people in regard to their spiritual condition1 and if ,i found that any member of the family was anxious about his or her soul1 ,i managed to have a private and unreserved conversation with that person4 ,it is well for every minister to be careful how he guards the confidence reposed in him4 ,the family physician and the family pastor often have to know some things they do not like to know1 but they never should allow any one else to know them4 ,this intimate1 personal intercourse with my flock enabled me more than once to bring the undecided to a decision for ,christ4 ,in dealing with such cases1 whether in the home or in the inquiry-room1 ,i aimed to discover just what hindrance was in the path of each awakened soul4 ,it is a great point also for such a one to discover what it is that keeps him or her from surrendering to ,christ4 ,if it be some habit or some evil practice1 that must be given up2 if some heart sin1 that we must yield1 even if it be like plucking out an eye or lopping off a right hand4 ,it was my aim1 and ever has been1 to convince every awakened person that unless he or she was willing to give the heart to ,jesus and to do ,his will there was no hope for them4 ,we must shut every soul up to ,christ4 ,i requested my people to inform me promptly of every case of serious sickness1 and ,i could never be too prompt in responding to such a call4 ,however busy ,i might be in preparing sermons or any commendable occupation everything else was laid aside4 ,for a pastor should be as quick to respond to a call of sickness as an ambulance is to reach the scene of disaster4 ,i sometimes found that a parishioner had been suddenly attacked with dangerous illness and even my entrance in the sick room might agitate the patient4 ,at such times ,i found it necessary to use all the tact and delicacy and discretion at my command4 ,i would never needlessly endanger a sick person by efforts to guide or console an immortal spirit4 ,i aimed to make my words few1 calm and tender1 and make every syllable to point toward ,jesus ,christ4 ,whoever the sufferer may be1 saint or sinner1 his failing vision should be directed to no man save ,jesus only ,it is not commonly the office of the pastor to tell the patient that his or her disease is assuredly fatal1 but if we know that death is near1 in the name of the ,master1 let us be faithful as well as tender4 ,there are many cases of extreme and critical illness when the presence of even the most loving pastor may be an unwise intrusion4 ,an excellent ,christian lady who had been twice apparently on the brink of death said to me3 ,never enter the room of a person who is extremely low1 unless the person urgently requests you to1 or unless spiritual necessity absolutely compels it4 ,you have no idea how the sight of a new face agitates the sufferer1 and how you may unconsciously and unintentionally rob that sufferer of the little life that is fluttering in the feeble frame1 ,i felt grateful to the good woman for her advice1 and have often acted upon it1 when the family have unwisely importuned me to do what would have been more harmful than beneficial4 ,on some occasions1 when ,i have found a sick room crowded by well-meaning but needless intruders1 ,i have taken the liberty to put them all forth1 as our ,master did in that chamber in which the daughter of ,jairus was in the death slumber4 ,a great portion of the time and attention which ,i bestowed upon the sick was spent on chronic sufferers1 who had been confined to their beds of weariness for months or years4 ,i visited them as often as possible4 ,some of those bedridden sufferers were prisoners of ,jesus ,christ1 who did me quite as much good as ,i could possibly do them4 ,what eloquent sermons they preached to me on the beauty of submissive patience and on the supporting power of the ,everlasting arms6 ,such interviews strengthened my faith1 softened my heart1 and infused into it something of the spirit of ,him who ,took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses4 ,mc,cheyne1 of ,dundee1 said that before preaching on the ,sabbath he sometimes visited some parishioner1 who might be lying extremely low1 for he found it good to take a look over the verge4 ,in my pastoral rounds ,i sometimes had an opportunity to do more execution in a single talk than in a score of sermons4 ,i once spent an evening in a vain endeavor to bring a man to a decision for ,christ4 ,before ,i left1 he took me up-stairs to the nursery1 and showed me his beautiful children in their cribs4 ,i said to him tenderly3 ,do you mean that these sweet children shall never have any help from their father to get to ,heaven8 ,he was deeply moved1 and in a month that man became an active member of my church4 ,he was glued to me in affection for all the remainder of his useful life4 ,on a cold winter evening ,i made a call on a wealthy merchant in ,new ,york4 ,as ,i left his door1 and the piercing gale swept in ,i said1 ,what an awful night for the poor6 ,he went back1 and bringing to me a roll of bank bills1 he said3 ,please hand these1 for me1 to the poorest people you know of4 ,after a few days ,i wrote to him1 sending him the grateful thanks of the poor whom his bounty had relieved1 and added3 ,how is it that a man who is so kind to his fellow creatures has always been so unkind to his ,saviour as to refuse ,him his heart8 ,that sentence touched him in the core4 ,he sent for me immediately to come and converse with him4 ,he speedily gave his heart to ,christ1 united with1 and became a most useful member of our church4 ,but he told me ,i was the first person who had ever spoken to him about his spiritual welfare in nearly twenty years4 ,in the case of this eminently effective and influential ,christian1 one hour of pastoral work did more than the pulpit efforts of almost a lifetime4 ,,chapter ,,xiii4 ,,some ,,famous ,,preachers ,,in ,,britain4 ,binney4--,hamilton--,guthrie4--,hall4-- ,spurgeon4--,duff and others ,in attempting to recall my recollections of the eminent preachers whom ,i have known1 ,i hardly know where to begin1 or where to call a halt4 ,i shall confine myself entirely to those who are no longer living1 except as they may live in the memory of the service they wrought for their ,divine ,master and their fellow men4 ,when ,i first visited ,london1 in early ,september1 #ahdb1 the two ministers most widely known to ,americans were ,henry ,melvill and ,thomas ,binney4 ,melvill was the most popular preacher in the ,established ,church4 ,his place of worship was out at ,camberwell1 and ,i found it so packed that ,i had to get a seat on one of the steps in the gallery4 ,he was a man of elegant bearing1 and rolled out his ornate sentences in a somewhat theatrical tone1 but the hushed audience drank in every syllable greedily4 ,the splendid and thoroughly evangelical sermons which he orated most carefully were exceedingly popular in those days1 and even yet they are well worth reading as superb specimens of lofty1 devout and resonant oratory4 ,on a very warm ,sabbath evening ,i went into the business end of ,london to the ,weigh ,house ,chapel and heard ,dr4 ,thomas ,binney4 ,he was the leader of ,congregationalism1 as ,melvill was of the ,church of ,england4 ,on that warm evening the audience was small1 but the discourse was prodigiously large4 ,binney had a kingly countenance1 and a most unique delivery4 ,his topic was ,psalm #adgth1 #c;d and #dth verses4 ,god is the ,creator of the universe1 and the comforter of the sorrowing4 ,he thrust one hand into his breeches pocket1 and then ran his other hand through his hair1 and began his sermon with the stirring words3 ,the ,jew has conquered the world6 ,this was the prelude to a grand eulogy of the ,psalms of ,david4 ,he then unfolded the first part of his text in a most original style1 made a long pause1 scratched his head again1 and said3 ,now then1 let us take some new thoughts1 and then we are done4 ,the closing portion of the rich discourse was on the tender consolations of our ,heavenly ,father4 ,thirty years afterwards ,dr4 ,binney was invited to meet me at breakfast at the house of ,dr4 ,hall1 with ,tom ,hughes1 ,dr4 ,henry ,allon and other notabilities4 ,the noble veteran chatted very serenely1 and offered a most majestic prayer while he remained sitting in his arm-chair4 ,his physical disabilities made it difficult for him to stand2 and very soon afterwards the grand old man went up to his crown4 ,when ,i was spending two delightful days with ,dr4 ,mc,laren1 of ,manchester1 ,i described to him ,binney's remarkable sermon4 ,were you there that night8 inquired ,mc,laren4 ,so was ,i1 and though only a boy of sixteen1 ,i remember the whole of that discourse to this hour4 ,it was certainly a rare pulpit power that could fasten a discourse in two different memories for a whole half century4 ,do many of the ,londoners of this day remember ,dr4 ,james ,hamilton1 the pastor of the ,presbyterian ,church in ,regent's ,square8 ,they should do so1 for in his time he was the most popular devotional writer of both sides of the ,atlantic2 and during my visit to ,london1 in #aheg1 ,i was very happy to form his acquaintance4 ,he was a most cordial and charming man1 slender1 tall1 with dark eyes and hair1 and a beaming countenance4 ,when one entered ,hamilton's study he would hurry forward1 seize his hands1 and taking both in his1 reply to your ,how do you do1 sir1 with ,come in1 come in2 ,i am nicely1 ,i assure ye4 ,would that all ministers were as cordial and approachable4 ,when ,i attended his church in ,regent ,square they were singing1 when ,i came in1 a ,psalm from the old ,scotch ,version4 ,the choristers sat in a desk below the pulpit4 ,the singing was general through the church1 and excellent in style4 ,dr4 ,hamilton preached in a gown1 and1 as the heat grew oppressive in the middle of his sermon1 threw it off4 ,the discourse was delivered with extremely awkward gestures1 but in a voice of great sweetness4 ,the text was3 ,my soul thirsteth for the ,living ,god4 ,he described an arid wilderness1 hot and parched1 and down beneath it a mighty vein of water into which an artesian well was bored1 and forthwith the waters gushed up through it and swept over all the dry desert1 making it one emerald meadow4 ,so1 said he1 it is the incarnate ,jesus flowing up through our own dusty1 barren desert humanity1 and overflowing us with ,heavenly life and grace1 until what was once dreary and dead becomes a fruitful garden of the ,lord4 ,the discourse was like a chapter from one of ,hamilton's savory volumes4 ,five years afterwards1 ,i dined with ,hamilton1 and the ,rev4 ,william ,arnot 7who afterwards was his biographer71 and ,i went to his church to deliver the preparatory discourse to the sacrament on the next ,sabbath4 ,on my way up to ,london1 ,i halted one night at ,birmingham1 and while out on a stroll1 came upon the ,city ,hall1 which was crowded with a great meeting in aid of foreign missions4 ,the heroic ,robert ,moffat1 the ,apostle of ,south ,africa1 was addressing the multitude1 who cheered him in the old ,english fashion4 ,two years before that1 ,robert ,moffat had met a young man in a boarding house in ,aldersgate ,street1 ,london1 and induced him to become a missionary in ,africa4 ,the young man was the sublimest of all modern missionaries1 ,david ,livingstone4 ,two years after that evening1 ,livingstone married ,miss ,mary ,moffat 7daughter of the man to whom ,i was listening71 in ,south ,africa1 and she became the sharer of his trials and explorations4 ,after ,moffat had concluded his speech1 a broad-shouldered1 merry-faced man1 with thick grey hair rose on the platform4 ,who is that8 ,i inquired of my next neighbor4 ,with a look of surprise that ,i should ask such a question in ,birmingham1 he said3 ,it is ,john ,angell ,james4 ,he was the man whom ,dr4 ,cox wittily described as ,an angel vinculated between two ,apostles4 ,he spoke very forcibly1 in a hearty1 humorous vein1 and ,i could hardly understand how such a jovial old gentleman could be the author of such a serious work as ,the ,anxious ,inquirer4 ,but ,i have since discovered that many of the most solemn and impressive preachers were men of most cheery temperament who could laugh heartily themselves when they were not making other people weep4 ,mr4 ,james looked like an old sea captain2 but he was an admirable pilot of awakened souls1 whom thousands will bless through all eternity4 ,dr4 ,thomas ,guthrie1 of ,edinburgh1 was once pronounced by the ,london ,times to be ,the most eloquent man in ,europe4 ,ruskin1 ,thackeray1 ,macaulay1 and other men of renown joined in the crowd that thronged ,st4 ,john's ,church when they were in ,edinburgh2 and a highland drover was once so excited that in the middle of a powerful sermon he called out3 ,naw1 sirs1 heard ye ever the like o' that8 ,my good wife made a run to ,edinburgh while ,i was stopping behind in ,england1 and on her return to me almost her first word was1 ,i have heard ,guthrie2 ,i am spoiled for every one else as long as ,i live4 ,guthrie1 ,lang ,tam 7as the toughs on the ,cowgate in ,edinburgh used to call him71 was built for a great orator4 ,he was more than six feet high1 and would be picked out in any crowd as one of ,god's royal family4 ,i once said to him3 ,you remind us ,americans of our famous statesman1 ,henry ,clay1 ,there was a striking resemblance in the long-armed figure1 the broad mouth and lofty brow1 and still more in the rich melody of voice1 and magnetic rush of electric eloquence1 ,there must certainly be a personal likeness1 replied the ,doctor1 for not long ago ,i went into the house of ,mr4 ,norris1 who came here from ,america1 and said to myself1 ',there is my portrait on the wall1' but when ,i came nearer ,i espied under it the name of ',henry ,clay4' ,he used to say that in preaching he aimed at the three ,p's3 ,prove1 ,paint and ,persuade4 ,his painting with the tongue was as vivid as ,rembrandt's painting with the brush4 ,when ,i went to ,edinburgh1 in #ahgb1 as a delegate to the two ,presbyterian ,general ,assemblies1 ,dr4 ,guthrie invited me to dine with him1 and the gifted ,dr4 ,john ,ker1 of ,glasgow1 was in the company4 ,after dinner1 ,guthrie literally took the floor1 and poured out a flow of charming talk1 interspersed with racy ,scotch anecdotes4 ,among others told was one about the old ,highland woman who said to him3 ,doctor1 nane of your modern improvements for me4 ,i want naething but good old ,dauvid's ,psalms1 and ,i want'em all sung to ,dauvid's tunes1 too4 ,on the evening when ,i addressed the ,free ,church ,assembly1 ,i was obliged to pass1 on my way to the platform1 the front bench1 on which sat the veteran missionary1 ,alexander ,duff1 ,principal ,rainy1 ,william ,arnot1 ,dr4 ,guthrie and two or three other celebrities4 ,i have not run such a gauntlet on a single bench in my life4 ,when ,i had finished my address1 ,guthrie1 clad in his gray overcoat1 leaped up1 and kindly grasped my hand1 and ,i went back to my seat feeling an indescribable relief4 ,dr4 ,guthrie a short time after attempted to visit our country1 but was arrested at ,queenstown by a difficulty of the heart1 and returned to ,scotland1 and lived but a short time afterwards4 ,sly personal acquaintance with ,newman ,hall began during the darkest period of our ,civil ,war1 in ,august1 #ahfb ,up to that time ,i had only known him as the author of that pithy and pellucid little booklet1 ,come to ,jesus1 which has belted the globe in forty languages1 and been published to the number of nearly #d1jjj1jjj of copies4 ,when our ,civil ,war broke out1 ,dr4 ,hall 7with ,john ,bright and ,foster and ,goldwin ,smith7 threw himself earnestly on the side of our ,union ,he made public speeches for our cause over all ,england1 and opened his house for parlor meetings addressed by loyal ,americans who happened to be in ,london4 ,he invited me to address one of these gatherings1 but the necessity of my return home prevented my acceptance4 ,two years after the close of the war he made his first visit to the ,united ,states4 ,he was received with enthusiastic ovations4 ,union ,leagues gave him public welcomes1 ,congress invited him to preach in the ,house of ,representatives2 he delivered an address to the ,bostonians on ,bunker ,hill2 and every denomination1 including the ,episcopalians and ,quakers1 opened their pulpits to him everywhere4 ,but the crowning act of his unique ,americanism was the erection of the ,lincoln ,tower on his ,church in ,london1 as a tribute to ,negro ,emancipation1 and a memorial to ,international amity4 ,the love that existed between my brother1 ,dr4 ,hall1 and myself was like the love of ,david and ,jonathan4 ,the letters that passed between us would number up into the hundreds1 and his epistles had the sweet savor of ,holy ,rutherford1 ,when he was in ,america1 my house was his home1 when ,i was in ,london1 ,i spent no small part of my time in his delightful ,vine ,house1 up on ,hampstead ,hill4 ,the house remains in the possession of his wife1 a lady of high culture1 intellectual gifts and of most devout piety4 ,one reason for the close intimacy between my ,british brother and myself was that we were perfectly agreed on every social1 civil and religious question1 and we never had a chance to sharpen our wits on the hone of controversy4 ,our theology was all from the same ,book1 and our main purposes in life were similar4 ,many of my ,american readers heard ,dr4 ,hall preach during some one of his three visits to the ,united ,states4 ,what marrowy1 soul-quickening sermons he poured forth in a clear1 musical voice1 and with a most earnest persuasiveness4 ,preaching was as easy to him as breathing4 ,including the ,sabbath1 he delivered seven or eight sermons in a week4 ,undoubtedly he delivered more discourses than any ordained minister during the nineteenth century4 ,peers and peasants1 scholars and dwellers in the slums alike enjoyed his preaching of ,god's message to immortal souls4 ,his favorite theme was the sin-atoning work of ,christ ,jesus2 and the numbers converted under his faithful preaching were exceedingly great4 ,one of his discourses in this country on ,jehovah ,jireh1 was especially helpful1 and one on ,touching the ,hem of ,christ's ,garment1 was a gem of spiritual beauty4 ,he generally maintained an even flow of evangelical thought1 but sometimes he rose into a burst of thrilling eloquence1 as he did in ,mr4 ,beecher's church1 when he made his noble appeal for ,union between ,england and ,america4 ,from his youth he was fond of street preaching4 ,i have seen him gather a crowd1 and hold them attentively while he sowed a few seeds of truth in their hearts4 ,i wish ,i had the space to describe some of the foregatherings that ,i have had with my twin brother in the ,gospel4 ,we visited ,italy together1 preached to the ,saints that are in ,rome1 and went down into that room in the sub-basement of ,st4 ,clement's where ,paul is believed to have held meetings with them that were of ,caesar's household4 ,we roamed out on the ,appian ,road1 over which the great ,apostle entered the ,eternal ,city4 ,so conscientious was my brother ,hall in his teetotalism that though tired and thirsty1 he never would touch the weak1 common wine of the country1 lest his example might be plead in favor of the drinking usages4 ,we once went up to ,olney and sat in ,cowper's summer house1 and entered ,john ,newton's church1 and the old sexton told ,dr4 ,hall that he had been converted by ,come to ,jesus4 ,we went together to ,stonehenge1 and as we passed over ,salisbury ,plain we recalled ,hannah ,moore's famous shepherd who said3 ,the weather to-morrow will be what suits me1 for what suits ,god1 suits me always4 ,we spent a very delightful couple of days in rowing down the romantic river ,wye1 stopping for lunch at ,wordsworth's ,tintern ,abbey4 ,in his home he was a hospitable ,gaius1 with open doors and hearts to friends from all lands4 ,he had the merry sportiveness of a schoolboy1 and when our long talks in his study were over1 he would seize his hat and the chain of his pet dog1 and cry out3 ,come1 brother1 come1 and let us have a tramp over the ,heath4 ,he was a prodigious pedestrian1 and at three score and ten he held his own over a ,swiss glacier1 with the members of the ,alpine ,club4 ,he had hoped to equal his famous predecessor1 ,rowland ,hill1 and preach till he was ninety2 but when he was near his eighty-sixth birthday he was stricken with paralysis1 and never left his bed again4 ,those last two weeks were spent in the ,land of ,beulah1 and in full view of ,the ,celestial ,city4 ,when asked if he suffered pain1 he replied3 ,i have no pain1 and nothing to disturb the solemnity of dying4 ,on the morning of ,february fourteenth he passed peacefully over the river1 and1 as ,bunyan said of old ,valiant-for-the-,truth1 ,the trumpets sounded for him on the other side4 ,no monarch on his throne is so to be envied as he who now wears that celestial crown4 ,can anything new be said about ,charles ,h4 ,spurgeon8 ,perhaps not1 and yet ,i should be guilty of injustice to myself and to my readers if ,i failed to pay my love tribute to the most extraordinary preacher of the pure ,gospel to all ,christendom whom ,england produced in the last century4 ,i heard him when he was a youth of twenty-two years1 in his ,park ,street ,chapel2 ,i heard him several times when he was at the zenith of his vigor2 ,i spent many a happy hour with him in his charming home4 ,on my last visit there ,i had a good cry when ,i saw his empty chair in its old place in the study4 ,i did not form any personal acquaintance with him until the summer of #ahgb1 and it soon ripened into a most warm and cordial friendship4 ,on each of my visits to ,london since that time ,i have enjoyed an afternoon with him at his home4 ,his first residence was ,helensburg ,house in ,nightingale ,road1 ,clapham1 a ,southwest ,district of ,london4 ,that beautiful home was his only1 luxury2 but he spent none of his ample income on any sort of social enjoyment1 and what did not go for household expenses went for the support of his many religious enterprises4 ,on my first visit to him he greeted me in his free and easy1 open-handed way4 ,i noticed that he was growing stouter than ever4 ,in me1 he jocularly said1 that is in my flesh1 dwelleth no good thing1 ,we spent a joyous hour in his well filled library2 he showed me fifteen stately volumes of his printed sermons which have since been more than doubled1 besides several of his works translated into ,french1 ,german1 ,swedish1 ,dutch and other languages4 ,the most interesting object in the library was a small file of his sermon notes1 each one on a half sheet of note paper1 or on the back of an ordinary letter envelope4 ,when ,i asked him if he wrote his sermons out1 his answer was3 ,i would rather be hung4 ,his usual method was to select the text of his ,sunday morning sermon on ,saturday about six or seven o'clock1 and spend half an hour in arranging a skeleton and put it on paper2 he left all the phraseology until he reached the pulpit4 ,during ,sunday afternoon he repeated the same process in preparing his evening discourse4 ,if ,i had a month assigned me for preparing a sermon1 said he to me1 ,i would spend thirty days and twenty-three hours on something else and in the last hour ,i would make the sermon1 and if ,i could not do it then ,i could not do it in a month4 ,this sounds like a risky process1 but it must be remembered that if ,spurgeon occupied but a few minutes in arranging a discourse he spent five days of every week in thoroughly studying ,god's ,word--in thorough thinking--and in the perusal of the richest old writers on theology and experimental religion4 ,he was all the time1 and everywhere filling up his cask1 so that he had only to turn the spigot and out flowed the pure ,gospel in the most transparent language4 ,a stenographer took down the sermon1 and it was revised by ,mr4 ,spurgeon on ,monday morning4 ,he told me that for many years he went to his pulpit under such nervous agitation that it often brought on violent attacks of vomiting and produced outbreaks of perspiration1 and he slowly outgrew that remarkable sort of physical suffering4 ,twenty years ago ,mr4 ,spurgeon exchanged ,helensburgh ,house for the still more elegant mansion called ,westwood on ,beulah ,hill1 near ,crystal ,palace1 ,sydenham4 ,it is a rural paradise4 ,at each of the visits ,i paid him there1 he used to come out with his banged-up soft hat1 which he wore indoors half of the time1 and with a merry jest on his lips4 ,on my last visit1 accompanied by my brother ,hall1 ,i found him suffering severely from his neuralgic malady1 but it did not affect his buoyant humor4 ,when ,i told him that my catarrhal deafness was worse than ever1 he replied3 ,well1 brother1 console yourself with the thought that in these days there is very little worth hearing4 ,he took my brother ,hall1 and myself out into his garden and conservatory and down to a rustic arbor1 where we sat down and told stories4 ,there were twelve acres of land attached to ,westwood1 and he had us into the meadow1 where we laid down in the freshly mowed hay and inhaled its fragrance4 ,mrs4 ,spurgeon1 a most gifted and charming lady1 had a dozen cows and the profits of her dairy then supported a missionary in ,london2 and the milk was sent around the neighborhood in a wagon labeled1 ,charles ,h4 ,spurgeon1 ,milk ,dealer4 ,after our return1 the great preacher showed us a portfolio of caricatures of himself from ,punch and other publications4 ,at six o'clock we took supper and then came family worship--all the servants being present ,mr4 ,spurgeon followed my prayer with the most wonderful prayer that perhaps ,i have ever heard from human lips1 and ,i said afterwards to my friend ,hall1 ,to-night we got into 'the hidings of his power1' for a man who can pray like that can outpreach the world4 ,in the soft hour of the gloaming we took our leave1 and he went off to prepare his sermon for the morrow4 ,spurgeon's power lay in a combination of half a dozen great qualities4 ,he was the master of a vigorous ,saxon ,english style1 the style of ,cobbett and ,bunyan and the old ,english ,bible4 ,he possessed a most marvelous memory--it held the whole ,bible in solution2 it retained all the valuable truth he had acquired during his immensely wide readings and it enabled him to recognize any person whom he ever met before4 ,once1 however1 he met for the second time a ,mr4 ,partridge and called him ,partridge4 ,quick as a flash he said3 ,pardon me1 sir1 ,i did not intend to make game of you1 ,he was a man of one ,book1 and had the most implicit faith in every jot and tittle of ,god's ,word4 ,he preached it without defalcation or discount1 and this prodigious faith made his preaching immensely tonic4 ,his sympathies with all mankind were unbounded1 and the juices of his nature were enough to float an ark full of living creatures4 ,joined to these gifts was a marvelous voice of great sweetness1 and a homely mother-wit that bubbled out in all his talk and often in his sermons4 ,mightiest of all was his power of prayer1 and his inner life was hid with ,christ in ,god4 ,as an organizer he had great executive abilities4 ,his ,orphanage1 dozen missionary schools and theological training school will be among his enduring monuments4 ,the last sermon ,i ever heard him deliver was in ,dr4 ,newman ,hall's church on a week evening4 ,he came hobbling into the study1 his face the picture of suffering4 ,he said to me1 ,brother ,cuyler1 if ,i break down1 won't you take up the service and go on with it8 ,i told him that he would forget his pains the moment he got under way1 and so it was1 for he delivered a most nutritious discourse to us4 ,when the service was over1 he limped off to his carriage1 wrapped himself in the huge cushions1 and drove away seven miles to his home at ,upper ,norwood4 ,that was the last time ,i ever saw my beloved friend4 ,it seems strange that ,i shall never behold that homely1 honest countenance again2 and since that time1 ,london has hardly seemed to be ,london without him4 ,it is a cause for congratulation that his son1 the ,reverend ,thomas ,spurgeon1 is so successfully carrying forward the great work of his sainted father4 ,if my readers would like a sample taste of the pure ,spurgeonic it is to be found in this passage which he delivered to his theological students3 ,some modern divines whittle away the ,gospel to the small end of nothing2 they make our ,divine ,lord to be a sort of blessed nobody2 they bring down salvation to mere possibility2 they make certainties into probabilities and treat verities as mere opinions4 ,when you see a preacher making the ,gospel smaller by degrees1 and miserably less1 till there is not enough of it left to make soup for a sick grasshopper1 get you gone with him6 ,as for me1 ,i believe in an infinite ,god1 an infinite atonement1 infinite love and mercy1 an everlasting covenant1 ordered in all things1 and sure1 and of which the substance and reality is an ,infinite ,christ4 ,i once asked ,dr4 ,james ,mc,cosh1 who was the greatest preacher he ever heard4 ,he replied1 ,of course1 it was my ,edinboro ,professor1 ,dr4 ,chalmers1 but the grandest display of eloquence ,i ever listened to was ,dr4 ,alexander ,duff's famous ,plea for ,foreign ,missions1 delivered before the ,scottish ,general ,assembly at a date previous to the disruption1 ,i can say ,amen to ,dr4 ,mc,cosh1 for the most overpowering oratory that ,i ever heard was ,duff's great missionary speech in the ,broadway ,tabernacle during his visit to ,america4 ,in the immense crowd were two hundred ministers and the foremost laymen of the city4 ,when the great missionary arose 7he was then in the prime of his power71 his first appearance was not impressive1 for his countenance had no beauty and his gestures were grotesquely awkward4 ,with one arm he huddled his coat up to his shoulder1 with the other he sawed the air incontinently1 and when intensely excited1 he leapt several inches from the floor as if about to precipitate himself over the desk4 ,all these eccentricities were forgotten when once the great heart began to open its treasures to us1 and the subject of his resistless oratory began to enchain our souls4 ,in his vivid description of ,magnificent ,india its dusky crowds and its ancient temples1 with its northern mountains towering to the skies2 its dreary jungles haunted by the tiger2 its crystalline salt fields flashing in the sun2 and its ,malabar hills redolent with the richest spices1 were all spread out before us like a panorama4 ,when the ,doctor had completed the survey of ,india1 he opened his batteries on the sloth and selfishness of too many of ,christ's professed followers2 he poured contempt upon the men who said3 ,they are not so green as to waste their money on the farce of ,foreign ,missions4 ,no1 no1 indeed1 he continued1 they are not green1 for greenness implies verdure1 and beauty1 and there is not a single atom of verdure in their parched and withered up souls4 ,under the burning satire and mellowing pathos of his tremendous appeal for heathendom1 tears welled out from every eye in the house4 ,i leaned over toward the reporter's table2 many of the reporters had flung down their pens--they might as well have attempted to report a thunder storm4 ,as the orator drew near his close1 he seemed like one inspired2 his face shone as if it were1 the face of an angel4 ,never before did ,i so fully realize the overwhelming power of a man who has become the embodiment of one great idea--who makes his lips the mere outlet for the mighty truth bursting from his heart4 ,after nearly two hours of this inundation of eloquence1 he concluded with the quotation of ,cowper's magnificent verse1 ,one song employs all nations1 etc ,with the utmost vehemence he rung out the last line3 ,earth rolls the rapturous ,hosanna round4 ,he could not check his headway1 and repeated the line a second time1 louder than before1 and then with a tremendous voice that made the walls reverberate1 he shouted once more3 ,earth rolls the rapturous ,hosanna round6 and sunk back breathless and exhausted into his chair4 ,shut up now this ,tabernacle1 exclaimed ,dr4 ,james ,w4 ,alexander4 ,let no man dare speak here after that4 ,,chapter ,,xiv4 ,,some ,,famous ,,american ,,preachers4 ,the ,alexanders4--,dr4 ,tyng4--,dr4 ,cox4--,dr4 ,adams4--,dr4 ,storrs4--,mr4 ,beecher4--,mr4 ,finney and ,dr4 ,b4,m4 ,palmer4 ,the necessary limitations of this chapter forbid any reference to many distinguished ,american preachers whom ,i have seen or heard1 but with whom ,i had not sufficient personal acquaintance to furnish any material for personal reminiscences4 ,in common with multitudes of others on both sides of the ocean1 ,i had a hearty admiration for the brilliant genius and masterful sermons of ,phillips ,brooks1 but ,i only heard two of his rapid and resonant addresses on anniversary occasions1 and my acquaintance with him was very slight4 ,i heard only one discourse by that remarkable combination of preacher1 poet1 patriot and philosopher1 ,dr4 ,horace ,bushnell1 of ,hartford1--his discourse on ,barbarism the ,chief ,danger1 delivered before the ,home ,missionary ,society4 ,his sermon on ,unconscious ,influence1 was enough to confer immortality on any minister of ,jesus ,christ4 ,i never was acquainted with him1 but after his death1 ,i suggested to the residents of ,new ,preston1 that they should name the mountain that rises immediately behind the home of his childhood and youth1 ,mount ,bushnell4 ,the villagers assented to my proposal1 and the ,state ,legislature ratified their act by ordering that name to be placed on the maps of ,connecticut4 ,in this chapter1 as in the previous one1 ,i shall give my recollections only of those who have ended their career of service1 and entered into their reward4 ,during the six years that ,i spent in ,princeton ,college and in the ,seminary 7between #ahch and #ahdf7 ,i came into close acquaintance with1 and ,i heard very often1 the two great orators of the ,alexander family4 ,dr4 ,archibald ,alexander1 the father of a famous group of sons1 was a native of ,virginia--had listened to ,patrick ,henry in his youth2 had married the daughter of the eloquent ,blind ,preacher1 ,rev4 ,james ,waddell1 and even when as a young minister he had preached in ,hanover1 ,new ,hampshire4 ,daniel ,webster1 then a student in ,dartmouth ,college1 predicted his future eminence4 ,the students in the ,seminary were wont to call him playfully1 ,the ,pope1 for we had unbounded confidence in his sanctified common-sense4 ,i always went to him for counsel4 ,his insight into the human heart was marvelous2 and in the line of close experimental preaching1 he has not had his equal since the days of ,president ,edwards4 ,he put the impress of his powerful personality on a thousand ministers who graduated from ,princeton ,seminary4 ,in his lecture-desk and in the pulpit he was simplicity itself4 ,his sermons were like the waters of ,lake ,george1 so pellucid that you could see every bright pebble far down in the depths2 a child could comprehend him1 yet a sage be instructed by him4 ,his best discourses were extemporaneous1 and he had very little gesture1 except with his forefinger1 which he used to place under his chin1 and sometimes against his nose in a very peculiar manner4 ,with a clear piping voice and colloquial style he held his audience in rapt attention1 disdaining all the tricks of sensational oratory4 ,twice ,i heard him deliver his somewhat celebrated discourse on ,the ,day of ,judgment2 it was a masterpiece of solemn eloquence1 in which sublimity and simplicity were combined in a way that ,i have never seen equaled ,he used to say that the right course for an old man to keep his mind from senility was to produce some piece of composition every day2 and he continued to write his practical articles for the religious press until he was almost four-score4 ,what an impressive funeral was his on that bright ,october afternoon1 in #ahea1 when two hundred ministers gathered in that ,westminster ,abbey of ,presbyterianism1 the ,princeton ,cemetery6 ,his ashes slumber beside those of ,witherspoon1 ,davies1 ,hodge1 ,mc,cosh and ,jonathan ,edwards4 ,among the six sons who stood that day beside that grave1 the most brilliant by far was the third son1 ,joseph ,addison ,alexander4 ,dr4 ,charles ,hodge said of him3 ,taking him all in all1 he was the most gifted man with whom ,i have ever been personally acquainted1 ,in childhood1 such was his precocity that he knew the ,hebrew alphabet at six years of age 7,i am afraid that some ministers do not know it at sixty72 and he could read ,latin fluently when he was only eight6 ,of his wonderful feats of memory ,i could give many illustrations2 one was that on the day that ,i was matriculated in the ,seminary with fifty other students1 ,professor ,alexander went over to ,dr4 ,hodge's study1 and repeated to him every one of our names6 ,when using manuscript in the pulpit1 he frequently turned the leaves backward instead of forward1 for he knew all the sermon by heart6 ,his commentaries--quite too few--remain as monuments of his profound scholarship1 and some of his articles in the ,princeton ,review sparkled with the keenest wit4 ,oh1 how his grandest sermons linger still in my memory after three-score years--like the far-off music of an ,alpine horn floating from the mountain tops6 ,his physique was remarkable1 he had the ruddy cheeks of a boy1 and his square intellectual head we students used to say looked like ,napoleon's4 ,his voice was peculiarly melodious1 especially in the pathetic passages2 his imagination was vivid in fine imagery1 and he had an unique habit of ending a long sentence in the words of his text1 which chained the text fast to our memories4 ,the announcement of his name always crowded the church in ,princeton1 and he was flooded with invitations to preach in the most prominent churches of ,new ,york1 ,philadelphia1 and other cities4 ,one of his most powerful and popular sermons was on the text1 ,remember ,lot's ,wife2 and he received so many requests to repeat that sermon that he said to his brother ,james in a wearied tone1 ,i am afraid that woman will be the death of me4 ,there may still be old ,philadelphians who can recall the magnificent series of discourses which ,professor ,alexander delivered during the winter of #ahdg in the pulpit of ,dr4 ,henry ,a4 ,boardman1 while ,dr4 ,boardman was in ,europe4 ,the church was packed every ,sabbath evening1 clear to the outer door1 and many were unable to find room even in the aisles4 ,dr4 ,alexander was then in his splendid prime4 ,his musical voice often swelled into a volume that rolled out through the doorway and reached the passerby on the sidewalk6 ,during that winter he pronounced all his most famous sermons--on ,the ,faithful ,saying1 on ,the ,city with ,foundations1 on ,awake1 ,thou that ,sleepest6 and on ,the ,broken and ,contrite ,heart4 ,it was after hearing this latter most original and pathetic discourse that an eminent man exclaimed1 ,no such preaching as that has been heard in this land since the days of ,dr4 ,john ,m4 ,mason4 ,i enjoy the perusal of the rich1 unique1 and spiritual sermons of my beloved professor and friend2 but no one who reads them can realize what it was to listen to ,joseph ,addison ,alexander in his highest and holiest inspirations4 ,was ,albert ,barnes a great preacher8 ,yes2 if it is a great thing for a man to hold a large audience of thoughtful and intelligent people in solemn attention while he proclaims to them the weightiest and vitalest of truths--then was ,mr4 ,barnes a great ambassador of the ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,he combined modesty and majesty to a remarkable degree4 ,he had a commanding figure1 keen eye1 handsome features1 and a clear distinct voice2 but so diffident was he that he seldom looked about over his congregation and rarely made a single gesture4 ,his simple rule of homiletics was1 have something to say1 and then say it4 ,he stood up in his pulpit and delivered his calm1 clear1 strong1 spiritual utterances with scarcely a trace of emotion1 and the hushed assembly listened as if they were listening to one of the oracles of ,god4 ,his best sermons were like a great red anthracite coal bed1 with no flash1 but kindled through and through with the fire of the ,holy ,spirit ,bashful1 too1 as he was1 he denounced popular sins with an intrepidity displayed by but few ministers in our land4 ,in the temperance reform he was an early pioneer4 ,for ,albert ,barnes ,i felt an intense personal attachment2 he was my ideal of a fearless1 godly-minded herald of evangelical truth2 and he had begun his public ministry in ,morristown1 ,n4,j41 the home of my maternal ancestry1 and in the church in which my beloved mother had made her confession of faith4 ,when our ,lafayette ,avenue ,church was dedicated--just forty years ago--,i urged him to deliver the discourse2 but he hesitated to preach extemporaneously1 and his sight was so impaired that he could not use a manuscript4 ,at the age of seventy-two he was suddenly and sweetly translated to heaven4 ,over the whole ,english-speaking world his name was familiar as a plain teacher of ,god's ,word in very spiritual commentaries4 ,a half century ago ,dr4 ,william ,b4 ,sprague1 of ,albany1 was in the front rank of ,presbyterian preachers4 ,his fine presence1 his richly melodious voice1 his graceful style and fresh1 practical evangelical thought made him so popular that he was in demand everywhere for special occasions and services4 ,he was a marvel of industry4 ,while preparing his voluminous ,annals of the ,american ,pulpit1 and conducting an enormous correspondence1 he never omitted the preparation of new sermons for his own flock4 ,with that flock he lived and labored for forty years1 and when he resigned his charge 7in #ahfi7 he told me that when removing from ,albany1 he buried his face and streaming eyes with his hands1 for he could not endure the farewell look at the city of his love4 ,when ,i first heard him in my student days ,i thought him an almost faultless pulpit orator1 and when he and the young and ardent ,edward ,n4 ,kirk stood side by side in ,albany1 no town in the land contained two nobler specimens of the earnest1 persuasive and eloquent ,presbyterian preachers4 ,when ,i came to ,new ,york as pastor of the ,market ,street ,church1 in #ahec1 the most conspicuous minister in the city was the rector of ,st4 ,george's ,episcopal ,church on ,stuyvesant ,square4 ,every ,sabbath the superb and spacious edifice was thronged4 ,it was quite the thing for strangers who came to ,new ,york to go and hear ,dr4 ,tyng4 ,even on ,sunday afternoons the house was filled2 for at that service he preached what he called sermons to the children--but they were not only sprightly1 simple and vivacious enough to attract the young1 they also contained an abundance of strong meat for persons of older growth4 ,he was an enthusiast in ,sunday school work--had #b1ejj scholars in his mission schools1 and possessed an unsurpassed power in nailing the ears of the young to his pulpit4 ,dr4 ,tyng was the acknowledged leader of the ,low ,church wing of ,episcopacy in this country1 both during his ministry in the ,epiphany at ,philadelphia1 and in ,st4 ,george's at ,new ,york4 ,he edited their weekly paper1 and championed their cause on all occasions4 ,he was their candidate for the office of ,bishop of ,pennsylvania in #ahde1 and the contest was protracted through a long series of ballotings4 ,it was urged1 and not without some reason1 that his impetuous temper and strong partisanship might make him a rather domineering overseer of the diocese4 ,he possessed an indomitable will and pushed his way through life with the irresistible rush of a ,cunarder under a full head of steam4 ,his temper was naturally very violent4 ,one ,sabbath evening he was addressing my ,sunday school in ,market ,street1 and describing the various kinds of human nature by resemblances to various animals1 the lion1 the fox1 the sloth1 etc43 ,children1 he exclaimed1 do you want to know what ,i am8 ,i am by nature a royal ,bengal tiger1 and if it had not been for the grace of ,god to tame me1 ,i fear that nobody could ever have lived with me4 ,there was about as much truth as there was wit in the comparison4 ,his congregation in ,st4 ,george's knew his irrepressible temperament so well that they generally let him have his own way4 ,if he wanted money for a church object or a cause of charity1 he did not beg for it2 he demanded it in the name of the ,lord4 ,when ,i see ,dr4 ,tyng coming up the steps of my bank1 said a rich bank president to me1 ,i always begin to draw my cheque2 ,i know he will get it1 and it saves my time4 ,his leading position among ,low ,churchmen was won not only by his intellectual force and moral courage1 but by his uncompromising devotion to evangelical doctrine4 ,he belonged to the same school with ,baxter1 ,john ,newton1 ,bickersteth1 ,simeon and ,bedell4 ,in ,england his intimate friends were the ,earl of ,shaftesbury1 ,dr4 ,mc,neill and others of the most pronounced evangelical type4 ,the good old doctrines of redemption by the blood of ,christ1 and of regeneration by the ,holy ,spirit were his constant theme1 and on these and kindred topics he was a delightful preacher4 ,strong as he was in the pulpit1 ,dr4 ,tyng was the prince of platform orators4 ,he had every quality necessary for the sway of a popular audience--fine elocution1 marvelous fluency1 piquancy1 the courage of his convictions and a magnetism that swept all before him4 ,his voice was very clear and penetrating1 and he hurled forth his clean-cut sentences like javelins4 ,a more fluent speaker ,i never heard2 not ,spurgeon or ,henry ,ward ,beecher could surpass him in readiness of utterance4 ,on one occasion the ,broadway ,tabernacle was crowded with a great audience that gathered to hear some celebrity2 and the expected hero did not arrive4 ,the impatient crowd called for ,tyng1 ,tyng2 and the rector of ,st4 ,george's came forward1 and on the spur of the moment delivered such a charming speech that the audience would not let him stop4 ,for many years ,i spoke with him at meetings for city missions1 total abstinence1 ,sunday schools and other benevolent enterprises4 ,he used playfully to call me one of his boys4 ,at a complimentary reception given to ,j4,b4 ,gough in ,niblo's ,hall1 ,mr4 ,beecher and myself delivered our talks1 and then retired to the opposite end of the hall4 ,dr4 ,tyng took the rostrum with one of his swift magnetic speeches4 ,i leaned over to ,beecher and whispered1 ,that is splendid platforming1 isn't it8 ,beecher replied3 ,yes1 indeed it is4 ,he is the one man that ,i am afraid of4 ,when he speaks first ,i do not care to follow him1 and if ,i speak first1 then when he gets up ,i wish ,i had not spoken at all4 ,some of ,dr4 ,tyng's most powerful addresses were in behalf of the temperance reform2 he was a most uncompromising foe of both of the dram shop and of the drinking usages in polite society4 ,he also denounced the theatre and the ball-room with the most ,puritanic vehemence4 ,dr4 ,stephen ,h4 ,tyng's chief power1 like many other great preachers1 was when he was on his feet4 ,he should be heard and not read4 ,some of the discourses and addresses which enchained and thrilled his auditors seemed tame enough when reported for the press4 ,in that respect he resembled ,whitfield and ,gough and many of our most effective stump speakers4 ,the result was that ,dr4 ,tyng's fame1 to a great degree1 perished with him4 ,he published several books1 of a most excellent and evangelical character1 but they lacked the thunder and the lightning which make his uttered words so powerful1 and probably none of his many books are much read to-day4 ,the influence of his splendid and heroic personality was very great during a ministry of over fifty years1 and the glorious work which he wrought for his ,master will endure to all eternity4 ,to have heard ,dr4 ,william ,adams of ,new ,york at his best was better than any lecture on ,homiletics2 to have met him at the fireside or in the sick room of one of his parishioners was a prelection in pastoral theology4 ,the first time that ,i ever saw him was fully fifty years ago2 he was standing in the gallery of the old ,broadway ,tabernacle at an anniversary of the ,american ,bible ,society1 and ,dr4 ,james ,w4 ,alexander pointed him out to me saying--,yonder stands ,dr4 ,william ,adams1 he is the hardest student of us all4 ,it was this honest incessant brain work that enabled him to sustain himself for forty years in one of the conspicuous pulpits of the largest city in the land4 ,he always drew out of a full cask4 ,let young ministers lay this fact to heart4 ,it was not by trick or happy luck1 or by pyrotechnics of rhetoric that ,dr4 ,adams won and kept his position in the forefront of metropolitan preachers4 ,the dead line of fifty was not to be found on his intellectual atlas4 ,one of the last talks with him that ,i now recall was on an early morning in ,congress ,park1 ,saratoga4 ,he had a pocket ,testament in his hand1 and he said to me1 ,i find myself reading more and more the old books of my youth2 ,i am enjoying just now ,virgil's ,eclogues1 but nothing is so dear to me as my ,greek ,testament4 ,all of ,dr4 ,adams' finest efforts were thoroughly prepared and committed to memory4 ,he never risked a failure by attempting to shake a sermon or a speech out of his sleeve4 ,his memory was one of his greatest gifts4 ,sometimes when his soul was on fire1 and his voice trembled with emotion1 he rose into the region of lofty impassioned eloquence4 ,his master effort on the platform was his address of welcome to the members of the ,evangelical ,alliance in #ahgc4 ,how the foreign delegates--,doctors ,stoughton1 ,christlieb1 ,dorner and the rest of them--did open their eyes that evening to the fact that a ,yankee-born parson was1 in elegant culture and polished oratory1 a match for them all4 ,dr4 ,adams' speech struck twelve for the ,alliance at the start2 nothing during the whole subsequent sessions surpassed that opening address1 although ,beecher and ,dr4 ,joseph ,parker were both among the speakers4 ,he closed the meeting of the ,alliance in the ,academy of ,music with a prayer of wonderful fervor1 pathos and beauty4 ,one of his grandest speeches was delivered before the ,free ,church ,general ,assembly in ,edinburgh--in ,may1 #ahga4 ,dr4 ,guthrie told me that he swept the assembly away by his stately bearing1 sonorous voice and classic oratory4 ,the men whom he moved so mightily were such men as ,arnot and ,guthrie and ,rainy and ,bonar1--the men who had listened to the grandest efforts of ,duff and of ,chalmers4 ,i well remember that when ,i had to address the same assembly 7as the ,american delegate7 the next year ,i was more disturbed by the apparition of my predecessor1 ,dr4 ,adams1 than by all the brilliant audience before me4 ,dr4 ,adams was gifted with what is of more practical value than genius1 and that was marvelous tact4 ,that was with him an instinct and an inspiration4 ,it led him to always speak the right word1 and do the right thing at the right time4 ,personal politeness helped him also2 for he was one of the most perfect gentlemen in ,america4 ,that practical sagacity made him the leader of the new school branch of our church1 during the delicate negotiations for reunion in #ahfg1 and on to #ahgj4 ,he knew human nature well1 and never lost either his temper or his faith in the sure result4 ,to-day when that old lamentable rupture of our beloved church is as much a matter of past history as the rupture of the ,union during the civil war1 let us gratefully remember ,george ,w4 ,musgrave1 the pilot of the old school and ,william ,adams1 the pilot of the new4 ,the last sermon that ,i ever heard ,dr4 ,adams deliver was in my ,lafayette ,avenue ,church pulpit a few years before his death4 ,his text was the closing passage of the fourth chapter of ,second ,corinthians4 ,the whole sermon was delivered with great majesty and tenderness4 ,one illustration in it was sublime4 ,he was comparing the things which are seen and temporal with the things which are not seen and eternal4 ,he described ,mont ,blanc enveloped in a morning cloud of mist4 ,the vapor was the seen thing which was soon to pass away2--behind it was the unseen mountain1 glorious as the great white throne which should stand unmoved when fifty centuries of mist had flown away into nothingness4 ,this passage moved the audience prodigiously4 ,many sat gazing at the tall pale orator before them through their tears4 ,the portrait of ,dr4 ,adams hangs on my study wall--alongside of the portrait of ,chalmers--and as ,i look at his majestic countenance now1 ,i still seem to see him as on that ,sabbath morning he stood before us1 with the light of eternity beaming on his brow6 ,in the summer of #ahde ,i was strolling with my friend ,littell 7the founder of the ,living ,age71 through the leafy lanes of ,brookline1 and we came to a tasteful church4 ,that1 said ,mr4 ,littell1 is the ,harvard ,congregational meeting house4 ,they have lately called a brilliant young ,mr4 ,storrs1 who was once a law student with ,rufus ,choate2 he is a man of bright promise4 ,two years afterward ,i saw and heard that brilliant young minister in the pulpit of the newly organized ,church of the ,pilgrims in ,brooklyn4 ,he had already found his place1 and his throne4 ,he made that pulpit visible over the continent4 ,that church will be ,dr4 ,storrs' church for many a year to come4 ,had that superbly gifted law student of ,choate gone to the bar he would inevitably have won a great distinction1 and might have charmed the ,united ,states ,senate by his splendid eloquence4 ,perhaps he learned from ,choate some lessons in rhetoric and how to construct those long melodious sentences that rolled like a ,hallelujah chorus over his delighted audiences4 ,but young ,storrs chose the better part1 and no temptation of fame or pelf allured him from the higher work of preaching ,jesus ,christ to his fellow men4 ,he was--like ,chalmers and ,bushnell and ,spurgeon--a born preacher4 ,great as he was on the platform1 or on various ceremonial occasions1 he was never so thoroughly at home as in his own pulpit2 his great heart never so kindled as when unfolding the glorious gospel of redeeming love4 ,the consecration of his splendid powers to the work of the ministry helped to ennoble the ministry in the popular eye1 and led young men of brains to feel that they could covet no higher calling4 ,one of the remarkable things in the career of ,dr4 ,storrs was that by far the grandest portion of that career was after he had passed the age of fifty6 ,instead of that age being1 as to many others1 a dead line1 it was to him an intellectual birth line4 ,he returned from ,europe--after a year of entire rest--and then1 like a giant refreshed by sleep1 began to produce his most masterly discourses and orations4 ,his first striking performance was that wonderful address at the twenty-fifth anniversary of ,henry ,ward ,beecher's pastorate in ,plymouth ,church1 at the close of which ,mr4 ,beecher gave him a grateful kiss before the applauding audience4 ,not long after that ,dr4 ,storrs delivered those two wonderful lectures on the ,muscovite and the ,ottoman4 ,the ,academy of ,music was packed to listen to them2 and for two hours the great orator poured out a flood of history and gorgeous description without a scrap of manuscript before him6 ,he recalled names and dates without a moment's hesitation6 ,like ,lord ,macaulay1 ,dr4 ,storrs had a marvelous memory2 and at the close of those two orations ,i said to myself1 ,how ,macaulay would have enjoyed all this6 ,his extraordinary memory was an immense source of power to ,dr4 ,storrs2 and1 although he had a rare gift of fluency1 yet ,i have no doubt that some of his fine efforts1 which were supposed to be extemporaneous1 were really prepared beforehand and lodged in his tenacious memory4 ,dean ,stanley1 on the day before he returned to ,england1 said to me3 ,the man who has impressed me most is your ,dr4 ,storrs4 ,when ,i urged the pastor of the ,pilgrims to go over to the great ,international ,council of ,congregationalists in ,london and show the ,english people a specimen of ,american preaching1 his characteristic reply was1 ,oh1 ,i am tired of these show occasions1 ,but he never grew tired of preaching ,jesus ,christ and ,him crucified4 ,the ,bible his old father loved was the book of books that he loved1 and no blasts of revolutionary biblical criticism ever ruffled a feather on the strong wing with which he soared heavenward4 ,a more orthodox minister has not maintained the faith once delivered to the saints in our time than he for whom ,brooklyn's flags were all hung at half-mast on the day of his death4 ,all the world knew that ,richard ,s4 ,storrs possessed wonderful brain power1 culture and scholarship2 but only those who were closest to him knew what a big loving heart he had4 ,some of the sweetest and tenderest private letters that ,i ever received came from his ready pen4 ,i was looking over some of them lately2 they are still as fragrant as if preserved in lavender4 ,his heart was a very pure fountain of noble thought1 and of sweet1 unselfish affection4 ,he died at the right time2 his great work was complete2 he did not linger on to outlive himself4 ,the beloved wife of his home on earth had gone on before2 he felt lonesome without her1 and grew homesick for heaven4 ,his loving flock had crowned him with their grateful benedictions2 he waited only for the good-night kiss of the ,master he served1 and he awoke from a transient slumber to behold the ineffable glory4 ,on the previous day his illustrious ,andover instructor1 ,professor ,edwards ,a4 ,park1 had departed2 it was fitting that ,andover's most illustrious graduate should follow him2 now they are both in the presence of the infinite light1 and they both behold the ,king in ,his beauty6 ,fifty years ago one of the most famous celebrities in the ,presbyterian ,church was ,dr4 ,samuel ,hanson ,cox1 famous for his linguistic attainments1 for his wit and occasional eccentricities1 and very famous for his bursts of eloquence on great occasions4 ,he was at that time the pastor of the ,first ,presbyterian ,church of ,brooklyn1 and resided in the street where ,i am now writing 7,oxford ,street72 and the street at the end of the block was named ,hanson ,place in honor of him4 ,his large wooden mansion was then quite out of town1 and was accordingly called ,rus ,urban1 ,in that house he wrote--for the ,new ,york ,observer--the unique series of articles on ,new ,school ,theology entitled ,the ,hexagon1 and there he entertained1 with his elegant courtesy and endless flow of wit and learning1 many of the most eminent people who visited ,brooklyn4 ,the boys used to climb into his garden to steal fruit2 and1 as a menace1 he affixed to his fence a large picture of a watch-dog1 and underneath it a dental sign1 ,teeth inserted here6 ,the old mansion was removed years ago4 ,in #ahdf he was the moderator of the new school ,presbyterian ,general ,assembly4 ,it was during the sessions of that assembly that the famous debate was waged for several days on the exciting question of negro slavery1 and when some compromise resolutions were passed 7for those were the days of compromise salves and plasters7--,dr4 ,cox rose and exclaimed1 ,well1 brethren1 we have capped ,vesuvius for another year1 ,but ,vesuvius would not stay capped1 and in a few years one of its violent eruptions sundered the new school church in twain4 ,dr4 ,cox was a vehement opponent of slavery1 and his church in ,laight ,street was assailed by a mob1 and he was roughly handled4 ,in #ahcc he was sent to ,england as the delegate to the ,british and ,foreign ,bible ,society1 and at their anniversary meeting he delivered one of the most brilliant speeches of his life4 ,he came into the meeting a perfect stranger1 while ,dr4 ,hamilton1 of ,leeds1 was uttering a fierce invective against ,american slavery4 ,this aroused ,dr4 ,cox's indignation1 and when he was called on to speak he commenced with exquisite urbanity as follows3 ,my ,lord ,bexley1 ladies and gentlemen6 ,i have just landed from ,america4 ,thirty days ago ,i came down the bay of ,new ,york in the steam tug ,hercules and was put on board of the good packet ship ,samson--thus going on from strength to strength--from mythology to ,scripture6 ,this bold and novel introduction brought down the house with a thunder of applause4 ,after paying some graceful tributes to ,england and thus winning the hearts of his auditors1 he suddenly turned towards ,dr4 ,hamilton1 and with the most captivating grace1 he said3 ,i do not yield to my ,british brother in righteous abhorrence of the institution of negro slavery4 ,i abhor it all the more because it was our disastrous inheritance from our ,english forefathers1 and came down to us from the time when we were colonies of ,great ,britain6 ,and now if my brother ,hamilton will enact the part of ,shem1 ,i will take the place of ,japhet1 and we will walk backward and will cover with the mantle of charity the shame of our common ancestry1 ,this sudden burst of wit1 argument and eloquence carried the audience by storm1 and they were obliged to applaud the ,yankee orator in spite of themselves4 ,i count this retort by ,dr4 ,cox one of the finest in the annals of oratory4 ,several years afterwards he visited ,england as a delegate to the first ,evangelical ,alliance4 ,it was attended by the foremost divines1 scholars and religious leaders of both ,britain and the continent2 and a brief five-minutes' speech made by ,dr4 ,cox was unanimously pronounced to have been the most splendid display of eloquence heard during the whole convocation4 ,he owed a great deal to his commanding figure1 fine voice1 and graceful elocution4 ,his memory also was as marvelous as that of ,dr4 ,storrs or ,professor ,addison ,alexander4 ,one night1 for the entertainment of his fellow-passengers in a stagecoach1 he repeated two cantos of ,scott's poem of ,marmion6 ,i have heard him quote1 in a public address before the ,new ,york ,university1 a whole page of ,cicero without the slip of a single word6 ,his passion for polysyllables was very amusing1 and he loved to astonish his hearers by his sesquipedalian phraseology4 ,a certain visionary crank once intruded into his study and bored him with a long dissertation4 ,dr4 ,cox's patience was exhausted1 and pointing to the door1 he said3 ,my friend1 do you observe that aperture in this apartment8 ,if you do1 ,i wish that you would describe rectilineals1 very speedily4 ,i could fill several pages with racy anecdotes of the keen wit and the varied erudition of my venerable friend4 ,but let none of my readers think of ,dr4 ,cox as a clerical jester1 or a pedant4 ,he was a powerful and intensely spiritual preacher of the living ,gospel4 ,in his ,new ,york congregation were many of the best brains and fervent hearts to be found in that city1 and some of the leading laymen revered him as their spiritual father4 ,sometimes he was betrayed into eccentricities1 and his vivid imagination often carried him away into discursive flights2 yet he never soared out of sight of ,calvary's cross1 and never betrayed the precious ,gospel committed to his trust4 ,the first time that ,i ever saw ,henry ,ward ,beecher was in #ahdh4 ,he was then mustering his new congregation in the building once occupied by ,dr4 ,samuel ,h4 ,cox4 ,it was a weekly lecture service that ,i attended1 by invitation of a lady who invited me to go and hear our new-come genius from the ,west4 ,the room was full1 and at the desk stood a brown-cheeked young man with smooth-shaved face1 big lustrous eyes1 and luxuriant brown hair--with a broad shirt collar tied with a black ribbon4 ,his text was ,grow in ,grace1 and he gave us a discourse that ,matthew ,henry could not have surpassed in practical pith1 or ,spurgeon in evangelical fervor4 ,i used to tell ,mr4 ,beecher that even after making full allowance for the novelty of a first hearing1 ,i never heard him surpass that ,wednesday evening lecture4 ,he was plucking the first ripe grapes of his affluent vintage2 his pomegranates were in full flower1 and the spikenard sent forth its fragrance4 ,the very language of that savory sermon lingers in my memory yet4 ,during my ministry in ,new ,york--from #ahec to #ahfj--;,i became intimate with ,mr4 ,beecher and spoke beside him on many a platform and heard him in some of his most splendid efforts4 ,he was a fascinating companion1 with the rollicking freedom of a schoolboy4 ,i never shall forget an immense meeting--in behalf of a liquor prohibition movement--held in ,triplet ,hall4 ,mr4 ,beecher was at his best4 ,in the midst of his speech1 he suddenly discharged a bombshell against negro slavery which dynamited the audience and provoked a thunder of applause4 ,for pure eloquence it was the finest outburst ,i ever heard from his lips4 ,like ,patrick ,henry1 ,clay1 ,guthrie1 ,spurgeon and other great masters of assemblies1 he was gifted with a richly melodious voice--which was especially effective on the low and tender keys4 ,this gave him great power in the pathetic portions of his discourses4 ,of his superabounding humor ,i need not speak4 ,it bubbled out so naturally and spontaneously that he found it difficult to restrain it even on the most grave occasions4 ,sometimes he sinned against good taste1 and ,i once heard his sister ,catherine say that ,henry rarely delivered a speech or a sermon which did not contain something that grated on her ear4 ,his most frequent offenses were in the direction of flippant handling of sacred themes and ,scripture language4 ,this he inherited from his illustrious father4 ,mr4 ,beecher is generally regarded as an extemporaneous preacher4 ,this is a mistake4 ,he prepared most of his discourses carefully1 and full one-half of many of them were written out4 ,among these written passages he interjected bursts of impromptu thoughts2 and these were generally the most effective passages in the sermon4 ,while he repeated himself often--especially on his favorite topic of ,god's love--yet it was always in fresh language and with new illustrations4 ,abraham ,lincoln said to me1 ,the most marvelous thing about ,mr4 ,beecher is his inexhaustible fertility4 ,during the ,civil ,war he was at the acme of his power4 ,he was then the peerless orator of ,christendom4 ,it was his intention 7as he once told me7 to resign his pastorate at the age of sixty and to devote the remainder of his life to a ministry at large4 ,but the tempest of troubles which struck him about that time forbade his cherished design1 and he continued at his post until the touch of death silenced the magic tongue4 ,nearly thirty years have elapsed since ,i sat by him on the crowning evening of his career1 at his silver anniversary1 in #ahgc4 ,as to his later utterances in theology1 and on some questions of ethics1 ,i dissented from my old friend conscientiously1 and ,i expressed to him my dissent very candidly1--as becometh brethren4 ,i am convinced that if there were more fraternal frankness between the living1 there would be less hypocrisy over the departed4 ,charles ,g4 ,finney was the acknowledged king of ,american evangelists until ,dwight ,l4 ,moody came on the stage of action4 ,they resembled each other in untiring industry1 unflinching courage1 unswerving devotion to the marrow of the ,gospel1 and unreserved consecration to the service of ,christ4 ,the secret of ,finney's power was the fearless manner with which he drove ,god's word into the consciences of sinners--high or humble--and his perpetual reliance on the immediate presence of the ,holy ,spirit in his own soul4 ,emptied of self1 he was filled with the ,holy ,spirit4 ,his sermons were chain lightning1 flashing conviction into the hearts of the stoutest sceptics1 and the links of his logic were so compact that they defied resistance4 ,probably no minister in ,america ever numbered among his converts so many lawyers and men of intellectual culture4 ,soon after commencing his law practice he was brought under the most intense conviction of sin2 and the narrative of his conversion--as given in his autobiography--equals any chapter in ,john ,bunyan's ,grace ,abounding4 ,after light and peace broke into his agonized soul1 he burst into tears of joy1 and exclaimed3 ,i am so happy that ,i cannot live1 ,he began at once to converse with his neighbors about their souls4 ,when a certain ,deacon ,b4 came into his office and reminded him that his cause was to be tried at ten o'clock that morning1 ,mr4 ,finney replied1 ,deacon ,b41 ,i have a retainer from the ,lord ,jesus ,christ to plead ,his cause1 and cannot plead yours4 ,the deacon was thunderstruck1 and went off and settled his suit with his antagonist immediately4 ,from that time a law office was no place for the fervid spirit of ,charles ,g4 ,finney1 and he resolved at once to prepare for the ministry4 ,revivals followed his red-hot discourses wherever he went4 ,at ,auburn he declares that he had--during prayer in his own room--a wonderful vision in which ,god drew so near to him that his flesh trembled on his bones1 and he shook from head to foot as if amid the thunderings of ,sinai6 ,he felt an assurance that ,god would sustain him against all his enemies2 and then there came a great lifting up1 and a sweet calm followed after the agitation4 ,such extraordinary spiritual experiences occurred quite often during his career as a revivalist1 and they remind one strikingly of similar experiences of ,john ,bunyan--to whom ,finney bore a certain degree of resemblance4 ,at ,rochester many of the leading lawyers were attracted by his bold and logical style of speech2 and among his converts there was the distinguished jurist1 ,addison ,gardner4 ,it was during his ministry in ,new ,york that he delivered his celebrated ,lectures on ,revivals1 which were reprinted abroad and translated into several foreign languages4 ,of all ,mr4 ,finney's published productions1 these lectures are the most characteristic4 ,often extravagant in their rhetoric1 and sometimes rather reckless in theological statements1 they contain a mine of pungent truth which every young minister ought to possess and to peruse very often4 ,i shall never cease to thank ,god for the inspiration they have imparted to my own humble ministry2 and they have had a place in my library close beside the ,pilgrim's ,progress1 and the biographies of ,payson and ,mc,cheyne1 and the soul-quickening sermons of ,bushnell1 ,addison ,alexander and ,dr4 ,mc,laren4 ,after his extended evangelistic labors in various cities1 ,mr4 ,finney was appointed to a theological chair in the newly organized college at ,oberlin1 ,ohio4 ,from this post1 his irrepressible desire to kindle revivals and to save souls often called him away1 and he conducted two famous evangelistic campaigns in ,great ,britain4 ,he was the first man to introduce ,american revivalistic methods into ,england and ,scotland2 but his labors were never as wide1 as influential1 and generally acceptable there as the subsequent labors of ,messrs4 ,moody and ,sankey4 ,forty years of his busy and heaven-blessed life were spent at ,oberlin1 where he impressed his powerful personality on a multitude of students of both sexes2 few religious teachers in ,america have ever moulded so many lives1 or had their opinions echoed from so many pulpits4 ,with all my admiration of ,president ,finney's character1 ,i could not--as a loyal ,princetonian--subscribe to some of his peculiar opinions4 ,it was1 therefore1 with great surprise that ,i received from him a letter in #ahgc 7two years before his death7 which contained the startling proposal that ,i should be his successor in the college pulpit at ,oberlin6 ,he wrote to me3 ,i think that there is no more important field of ministerial labor in the world4 ,i know that you have a great congregation in ,brooklyn1 and are mightily prospered in your labors1 but your flock does not contain a thousand students pursuing the higher branches of education from year to year4 ,surely your field in ,brooklyn is not more important than mine was at the ,broadway ,tabernacle in ,new ,york1 nor can your people be more attached to you than mine were to me4 ,this letter--although its kind overture was promptly declined--was a gratifying proof that the once bitter controversies between old school and new school had become quite obsolete4 ,when ,i mentioned this letter to my beloved ,princeton instructor1 ,dr4 ,charles ,hodge1 a few weeks before his death1 he simply remarked that his ,brother ,finney had become very sweet and mellow in his later years4 ,and long before this time the two great antagonistic theologians may have clasped hands in heaven4 ,the closing years of ,president ,finney's useful life were indeed mellow and most lovable4 ,in the days of his prime he had a commanding form1 a striking face and a clear1 incisive style of speech4 ,simple as a child in his utterances1 he sometimes startled his hearers by his unique prayers4 ,for example1 he was one day driven from his study at ,oberlin by a refractory stovepipe which persisted in tumbling down4 ,at family worship in the evening he said ,oh1 ,lord6 thou knowest how the temper of ,thy servant has been tried to-day by that stovepipe6 ,several other expressions1 quite as quaint and as piquant1 might be quoted1 if the limits of this brief sketch would permit4 ,what would be deemed irreverent if spoken by some lips never sounded irreverent when uttered by such a natural1 fearless and yet devout a spirit as ,charles ,g4 ,finney4 ,he retained his erect1 manly form1 his fresh enthusiasm and intellectual vigor1 to the ripe old age of eighty-three4 ,on a calm ,sabbath evening--in ,august1 #ahge--;he walked in his garden and listened to the music from a neighboring church4 ,retiring to his chamber1 the messenger from his ,master met him in the midnight hours1 and before the morning dawned his glorified spirit was before the throne6 ,his is the crown of one who turned many to righteousness4 ,while ,i am writing this chapter of ministerial reminiscences1 ,i receive the sorrowful tidings that my dear old friend1 ,dr4 ,benjamin ,m4 ,palmer1 of ,new ,orleans--the prince of ,southern preachers--has closed his illustrious career4 ,to the last his splendid powers were unabated1--and last year 7although past eighty-three7 he delivered one of his greatest sermons before the ,university of ,georgia6 ,his massive discourses1 based on ,god's word1 were a solid pile of concinnate argument1 illuminated with the divine light1 and glowing with the divine love shed abroad in his heart4 ,in the spring of #ahhg1 ,mrs4 ,cuyler and myself visited ,new ,orleans1 and ,i cared more to see ,dr4 ,palmer than all the city besides4 ,he cordially welcomed me to the hospitalities of his house1 and of that pulpit which had so long been his throne4 ,i do not wonder that the people of ,new ,orleans--of all classes and creeds--regarded him not only with pride1 but with an affection that greeted him at every step through the city of which he was the foremost citizen4 ,as my readers may all know1 ,dr4 ,palmer1 through the ,civil ,war1 was a most ardent ,secessionist1 and as honestly so as ,i was a ,unionist4 ,he spent much time in preaching to the ,confederate soldiers1 and he narrated to me an amusing incident which illustrated his calm and imperturbable temperament4 ,on a certain fast-day 7appointed by the ,confederate authorities7 he was to preach in a rural church within the ,confederate lines4 ,the ,northern army was lying so close to them that a battle was imminent at any moment4 ,dr4 ,palmer had begun his long prayer1 when a ,federal shell landed immediately under the windows of the church and exploded with a terrific crash6 ,the doctor was not to be shelled out of his duty1 and he went steadily on to the end of his prayer4 ,when he opened his eyes the house was deserted6 ,his congregation had slipped quietly out1 and left him alone in his glory4 ,soon after my visit to ,new ,orleans1 my old friend was sorely bereaved by the death of his wife4 ,i wrote him a letter of condolence1 and his reply was1 for sweetness and sublimity1 worthy of ,samuel ,rutherford or ,richard ,baxter4 ,as both husband and wife are now reunited ,i venture to publish a portion of this wonderful letter--both as a message of consolation to others under a similar bereavement and as a tribute to the great loving heart of ,benjamin ,m4 ,palmer4 ,he says3 ,truly my sorrow is a sorrow wholly by itself4 ,what is to be done with a love which belongs only to one1 when that one is gone and cannot take it up8 ,it cannot perish1 for it has become a part of our own being4 ,what shall we do with a lost love which wanders like a ghost through all the chambers of the soul only to feel how empty they are8 ,i have about me--blessed be ,god6 a dear daughter and grandchildren2 but ,i cannot divide this love among them1 for it is incapable of distribution4 ,what remains but to send it upward until it finds her to whom it belongs by right of concentration through more than forty years4 ,i will not speak1 my brother1 of my pain--let that be2 it is the discipline of love1 having its fruit in what is to be4 ,but ,i will tell you how a gracious ,father fills this cloud with ,himself--and covering me in it1 takes me into ,his pavilion4 ,it is not what ,i would have chosen2 but in this dark cloud ,i know better what it is to be alone with ,him2 and how it is best sometimes to put out the earthly lights1 that even the sweetest earthly love may not come between ,him and me4 ,it is the old experience of love breaking through the darkness as it did long ago through the terrors of ,sinai and the more appalling gloom of ,calvary4 ,i have this to thank ,him for1 the greatest of all ,his mercies1 and then for this1 that ,he gave her to me so long4 ,the memories of almost half a century encircle me as a rainbow4 ,i can feed upon them through the remainder of a short1 sad life1 and after that can carry them up to ,heaven with me and pour them into song forever4 ,if the strings of the harp are being stretched to a greater tension1 it is that the praise may hereafter rise to higher and sweeter notes before ,his throne--as we bow together there4 ,,chapter ,,xv ,,summering ,,at ,,saratoga ,,and ,,mohonk4 ,bishop ,haven4--,dr4 ,schaff4--,president ,mc,cosh4 ,to the laborious pastor of a large congregation some period of recuperation during the summer is absolutely indispensable4 ,the cavalry officer who1 when hotly pursued by the enemy1 discovered that his saddle-girths had become loose1 and dismounted long enough to tighten them1 was a wise man1 and affords a good example to us ministers4 ,it was my custom to call a halt1 lock my study door 7stowing away my pastoral cares in a drawer7 and go away for five or six weeks1 and sometimes a little longer4 ,a sea voyage was undertaken during half a dozen vacations1 but during a portion of forty-two summers ,i pitched my moving tent in salubrious ,saratoga1 and a part of twenty-one summers was spent on the heights of ,mohonk4 ,as this volume is issued in ,london as well as in ,new ,york1 ,i will mention some things in this chapter for my ,british readers with which many of my own fellow-countrymen may be already familiar4 ,there were several reasons that induced me to select ,saratoga early in my ministry as the best place to spend a part of the summer vacation4 ,it is the most widely known the world over of any of our ,american watering places and is an exceedingly beautiful town4 ,its spacious ,broadway1 lined with stately elms1 is one of the most sightly avenues in our land2 and some of the superb hotels that front upon it fulfill the ,american demand for bigness4 ,the most attractive spot to me has always been the beautiful park that surrounds the famous ,congress ,spring1 and to which every morning ,i made my very early pilgrimage for my draught of its sparkling water4 ,the park covers but a few acres1 but it is a continuous loveliness4 ,when its rich1 soft greensward--worthy of ,yorkshire or ,devonshire--was sparkling with the dew1 and the fountains were in full play1 and the goodly breeze was singing through the trees1 it was a place in which to chant ,dr4 ,arnold's favorite hymn3-- ,come1 my soul1 thou must be waking2 ,now is breaking ,o'er the earth another day2 ,come to ,him who made this splendor1 ,see thou render ,all thy feeble strength can pay4 ,the second reason for my choice of ,saratoga was the variety of the wonderful medicinal waters1 and their renovating effects4 ,i can winter better1 said ,governor ,buckingham1 for even a short summer at ,saratoga1 and my experience was quite similar4 ,i honestly believe that those waters have prolonged my life4 ,in addition to the many health fountains which have been veritable ,bethesdas to multitudes1 the dry1 bracing atmosphere is perfumed and tempered by the breezes from the pine forests of the ,adirondack ,mountains4 ,while some are attracted to ,saratoga by the waters and others by the air1 ,i found both of them equally beneficial4 ,as far as its social life is concerned1 there are1 as in all summer resorts1 two very different descriptions of guests4 ,one class are devotees of fashion1 who go there to gratify the lust of the eye1 and the pride of life4 ,they drive by day and dance by night2 but some devotees of pleasure have yielded too much to the ensnarements of the gaming table and the race course4 ,there is another and a more numerous class made up of quiet business men and their families1 clergymen1 college professors and persons in impaired health1 who go for recreation or recuperation4 ,from this latter class1 and in some measure indeed from the former also1 the churches of the town attract very large congregations4 ,it has been my privilege to deliver a little more than two hundred sermons in ,saratoga1 and there is no place in which ,i have found that a faithful and practical presentation of the word of life is more eagerly welcomed4 ,it is no place to exhibit a show sermon on dress parade1 but it is the very one in which to press home the word on hearts and consciences1 to arouse the impenitent1 to give tonic truth to the weak and the weary1 to afford the word of comfort to the sorrowing and soul-food to the many who hunger for the heavenly manna4 ,i have already narrated some of my pleasant experiences in preaching at ,saratoga1 and ,i could add to them several other interesting incidents4 ,for about thirty summers1 and occasionally in the winter1 ,i found a happy home at ,dr4 ,strong's ,remedial ,institute on ,circular ,street4 ,this is a family hotel during the summer1 and a sanitarium during the remainder of the year4 ,every morning the guests assemble for worship1 and the intolerable trio of fashion1 frivolity and fiddles1 has never invaded the refined and congenial atmosphere of the house4 ,my host1 ,dr4 ,strong1 is an active member of the ,methodist ,church in that town1 and naturally a large number of ministers of that denomination are his summer guests4 ,this was very pleasant for me1 for1 although ,i am loyally attached to my own clan1 yet ,i have a peculiarly warm side for the ecclesiastical followers of the ,wesleys1 and am some times introduced in their conferences as a ,methodistical ,presbyterian4 ,at ,dr4 ,strong's ,i met many of the leading ,methodist ministers1 and was exceedingly filled with their company4 ,i met1 among others1 the sweet-spirited ,bishop ,jaynes1 who always seemed to be a legitimate successor of the beloved disciple ,john4 ,if ,bishop ,jaynes recalled the apostle ,john1 let me say that the venerated father of my kind host and the founder of the ,sanitarium1 the late ,dr4 ,sylvester ,s4 ,strong1 was such an impersonation of charming courtesy and fervid spirituality that he might be a counterpart of ,luke the beloved physician4 ,he was an admirable preacher before he entered the medical profession4 ,bishop ,peck was a very entertaining companion and most fraternal in his warmheartedness4 ,he was a man of colossal proportions1 and it was quite proper that he was appointed to the charge of the churches in the wide regions of ,california and ,oregon4 ,when he came thence to the ,general ,conference1 he presented his protuberant figure to the assembly1 and began with the humorous announcement1 ,the ,pacific slope salutes you6 ,on that same slope ,i discovered last year that ,methodism has outgrown even the formidable proportions of my old friend ,dr4 ,peck4 ,at ,saratoga ,i first met the eloquent ,apollos of ,american ,methodism1 ,bishop ,matthew ,simpson4 ,those who ever heard ,henry ,clay in our ,senate chamber1 or ,dr4 ,thomas ,guthrie in ,scotland1 have a very distinct idea of what ,simpson was at his flood-tide of irresistible oratory4 ,he resembled both of those great orators in stature and melodious voice1 in graceful gesture1 and in the magnificent enthusiasm that swept everything before him4 ,like all that type of fascinating speakers--to which even ,gladstone belonged--he was rather to be heard than to be read4 ,it is enough that a ,gospel preacher should produce great immediate impressions on his auditors2 it is not necessary that he should produce a finished and permanent piece of literature4 ,bishop ,simpson was the bosom friend of ,abraham ,lincoln1 and on more than one occasion he knelt beside our much harassed ,president and prayed for the strength equal to the day of trial4 ,among all the guests there was none to whom ,i was more closely and lovingly drawn than to ,bishop ,gilbert ,haven4 ,none shed off such splendid scintillations in our evening colloquies on the piazzas4 ,haven was not comparable with his associate1 ,bishop ,simpson1 in pulpit oratory1 for he was rarely an effective public speaker on any occasion1 but in brilliancy of thought1 which made him in conversation like the charge of an electric battery1 and in brilliancy of pen1 that kindled everything it touched1 he was without a rival in the ,methodist ,church--or almost in any other church in the land4 ,consistently and conscientiously a radical1 he always took extreme ground on such questions as negro rights1 female suffrage1 and liquor prohibition1 and he never retreated4 ,underneath all this impulsive and impetuous radicalism he was thoroughly old-fashioned and orthodox in his theology--as far from ,calvinism as any ,wesleyan usually is4 ,he did delight in the doctrines of grace with his whole heart1 and it is all the more grateful to me1 as a ,presbyterian1 to pay this honest tribute to his deeply devout and ,christ-like character4 ,i knew him when he was a student in the ,wesleyan ,university at ,middletown--somewhat rustic in his ways1 but a bold1 bright youth hungry for knowledge4 ,in #ahfb he published a series of foreign letters in the ,new ,york ,independent1 which ,horace ,greeley told me he regarded as most remarkable productions4 ,during the summer of that year ,i was watching the sun rise from the summit of the ,righi in ,switzerland1 and was accosted by a sandy-haired man in an old oilcloth overcoat who asked for some explanation about the mountain within our view4 ,at the foot of the ,righi ,i fell in with him again1 and was struck with his original and vigorous thought4 ,the same evening he marched into my room at the ,schweitzer-,hoff1 dripping with the rain1 and introduced himself as ,gilbert ,haven4 ,we ministered to the few ,americans whom we could find in ,lucerne1 and held a prayer meeting on the ,sabbath evening in ,haven's room for our far-away country in her dark hour of distress4 ,on that evening began a friendship which waxed warmer and warmer until death sundered the tie for a little while2 the same hand that sundered can reunite us4 ,i am under a strong temptation to give my reminiscences of many notable persons whom ,i was wont to meet at ,saratoga1 such as the urbane ex-,president ,martin ,van ,buren1 and that noble ,christian statesman1 ,vice-,president ,henry ,wilson1 and the cheery old poet ,john ,pierpont1 and the erudite ,horatio ,b4 ,hackett1 of ,newton ,theological ,seminary and the level-headed ,miss ,catherine ,e4 ,beecher1 and the gifted ,queen of the great temperance sisterhood1 ,miss ,frances ,e4 ,willard1 and ,general ,batcheler1 the able ,american ,judge1 at ,cairo1 and that extraordinary combination of courage1 orthodox faith1 and brilliant platform eloquence the late ,joseph ,cook1 of ,ticonderoga4 ,i would like also to attempt a description of the gorgeous ,floral ,festivals1 which are celebrated in every ,september1 when the streets of the town blaze with processions of vehicles decorated with flowers1 and the sidewalks and house-fronts are packed with thousands of delighted spectators2 but if of making many books there is no end1 there ought to be a proper end in the making of a book4 ,in the course of my life ,i may have done some very foolish things1 and quite too many sinful things1 but ,i have always endeavored to avoid doing too long a thing1 if it were possible4 ,during the last twenty-three years ,i have spent a portion of almost every summer at ,mohonk ,lake ,mountain ,house1 a hostlery equally celebrated for the culture of its guests and charms of its scenery4 ,it is situated on a spur of the ,shawangunk ,mountains1 about six miles from ,new ,paltz1 on the ,wallkill ,valley ,railway4 ,its discoverer and proprietor is ,albert ,k4 ,smiley1 who was for many years president of a ,quaker ,ladies ,academy in ,providence1 ,r4,i41 and is a gentleman of fine scholarship and varied attainments4 ,he is quite equal to discussing geology with ,professor ,guyot 7from whom one of the highest hilltops near his house is named71 or art with ,huntington1 or botany or landscape gardening with ,frederick ,l4 ,olmstead1 or theology with ,dr4 ,schaff1 or questions of philanthropy with ,general ,armstrong or ,booker ,t4 ,washington4 ,the distinctive character of the house is that there is a notable absence of what is regarded as the chief attractions of some fashionable summer resorts4 ,neither bar nor bottles nor ball-room nor bands are to be found in this ,christian home2--for a home it is--in its restful and refining influences4 ,the young people find no lack of innocent enjoyment in the bowling alley or on the golf links1 in the tennis tournaments or in rowing upon the lake1 with frequent regattas4 ,instead of the midnight dance the evening hours are made enjoyable by social conversation1 by musical entertainments1 by parlor lectures and other interesting pastimes4 ,the ,sabbath at ,mohonk realizes old ,george ,herbert's description of the ,sweet day so cool1 so calm1 so bright1 ,the bridal of the earth and sky2 ,not a boat is loosened from its wharf on the lake2 not a carriage is geared up for a pleasure drive1 and many a guest has learned how a ,sabbath spent without the introduction of either business cares or frivolities may be a joyous refreshment to both body and soul4 ,the spacious parlor is always crowded for the service of worship on every morning during the week and also on the ,sabbath4 ,i can testify that on the three-score ,sabbaths when ,i have been called upon to conduct the services1 ,i have never found a more inspiring auditory4 ,it is no easy thing to put the external beauties of ,mohonk upon paper4 ,the estate covers four thousand acres1 and is intersected with about fifty miles of fine carriage drives4 ,the garden1 which contains a dozen acres1 is ablaze during the most of the season with millions of flowers--many of them of rare variety4 ,as the glory of ,saratoga is its springs1 of ,lake ,george its islands1 of ,trenton ,falls the amber hue of its waters1 so the glory of ,mohonk is its rocks4 ,the little lake is a crystal cup cut out of the solid conglomerated quartz4 ,its shores are steep quartz rocks rising fifty feet perpendicularly from the water4 ,the face of ,sky ,top is heaped around with enormous boulders some thirty feet in diameter4 ,in among them extend rocky labyrinths which can be explored with torches4 ,on every hand are immense masses of ,shawangunk grit hurled together over the cliff as if with the convulsions of an earthquake4 ,upon these acres of rock around the lake grow the most luxuriant lichens and the forests in ,june are efflorescent with laurels and azalias4 ,the finest point of vantage is on ,eagle ,cliff2 ,i have climbed there often to see the sun go down in a blaze of glory behind the ,catskill ,mountains4 ,the three highest peaks of the ,catskills--,hunter1 ,slide1 and ,peekamoose--were in full view1 in purple and gold4 ,beneath me on one side was the verdant valley of ,rondout2 on the other side the equally beautiful valley of the ,wallkill4 ,in the dim distance we could discover the summits of the mountains in ,pennsylvania1 ,new ,jersey1 ,connecticut and ,massachusetts4 ,when ,i took ,newman ,hall1 toward sunset1 to a crag or cliff overlooking the lake1 he said to me3 ,next to ,niagara ,i have seen nothing in ,america equal to this4 ,mohonk has been a favorite summer resort of many of the most distinguished people in our land4 ,the ,honorable ,rutherford ,b4 ,hayes1 after his retirement from the presidential chair1 loved to find recreation in rowing his boat on the lake1 and in making the ascent of ,sky ,top4 ,president ,arthur came there during his term of office2 and the widow of ,general ,grant1 after spending a fortnight there1 pronounced it the most fascinating spot she had ever seen on this continent ,among all the guests who made their summer home there1 none contributed more to the intellectual enrichment of the company than my revered ,christian friend1 ,dr4 ,philip ,schaff4 ,no ,american of our day had such a vast personal acquaintance with celebrated people4 ,dr4 ,schaff was the intimate friend of ,tholuck1 ,neander1 ,godet1 ,hengstenberg1 and ,dorner2 he was one day in familiar conversation with ,dean ,stanley in the ,abbey and another day with ,gladstone2 another day with ,dollinger in ,vienna1 and another day with ,dr4 ,pusey at ,oxford4 ,the promise1 ,he shall stand before kings1 was often fulfilled to him4 ,the veteran ,kaiser ,william had him at the royal table1 and gave him intimate interview4 ,the ,king and ,queen of ,denmark came on the platform to congratulate him after one of his eloquent speeches1 and the ,queen of ,greece was one of his correspondents4 ,he shook hands with more ministers of all denominations1 and of all nationalities than any man of this age4 ,he was as cordially treated by ,archbishop ,canterbury as he was by ,bismarck at ,berlin or the old ,russian ,archpriest ,brashenski4 ,dr4 ,schaff was a prodigy of industry4 ,during half a century he was the foremost church historian of this country2 he led the work of the ,sabbath ,committee1 and was the master spirit of the ,evangelical ,alliance4 ,he edited a volume of hymnology1 and wrote catechisms for children2 he filled professors' chairs in two seminaries and lectured on ecclesiastical history to others4 ,he published thirty-one volumes and edited two immense commentaries2 he was the president of the ,committee on ,biblical ,revision1 and he crossed the ocean fourteen times as a fraternal internuncio between the churches of ,europe and ,america4 ,his prodigious capacity for work made ,dr4 ,samuel ,johnson seem an idler1 and his varied attainments and activities were fairly a match for ,gladstone4 ,to those of us who knew ,dr4 ,schaff intimately1 one of his most attractive traits was his jovial humor and inexhaustible fund of anecdotes4 ,when ,i made a visit to ,california--journeying with him to the ,yosemite--his endless stories whiled away the tedium of the trip4 ,how often when he sat down to my own1 or any other table1 would he tell how his old friend1 ,neander1 when asked to say grace at a dinner1 and roast pig was the chief dish1 very quaintly said3 ,o1 ,lord1 if ,thou canst bless under the new dispensation what ,thou didst curse under the old dispensation1 then graciously bless this leetle pig4 ,amen6 ,another eminent scholar who was wont to seek recreation at ,mohonk was the venerable ,president ,mc,cosh1 of ,princeton ,university4 ,since ,scotland sent to ,princeton ,dr4 ,john ,witherspoon to preside over it1 and to be one of the signers of the ,declaration of ,independence1 she has sent no richer gift than ,dr4 ,james ,mc,cosh4 ,for several years before he came to ,america he was a professor in the ,queen's ,college at ,belfast4 ,passing through ,belfast in #ahfb1 ,i looked in for a few moments at the ,irish ,presbyterian ,general ,assembly1 which was convened in ,dr4 ,cook's church1 and said to a man3 ,whom can you show me here8 ,pointing to a tall1 somewhat stooping figure1 standing near the pulpit1 he said3 ,there is ,mc,cosh4 ,i replied3 ,it is worth coming here to see the brightest man in ,ireland4 ,what a great1 all-round1 fully equipped1 many-sided mass of splendid manhood he was6 ,what a complete combination of philosopher1 theologian1 preacher1 scholar1 and college president all rolled into one6 ,during the twenty years of his brilliant career at ,princeton he displayed much of ,jonathan ,edwards' metaphysical acumen1 of ,john ,witherspoon's wisdom1 ,samuel ,davies' fervor and ,dr4 ,johnny ,mc,lean's kindness of heart2 the best qualities of his predecessors were combined in him4 ,he came here a ,scotchman at the age of fifty-seven1 and in a year he became1 as ,paddy said1 a native ,american4 ,to my mind the chief glory of ,dr4 ,mc,cosh's presidency at ,princeton was the fervid interest he felt in the religious welfare of his students4 ,he often invited me to come over and deliver sermons to them1 and occasionally a temperance address2 for he was a zealous teetotaler and prohibitionist1 and ,i always lodged with him at his house4 ,as ,i turn over my book of correspondence ,i find many brief letters from him4 ,in the following one he refers to the remarkable revival in the college in the winter and early spring of #ahgj3 ,,college ,,of ,,new ,,jersey1 ,,princeton1 ,jan4 #i1 #ahgc4 ,my dear ,dr4 ,cuyler3 ,in the name of the ,philadelphian ,society1 and in my own name1 ,i request you to conduct our service on the day of prayer for colleges1 being ,thursday the #cjth of ,january4 ,it is three years1 if ,i calculate rightly1 since you performed that duty for us4 ,that visit was followed by the blessed work in which you took an active part4 ,may it be the same this year6 ,the college is in an interesting state3 we have a great deal of the spirit of study2 there is a meeting for prayer every night except ,friday2 the class prayer meetings are all well attended1 in some of the classes as many as sixty present2 but we need a quickening4 ,i do hope you will come4 ,our habit is an address of half an hour or so at three ,,pm in the college chapel1 and a sermon in one of the churches1 especially addressed to students1 but open to all in the evening4 ,of course1 you will come to my house1 and live with me4 ,yours as ever1 ,james ,mc,cosh4 ,to hundreds of the alumni of ,princeton this letter will stir the fountain of old memories4 ,they will hear in it the ring of the old college bell2 they will see the lines of students marching across the campus to evening prayer and into the chapel4 ,upon the platform mounts the stooping form of grand old ,uncle ,jimmie1 and in his broad and not unmelodious ,scotch accents he pours out his big1 warm heart in prayer4 ,with honest pride in their ,alma ,mater1 they will thank ,god that they were trained for the battle of life by ,james ,mc,cosh4 ,the limits of this narrative do not allow me to tell of all my delightful foregatherings with that venerated ,nestor of ,american art1 ,daniel ,huntington2 and with ,general ,james ,grant ,wilson with his repertoire of racy ,scotch stories2 and with my true yoke-fellows in the ,gospel1 ,dr4 ,herrick ,johnson1 ,dr4 ,marvin ,r4 ,vincent1 and ,dr4 ,samuel ,j4 ,fisher--and with a group of infinitely witty women who regaled many an evening hour with their merry quips and conundrums4 ,the unwritten law which prevails in that social realm is3 ,each for all1 and all for each other4 ,mr4 ,smiley had been for some years a member of the ,united ,states ,indian ,commission1 and his experience in that capacity had awakened a deep interest in the welfare of the remaining ,aborigines1 who had too often been the prey of unscrupulous white men who came in contact with them4 ,about sixteen years ago he conceived the happy idea of calling a conference at ,mohonk of those who were conversant with ,indian affairs and most desirous to promote their well being4 ,his invitation brought together such distinguished philanthropists as the veteran ex-,senator ,henry ,l4 ,dawes1 ,general ,clinton ,b4 ,fisk1 ,general ,armstrong1 the founder of ,hampton ,institute2 ,merrill ,e4 ,gates1 ,philip ,c4 ,garrett1 ,herbert ,welsh1 and that picturesque and powerful friend of the red man1 the late ,bishop ,whipple of ,minnesota4 ,the discussions and decisions of this annual ,mohonk ,conference have had immense influence in shaping the legislation and controlling the conduct of our national government in all ,indian affairs4 ,it has helped to make history4 ,the great success of this conference1 which meets in ,october of each year1 led my ,quaker friend1 ,smiley1 eight years ago1 to inaugurate an ,arbitration conference for the promotion of international peace4 ,it was a happy thought and has yielded a rich fruitage4 ,about the first of every ,june this conference brings together such men and women of light and leading from all parts of our country as ex-,senator ,george ,f4 ,edmunds of ,vermont1 the ,rev4 ,edward ,everett ,hale of ,boston1 the ,hon4 ,william ,j4 ,coombs1 the ,hon4 ,robert ,treat ,paine1 ,dr4 ,b4,f4 ,trueblood1 ,john ,b4 ,garrett and ,joshua ,l4 ,bailey1 ,colonel ,george ,e4 ,waring1 ,hon4 ,john ,w4 ,foster1 ,chief ,justice ,nott1 ,warner ,van ,norden1 and a great number of well known clergymen and editors have read able papers or delivered instructive addresses on that ever burning problem of how to turn swords into plowshares1 and spears into pruning hooks4 ,i especially sympathize with the spirit of this ,arbitration conference1 not only because ,i abominate war per se1 but because ,i firmly believe that among the grievous perils that confront our nation is the mania for enormous and costly military and naval armament--and also the policy of extending our territory by foreign conquests4 ,the high mission of our ,republic is to maintain the fundamental principles initiated in our ,declaration of ,independence--that all true government rests on the consent of the governed4 ,it is an impious profanation of our flag of freedom to make it the symbol of absolutism on any soil4 ,in the conflict now waging for true ,american principles1 ,i heartily concur in the views of the late ,benjamin ,harrison1 who was one of the most clear-sighted and patriotic of our ,presidents4 ,just before his death ,i addressed to that noble ,christian statesman a letter of heartfelt thanks for the position he was taking4 ,with the following gratifying reply which ,i received1 ,i conclude my chapter on peace-loving ,smiley-land3 ,,indianapolis1 ,dec #bf1 #aijj ,my dear ,dr4 ,cuyler4 ,i can hardly tell you how grateful your letter was to me1 or how highly ,i value your approval4 ,my soul has been in revolt against the doctrine of ,congressional ,absolutism4 ,i want to save my veneration for the men who made us a nation1 and organized the nation under the ,constitution4 ,this will be impossible if ,i am to believe that they organized a government to exercise from their place that absolutism which they rejected for themselves4 ,the newspaper reports of my ,ann ,arbor address were most horribly mangled1 but the address will appear in the ,january number of the ,north ,american ,review4 ,allow me1 my dear friend1 to extend to you the heartiest thanks1 not only for your kind words1 but for the noble life which gives them value4 ,with all good wishes of the ,christmastide1 ,most sincerely your friend1 ,,benjamin ,,harrison4 ,,chapter ,,xvi ,a ,,retrospect4 ,when ,i entered upon the ,christian ministry fifty-six years ago1 there was no probability that ,i would live to see four-score4 ,my father had died at the early age of twenty-eight1 and several of his brothers and sisters had succumbed to pulmonary maladies4 ,my mother was dangerously ill several times1 but had a wiry constitution and lived to eighty-five4 ,that my own busy life has held out so long is owing1 under a kind ,providence1 to the careful observation of the primal laws of health4 ,i have eschewed all indigestible food1 stimulants1 and intoxicants2--have taken a fair amount of exercise2 have avoided too hard study or sermon making in the evenings--and thus secured sound and sufficient sleep4 ,in keeping ,god's commandments written upon the body ,i have found great reward4 ,from the standpoint of four-score ,i propose in this chapter to take a retrospect of some of the moral and religious movements that have occurred within my memory--in several of which ,i have taken part--and ,i shall note also the changes for better or worse that ,i have observed4 ,if as an optimist ,i may sometimes exaggerate the good1 and minimize the evil things1 it is the curse of a pessimist that he can travel from ,dan to ,beersheba and find nothing but barrenness4 ,the first change for the better that ,i shall speak of is the progress ,i have seen in church fellowship4 ,the division of the ,christian church into denominations is a fixed fact and likely to remain so for a long time to come4 ,nor is it the serious evil that many imagine4 ,the efficiency of an army is not impaired by division into corps1 brigades and regiments1 as long as they are united against the common enemy2 neither does the ,church of ,christ lose its efficiency by being organized on denominational lines1 as long as it is loyal to its ,divine head1 and united in its efforts to overcome evil1 and establish the ,kingdom of ,heaven4 ,some ,christians work all the better in harness that suits their peculiar tastes and preferences4 ,denominationalism becomes an evil the moment it degenerates into bitter and bigoted sectarianism4 ,conflicts between a dozen regiments is suicide to an army4 ,when a dozen denominations strive to maintain their own feeble churches in a community that requires only three or four churches1 then sectarianism becomes an unspeakable nuisance4 ,i could cite many instances to prove the great progress that has been made in church fellowship4 ,for example1 my early ministry was in a town in which the ,society of ,friends had a large meeting house1 well filled by a most intelligent1 orthodox and devout congregation4 ,but its members never entered any other house of worship4 ,i had the warmest personal intimacy with some of its leading men1 but they would say3 ,we would like to hear thee preach on ,first ,day1 but the rules of our society forbid it4 ,i have lived to see the day when ,i am invited to speak in ,friends' meetings1 and ,i have rejoiced to invite ,quaker brothers1 and sisters also1 to speak in my pulpit4 ,when ,i visit ,london1 the most eminent living ,quaker1 ,j4 ,bevan ,braithwaite1 welcomes me to his hospitable house1 and we join in prayer together4 ,i wish that the exemplary and useful ,society of ,friends were more multiplied on both sides of the sea4 ,during the early half of the last century sectarian controversies ran high1 especially in the newly settled ,west4 ,it was a common custom to hold public discussions in school houses and frontier meeting houses1 where controverted topics between denominations were presented by chosen champions before applauding audiences4 ,ministers fired hot shot at one another's pulpits2 churches were often as militant as mendicant1 and all those polemics were excused as contending most earnestly for the faith4 ,both sides found their ammunition in the same ,bible4 ,when ,i was a student in the ,princeton ,seminary1 a classmate from ,kentucky gave me a little hymn-book used at the camp meetings in the frontier settlements of his native region4 ,in that book was a hymn1 one verse of which contains these sweet and irenic lines3 ,when ,i was blind1 and could not see1 ,the ,calvinists deceivd me4 ,just imagine the incense of devout praise ascending heavenward in such a thick smoke of sectarian contentions6 ,all the denominations were more or less afflicted with this controversial malady2 and ,i will venture to say that in ,kentucky and ,ohio and other new regions1 the ,presbyterians were often a fair match for their ,methodist neighbors in these theological pugilistics4 ,i might multiply illustrations of these unhappy clashings and controversies that have often disfigured even the most evangelical branches of ,christendom4 ,what a blessed change for the better have ,i witnessed in my old days6 ,among the foremost efforts of denominational fellowship was the organization of the ,american ,bible ,society1 the ,american ,tract ,society1 and the ,american ,sunday ,school ,union4 ,later on in the same century came those two splendid spiritual inventions--,the ,young ,men's ,christian ,association1 and the ,society of ,christian ,endeavor4 ,sir ,george ,williams1 the founder of the one1 and ,dr4 ,francis ,e4 ,clark1 the father of the other1 should be commemorated in a pair of twin statues of purest marble1 standing with locked arms and upholding a standard bearing the sacred motto3 ,one is our ,master1 even ,christ ,jesus1 and all ye are brethren4 ,to no man are we indebted more deeply than to the now glorified ,mr4 ,moody who made ,christian fellowship the indispensable feature of all his evangelistic endeavors--with ,brother ,sankey leading the grand chorus of united praise4 ,union meetings for the conversion of souls and seeking the descent of the ,holy ,spirit are now as common as the observance of ,christmas or of ,easter ,day4 ,personally ,i rejoice to say that ,i have been permitted to preach the ,gospel in the pulpits of all the leading denominations1 not excepting the ,episcopalian2 and ,i once welcomed the noble and beloved ,bishop ,charles ,p4 ,mc,ilvaine of ,ohio to my ,lafayette ,avenue ,church pulpit1 where he pronounced a grand discourse on ,the ,unity of ,all ,christians in the ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,if ,i lived in ,england ,i should be heart and soul a nonconformist4 ,but ,i can gratefully acknowledge the many kind courtesies which ,i have received from the clergy of the ,established ,church4 ,once1 when in ,london1 ,i was invited to the annual dinner given by the ,lord ,mayor to the archbishops and bishops1 and ,i found myself the only ,american clergyman present4 ,the ,archbishop of ,canterbury1 when ,bishop of ,london1 did me the honor of presiding at a reception given me at ,exeter ,hall1 and whenever ,i have met the venerable ,dr4 ,temple ,i have been cheered by his warm-hearted and democratic cordiality of manner4 ,in return for the kindness shown me by my brilliant and scholarly friend1 ,archdeacon ,farrar1 ,i was happy to preside at a reception given him in ,chickering ,hall4 ,he had a wide welcome in our land1 but it was as the untiring champion of temperance reform that he was especially honored on that evening4 ,he and ,archdeacon ,basil ,wilberforce are among the leaders in the crusade against the curse of strong drink4 ,amid some evil portents and perils to the cause of evangelical religion1 one of the richest tokens for good is this steady increase of interdenominational fellowship4 ,for organic unity we need not yet strive2 it is enough that all the regiments and brigades in ,christ's covenant hosts march to the same music1 fight together under the same standard of ,calvary's ,cross1 and press on1 side by side1 and shoulder to shoulder1 to the final victory of righteousness and truth and human redemption4 ,another change for the better has been the enlargement of woman's sphere of activity in the promotion of ,christianity and of moral reform4 ,as an illustration of this fact1 ,i may cite a rather unique incident in my own experience4 ,during the winter of #ahgb ,i invited ,miss ,sarah ,f4 ,smiley1 an eminent and most evangelical minister in the ,society of ,friends 7and a sister of the ,messrs4 ,albert and ,daniel ,smiley1 the proprietors of the ,lake ,mohonk ,house7 to deliver a religious address in my pulpit4 ,the discourse she delivered was strong in intellect1 orthodox in doctrine and fervently spiritual in character2 the large audience was both delighted and edified4 ,a neighboring minister presented a complaint before the ,presbytery of ,brooklyn1 alleging that my proceeding had been both un-,presbyterian and un-,scriptural4 ,the complainant was not able to produce a syllable of law from our form of government forbidding what ,i had done4 ,long years before1 a ,general ,assembly had recommended that women should not be permitted to address a promiscuous assemblage in any of our churches2 but a mere deliverance of a ,general ,assembly has no binding legal authority4 ,in my defense ,i was careful not to advocate the ordination of women to the ministry in the ,presbyterian ,church1 or their installation in the pastorate4 ,i contended that as our confession of faith was silent on the subject1 and that as godly women in the early church were active in the promotion of ,christianity 7one of them named ,anna having publicly proclaimed the coming ,messiah71 and that as the ministry of my excellent friend1 the ,quakeress1 had for many years been attended by the abundant blessings of the ,holy ,spirit1 my act was rather to be commended than condemned4 ,the discussion before the ,presbytery lasted for two days and produced a wide and rather sensational interest over the country4 ,the final vote of the ,presbytery1 while withholding any censure of my course under the circumstances1 was adverse to the practice of permitting women to address promiscuous audiences in our churches4 ,two or three years afterwards1 a case similar to mine was appealed to the ,general ,assembly and that body wisely decided that such questions should be left to the judgment and conscience of the pastors and church sessions4 ,when the news of this action of the assembly reached us1 the old sexton of the ,lafayette ,avenue ,church hoisted 7to the great amusement of our people7 the stars and stripes on the church tower as a token of victory4 ,it has now become quite customary to invite female missionaries1 and other godly women1 to address audiences composed of both sexes in our churches2 the padlock has been taken off the tongue of any consecrated ,christian woman who has a message from the ,master4 ,i invited ,miss ,willard and ,lady ,henry ,somerset to advocate the ,christian grace of temperance from my pulpit2 and if ,i were still a pastor ,i should rejoice to invite that good angel of beneficence1 ,miss ,helen ,m4 ,gould1 to deliver there such an address as she lately made in the splendid building she has erected for the ,naval ,christian ,association4 ,foreign missions were in their early and vigorous growth eighty years ago4 ,i rode in our family carriage to church with ,sheldon ,dibble and ,reuben ,tinker1 who were just leaving ,auburn ,theological ,seminary to go out as our pioneer missionaries to the ,sandwich ,islands4 ,the ,missionary ,herald was taken in a great number of families and read with great avidity4 ,many of the readers were people who not only devoutly prayed ,thy ,kingdom come1 but who were willing to stick to a rag carpet1 and deny themselves a ,brussels1 in order to contribute more to the spread of that ,kingdom4 ,wealth has increased to a prodigious and perilous extent2 but the percentage of money given to foreign missions is very far from what it was in the day of my childhood4 ,it is a growing custom for ministers to utter a prayer over the contribution boxes when they are brought back to the platform before the pulpit2 ,i suspect that it in too many cases should be one of penitential confession4 ,while ,i was a student in the ,princeton ,seminary we had a visit from the veteran missionary1 ,levi ,spalding1 who sailed from ,boston to ,southern ,india in the very first band which invaded the darkness of ,hindooism ,he was as nearly like my conception of the ,apostle ,paul as anyone ,i ever beheld4 ,he told us that when he was a youth and his heart was first drawn to the cause of missions1 he told his good mother that he had decided upon a missionary life 7which was then thought equivalent to a martyrdom71 and she was perfectly overcome4 ,he said to her3 ,mother1 when you gave me as an infant to ,god in baptism1 did you withhold me from any service to which ,i might be called8 ,she assented in a moment--went to the old chest--from it she took a half-dollar 7all the money she possessed in the world71 and1 handing it to him1 said3 ,levi1 you may go1 and this starts you on your education4 ,on his way over to ,india his preaching converted all the sailors1 including the ship's carpenter1 whose heart was as hard as his broadaxe4 ,that was the stuff our first missionaries were made of4 ,the tears flowed down our cheeks as we listened to ,spalding's recital1 and the result of his visit was that more than one of our students volunteered for the work of foreign missions4 ,it was also my great privilege during that ,princeton course to put eye upon a man who1 by common consent1 is regarded as the king of ,american missionaries4 ,on my way from ,princeton to ,philadelphia in the ,christmas week of '#de ,i found among my fellow passengers a gentleman with a very benign countenance1 and to my great delight ,i learned that he was ,adoniram ,judson1 who was on his final and memorable visit to his native land1 and was received everywhere with the most unbounded and reverent enthusiasm4 ,he had begun his work in ,burmah in #ahac1 but under great difficulties4 ,during the first six years he made no converts2 he defied the demon of discouragement and labored on with increased faith and zeal1 and then came an abundant harvest4 ,the colossal work of his life in ,burmah was the translation of the ,holy ,scriptures into the ,burmese language4 ,to this work1 which is likely to endure1 he added a ,burmese-,english dictionary4 ,at length the toils and exposures broke down his health and he was obliged to take several voyages in adjoining waters4 ,soon after ,i saw him he married ,miss ,chubbuck and returned to ,burmah in the following year4 ,the old conflict between the holy and heroic heart and failing body was soon renewed4 ,he resorted once more to the sea for relief1 but died during the passage1 on ,april #ab1 #ahej4 ,when crossing the ,atlantic in the summer of #ahhe ,i spent much of the time with that noble minister1 ,rev4 ,edward ,judson1 of ,new ,york4 ,a funeral at sea occurred1 and as the remains were disappearing in the water ,mr4 ,judson said to me1 with solemn tenderness3 ,just so my beloved father was committed to the deep3 his sepulchre is this great1 wide ocean1 ,that ocean is a type of his world-wide influence4 ,not only in the priority of time as a fearless pioneer into unknown dangers1 but in profound and patient scholarship1 and in the beauty of a holy and lovable personality1 ,adoniram ,judson still hold the primacy among our ,american missionary heroes4 ,the progress which has been made in ,christianizing heathendom during the last century 7which may well be called the century of foreign missions7 is familiar to every person of intelligence4 ,the number of converts to ,christianity is at least two millions1 and several millions more have felt the influence of ,christian civilization4 ,the great mass have not been suddenly revolutionized1 as in ,luther's time1 but one by one individual hearts yield to the gospel in nearly every land4 ,as a serious offset to these glorious results the commerce of nominally ,christian nations is often poisonous4 ,britain carries opium into ,china and ,india2 ,america and other civilized nations carry rum into ,africa4 ,the word of life goes in the cabin1 and the worm of death goes in the hold of the same vessel6 ,the sailors that have gone from nominally ,christian countries to various ports have often been very far from acting as gospel missionaries4 ,it is not only for their own welfare1 but that they may become representatives of ,christianity that the noble ,american ,seamen's ,friend ,society has been organized4 ,the work which that society has wrought under the vigorous leadership of ,dr4 ,stitt entitles it to the generous support of all our churches4 ,if toiling ,jack braves the tempest to bring us wealth from all climes1 we owe it to him to provide him the anchor of the gospel1 and to save him from spiritual shipwreck4 ,to no other benevolent society have ,i more cheerfully given service of tongue and pen than to this one4 ,an honest view of the foreign mission enterprises to-day reveals the laying of broad foundations1 and the building of solid walls1 rather than any completed achievements already wrought4 ,blood tells1 and ,god has entrusted his gospel to the ,anglo-,saxons and the other most powerful races on the globe4 ,the religion of the ,bible is the only religion adapted to universal humanity1 and in the ,bible is a definite pledge that to all humanity that religion shall yet be preached4 ,among the great spiritual agencies born within my memory1 none deserves a higher place than ,the ,young ,men's ,christian ,association4 ,when my beloved brother1 ,sir ,george ,williams 7now an octogenarian7 started the first association in ,london on the #fth of ,june1 #ahdd1 he builded better than he knew1 ,the modest room in his store overlooking ,paternoster ,row in which he gathered the little praying band on that day is already an historic spot4 ,my own connection with the ,young ,men's ,christian ,association began in ,new ,york when ,i joined the association there in the second year of its existence1 #ahed4 ,we met in a room in ,stuyvesant ,institute and the heroic ,howard ,crosby was our president4 ,we had no library1 or reading room1 or gymnasium1 or any of the appliances that belong to the institutions of these days4 ,after several migrations1 our association found its permanent home in the spacious building on ,twenty-third ,street1 to which ,morris ,k4 ,jesup and ,william ,e4 ,dodge were among the foremost contributors4 ,the master spirit in the operations of the ,new ,york ,association for thirty years was ,mr4 ,robert ,mc,burney1 who1 when he landed from ,ireland1 was only seventeen years of age4 ,he was among my evening congregation in the old ,market ,street ,church4 ,during my seven years' pastorate in that church ,i delivered a great many discourses and platform addresses on behalf of the association1 and through all of the subsequent years it has been a favorite object on which to bestow my humble efforts4 ,here in ,brooklyn a host of young-men have found a moral shelter1 and many of them a spiritual birthplace1 in the fine structure1 reared largely from the munificent bequests of that princely ,christian philanthropist1 the late ,mr4 ,frederick ,marquand4 ,it is not permitted to every good man or woman before they die to see the glorious fruits of the trees they planted1 but to the eyes of the veteran ,george ,williams the following facts must seem like a rehearsal of heaven4 ,the ,young ,men's ,christian ,association now belts the globe with half a million of members1 and ten times that number in some direct connection with the organization4 ,it is housed in hundreds of solid structures which have cost between thirty and forty million dollars--each one a cheerful home--a place for physical development1 manly instruction and training for ,christ's service4 ,it has brought thousands of young men from impenitence to ,christ ,jesus1 and made thousands of young ,christians more like ,jesus in their daily life4 ,the most effective lay preacher of the century1 ,d4,l4 ,moody1 confessed that in his training for spiritual work he owed more to the ,young ,men's ,christian ,association than to any other human agency4 ,it has moulded the students of colleges and universities2 it has been the salvation of many a soldier and sailor2 it has led many into the gospel ministry2 it has taught the whole world the beauty and power of a living unity in ,jesus ,christ4 ,the ,holy ,spirit has set the ,divine seal of ,his blessing on its world-wide work1 and to the triune ,god be all the praise and all the glory4 ,as ,i witnessed the birth of the ,young ,men's ,christian ,association1 ,i also saw the birth of a kindred organization1 the ,society of ,christian ,endeavor4 ,many years ago an absurd and extravagant statement was widely afloat1 claiming that ,i was the grandsire of this society4 ,the simple truth was that ,dr4 ,francis ,e4 ,clark1 its heaven-directed founder1 had seen in some religious journals my account of the good work wrought by the ,young ,people's ,association of the ,lafayette ,avenue ,church1 and he recognized the fact that its chief purpose was not mere sociality or literary advancement1 but the spiritual profit of its members4 ,he examined its constitution and reports1 and when he constructed his first ,christian ,endeavor ,society in the ,williston ,church of ,portland1 ,maine1 he adopted many of its features2 and my beloved brother ,clark1 in his public addresses1 has generously acknowledged such obligation as he was under to our ,young ,people's ,association 7now in its thirty-fifth year of prosperous activity74 ,it has always been a source of grateful pride that it should have furnished any aid to the origination of one of the foremost spiritual instrumentalities of the century4 ,as any attempt to describe the sublime grandeur of ,niagara would be a waste of time1 so it would be equally futile for me to describe the magnificent extent of the ,christian ,endeavor ,society's operations and the immense spiritual results that have flowed from them4 ,there is no civilized speech or language where its voice is not heard2 its line has gone out to all the earth1 and its words to the ends of the world4 ,it has done more than any other single agency to develop the life and to train for service the energies of the youthful members of the churches ,it has yet still wider possibilities before it1 and when the hand that planted this mighty tree has turned to dust its boughs will be shedding down the fruits of the ,spirit on the dwellers in every clime4 ,one of the most striking improvements that ,i have witnessed has been in the sanitary condition1 both physical and moral1 of our great cities4 ,the conditions in ,new ,york1 when ,i came to the pastorate of the ,market ,street ,church almost fifty years ago1 would seem incredible to the ,new ,yorkers of to-day4 ,the disgusting depravities of the ,fourth ,ward1 afterwards made familiar by the reformatory efforts of ,jerry ,mc,cauley1 were then in full blast1 defying all police authority and outraging common decency4 ,the most hideous sink of iniquity and loathsome degradation was in the once famous ,five ,points1 in the heart of the ,sixth ,ward and within a pistol shot of ,broadway4 ,at the time of my coming to ,new ,york public attention had been drawn to that quarter with the opening of the ,old ,brewery ,mission1 and by the first planting of a kindred enterprise which grew into the now well-known ,five ,points ,house of ,industry4 ,the brave projector of this enterprise was the ,rev4 ,l4,m4 ,pease1 a hero whose name ought not to be forgotten4 ,as my church was just off ,east ,broadway1 and within a short walk of the ,five ,points1 ,i took a deep interest in ,mr4 ,pease's ,christian undertaking1 and aided him by every means in my power4 ,his wife became a member of my church4 ,the ,wild ,maggie1 whose escapades described in the ,tribune gained such public notoriety1 became also1 after her reformation1 one of our church members and afterwards held the position of a school teacher4 ,after the resignation of ,mr4 ,pease and his removal to ,north ,carolina1 his place was taken by one of our ,market ,street elders1 the devout and godly minded ,benjamin ,r4 ,barlow4 ,in order to keep awake public interest in the mission work at the ,five ,points1 and to get ammunition1 in its behalf1 ,i used to make nocturnal explorations of some of those satanic quarters4 ,i recall now one of those midnight forays of which1 at the risk of my reader's olfactories1 ,i will give a brief glimpse4 ,in company with the superintendent of the mission and a policeman and a lad with a lantern ,i struck for the ,cow ,bay1 the classic spot of which ,charles ,dickens had given such a piquant description in his ,american ,notes a few years before4 ,climbing a stairway1 from which the banisters had long been broken away for firewood1 we entered a dark room4 ,there was only a tallow candle burning in the corner1 and in the room were huddled twenty-five human beings4 ,along the walls were ranged the bunks--one above the other--covered with rotting quilts and unwashed coverings4 ,each of these rented for sixpence a night to any thief or beggar who chose to apply for lodging--no distinction being made for sex or color4 ,as the lad swings the lantern about we spy the rows of heads projecting from under the stacks of rags4 ,in one bed a gray-haired1 disheveled head cuddled close to the yellow locks of a slumbering child4 ,while we are reconnoitering1 something like a huge dog runs past and dives under the bed4 ,what is this1 good friend8 we ask4 ,oh1 only the goat1 replied a merry ,milesian4 ,do the goats live with you all in this room8 ,to be sure they do1 sir2 we feeds 'em tater skins1 and milks 'em for the babies1 ,country born as we were1 we have often longed to keep a dairy in this city1 but it never occurred to us that a bedroom was sufficient for the purpose4 ,truly1 necessity is the shrewd-witted mother of invention6 ,opposite ,cow ,bay was ,cut-,throat ,alley4 ,two murders a year were about the average product of the civilization of this dark defile4 ,the keeper of the famous grog shop there1 who died about that time1 left a fortune of nearly one hundred thousand dollars4 ,in city politics the keeper of such a den is one of the leaders of public opinion4 ,we climbed a stairway1 dark and dangerous1 till at length we reached the wretched garret through whose open chinks the snow drifted in upon the floor4 ,beside the single broken stove1 the only article of furniture in the apartments1 sat a wretched woman wrapped in a tattered shawl moaning over a terrible burn that covered her arms2 she had fallen when intoxicated upon the stove and no one had cared enough to carry her to the hospital4 ,she exclaimed1 ,for ,god's sake1 gentlemen1 can't you give me a glass of gin8 ,a half eaten crust lay by her and a cold potato or two1 but the irresistible thirst clamored for relief before either pain or hunger4 ,good woman1 said my friend1 where's ,mose8 ,here he is4 ,a heap of rags beside her was uncovered1 and there lay the sleeping face of an old negro1 apparently of fifty4 ,in nearly every garret we entered practical amalgamation was in fashion4 ,the superintendent told me that the negroes were fifty per cent4 in advance of the ,irish as to sobriety and decency4 ,descending from the garret we entered a crowded cellar4 ,the boy's lantern shone on the police officer's cap and buttons4 ,a crash was heard1 and the window at the opposite end of the cellar was shattered and a mass of riddled glass fell on the floor4 ,poor fool6 exclaimed the policeman1 he thinks we are after him1 but ,i will have him before morning4 ,from these sickening scenes of squalor1 misery and crime what a relief it was for us to return to the ,house of ,industry1 with its neat school room and its capacious chapel and its row of little children marching up to their little beds4 ,it was like going into the light-house after the storm4 ,i have drawn this pen picture of but a part of the shocking revelations of that night1 not only that my readers may know what kind of work ,i often engaged in during my ,new ,york pastorate1 but that they may also know what kind of city ,i labored in4 ,new ,york is not to-day in sight of the millennium2 it still has a fearful amount of vice and heathenism2 and the self-denying men who are conducting the ,university ,settlement1 and the ,christ-serving ,king's ,daughters1 who are giving their lives to the salvation of the poor in the ,seventh ,ward are doing as apostolic a work as any missionary on the ,congo4 ,nevertheless it is true that a ,cow ,bay1 or an ,old ,brewery1 or a ,cut-,throat ,alley is no more possible to-day in ,new ,york than the building of a powder factory in the middle of ,central ,park4 ,the progress in sanitary purification has been most remarkable4 ,this narrative of the sanitary and moral reform wrought in the ,five ,points reminds me of another good man whom the people of this city and our whole country cannot revere too highly as a public benefactor4 ,i allude to ,mr4 ,anthony ,comstock1 the indefatigable ,secretary of the ,society for the ,prevention of ,vice4 ,i knew him well when he was a clerk in a dry goods store on ,broadway1 and when he undertook his first purifying efforts1 ,i little supposed that he was to achieve such reforms4 ,it was an ,augean stable indeed that he set about cleansing4 ,fifty years ago our city was flooded by obscene literature which sought no concealment4 ,the vilest books and pictures were openly sold in the streets1 and an enormous traffic was waged in what may be called the literature of hell4 ,such a courageous crusade against those abominations and against the gambling dens1 by ,mr4 ,comstock--even at the risk of personal violence and in defiance of the most malignant opposition--entitles him to a place among our veritable heroes4 ,at a time when deeds of military prowess receive such adulation1 and when the man on horseback outstrips the man on foot in the race for popular favor1 it is well to teach our young men that he who takes up arms against the principalities and powers of darkness1 and makes his own life the savior of other lives1 wins a knightly crown of heavenly honor that outshines the stars1 and fadeth not away4 ,the most unique organization that has been formed in our time for the evangelizing of the lost masses is the ,salvation ,army4 ,when ,i was in ,london1 in the summer of #ahhe1 ,i attended one of their monster meetings in ,exeter ,hall4 ,there was an enormous military band on the platform behind the rostrum4 ,their ,commander-in-,chief1 ,general ,booth1 presided--a tall1 thin1 nervous man1 who looked more like an old-fashioned ,kentucky revivalist than an ,englishman4 ,his bright-eyed and comely wife1 ,mrs4 ,catharine ,booth1 was with him4 ,she was a woman of remarkable intellectual force and spiritual character1 as all must acknowledge who have read her biography4 ,her speech 7on the ,protection of ,young ,girls7 was finely composed and finely delivered1 and quite threw into the shade a couple of members of ,parliament who spoke from the same platform on the same evening4 ,when she made any telling point that awakened applause1 her husband leaped up1 and gave the signal3 ,fire a volley6 ,whereupon his troops gave a tremendous cheer1 followed by a roll of drums and a blast of trumpets4 ,the chief agency which the army employs to gather its audiences is music--whether it be the rattling of the tambourine1 or the martial sound of a brass band4 ,some of their hymns are little better than pious doggerel1 and they do not hesitate to add to ,perronet's grand hymn1 ,all hail the power of ,jesus name1 such a stanza as the following3 ,let our soldiers never tire1 ,in streets1 in lane1 in hall1 ,the red-hot ,gospel's shot to fire ,and crown ,him ,lord of ,all4 ,grotesque as are some of the methods of this novel organization1 ,i cannot but admire their zeal and courage in dredging among the submerged masses with such spiritual apparatus as they can devise4 ,they are doing a work that ,god has honored1 and that has reached and rescued a vast number of outcasts4 ,their chief weakness is that they appeal mainly to the emotions1 and give too little solid instruction to their ignorant hearers4 ,their chief danger is that when the strong arm of their founder is taken away he may not leave successors who can hold the army together4 ,let us hope and pray that the period of their usefulness may yet be protracted4 ,while an abnormal agency1 like the ,salvation ,army1 may do some useful service among the occupants of the slums1 the greater work of reaching and evangelizing the immense mass of plain1 humble working people must be done by the churches themselves4 ,what do the dwellers in the by-streets and the tenement houses need8 ,they need precisely what the dwellers in the brown stone houses on fine avenues need--a sanctuary to worship in1 a ,sunday school for their children1 a preacher to give them the ,gospel1 and a pastor to visit them and watch over them--in short1 a spiritual home4 ,as for bringing the poorer class of the back streets into the elegant churches on the fashionable avenues it is an absurdity1 both geography and human nature are against it4 ,the plainly dressed laborers of the back districts could not come to the fine churches on ,fifth ,avenue1 or similar streets1 because these edifices are already occupied by their regular pew holders2 they would not come1 for they would not feel at home there4 ,since the humbler toiling classes will not come to the sanctuaries occupied by the rich1 the only true ,christian policy is for the rich churches to build and maintain plenty of attractive auxiliary chapels in the regions occupied by those humbler classes4 ,not mean and unattractive soup-house style of chapels should they be1 either--they ought to be handsome1 cheerful1 well-appointed sanctuaries1 manned by godly pastors who are not above the business of saving souls that are clad in dirty shirts4 ,and that is not all3 the members of the wealthy churches which rear the auxiliary chapels should personally go and attend the services and ,sunday schools and weekly meetings in the chapel--not go in costly raiment that touches the pride of ,god's poor1 but in plain clothes and with a hearty democratic sympathy in their whole bearing4 ,to reach the masses we must go after them--and then stay with them when we get there4 ,if broadcloth religion waits for poverty and ignorance to cross the chasm to it1 then may they at last come to be a menace to the safety of society--with imprecations on it for criminal neglect4 ,christianity must build the bridge across the chasm1 and then keep its steady procession crossing over it with bright lamps for dark homes1 and ,bibles for darker souls1 and bread for hungry mouths1 and1 what is best of all1 personal intercourse and personal sympathy4 ,the music of a ,christmas carol would be very sweet in poverty's garret2 the advent of the living ,jesus in the persons of ,his true-hearted followers would be a ,merry ,christmas all the year round4 ,brooklyn is not a city of slums1 nor does it abound with the sky-scraping tenement houses1 like those in which the myriads of ,new ,york live1 but we have a large population of wage-earners of the humbler class4 ,these mainly occupy streets by themselves4 ,in order to do our part in giving the bread of life to these worthy people1 ,lafayette ,avenue ,church has always maintained two1 and sometimes three1 auxiliary chapels4 ,of these1 the ,cuyler ,chapel1 built and supported entirely by our ,young ,people's ,association1 is a fair representative4 ,it has an excellent preacher1 who visits the plain people in their homes2 it has a well-equipped ,sunday school--prayer meetings1 kindergarten--its own ,society of ,christian ,endeavor1 and ,king's ,daughters1 its penny savings bank and its temperance society--in short1 every appliance essential to a ,christian church4 ,many others of our strong ,brooklyn churches are working precisely on the same practical1 common-sense lines4 ,if all the wealthy churches in ,new ,york would illuminate the darker quarters of that city with a hundred well-manned light-houses1 well provided with the soul-saving apparatus of the poor man's ,gospel they would do more to silence the cavils against ,christianity1 and more to bridge the chasm between the rich and the poor than by any of the superficial methods of the ,humanitarians4 ,what a poor man wants is not only a clean shirt1 a clean home1 and a clean account on ,saturday night2 he wants a clean character and a clean soul for this world and the next4 ,christianity makes a sad mistake if it is satisfied to give him a full stomach1 and leave him with a starving soul4 ,in recent years we have heard much about the ,institutional ,church as the long sought panacea4 ,it is claimed by some persons that the churches cannot succeed unless they add to ordinary spiritual instrumentalities1 various useful annexes1 such as reading rooms1 kindergartens1 dispensaries1 and certain social entertainments4 ,but it is a noteworthy fact that the chief pioneer in ,institutional methods was the late ,charles ,haddon ,spurgeon1 and he was the prince of old-fashioned gospel preachers4 ,he never thought of his orphanage1 and other benevolent adjuncts of the ,metropolitan ,tabernacle as substitutes for the sovereign purpose of his holy work1 which was to convert the people to ,jesus ,christ4 ,he subordinated the physical1 the mental1 and the social to the spiritual2 and rightly judged that making clean hearts was the best way to secure clean homes and clean lives4 ,i have no doubt that a very strong1 well-manned and thoroughly spiritually managed church may wisely maintain as many adjuncts1 such as reading-rooms1 libraries1 dispensaries1 kindergartens and other humanitarian annexes as it has the means to support4 ,an illustration of this is seen in the successful and ,heaven-blessed ,bethany ,presbyterian ,church of ,philadelphia1 founded and maintained and guided by that hundred-handed ,briareus in the service of ,christ--my beloved friend1 the ,hon4 ,john ,wanamaker4 ,the aim of that great church and its well-known ,sunday ,school1 is to make people happy by making them better1 and to save them for this world after saving them for another world4 ,when a church has the spiritual purposes and spiritual power of the ,london ,tabernacle and the ,bethany ,church1 and is guided by a ,spurgeon or a ,wanamaker1 it may safely become institutional4 ,but some experiments that have been made to establish churches of that name in this country have not always been conspicuously successful4 ,in taking this1 my retrospective view at four-score1 ,i have noted many heart-cheering tokens of social and religious progress1 and many splendid mechanical and material inventions to make the world better and happier4 ,yet ,i have also seen some painful symptoms of decline and deterioration4 ,all the changes have not been for the better2 some have been decidedly for the worse4 ,for example1 while there is an increase in the number of the ,christian churches1 there is a lamentably steady diminution of attendance at places of religious worship4 ,careful investigation shows a constant falling off in church attendance--both in the large towns1 and in the rural districts4 ,in spite of the blessed influence of the ,sunday ,school1 the ,young ,men's ,christian ,association and ,christian ,endeavor1 there is an increasing swing of young people away from the ,house of ,god1 and therefore from soul-saving influences4 ,the ,sabbath is not as generally kept sacred as formerly4 ,one of the indications of this sad fact is a decrease in church attendance1 and another is the enormous increase in the secular and godless ,sunday newspapers4 ,materialism and ,mammonism work against spiritual religion1 and the social customs which wealth brings are adverse to a spiritual life4 ,as one illustration of this a distinguished pastor said to me3 ,forty years ago my people lived plainly1 were ready for earnest ,christian work1 and attended our devotional meetings2 now they have grown rich1 our work flags1 and our weekly services are almost deserted4 ,half-day religion is on the increase almost everywhere4 ,sporting and gambling are more rife than formerly4 ,what is still worse1 the gambling element enters more largely into transactions of trade and traffic4 ,divorces have become more easy and abundant1 and1 as ,mr4 ,gladstone once said to me3 ,this tends to sap one of the very foundations of society1 ,all these are deplorable evils to which none but a fool will shut his eyes and by which none but a coward will be frightened4 ,god reigns1 even if the devil is trying to4 ,the practical questions for every one of us are3 how can ,i become better8 ,how can ,i help to make this old sinning and sobbing world the better also8 ,,chapter ,,xvii4 ,a ,,retrospect1 ,,continued4 ,as ,i look over the changes that half a century has wrought in the social life of my beloved country1 ,i see some which awaken satisfaction--others which are not so exhilarating4 ,the enormous and rapid increase of wealth is unparalleled in human history4 ,in my boyhood1 millionaires were rare2 there were hardly a score of them in any one of our cities4 ,the two typical rich men were ,stephen ,girard in ,philadelphia and ,john ,jacob ,astor in ,new ,york2 and their whole fortunes were not equal to the annual income of several of the rich men of to-day4 ,some of our present millionaires are reservoirs of munificence1 and the outflow builds churches1 hospitals1 asylums1 and endows libraries--and sends broad streams of charity through places parched by destitution and suffering4 ,others are like pools at the base of a hill--they receive the inflow of every descending streamlet or shower1 and stagnate into selfishness4 ,wealth is a tremendous trust2 it becomes a dangerous one when it owns its owner4 ,our ,brooklyn philanthropist1 the late ,mr4 ,charles ,pratt1 once said to me3 ,there is no greater humbug than the idea that the mere possession of wealth makes any man happy4 ,i never got any happiness out of mine until ,i began to do good with it4 ,to the faithful steward there is a perpetual reward of good stewardship4 ,no investments yield a more covetable dividend than those made in gifts of public beneficence4 ,when ,mr4 ,morris ,k4 ,jesup drives through ,new ,york his eyes are gladdened in one street by the ,dewitt ,memorial ,chapel that he erected2 in another by the ,five ,points ,house of ,industry1 of which he is the president1 and in still others by the ,young ,men's ,christian ,association and kindred institutions1 of which he is a liberal supporter4 ,mr4 ,john ,d4 ,rockefeller is reputed to have an annual income equal to that of three or four foreign sovereigns2 but his inalienable assets are in the universities he has endowed1 the churches he has helped to build1 the useful societies he has aided1 and in the gold mines of public gratitude which he has opened up4 ,many of our most munificent millionaires have been the architects of their own fortunes4 ,it is most commonly 7with some happy exceptions7 the earned wealth1 and not the inherited wealth that is bestowed most freely for the public benefit4 ,the ,hon4 ,william ,e4 ,dodge once stated in a popular lecture that he began his career as a boy on a salary of fifty dollars a year1 and his board--part of his duty being to sweep out the store in which he was employed4 ,he lived to distribute a thousand dollars a day to ,christian missions1 and otherwise objects of benevolence4 ,there are old men in ,pittsburg 7or were1 not long ago71 who remember the bright ,scotch lad1 ,andrew ,carnegie1 to whom they used to give a dime for bringing telegraph messages from the office in which he was employed4 ,the benefits which he then derived from the use of a free library in that city1 have added to his good impulse1 to create such a vast number of libraries in many lands that his honored name throws into the shade the names of ,bodley and ,radcliffe in ,england1 and that of ,astor in ,america4 ,the mention of this latter name tempts me to narrate an amusing story of old ,john ,jacob ,astor1 the founder of the fortune of that family1 and a man who was more noted for acquiring money than for giving it away for any purpose4 ,mr4 ,astor came to ,new ,york a poor young man4 ,his wealth consisted mainly in real estate1 which he purchased at an early day4 ,when the ,new ,york and ,erie ,railroad was projected 7it was the first one ever coming directly into ,new ,york71 my friend1 ,judge ,joseph ,hoxie1 called on ,mr4 ,astor to subscribe to the stock1 telling him that it would add to the value of his real estate4 ,what do ,i care for that8 said the shrewd old ,german1 ,i never sells1 ,i only buys4 ,well1 said ,judge ,hoxie1 your son1 ,william1 has subscribed for several shares4 ,he can do that1 was the chuckling reply1 he has got a rich father4 ,it is a fair problem how many such possessors of real estate it would take to build up the prosperity of a great city4 ,there is one temptation to which great wealth has sometimes subjected its possessors1 which demands from me a word of patriotic protest4 ,it is the temptation to use it for political advancement4 ,no fact is more patent than the painful one that some ambitious men have secured public offices1 and even bought their way into legislative bodies1 by the abundancies of their purses united to skill in manipulating partisan machines4 ,this is a most serious menace to honest popular government4 ,it is one of the very worst forms of a plutocracy4 ,i often think that if ,webster and ,clay and ,calhoun and ,john ,quincy ,adams and ,sumner and some other giants of a former era could enter the ,congressional halls of our day1 they might paraphrase the words of ,holy ,writ and exclaim3 ,take the money-changers hence1 and make not the temple of a nation's legislation a house of merchandise4 ,foreign travel is no longer the novelty that it was once1 and many wealthy folk spend much of their time abroad since the ,atlantic ,ocean has been reduced to a ferry4 ,this growth of ,european travel has brought its increment of information and culture2 but1 with new ideas from abroad1 have come also some new notions and usages that were better left behind4 ,a prohibitory tariff in that direction would protect some of the unostentatiousness of social life that befits a republican people4 ,no young man or woman1 who desires to attain proficience in any department of scholarship1 classical or scientific1 need to betake themselves to the universities of ,europe4 ,those universities have come to us in the shape of ,harvard1 ,yale1 ,princeton1 ,cornell and our other most richly endowed institutions of learning for both sexes4 ,quite too much of the social life of our country is more artificial than formerly1 and one result is the growing passion for publicity4 ,plenty of ambitious people make their beds in the face of the sun4 ,many things are now chronicled in the press that were formerly kept behind the closed doors of the home4 ,the details of a dinner or a social company at the fireside become the topics for the gossip of strangers4 ,i sometimes think that the young people of the present day lose much of the romance that used to belong to the halcyon period of courtship4 ,in the somewhat primitive days of my youth1 young lovers kept their own secrets1 and were startled if their heart affairs were on other people's tongues2 but now-a-days marriage engagements are matters of public announcement--not infrequently in the columns of a newspaper6 ,it seems to be forgotten that an engagement to marry may not always end in a marriage4 ,the usage of crowned heads abroad is no warrant for the new fashion1 for royalty has no privacies1 and queens and empresses choose their own husbands--a prerogative that the stoutest champion of woman's rights has not yet had the hardihood to advocate4 ,it has always required--but never more than now--no small amount of moral courage on the part of newly married couples1 whose incomes are moderate1 to resist the temptations of extravagant living4 ,as the heads of young men are often turned by the reports of great fortunes suddenly acquired1 so the ambition seizes upon many a young wife to cut a figure in society4 ,instead of the household--motions light and free that ,wordsworth describes1 the handmaid of fashion leads the hollow life of keeping up appearances4 ,if nothing worse than the slavery of debt is incurred1 home life becomes a counterfeit of happiness2 but any one who watches the daily papers will sometimes see obituaries there more saddening than those which appear under the head of ,deaths1 it is the list of detected defaulters or peculators or swindlers of some description--often belonging to the most respectable families4 ,while the ruin of those evil-doers is sometimes caused by club life or dissipated habits1 yet1 in a large number of cases1 the temptation to fraud has been the snare of extravagant living4 ,in my long experience as a city pastor ,i have watched the careers of thousands of married pairs4 ,one class have begun modestly in an unfashionable locality with plain dress and frugal expenditure ,they have eaten the wholesome bread of independence4 ,i wish that every young woman would display the good sense of a friend of mine1 who received an offer of marriage from a very intelligent and very industrious1 but poor young man who said to her3 ,i hear that you have offers of marriage from young men of wealth2 all that ,i can offer you is a good name1 sincere love and plain lodgings at first in a boarding house4 ,she was wise enough to discover the jewel in the leaden casket and accept his hand4 ,he became a prosperous business man and an officer of my church4 ,as for the other class1 who begin their domestic career by a pitiable craze to get into society and to keep up with their set in the vain show1 is their fate not written in the chronicles of haggard and jaded wives1 and of husbands drowned in debt or driven perhaps to stock-gambling or some other refuge of desperation8 ,in another portion of this autobiography ,i have uttered a prayer for the revival of soul-kindling eloquence in the pulpit4 ,in this age of dizzy ballooning in finance and social extravagance1 my prayer is3 ,oh1 for the revival of old fashioned1 sturdy1 courageous frugality that 'hath clean hands and a clean heart1 and hath not lifted up its soul to vanity6' ,do you not discover a great advance in educational facilities and in the enlargement of means to popular knowledge8 ,to this question ,i am happy to give an affirmative reply4 ,schools and universities are more richly endowed and our public schools have been greatly improved in many directions4 ,among the educated classes1 reading clubs and societies for discussing sociological questions are more numerous1 and so are free lectures among the humbler classes4 ,books have been multiplied--and at cheaper prices--to an enormous extent4 ,in my childhood1 books adapted to the reach of children numbered not more than a score or two2 now they are multiplied to a degree that is almost bewildering to the youthful mind4 ,newspapers printed for them1 such as the ,youth's ,companion and the ,national ,society's ,temperance ,banner1 were then utterly unknown4 ,the sacred writer of the ecclesiastics needs not to tell the people of this generation3 ,that of making many books there is no end4 ,it is not1 however1 a matter for congratulation that so large a portion of the volumes that are most read are works of fiction4 ,in most of our public libraries the novels called for are far in excess of all the other books4 ,let any one scrutinize the advertising columns of literary journals1 and he will see that the only startling figures are those which announce the enormous sale of popular works of fiction4 ,i am not uttering a tirade against any book simply because it is fictitious4 ,our ,divine ,master spoke often in parables2 ,bunyan's matchless allegories have guided multitudes of pilgrims towards the ,celestial ,city4 ,fiction in the clean hands of that king of romancers1 ,sir ,walter ,scott1 threw new light on the history and scenes of the past4 ,such characters as ,jennie ,deans and her godly father might have been taken from ,john ,banyan's portrait gallery2 ,lady ,di ,vernon is the ideal of young womanhood4 ,fiction has often been a wholesome relief to a good man's overworked and weary brain4 ,many of the recent popular novels are wholesome in their tone and the historical type often instructive4 ,the chief objection to the best of them is that they excite a distaste in the minds of thousands for any other reading4 ,exclusive reading of fiction is to any one's mind just what highly spiced food and alcoholic stimulants are to the body4 ,the increasing rage for novel reading betokens both a famine in the intellect1 and a serious peril to the mental and spiritual life4 ,the honest truth is that quite too large a number of fictitious works are subtle poison4 ,the plots of some of the most popular novels turn on the sexual relation and the violation in some form of the seventh commandment4 ,they kindle evil passions2 they varnish and veneer vice2 they deride connubial purity2 they uncover what ought to be hid1 and paint in attractive hues what never ought to be seen by any pure eye or named by any modest tongue4 ,another objection to many of the most advertised works of fiction is that they deal with the sacred themes of religion in a very mischievous and misleading manner4 ,a few popular writers of fiction present evangelical religion in its winning features2 they preach with the pen the same truths that they preach from the pulpit4 ,two of the perils that threaten ,american youths are a licentious stage and a poisonous literature4 ,a highly intelligent lady1 who has examined many of the novels printed during the last decade1 said to me3 ,the main purpose of many of these books is to knock away the underpinning of the marriage relation or of the ,bible4 ,if parents give house room to trashy or corrupt books1 they cannot be surprised if their children give heart-room to the world1 the flesh1 and the evil one4 ,when interesting and profitable books are so abundant and so cheap1 this increasing rage for novels is to me one of the sinister signs of the times4 ,within the last two or three decades there has been a most marked change as to the directions in which the human intellect has exerted its highest activities4 ,this change is especially marked in the literature of the two great ,english-speaking nations4 ,for example1 there are now in ,great ,britain no poets who are the peers of ,wordsworth1 ,tennyson and ,browning2--no brilliant essayists who are the peers of ,carlyle and ,macaulay1 and no novelists who are the peers of ,scott1 ,dickens and ,thackeray4 ,in the ,united ,states we have no poets who are a match for ,bryant1 ,longfellow1 ,whittier and ,holmes2 and no essayists who are a match for ,emerson and ,james ,russell ,lowell--no jurists who are the rivals of ,marshall1 ,kent and ,story2 and no living historians equal ,bancroft1 ,prescott and ,motley4 ,these facts do not necessarily indicate 7as some assert7 a widespread intellectual famine4 ,the most probable explanation of the fact is that the mental forces in our day exert themselves in other directions4 ,this is an age of scientific research and scientific achievement4 ,it is an age of material advancement1 and in those lines in which the human mind can seek out many inventions4 ,the whole trend of human thought is under transformation4 ,in ancient days a man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon thick trees4 ,the man is famous now who makes some useful mechanical invention1 or explores some unknown territory1 or bridges the oceans with swift steamers1 or belts the earth with new railways1 or organizes powerful financial combinations4 ,if the law of demand and supply is as applicable to mental products as it is to the imports of commerce1 then we may readily understand that the realm of the ideal1 which was ruled by the ,wordsworths1 ,carlyles and ,longfellows1 should be supplanted by a realm in which the master minds should be political economists1 or explorers1 or railway kings1 or financial magnates1 or empire-builders of some description4 ,the philosophical and poetical yield to the practical1 when cui bono8 is the lest question which challenges all comers4 ,this change1 if it be an actual one1 may bring its losses as well as its gains4 ,we are thankful for all the precious boons which inventive genius has brought to us--for telegraphs1 and telephones1 and photographic arts1 for steam engines and electric motors1 for power presses and sewing machines1 for pain-killing chloroform1 and the splendid achievements of skillful surgery4 ,but the mind has its necessities as well as the body2 and we hope and pray that the human intellect may never be so busy in materialistic inventions that it cannot give us an ,ode to ,duty1 and a ,happy ,warrior1 a ,snow ,bound1 and a ,thanatopsis1 an ,evangeline and a ,chambered ,nautilus1 a ,pippa ,passes or a ,biglow ,papers1 an ,in ,memoriam or a ,locksley ,hall4 ,one characteristic of the present time is the radical and revolutionary spirit which condemns everything that is old1 especially in the realm of religion4 ,it arrogantly claims that the advanced thought of this highly cultured age has broken with the traditional beliefs of our benighted ancestors1 and that modern congregations are too highly enlighted to accept those antiquated theologies4 ,no pretentions could be more preposterous4 ,methinks that those stalwart farmers of ,new ,england1 who on a wintry ,sabbath1 sat and eagerly devoured for an hour the strong meat of such theological giants as ,jonathan ,edwards1 and ,emmons and ,bellamy and ,dwight1 would laugh to scorn the ridiculous assumption of the present day congregations1 many of whom have fed on little else during the week but novels and newspapers4 ,this revolutionary spirit is expert in pulling down2 it is a sorry bungler at rebuilding4 ,nothing is too sacred for its assaults4 ,the iconoclasts who belong to the most extreme and destructive school of higher criticism have reduced a large portion of ,god's revealed word utterly to tatters4 ,king ,david has been exiled from the ,psalter2 but no sweet singers have yet turned up who could have composed those matchless minstrelsies4 ,paul is denied the authorship of the ,epistle to the ,romans2 but the mighty mind has not been discovered which produced what ,coleridge called the profoundest book in existence4 ,the ,scripture miracles are discarded1 but ,christianity1 which is the greatest miracle of all1 is not accounted for4 ,the new theology which has well nigh banished the supernatural from the ,bible pays an homage to the principle of evolution1 which is due only to the ,almighty ,creator of the universe4 ,spurgeon has wittily said that if we are not the product of ,god's creating hand1 but are only the advanced descendants of the ape1 then we ought to conduct our devotions accordingly1 and address our daily petitions not to our ,father which is in ,heaven1 but to our father which is up a tree4 ,i do not belong to that class which is irreverently styled old fogies1 for ,i hold that genuine conservatism consists in healthful and regular progress2 and it has been my privilege to take an active part in a great many reformatory movements2 yet ,i am more warmly hospitable to a truth which has stood the test of time and of trial4 ,there are many things in this world that are improved by age4 ,friendship is one of them1 and ,i have found that it takes a great many new friends to make an old one4 ,my ,bible is all the dearer to me1 not only because it has pillowed the dying heads of my father and my mother1 but because it has been the sure guide of a hundred generations of ,christians before them4 ,when the boastful innovators offer me a new system of belief 7which is really a congeries of unbeliefs7 ,i say to them3 the old is better4 ,twenty centuries of experience shared by such intellects as ,augustine1 ,luther1 ,pascal1 ,calvin1 ,newton1 ,chalmers1 ,edwards1 ,wesley and ,spurgeon are not to be shaken by the assaults of men1 who often contradict each other while contradicting ,god's truth4 ,we have tested a supernaturally inspired ,bible for ourselves4 ,as my eloquent and much loved friend1 ,dr4 ,mc,laren1 of ,manchester has finely said3 ,we decline to dig up the piles of the bridge that carries us over the abyss because some voices tell us that it is rotten4 ,it is perfectly reasonable to answer1 ',we have tried the bridge and it bears4' ,which1 being translated into less simple language1 is just the assertion of certitude1 built on facts and experience1 which leaves no place for doubt4 ,all the opposition will be broken into spray against this rock-bulwark3 ',thy words were found1 and ,i did eat them1 and they are the joy and rejoicing of my heart4' ,,chapter ,,xviii4 ,,my ,,home ,,life4 ,one of the richest of the many blessings that has crowned my long life has been a happy home4 ,it has always seemed to me as a wonderful triumph of divine grace in the ,apostle ,paul that he should have been so content in whatsoever state he was when he was a homeless1 and1 ,i fear1 also a wifeless man4 ,during my own early ministry in ,burlington1 ,n4,j41 my widowed mother and myself lodged with worthy ,quakers1 and realized ,charles ,lamb's truthful description of that quiet1 naught-caballing community4 ,on our removal to ,trenton1 when ,i took charge of the newly organized ,third ,presbyterian ,church1 we commenced housekeeping in what had once been the residence of a ,governor1 a chief-justice1 and a mayor of the city2 but was a very plain and modest domicile after all4 ,my new church building was completed in ,november1 #ahej1 and opened with a full congregation1 and ,i was soon in the full swing of my pastoral duties4 ,as ,i have already stated in the opening chapter of this volume1 my father and mother first saw each other on a ,sabbath day1 and in a church4 ,it was my happy lot to follow their example4 ,on a certain ,sabbath in ,january1 #ahea1 a group of young ladies1 who were the guests of a prominent family in my congregation1 were seated in a pew immediately before the pulpit4 ,as a civility to that family we called on the following evening1 upon their guests4 ,one of the number happened to be a young lady from ,ohio who had just graduated from the ,granville ,college1 in that ,state1 and had come ,east to visit her relatives in ,philadelphia4 ,the young lady just mentioned was ,miss ,annie ,e4 ,mathiot1 a daughter of the ,hon4 ,joshua ,mathiot1 an eminent lawyer1 who had represented his district in ,congress4 ,that evening has been marked with a very white stone in my calendar ever since4 ,it was but a brief visit of a fortnight that the fair maiden from the ,west made in ,trenton2 but when she1 soon afterwards returned to ,ohio1 she took with her what has been her inalienable possession ever since and will be1 ,till death us do part4 ,my courtship was rather at long range2 for ,newark1 ,ohio1 was several hundred miles away1 and ,i have always found that a man who would build up a strong church must be constantly at it1 trowel in hand4 ,on the #agth of ,march1 #ahec1 the venerable ,dr4 ,wylie conducted for us a very simple and solemn service of holy wedlock1 closing with his fatherly benediction1 one of the best acts of his long and useful life4 ,the invalid mother of my bride 7for ,colonel ,mathiot had died four years previously7 was present at our nuptials1 and for the last time was in her own drawing-room4 ,mrs4 ,mathiot was a daughter of ,mr4 ,samuel ,culbertson1 a leading lawyer of ,zanesville1 and was a lady of rare refinement and loveliness4 ,she had been a patient sufferer from a painful illness of several months' duration1 and peacefully passed away to her rest in ,september of that year4 ,of the qualifications and duties of a minister's wife1 enough has been written to stock a small library4 ,my own very positive conviction has always been that her vows were made primarily1 not to a parish1 but to her own husband2 and if she makes his home and heart happy2 if she relieves him of needless worldly cares2 if she is a constant inspiration to him in his holy work1 she will do ten-fold more for the church than if she were the manager and mainspring of a dozen benevolent societies4 ,there is another obligation antecedent to all acts of ,presbytery or installing councils--the sweet obligation of motherhood4 ,the woman who neglects her nursery or her housekeeping duties1 and her own heart-life for any outside work in the parish does both them and herself serious injury4 ,if a minister's wife has the grace of a kind and tactful courtesy toward all classes1 she may contribute mightily to the popular influence of her husband2 and if she is a woman of culture and literary taste1 she can be of immense service to him in the preparation of his sermons4 ,the best critic that ministers can have is one who has a right to criticize and to truth it in love4 ,who has a better right to reprove1 exhort and correct with all long suffering than the woman who has given us her heart and herself8 ,there are a hundred matters in the course of a year in which a sensible woman's instincts are wiser than those of the average man4 ,there is many a minister who would have been spared the worst blunders of his life1 if he had only consulted and obeyed the instinctive judgment of a loving and sensible wife4 ,if we husbands hold the reins1 it is the province of a wise and devoted wife to tell us where to drive4 ,it is very probable that my readers have suspected that this portraiture of a model wife for a minister was drawn from actual life2 and they are right in their conjectures4 ,in the discourse delivered to my flock on the twenty-fifth anniversary of my pastorate was the following passage1 to whose truth the added years have only added confirmation1 ,there is still another sweet mercy which has been vouchsafed to me in the true heart that has never faltered and the gentle footstep that has never wearied in the pathway of life for two and thirty years4 ,from how many mistakes and hasty indiscretions her quick sagacity has kept me1 you can never know4 ,if you have any tribute of thanks for any good which ,i have done you1 do not offer it to me2 go carry it down to yonder home1 of which she has been the light and the joy1 and lay it at her unselfish feet4 ,on that occasion 7for the only time7 ,i heard a murmur of applause run through my congregation4 ,about the time of our marriage1 ,i received a call from the ,shawmut ,congregational ,church of ,boston1 and soon afterwards overtures from a ,presbyterian ,church in ,philadelphia1 and from the ,first ,presbyterian ,church of ,chicago4 ,all these attractive offers ,i declined1 but within a few months ,i accepted a call from the ,market ,street ,dutch ,reformed ,church of ,new ,york--a far more difficult field of labor4 ,my ministry in ,trenton was one of unbroken happiness1 and the ,church were profusely kind2 but at the end of nearly four years ,i felt that my work there was done4 ,the young church had built a beautiful house of worship without a dime of debt1 and it was filled by a prosperous congregation4 ,i was ready for a wider field of labor4 ,the ,market ,street ,dutch ,reformed ,church1 to which ,i was called1 was down town1 within ten minutes' walk of the ,city ,hall1 and was beginning to feel the inroads of the up-town migration1 when my excellent predecessor1 ,dr4 ,isaac ,ferris1 left it to become the ,chancellor of the ,new ,york ,university4 ,although most of the well-to-do families were moving away1 yet ,east ,broadway was full of boarding houses packed with young men and these in turn packed our church on ,sabbath evenings4 ,of the happy spiritual harvest-seasons in that old church1 especially during the great awakening in #aheh1 ,i have written in the chapter on ,revivals4 ,i was as eager for work as ,simon ,peter was for a good haul in fishing1 and every week there1 ,i met on the platform the representatives of temperance societies3 ,the ,five ,points ,house of ,industry1 ,young ,men's ,christian ,associations1 ,sunday schools or some other religious or reformatory enterprise4 ,these outside activities were no hindrances to either pulpit or pastoral work2 and1 like that famous ,english preacher who felt that he could not have too many irons in the fire1 ,i thrust in tongs1 shovel1 poker and all4 ,the contact with busy life and benevolent labors among the poor supplied material for sermons2 for the pastor of a city church must touch life at a great many points4 ,our domestic experiences in early housekeeping were very agreeable4 ,the social conditions of ,new ,york were less artificial than now4 ,pastoral calls in the evening usually found the people in their homes1 and ,i do not believe there were a dozen theatre-goers in my congregation4 ,after a very busy and heaven-blest ministry of half a dozen years1 ,i discovered that the rapid migration up town would soon leave our congregation too feeble for self-support4 ,i accordingly started a movement to erect a new edifice up on ,murray ,hill1 and to retain the old building in ,market ,street as an auxiliary mission chapel4 ,a handsome subscription for the erection of the up-town edifice was secured1 and the ,consistory 7which is the good ,dutch designation of a board of church officers71 convened to vote the first payment for the land4 ,the new site was not wisely chosen1 and many of my people were still opposed to any change2 but the casting vote of one good old man 7whom ,i shall thank if ,i ever encounter him in the ,celestial ,world7 negatived the whole enterprise1 and it was immediately abandoned4 ,a few weeks before that decision1 ,i had received a call to take charge of a brave little struggling ,presbyterian ,church in the newer part of ,brooklyn4 ,i sent for the officers1 and informed them that if they would purchase the ground on the corner of ,lafayette ,avenue and ,oxford ,street1 and pay for it in a fortnight1 and promise to build for me a church with good acoustics and capable of seating from eighteen hundred to two thousand auditors1 ,i would be their pastor4 ,instead of turning purple in the lips at such a bold proposal1 they staggered not at the promise through unbelief and in ten days they brought me the deed of the land paid for to the uttermost dollar6 ,i resigned ,market ,street ,church immediately1 and on the next ,sabbath morning1 while the ,easter bells were ringing under a dark stormy sky1 ,i came over and faced1 for the first time1 the courageous founders of the ,lafayette ,avenue ,presbyterian ,church4 ,the dear old ,market ,street ,church lingered on for a few years more1 bleeding at every pore1 from the fatal up-town migration1 and then peacefully disbanded4 ,the solid stone edifice was purchased by some generous ,presbyterians in the upper part of the city1 who organized there the ,church of the ,sea and ,land1 which is standing to-day1 as a well-manned light-house amid a dense tenement-house foreign population4 ,the successful work that is now prosecuted there is another confirmation of my favorite theory that the only way to reach a neighborhood crowded with the poorer classes1 is for the wealthy churches to spend money for just such an auxiliary mission church as is now thriving in the structure in which ,i spent seven happy years of my ministry4 ,this portion of ,brooklyn to which we removed in #ahfj1 was very sparsely settled1 and ,rev4 ,henry ,ward ,beecher said to me3 ,i do not see how you can find a congregation there4 ,he lived to say to me3 ,you are now in the center1 and ,i am out on the circumference1 ,brooklyn was then pre-eminently a city of churches1 and1 though we had not a dozen millionaires1 it was not infested with any slums4 ,in a population of over three hundred thousand there was then only a single theatre1 and when one of our people was asked3 ,what do you do for recreation over there8 he replied1 ,we go to church4 ,certainly no one was ever attracted to our own modest little temporary sanctuary by its beauty2 for it was unsightly without1 though very cheerful within4 ,soon after we commenced the building of our present stately edifice the startling report of cannon shook the land from sea to sea4 ,and then we saw from ,sumter's wall ,the star-flag of the ,union fall1 ,and armed hosts were pressing on ,the broken lines of ,washington4 ,every other public edifice in this city then in process of erection was brought to a standstill2 but we pushed forward the work1 like ,nehemiah's builders1 with a trowel in one hand and a weapon in the other4 ,to raise funds for the structure1 required faith and self-denial1 and in this labor of love1 woman's five fingers were busy and helpful4 ,one brave orphan girl in ,new ,york gave1 from her hard earnings as a public school teacher1 a sum so large that the announcement of it from my pulpit aroused great enthusiasm1 and turned the scale at the critical moment1 and insured the completion of the structure4 ,justly may our pulpit vindicate woman's place1 and woman's province in the cause of ,christ and humanity1 for without woman's help that pulpit might never have been erected4 ,on the #afth of ,march1 #ahfb1 our church edifice was dedicated to the worship of ,almighty ,god1 ,dr4 ,asa ,d4 ,smith1 of ,dartmouth ,college1 delivering the dedication sermon1 and in the evening1 my brilliant and beloved brother1 ,professor ,roswell ,d4 ,hitchcock1 gave us one of his incisive and inspiring discourses4 ,the building accommodates eighteen hundred worshippers1 and in emergencies1 twenty-five hundred4 ,it is a model of cheerfulness and convenience1 and is so felicitous in its acoustics that an ordinary conversational tone can be heard at the opposite end of the auditorium4 ,the picture of the ,church in this volume gives no adequate idea of the size of the edifice2 for the ,sunday ,school ,hall and lecture-room and social parlors are situated in the rear1 and could not be presented in the photographic view4 ,i fear that too many costly church edifices are erected that are quite unfit for our ,protestant modes of religious service4 ,it is said that when ,bishop ,potter was called upon to consecrate one of the dim religious specimens of mediaeval architecture1 and was asked his opinion of the new structure1 he replied3 ,it is a beautiful building1 with only three faults3 you cannot see in it--you cannot hear in it--you cannot breathe in it4 ,i need not detail the story of my happy ,brooklyn pastorate2 for that is succinctly given in the closing chapter of this volume4 ,our home-life here for the past forty-two years has been a record of perpetual providential mercies and unfailing kindness on the part of my parishioners and fellow townsmen4 ,brooklyn1 although removed from ,new ,york 7for ,i cannot yet twist my tongue into calling it ,manhattan7 by a five minutes' journey on the ,east ,river ,bridge1 is a very different town in its political and social aspects4 ,new ,york is penned in on a narrow island1 and ground is worth more than gold4 ,it is therefore piled up with very fine apartment houses for the rich1 or tenement houses for the poor to more stories than the ancient buildings on the ,canongate of ,edinburgh4 ,here in ,brooklyn we have all ,long ,island to spread over1 and land is within the reach of even a parson's purse4 ,a man never feels so rich as when he owns a bit of real estate1 and ,i take some satisfaction in the bit of land in the front of my domicile1 and in the rear1 capable of holding several fruit trees and rose-beds4 ,oxford ,street has the deep shade of a ,new ,england village4 ,we come to know our neighbors here1 which is a degree of knowledge not often attained in ,new ,york or ,london4 ,the social life here is also less artificial than at the other end of the bridge4 ,there is less of the foreign element1 and of either great wealth or poverty2 we have neither the splendor of ,paris1 nor the squalor of the by-streets of ,naples4 ,the name of ,breucklen was given to our town by its original ,dutch settlers1 but the aggressive ,new ,englanders pushed in and it is a more thoroughly ,yankee city to-day than any city in the land outside of ,new ,england4 ,my old friend1 ,mayor ,low1 urged the consolidation of ,brooklyn with ,new ,york on the ground that its moral and civic influence would be a wholesome counteraction of ,tammany and the tenement-house politics4 ,for self-protection1 ,i joined with my lamented brother1 the late ,dr4 ,storrs1 in an effort to maintain our independence4 ,ours is pre-eminently a city of homes where the bulk of the people live in an undivided dwelling1 and ,i do not believe that there is another city either in ,america1 or elsewhere1 that contains over a million inhabitants1 so large a proportion of whom are in a school house during the week1 and in ,god's house on the ,sabbath4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,lafayette ,,avenue ,,church4 ,one of the glories of ,brooklyn is its vast and picturesque ,prospect ,park1 with natural forests1 hills and dales and its superb outlook over the bay and ocean4 ,i hope that it may not be a violation of propriety to say that the ,park ,commissioners in this city of my adoption bestowed my own name on a pretty plot of ground not far from my residence2 and its bright show of flowers makes it a constant delight to my neighbors4 ,last year some of my fellow-townspeople made an exceedingly generous proposition to place there a memorial statue2 and ,i felt compelled to publish the following reply to an offer which quite transcended any claim that ,i could have to such an honor3 #agf ,,south ,,oxford ,,street1 ,,june #ab1 #aija4 ,,mess ,,john ,n4 ,,beach1 ,d4,w4 ,,mcwilliams1 ,,and ,,thomas ,t4 ,,barr4 ,my ,dear ,sirs1 ,i have just received your kind letter in which you express the desire of yourselves and of several of our prominent citizens that ,i would consent to the erection of a ,memorial in ,cuyler ,park to be placed there by voluntary contributions of generous friends here and elsewhere4 ,do not1 ,i entreat you1 regard me as indifferent to a proposition whose motive affords the most profound and heartfelt gratitude2 but a work of art in bronze or marble1 such as has been suggested1 that would be creditable to our city1 would require an outlay of money that ,i cannot conscientiously consent to have expended for the purpose of personal honor rather than of public utility4 ,several years ago the city authorities honored me by giving my name to the attractive plot of ground at the junction of ,fulton and ,greene ,avenues4 ,if my most esteemed friend1 ,park ,commissioner ,brower1 will kindly have my name visibly and permanently affixed to that little park1 and will direct that it be always kept as bright and beautiful with flowers as it now is1 ,i shall be abundantly satisfied4 ,i have been permitted to spend forty-one supremely happy years in this city which ,i heartily love1 and for whose people ,i have joyfully labored2 and while the permanent fruits of these labors remain1 ,i trust ,i shall not pass out of all affectionate remembrance4 ,a monument reared by human hands may fade away2 but if ,god has enabled me to engrave my humble name on any living hearts1 they will be the best monument2 for hearts live on forever4 ,while declining the proffered honor1 may ,i ask you to convey my most sincere and cordial thanks to the kind friends who have joined with you in this generous proposal1 and1 with warm personal regard1 ,i remain1 ,yours faithfully1 ,,theodore ,l4 ,,cuyler4 ,i cannot refrain here from thanking my old friend1 ,dr4 ,st4 ,clair ,mc,kelway1 the brilliant editor of the ,brooklyn ,eagle1 for his generous tribute which accompanied the publication of the above letter4 ,his grandfather1 ,dr4 ,john ,mc,kelway1 a typical ,scotchman1 was my family physician and church deacon in the city of ,trenton4 ,among the editorial fraternity let me also mention here the name of my near neighbor1 ,mr4 ,edward ,gary1 of the ,new ,york ,times1 who was with me in ,fort ,sumter1 at the restoration of the flag1 and with whom ,i have foregathered in many a fertilizing conversation4 ,away off on the slope above beautiful ,stockbridge1 and surrounded by his ,berkshire ,hills1 ,dr4 ,henry ,m4 ,field is spending the bright ,indian summer of his long and honored career4 ,for forty years we held sweet fellowship in the columns of the ,new ,york ,evangelist4 ,the experience of the great ,apostle at ,rome1 who dwelt for nearly two years in his hired house1 has been followed by numberless examples of the ministers of the ,gospel who have had a migratory home life4 ,my experience under rented roofs led me to build1 in #ahfe1 this dwelling1 which has housed our domestic life for seven and thirty years4 ,a true homestead is not a ,jonah's gourd for temporary shelter from sun and storm1 it is a treasure house of accumulations4 ,many of its contents are precious heirlooms2 its apartments are thronged with memories of friends and kinsfolk living or departed4 ,every room has its scores of occupants1 every wall is gladdened with the visions of loved faces4 ,i look into yonder guest chamber1 and find my old friends1 ,governor ,buckingham1 and ,vice-,president ,wilson1 who were ready to discuss the conditions of the temperance reform which they had come to advocate4 ,down in the dining-room the ,chi-,alpha ,society of distinguished ministers are holding their ,saturday evening symposium2 in the parlor my ,irish guest1 the ,earl of ,meath1 is describing to me his philanthropies in ,london1 and his ,countess is describing her organization of ,ministering ,children4 ,in the library1 ,whittier is writing at the table2 or ,mr4 ,fulton is narrating his missionary work in ,china2 out on the piazza my veteran neighbor1 ,general ,silas ,casey1 is telling the thrilling story of how he led our troops at the storming of the ,heights of ,chapultepec2 up the steps comes dear old ,john ,g4 ,paton1 with his patriarchal white beard1 to say good-bye1 before he goes back to his mission work in the ,new ,hebrides4 ,no room in our dwelling is more sacred than the one in which ,i now write4 ,on its walls hang the portraits of my ,princeton ,professors1 and those of majestic ,chalmers and the gnarled brow of ,hugh ,miller1 the ,scotch geologist1 the precious gifts of the author of ,rab and ,his ,friend4 ,near them is the bright face of dear ,henry ,drummond1 looking just as he did on that stormy evening when he came into my library a few hours after his arrival from ,scotland4 ,i still recall his reply to me in ,edinburgh1 when ,i cautioned him against permitting his scientific studies to unspiritualize his activities4 ,never you fear1 said he1 ,i am too busy in trying to save young men2 and the only way to do that is to lead them to the ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 ,in former years this room was my beloved mother's ,chamber of ,peace that opens to the sun-rising4 ,her pictured face looks down upon me now from the wall1 and her ,bible lies beside me4 ,in this room we gathered on the afternoon of ,september #ad1 #ahhg1 around her dying bed4 ,her last words were3 ,now kiss me good night1 and in an hour or two she fell into that sweet slumber which ,christ gives ,his beloved1 at the ripe age of eighty-five4 ,her mental powers and memory were unimpaired4 ,on the monument which covers her sleeping dust in ,greenwood is engraved these words3 ,return unto thy rest1 ,o my soul2 for the ,lord hath dealt bountifully with thee4 ,this room is also hallowed by another tenderly sacred association4 ,here our beloved daughter1 ,louise ,ledyard ,cuyler1 closed her beautiful life on the last day of ,september1 #ahha4 ,on her return from ,narragansett ,pier1 she was stricken with a mysterious typhoid fever1 which often lays its fatal touch on the most youthful and vigorous frame4 ,she had apparently passed the point of danger1 and one ,sabbath when ,i read to her that one hundred and twenty-first ,psalm1 which records the watchful love of ,him who never sleeps1 our hearts were gladdened with the prospect of a speedy recovery4 ,then came on a fatal relapse2 and in the early hour of dawn1 while our breaking hearts were gathered around her dying bed1 she had another morn than ours4 ,why that noble and gifted daughter1 who was the inseparable companion of her fond mother1 and who was developing into the sweet graces of young womanhood1 was taken from our clinging arms at the early age of twenty-two1 ,god only knows4 ,many another aching parental heart has doubtless knocked at the sealed door of such a mystery1 and heard the only response1 ,what ,i do thou knowest not now1 but thou shalt know hereafter4 ,upon the monument that bears her name1 graven on a cross1 amid a cluster of white lilies1 is inscribed3 ,i thank my ,god upon every remembrance of thee4 ,the lovely twin brother1 ,georgie 7whose sweet life story is told in ,the ,empty ,crib71 reposes in our same family plot1 and beside him lies a baby brother1 ,mathiot ,cuyler1 who lived but twelve days4 ,as this infant was born on the twenty-fifth of ,december1 #ahgc1 his tiny tomb-stone bears the simple inscription3 ,our ,christmas ,gift4 ,during all our seasons of domestic sorrow the cordial sympathies of our noble-hearted congregation were very cheering2 for we had always kept open doors to them all1 and regarded them as only an enlargement of our own family4 ,in our household joys1 they too1 participated4 ,when the twenty-fifth anniversary of our marriage occurred1 they decorated our church with flags and flowers and suspended a huge marriage-bell on an arch before the pulpit4 ,after the ,president of our ,board of ,trustees1 the ,hon4 ,william ,w4 ,goodrich1 had completed his congratulatory address1 two of the officers of the church in imitation of the returning spies from ,eshcol marched in1 bearing between them on a staff a capacious bag of silver dollars4 ,a curiously constructed silver clock is also among the treasured souvenirs of that happy anniversary4 ,in ,april1 #ahhe1 the close of the first quarter-century of my ministry was celebrated by our church with very delightful festivities4 ,addresses were delivered by his ,honor ,mayor ,low1 ,dr4 ,mc,cosh1 of ,princeton1 ,dr4 ,richard ,s4 ,storrs1 and the ,hon4 ,john ,wanamaker1 ,post-,master ,general4 ,a duodecimo volume giving the history of our church and all its activities was published by order of our people4 ,from such a loyal flock in the full tide of its prosperity1 to cut asunder1 required no small exercise of conscience and of courage4 ,when the patriarchal ,dr4 ,emmons1 of ,franklin1 ,massachusetts1 resigned his church at the age of eighty1 he gave the good reason3 ,i mean to stop when ,i have sense enough to know that ,i have not begun1 to fail4 ,in exercising the same grace1 on a ,sabbath morning in ,february1 #ahij1 ,i made before a full congregation the following announcement3 ,nearly thirty years have elapsed since ,i assumed the pastoral charge of the ,lafayette ,avenue ,presbyterian ,church2 and through the continual blessings of ,heaven upon us it has grown into one of the largest and most useful and powerful churches in the ,presbyterian denomination4 ,it has two thousand three hundred and thirty members2 and is third in point of numbers in the ,united ,states4 ,this church has always been to me like a beloved child3 ,i have given to it thirty years of hard and happy labor4 ,it is now my foremost desire that its harmony may remain undisturbed1 and that its prosperity may remain unbroken4 ,for a long time ,i have intended that my thirtieth anniversary should be the terminal point of my present pastorate ,i shall then have served this beloved flock for an ordinary human generation1 and the time has now come to transfer this most sacred trust to some other1 who1 in ,god's good ,providence1 may have thirty years of vigorous work before him1 and not behind him4 ,if ,god spares my life to the first ,sabbath in ,april1 it is my purpose to surrender this pulpit back into your hands1 and ,i shall endeavor to co-operate with you in the search and selection of the right man to stand in it4 ,i will not trust myself to-day to speak of the pang it will cost me to sever a connection that has been to me one of unalloyed harmony and happiness4 ,it only remains for me to say that after forty-four years of uninterrupted mental labor it is but reasonable to ask for some relief from the strain that may soon become too heavy for me to bear4 ,the congregation was quite astounded by this unexpected announcement1 but they recognized the motive that prompted the step1 and acted precisely as ,i desired4 ,they agreed at once to appoint a committee to look for a successor4 ,in order that ,i might not hamper him in any respect1 ,i declined the generous offer of our church to make me their ,pastor ,emeritus4 ,as my pastorate began on an ,easter ,sabbath1 in #ahfj1 so it terminated at the ,easter in #ahij4 ,before an immense assemblage ,i delivered1 on that bright ,sabbath1 the ,valedictory discourse which closes the present volume1 and which gives in condensed form the history of the ,lafayette ,avenue ,church4 ,our noble people never do anything by halves2 and a few evenings after the delivery of my valedictory discourse they gave to their pastor and his wife a public reception1 for which the church1 lecture-room and the church parlors were profusely adorned2 and were crowded with guests4 ,congratulatory addresses were delivered by ,dr4 ,john ,hall of the ,fifth ,avenue ,presbyterian ,church1 ,new ,york1 by ,professor ,william ,m4 ,paxton1 of ,princeton ,theological ,seminary2 and congratulatory letters were read from the venerable poet1 ,whittier1 the ,hon4 ,william ,walter ,phelps1 ,mr4 ,a4,a4 ,low 7the ,mayor's father71 ,general ,william ,h4 ,seward1 ,bishop ,potter and ,dr4 ,herrick ,johnson1 besides a vast number of others renowned in ,church and ,state4 ,on behalf of the ,brooklyn pastors an address was pronounced by the ,rev4 ,dr4 ,l4,t4 ,chamberlain1 which was a rare gem of sparkling oratory4 ,in his concluding passage he said3 ,nor in all these have ,i for an instant forgotten the dual nature of that ministry1 which has been so richly blessed4 ,i recall that in the prophet's symbolic act1 he took to himself two staves1 the one was ',beauty1' while the other was ',bands4' ,in the kingdom of grace and in the kingdom of nature1 loveliness is ever the fit complement of strength4 ,accordingly1 to her1 who has been the enthroned one in the heart1 the light-giver in the home1 the beloved of the church1 we tender our most fervent good wishes ,for her also we lift on high our faithful1 tender intercession4 ,to each1 to both1 we give the renewed assurance of our abiding affection4 ,god grant that life's shadows may lengthen gently and slowly6 ,late1 may you both ascend to ,heaven3 long and happily may you abide with us here6 ,the report of the proceedings of that evening says that at this reference to the dual character of his ministry1 the veteran pastor sprang to his feet and1 seizing ,dr4 ,chamberlain's hand1 exclaimed2 ',i thank you for that1 and the whole assembly's applause revealed its heartfelt sympathy4 ,i had declined more than once1 for good reasons1 the kind offer of my generous flock to increase my salary1 but1 when on that evening that crowned my thirty years of labor1 my dear neighbor and church elder1 ,mr4 ,john ,n4 ,beach 7on behalf of the congregation71 put into my hands a cheque for thirty thousand dollars1 not as a charity but as a token of our warm hearted grateful love1 ,i could only say with the ,apostle ,paul3 ,i rejoice in the ,lord that your care has blossomed out afresh 7for this is the literal reading of the great apostle's gratitude74 ,the proceedings of that memorable evening were closed by a benediction by the ,rev4 ,dr4 ,charles ,l4 ,thompson1 then ,moderator of our ,general ,assembly and now the super-royal ,secretary of our ,board of ,home ,missions4 ,the proceedings were afterwards compiled in a beautiful volume entitled ,a ,thirty ,years' ,pastorate1 by the good taste and literary skill of my beloved friend1 the late ,jacob ,l4 ,gossler4 ,in justice to myself1 let me say that ,i have given this narrative of the closing scenes of my pastoral labors1 not1 ,i trust1 as a matter of personal vain glory2 but that good ,christian people in our own land and in other lands may learn from the example of the ,lafayette ,avenue ,presbyterian ,church how to treat a pastor1 whose simple aim has been1 with ,god's help1 to do his duty4 ,,chapter ,,xix4 ,,life ,,at ,,home--,,and ,,friends ,,abroad4 ,a few months after my resignation1 the ,lafayette ,avenue ,church extended an unanimous call to the ,rev4 ,dr4 ,david ,gregg1 who had become distinguished as a powerful preacher1 and the successful pastor of the old1 historic ,park ,street ,church1 of ,boston4 ,he is also widely known by his published works1 which display great vigor and beauty of style1 and a fervid spirituality4 ,when ,dr4 ,gregg came on to assume his office1 ,i was glad1 not only to give him a hearty welcome1 but to assure him that1 as no one had ever come up into the pilot house to interfere with the helmsman1 so ,i would never lay my hand on the wheel that should steer that superb vessel in all its future voyagings4 ,from that day to this1 my relations with my beloved successor have been unspeakably fraternal and delightful4 ,while ,i have left the entire official charge of the church in his hands1 there have been many occasions on which we have co-operated in various pastoral duties among a flock that was equally dear to us both4 ,recently the ,rev4 ,george ,r4 ,lunn1 a young minister of exceedingly attractive qualities both in the pulpit and in personal intercourse1 has been installed as an assistant pastor4 ,the divine blessing has constantly rested upon the noble old church1 which has gone steadily on1 like a powerful ocean steamer1 well-manned1 well-equipped1 well-freighted1 and well guided by the compass of ,god's infallible word4 ,last year the church rendered a signal service to the cause of ,foreign ,missions by erecting a ,david ,gregg ,hospital and a ,theodore ,l4 ,cuyler ,church in ,canton1 ,china4 ,they are both under the supervision of the ,rev4 ,albert ,a4 ,fulton1 who went out to ,china from our ,lafayette ,avenue flock1 and has been a most energetic and successful missionary for more than twenty years4 ,my ministry at large has brought a needed rest1 not by idleness1 but by a change in the character of my employment4 ,instead of a weekly preparation of sermons1 has come the preparation of more frequent contributions to the religious press4 ,instead of pastoral visitations have been the journeyings to different churches1 or colleges1 and universities and ,young ,men's ,christian ,associations for preaching services4 ,i doubt whether any other dozen years of my life have been more crowded with various activities4 ,to my dear wife and myself have come increased opportunities for travel1 which have been1 during the almost half century of our happy wedded life1 a constant source of enjoyment4 ,we have journeyed together from ,bar ,harbor1 in ,maine1 to ,coronado ,beach1 in ,southern ,california4 ,we have traversed together the ,adirondacks1 the ,white ,mountains and the ,catskills1 the prairies of ,dakota and the orange groves of ,florida1 the peerless parks of ,del ,monte on the shores of the ,pacific1 and the ,royal ,gorge in the heart of the ,rocky ,mountain ,range4 ,our various trips to ,europe have photographed on our hearts the memories of many dear friends and faces1 some of whom1 alas6 have vanished into the unseen world4 ,in the summer of #ahhi1 when we were at ,ayr1 the late ,mr4 ,alexander ,allan1 came down for us in his fine steam yacht1 the ,tigh-na-,mara1 and took us up to his hospitable ,hafton ,house on the ,holy ,loch1 a few miles below ,glasgow4 ,for several days he gave us yachting excursions through ,loch ,goil1 and the ,kyles of ,bute1 and ,loch ,long1 with glimpses of ,ben-,lomond and other monarchs of the ,highlands4 ,when we saw the gorgeous purple garniture of heather in full bloom1 we no longer wondered that ,sir ,walter ,scott was quite satisfied to have his beloved hills devoid of forests4 ,another memorable visit of that summer was to ,chillitigham ,castle in ,northumberland1 from whose towers we got views of ,flodden ,field and the scenes of ,marmion4 ,the venerable ,earl of ,tankerville 7who was a contemporary and supporter of ,sir ,robert ,peel in ,parliament71 and his warm-hearted ,countess1 who has long been a leader in various ,christian philanthropies1 entertained us delightfully within walls that had stood for six centuries4 ,in a forest near the ,castle were the famous herd of wild cattle which are the only survivors of the original herd that roamed that region in the days of ,william the ,conqueror4 ,they are beautiful white creatures1 still too wild to be approached very nearly2 and ,sir ,edwin ,landseer1 an old friend of the ,earl1 has preserved life-sized portraits of two of them on the walls of the lofty dining hall of the castle4 ,when the servants1 gardeners and other retainers assembled for morning worship in the chapel1 the handsome old ,earl presided at the melodeon1 and the singing was from our ,american ,sankey's hymn-book1 a style of music that would have startled the belted knights and barons bold who worshipped in that chapel five centuries ago4 ,while at ,dundee1 as the guests of ,mr4 ,alexander ,h4 ,moncur1 the ,ex-provost of the city1 ,i had the satisfaction of preaching in ,st4 ,peters ,presbyterian ,church1 whose pastor1 sixty years ago1 was that ideal minister1 ,robert ,murray ,mc,cheyne4 ,the ,bible from which he delivered his seraphic sermons was still lying on the pulpit4 ,when ,i asked a plain woman1 the wife of a weaver1 what she could tell me about his discourses1 her remarkable reply was3 ,it did me more good just to see ,mr4 ,mc,cheyne walk from the door to his pulpit than to hear any other man in ,dundee4 ,a fine tribute1 that1 to the power of a ,christly personality4 ,a sermon in shoes is often more eloquent and soul-convincing than a sermon on paper4 ,i spent a very pleasant hour with sturdy ,john ,bright1 and he told me that he had more relatives living in ,america than in ,england4 ,his reason for declining the invitation of our government to visit the ,united ,states was that he knew too well what our enthusiastic countrymen had in store for him4 ,the separation of ,bright and ,gladstone on the question of ,irish ,home ,rule had a certain tragic element of sadness4 ,when ,i spoke of this to ,mr4 ,gladstone1 the old statesman of ,hawarden tenderly replied3 ,whenever ,i think now of my dear old friend1 ,i always think only of those days when we were in our warmest fellowship ,among the many other recollections of foreign incidents ,i must mention a very delightful luncheon at ,athens with ,dr4 ,schlieman in his superb house which was filled with the trophies of his exploration of the ,troad and ,mycenae4 ,i found him a most genial man2 and he told me that he had never surrendered his ,american citizenship1 acquired in #ahej4 ,it was very amusing to hear him and his ,grecian wife address their children as ,agamemnon and ,andromache and ,i half expected to see ,plato drop in for a chat1 or ,euripides call with an invitation to witness a rehearsal of the ,medea4 ,athens is to me the most satisfactory of all the restored cities of antiquity1 every relic there is so indisputably genuine4 ,my sunrise view from the ,parthenon was a fair match for a midnight view ,i once had of ,olivet and ,gethsemane4 ,i cannot close these recollections of foreign friends without making mention of the late ,mr4 ,william ,tweedie and his successor the late ,mr4 ,robert ,rae1 the efficient ,secretaries of the ,national ,temperance ,league 7of which ,archbishop ,temple has long been the ,president74 ,they rendered me endless acts of kindness1 and at their anniversary meetings ,i met many of the most prominent advocates of the temperance reform in ,great ,britain4 ,it gives me a sharp pang to recall the fact that of all the leaders whom ,i met at those meetings1 the gallant ,sir ,wilfred ,lawson and ,mr4 ,caine are almost the only survivors4 ,returning now to the scenes of our happy home life ,i should be criminally neglectful if ,i failed to give even a brief account of the gratifying incidents connected with the recent commemoration of my eightieth birthday4 ,reluctant as ,i was to quit the good ,society of the ,seventies1 the transition into four-score was lubricated by so many loving kindnesses that ,i scarcely felt a jolt or a jar4 ,during the whole month of ,january a steady shower of congratulatory letters poured in from all parts of the land and from beyond sea1 so that ,i was made to realize the poet ,wordsworth's modest confession3 ,i've heard of hearts unkind kind deeds ,with coldness still returning1 ,alas1 the gratitude of men ,has oftener left me mourning4 ,in anticipation of the event ,mrs4 ,houghton1 the editor of the ,new ,york ,evangelist1 to which ,i have been so long a contributor1 issued a ,birthday ,number containing the most kindly expressions from representatives of different ,christian denominations1 and officers of various benevolent societies1 and from representative men in secular affairs1 like ,mr4 ,andrew ,carnegie1 ,mr4 ,jesup1 ,general ,woodford1 the ,hon4 ,mr4 ,coombs1 ,dr4 ,st4 ,clair ,mc,kelway1 and others4 ,on the afternoon of ,january #ith1 the ,national ,temperance ,society honored me with a reception at their ,publication ,house in ,new ,york1 which was attended by many eminent citizens and clergymen1 and honorable women not a few4 ,letters and telegrams from many quarters were read and an eloquent address was pronounced by ,mr4 ,joshua ,l4 ,bailey1 the ,president of the ,society4 ,the evening of my birthday1 the #ajth of ,january1 was spent in our own home1 which was in full bloom with an immense profusion of flowers1 and enriched with beautiful gifts from many generous hearts4 ,for three hours it was the joy unfeigned of my family and myself to grasp again the warm hands of our faithful ,lafayette ,avenue flock1 and of my ,brooklyn neighbors who had for two-score years gladdened our lives1 as the ,great ,apostle was gladdened by his loyal friends at ,thessalonica4 ,illustration3 ,,dr ,,cuyler ,,at #hj ,from a photograph1 ,january1 #aijb ,on ,saturday evening the #aath1 the ,chi ,alpha ,society of ,new ,york1 the oldest and most widely known of clerical brotherhoods1 gave me their fraternal greetings at the residence of the venerable ,mrs4 ,william ,e4 ,dodge1 now blessed with unimpaired vigor1 in the golden autumn of a life protracted beyond four-score and ten4 ,the walls of that hospitable mansion on ,murray ,hill have probably welcomed more persons eminent in the religious activities of our own and other lands than any other private residence in ,america4 ,brief speeches were made2 a beautiful address was presented1 which now1 embossed and framed1 adorns the walls of my library4 ,after this the ,rev4 ,charles ,lemuel ,thompson1 an ,ex-moderator of our ,general ,assembly1 and now the ,secretary of the ,board of ,home ,missions1 read the following ringing lines which he had composed on behalf of my fellow voyagers on many a cruise and in many a conflict for our adorable ,lord and ,king4 ,my only apology for introducing them here is their rare poetic merit which entitles them to a more permanent place than in the many journals in which they were reprinted4 ,i ought to add that ,croton is the name of the river and the reservoir that supply ,new ,york with its wholesome water3 ,,our ,,captain4 ,fill--fill up your glasses--with ,croton6 ,fill full to the brim ,i say1 ,for the dearest old boy among us1 ,who is ten times eight to-day4 ,it is three times three and a tiger-- ,it is hand to your caps1 ,o men6 ,for our ,captain of captains rejoices1 ,in his counting of eight times ten4 ,foot square on the bridge and gripping ,as steady as fate the wheel1 ,he has taken the storms to his forehead1 ,and cheered in the tempest's reel4 ,he has seen the green sea monsters ,go writhing down the gale1 ,but never a hand to slacken1 ,and never a heart to fail4 ,so ,it's--,ho'--to our ,captain dauntless1 ,trumpet-tongued and eagle-eyed1 ,with the spray of the voyage behind him1 ,and the ,pilot by his side4 ,together they sail into sunset-- ,slow down for the harbor bell1 ,for the flash of the port1 and the message ,well done---,it is well--,it is well4 ,so it's three times three and a tiger6 ,breathe deep for the man we love1 ,his heart is the heart of a lion1 ,his soul is the soul of a dove4 ,it is--,ho6--to the ,captain we honor1 ,salute we the man and the day1 ,on his brow are the snows of ,december1 ,in his heart are the bird songs of ,may4 ,the ,scripture passage from which ,i discoursed on the next ,sabbath morning1 ,january #abth1 in our ,lafayette ,avenue ,church pulpit--,at evening time it shall be light--seems especially appropriate to an autobiography penned at a time when the life-day is already far spent4 ,there are some people who have a pitiful dread of old age4 ,for myself1 instead of it being a matter of sorrow or of pain1 it is rather an occasion of profound joy that ,god has enabled me to write in my family record ,four score years4 ,the ,october of life may be one of the most fruitful months in all its calendar2 and the ,indian summer its brightest period when ,god's sunshine kindles every leaf on the tree with crimson and golden glories4 ,faith grows in its tenacity of fibre by the long continued exercise of testing ,god1 and trusting ,his promises4 ,the veteran ,christian can turn over the leaves of his well-worn ,bible and say3 ,this ,book has been my daily companion2 ,i know all about this promise and that one and that other one2 for ,i have tried them for myself1 ,i have a great pile of cheques which my ,heavenly ,father has cashed with gracious blessings4 ,bunyan brings his ,pilgrim1 not into a second infant school where they may sit down in imbecility1 or loiter in idleness2 he brings them into ,beulah ,land1 where the birds fill the air with music2 and where they catch glimpses of the ,celestial ,city4 ,they are drawing nearer to the end of their long journey and beyond that river1 that has no bridge1 looms up the ,new ,jerusalem in all its flashing splendors4 ,in a previous chapter ,i have told the story of our bereavement when ,god took three of our precious children to ,himself2 but to-day we can chant the twenty-third ,psalm1 for the overflowing cup of mercies that sweeten our home1 and for the two loving children that are spared to us4 ,our eldest daughter1 ,mary1 is the wife of ,dr4 ,william ,s4 ,cheeseman1 an eminent physician in the beautiful city of ,auburn1 the ,county-seat of my native ,county of ,cayuga4 ,it is the site of one of our principal ,theological ,seminaries1 from which have graduated many of the foremost ministers in our ,presbyterian denomination4 ,one of the earliest professors of that institution was the revered ,dr4 ,henry ,mills1 who baptized me in my infancy4 ,auburn is also well known as the residence of our celebrated statesman ,william ,h4 ,seward1 who was ,secretary of ,state under ,president ,lincoln4 ,from the window of my daughter's home ,i look over at the summer house in which that illustrious patriot meditated some of his state papers2 and just beyond is the bronze statue reared to his memory4 ,our only living son1 ,theodore ,ledyard ,cuyler1 ,jr41 the surviving twin brother of little ,georgie1 fills an honorable position as an officer of the ,postal ,telegraph and ,cable ,company in ,new ,york4 ,since the death of his lovely young wife1 several years ago1 he has resided with us1 and his only son1 ,ledyard1 is the joy of his grandparents' hearts4 ,the sister and niece of my wife complete our household--and our happiness4 ,my journey hence to the sun-setting must be brief at the farthest4 ,i only ask to live just as long as ,god has any work for me to do--and not one moment longer4 ,i do not seek to measure with this hand how high the sun of life may yet be above the horizon2 but when it does go down1 may my closing eyes behold the bright effulgence of ,heaven's blessings upon yonder glorious sanctuary1 and its faithful flock4 ,after my long day's work for the ,master is over1 and this mortal body has been put to sleep in yonder beautiful dormitory of ,greenwood by the sea1 ,i desire that the inscription that shall be written over my slumbering dust may be1 ,the ,founder of ,lafayette ,avenue ,presbyterian ,church4 ,,chapter ,,xx4 ,,the ,,joys ,,of ,,the ,,christian ,,ministry4 ,a ,valedictory ,discourse ,delivered to the ,lafayette ,avenue ,church1 ,april #f1 #ahij4 ,i invite your attention this morning to the nineteenth and twentieth verses of the second chapter of ,paul's ,epistle to the ,thessalonians3 ,for what is our hope1 or joy1 or crown of rejoicing8 ,are not even ye in the presence of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ at ,his coming8 ,for ye are our glory and joy4 ,these words were written by the most remarkable man in the annals of the ,christian ,church4 ,great interest is attached to them from the fact that they are part of the first inspired epistle that ,paul ever wrote4 ,nay1 more4 ,the letter to the ,church of ,thessalonica is probably the earliest as to date of all the books of the ,new ,testament4 ,paul was then at ,corinth1 about fifty-two years old1 in the full vigor of his splendid prime4 ,his spiritual son1 ,timothy1 brings him tidings from the infant church in ,thessalonica1 that awakens his solicitude4 ,he yearns to go and see them1 but he cannot2 so he determines to write to them2 and one day he lays aside his tent needle1 seizes his pen1 and1 when that pen touches the papyrus sheet the ,new ,testament begins4 ,the ,apostle's great1 warm heart kindles and blazes as he goes on1 and at length bursts out in this impassioned utterance3 ,ye are my glory and joy6 ,paul1 ,i thank thee for a thousand things1 but for nothing do ,i thank thee more than for that golden sentence4 ,in these thrilling words1 the greatest of ,christian pastors1 rising above the poverty1 homelessness1 and scorn that surrounded him1 reaches forth his hand and grasps his royal diadem4 ,no man shall rob the aged hero of his crown4 ,no chaplet worn by a ,roman conqueror in the hour of his brightest triumph1 rivals the coronal that ,pastor ,paul sees flashing before his eyes4 ,it is a crown blazing with stars2 every star an immortal soul plucked from the darkness of sin into the light and liberty of a child of ,god4 ,poor1 is he8 ,he is making many rich4 ,despised is he8 ,he wouldn't change places with ,caesar4 ,homeless is he8 ,his citizenship is in heaven1 where he will find myriads whom he can meet and say to them3 ,ye1 ye are my glory and joy4 ,sixteen centuries after ,paul uttered these words1 ,john ,bunyan re-echoed them when he said3 ,i have counted as if ,i had goodly buildings in the places where my spiritual children were born4 ,my heart has been so wrapt up in this excellent work that ,i accounted myself more honored of ,god than if ,he had made me emperor of all the world1 or the lord of all the glory of the earth without it4 ,he that converteth a sinner from the error of his ways doth save a soul from death1 and they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament4 ,now1 the great ,apostle expressed what every ambassador of ,christ constantly experiences when in the thick of the ,master's work4 ,his are the joys of acquisition4 ,his purse may be scanty1 his teaching may be humble1 and the field of his labor may be so obscure that no bulletins of his achievements are ever proclaimed to an admiring world4 ,difficulties may sadden and discouragement bring him to his knees2 but ,i tell you that obscure1 toiling man of ,god has a joy vouchsafed to him that a ,frederick or a ,marlborough never knew on the field of bloody triumph1 or that a ,rothschild never dreams of in his mansions of splendor1 nor an ,astor with his stores of gold4 ,every nugget of fresh truth discovered makes him happier than one who has found golden spoil4 ,every attentive auditor is a delight2 every look of interest on a human countenance flashes back to illuminate his own4 ,above all1 when the tears of penitence course down a cheek and a returning soul is led by him to the ,saviour1 there is great joy in heaven over a repentant wanderer1 and a joy in that minister's heart too exquisite to utter4 ,then he is repaid in full measure1 pressed down1 running over into his bosom4 ,converted souls are jewels in the caskets of faithful parents1 teachers and pastors4 ,they shall flash in the diadem which the ,righteous ,judge shall give them in that great day4 ,ah6 it is when an ambassador of ,christ sees an army of young converts and listens to the first utterances of their new-born love1 and when he presides at a communion table and sees his spiritual off-spring gathered around him1 more true joy that faithful pastor feels than ,caesar with a ,senate at his heels4 ,rutherford1 of ,scotland1 only voiced the yearnings of every true pastor's heart when he exclaimed3 ,oh1 how rich were ,i if ,i could obtain of my ,lord the salvation of you all6 ,what a prey had ,i gotten to have you all caught in ,christ's net4 ,my witness is above1 that your heaven would be the two heavens to me1 and the salvation of you all would be two salvations to me4 ,yet1 my beloved people1 when ,i recall the joy of my forty-four years of public ministry ,i often shudder at the fact of how near ,i came to losing it4 ,for very many months my mind was balancing between the pulpit and the attractions of a legal and political career4 ,a single hour in a village prayer-meeting turned the scale4 ,but perhaps behind it all a beloved mother's prayers were moving the mysterious hand that touched the poised balance1 and made souls outweigh silver1 and eternity outweigh time4 ,would that ,i could lift up my voice this morning in every academy1 college and university on this broad continent4 ,i would say to every gifted ,christian youth1 ,god and humanity have need of you4 ,he who redeemed you by ,his precious blood has a sovereign right to the best brains and the most persuasive tongues and the highest culture4 ,why crowd into the already over-crowded professions8 ,the only occupation in ,america that is not overdone is the occupation of serving ,jesus ,christ and saving souls4 ,i do not affirm that a ,christian cannot serve his ,master in any other sphere or calling than the ,gospel ministry1 but ,i do affirm that the ambition for worldly gains and worldly honors is sluicing the very heart of ,god's ,church1 and drawing out to-day much of the ,church's best blood in their greedy outlets4 ,and ,i fearlessly declare that when the most splendid talent has reached the loftiest round on the ladder of promotion1 that round is many rungs lower than a pulpit in which a consecrated tongue proclaims a living ,christianity to a dying world4 ,what ,lord ,eldon from the bar1 what ,webster from the ,senate-chamber1 what ,sir ,walter ,scott from the realms of romance1 what ,darwin from the field of science1 what monarch from ,wall ,street or ,lombard ,street can carry his laurels or his gold up to the judgment seat and say1 ,these are my joy and crown8 ,the laurels and the gold will be dust--ashes4 ,but if so humble a servant of ,jesus ,christ as your pastor can ever point to the gathered flock arrayed in white before the celestial throne1 then he may say1 ,what is my hope1 or joy1 or crown of rejoicing4 ,are not even ye in the presence of ,christ at ,his coming8 ,good friends1 ,i have told you what aspirations led me to the pulpit as a place in which to serve my ,master2 and ,i thank ,christ1 the ,lord1 for putting me into the ministry4 ,the forty-four years ,i have spent in that office have been unspeakably happy4 ,many a far better man has not been as happy from causes beyond control4 ,he may have had to contend with feeble health as ,i never have2 or a despondent temperament1 as ,i never have2 or have struggled to maintain a large household on a slender purse2 he may have been placed in a stubborn field1 where the ,gospel was shattered to pieces on flinty hearts4 ,from all such trials a kind ,providence has delivered your pastor4 ,my ministry began in a very small church4 ,for that ,i am thankful4 ,let no young minister covet a large parish at the outset4 ,the clock that is not content to strike one will never strike twelve4 ,in that little parish at ,burlington1 ,n4,j41 ,i had opportunity for the two most valuable studies for any minister--,god's ,book and individual hearts4 ,my next call was to organize and serve an infant church in ,trenton1 ,n4,j41 and for that ,i am thankful4 ,laying the foundation of a new church affords capital tuition in spiritual masonry1 and the walls of that church have stood firm and solid for forty years4 ,the crowning mercy of my ,trenton ministry was this1 that one ,sunday while ,i was watering the flock1 a goodlier vision than that of ,rebecca appeared at the well's mouth1 and the sweet sunshine of that presence has never departed from the pathway of my life4 ,to this hour the prosaic old capital of ,new ,jersey has a halo of poetry floating over it1 and ,i never go through it without waving a benediction from the passing train4 ,the next stage of my life's work was a seven years' pastorate of ,market ,street ,church in the city of ,new ,york4 ,to those seven years of hard and happy labor ,i look back with joy4 ,the congregation swarmed with young men1 many of whom have risen to prominence in the commercial and religious life of the great metropolis4 ,the name of ,market ,street is graven indelibly on my heart4 ,i rejoice that the quaint old edifice still stands and welcomes every ,sabbath a congregation of landsmen and of sailors4 ,during the year #aheh occurred the great revival1 when a mighty wind from ,heaven filled every house where the people of ,god were sitting1 and the glorious work of that revival kept many of us busy for six months1 night and day4 ,early in the year #ahfj a signal was made to me from this side of the ,east ,river4 ,it came from a brave little band then known as the ,park ,presbyterian ,church1 who had never had any installed pastor4 ,the signal at first was unheeded2 but a higher than human hand seemed to be behind it1 and ,i had only to obey4 ,that little flock stood like the man of ,macedonia1 saying1 ,come over and help us1 and after ,i had seen the vision immediately ,i decided to come1 assuredly concluding that ,god had called me to preach the ,gospel unto them4 ,this morning my memory goes back to that chilly1 stormy ,april ,sunday when my labors began as your first pastor4 ,about two hundred and fifty people1 full of grace and grit1 gathered on that ,easter morning to see how ,god could roll away stones that for two years had blocked their path with discouragement4 ,my first message many of you remember4 ,it was1 ,i determined not to know anything among you save ,jesus ,christ and ,him crucified4 ,of that little company the large majority has departed4 ,many of them are among the white-robed that now behold their risen ,lord in glory4 ,of the seventeen church officers--elders1 deacons and trustees--then in office1 who greeted me that day1 only four are living1 and of that number only one1 ,mr4 ,albion ,p4 ,higgins1 is now a member of this congregation4 ,i wonder how many there are here this morning that gathered before my pulpit on that ,easter ,sunday thirty years ago8 ,as many of you as there are present that were at that service thirty years ago will do me a favor if you will rise in your pews4 7,thirteen people here stood up47 ,god bless you6 ,if it hadn't been for you this ark would never have been built4 ,ah6 we had happy days in that modest chapel4 ,the tempest of civil war was raging1 with ,lincoln's steady hand at the helm4 ,we got our share of the gale2 but we set our storm-sails1 and every one that could handle ropes stood at his or her place4 ,just think of the money contributions that small church made during the first year of my pastorate--#bj1jjj1 not in paper1 but in gold4 ,the little band in that chapel was not only generous in donations but valiant in spirit1 and it was under the gracious shower of a revival that we removed into this edifice on the #afth of ,march1 #ahfb4 ,the subsequent history of the church was published so fully at the notable anniversary five years ago that ,i need only repeat the chief head-lines in a very few sentences4 ,in #ahfc ,mr4 ,william ,wickes started a mission school1 which afterward grew into the present ,cumberland ,street ,church4 ,in #ahff occurred that wonderful work of grace that resulted in the addition of #cbj souls to our membership1 one hundred of them heads of families4 ,as a thank-offering to ,god for that rich blessing the ,memorial ,mission ,school was established1 which was soon organized into the ,memorial ,presbyterian ,church1 now on ,seventh ,avenue1 under the excellent pastorate of my ,brother ,nelson4 ,during the winter of #ahfg a conference of gentlemen was held in yonder study which set on foot the present ,classon ,avenue ,church1 where my ,brother ,chamberlain administers equally satisfactorily4 ,olivet ,mission was organized in #ahgd4 ,it will always be fragrant with the memory of ,horace ,b4 ,griffing1 its first superintendent4 ,the ,cuyler ,chapel was opened on ,atlantic ,avenue in ,march1 #ahhf1 by our ,young ,people's ,association1 who are maintaining it most vigorously4 ,the little ,corwin ,mission on ,myrtle ,avenue was established by a member of the church to perpetuate his name1 and is largely sustained by members of this church4 ,of all the efficient1 successful labors of the ,lafayette ,avenue ,temperance ,society1 the ,women's ,home and ,foreign ,missionary ,society1 their ,benevolent ,society1 the ,cuyler ,mission ,band1 the ,daughters of the ,temple1 and other kindred organizations4 ,i have no time or place to speak this morning4 ,but ,i must repeat now what ,i have said in years past1 that the two strong arms of this church are its ,sunday ,school and its ,young ,people's ,association4 ,the former has been kept well up to the ideal of such an institution4 ,it is that of a training school of young hearts for this life and for the life to come4 ,god's blessing has descended upon it like the morning dew4 ,of the large number of children that have been enrolled in its classes #gcj have been received into membership with this church alone1 and to the profession of faith in ,christ--to say nothing of those who have joined elsewhere4 ,warmly do ,i thank and heartily do ,i congratulate our beloved brother1 ,daniel ,w4 ,mc,williams1 and his faithful group of teachers1 and the ,superintendent of the primary department and her group of assistants1 on the seal which ,god has set upon their loving work4 ,they contemplate the long array of children whom they have guided to ,jesus2 and they1 too1 can exclaim1 ,what is our joy or crown of rejoicing8 ,are not even ye in the ,lord8 ,if the ,sunday ,school has rendered good service1 so has the well-drilled and well-watered ,young ,people's ,association4 ,the fires of devotion have never gone out on the altar of their ,monday evening gatherings4 ,for length of days and number of membership combined1 probably it surpasses all similar young people's associations in our country4 ,about three thousand names have been on its membership roll1 and of this number twelve have set their faces toward the ,gospel ministry4 ,oh1 what a source of joy to me that ,i leave that association in such a high condition of vigor and prosperity6 ,no church can languish1 no church can die1 while it has plenty of young blood in its veins4 ,what has been the outcome of these thirty years of happy pastorate8 ,as far as the results can be tabulated the following is a brief summary3--,during my pastorate here ,i have preached about #b1gej discourses1 have delivered a very large number of public addresses in behalf of ,sunday ,schools1 ,young ,men's ,associations1 the temperance reform1 and kindred enterprises for advancing human welfare4 ,i have officiated at #fhb marriages4 ,i have baptized #ifb children4 ,the total number received into the membership of this church during this time has been #d1bbc4 ,of this number #a1ibj have united by a confession of their faith in ,jesus ,christ4 ,an army1 you see1 an army of nearly two thousand souls1 have enlisted under the banner of ,king ,jesus1 and taken their sacramentum1 or vow of loyalty1 before this pulpit4 ,what is our crown of rejoicing8 ,are not even they in the presence of ,christ at ,his coming8 ,it is due to you that ,i should commend your liberality in gifts to ,god's treasury4 ,during these thirty years over #fdj1jjj have been contributed for ecclesiastical and benevolent purposes1 and about #gjj1jjj for the maintenance of the sanctuary1 its worship1 and its work4 ,over a million and a quarter of dollars have passed through these two channels4 ,the successive boards of trustees have managed our financial affairs carefully and efficiently4 ,the architecture of this noble edifice is not disfigured by any mortgage4 ,i hope it never will be4 ,there is one department of ministerial labor that has had a peculiar attraction to me and afforded me peculiar joy4 ,pastoral work has always been my passion4 ,it has been my rule to know everybody in this congregation1 if possible1 and seldom have ,i allowed a day to pass without a visit to some of your homes4 ,i fancied that you cared more to have a warm-hearted pastor than a cold-blooded preacher1 however intellectual4 ,to carry out thoroughly a system of personal oversight1 to visit every family1 to stand by the sick and dying beds1 to put one's self into sympathy with aching hearts and bereaved households1 is a process that has swallowed up time1 and ,i tell you it has strained the nerves prodigiously4 ,costly as the process has been1 it has paid4 ,if ,i have given sermons to you1 ,i have got sermons from you4 ,the closest tie that binds us together is that sacred tie that has been wound around the cribs in your nurseries1 the couches in your sick chambers1 the chairs at your fireside1 and even the coffins that have borne away your precious dead4 ,my fondest hope is that however much you may honor and love my successor in this pulpit1 you will evermore keep a warm place in the chimney-corner of your hearts for the man that gave the best thirty years of his life to your service4 ,here let me bespeak for my successor the most kind and reasonable allowance as to pastoral labors4 ,do not expect too much from him4 ,very few ministers have the peculiar passion for pastoral service that ,i have had2 and if ,christ's ambassador who shall occupy this pulpit proclaims faithfully the whole ,gospel of ,god and brings a sympathetic heart to your houses1 do not criticize him unjustly because he may not attempt to make twenty-five thousand pastoral visits in thirty years4 ,house to house visitation has only been one hemisphere of the pastor's work4 ,i have accordingly endeavored to guard the door of yonder study so that ,i might give undivided energy to preparation for this pulpit4 ,you know1 my dear people1 how ,i have preached and what ,i have preached4 ,in spite of many interruptions1 ,i have honestly handled each topic as best ,i could4 ,the minister that foolishly runs races with himself is doomed to an early suicide4 ,all that ,i claim for my sermons is that they have been true to ,god's ,book and the cross of ,jesus ,christ--have been simple enough for a child to understand1 and have been preached in full view of the judgment seat4 ,i have aimed to keep this pulpit abreast of all great moral reforms and human progress1 and the majestic marchings of the kingdom of ,king ,jesus4 ,the preparation of my sermons has been an unspeakable delight4 ,the manna fell fresh every morning1 and it had to me the sweetness of angels' food4 ,ah1 there are many sharp pangs before me4 ,none will be sharper than the hour that bids farewell to yonder blessed and beloved study4 ,for twenty-eight years it has been my daily home--one of the dearest spots this side of ,heaven4 ,from its walls have looked down upon me the inspiring faces of ,chalmers1 ,charles ,wesley1 ,spurgeon1 ,lincoln and ,gladstone2 ,adams1 ,storrs1 ,guthrie1 ,newman ,hall1 and my beloved teachers1 ,charles ,hodge and the ,alexanders of ,princeton4 ,thither your infant children have been brought on ,sabbath mornings1 awaiting their baptism4 ,thither your older children have come by hundreds to converse with me about the welfare of their souls4 ,thither have come all the candidates for admission to the fellowship of this church1 and have made there their confession of faith and their allegiance to ,christ4 ,oh1 what blessed interviews with inquirers have been held there6 ,what sweet and happy fellowship with my successive bands of helpers1 some of whom have joined the general assembly of the redeemed in glory4 ,that hallowed study has been to me sometimes a ,bochim of tears1 and sometimes a ,hermon1 when the vision was of no man save ,jesus only4 ,and the work there has been a wider one for a far wider multitude than these walls contain this morning4 ,i have written there nearly all the hundreds of articles which have gone out through the religious press1 over this country1 over ,great ,britain1 over ,europe1 over ,australia1 ,canada1 ,india1 and ,new ,zealand4 ,during my ministry ,i have published about #c1bjj of these articles4 ,many of them have been gathered into books1 many of them translated into ,swedish1 ,spanish1 ,dutch1 and other foreign tongues4 ,they have made the scratch of a very humble pen audible to ,christendom4 ,the consecrated pen may be more powerful than the consecrated tongue4 ,i devoutly thank ,god for having condescended to use my humble pen to the spread of his ,gospel2 and ,i purpose with ,his help to spend much of the brief remainder of my life in preaching ,his glorious ,gospel through the press4 ,i am sincerely sorry that the necessities of this hour seem to require so personal a discourse this morning2 but ,i must hide behind the example of the great ,apostle who gave me my text4 ,because ,he reviewed ,his ministry among ,his spiritual children of ,thessalonica1 ,i may be allowed to review my own1 too--standing here this morning under such peculiar circumstances4 ,these thirty years have been to me years of unbounded joy4 ,sorrow ,i have had1 when death paid four visits to my house2 but the sorrow taught sympathy with the grief of others4 ,sins ,i have committed--too many of them2 your patient love has never cast a stone4 ,the faults of my ministry have been my own4 ,the successes of my ministry have been largely due under ,god1 to your co-operation1 and1 above all1 to the amazing goodness of our ,heavenly ,father4 ,looking my long pastorate squarely in the face1 ,i think ,i can honestly say that ,i have been no man's man2 ,i have never courted the rich1 nor wilfully neglected the poor2 ,i have never blunted the sword of the ,spirit lest it should cut your consciences1 or concealed a truth that might save a soul4 ,in no large church is there a perfect unanimity of tastes as to preaching4 ,i do not doubt that there are some of you that are quite ready for the experiment of a new face in this pulpit1 and perhaps there may be some who are lusting after the fat quail of elaborate or philosophic discourse4 ,for thirty years ,i have tried to feed you on nothing but manna4 ,whatever the difference of taste1 you have always stood by me1 true as steel4 ,this has been your spiritual home2 and you have loved your home1 and you have drunk every ,sunday from your own well1 and though the water of life has not always been passed up to you in a richly embossed silver cup1 it has drawn up the undiluted ,gospel from the inspired fountain-head4 ,to hear the truth1 to heed the truth1 to back the truth with prayer and toil1 has been the delight of the stanchest members of this church4 ,oh1 the children of this church are inexpressibly dear to me6 ,there are hundreds here to-day that never had any other home1 nor ever knew any other pastor4 ,i think ,i can say that every baptism has baptized us into closer fellowship1 every marriage has married us into closer union1 every funeral that bore away your beloved dead1 only bound us more strongly to the living4 ,every invitation from another church--and ,i have had some very attractive ones that ,i never told you about--every invitation from another church has always been promptly declined2 for ,i long ago determined never to be pastor of any other than ,lafayette ,avenue ,church4 ,what is my joy or crown of rejoicing8 ,are not even ye--ye--in the presence of ,christ at ,his coming8 ,why1 then1 sunder a tie that is bound to every fibre of my inmost heart8 ,i will answer you frankly4 ,there must be no concealment or false pretexts between us4 ,in the first place1 as ,i told you two months ago1 ,i had determined to make my thirtieth anniversary the terminal point of my present pastorate4 ,i determined not to outstay my fullest capacity for the enormous work demanded here4 ,the extent of that demanded work increases every twelve months4 ,the requirements of preaching twice every ,sunday1 to visit the vast number of families directly connected with this church1 attending funeral services1 conferring with committees about ,christian work of various kinds1 and numberless other duties--all these requirements are prodigious4 ,thus far1 by the ,divine help1 ,i have carried that load4 ,my health to-day is as firm as usual2 and ,i thank ,god that such forces of heart and brain as ,he has given me are unabated4 ,the chronic catarrh that long ago muffled my ears to many a strain of sweet music1 has never made me too deaf to hear the sweet accents of your love4 ,but ,i understand my constitution well enough to know that ,i could not carry the undivided load of this great church a great while longer without the risk of breaking down2 and there must be no risk run with you or with myself4 ,i also desire to assist you in transferring this magnificent vessel to the next pilot whom ,god shall appoint2 and ,i wish to transfer it while it is well-manned1 well-equipped1 and on the clear sea of an unbroken financial and spiritual prosperity4 ,no man shall ever say that ,i so far presumed on the generous kindness of this dear church as to linger here until ,i had outlived my usefulness4 ,for these reasons ,i present to-day my resignation of this sacred1 precious charge4 ,it is my honest desire and purpose that this day must terminate my present pastorate4 ,for presenting this resignation ,i alone am responsible before ,god1 before this church and before the world4 ,when you shall have accepted my resignation1 the whole responsibility for the welfare of this beloved church will rest on your shoulders--not on mine4 ,my earnest prayer is that you may soon be directed to the right man to be your minister1 to one who shall unite all hearts and all hands1 and carry forward the high and holy mission to which ,god has called you4 ,he will find in me not a jealous critic1 but a hearty ally in everything that he may regard for the welfare of this church4 ,as for myself ,i do not propose to sit down on the veranda and watch the sun of life wheel downward in the west4 ,the labors of a pen and of a ministry at large will afford me no lack of employment4 ,the welfare of this church is inexpressibly dear to me--nothing is dearer to me this side of heaven4 ,if1 therefore1 while this flock remains shepherdless1 and in search of my successor1 ,i can be of actual service to you in supplying at any time this pulpit or performing pastoral labor1 that service1 beloved1 shall be performed cheerfully4 ,the first thought1 the only thought with all of us1 is this church1 this church1 ,,this ,,church4 ,i call no man my friend1 you must call no man your friend that does not stand by the interests of ,lafayette ,avenue ,church4 ,it is now called to meet a great emergency4 ,for the first time in twenty-eight years this church is subjected to a severe strain4 ,during all these years you had very smooth sailing4 ,you have never been crippled by debt2 you have never been distracted with quarrels1 and you have never been without a pastor in your pulpit or your homes when you needed him4 ,and ,i suppose no church in ,brooklyn has ever been subjected to less strain than this one4 ,now you are called upon to face a new condition of things1 perhaps a new danger--certainly a new duty4 ,the duty overrides the danger4 ,to meet that duty you are strong in numbers4 ,there are #b1cej names on your church register4 ,of these many are young children1 many are non-residents who have never asked a dismission to other churches2 but a great army of church members three ,sabbaths ago rose up before that sacramental table4 ,you are strong in a holy harmony4 ,let no man1 no woman1 break the ranks6 ,you are strong in the protection of that great ,shepherd who never resigns and who never grows old4 ,lo6 ,i am with you always6 ,lo6 ,i am with you always6 ,lo6 ,i am with you always6 seems to greet me this morning from every wall of this sanctuary4 ,i confidently expect to see ,lafayette ,avenue ,church move steadily forward with unbroken column led by the ,captain of our salvation4 ,all eyes are upon you4 ,the eye that never slumbers or sleeps is watching over you4 ,if you are all true to conscience1 true to your covenants1 true to ,christ1 the future of this dear church may be as glorious as its past4 ,and when another thirty years have rolled away1 it may still be a strong tower of the truth on which the smile of ,god shall rest like the light of the morning4 ,by as much as you love me1 ,i entreat you not to sadden my life or break my heart by ever deserting these walls1 or letting the fire of devotion burn down on these sacred altars4 ,the hands of the clock warn me to close4 ,this is one of the most trying hours of my whole life4 ,it is an hour when tears are only endurable by being rainbowed with the memory of tender mercies and holy joys4 ,when my feet descend those steps to-day1 this will no longer be my pulpit4 ,i surrender it back before ,god into your hands4 ,one of my chiefest sorrows is that ,i leave some of my beloved hearers out of ,christ4 ,oh1 you have been faithfully warned here1 and you have been lovingly invited here2 and once more1 as though ,god did beseech you by me1 ,i implore you in ,christ's name to be reconciled to ,god4 ,this dear pulpit1 whose teachings are based on the ,rock of ,ages1 will stand long after the lips that now address you have turned to dust4 ,it will be visible from the judgment seat2 and its witness will be that ,i determined to know not anything among you save ,jesus ,christ and ,him crucified4 ,to-day ,i write the last page in the record of thirty bright1 happy1 ,heaven-blessed years among you4 ,what is written is written4 ,i shall fold up the book and lay it away with all its many faults2 and it will not lose its fragrance while between its leaves are the pressed flowers of your love4 ,when my closing eyes shall look on that record for the last time1 ,i hope to discover there only one name--the name that is above every name1 the name of ,him whose glory crowns this ,eastern morn with radiant splendor1 the name of ,jesus ,christ1 ,king of kings1 and ,lord of lords4 ,and the last words ,i utter in this sacred spot are unto ,him that loves us and delivers us from sin with ,his precious blood2 and unto ,god be all the praise and thanks and dominion and glory for ever and ever4 ,amen4 ,,index4 ,a ,adams1 ,dr4 ,william1 #bja-bje4 ,albert1 ,prince1 #cb4 ,alexander1 ,archibald1 #hb1 #aia-c4 ,alexander1 ,dr4 ,james ,w1 #i4 ,alexander1 ,dr4 ,joseph ,addison1 #hb1 #aic-e4 ,alexander1 ,stephen1 #i4 ,allen1 ,mr4 ,alexander1 #cad4 ,allison1 ,william ,j1 #aba4 ,american ,seamen's ,friend ,society1 #bee4 ,anderson1 ,captain ,james1 #adf1 #adi4 ,armstrong1 ,samuel ,c1 #aeh4 ,astor1 ,john ,jacob1 #bgc1 #bge-f4 ,aurora1 birthplace1 ,i4 ,b ,bailey1 ,joshua1 #eg4 ,baillie1 ,mrs4 ,joanna1 #cj-a4 ,barnes1 ,albert1 #aie4 ,batcheler1 ,general1 #bca4 ,beecher1 ,henry ,ward1 #aej1 #aeb1 #bac-ae1 #bie4 ,beecher1 ,miss ,catherine1 #bca4 ,binney1 ,thomas1 #agj-agb4 ,blair1 ,general ,francis ,p41 #aj4 ,bonar1 ,dr4 ,horatius1 #dj1 #db4 ,booth1 ,mrs4 ,catherine1 #bfe4 ,booth1 ,general1 #bfe4 ,bowring1 ,sir ,john1 #ci-dj4 ,bright1 ,john1 #bg1 #acd1 #caf4 ,brown1 ,dr4 ,john1 #aje1 #aji1 #adg4 ,brooks1 ,phillips1 #aie4 ,burns1 ,robert1 #ab1 #ag-ai1 #bf4 ,bushnell1 ,horace1 #aij-a4 ,byron1 ,lord1 #ac4 ,c ,campbell1 ,thomas1 #ca4 ,carlyle1 ,thomas1 #bc-i4 ,carnaham1 ,dr41 ,president of ,princeton1 #i4 ,carnegie1 ,andrew1 #ei-fj1 #bge4 ,cary1 ,edward1 #cja4 ,cass1 ,general ,lewis1 #cd4 ,channing1 ,dr4 ,ellery1 #ca4 ,chauncey1 ,charles1 #fc4 ,cheeseman1 ,dr4 ,william1 #cbb4 ,chi ,alpha ,society1 #cai4 ,christian ,endeavor 7,see ,young ,people's ,society of1 etc474 ,clark1 ,rev4 ,francis ,e41 #hg1 #bdg1 #beh4 ,comstock1 ,anthony1 #bfd4 ,cook1 ,joseph1 #bca4 ,cox1 ,dr4 ,samuel ,hanson1 #bji-ac4 ,crosby1 ,fanny1 #dc4 ,cunningham1 ,professor1 #ac4 ,cuyler1 ,benjamin ,ledyard1 ,dr4 ,cuyler's father1 #b2 died1 #c4 ,cuyler1 ,general1 #b4 ,cuyler1 ,dr41 ancestry1 #a1 #b2 childhood1 #c2 farm life1 #d2 early religious training and reading1 #e2 preparation for college1 #h2 college memories1 #i-aa2 visits ,england and ,france1 ,wordsworth1 ,dickens1 ,carlyle1 ,mrs4 ,baillie1 the ,young ,queen1 ,napoleon1 #ab-cf2 first public address1 #ahdb1 #di1 #ej2 visits ,stockholm1 #df2 delivers his first address in ,new ,york1 #ed2 ,president ,national ,temperance ,society1 #eg2 views on temperance1 #eh-ei2 chooses the ministry1 #fa2 at ,princeton ,seminary1 #fb2 first pastorate1 #fb1 #hc2 preaches at ,saratoga1 #fd2 methods of preaching1 #fd-gc2 changes in pulpit methods1 #ge-ha2 preaches five months at ,wyoming ,valley1 #hc1 #hd2 work in ,new ,york1 #he1 #hf2 ,lafayette ,avenue1 #ahfj1 #hf2 methods of church work1 #hg-ij2 first literary contributions1 #ic2 origin of ,under the ,catalpa1 #ie2 extent of literary labors1 #ie2 first book1 #if2 inspiration of ,the ,empty ,crib1 #if2 inspiration of ,god's ,light on ,dark ,clouds1 #ig2 visits to famous people abroad1 ,gladstone1 #ii-ajd1 ,dr4 ,john ,brown1 #aje-aji2 ,dean ,stanley1 #aji-aae2 ,earl ,shaftesbury1 #aaf1 #aag1 interviews with famous people at home--,irving1 #aah-aba2 ,whittier1 #aba-abe2 ,webster1 #abe-acb2 ,greeley1 #acb-acg2 ,civil ,war1 #ach1 services to ,the ,christian ,commission1 #acj2 at ,washington1 #aca2 first meeting with ,lincoln1 #adb2 to ,europe in #ahfb1 #ade-adi2 at ,edinburgh1 #adf-adg2 at ,paris1 #adh2 address on ,emancipation1 #adi-aej2 trip to ,charleston1 ,fort ,sumter1 #aea2 views on pastoral work1 #aei-afi2 ,british pastors--,binney1 #agj-gb2 ,hamilton1 #agb-c1 ,guthrie1 #age-gf2 ,hall1 #agg-aha2 ,spurgeon1 #aha-hf2 ,duff1 #ahg-hi2 reminiscences of ,princeton ,seminary preachers1 #aia1 reminiscences of famous ,american preachers--,phillips ,brooks1 #aij2 ,horace ,bushnell1 #aia-b1 ,archibald ,alexander1 #aia-c2 ,joseph ,addison ,alexander1 #aic-e2 ,albert ,barnes1 #aie1 ,dr4 ,william ,b4 ,sprague1 #aif-aig2 ,dr4 ,stephen ,h4 ,tyng1 #aig-bjj1 ,dr4 ,william ,adams1 #bja-e2 ,samuel ,hanson ,cox1 #bji-ac2 ,henry ,ward ,beecher1 #bac-ae2 ,rev4 ,charles ,g4 ,finney1 #baf-bbj2 ,dr4 ,benjamin ,m4 ,palmer1 #bba-bbc2 summering at ,saratoga1 #bbd-bcb2 meets leading ,methodists--,bishop ,jaynes1 ,bishop ,simpson1 ,bishop ,peck1 etc1 #bbg-h1 ,bishop ,haven1 #bbi-ca2 summering at ,mohonk1 #bcb2 ,dr4 ,schaff1 #bce2 ,dr4 ,mc,cosh1 #bcg-i2 ,mr4 ,smiley1 #bdj2 ,indian ,conferences at ,mohonk1 #bdj2 ,arbitration ,conference1 #bdj2 letter from ,president ,harrison1 #bdb1 preservation of health1 #bdc1 growth of church fellowship and diminution of sectarianism1 #bdd-i2 exchanging pulpits1 #bdf-i1 women in the pulpit--,miss ,smiley1 #bdi-ej2 foreign missions1 #bea-bed2 ,young ,men's ,christian ,association1 #bee-eg2 ,christian ,endeavor ,society1 #beh2 missionary work in ,new ,york1 #bfj-bfh2 missionary work in ,brooklyn1 #bfh-bgb2 views on the modern novel1 #bha-hb2 views on the new theology1 #bhe-hg2 ministry in ,burlington and ,trenton1 ,n ,j1 #bhh1 marriage1 #bhi2 his wife1 #bhi-bib2 ,market ,street ,dutch ,reformed ,church of ,new ,york1 #bib-bid2 calls to various churches1 #bib2 ,lafayette ,avenue ,presbyterian ,church1 #bid2 ,brooklyn1 #bih2 house1 #cjb-cjc2 death of his mother1 #cjd1 death of his daughter1 #cjd-e2 celebration of quarter century of ministry at ,lafayette ,church1 #cjf2 resignation from the church1 #cjg-ji2 travels1 #cad-cag2 commemoration of #hjth birthday1 #cag-bj1 valedictory sermon1 delivered at ,lafayette ,avenue ,church1 #cbe-df4 ,cuyler1 ,theodore ,ledyard1 ,jr41 #cbc4 ,d ,dayton1 ,hon4 ,william ,l1 #adh4 ,delano1 ,captain ,joseph ,c1 #ab4 ,dickens1 ,charles1 #bj-bb4 ,dix1 ,general1 #eg4 ,dod1 ,albert ,b1 #i4 ,dod1 ,hon4 ,amzi1 #aa4 ,dodge1 ,hon ,william ,e1 #ef1 #eg1 #bge4 ,dow1 ,neal1 #ec-ee4 ,drummond1 ,henry1 #cjc4 ,duff1 ,dr4 ,alexander1 #ahg-hi4 ,duffield1 ,john ,t41 #aj4 ,f ,faraday1 ,sir ,michael1 #aj4 ,farrar1 ,archdeacon1 #bdh4 ,finney1 ,rev4 ,charles ,g41 #gf1 #baf-bbj4 ,g ,girard1 ,stephen1 #bgc4 ,gladstone1 ,william ,e41 #ii1 #ajd1 #bgb4 ,gough1 ,hon4 ,john ,b1 #ea-ec4 ,gould1 ,miss ,helen ,m41 #bea4 ,greeley1 ,horace1 #acb-acg4 ,gregg1 ,rev4 ,dr4 ,david1 #cab4 ,grellet1 ,stephen1 #aba4 ,gurney1 ,mrs4 ,joseph ,john1 #aba4 ,guthrie1 ,dr4 ,thomas1 #age-agf4 ,h ,hackett1 ,horatio ,b41 #bca4 ,hall1 ,rev ,newman1 #bf1 #agg-aha4 ,hamilton ,college1 #b ,hamilton1 ,dr4 ,james1 #agb-c ,harrison1 ,president ,benjamin1 letter to ,dr4 ,cuyler1 #bdb4 ,harvey1 ,sir ,george1 #ajg ,hatfield1 ,dr4 ,edward ,f41 #dg4 ,haven1 ,bishop1 #bbi-ca4 ,hayes1 ,president ,r4,b41 #bce4 ,henry1 ,joseph1 #i1 #aj1 #adj4 ,hodge1 ,archibald ,alexander1 #aj4 ,hodge1 ,dr4 ,charles1 #hb4 ,hopkins1 ,dr4 ,mark1 #eg ,howard1 ,general ,o4,o41 #eg4 ,hoxie1 ,judge1 #aea1 #aeb4 ,huntington1 ,daniel1 #bei ,i ,irving1 ,washington1 #aah-aba4 ,j ,james1 ,john ,angell1 #agd ,jaynes1 ,bishop1 #bbg-h ,jesup1 ,morris ,k41 #bgd ,judson1 ,adoniram1 #bec4 ,k ,kirk1 ,rev4 ,edward ,n1 #gc4 ,l ,ledyard1 ,general ,benjamin1 ,dr4 ,cuyler's grandfather1 #a4 ,ledyard1 ,hon ,henry1 #cd4 ,ledyard1 ,mary ,forman1 ,dr4 ,cuyler's grandmother1 #b4 ,lewis1 ,senator ,dixon ,h41 #abg4 ,lincoln1 ,abraham1 #ada-adf1 #aeb-aeg1 #bbi4 ,little1 ,mr41 founder of the ,living ,age1 #bje4 ,livingstone1 ,david1 #agd4 ,longfellow1 ,henry ,wordsworth1 #bd4 ,m ,mandeville1 ,rev4 ,gerrit1 #h4 ,marquand1 ,frederick1 #bef4 ,mason1 ,dr4 ,lowell1 #dc1 #dd4 ,mathew1 ,father ,theobald1 #di-ea4 ,mathiot1 ,annie ,e41 ,dr4 ,cuyler's wife1 #bhi4 ,melvill1 ,henry1 #agj4 ,miller1 ,dr4 ,samuel1 #hb4 ,moffat1 ,robert1 #agd4 ,mohonk1 #bbd1 #bcb-db4 ,mohonk ,lake ,mountain ,house1 #bcb-bdb4 ,montgomery1 ,james1 #cg-h4 ,montgomery1 ,satan1 #ch4 ,moody1 ,dwight ,l41 #ij-ia1 #baf1 #bdg4 ,morrell1 ,charles ,horton1 #d4 ,morrell1 ,louise ,frances1 ,dr4 ,cuyler's mother1 #b4 ,mott1 ,richard1 #aba4 ,muhlenberg1 ,dr4 ,william ,augustus1 #de-f4 ,mc,burney1 ,robert1 #bef4 ,mc,chyne1 ,robert ,murray1 #cae4 ,mc,cosh1 ,president of ,princeton1 #bcg-i4 ,mc,sloane1 ,bishop ,charles ,p41 #bdg4 ,mc,kelway1 ,dr4 ,st4 ,clair1 #cja4 ,mc,laren1 ,dr4 ,alexander1 #ff1 #gc1 #agb4 ,mc,lean1 ,uncle ,johnny1 #i4 ,n 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,temperance ,union1 #fj4 ,wordsworth1 ,william1 #ac-af4 ,y ,young ,men's ,christian ,association1 #bdf-g1 #bee4 ,young ,people's ,society of ,christian ,endeavor1 #bdf-g