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diff --git a/old/12549-8.txt b/old/12549-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..18adc26 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12549-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8214 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Recollections of a Long Life, by Theodore Ledyard Cuyler + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Recollections of a Long Life + An Autobiography + +Author: Theodore Ledyard Cuyler + +Release Date: June 8, 2004 [EBook #12549] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RECOLLECTIONS OF A LONG LIFE *** + + + + +Produced by PG Distributed Proofreaders. Produced from images provided +by the Million Book Project. + + + + + +[Illustration: THEODORE LEDYARD CUYLER] + +RECOLLECTIONS OF A LONG LIFE + +AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY + +BY THEODORE LEDYARD CUYLER, D.D., LL.D. _Author of "God's Light on Dark +Clouds," "Heart Life," Etc._ + +1902. + + + + CONTENTS + + I + + BOYHOOD AND COLLEGE LIFE + + II + + GREAT BRITAIN SIXTY YEARS AGO + _Wordsworth--Dickens--The Land of Burns, etc_. + + III + + GREAT BRITAIN SIXTY YEARS AGO (Continued) + _Carlyle--Mrs. Baillie--The Young Queen--Napoleon_ + + IV + + HYMN-WRITERS I HAVE KNOWN + _Montgomery--Bonar--Bowring--Palmer and others_. + + 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--Dr. Brown--Dean Stanley--Shaftesbury, etc._ + + X + + SOME FAMOUS PEOPLE AT HOME + _Irving--Whittier--Webster--Greeley, etc_. + + XI + + THE CIVIL WAR AND ABRAHAM LINCOLN + + XII + + PASTORAL WORK + + XIII + + SOME FAMOUS PREACHERS IN BRITAIN + _Binney--Hamilton--Guthrie--Hall--Spurgeon--Duff and others_. + + XIV + + SOME FAMOUS AMERICAN PREACHERS + _The Alexanders--Dr. Tyng--Dr. Cox--Dr. Adams + --Dr. Storrs--Mr. Beecher, Mr. Finney and Dr. B.M. Palmer_. + + XV + + SUMMERING AT SARATOGA AND MOHONK + _Bishop Haven--Dr. Schaff--President McCook._ + + XVI + + A RETROSPECT + + XVII + + A RETROSPECT (Continued) + + 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 Church, April_ 6, 1890. + + ILLUSTRATIONS. + + THEODORE LEDYARD CUYLER + + DR. CUYLER WHEN PASTOR OF THE MARKET ST. CHURCH + + DR CUYLER AT 50 + + LAFAYETTE AVENUE CHURCH + + DR. CUYLER AT 80 + + +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 lake, which +should be a landmark through all the journey of life, and to which we +could tether our memory. I have always been thankful that the place of +my nativity was the beautiful village of Aurora, on the shores of the +Cayuga Lake in Western New York. My great-grandfather, General Benjamin +Ledyard, was one of its first settlers, and came there in 1794. He was a +native of New London County, Ct., a nephew of Col. William Ledyard, the +heroic martyr of Fort Griswold, and the cousin of John Ledyard, the +celebrated traveller, whose biography was written by Jared Sparks. When +General Ledyard came to Aurora some of the Cayuga tribe of Indians were +still lingering along the lakeside, and an Indian chief said to my +great-grandfather, "General Ledyard, I see that your daughters are very +pretty squaws." The eldest of these comely daughters, Mary Forman +Ledyard, was married to my grandfather, Glen Cuyler, who was the +principal lawyer of the village, and their eldest son was my father, +Benjamin Ledyard Cuyler. He became a student of Hamilton College, +excelled in elocution, and was a room-mate of the Hon. Gerrit Smith, +afterward eminent as the champion of anti-slavery. On a certain Sabbath, +the student just home from college was called upon to read a sermon in +the village church of Aurora, in the absence of the pastor, and his +handsome visage and graceful delivery won the admiration of a young lady +of sixteen, who was on a visit to Aurora. Three years afterward they +were married. My mother, Louisa Frances Morrell, was a native of +Morristown, New Jersey; and her ancestors were among the founders of +that beautiful town. Her maternal great-grandfather was the Rev. Dr. +Timothy Johnes, the pastor of the Presbyterian Church, who administered +the sacrament of the Lord's Supper to General Washington. Her paternal +great-grandfather was the Rev. Azariah Horton, pastor of a church near +Morristown, and an intimate friend of the great President Edwards. The +early settlers of Aurora were people of culture and refinement; and the +village is now widely known as the site of Wells College, among whose +graduates is the popular wife of ex-President Cleveland. + +In the days of my childhood the march of modern improvements had hardly +begun. There was a small steamboat plying on the Cayuga Lake. There was +not a single railway in the whole State. When I went away to school in +New Jersey, at the age of thirteen, the tedious journey by the +stagecoach required three days and two nights; every letter from home +cost eighteen cents for postage; and the youngsters pored over Webster's +spelling-books and Morse's geography by tallow candles; for no gas lamps +had been dreamed of and the wood fires were covered, in most houses, by +nine o'clock on a winter evening. There was plain living then, but not a +little high thinking. If books were not so superabundant as in these +days, they were more thoroughly appreciated and digested. + +My father, who was just winning a brilliant position at the Cayuga +County Bar, died in June, 1826, at the early age of twenty-eight, when I +was but four and one-half years old. The only distinct recollections +that I have of him are his leading me to school in the morning, and that +he once punished me for using a profane word that I had heard from some +rough boys. That wholesome bit of discipline kept me from ever breaking +the Third Commandment again. After his death, I passed entirely into +the care of one of the best mothers that God ever gave to an only son. +She was more to me than school, pastor or church, or all combined. God +made mothers before He made ministers; the progress of Christ's kingdom +depends more upon the influence of faithful, wise, and pious mothers +than upon any other human agency. + +As I was an only child, my widowed mother gave up her house and took me +to the pleasant home of her father, Mr. Charles Horton Morrell, on the +banks of the lake, a few miles south of Aurora. 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 grandfather! I had the free pure +air of the country, and the simple pleasures of the farmhouse; my +grandfather was a cultured gentleman with a good library, and at his +fireside was plenty of profitable conversation. Out of school hours I +did some work on the farm that suited a boy; I drove the cows to the +pasture, and rode the horses sometimes in the hay-field, and carried in +the stock of firewood on winter afternoons. My intimate friends were the +house-dog, the chickens, the kittens and a few pet sheep in my +grandfather's flocks. 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-bed! + +My Sabbaths in that rural home were like the good old Puritan Sabbaths, +serene and sacred, with neither work nor play. Our church (Presbyterian) +was three miles away, and in the winter our family often fought our way +through deep mud, or through snow-drifts piled as high as the fences. I +was the only child among grown-up uncles and aunts, and the first +Sunday-school that I ever attended had only one scholar, and my good +mother was the superintendent. She gave me several verses of the Bible +to commit thoroughly to memory and explained them to me; I also studied +the Westminster Catechism. I was expected to study God's Book for +myself, and not to sit and be crammed by a teacher, after the fashion of +too many Sunday-schools in these days, where the scholars swallow down +what the teacher brings to them, as young birds open their mouths and +swallow what the old bird brings to the nest. There is a lamentable +ignorance of the language of Scripture among the rising generation of +America, and too often among the children of professedly Christian +families. + +The books that I had to feast on in the long winter evenings were +"Robinson Crusoe," "Sanford and Merton," "The Pilgrim's Progress," and +the few volumes in my grandfather's library that were within the +comprehension of a child of eight or ten years old. I wept over "Paul +and Virginia," and laughed over "John Gilpin," the scene of whose +memorable ride I have since visited at the "Bell of Edmonton," During +the first quarter of the nineteenth century drunkenness was fearfully +prevalent in America; and the drinking customs wrought their sad havoc +in every circle of society. My grandfather was one of the first +agriculturists to banish intoxicants from his farm, and I signed a +pledge of total abstinence when I was only ten or eleven years old. +Previously to that, I had got a taste of "prohibition" that made a +profound impression on me. One day I discovered some "cherrybounce" in a +wine-glass on my grandfather's sideboard, and I ventured to swallow the +tempting liquor. When my vigilant mother discovered what I had done, she +administered a dose of Solomon's regimen in a way that made me "bounce" +most merrily. That wholesome chastisement for an act of disobedience, +and in the direction of tippling, made me a teetotaller for life; and, +let me add, that the first public address I ever delivered was at a +great temperance gathering (with Father Theobald Mathew) in the City +Hall of Glasgow during the summer of 1842. My mother's discipline was +loving but thorough; she never bribed me to good conduct with +sugar-plums; she praised every commendable deed heartily, for she held +that an ounce of honest praise is often worth more than many pounds of +punishment. + +During my infancy that godly mother had dedicated me to the Lord, as +truly as Hannah ever dedicated her son Samuel. When my paternal +grandfather, who was a lawyer, offered to bequeath his law-library to +me, my mother declined the tempting offer, and said to him: "I fully +expect that my little boy will yet be a minister." This was her constant +aim and perpetual prayer, and God graciously answered her prayer of +faith in His own good time and way. I cannot now name any time, day, or +place when I was converted. It was my faithful mother's steady and +constant influence that led me gradually along, and I grew into a +religious life under her potent training, and by the power of the Holy +Spirit working through her agency. A few years ago I gratefully placed +in that noble "Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church" of Brooklyn (of +which I was the founder and pastor for thirty years) a beautiful +memorial window to my beloved mother representing Hannah and her child +Samuel, and the fitting inscription: "As long as he liveth I have lent +him to the Lord." + +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 +Princeton, New Jersey. The religious impressions that began at home +continued and deepened until I united, at the age of seventeen, with the +Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. As an effectual instruction in +righteousness, my faithful mother's letters to me when a schoolboy were +more than any sermons that I heard during all those years. 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 prayers, teaching example, and holy influence. + +My preparation for college was partly under the private tutorship of the +good old Dutch dominie, the Rev. Gerrit Mandeville, who smoked his pipe +tranquilly while I recited to him my lessons in Caesar's Commentaries, +and Virgil; and partly in the well-known Hill Top School, at Mendham, +N.J. I entered Princeton college at the age of sixteen and graduated at +nineteen, for in those days the curriculum in our schools and +universities was more brief than at present. The Princeton college to +which I came was rather a primitive institution in comparison with the +splendid structures that now crown the University heights. There were +only seven or eight plain buildings surrounding the campus, the two +society-halls being the only ones that boasted architectural beauty. In +endowments the college was as poor as a church mouse. There were no +college clubs, no inter-collegiate games, thronged by thousands of +people from all over the land; but the period of my connection with the +college was really a golden period in its history. Never were its chairs +held by more distinguished occupants. The president of the college was +Dr. Carnahan, who, although without a spark of genius, was yet a man of +huge common sense, kindness of heart and excellent executive ability. In +the chair of the vice-president sat dear old "Uncle Johnny" McLean, the +best-loved man that ever trod the streets of Princeton. He was the +policeman of the faculty, and his astuteness in detecting the pranks of +the students was only equalled by his anxiety to befriend them after +they were detected. The polished culture of Dr. James W. Alexander then +adorned the Chair of the Latin Language and English Literature. Dr. John +Torrey held the chemical professorship. He was engaged with Dr. Gray in +preparing the history of American Flora. Stephen Alexander's modest eye +had watched Orion and the Seven Stars through the telescope of the +astronomer; the flashing wit and silvery voice of Albert B. Dod, then in +his splendid prime, threw a magnetic charm over the higher mathematics. +And in that old laboratory, with negro "Sam" as his assistant, reigned +Joseph Henry, the acknowledged king of American scientists. When, soon +after, he gave me a note of Introduction to Sir Michael Faraday, +Faraday said to me: "By far the greatest man of science your country has +produced since Benjamin Franklin is Professor Henry." With Professor +Henry I formed a very intimate friendship, and after he became the head +of the Smithsonian Institution I found a home with him whenever I went +to Washington. + +Our class, which graduated in 1841, contained several members who have +since made a deep mark in church and commonwealth. Professor Archibald +Alexander Hodge was one of us. He inherited the name and much of the +power of his distinguished father. Also General Francis P. Blair, who +rendered heroic service on the battle-field. John T. Nixon brought to +the bench of the United States Court, and Edward W. Scudder brought to +the Supreme Court Bench of New Jersey, legal learning and Christian +consciences. Richard W. Walker became a distinguished man in the +Southern Confederacy. Our class sent four men to professor's chairs in +Princeton. My best beloved classmate was John T. Duffield, who, after a +half century of service as professor of mathematics in the University, +closed his noble and beneficent career on the 10th of April, 1901. I +delivered the memorial tribute to him soon afterward in the Second +Presbyterian Church in the presence of the authorities of the +University. Another intimate friend was the Hon. Amzi Dodd, +ex-chancellor of New Jersey and the ex-president of the New Jersey Life +Insurance Company. He is still a resident of that State. During the past +three-score years it has been my privilege to deliver between sixty and +seventy sermons or addresses in Princeton, either to the students of the +University or of the Theological Seminary, or to the residents of the +town. The place has become inexpressibly dear to me as a magnificent +stronghold of Christian culture and orthodox faith, on the walls of +whose institutions the smile of God gleams like the light of the +morning. O Princeton, Princeton! in the name of the thousands of thy +loyal sons, let me gratefully say, "If we forget thee, may our right +hands forget their cunning, and our tongues cleave to the roofs of our +mouths!" + + + + +CHAPTER II + +GREAT BRITAIN SIXTY YEARS AGO + +_Wordsworth--Dickens--The Land of Burns, etc_. + + +The year after leaving college I made a visit to Europe, which, in those +days, was a notable event. As the stormy Atlantic had not yet been +carpeted by six-day steamers, I crossed in a fine new packet-ship, the +"Patrick Henry," of the Grinnell & Minturn Line. Captain Joseph C. +Delano was a gentleman of high intelligence and culture who, after he +had abandoned salt water, became an active member of the American +Association of Science. After twenty-one days under canvas and the +instructions of the captain, I learned more of nautical affairs and of +the ocean and its ways than in a dozen subsequent passages in the +steamships. + +On the second morning after our arrival in Liverpool I breakfasted with +that eminent clergyman, Dr. Raffles, who boasted the possession of one +of the finest collections of autographs in England. He showed me the +signature of John Bunyan; the original manuscript of one of Sir Walter +Scott's novels; the original of Burns' poem addressed to the parasite +on a lady's bonnet, which contained the famous lines: + + "Oh wad some power the giftie gie us + To see our sel's as others see us," + +besides several other manuscripts by the same poet, and also the +autograph of a challenge sent by Byron to Lord Brougham for alleged +insult, a fact to which no reference has been made in Byron's biography. +From Liverpool, with my friends Professor Renwick and Professor +Cuningham, I set out on a journey to the lakes of England. We reached +Bowness, on Lake Windermere, in the evening. The next morning we went up +to Elleray, the country residence of Professor Wilson ("Christopher +North"), who, unfortunately, was absent in Edinburgh. We hired a boatman +to row us through exquisitely beautiful Windermere, and in the evening +reached the Salutation Inn, at the foot of the lake. My great interest +in visiting Ambleside was to see the venerable poet, Wordsworth, who +lived about a mile from the village. I happened, just before supper, to +look out of the window of the traveller's room and espied an old man in +a blue cloak and Glengarry cap, with a bunch of heather stuck jauntily +in the top, driving by in a little brown phaeton from Rydal Mount. +"Perhaps," thought I to myself, "that may be the patriarch himself," and +sure enough it was. For, when I inquired about Mr. Wordsworth, the +landlord said to me, "A few minutes ago he went by here in his little +carriage." The next morning I called upon him. The walk to his cottage +was delightful, with the dew still lingering in the shady nooks by the +roadside, and the morning songs of thanksgiving bursting forth from +every grove. At the summit of a deeply shaded hill I found "Rydal Mount" +cottage. I was shown, at once, into the sitting-room, where I found him +with his wife, who sat sewing beside him. The old man rose and received +me graciously. By his appearance I was somewhat startled. Instead of a +grave recluse in scholastic black, whom I expected to see, I found an +affable and lovable old man dressed in the roughest coat of blue with +metal buttons, and checked trousers, more like a New York farmer than an +English poet. His nose was very large, his forehead a lofty dome of +thought, and his long white locks hung over his stooping shoulders; his +eyes presented a singular, half closed appearance. We entered at once +into a delightful conversation. He made many inquiries about Irving, +Mrs. Sigourney and our other American authors, and spoke, with great +vehemence, in favor of an international copyright law. He said that at +one time he had hoped to visit America, but the duties of a small office +which he held (Distributer of Stamps), and upon which he was partly +dependent, prevented the undertaking. He occasionally made a trip to +London to see the few survivors of the friends of his early days, but he +told me that his last excursion had proved a wearisome effort. His +library was small but select. He took down an American edition of his +works, edited by Professor Reed, and told me that London had never +produced an edition equal to it. When I was about to leave, the good old +poet got his broad slouched hat and put on his double purple glasses to +protect his eyes, and we went out to enjoy the neighboring views. We +walked about from one point to another and kept up a lively +conversation. He displayed such a winning familiarity that, in the +language of his own poem, we seemed + + "A pair of friends, though I was young, + And he was seventy-four." + +From the rear of his court-yard he showed me Rydal Water, a little lake +about a mile long, the beautiful church, and beyond it, Grassmere, and +still further beyond, Helvelyn, the mountain-king with a retinue of a +hundred hills. I might have spent the whole day in delightful +intercourse with the old man, but my fellow-travellers were going, and I +could make no longer inroads upon their time. When we returned to the +door of his cottage, he gave me a parting blessing; he picked a small +yellow flower and handed it to me, and I still preserve it in my +edition of his works, 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 Mount. + +After passing through Keswick, where the venerable poet Southey was +still lingering in sadly failing intelligence, we reached Carlisle the +same evening. 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 London. The driver, who might have answered to Washington +Irving's description, pointed out to me Netherby Hall, the mansion of +the Grahams, on "Cannobie lea," over which the young Lochinvar bore away +his stolen bride. We passed also Branksome Tower, the scene of the "Lay +of the Last Minstrel," and reached Selkirk in the early evening. The +next day I spent at Abbotsford. The Great Magician had been dead only +ten years, and his family still occupied the house with some of his old +employees who figure in Lockhart's biography. I sat in the great +arm-chair where Sir Walter Scott wrote many of his novels, and looked +out of the window of his bedchamber, through which came the rippling +murmurs of the Tweed, that consoled his dying hours. I heartily +subscribe to the opinion, expressed by Tennyson, that Sir Walter Scott +was the most extraordinary man in British literature since the days of +Shakespeare. + +After reaching Glasgow I made a brief trip into the Land of Burns. At +the town of Ayr I found an omnibus waiting to take me down to the +birthplace of the poet. At that time the number of visitors to these +regions was comparatively few, and the birthplace of the poet had not +been transformed, as now, into a crowded museum. On reaching a slight +elevation, since consecrated by the muse of Burns, there broke upon the +view his monument, his native cottage, Alloway Kirk, the scene of the +inimitable Tam o' Shanter, and behind them all the "Banks and Braes of +Bonnie Doon." I went first to the monument, 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 +Coilsfield. One of the volumes contains, in Burns' handwriting, "Thou +shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thy vows," +and a lock of Mary's hair, of a light brown color, given at the time, is +preserved in the treasured volumes. A few steps away is Alloway Kirk. +The old sexton was standing by the grave of Burns' father, and described +to me the route of "Tam o' Shanter." He showed me the chinks in the +sides through which the kirk seemed "all in a bleeze," 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 blew, + Swifter and swifter the dancers flew." + +After the old man had finished his recital, I asked him whether he had +ever seen the poet. "Only aince," he replied. "That was one day when he +was ridin' on a road near here. I met a friend who told me to hurry up, +for Rabbie Burns was just ahead. I whippit up my horse, and came up to a +roughly dressed man, ridin' slowly along, with his blue bonnet pulled +down over his forehead, and his eyes turned toward the groond." "Didn't +you speak to him?" I said. "Nay, nay," replied the man, in a tone of +deep reverence, "he was Rabbie Burns. _I dare na speak to him_. If he +had been any other mon I would have said 'good morrow to ye.'" Beautiful +and eloquent tribute, paid by an unlettered peasant, not to rank or to +wealth, but to a soul--a mighty soul though clad in "hodden grey" like +himself! + +The most interesting object was yet to be visited--the cottage of his +birth, I entered it with reverence; and a well dressed, but very old, +woman welcomed me in. "This is the room," she said. I looked around on +the rough stone walls and could not believe that it ever contained such +a soul; for the cottage, with all its subsequent repairs, was hardly +equal to the generality of our early log cabins. The old lady was very +affable. In her early life she had been connected with an inn at +Mauchline, and had seen the poet often. "Rabbie was a funny fellow," she +said; "I ken'd him weel; and he stoppit at our hoose on his way up to +Edinburgh to see the lairds." I asked her if he was not always humorous. +"Nae, nae," she replied, "he used to come in and sit doun wi' his hands +in his lap like a bashful country lad; very glum, till he got a drap o' +whuskey, or heard a gude story, _and then he was aff!_ He was very +poorly in his latter days." Those closing days in Dumfries, steeped in +poverty to the lips, forms one of the most tragic chapters in literary +history; 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 drink. An old lady of Kilmarnock told my friend, the +late Dr. Taylor of New York, that when a young woman she had gone to +Burns' house to assist in preparations for his funeral, and stated that +there was not enough decent linen in the house to lay out the most +splendid genius in all Scotland! When I was at Ayr, a sister of Burns, +Mrs. Begg, was still living, and I am always regretting that I did not +call upon her. His widow, Jean Armour, had died but a few years before; +and when a certain pert American who called upon the old lady had the +audacity to ask her: "Can you show me any relics of the poet?" answered +with majestic dignity: "Sir, _I am the only relic of Robert Burns_." + +I went abroad on this first visit to Europe keen for lion hunting, and +with an eager desire to see some of the men who had been my literary +benefactors. On my arrival in London, having a letter of introduction to +Charles Dickens, which a mutual friend had given to me, I resolved to +present it. Charles Dickens was an idol of my college days, and I had +spent a few minutes with him in Philadelphia during his recent visit to +the United States. He had returned from his triumphal tour about a month +before I landed in Liverpool. I called at his house, but he was not at +home. The next day he did me the honor to call on me at Morley's Hotel, +and, not finding me in, invited me up to his house near York Gate, +Regents Park. It was a dingy, brick house surrounded by a high wall, but +cheerful and cozy within. I found him in his sanctum, a singularly +shaped room, with statuettes of Sam Weller and others of his creations +on the mantelpiece. A portrait of his beautiful wife was upon the +wall--that wife, the separation from whom threw a strange, sad shadow +over his home. How handsome he was then! With his deep, dark, lustrous +eyes, that you saw yourself in, and the merry mouth wreathed with +laughter, and the luxuriant mass of dark hair that he wore in a sort of +stack over his lofty forehead! He had a slight lisp in his pleasant +voice, and ran on in rapid talk for an hour, with a shy reluctance to +talk about his own works, but with the most superabounding vivacity I +have ever met with in any man. His two daughters, one of whom afterward +married the younger Collins, a brother novelist, were then schoolgirls +of eight and ten years, came in, with books in their hands, to give +their father a good-morning kiss. After parting with him, when I had +reached his gate, he called after me in a very loud voice, "If you see +Mrs. Lucretia Mott, tell her that I have not forgotten the slave." His +"American Notes" appeared the next week. There were some things in that +hasty and faulty volume for which I sent him a cordial note of thanks, +and I speedily received the following characteristic reply, which I +still prize as a precious relic of the man: + + I DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, + REGENTS PARK, Oct. 26th, 1842. + + MY DEAR SIR:--I am heartily obliged to you for your + frank and manly letter. I shall always remember it in connection + with my American book; and never--believe me--save + in the foremost rank of its pleasant and honorable + associations. + Let me subscribe myself, as I really am + + Faithfully your Friend, + + CHARLES DICKENS. + + Mr. Theodore Ledyard Cuyler. + +I hold that Dickens was the most original genius in our fictitious +literature since the days of Walter Scott. As a social reformer his fame +is quite as great as it is as a master of romance. His pen was mighty to +the pulling down of many a social abuse, and from the loving kindness of +his writings has been got many an inspiration to deeds of charity. But +how could a man who went so far as he did go no further? How could the +reformer who struck at so many social wrongs spare that hideous +fountain-head of misery in London, the dram-shop? And how could he +descend to scurrilously satirize all societies formed for the promotion +of temperance? A still greater marvel is that so kind-hearted a man as +Mr. Dickens, who sought honestly the amelioration of the condition of +his fellow-men, could utterly ignore the transforming power of +Christianity. He did not cast contempt on the Bible, and never soiled +his pages with infidelity, neither did he ever enlighten, and warm and +vivify them with evangelical uplifting truth. Only a few feet of earth +separate the grave of Charles Dickens from the grave of William +Wilberforce. Both loved their fellow-men; but the great difference +between them was that one of them invoked the spiritual power of the +Gospel of Christ, which the other lamentably ignored. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +GREAT BRITAIN SIXTY YEARS AGO (_Continued_) + +_Carlyle--Mrs. Baillie--The Young Queen--Napoleon_ + + +One of the lions of whom I was in pursuit was Thomas Carlyle. Very few +Americans at that time had ever seen him, for he lived a very secluded +and laborious life in a little brick house at Chelsea, in the southwest +of London; and he rarely kept open doors. His life was the opposite to +that of Dickens and Macaulay, and he was never lionized, except when he +went to Edinburgh to deliver his address before the University, years +afterwards. I sent him a note in which I informed him of the +enthusiastic admiration which we college students felt for him, and that +I desired to call and pay him my respects. To my note he responded +promptly: "You will be welcome to-morrow at three o'clock, the hour when +I become accessible in my garret here." I found his "garret" to be a +comfortable front room on the second floor of his modest home. It was +well lined with books, and a portrait of Oliver Cromwell hung behind his +study chair. He was seated at his table with a huge German volume open +before him. His greeting was very hearty, but, with a comical look of +surprise, he said in broad Scotch: "You are a verra young mon." I told +him of the appetite we college boys had for his books, 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 before. "Your Mr. Longfellow," said +he, "called to see me yesterday. He is a man skilled in the tongues. +Your own name I see is Dootch. The word 'Cuyler' means a delver, or one +who digs underground. You must be a Dutchman." I told him that my +ancestors had come over from Holland a couple of centuries ago, and I +was proud of my lineage; for my grandfather, Glen Cuyler, was a +descendant of Hendrick Cuyler, one of the early Dutch settlers of +Albany, who came there in 1667. "Ah," said he, "the Dootch are the +brawvest people of modern times. The world has been rinnin' after a red +rag of a Frenchman; but he was nothing to William the Silent. When +Pheelip of Spain sent his Duke of Alva to squelch those Dutchmen they +joost squelched him like a rotten egg--aye, _they did_." + +I asked him why he didn't visit America, and told him that I had +observed his name registered at Ambleside, on Lake Windermere. "Nae, +nae," said he, "I never scrabble my name in public places." I explained +that it was on the hotel register that I had seen "Thomas Carlyle." "It +was not mine," he replied, "I never travel only when I ride on a horse +in the teeth of the wind to get out of this smoky London. I would like +to see America. You may boast of your Dimocracy, or any other 'cracy, or +any other kind of political roobish, but the reason why your laboring +folk are so happy is that you have a vast deal of land for a very few +people." In this racy, picturesque vein he ran on for an hour in the +most cordial, good humor. He was then in his prime, hale and athletic, +with a remarkably keen blue eye, a strong lower jaw and stiff iron gray +hair, brushed up from a capacious forehead; and he had a look of a +sturdy country deacon dressed up on a Sunday morning for church. He was +very carefully attired in a new suit that day for visiting, and, as I +rose to leave, he said to me: "I am going up into London and I will walk +wi' ye." We sallied out and he strode the pavement with long strides +like a plowman. I told him I had just come from the land of Burns, and +that the old man at the native cottage of the poet had drunk himself to +death by drinking to the memory of Burns. + +At this Carlyle laughed loudly, and remarked: "Was that the end of him? +Ah, a wee bit drap will send a mon a lang way." He then told me that +when he was a lad he used to go into the Kirkyard at Dumfries and, +hunting out the poet's tomb, he loved to stand and just read over the +name--"Rabbert Burns"--"Rabbert Burns." He pronounced the name with deep +reverence. 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 Hunt. At the corner of Hyde Park I +parted from Mr. Carlyle, and watched him striding away, as if, like the +De'il in "Tam O'Shanter," he had "business on his hand." + +Thirty years afterwards, in June, 1872, I felt an irrepressible desire +to see the grand old man once more, and I accordingly addressed him a +note requesting the favor of a few minutes' interview. His reply was, +perhaps, the briefest letter ever written. It was simply: + + "Three P.M. + T.C." + +He told me afterwards that his hand had become so tremulous that he +seldom touched a pen. My beloved friend, the Rev. Newman Hall, asked the +privilege of accompanying me, as, like most Londoners, he had never put +his eye on the recluse philosopher. We found the same old brick house, +No. 5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, without the slightest change outside or in. +But, during those thirty years the gifted wife had departed, and a sad +change had come over the once hale, stalwart man. After we had waited +some time, a feeble, stooping figure, attired in a long blue flannel +gown, moved slowly into the room. His gray hair was unkempt, his blue +eyes were still keen and piercing, and a bright hectic spot of red +appeared on each of his hollow cheeks. His hands were tremulous, and his +voice deep and husky. After a few personal inquiries the old man +launched out into a most extraordinary and characteristic harangue on +the wretched degeneracy of these evil days. The prophet, Jeremiah, was +cheerfulness itself in comparison with him. Many of the raciest things +he regaled us with were entirely too personal for publication. He amused +us with a description of half a night's debate with John Bright on +political economy, while he said, "Bright theed and thoud with me for +hours, while his Quaker wife sat up hearin' us baith. I tell ye, John +Bright _got_ as gude as he _gie_ that night"; and I have no doubt that +he did. + +Most of his extraordinary harangue was like an eruption of Vesuvius, but +the laugh he occasionally gave showed that he was talking about as much +for his own amusement as for ours. He was terribly severe on Parliament, +which he described as "endless babblement and windy talk--the same +hurdy-gurdies grinding out lies and inanities." The only man he had ever +heard in Parliament that at all satisfied him was the Old Iron Duke. "He +gat up and stammered away for fifteen minutes; but I tell ye, he was the +only mon in Parliament who gie us any credible portraiture of the +facts." He looked up at the portrait of Oliver Cromwell behind him, and +exclaimed with great vehemence: "I ha' gone doon to the verra bottom of +Oliver's speeches, and naething in Demosthenes or in any other mon will +compare wi' Cromwell in penetrating into the veritable core of the fact. +Noo, Parliament, as they ca' it, is joost everlasting babblement and +lies." We led him to discuss the labor question and the condition of the +working classes. 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 question." It did +my soul good, as a teetotaler, to hear his scathing denunciation of the +liquor traffic. He was fierce in his wrath against "the horrible and +detestable damnation of whuskie and every kind of strong drink." In this +strain the thin and weird looking old Iconoclast went on for an hour +until he wound up with declaring, "England has joost gane clear doon +into an abominable cesspool of lies, shoddies and shams--down to a +bottomless _damnation_. Ye may gie whatever meaning to that word that ye +like." He could not refrain from laughing heartily himself at the +conclusion of this eulogy on his countrymen. If we had not known that +Mr. Carlyle had a habit of exercising himself in this kind of talk, we +should have felt a sort of consternation. As it was we enjoyed it as a +postscript to "Sartor Resartus" or the "Latter Day" pamphlets, and +listened and laughed accordingly. As we were about parting from him with +a cordial and tender farewell, my friend, Newman Hall, handed him a copy +of his celebrated little book, "Come to Jesus," Mr. Carlyle, leaning +over his table, fixed his eye upon the inscription on the outside of the +booklet, and as we left the room, we heard him repeating to himself the +title "Coom to Jesus--Coom to Jesus." + +About Carlyle's voluminous works, his glorious eulogies of Luther, Knox +and Cromwell, his vivid histories, his pessimistic utterances, his +hatred of falsehood and his true, pure and laborious life, I have no +time or space to write. He was the last of the giants in one department +of British literature. He will outlive many an author who slumbers in +the great Abbey. I owe him grateful thanks for many quickening, +stimulating thoughts, and shall always be thankful that I grasped the +strong hand of Thomas Carlyle. + +One of the literary celebrities to whom I had credentials was the +venerable Mrs. Joanna Baillie, not now much read, but then well known +from her writings and her intimacy with Sir Walter Scott, and to whom +Lockhart devotes a considerable space in the biography. Her residence +was in Hampstead, and I was obliged, after leaving the omnibus, to walk +nearly a mile across open fields which are now completely built over by +mighty London. The walk proved a highly profitable one from the society +of an intelligent stranger who, like every true English gentleman, when +properly approached, was led to give all the information in his power. +When I reached the suburban village of Hampstead, after passing over +stiles and through fields, I at last succeeded in finding her residence, +a quiet little cottage, with a little parlor which had been honored by +some of the first characters of our age. "The female Shakespeare," as +she was sometimes called in those days, was at home and tripped into the +room with the elastic step of a girl, although she was considerably over +three score years and ten. She was very petite and fair, with a sweet +benignant countenance that inspired at once admiration and affection. +Almost her first words to me were: "What a pity you did not come ten +minutes sooner; for if you had you would have seen Mr. Thomas Campbell, +who has just gone away." I was exceedingly sorry to have missed a sight +of the author of "Hohenlinden" and the incomparable "Battle of the +Baltic," but was quite surprised that he was still seeking much society; +for in those days he was lamentably addicted to intoxicants. On more +than one public occasion he was the worse for his cups; and when, after +his death, a subscription was started to place his statue in Westminster +Abbey, Samuel Rogers, the poet, cynically said, "Yes, I will gladly give +twenty pounds any day to see dear old Tom Campbell stand steady on his +legs." 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 century. Mrs. Baillie +entertained me with lively descriptions of Sir Walter Scott, and of her +old friend, Mr. Wordsworth, who was her guest whenever he came up to +London. She expressed the warmest admiration for the moral and +political, though not all of the religious, writings of our Dr. +Channing, whom she pronounced the finest essayist of the time. She also +felt a curious interest (which I discovered in many other notable people +in England) to learn what she could in regard to our American Indians, +and expressed much admiration when I gave her some quotations from the +picturesque eloquence of our sons of the forest. + +Every American who visited London in those days felt a laudable +curiosity to see the young Queen, who had been crowned but four years +before. I went up to Windsor Castle, and after inspecting it, joined a +little group of people who were standing at the gateway which leads out +to the Long Drive and Virginia Water. They were waiting to get a look at +the young Queen, who always drove out at four o'clock. Presently the +gate opened and a low carriage, preceded by three horsemen, passed +through. It contained a plump baby, nearly two years of age, wrapped in +a buff cloak and held up in the arms of its nurse. That baby became the +Empress Dowager of Germany, the mother of the present Kaiser and of +Prince Henry, who has lately been our guest. In a few minutes afterwards +a pony phaeton, with two horses, passed through the gate and we all +doffed our hats. It was driven by handsome young Prince Albert, dressed +in a gray overcoat and silk hat. To this day I think of him as about the +most captivating young husband that I have ever seen. By his side sat +his young wife, dressed in a small white bonnet with pink feather and +wrapped in a white shawl. Her complexion was exceedingly fresh and fair. +Her light brown hair was dressed in the "Grecian" style, and as she +bowed gracefully I observed the peculiarity of her smile--that she +showed her teeth very distinctly. This resulted from the shortness of +her upper lip. "A pretty girl she is too" was the remark I heard from +the visitors as the carriage went on down the drive. That was my first +glimpse of royalty, and I little dreamed that she was to be the longest +lived sovereign that ever sat on the British throne, and the most +popular woman in all modern times. + +Thirty years rolled away and I saw the good Queen again. The Albert +Memorial, erected to the handsome Prince Consort, whom she idolized, had +just been completed, and one morning the Queen came incognito to make +her first private inspection of the memorial. Through the intimation of +a friend I hurried at once to the Park, and found a small company of +people gathered there. Her Majesty had just come, accompanied by Prince +Arthur, the Princess Louise and the young Princess Beatrice; and they +were examining the gorgeous new structure. The Queen wore a plain black +silk dress and her children were very plainly attired, so that they +looked like a group of good, honest republicans. 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 Majesty. I observed that when her +children bade her "good morning" they kneeled and kissed her hand. She +remained sitting in her carriage for some time, chatting and laughing +with her daughter Beatrice. Her countenance had become very florid and +her figure very stout. The last time that I saw her driving in the Park +her full, rubicund face made her look not only like the venerable +grandmother of a host of descendants, but of the whole vast empire on +which the sun never sets. 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 wedlock. All Christendom was a mourner beside +that royal tomb. + +From London I went on a very brief visit to Paris, at the time when +Louis Phillipe was at the height of his power and apparently securely +seated on his throne. Within a half a dozen years from that time he was +a refugee in disguise, and the kingdom of France was followed by the +Republic of Lamartine. My brief visit to Paris was made more agreeable +by the fact that my kinsman, the Hon. Henry Ledyard, was then in charge +of the American Embassy, in the absence of his father-in-law, General +Lewis Cass, our Ambassador, who had returned to America for a visit. The +one memorable incident of that brief sojourn in Paris that I shall +recall was a visit to the tomb of Napoleon, whose remains had been +brought home the year before from the Island of St. Helena. Passing +through the Place de la Concord and crossing the Seine, a ten minutes' +walk brought me to the Hospital des Invalides. I reached it in the +morning when the court in front was filled with about three hundred +veterans on an early parade. Many of them were the shattered relics of +Napoleon's Grand Army--glorious old fellows in cocked hats and long blue +coats, and weather-beaten as the walls around them. After a few moments +I hurried into the Rotunda, which is nearly one hundred feet in height, +surrounded by six small recesses, or alcoves. "Where is Napoleon?" said +I to one of the sentinels. "There," said he, pointing to a recess, or +small chapel, hung with dark purple velvet and lighted by one glimmering +lamp. I approached the iron railing and, there before me, almost within +arm's length, in the marble coffin covered by his gray riding coat of +Marengo, lay all that was mortal of the great Emperor. At his feet was a +small urn containing his heart, and upon it lay his sword and the +military cap worn at the battle of Eylau. Beside the coffin was gathered +a group of tattered banners captured by him in many a victorious fight. +Three gray-haired veterans, whose breasts were covered with medals, were +pacing slowly on guard in front of the alcove. I said to them in French: +"Were you at Austerlitz?" "Oui, oui," they said. "Were you at Jena?" +"Oui, oui." "At Wagram?" "Oui, oui," they replied. I lingered long at +the spot, listening to the inspiring strains of the soldiery without, +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 Lodi. It seemed to me as a +dream, 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 history. And yet, when all shall be summoned at last before +the Great Tribunal, a Wilberforce, a Shaftesbury, or an Abraham Lincoln +will never desire to change places with him. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +HYMN-WRITERS I HAVE KNOWN + +_Montgomery--Bonar--Bowring--Palmer and Others_ + + +Hymnology has always been a favorite study with me, and it has been my +privilege to be acquainted with several of the most eminent hymn-writers +within the last sixty or seventy years. It is a remarkable fact that +among the distinguished English-speaking poets, Cowper and Montgomery +are the only ones who have been successful in producing many popular +hymns; while the greatest hymns have been the compositions either of +ministers of the Gospel, like Watts, Wesley, Toplady, Doddridge, Newman, +Lyte, Bonar and Ray Palmer, or by godly women, like Charlotte Elliott, +Mrs. Sarah F. Adams, Miss Havergal and Mrs. Prentiss. During my visit to +Great Britain in the summer of 1842, I spent a few weeks at Sheffield as +the guest of Mr. Edward Vickers, the ex-Mayor of the city. His near +neighbor was the venerable James Montgomery, whose pupil he had been +during the short time that the poet conducted a school. Mr. Vickers +took me to visit the poet at his residence at The Mount. A short, +brisk, cheery old man, then seventy-one, came into the room with a spry +step. He wore a suit of black, with old-fashioned dress ruffles, and a +high cravat that looked as if it choked him. His complexion was fresh, +and snowy hair crowned a noble forehead. He had never married, but +resided with a relative. We chatted about America, and I told him that +in all our churches his hymns were great favorites. I unfortunately +happened to mention that when lately in Glasgow I had gone to hear the +Rev. Robert Montgomery, the author of "Satan," and other poems. It was +this "Satan Montgomery" whom Macaulay had scalped with merciless +criticism in the _Edinburgh Review_. The mention of his name aroused the +old poet's ire. "Would you believe it?" he exclaimed, indignantly, "they +attribute some of that fellow's performances to me, and lately a lady +wrote to me in reference to one of his most pompous poems, and said "it +was the _best that I had ever written!_" I do not wonder at my venerable +friend's vexation, for there was a world-wide contrast between his own +chaste simplicity and the stilted pomposity of his Glasgow namesake. +Montgomery, though born a Moravian and educated at a Moravian school, +was a constant worshipper at St. George's Episcopal Church, in +Sheffield. The people of the town were very proud of their celebrated +townsman, and after his death gave him a public funeral, and erected a +bronze statue to his memory. While he was the author of several volumes +of poetry, his enduring fame rests on his hymns, some of which will be +sung in all lands through coming generations. Four hundred own his +parentage and one hundred at least are in common use throughout +Christendom. He produced a single verse that has hardly been surpassed +in all hymnology: + + "Here in the body pent + Absent from Him I roam. + Yet nightly pitch my moving-tent, + A day's march nearer home." + +Hymnology has known no denominational barriers. While Toplady was an +Episcopalian, Wesley a Methodist. Newman and Faber Roman Catholics, +Montgomery a Moravian, and Bonar a Presbyterian, the magnificent hymn, + + "In the cross of Christ I glory," + +was written by a Unitarian. I had the great satisfaction of meeting its +author, Sir John Bowring, at a public dinner in London during the summer +of 1872. A fresh, handsome veteran he was, too--tall and straight as a +ramrod, and exceedingly winsome in his manners. He had been famous as +the editor of the _Westminster Review_ and quite famous in civil life, +for he was a member of the British Parliament and once had been the +Governor of Hong Kong. He produced several volumes, but will owe his +immortality to half a dozen superb hymns. Of these the best is "In the +cross of Christ I glory"; but we also owe to him that fine missionary +hymn, + + "Watchman, tell us of the night" + +He told my Presbyterian friend, Dr. Harper, in China, that the first +time he ever heard it sung was at a prayer meeting of American +missionaries in Turkey. Sir John died about four months after I had met +him, at the ripe age of eighty, and on his monument is inscribed only +this single appropriate line, "In the cross of Christ I glory." + +The first time I ever saw Dr. Horatius Bonar was in May, 1872, when I +was attending the Free Church General Assembly of Scotland as a delegate +from the Presbyterian Church in the United States. A warm discussion was +going on in the Assembly anent proposals of union with the U.P. body, +and the Anti-Unionists sat together on the left hand of the Moderator's +chair. In the third row sat a short, broad-shouldered man with noble +forehead and soft dark eyes. 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 old." I was glad to +be introduced to him, for I was an enthusiastic admirer of his hymns, +and I had a personal affection for his brother, Andrew, the author of +the delightful "Life of M'Cheyne." Although Horatius had won his +world-wide fame as a composer of hymns, he was, at that time, stoutly +opposed to the use of anything but the old Scotch version of the Psalms +in church worship. During my address to the Assembly I said: "We +Presbyterians in America sing the good old psalms of David." At this +point Dr. Bonar led in a round of applause, and then I continued: "We +also sing the Gospel of Jesus Christ as versified by Watts, Wesley, +Cowper, Toplady and _your own Horatius Bonar!"_ There was a burst of +laughter, and then I rather mischievously added: "My own people have the +privilege, not accorded to my brother's congregation, of singing his +magnificent hymns." By this time the whole house came down in a perfect +roar, and the confused blush on Bonar's face puzzled us--whether it was +on account of the compliment, or on account of his own inconsistency. +However, before his death he consented to have his own congregation sing +his own hymns, although it is said that two pragmatical elders rose and +strode indignantly down the aisle of the church. + +In August, 1889, when I was on a visit to Chillingham Castle, Lady +Tankerville said to me: "Our dear Bonar is dead." I left the next day +for Edinburgh and reached there in time to bear an humble part in the +funeral services. On the day of his obsequies there was a tremendous +downpour, which reminded me of the story of the Scotchman, who, on +arriving in Australia, met one of his countrymen, who said to him: "Hae +ye joost come fra Scotland and _is it rainin' yet_?" But in spite of the +storm the Morningside Church, by the entrance to the Grange Cemetery, +was well filled by a representative assembly. The service was confined +to the reading of the Scriptures, to two prayers and the singing of +Bonar's beautiful hymn, the last verse of which is + + "Broken Death's dread hands that bound us, + Life and victory around us; + Christ the King Himself hath crown'd us, + Ah, 'tis Heaven at last." + +As I was the only American present I was requested to close the service +with a brief word of prayer; and I rode down to the Canongate Cemetery +with grand old Principal John Cairns (who Dr. McCosh told me "had the +best head in Scotland"), and Bonar's colleague, the Rev. Mr. Sloane. On +our way to the place of burial Mr. Sloane told me that Bonar's two +finest hymns, + + "I heard the voice of Jesus say," etc.. + +and + + "I lay my sins on Jesus," etc, + +were originally composed for the children of his Sabbath school. And yet +they are the productions by which he has become most widely known +throughout Christendom. The storm-swept streets that day were lined with +silent mourners; and, under weeping skies, 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 century. + +Our own country has been very prolific in the production of hymns. The +venerable and devout blind songstress, Fanny Crosby (whom I often meet +at the house of my beloved neighbor, Mr. Ira D. Sankey), has produced +very many hundreds of them--none of very high poetic merit, but many of +them of such rich spiritual savour, and set to such stirring airs, that +they are sung by millions around the globe. By common consent in all +American hymnology the hymn commencing + + "My faith looks up to Thee, + Thou Lamb of Calvary," etc, + +is the best. Its author, Dr. Ray Palmer, when a young man, teaching in a +school for girls in New York, 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 soul," and put the memorandum book back into his vest pocket +and for two years carried the verses there, little dreaming that he was +carrying his own passport to immortality. Dr. Lowell Mason, the +celebrated composer of Boston, asked him to furnish a new hymn for his +next volume of "Spiritual Songs" for social worship, and young Palmer +drew out the four verses from his pocket. Mason composed for them the +noble tune, "Olivet," and to that air they were wedded for ever more. He +met Palmer afterwards, and said to him: "Sir, you may live many years, +and do many things, but you will be best known to posterity as the +author of 'My faith looks up to Thee.'" The prediction proved true. His +devoted heart flowed out in that one matchless lily that has filled so +many hearts and sanctuaries with its rich fragrance. Dr. Palmer preached +several times in my Brooklyn pulpit. He was once with us on a +sacramental Sabbath. 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 lines: + + "My faith looks up to Thee + Thou Lamb of Calvary, + Saviour Divine." + +It was like listening to a rehearsal for the celestial choir, and the +whole assembly was most deeply moved. Dr. Palmer was short in stature, +but his erect form and habit of brushing his hair high over his forehead +gave him a commanding look. He was the impersonation of genuine +enthusiasm. Some of his letters I shall always prize. They were the +outpourings of his own warm heart on paper. He fell asleep just before +he reached a round four score, and of our many hymn-writers no one has +yet "taken away his crown." + +It is quite fitting to follow this sketch of one noble veteran with a +brief reminiscence of an equally noble one, who bore the name of an +Episcopalian, although he was very undenominational in his broad +sympathies. Dr. William Augustus Muhlenberg was one of the most +apostolic men I have ever known in appearance and spirit. His gray head +all men knew in New York. He commanded attention everywhere by his +genial face and hearty manner of speech. I used to meet him at the +anniversaries of the Five Points Home of Industry. Everybody loved him +at first sight. All the world knows he was the founder of St. Luke's +Hospital in New York, and the extensive institutions of charity at St. +Johnsland, on Long Island. Of his hymns the most popular is + + "I would not live alway," etc. + +It was first written as an impromptu for a lady's album, and afterwards +amended into its present form. + +In his later years he regarded the tone of that hymn as too lugubrious; +and in a pleasant note to me he said: "Paul's 'For me to live is Christ' +is far better than Job's 'I would not live alway.'" My favorite among +his productions is the one on Noah's Dove, commencing, "O cease, my +wandering soul"; but the man was greater than any song he ever wrote. As +he was a bachelor he lived in his St. Luke's Hospital; and once, when he +was carrying a tray of dishes down to the kitchen and some one +protested, the patriarch replied: "Why not; what am I but a waiter here +in the Lord's hotel?" When very near his end the Chaplain of the +hospital prayed at his bedside for his recovery. "Let us have an +understanding about this," said Muhlenberg. "You are asking God to +restore me, and I am asking God to take me home. There must not be any +contradiction in our prayers, for it is evident that He cannot answer +them both." This was characteristic of his bluff frankness, as well as +of his heavenly-mindedness--he "would not live alway." + +In July, 1881, I was visiting Stockholm, and was invited to go on an +excursion to the University of Upsala with Dr. Samuel F. Smith. I had +never before met my celebrated countryman about whom his Harvard +classmate, Oliver Wendell Holmes, once wrote: + + "And there's a nice youngster of excellent pith-- + Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith; + 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 +celebration, in Park Street Church, Boston, in 1832, and has become our +national hymn. When I met the genial old man in Sweden, and travelled +with him for several days, he was on his way home from a missionary tour +in India and Burmah. He told me that he had heard the Burmese and +Telugus sing in their native tongue his grand missionary hymn, "The +Morning Light is Breaking." He was a native Bostonian, and was born a +few days before Ray Palmer. He was a Baptist pastor, editor, college +professor, and spent the tranquil summer evening of his life at Newton, +Mass.; and at a railway station in Boston, by sudden heart failure, he +was translated to his heavenly home. He illustrated his own sweet +evening hymn, "Softly Fades the Twilight Ray." + +Among the elect-ladies who have produced great uplifting hymns that +"were not born to die" was Mrs. Elizabeth Payson Prentiss, the daughter +of the saintly Dr. Edward Payson, of Portland, Maine. Her prose works +were very popular, and "Stepping Heavenward" had found its way into +thousands of hearts. But one day she--in a few hours--won her +immortality by writing a hymn, beginning with the lines, + + "More love to Thee, O Christ, + More love to Thee" + +It was printed on a fly-sheet, for a few friends, then found its way +into a hymn-book, edited by my well-beloved friend, Dr. Edwin F. +Hatfield, and then it took wing and flew over the world into many +foreign languages. I often met Mrs. Prentiss at the home of her husband, +Dr. George L. Prentiss, an eminent professor in the Union Theological +Seminary. She was a very bright-eyed little woman, with a keen sense of +humor, who cared more to shine in her own happy household than in a wide +circle of society. 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 fear. 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 fellowship. Mrs. +Prentiss has put a new song into the mouths of a multitude of those who +are "stepping heavenward." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE TEMPERANCE REFORM AND MY CO-WORKERS + + +As stated in the first chapter of this book, I became a teetotaler when +I was a child, and I also stated that the first public address I ever +delivered was in behalf of temperance. When I made my first visit to +Edinburgh in 1842 I learned that a temperance society of that city was +about to go over to Glasgow to greet the celebrated Father Theobald +Mathew, who was making his first visit to Scotland. I joined my +Edinburgh friends, and on arriving in Glasgow we found a multitude of +over fifty thousand people assembled on the green. In an open barouche, +drawn by four horses, stood a short, stout Irishman, with a handsome, +benevolent countenance, and attired in a long black coat with a silver +medal hanging upon his breast. After the procession, headed by his +carriage, had forced its way through the densely thronged street, it +halted in a small open square. Father Mathew dismounted, and began to +administer the pledge of abstinence to those who were willing to receive +it. They kneeled on the ground in platoons; the pledge was read aloud to +them; Father Mathew laid his hands upon them and pronounced a +benediction. From the necks of many a small medal attached to a cord was +suspended. In this rapid manner the pledge was administered to many +hundreds of persons within an hour, and fresh crowds continually came +forward. + +When I was introduced to the good man as an American, he spoke a few +kind words and gave me an "apostolic kiss" upon my cheek. As I was about +to make the first public speech of my life, 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 abstinence. The administration +of the pledge was followed by a grand meeting of welcome in the city +hall. Father Mathew spoke with modest simplicity and deep emotion, +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 bottle. After delivering my maiden speech I hastened back to +Edinburgh with the deputation from "Auld Reekie," and I never saw Father +Mathew again. He was, unquestionably, the most remarkable temperance +reformer who has yet appeared. While a Catholic priest in Cork, a Quaker +friend, Mr. Martin, who met him in an almshouse, said to him, "Father +Theobald, why not give thyself to the work of saving men from the +drink?" Father Mathew immediately commenced his enterprise. It spread +over Ireland like wildfire. It is computed that no less than five +millions of people took the pledge of total abstinence from intoxicating +poisons by his influence. The revolution wrought in his day, in his own +time and country, was marvellous, and, to this day, his influence is +perpetuated in the vast number of Father Mathew Benevolent Temperance +Societies. + +[Illustration: DR CUYLER AT 32 (When Pastor of the Market St Church, New +York)] + +Second only to Father Mathew in the number of converts which he has made +to total abstinence was that brilliant and dramatic platform orator, +John B. Gough. When he was a reckless young sot in Worcester, +Massachusetts, he had owed his conversion to a touch on his shoulder by +a shoemaker, named Joel Stratton, who had invited him to a Washingtonian +temperance meeting. Soon after that time he owed his conversion, under +God, to the influence of Miss Mary Whitcomb, the daughter of a Boylston +farmer in the neighborhood. He formed her acquaintance very soon after +he signed the temperance pledge in Worcester, and she consented to +assume the risk of becoming his wife. In the summer of 1856 I visited my +beloved friend Gough at his beautiful Boylston home to aid him in +revival services, which he was conducting in his own church, then +without a pastor. He was Sunday-school superintendent, pastor and leader +of inquiry meetings--all in himself. One evening he took me to the +house of his neighbor, Captain Flagg, and said to me: "Here, in this +house, Mary and I did our brief two or three weeks of courting. We +didn't talk of love, but only religion and about the welfare of my soul. +We prayed together every time we met; and it was such serious business +that I do not think I even kissed her until we were married. She took me +on trust, with three dollars in my pocket, and has been to me the best +wife God ever made." When they went to Boston, Dr. Edward N. Kirk +received Mr. Gough into the Mt. Vernon Street Church, just as many years +afterwards he received Mr. Moody to the same communion table. + +Of Mr. Gough's extraordinary platform powers I need not speak while +there are so many now living that sat under the enchantment of his +eloquence. 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 oratory. As an actor he might have been a second Garrick; as a +preacher of the Gospel he would have been a second Whitefield. My house +was his home when visiting our city for many years, and he used to tell +me that my letters to him were carried in his breast pocket until they +were worn to fragments. His last speech, delivered in Philadelphia, +displayed much of his early power, and the last sentence, "Young man, +keep a clean record," rung out as he fell stricken with apoplexy, and +the eloquent voice was silent forever. God's messenger met him where +every true warrior may well desire to be met--in the heat of the battle, +and with the harness on. + +My acquaintance with Neal Dow began in the early winter of 1852. He had +been chosen Mayor of Portland in the spring of the year, and then he +struck the bold stroke which was "heard round the world" and made him +famous as the father of Prohibition. 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 sale, and to seize and confiscate +them on the spot. It was this sharp scimitar of search and seizure which +gave the original Maine law its deadly power. He took his bill to the +seat of government and it was promptly passed by the legislature. He +brought it home in triumph, and in less than three months there was not +an open dram shop or distillery in Portland! He invited me to visit him, +and drove me over the city, whose pure air was not polluted with the +faintest smell of alcohol. It seemed like the first whiff of a +temperance millennium. An invitation was extended to him to a +magnificent public meeting in Tripler Hall, New York. At that meeting a +large array of distinguished speakers, including General Houston, of +Texas; the Hon. Horace Mann, of Massachusetts; Henry Ward Beecher, Dr. +Chapin and several other celebrities, appeared. On that evening I +delivered my first public address in New York, and have been told that +it was the occasion of my call to be a pastor in that city two years +afterwards. A gold medal was presented to Neal Dow that evening. He went +home with me to Trenton, 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 1851 +to 1857, the years of its widest successes. With him I addressed the +legislature of New York, who passed a law of prohibition very soon +afterwards. A forceful, magnetic man was General Dow, thoroughly honest +and courageous, with a womanly tenderness in his sympathies. I have been +permitted to know intimately many of the leaders in great moral reforms +on both sides of the ocean; but a braver, sounder heart was not to be +found than that which throbbed in the breast of Neal Dow. + +On his ninetieth birthday the hale veteran sent my wife his photograph. +She placed his white locks alongside of the photograph which Gladstone +gave her, and she calls them her duet of grand old men. The closing +years of General Dow's life, like the closing years of Martin Luther, +were clouded with anxiety. He saw the great movement which he had +championed checked by many difficulties and suffering some disastrous +reverses. Some States which had enacted total prohibition forty years +before had repealed the law. In the five States which retained it on +their statute books its salutary enforcement was dependent on the moral +sentiments in the various localities. In his own, beloved Maine, his own +beloved law had been trampled down in some places; in others made the +football of designing politicians. These reverses saddened the old +hero's heart, and he sent to the public meeting in Portland which +celebrated his ninety-third birthday this message: "That the purpose of +my life work will be fully accomplished at some time I do not doubt, and +my hope and expectation is that the obstacles which now obstruct us will +not long block the way." The name of Neal Dow will be always memorable +as one of the truest, bravest and purest philanthropists of the +nineteenth century. + +The most important organization for the promotion of temperance in our +country is the National Temperance Society and Publication House, which +was founded in 1865. I prepared its constitution, and the committee +which organized it met in the counting room of that eminent Christian +merchant, the late Hon. William E. Dodge. I once introduced him to the +Earl of Shaftesbury at a Lord Mayor's reception in London in these +words: "My lord, let me introduce you to William E. Dodge, the +Shaftesbury of America." To this day he is remembered as an ideal +Christian merchant and philanthropist. With him conscience ruled +everything, and God ruled conscience. He was one of the founders of a +great railway and cut the first sod for its construction. Long +afterwards the Board of Directors of the road proposed to drive their +trains and traffic through the Lord's day. Mr. Dodge said to his fellow +directors: "Then, gentlemen, put a flag on every locomotive with these +words inscribed on it, 'We break God's law for a dividend.' As for me, I +go out." He did go out, and disposed of his stock. Within a few years +the road went into the hands of a receiver, and the stock sank to thirty +cents on the dollar. + +During the Civil War, General Dix and his military staff gave Mr. Dodge +a complimentary dinner at Fortress Monroe. General Dix rapped on the +table and said to his brother officers: "Gentlemen, you are aware that +our honored guest is a water-drinker. I propose that to-day we join him +in his favorite beverage." Forthwith every wine-glass was turned upside +down as a silent tribute to the Christian conscience of their guest. +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 society. Mr. Dodge was elected the first +president of the National Temperance Society, and served it for eighteen +years and bestowed upon it his liberal donations. He closed his useful +and beneficent life in February, 1883, and he was succeeded in the +presidency of the Society by Dr. Mark Hopkins of Williams College, by +the writer of this book, by General O.O. Howard and by Joshua L. Bailey, +who is at present the head of the organization. The society has done a +vast and benevolent work, receiving and expending a million and a half +dollars, publishing many hundreds of valuable volumes, and widely +circulated tracts. + +The limits of this chapter will not allow me to pay my tribute to the +venerable Dr. Charles Jewett, Dr. Cheever, Albert Barnes, Dr. Tyng and +the great Christian statesman, Theodore Frelinghuysen, Miss Frances +Willard, Lady Henry Somerset, Joseph Cook and many others who have been +prominent in the promotion of this great Christian reform. It has been +my privilege to labor for it through my whole public life. I have +prepared thirty or forty tracts, written a great number of articles and +delivered hundreds of addresses in behalf of it, and preached many a +discourse from my own pulpit. 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 organization. It is of vital importance +that the young should be saved, and therefore I have urged temperance +lessons in the Sunday school and the early adoption of a total +abstinence pledge. 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 used. 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 hour, and +that must be given in the home, in the schools and from the pulpit and +from the public press. I have become convinced from long labor in this +reform that the ordinary license system is only a poultice to the dram +seller's conscience, and for restraining intemperance it is a ghastly +failure. Institutions and patent medicines to cure drinkers have only +had a partial success. The only sure cure for drunkenness is to stop +before you begin. Entire legal suppression of the dram shop is +successful where a stiff, righteous, public sentiment thoroughly +enforces it. Otherwise it may become a delusion and a farce. + +The best method of prohibition is what is known as "local option," +where the question is submitted to each community, whether the liquor +traffic shall be legalized or suppressed by public authority. 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 intoxicants. Legal enactments are right; but to +attempt to dam up a torrent and neglect the fountain-head is surely +insanity. The fountain-head of drunkenness is the _drinking usages_ +which create and sustain the saloons, which are often the doorways to +hell. In theory I always have been, and am to-day, a legal +suppressionist; but the most vital remedy of all is to break up the +demand for intoxicants, and to persuade people from wishing to buy and +drink them. That goes to the root of the evil. In endeavoring to remove +the saloon, 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 people. And another beneficent +plan is for corporations and employers to make abstinence from drink an +essential to employment. My generous friend, Mr. Andrew Carnegie, when +he recently gave a liberal donation to our National Temperance Society, +said to me: "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 intoxicants." The +experience of three-score years has taught me the inestimable value of +total abstinence; the benefit of the righteous law when it is well +enforced, and also that the church of Christ has no more right to ignore +the drink evil than it has to ignore theft, or Sabbath desecration, or +murder. Let me add also my grateful acknowledgment of the very effective +and Heaven-blessed work wrought by that noble organization, the Woman's +Christian Temperance Union. As woman has been the sorest sufferer from +the drink-curse, it is her province and her duty to do her utmost for +its removal. + + + + +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 ministry. Many of my +relatives urged me to become a lawyer, as my father and grandfather had +been, but my godly mother had dedicated me to the ministry from infancy, +and her influence all went in the same line with her prayers. With the +exception of my venerated and beloved kinsman, Dr. Cornelius C. Cuyler, +Pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, who died in +1850, no other man of my name has stood in an American pulpit. During +the winter of my return from Europe to my home on the Cayuga Lake, one +of my uncles invited me to go down and attend an afternoon prayer +service in the neighboring village of Ludlowville. There was a spiritual +awakening in the church, and the meeting was held in the parlor of a +private house. I arose and spoke for ten minutes. When the meeting was +over, more than one came to me and said: "Your talk did me good." On my +way home, as I drove along in my sleigh, the thought flashed into my +mind, "If ten minutes' talk to-day helped a few souls, why not preach +all the time?" That one thought decided the vexed question on the spot. +Our lives turn on small pivots, and if we let God lead us, the path will +open before our footsteps. I reached home that day, and informed my good +mother of my decision. She had always expected it and quietly remarked, +"Then, I have already spoken to Mr. Ford for his room for you in the +Princeton Seminary." My three years in the Seminary were full of joy and +profit. I made it a rule to go out as often as possible and address +little meetings in the neighboring school-houses, and found this a very +beneficial method of gaining practice. A young preacher must get +accustomed to the sound of his own voice; if naturally timid, he must +learn to face an audience and must first learn to speak; afterwards he +may learn to speak well. It is a wise thing for a young man to begin his +labors in a small congregation; he has more time for study, a better +chance to become intimately acquainted with individual characters, and +also a smaller audience to face. The first congregation that I was +called to take charge of, in Burlington, N.J. contained about forty +families. Three or four of these were wealthy and cultivated, the rest +were plain mechanics, with a few gardeners and coachmen. I made my +sermons to suit the comprehension of the gardeners and coachmen at the +end of the house, leaving the cultivated portion to gain what they could +from the sermon on its way. One of the wealthy attendants was Mr. +Charles Chauncey, a distinguished Philadelphia lawyer, who spent the +summer months in Burlington. Once after I had delivered a very simple +and earnest sermon on the "Worth of the Soul," I went home and said to +myself, "Lawyer Chauncey must have thought that was only a camp-meeting +exhortation." He met me during the week and to my astonishment he said +to me: "My young friend, I thank you for that sermon last Sunday; it had +the two best qualities of preaching--simplicity and down-right +earnestness. 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 office." That eminent lawyer's remark did me more +service than any month's study in the Seminary. It taught me that +cultivated audiences relished plain, simple scriptural truths as much as +did the illiterate, and that down-right earnestness to save souls hides +a multitude of sins in raw young preachers. + +Another instance that occurred in my early ministry did me a world of +good. I was invited to preach in the Presbyterian Church at Saratoga +Springs about two years after I was licensed. My topics were "Trusting +Jesus Christ" in the morning and "The Day of Judgment" at the evening +service. The next day, when I was buying my ticket at the railway +station to leave the town, a plain man (who was a baker in the village) +said to me: "Are you not the young man who spoke yesterday in our +meeting-house?" I told him that I was. "Well," said he, "I never felt +more sorry for any one in my life." "Why so?" I asked. His answer was: +"I said to myself, there is a youth just out of the Seminary, and he +does not know that a Saratoga audience is made up of highly educated +people from all parts of the land; but I have noticed that if a +minister, during his first ten minutes, can convince the people that he +is only trying to save their souls he _kills all the critics in the +house_." I have never ceased to thank God for the remark of that shrewd +Saratoga baker, who, I was told, had come there from New Haven, +Connecticut, and was a man of remarkable sagacity. That was one of the +profoundest bits of sound philosophy on the art of preaching that I have +ever encountered, and I have quoted it in every Theological Seminary +that I have ever addressed. If we ministers pour the living truths of +the Gospel red-hot into the ears and consciences of our audiences, 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 preaching. Cowards, also, are +never more pitiable than when in the pulpit. + +I will not enter here into the endless controversy about the comparative +merits of written or extemporized sermons. My own observation and +experience has been that no rule is the best rule. Every man must find +out by practice which method he can use to the best advantage and then +pursue it. No man ever fails who understands his forte, and no man +succeeds who does not. Some men cannot extemporize effectively if they +try ever so hard; there are others who, like Gladstone, can think best +when they are on their legs and are inspired by an audience. During the +first few years of my ministry I wrote out nearly all of my sermons. The +advantage of doing that is that it enables a young beginner to form his +own style at the outset by careful and systematic writing. Spurgeon, +often when a youth, read some of his sermons, although afterwards he +never premeditated a single sentence for the pulpit. Dr. Richard S. +Storrs was a most fluent extemporaneous speaker, but for twenty years he +carefully wrote all his discourses. My own habit, after a time, 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 +manuscript. This was generally the habit of Henry Ward Beecher. 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-paper, and +tacking it into a Bagster's Bible. Dr. John Hall wrote carefully, +leaving his manuscript at home; and so does Dr. Alexander McLaren, of +Manchester, who is to-day by far the most superb sermonizer in Great +Britain. The eloquent Guthrie, of Scotland, committed his discourses to +memory, and delivered them in a torrent of Godly emotion. + +In preparing my sermons my custom was, after taking some rest on Monday, +to get into my study early on Tuesday morning. To every student the best +hours of the day are those before the sun has reached the meridian. Then +the mind is the most clear and vigorous. I have never in my life +prepared sermons a dozen times after my supper. Severe mental work in +the evening is apt to destroy sound sleep; thousands of brain workers +are wrecked by insomnia. To secure freedom from needless interruption I +pinned on my study door "_Very Busy_." This had the wholesome effect of +shutting out all time-killers, and of shortening necessary calls of +those who had some important errand. Instead of leaving the selection of +my topic to the risk of any contingency, I usually chose my text on +Tuesday morning, and laid the keel of the sermon. I kept a large +note-book in which I could enter any passage of Scripture that would +furnish a good theme for pulpit consumption. 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 sermons. By this method I had +a treasury of texts from which I could draw every week. Let my readers +be careful to notice that word "Text." I have known men to prepare an +elaborate essay, theological, ethical or sociological, and then to perch +a text from the Bible on top of it. + +"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 brain. The best +discourses are not manufactured, they are a _growth_. God's inspired and +infallible Book must furnish the text. The connection between every good +sermon and its text is just as vital as the connection between a +peach-tree and its root. Sometimes an indolent minister tries to palm +off an old sermon for a pretended new one by changing the text, 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 animal. Intelligent +audiences see through such tricks and despise them. "Be sure your sin +will find you out." When a passage from the Holy Scripture has been +planted as a root and well watered with prayer, the sermon should spring +naturally from it. The central thought of the text being the central +thought of the sermon and all argument, all instruction and exhortation +are only the boughs branching off from the central trunk, giving unity, +vigor and spiritual beauty to the whole organic production. The unity +and spiritual power of a discourse usually depend upon the adherence to +the great divine truth contained in the inspired Book. The Bible text is +God's part of our sermon; and the more thoroughly we get the text into +our own souls, the more will we get it into the sermon, and into the +consciences of our hearers. To keep out of a rut I studied the infinite +variety of Sacred Scripture; its narratives and matchless biographies, +its jubilant Psalms, its profound doctrines, its tender pathos, its +rolling thunder of Sinai, and its sweet melodies of Calvary's redeeming +love. I laid hold of the great themes, and I found a half hour of +earnest prayer was more helpful than two or three hours of study. It +sometimes let a flash from the Throne flame over the page I was writing. + +To me, when preparing my Sabbath messages, God's Holy Word was the sum +of all knowledge, and a "Thus saith the Lord" was my invariable guide. I +found that in theology the true things were not new, and most of the new +things were not true. I remember how a visitor in New Haven was looking +for a certain house, and found himself in front of the residence of +Professor Olmstead, the eminent astronomer, whose stoves were then very +popular. The visitor inquired of an Irishman, who was working in front +of the house, "Who lives here?" The very Hibernian answer was, "Shure, +sur, 'tis Profissor Olmstead, a very great man; he _invents_ comets, and +has _discovered_ a new stove." In searching the Scriptures I used the +very best spiritual telescopes in my possession, and gladly availed +myself of all discoveries of divine truths made by profounder intellects +and keener visions than my own; but I leave this self-styled "advanced +age" to invent its own comets, and follow its own meteors. + +In one respect I have not followed the practice of many of my brethren, +for I never have wasted a single moment in defending God's Word in my +pulpit. I have always held that the Bible is a self-evidencing book; God +will take care of His Word if we ministers only take care to preach it. +We are no more called upon to defend the Bible than we are to defend the +law of gravitation. My beloved friend, Dr. McLaren, of Manchester, has +well said that if ministers, "instead of trying to _prop_ the Cross of +Christ, would simply _point_ men to that Cross, more souls would be +saved." The vast proportion of volumes of "Apologetics" are a waste of +ink and paper. If they could all be kindled into a huge bonfire, they +would shed more light than they ever did before. It is not our business +to answer every sceptic who shies a stone at the solid fortress of truth +in which God places His ambassadors. If Tobiah and Sanballat are +challenging us to come down into the plain, and meet them on their +level, our answer must ever be: "I am God's messenger, preaching God's +word and doing God's work. I cannot stop to go down and prove that your +swords are made of lath." + +To my younger brethren I would say: "Preach the Word, preach it with all +your soul, preach it in the strength of Jehovah's Spirit, and He will +give it the victory." + +I found the effectiveness of my sermons increased by the use of every +good illustration I could get hold of, but I tried to be careful that +they illustrated something. Where such are lugged into the sermon merely +for the sake of ornament, they are as much out of place as a bouquet +would be tied fast to a plough-handle. The Divine Teacher set us the +example of making vital truths intelligible by illustrations, when he +spoke so often in parables, and sometimes recalled historical incidents. +All congregations relish incidents and stories, when they are "pat" to +the purpose, and serious enough for God's house, 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 Springs, and closed it +with a solemn story of a man who died of remorse at the exposure of his +crime. The Hon. John McLean, a judge of the United States Supreme Court +and a prominent man in the Methodist Church, was in the congregation, +and the next day I called at the United States Hotel to pay my respects +to him. He said to me, "My young friend I was very much interested in +that story last evening; it clinched the sermon. Our ministers in +Cincinnati used to introduce illustrative anecdotes, but it seems to +have gone out of fashion and I am sorry for it." I replied to him, "Well +Judge, 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 +pulpit." There is one principle that covers all cases. It is this: +Whatever makes the Gospel or Jesus Christ more clear to the +understanding, more effective in arousing sinners, in converting souls, +in edifying believers and in promoting pure honest living is never out +of place in the pulpit. When we are preaching for souls we may use any +and every weapon of truth within our reach. + +Those who have sat before my pulpit will testify that I never spared my +lungs or their ears in the delivery of my discourses. The preaching of +the Gospel is spiritual gunnery, and many a well-loaded cartridge has +failed to reach its mark from lack of powder to propel it. The prime +duty of God's ambassador is to arouse the attention of souls before his +pulpit; to stir those who are indifferent; to awaken those who are +impenitent; to cheer the sorrow-stricken; to strengthen the weak, 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 +hearing, cost what it may: but that hearing he never will secure while +he addresses an audience in a cold, formal, perfunctory manner. +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 tears." I cannot impress it too strongly on +every young minister that the delivery of his sermon is half the battle. +Why load your gun at all if you cannot send your charge to the mark? +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 _perspiration_. A sermon that is but ordinary +as a production may have an extraordinary effect by direct and fervid +delivery. The minister who never warms himself will never warm up his +congregation. I once asked Albert Barnes, of Philadelphia, "Who is the +greatest preacher you have ever heard?" Mr. Barnes, who was a very +clear-headed thinker, replied: "I cannot answer your question exactly, +but the greatest specimen of preaching I ever heard was by the Rev. +Edward N. Kirk before my congregation during a revival; it produced a +tremendous effect." Those of us that knew Kirk knew that he was not a +man of genius or profound scholarship; but he was a true orator with a +superb voice and a sweet persuasiveness, and his whole soul was on fire +with the love of Jesus and the love of souls. + +It is not easy to define what that subtle something is which we call +pulpit magnetism. 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 which, when aided by the +Holy Spirit, produces conviction in their minds by the truth that is in +Jesus. The heart in the speaker's voice sends that voice into the hearts +of his hearers. It is an undoubted fact that pulpit fervor has been a +characteristic of almost all the preachers of a soul-winning Gospel. The +fire was kindled in the pulpit that kindled the pews. The discourses of +Frederick W. Robertson, of Brighton, were masterpieces of fresh thought, +but the crowds were drawn to his church because they were delivered +with a fiery glow. The king of living sermon-makers is Dr. McLaren, of +Manchester. His vigorous thought is put into vigorous language and then +vigorously spoken. He commits his grand sermons to memory, and then +looks his audience in the eyes, and sends his strong voice to the +furthest gallery. Last year after I had thanked him for his powerful +"Address on Preaching" to a thousand ministers in London, he wrote to +me: "It was an effort; for I could not trust myself to do without a +manuscript, and I am so unaccustomed to reading what I have to say that +it was like dancing a hornpipe in fetters," Yet manuscripts are not +always fetters; for Dr. Chalmers read every line of his sermons with +thrilling and tremendous effect. So did Dr. Charles Wadsworth in +Philadelphia, and so did Phillips Brooks in Boston. In my own experience +I have as often found spiritual results from the discourses partly or +mainly written out as from those spoken extemporaneously. While much may +depend upon the conditions in the congregation and much aid may be drawn +from the intercessory prayers of our people, the main thing is to have a +baptism of fire in our own hearts. Sometimes a sermon may produce but +little impression, yet the same sermon at another time and place may +deeply move an audience, and yield rich spiritual results. Physical +condition may have some influence on a minister's delivery; but the +chief element in the eloquence that awakens and converts sinners and +strengthens Christians is the unction of the Holy Spirit. Our best power +is the _power from on high_. + +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 faces. Then +the more fervor of soul you put into your preaching the more souls you +will win to your Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. + +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 youth. In the first place the average preacher in those days was more +doctrinal than at the present time. The masters in Israel evidently held +with Phillips Brooks that "no exhortation to a good life that does not +put behind it some great truth, as deep as eternity, can seize and hold +the conscience," Therefore they pushed to the front such deep and mighty +themes as the Attributes of God, the Divinity of Jesus Christ, the +Nature and Desert of Sin, the Atonement, Regeneration, Faith, +Resurrection, and Judgment to come, with Heaven and Hell as tremendous +realities. They emphasized the heinousness and the desert of sin as a +great argument for repentance and acceptance of Jesus Christ. A lapse +from that style of preaching is to be deplored; for as Gladstone truly +remarked, the decline or decay of a sense of sin against God is one of +the most serious symptoms of these times. + +Charles G. Finney, who was at the zenith of his power sixty years ago, +bombarded the consciences of sinners with a prodigious broadside of +pulpit doctrine; and many acute lawyers and eminent merchants were +converted under his discourses. No two finer examples of doctrinal +preaching--once so prevalent--could be cited than Dr. Lyman Beecher and +Dr. Horace Bushnell. The celebrated sermon by the former of these two +giants on the "Moral Government of God" was characterized by Thomas H. +Skinner as the mightiest discourse he had ever heard. Henry Ward Beecher +hardly exaggerated when he once said to me, "Put all of his children +together and we do not equal my father at his best." Dr. Bushnell's +masterly discourses with all their exquisite poetry and insight into +human hearts were largely bottomed and built on a theological basis. To +those two great doctrinal preachers I might add the names of my beloved +instructors, Dr. Archibald Alexander and Dr. Charles Hodge, of +Princeton, Albert Barnes and Professor Park, Dr. Thornwell, Dr. Bethune, +Dr. John Todd, Dr. G.T. Bedell, Bishop Simpson and President Stephen +Olin. + +Has the American pulpit grown in spiritual power since those days? Have +the churches thriven whose pastors have become more invertebrate in +their theology? + +Another characteristic of the average preacher sixty years ago was that +sermons were generally aimed at awakening the impenitent, and bringing +them to Jesus Christ. The evil of sin was emphasized; the way of +salvation explained; the claims of Christianity were presented; and +people were urged to immediate decision. Nowadays a large portion of +sermons are addressed to professing Christians; many others are +addressed to nobody in particular, but there is less of faithful, +fervid, loving and persuasive discourses to the unconverted. This is one +of the reasons for the lamentable decrease in the number of conversions. +If ministers are set to be watchmen of souls, how shall they escape if +they neglect the salvation of souls? + +I think, too, that we cannot be mistaken in saying that there has been a +decline in impassioned pulpit eloquence. There is a change in the +fashions of preaching. Students are now taught to be calm and +colloquial; to aim at producing epigrammatical essays; to discuss +sociological problems and address the intellects of their auditors +rather in the style of the lecture platform or college class room. The +great Dr. Chalmers "making the rafters roar" is as much a bygone +tradition in many quarters as faith in the Mosaic authorship of the +Pentateuch. I have often wished that the young Edward N. Kirk, who +melted to tears the professors and students of Yale during the revival +there, could come back to us and teach candidates for the ministry how +to preach. There was no stentorian shouting or rhetorical exhortation; +but there was an intense, solemn, white-heat earnestness that made his +auditors feel not only that life was worth living, but that the soul was +worth saving and Jesus Christ was worth serving, and Heaven was worth +securing, and that for all these things "God will bring us into +judgment." If Lyman Beecher and Dr. Edward Dorr Griffin and Finney did +not possess all of Kirk's grace of delivery, they possessed his fire, +and they made the Gospel doctrines glow with a living heat that burned +into the hearts and consciences of their auditors. + +May God send into our churches not only a revival of pure and undefiled +religion, but also a revival of old-fashioned soul-inspiring pulpit +eloquence! + +It is rather a delicate subject to touch upon, 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 pulpits. The questions, "Have we got any +Bible?" and "If any Bible, how much?" had not been hatched. When I was +in Princeton Seminary, our profoundly learned Hebrew Professor, Dr. J. +Addison Alexander no more disturbed us with the much-vaunted conjectural +Biblical criticisms than he disturbed us with Joe Smith's "golden +plates" at Nauvoo. For this fact I feel deeply thankful; and I comfort +myself with the reflection that the great British preachers of the last +dozen years--Dr. McLaren, Charles H. Spurgeon, Newman Hall, Canon Liddon, +Dr. Dale and Dr. Joseph Parker--have suffered no more from the virulent +attacks of the radical and revolutionary higher criticism than I have, +during my long and happy ministry. + +Ministers had some advantages sixty or seventy years ago over their +successors of our day. They had a more uninterrupted opportunity for the +preparation of their sermons and for thorough personal visitation of +their flocks. They were not importuned so often to serve on committees +and to be participants in all sorts of social schemes of charity. 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 calling. +"This one thing I do," said single-hearted Paul; and if Paul were a +pastor now in New York or Boston or Chicago, he would make short work of +many an intrusive rap of a time-killer at his study door. + +I have noted frankly a few of the changes that I have observed in the +methods of our American pulpit during my long life, but not, I trust, in +a pessimistic or censorious spirit God forbid that I should disparage +the noble, conscientious, self-denying and Heaven-blessed labors of +thousands of Christ's ministers in our broad land! They have greater +difficulties to encounter than I had when I began my work. They are +surrounded with an atmosphere of intense materialism. The ambition for +the "seen things" increasingly blinds men to the "things that are unseen +and eternal." Wealth and worldliness unspiritualize thousands of +professed Christians. The present artificial arrangements of society +antagonize devotional meetings and special efforts to promote revivals. +On Sabbath mornings many a minister has to shovel out scores of his +congregation from under the drifts (not very clean snow either) of the +mammoth Sunday newspapers. + +The zealous pastor of to-day has to contend with the lowered popular +faith in the authority of God's Word; with the lowered reverence for +God's day and a diminished habit of attending upon God's worship. Do +these increased difficulties demand a new Gospel? No; but rather a +mightier faith in the one we have. Do they demand new doctrines? No; +but more power in preaching the truths that have outlived nineteen +centuries. Do we need a new revelation of Jesus Christ? Yes, yes, in the +fuller manifestation of Him; in the more loving, courageous and +consecrated lives of His followers. Do we need a new Baptism of the Holy +Spirit? Verily we do need it; and then our pulpits will be clothed with +power, and our preachers will have tongues of fire, and every change +will be a change for the better advancement and enlargement of the +Kingdom of our adorable Lord. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +MY EXPERIENCE IN REVIVALS. + + +I have always counted it a matter for thankfulness that I made my +preparation for the ministry at Princeton Theological Seminary. The +period that I spent there, from September, 1843, to May, 1846, was a +golden period in its history. The venerable Archibald Alexander, +wonderfully endowed with sagacity and spiritual insight, instructed us +in the duties of the preacher and the pastor. Dr. Charles Hodge, the +king of Presbyterian theologians, was in the prime of his power. His +teachings have since been embodied in his masterful volume on +"Systematic Theology." Dr. Joseph Addison Alexander, who, Dr. Hodge +said, was, taking him all in all, "the most gifted man with whom I was +ever personally acquainted," was in the chair of Hebrew and Old +Testament literature. Urbane, old Dr. Samuel Miller, was the Professor +of Ecclesiastical History. Those wise men taught us not only to think, +but to believe. All education is atmospheric, and the atmosphere of +Princeton Seminary was deeply and sweetly Evangelical. At five o'clock +on the morning after I received my diploma, I was off for Wyoming +Valley in Pennsylvania, the Arcadian spot made famous in the volume of +Campbell's "Gertrude of Wyoming." I spent five months there supplying +the pulpit of the Rev. Mr. Mitchell, who was absent to recruit his +health. In the Autumn I received an invitation to take charge of the +Presbyterian Church of Burlington, N.J., founded by the princely and +philanthropic Dr. Cortland Van Rensellaer, son of the Patroon at Albany. +It was the very place for a young preacher to begin his work. The +congregation was small, and, therefore, I obtained an opportunity to +study individual character. It was a very difficult field of labor, and +it is good for a minister to bear the yoke in his youth. My work at +first was attended with many discouragements. I preached as pungently as +I was able, but no visible results seemed to follow. One day the wife of +one of my two church elders came to me in my study, and told me that her +son had been awakened by the faithful talk of a young Christian girl, +who had brought some work to her husband's shoe store. I said to the +elder's wife: "The Holy Spirit is evidently working on one soul--let us +have a prayer meeting at your house to-night." We spent the afternoon in +gathering our small congregation together, and when I got to her house +it was packed to the door. I have attended thousands of prayer meetings +since then, but never one that had a more distinct resemblance to the +Pentecostal gathering in "the upper room" at Jerusalem. The atmosphere +seemed to be charged with a divine electricity that affected almost +every one in the house. Three times over I closed the meeting with a +benediction, but it began again, and the people lingered until a very +late hour, melted together by "a baptism of fire." That wonderful +meeting was followed by special services every night, and the Holy +Spirit descended with great power. My little church was doubled in +numbers, and I learned more practical theology in a month than any +seminary could teach me in a year. + +That revival was an illustration of the truth that a good work of grace +often begins with the personal effort of one or two individuals. The +Burlington awakening began with the little girl and the elder's wife. We +ministers must never despise or neglect "the day of small things." + +Every pastor ought to be constantly on the watch, with open eye and ear, +for the first signs of an especial manifestation of the Spirit's +presence. Elijah, on Carmel, did not only pray; he kept his eyes open to +see the rising cloud. The moment that there is a manifestation of the +Spirit's presence, it must be followed up promptly. For example, during +my pastorate in the Market Street Church, New York, (from 1853 to +1860), I was out one afternoon making calls, and I discovered that in +two or three families there were anxious seekers for salvation. I +immediately called together the officers of the church, stated to them +my observations, instituted a series of meetings for almost every +evening, followed them with conversation with enquirers, and a large +ingathering of souls rewarded our efforts and prayers. 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 labors, whereas, it is sometimes +dashed out, as by a bucket of cold water thrown on by inconsistent or +quarrelsome church members. It was to Christians that St. Paul sent the +message, "Quench not the Spirit." + +In 1858 there began a marvelous work of grace, which extended not only +throughout the churches in New York, but throughout the whole country. +The flame was kindled at the beginning of the year in a noon-day prayer +meeting, instituted by that single-eyed servant of Christ, Jeremiah C. +Lamphier, who had once been a singer in the choir of my church. The +flame thus kindled in that meeting soon extended to my church in Market +Street, and presently spread over the whole city. The special feature of +the revival of 1858 was the noon-day prayer meeting. It was my privilege +to conduct the first noon meeting in Burton's old theatre in Chambers +Street, and in a few days after, a similar one in the Collegiate Church +in Ninth Street, and also the first prayer meeting in a warehouse at the +lower end of Broadway. It is not too much to say that often there were +not less than 8,000 to 10,000 of God's people, who came together at the +noon-tide hour with the spirit of supplication and prayer. The flame, +having spread over the city, then leaped to Philadelphia, and Jayne's +Hall, on Chestnut Street, was thronged by an immense number of people, +led by George H. Stuart. And so it went on from town to town, and from +city to city, over the length and breadth of our land. The revival +crossed the ocean and extended to Ireland. On a visit to Belfast I saw +handbills on the streets calling the people to noon-day gatherings. + +I began my ministry in Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn, +as its first pastor, in April, 1860. From the start I struck for souls; +and when our new edifice was dedicated we were under a refreshing shower +of the Divine Spirit. Six years after my installation as pastor, God +blessed us with an extraordinary downpour. The first drops were followed +by an abundance of rain. That revival began where revivals often +begin,--in the prayer meeting. It was on the evening of the 8th of +January, the first evening of the "week of prayer," which is generally +observed over the land. The meeting was held under the direction of our +Young People's Association,--that same body of young Christian workers +which gave the Rev Francis E. Clark both the inspiration and practical +hints for the formation of his first society of Christian Endeavor. What +a fearful bitter night was that 8th of January! Through that stinging +Arctic atmosphere came a goodly number with hearts on fire with the love +of Jesus. The prayers that night were well aimed; and a man, who +afterwards became a useful officer of the church, was converted on the +spot. On the Friday evening of that week our lecture-room was packed, +and when the elder requested that any who desired special prayer should +rise, two very prominent men in this community were on their feet in an +instant. The meeting was electrified; every one saw that God was with +us. There was no extraordinary excitement; the feeling was too deep for +that. We felt as the ancient Hebrew prophet felt when he heard the +"still small voice from heaven," and went out ready for action. I felt +at once that a great work for Christ had commenced. I called our +officers together at once, and, to use the naval phrase, we "cleared the +decks for action." As the good work had begun in our own church, without +any external assistance, we determined to carry on the work ourselves; +and during the next five months, I never had any pulpit help except on +two evenings during the week, when two fervid, discreet neighboring +pastors preached for me. Commonly, every church should do its own +spiritual harvesting--just as much as every pair of young lovers should +do their own love-making, and wise parents their own family training. +Looking outside is a temptation to shirk responsibility. If a preacher +can preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ faithfully, and the Lord God is +with him, why rob him of the joy of the harvest by sending away for any +stranger? + +My plan of action was this. Twice on each Sabbath, and on two evenings +in the week, I preached as clearly and pungently as I could; sometimes +to awakened souls, sometimes to backsliders, sometimes to the +impenitent, sometimes to souls who were seeking salvation. I spoke of +the great central truths:--personal guilt, Christ's atoning work, the +offices of the Spirit, redemption, the claims of the Saviour, the +necessity of immediate repentance, immediate acceptance of Christ and +the joy and power of an useful Christian life. During a revival, sermons +make themselves; they grow spontaneously. On the Monday evening of each +week our young people had the field with their regular gatherings, and +new converts were encouraged to narrate their experiences. On three +other evenings of the week the whole church had a service for prayer and +exhortation, conducted by our laymen. The praying women met on one +afternoon; the girls by themselves on another afternoon, and the boys on +another. During each week, from eleven to twelve, different meetings +were held, and in so large a congregation, these sub-divisions were +necessary. After every public service I held an inquiry meeting. I +invited people to converse with me in the study during the day, and I +made as much pastoral visitation from house to house as possible. + +"So built we the walls ... for the people had a mind to work." For five +months that blessed work went forward, and as a result a very great +number were added to the church, of whom about one hundred were heads of +families. Our sacramental Sabbaths were holy, joyous feasts, and the +sheaves were brought in with singing. Some of the new converts banded +themselves in a new organization, and to perpetuate the memory of that +glorious spiritual outpouring, they called it the "Memorial Presbyterian +Church." It now worships in the beautiful edifice on Seventh Avenue, and +is one of the most flourishing churches in Brooklyn. The effect of that +work of grace reached on into eternity. One of its first effects, on the +writer of these lines, was to confirm him in the opinion that the living +Gospel, sent by the Holy Spirit, is the one only way to save sinners; +that a church must back up a minister by its personal efforts, and when +preacher and people work together only for God's glory, He is as sure to +answer prayer as the morrow's sun is to rise in the heavens. + +It has not been my practice to invite the labors of an evangelist; but +in January, 1872, Mr. Dwight L. Moody, with whom I had as yet but a +slight acquaintance, but whom I since have honored and loved with my +whole heart, said to the superintendent of our Mission Chapel: "What a +nice place this is to hold some meetings in." He was cordially invited; +and at the end of a week about twenty persons had been mustered together +on the sharp winter evenings. "This seems slow work," I said to him. +"Very true," replied my sagacious brother. "It is slow, but if you want +to kindle a fire, you collect a handful of sticks, light them with a +match, and keep on blowing till they blaze. Then you may heap on the +wood. I am working here with a handful of Christians, endeavoring to +warm them up with love for Christ; and, if they keep well kindled, a +general revival will come, and outside sinners will be converted." He +was right; the revival did come. It spread into the parent church, and +over one hundred converts made their public confession of Christ before +our communion table. It was in those little chapel meetings that my +beloved brother, Moody, prepared his first "Bible Readings," which +afterward became so celebrated in this country and in Great Britain. A +few months afterward I met Mr. Moody in London. Coming one day into my +room, he said to me: "They wish me to come over here and preach in +England." I urged him at once to do so; "for," I said, "these English +people are the best people to preach to in the world." Moody then said, +"I will go home,--secure somebody to sing, and come over and make the +experiment." He did come home,--he secured my neighbor, Mr. +Sankey,--returned to England, and commenced the most extraordinary +revival campaign that had been known in Great Britain since the days of +Whitefield. I cannot dismiss this heaven-honored name without a word of +honest, loving tribute to the man and his magnificent work. D.L. Moody +was by far the most extraordinary proclaimer of the Gospel that America +has produced during the last century, as Spurgeon was the most +extraordinary in Great Britain. Those two heralds of salvation led the +column. They reached millions by their eloquent tongues, and their +printed words went out to the ends of the earth. The single aim of both +was to point to the cross of Christ, and to save souls; all their +educational and benevolent enterprises were subordinate to this one +great sovereign purpose. Neither one of them ever entered a college or +theological seminary; yet they commanded the ear of Christendom. The +simple reason was--they were both God-made preachers, and were both +endowed with immense common sense, and executive ability. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +AUTHORSHIP + + +Printers' ink stained my fingers in my boyhood; for, at the age of +fifteen, I ventured into a controversy on the slavery question, in the +columns of our county newspaper; and, in the same paper, published a +series of letters from Europe, in 1842. During my course of study in the +Princeton Theological Seminary, I was a contributor to several papers, +to _Godey's Magazine_ in Philadelphia, and to the "New Englander," a +literary and theological review published at New Haven. I wrote the +first article for the first number of the "Nassau Monthly," a Princeton +College publication, which still exists under another name. Up to the +year 1847 all my contributions had been to secular periodicals, but in +that year I ventured to send from Burlington, N.J., where I was then +preaching, a short article to the "New York Observer," signed by my +initials. This was followed by several others which, falling under the +eye of my beloved friend, the Rev. Dr. Cortland Van Rensellaer, led him +to say to me: "You are on the right track now; work on that as long as +you live," and I have obeyed his injunction. Within a year or two I +began to write for the "Presbyterian" at Philadelphia. Its proprietor +urged me to accept an editorial position, but I declined his proposal, +as I have declined several other requests to assume editorial positions +since. I would always rather write when I _choose_ than write when I +_must_, and I have never felt at liberty to hold any other position +while I was a pastor of a church. My contributions to the press never +hindered my work as a minister, for writing for the press promotes +perspicuity in preparing for the pulpit. + +In the summer of 1853 I was called from the Third Presbyterian Church of +Trenton to the Market Street Reformed Church of New York City. As a +loyal Dutchman, I began to write at once for the "Christian +Intelligencer," and have continued in its clean hospitable columns to +this day. At the urgent request of Mr. Henry C. Bowen I began to write +for his "Independent," and sent to its columns over six hundred +articles; but of all my associate contributors in those days, not a +solitary one survives. In May, 1860, My first article appeared in the +_New York Evangelist_, and during these forty-two years I have tested +the patience of its readers by imposing on them more than eighteen +hundred of my lubrications. As I was preparing one of my earliest +articles, I happened to spy the blossoms of the catalpa tree before my +window, and for want of a title I headed it "_Under the Catalpa_." The +tree flourishes still, and bids fair to blossom after the hand that pens +these lines has turned to dust. I need not recapitulate the names of all +the many journals to which I have sent contributions,--many of which +have been republished in Great Britain, Australia and other parts of the +civilized world. I once gave to my friend, Mr. Arthur B. Cook, the +eminent stenographer, some statistics of the number of my articles, and +the various journals in which they had appeared in this and other +countries. He made an estimate of the extent of their publication, and +then said to me: "It would be within bounds to say that your four +thousand articles have been printed in at least two hundred millions of +copies." The production of these articles involved no small labor, but +has brought its own reward. To enter a multitude of homes week after +week; to converse with the inmates about many of the most vital +questions in morals and religion; to speak words of guidance to the +perplexed; of comfort to the troubled, and of exhortation to the saints +and to the sinful--all these involved a solemn responsibility. That this +life-work with the pen has not been without fruit I gratefully +acknowledge. When a group of railway employees, at a station in England, +gathered around me to tender their thanks for spiritual help afforded +them by my articles, I felt repaid for hours of extra labor spent in +preaching through the press. + +My first attempt at book-making was during my ministry at Trenton, New +Jersey, when I published a small volume entitled "Stray Arrows." This +was followed at different times by several volumes of an experimental +and devotional character. In the spring of 1867 one of our beautiful +twin boys, at the age of four and a half years, was taken from us by a +very brief and violent attack of scarlet fever. We received a large +number of tender letters of condolence, 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 affliction. I +accordingly selected a number of them, added the simple story of our +precious child's short career, and handed the package to my beloved +friend and publisher, the late Mr. Peter Carter, with the request that +they be printed for private distribution. He urged, after reading them, +that I should allow him to publish them, which he did under the title of +"The Empty Crib, a Book of Consolation." That simple story of a sweet +child's life has travelled widely over the world and made our little +"Georgie" known in many a home. Mrs. Gladstone told me that when she and +her husband had read it, it recalled their own loss of a child under +similar circumstances. Dean Stanley read it aloud to Lady Augusta +Stanley in the Deanery of Westminster; 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 slumbering. Many thousands have visited that +grave and gazed with tender admiration on the exquisite marble medallion +of the childface,--by the sculptor, Charles Calverley,--which adorns the +monument. + +Fourteen years afterwards, in the autumn of 1881, "the four corners of +my house were smitten" again with a heart-breaking bereavement in the +death, by typhoid fever, of our second daughter, Louise Ledyard Cuyler, +at the age of twenty-two, who possessed a most inexpressible beauty of +person and character. Her playful humor, her fascinating charm of +manner, and her many noble qualities drew to her the admiration of a +large circle of friends, as well as the pride of our parental hearts. +After her departure I wrote, through many tears, a small volume entitled +"_God's Light on Dark Clouds,"_ with the hope that it might bring some +rays of comfort into those homes that were shadowed in grief. Judging +from the numberless letters that have come to me I cannot but believe +that, of all the volumes which I have written, this one has been the +most honored of God as a message-bearer to that largest of all +households--the household of the sorrowing. Let me add that I have +published a single volume of sermons, entitled "The Eagle's Nest," and a +volume of foreign travel, "From the Nile to Norway"; but all the +remainder of my score of volumes have been of a practical and devotional +character. Of the twenty-two volumes that I have written, six have been +translated into Swedish, and two into the language of my Dutch +ancestors. Thanks be to God for the precious privilege of preaching His +glorious Gospel with the types that out-reach ten thousand tongues! And +thanks also to a number of friends, whose faces I never saw, but whose +kind words have cheered me through more than a half century of happy +labors. I cannot conclude this brief chapter without expressing my deep +obligations to that noble organization, the "American Tract Society," +which has given a wide circulation to many of my books--including +"Heart-Life," "Newly Enlisted; or, Counsels to Young Converts"--and +"Beulah-Land," a volume of good cheer to aged pilgrims on their journey +heavenward. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +SOME FAMOUS PEOPLE ABROAD. + +_Gladstone.--Dr. Brown.--Dean Stanley.--Shaftesbury, etc._ + + +In a former chapter of this volume I gave my reminiscences of some +celebrities in Great Britain sixty years ago. In the present chapter I +group together several distinguished persons whom I met during +subsequent visits. The first time I ever saw Mr. Gladstone was in +August, 1857, when Lord Kinnaird kindly took me into the House of +Commons, and pointed out to me from a side gallery the most prominent +celebrities. A tall, finely formed man, in a clear resonant voice, +addressed the House for a few moments. "That is Gladstone," whispered +Lord Kinnaird. Mr. Gladstone had already won fame as a great financier +in the role of Chancellor of the Exchequer; but was at this time out of +office, occupying an independent position. He was already beginning to +break loose from Toryism, and ere long became the most brilliant and +powerful leader that the British Liberal party has ever followed. As an +orator he is ranked next to Bright; as a party manager, he was always a +match for Disraeli, and as a statesman he has won the foremost place in +British annals during the last half century. + +In June, 1872, I happened to be in London at the time of the great +excitement over the famous "Alabama difficulty." The Court of +Arbitration was sitting at Geneva; things were not going smoothly, and +there was danger of a rupture with the United States. At an anniversary +meeting at Exeter Hall I had made a speech in which I spoke of the +cordial feeling of my countrymen, and their desire to avoid a conflict +with the mother country. It was suggested to me that I should call on Mr. +Gladstone, who was then Premier; and my friend, Dr. Newman Hall,--who +had always had a warm personal attachment to Gladstone,--accompanied me. +The Premier then occupied a stately mansion in Carlton House Terrace, +next to the Duke of York's column. We found him in his private sitting +room with a cup of coffee before him and a morning newspaper in his +hand. Fifteen years had made a great change in his appearance. He had +become stouter and broader shouldered. His thin hair was turned gray, +and his large eyes and magnificent brow reminded me of Daniel Webster. +He received me cordially, and we spent half an hour in conversation +about the difficulties that seemed to be obstructing an amicable +settlement of the Alabama controversy. Mr. Gladstone appeared to be +puzzled about a recent belligerent speech delivered by Mr. Charles +Sumner in our Senate chamber, and I was glad to give him a hint or two +in regard to some of our eloquent Senator's idiosyncrasies. What +impressed me most in Gladstone's free, earnest talk was its solemn and +thoroughly Christian tone--he was longing for peace on principle. On my +telling him playfully that the time which belonged to the British Empire +was too precious for further talk, he said: "Come and breakfast with me +to-morrow morning, and we will finish our conversation." The next +morning Dr. Hall and myself presented ourselves at ten o'clock in Mr. +Gladstone's parlor. We had a very pleasant chat with Mrs. Gladstone (a +tall, slender lady, whose only claim to beauty was her benevolent +countenance), about the schemes of charity in which she was deeply +interested. At the breakfast table opposite to us were the venerable +Dean Ramsey, of Edinburgh, and Professor Talbot, of Oxford University. +The Premier indulged in some jocose remarks which encouraged me to tell +him stories about our Southern negroes, in whom he seemed to be much +interested. He laughed over the story of the eloquent colored brother +who, when asked how he came to preach so well, said: "Well, Boss, I +takes de text fust; I splains it; den I spounds it, and den _I puts in +de rousements_." Gladstone was quite delighted with this, and said it +was about the best description of real parliamentary eloquence. He told +us that one secret of his own marvelous health was his talent for sound, +unbroken sleep. "I lock all my public cares outside my chamber door," +said he, "and nothing ever disturbs my slumbers." While we were at +breakfast a package of dispatches was brought in and laid beside Mr. +Gladstone's plate. He left them quietly alone until the meal was over +and then, taking them to a corner of the parlor, perused them intently. +I saw that his face was lighted up with a pleasant smile. Beckoning me +to come to him he said, with much enthusiasm: "Doctor, here is good news +from the arbitrators at Geneva. The worst is over. I do not pretend to +know the purposes of Providence, but I am sure that no earthly power can +now prevent an honorable peace between your country and mine." 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 America. After entering +our names in the autograph book on the parlor table, we withdrew, and at +the door we met the Duke of Argyll, a member of the Premier's Cabinet, +who was calling on official business. + +[Illustration: DR CUYLER AT 50.] + +My next meeting with Gladstone was a very brief one, in the summer of +1885. He had lately resigned his third Premiership; his health was badly +impaired, his splendid voice was apparently ruined by an attack of +bronchitis, and the world supposed that his public career was ended. I +called at his house in Whitehall Terrace, and the servant informed me at +the door that the physicians had forbidden Mr. Gladstone to see any one. +I handed in my card, and said to the servant: "I leave for America +to-morrow, and only called to say good-bye to Mr. Gladstone." He +overheard my voice (not one of the feeblest), and, coming out into the +hall, greeted me most warmly, but in a voice almost inaudible from +hoarseness. I told him: "Do not attempt to speak, Mr. Gladstone; the +future of the British Empire depends upon your throat." He hoarsely +whispered, "No, no, my friend, it does not," and with a very hearty +handshake we parted. My prediction came true. Within a year the +marvelous old man had recovered his voice, recovered his popularity, +resumed the Liberal leadership, and for the fourth time was Prime +Minister of Great Britain. + +I supposed that I should never see the veteran statesman again, but four +years afterward, in July, 1889, he kindly invited me to come and see +him, and to bring my wife. It was the week before the celebration of his +golden wedding. He was occupying, temporarily, a house near Buckingham +Palace. Mrs. Gladstone, the good angel of his long life and happy home, +received us warmly, and, bringing out a lot of photographs of her +children and grandchildren, gave us a family talk. When her husband came +in, I was startled to observe how much thinner he had become and how +loosely his clothes hung upon him. But as soon as he began to talk, the +old fire flamed up, and he discoursed eloquently about Irish Home-Rule, +the divorce question, (one of his hobbies), and the dangers that +threatened America from plutocracy and laxity of wedlock, and the +facilities of divorce that sap the sanctities of domestic life. It was +during that conversation that Gladstone tittered the sentence that I +have often had occasion to quote. He said: "Amid all the pressure of +public cares and duties, I thank God for the Sabbath _with its rest for +the body and the soul_." One reason for his wonderful longevity was that +he had never robbed his brain of the benefits of God's appointed day of +rest. After our delightful talk was ended, the Grand Old Man went off in +pursuit of an imperial photograph, which he kindly signed with his +autograph, and gave to my wife, and it now graces the walls of the room +in which I am writing. + +Many men have been great in some direction: William Ewart Gladstone was +great in nearly all directions. Born in the same year with our Lincoln, +he was a great muscular man and horseman; a great orator, a great +political strategist, a great scholar, a great writer, great statesman +and a great Christian. The crowning glory of his character was a +stalwart faith in God's Word, and in the cross of Jesus Christ. He +honored his Lord, and his Lord honored him. Wordsworth drew a truthful +picture of Gladstone when he portrayed + + "The man who lifted high + Conspicuous object in a nation's eye, + Who, with a toward or untoward lot, + Prosperous or adverse, to his wish or not, + Plays in the many games of life, that one + Where what he most doth value must be won; + Whom neither shape of danger can dismay, + Nor thought of tender happiness betray; + And while the mortal mist is gathering, draws + His breath in confidence of Heaven's applause." + +Who has not wept over the brilliant and beloved Dr. John Brown's +unrivalled story, "Rab and His Friends," and been charmed with his +picture of "Pet Marjorie"? What student of style will deny that his +"Monograph" of his father is the finest specimen of condensed and vivid +biography in our language? When his "Spare Hours" appeared in America I +published an article in the "Independent" entitled, "The Last of the +John Browns," several copies of which had been forwarded to him by his +friends in this country. On my arrival in Edinburgh, July, 1862, he +called on me at the Waverly Hotel and invited me to breakfast with him. +He had the fair Saxon features of Scotland, with a smile like a Summer +morning. Not tall in stature, his head was somewhat bald, and he bore a +striking resemblance to our ex-President, Van Buren. He showed me in his +house some choice literary treasures; among them a little Greek +Testament, given to his great-grandfather, the famous John Brown, of +Haddington, the eminent commentator. Its history was curious: Brown of, +Haddington, was a poor shepherd boy, and once he walked twenty miles +through the night to St. Andrews to get a copy of the Greek Testament. +The book-seller at first laughed at him and said: "Boy, if you can read +a verse in this book, you may have it." Forthwith the lad read the verse +off glibly, and was permitted to carry off the Testament in triumph. You +may well suppose that the little volume is a sacred heirloom in the +Brown family, which for four generations has been famous. Of course, the +author of "Rab and His Friends" had several pictures of the illustrious +dog that figured in his beautiful story, and I noticed a pet spaniel +lying on the sofa in the drawing room. A day or two after, Dr. Brown +called on me, and kindly took me on a drive with him through Edinburgh; +and it was pleasant to see how the people on the sidewalk had cheery +salutes for the author of "Rab" as he rode by. We went up to Calton +Hill and made a call on Sir George Harvey, the famous artist, whom we +found in his studio, with brush in hand, and working on an Highland +landscape. Sir George was a hearty old fellow, and the two friends had a +merry "crack" together. When I asked Harvey if he had seen any of our +best American paintings, he replied "No, I have not; the best American +productions I have ever seen have been some of your missionaries. I met +some of them; they were noble characters." On our return from the drive +Dr. Brown gave me an elegant edition of "Rab," with Harvey's portrait of +the immortal dog, whose body was thickset like a little bull, and who +had "fought his way to absolute supremacy,--like Julius Caesar or the +Duke of Wellington." + +When in Edinburgh ten years afterwards, as a delegate to the General +Assemblies, I was so constantly occupied that I was able to see but +little of my genial friend, Dr. Brown. I sent him a copy of the little +book, "The Empty Crib," which had been recently published, and received +from him the following characteristic reply: + + 25 RUTLAND STREET, EDINBURGH, May 25, 1872. + + _My Dear Dr. Cuyler_ + + Very many thanks for your kind note, and the little book. It will + be my own fault if I am not the better for reading it. I have seen + nothing lovelier or more touching than the pictures of those _twin + heads_ "like unto the angels"; even there Georgie looks nearer the + better world than his brother. There is something perilous about + his eyes with their wistful beauty. With him "it is far better" + now, and may it be meet for Theodore to be long with you here. I + hoped to leave with you a book of my father's on the same subject, + entitled, "Comfortable Words," but it is out of print. If I can get + a copy, I will send it you. There are some letters of Bengel's + which, if you do not know, you will enjoy. + + I send you a note of introduction to John Ruskin, and I hope to + hear you to-morrow in Mr. Candlish's church. + + With much regret and best thanks, yours very truly, + + JOHN BROWN + + P.S. I was in Glen-Garry the other week, and quite felt that look + of nakedness, and as if it just came from the Maker's hand; it was + very impressive + +During the closing years of the Doctor's life he was often shadowed by +fits of deep melancholy. One day he was walking with a lady, who was +also subject to depression of spirits, and he said to her: "Tell me why +I am like a Jew?" She could not answer and he replied: "Because I am +_sad-you-see_" Tears and mirth dwelt very closely together in his keen, +fervid, sensitive spirit. 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 reading, and to have won +such a splendid name in literature. It is the attribute of true genius +that it can do great things easily, and can accomplish its feats in an +incredibly short time. He affirms that the immortal story of "Rab" was +written in a few hours! The precious relics of my friend that I now +possess are portraits of his father and of Dr. Chalmers, and of Hugh +Miller, which he presented to me, and which now adorn my study walls. + +While I have always dissented from some of his theological views and +utterances, I have always had an intense admiration for Dean Stanley, in +whose character was blended the gentleness of a sweet girl with +occasional display of the courage of a lion. Froude once said to me: "I +wish that Stanley was a little better hater." My reply was: "It is not +in Stanley to hate anybody but the devil." My acquaintance with the Dean +of Westminster dates from the summer of 1872. The Rev. Samuel Minton, a +very broad Church of England clergyman, 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 understanding. One day +I was invited by Mr. Minton to attend one of these lunch parties, and I +found that day at his table, Dr. Donald Frazer, Dr. Newman Hall, Dr. +Joseph Parker, Dean Stanley and Dr. Howard Wilkinson, afterwards Bishop +of Truro. Stanley felt perfectly at home among these "dissenters" and +asked me to give the company some account of a remarkable discourse, +which, he was told, Bishop McIlvaine, of Ohio, had recently delivered in +my Lafayette Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn, on "Christian Unity." In the +discourse, Bishop McIlvaine had said: "The only difference between the +Presbyterian denomination, and Episcopal denomination, is their +difference as to the orders of the ministry." The Dean was delighted +with my account, and said: "Just imagine the Bishop of London preaching +such a sermon in Newman Hall's or Spurgeon's pulpit; it would rock the +old dome of St. Paul's." In all of his intercourse with his dissenting +brethren the Dean never put on any airs of patronage, for though a loyal +Episcopalian, he recognized their equally divine ordination as ministers +of Jesus Christ. + +A few days afterwards I went up to get a look at Holly Lodge, the +residence of Lord Macaulay, in a side street just off Campden Hill. I +met the Dean just coming out of the gate. He had been attending a garden +party given by Lord Airlie, who then occupied the lodge. It was a +pleasant coincidence to meet the most brilliant ecclesiastical historian +at the door of the most brilliant civil historian of England. The Dean +stopped and chatted about Macaulay, of whom he was very fond, and then +said: "Just beyond is Holland House." We went a few paces and got a +glimpse of the famous mansion in which Lord Holland had entertained the +celebrities of America and Europe. One of the best hours I ever spent +with Stanley was at his own table in the Deanery. He was the most +delightful of hosts. Lady Augusta Stanley, daughter of the Earl of +Elgin, had been a favorite Maid of Honor to the Queen, and the Dean had +accompanied the Prince of Wales on his tour to the Orient. The Queen +quite frequently slipped away from the palace for a quiet chat at the +Deanery with this pair whom she so loved. A marble bust of Victoria, by +her daughter, the Princess Louise, stood in the parlor, a gift of the +Queen. If the Dean was very broad in his theology, his cultured wife was +as decidedly evangelical in hers and her religious influence was very +tonic in all respects. 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 Catechism. I was surprised at the small size of +the room that had held seventy or eighty commissioners. + +As I was very desirous of hearing the Dean preach in the Abbey, he sent +me a very kind invitation to come on the next Sabbath to the Deanery +before the service, and on account of my deafness Lady Augusta would +take me into a seat close to his pulpit. Accordingly she stowed me in a +small box-pew, which was close against the pulpit, and within arms' +length of the Dean. His sermon was a beautiful essay on Solomon and +great men, and in the course of it he said: "Such was the greatness of +our Lord Jesus Christ." I felt so pained by _what he did not say_ that I +ventured to write him a most frank and loving note, 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 +work,--that of our human redemption by His atoning death on Calvary. The +dear Dean, instead of taking offense, accepted the frank letter in the +same spirit in which it was written. A day or two after he sent me a +characteristic note, whose peculiar hieroglyphics, after much labor, I +was able to decipher; 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 letters. + + THE DEANERY OF WESTMINSTER, + + July 22, 1872 + + Dear Doctor---Pray accept my sincere thanks for your + very kind note. I quite appreciate your candor in mentioning + what you thought a defect in my sermon. It arose + from a fixed conviction which I have long formed, that + the only chance there is of my sermons doing any good is + by taking one topic at a time. The effect and the nature + of the death of Jesus Christ, I quite agree with you in + thinking to be a most important part of the Christian doctrine, + and Christian history. But as my sermon was on a + different subject--that of the right use of greatness--I felt + that I could not speak, even by way of allusion, to the + other great doctrine on which I had often preached before. + + I sincerely wish that I could come to America. Every + year that passes increases the number of my kind friends + in the New World, and my desire to see the United States. + + Farewell; and may all the blessings of our State and + Church follow you westward + + Yours faithfully, + + A.P. STANLEY. + +When Dean Stanley visited America in the autumn of 1878, I met him +several times, and he was especially cordial, and all the more so +because of my out-spoken letter. The first time I met him was at the +meeting of ministers of New York to give him a reception, and hear him +deliver a discourse on Dr. Robinson, the Oriental geographer. He +recognized me in the audience, came forward to the front of the +platform, beckoned me up, and gave me a hearty grasp of the hand. I +arranged to take him to Greenwood Cemetery on the morning before he +sailed for home, and after breakfasting with him at Cyrus W. Field's we +started for the cemetery. Dr. Phillip Schaff and Dr. Henry M. Field met +us at the ferry, and accompanied us. When we entered the elevated +railroad car, Stanley exclaimed: "This is like the chariots on the walls +of Babylon." With his keen interest in history he inquired when we +reached the lower part of the Bowery, near the junction of Chatham +Square "Was it not near here that Nathan Hale, the martyr, was +executed?" and he showed then a more accurate knowledge of our local +history than one New Yorker in ten thousand can boast! That was probably +the exact locality, and Dean Stanley had never been there before. Before +entering the Greenwood Cemetery he requested me to drive him to the spot +where my little child was buried, whose photograph in "The Empty Crib" I +have referred to in a previous chapter. When we reached the burial lot +he got out of the carriage, and in the driving wind, of a raw November +morning, spent some time in examining the marble medallion of the child, +and in talking with my wife most sweetly about him. I could have hugged +the man on the spot. It was so like Stanley. I do not wonder that +everybody loved him. We then drove to the tomb of Dr. Edward Robinson +and the Dean said to us: "In all my travels in Palestine I carried Dr. +Robinson's volume, 'Biblical Researches,' with me on horseback or on my +camel; it was my constant guide book." + +Three years afterward, on my arrival in London, from Palestine I learned +that Stanley was dangerously ill. On the door of the Deanery a bulletin +was posted: "The Dean is sinking." That night the good, great man, died. +On the 25th of July the august funeral service took place in +Westminster Abbey. Outside the Abbey thousands of people were assembled, +for the Dean was loved by all London. From a small gallery over the +"Poets' Corner" I looked down on the group, which contained Gladstone, +Shaftesbury, Matthew Arnold, and scores of England's mightiest and best. +After the "Dead March," began a long procession headed by Stanley's +lifelong friend, Archbishop Tait, of Canterbury, and the Prince of Wales +(his pupil), and followed by Browning, Tyndall, and a long line of +bishops, and poets and scholars moved slowly along under the lofty +arches to the tomb in Henry VII.'s Chapel. A fresh wreath of flowers +from the Queen was laid on the coffin. 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 son. I never have visited the Abbey +since, without halting for a few moments beside the chapel in which the +Dean and his beloved wife are slumbering. Greater than all his books or +literary achievements was Arthur Penryn Stanley, the modest, +true-hearted, unselfish, childlike, Christian man. + +Soon after I had begun my pastorate in New York, I became a member of +the Young Men's Christian Association, which was one of the first that +was organized in this country. Since that time I have delivered more +than one hundred addresses, in behalf of this institution, in my own +country and abroad. In June, 1857, the New York organization honored me +with what was then a novelty in America--a public breakfast, and +commissioned me as a delegate to the original parent association in +London. I there met that remarkable Christian merchant, Mr. George +Williams, who was the founder of the Association, and who had got much +of his first spiritual inspiration from reading the writings of our +American, Charles G. Finney. He is now Sir George Williams, my much +loved friend, 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 men. The President of that first organized +London Association was the celebrated philanthropist, the Earl of +Shaftesbury, a man whom I had long desired to meet. My acquaintance with +him began in Exeter Hall, at a Sabbath service held to reach the +non-church going classes. With one or two others we knelt together in a +small side room to invoke a blessing on the service in the great hall, +and he prayed most fervently. The Earl of Shaftesbury was not only the +author of great reformatory legislation in Parliament, and the +acknowledged leader of the Low Church Party in the Established Church. +He was also a leader of city missions, ragged schools, shoe-black +brigades, and other organizations to benefit the submerged classes in +London. He once invited all the thieves in London to meet him privately +in a certain hall, and there pleaded with them to abandon their wretched +occupation, and promised to aid those who desired to reform. He was fond +of telling the story of how, when his watch was stolen, the thieves +themselves compelled the rascal to come and return it, because he had +been the benefactor of the "long-fingered fraternity." The last time +that I saw the venerable philanthropist was just before his death (at +the age of eighty-four years). He was presiding at a convention of the +Young Men's Christian Association in Exeter Hall. In my speech I said: +"To-day I have seen Milton's Mulberry Tree at Cambridge University, and +the historic old tree is kept alive by being banked around with earth +clear to its boughs; and so is all Christendom banking around our +honored President to-night to keep him warm and hale, and strong, amid +the frosts of advancing age," The grand old man rewarded me with a bow +and a gracious smile, and the audience responded with a shout of +appreciation. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +SOME FAMOUS PEOPLE AT HOME. + +_Irvin,--Whittier.--Webster.--Greeley, etc_. + + +Washington Irving has fairly earned the title of the "Father of our +American Literature." The profound philosophical and spiritual treatises +of our great President Edwards had secured a reading by theologians and +deep thinkers abroad; but the American who first caught the popular ear +was the man who wrote "The Sketch Book," and made the name of +"Knickerbocker" almost as familiar as Sir Walter Scott made the name of +"Waverly." During the summer of 1856 I received a cordial invitation +from the people of Tarry town to come up to join them in an annual +"outing," with their children, on board of a steamer on the Tappan-Zee. +I accepted the invitation, and on arrival found the boat already filled +with the good people, and two or three hundreds of scholars from the +Sabbath schools. + +To my surprise and delight I found Washington Irving on board the +steamer. The veteran author had laid aside the fourth volume of the +"Life of Washington," which he was just preparing, to come away for a +bit of rest and recreation. I had never seen him before, but found him +precisely the type of man that I had expected. He was short, rather +stout, and attired in an old fashioned black summer dress, with "pumps" +and white stockings, and a broad Panama hat. As he was no novelty to his +neighbors I was able to secure more of his time; and, like the apostle +of old, I was exceedingly "filled with his company." He took me to the +upper deck of the steamer, 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 Hollow." He pointed out the +route of poor Ichabod Crane on his memorable night ride up the valley, +and so on to the Kakout, where his horse should have gone to reach +"Sleepy Hollow." Instead of that, obstinate Gunpowder plunged down over +that bridge where poor Ichabod encountered his fatal and final +catastrophe. The good old man's face was full of fun as he told me the +story. Irving was so exceedingly shy that he never could face any public +ovation, and yet he had a great deal of quiet enjoyment of his own +popularity. For example, one day when he was going with a young relative +up Broadway, which was thronged with omnibuses, he pointed out one of +the old "Knickerbocker" line of stages to the lad and said: "Billy, you +see how many coaches I own in this city, and you may take as many rides +in them as you like." + +After refreshments had been served to all the guests on board, we +gathered on the deck for the inevitable American practice of speech +making. In the course of my speech I gave an account of what was being +done for poor children in the slums of New York, and then introduced as +many Dutch stories as I could recollect for the special edification of +old "Geoffrey Crayon." As I watched his countenance, and heard his +hearty laughter and saw sometimes the peculiar quizzical expression of +his mouth, I fancied that I knew precisely how he looked when he drew +the inimitable pictures of Ichabod Crane, and Rip Van Winkle. When the +excursion ended, and we drew up to the shore, I bade him a very grateful +and affectionate farewell, and my readers, I hope, will pardon me if I +say to them that dear old Irving whispered quietly in my ear, "I should +like to be one of your parishioners." Three years afterwards, Irving was +borne by his neighbors at Tarrytown to his final resting place in the +old Dutch churchyard at the entrance of Sleepy Hollow. + +Twenty years afterwards my dear friend, Mr. William E. Dodge, drove me +up from his summer house at Tarrytown to see the simple tomb of the good +old Geoffrey Crayon, whose genius has gladdened innumerable admirers, +and whose writings are as pure as the rivulet which now flows by his +resting place. + +The pleasant little town of Burlington, N.J., in which I spent my +earliest ministry, was the headquarters of orthodox Quakers. I was +thrown much into the society of their most eminent people, and very +delightful society I found it. The venerable Stephen Grellet, their +apostle, who had held many interviews with the crowned heads of Europe, +resided a little way from me up the street; and I saw the good old man +with broad brimmed hat and straight coat pass my window every day. +Richard Mott lived but a little way from the town, and on the other side +resided the widow of the celebrated Joseph John Gurney. The wittiest +Quaker in the town was my neighbor, William J. Allinson, the editor of +the "Friends Review," and an intimate friend of John G. Whittier. One +afternoon he ran over to my room, and said: "Friend Theodore, John G. +Whittier is at my house, and wants to see thee; he leaves early in the +morning." I hastened across the street and, in the modest parlor of +Friend Allinson, I saw, standing before the fire, a tall, slender man in +Quaker dress, with a very lofty brow, and the finest eye I have ever +seen in any American, unless it were the deep ox-like eye of Abraham +Lincoln. We had a pleasant chat about the anti-slavery, temperance and +other moral reforms; and I went home with something of the feeling that +Walter Scott says he had after seeing "Rabbie Burns," Whittier was a +retiring, home-keeping man. He never crossed the ocean and seldom went +even outside of his native home in Massachusetts. During the summer of +1870 he ventured down to Brooklyn on a visit to his friend, Colonel +Julian Allen. On coming home one day, my servant said to me, "There was +a tall Quaker gentleman called here, and left his name on this piece of +paper." I was quite dumb-founded to read the name of "John G. Whittier," +and I lost no time in making my way up to the house where he was +staying. When I inquired how he had come to do me the honor of a call, +he said: "Well, yesterday, when I arrived and my friend Allen drove me +up here, we passed a meeting house with a tall steeple, and when I heard +it was thine, I determined to run down to thy house and see thee." As I +was to have the "Chi Alpha," the oldest and the most celebrated clerical +association of New York at my house the next afternoon, I invited him to +come and sup with them. He cordially consented, and it may be supposed +that the "Chi Alpha" was very glad to put aside for that evening all +other matters, and listen to the fresh, racy and humorous talk of the +great poet. Underneath his grave and shy sobriety, flowed a most gentle +humor. He could tell a good story, and when he was describing the usages +of the Quakers in regard to "Speaking in Meetings," he told us that +sometimes the voluntary remarks were not quite to the edification of the +meeting. It once happened that a certain George C---- grew rather +wearisome in his exhortations, and his prudent brethren, after solemn +consultation, passed the following resolution: "It is the sense of this +meeting that George C.---- be advised to remain silent, until such time +as the Lord shall speak through him _more to our satisfaction and +profit_." A resolution of that kind would not be out of place in some +ecclesiastical assemblies, nor in certain prayer gatherings that I wot +of. 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 autographs. "What shall it be?" he said. I told him that, +while some of his hymns and devoutly spiritual pieces, like "My soul and +I," were very dear to me, and while "Snow Bound" was his acknowledged +masterpiece, yet none of his verses did I oftener quote than this one, +in his poem on Massachusetts, He smiled at the selection, and +accordingly sat down and wrote: + + "She heeds no skeptic's puny hands, + While near the school the church-spire stands, + Nor fears the bigot's blinded rule, + While near the church-spire stands the school." + +Our walk to his place of sojourn in the moonlight was very delightful. +On the way I told him that not long before, when I quoted a verse of +Bryant's to Horace Greeley, Mr. Greeley replied: "Bryant is all very +well, but by far the greatest poet this country has produced is John +Greenleaf Whittier." "Did our friend Horace say that?" meekly inquired +Whittier, and a smile of satisfaction flowed over his Quaker +countenance. The man is not born yet who does not like an honest +compliment, especially if it comes from a high quarter. In the course of +my life I have received several very pleasant letters from my venerable +friend, the Quaker poet; but immediately after his eightieth birthday he +addressed me the following letter, which, believing it to be his last, I +framed and hung on the walls of my library: + + OAK KNOLL, + 12th month, 17th, 1887. + _My dear Dr. Cuyler_, + + + + I thank thee for thy loving letter to me on my birthday, + which I would have answered immediately but for illness; + and, my friend, I wish I was more worthy of the kind and + good things said of me. But my prayer is, "God be Merciful + to me." And I think my prayer will be answered, for + His Mercy and His Justice are one. May the Lord bless + thee. Thy friend sincerely, + + JOHN G. WHITTIER + +This note, so redolent of humility, was written a few days after he had +received a most superb birthday ovation from the public men of +Massachusetts, and from the most eminent literary men in all parts of +the nation. + +In the days of my boyhood the most colossal figure, physically and +intellectually, in American politics, was Daniel Webster. I well +remember when I first put eye upon him. It was when I was pursuing my +studies in the New York University Grammar School in preparation for +Princeton College. I was strolling one day on the Battery, and met a +friend who said to me: "Yonder goes Daniel Webster; he has just landed +from that man-of-war; go and get a good look at him." I hastened my +steps and, as I came near him, I was as much awe-stricken as if I had +been gazing on Bunker Hill Monument, He was unquestionably the most +majestic specimen of manhood that ever trod this continent. Carlyle +called him "The Great Norseman," and said that his eyes were like great +anthracite furnaces that needed blowing up. Coal heavers in London +stopped to stare at him as he stalked by, and it is well authenticated +that Sydney Smith said of him, "That man is a fraud; for it is +impossible for any one to be as great as he looks." + +Mr. Webster, as I saw him that day, was in the vigor of his splendid +prime. When he spoke in the Senate chamber it was his custom to wear the +Whig uniform, a blue coat with metal buttons and a buff waistcoat; but +that day he was dressed in a claret colored coat and black trousers. His +complexion was a swarthy brown. He used to say that while his handsome +brother Ezekiel was very fair, he "had all the soot of the family in his +face." Such a mountain of a brow I have never seen before or since. I +followed behind him until he entered the carriage of Mr. Robert Minturn +that was waiting for him, and as he rode away he looked like Jupiter +Olympus. Although I saw Mr. Webster several times afterwards, I never +heard him speak until the closing year of his life. The Honorable Lewis +Condit, of Morristown, N.J., was in Congress at the time when Webster +had his historic combat with Senator Hayne, of South Carolina, and was +present during the delivery of the most magnificent speech ever +delivered in our Senate. He described the historic scene to me minutely. + +Before twelve o'clock on the 26th day of January, 1830, the Senate +chamber was overflowing into the rotunda, and people were offering +prices for a few inches of breathing room in the charmed enclosure. +Senator Dixon H. Lewis, from Alabama, who weighed nearly four hundred, +became wedged in behind the Vice President's chair, unable to move, and +became imbedded in the crowd like a broad-bottomed schooner settled at +low tide into the mud. Being unable to see, he drew out his knife and +cut a hole through the stained glass screens that flanked the presiding +officer's chair. That aperture long remained as a memorial of Lewis's +curiosity to witness the greatest of American orators deliver the +greatest of American orations. The place was worthy of the hour and of +the combatants. It was the old Senate chamber, now occupied by the +United States Supreme Court, the same hall which had once resounded to +the eloquence of Rufus King, as it afterwards did to the eloquence of +Rufus Choate, and which had echoed the bursts of applause that once +greeted Henry Clay of Kentucky. On that memorable morning the +Vice-President's chair was occupied by that intellectual giant of the +South, John C. Calhoun. Before him were Van Buren, Forsyth, Hayne, +Clayton, the omniverous Benton, the sturdy John Quincy Adams, and, in +the seething crowd, was the gaunt skeleton form of John Randolph of +Roanoke. Mr. Condit told me that when Webster exclaimed: "The world +knows the history of Massachusetts by heart. There is Lexington, and +there is Bunker Hill and there they will remain forever,"--the group of +Bostonians seated in the gallery before him, broke down, and wept like +little children. Quite as effective as his eulogy of the "Old Bay +State," was his sudden and awful assault upon Senator Levi Woodbury, of +New Hampshire. This representative of Webster's native State had +supplied Colonel Hayne with a quantity of party pamphlets and documents +to be used as ammunition. Webster knew this fact and determined to +punish him. Turning suddenly towards Woodbury, he thundered out in a +tone of indignant scorn, as he shook his fist over his head: "I employ +no scavengers;" and the poor New Hampshire Senator ducked his bald head +as if struck by a bombshell. The closing passage of that memorable +speech could not have been extemporized. No mortal man could have thrown +off that magnificent piece of Miltonic prose at the heat, without some +deep premeditation. It is well known now that Mr. Webster afterwards +pruned, amended and decorated it until it is recognized as one of the +grandest passages in the English language. I take down my Webster and +read it occasionally, and it has in it the majestic "sound of many +waters." That great passage is the prelude of the mighty conflict which +thirty years afterwards was to be waged on the soil of Gettysburg and +Chickamauga. It became the condensed creed, and the battle-cry of the +long warfare for the nation's life. Well have there been placed in +golden letters on the pedestal of Webster's monument in Central Park the +last sublime line of that sentence: "Liberty and Union, now and forever: +one and inseparable." Mr. Webster's power in sarcastic invective was +terrific. After he had made his angry and ferocious rejoinder to the +charges of Mr. Charles J. Ingersoll, of Pennsylvania, the witty Dr. +Elder was asked, when he came out of the Senate chamber: "What did you +think of that speech?" Elder's reply was: "Thunder and lightning are +peaches and cream to such a speech as that." Mighty as Webster was in +intellectual power he had some lamentable weaknesses. He was indeed a +wonderful mixture of clay and iron. The iron was extraordinarily +massive, but the clay was loose and brittle. He had the temptations of +very strong animal passions, and sometimes to his intimate friends he +attempted to excuse some of his excesses of that kind. There has been +much controversy about Mr. Webster's habits in regard to intoxicants. +The simple truth is that during his visit to England in 1840 he was so +lionized and feted at public dinners that he brought home some convivial +habits which rather grew upon him in advancing years. On several public +occasions he gave evidence that he was somewhat under the influence of +deep potations. I once saw him when his imperial brain was raked with +the chain-shot of alcohol. The sight moved me to tears, and made me hate +more than ever the accursed drink that, like death, is no "respecter of +persons." + +I heard the last speech that Mr. Webster ever made. It was a few months +before his death in 1852. The speech was delivered at Trenton, N.J., in +the celebrated India rubber case, Goodyear _vs. _ Day, in which Webster +was the leading counsel for Goodyear, and Rufus Choate headed the list +of eloquent advocates in defense of Mr. Day. In that speech Webster was +physically feeble, so that after speaking an hour, he was obliged to sit +down for a time, while Mr. James T. Brady made a new statement with +regard to a portion of the evidence. At that time Webster was broken in +health. The most beautiful passage in his speech was his tribute to +woman, and at another point he indulged in a very ludicrous description +of the character of the first India rubber, which was offered as a +marketable article. He said: "When India rubber was first brought to +this country we had only the raw material, and they made overshoes and +hats of it. A present was sent to me of a complete suit of clothes made +of this India rubber, and on a cold winter day I found my rubber +overcoat was frozen as rigid as ice. I took it out on my lawn, set it +upright, put a broad brim hat on top of it, and there the figure stood +erect, and my neighbors, as they passed by thought they saw the old +farmer of Marshfield standing out under his trees." Some of his +sarcastic attacks upon Mr. Day were very bitter, and when he showed his +great, white teeth he looked like an enraged lion. + +A few months after that Trenton speech in October, 1852, he went to his +Marshfield home to die. His spirits were broken and he was sore from +political disappointments. His last few days were spent in a fight by +his powerful constitution against the inevitable. The last time he +walked feebly from his bed to his window he called out to his servant +man: "I want you to moor my yacht down there where I can see it from my +window; then I want you to hoist the flag at the mast head, and every +night to hang the lamp up in the rigging; when I go down I want to go +down with my colors flying and my lamp burning." He told them to put on +his monument, "Lord, I believe; help Thou my unbelief." In the final +moment he started up from his pillow long enough to say: "I still live." +He does live, and will ever live in the grateful memories of his +countrymen. + +While no one can deplore more than the writer the weaknesses and +mistakes of Daniel Webster, yet when I remember his intellectual +prowess and his magnificent services in defense of the Constitution, and +the integrity of our national union, I am ready to say: "Let us to all +his failings and faults be charitably kind and only remember the +glorious services he wrought to the country he loved." + +During the summer of 1840, when I was a college student at Princeton, I +went with a friend to the office of the _Log Cabin_, a Whig campaign +newspaper then published in Nassau Street, New York. It was during the +famous Tippecanoe campaign, which resulted in the election of General +Harrison. I was introduced to a singular looking man in rustic dress. He +was writing an editorial. His face had a peculiar infantile smoothness, +and his long flaxen hair fell down over his shoulders. I little dreamed +then that that uncouth man in tow trousers was yet to be the foremost +editor in America, and a candidate, unwisely, for President of the +United States. Horace Greeley, for it was he, who sat before me, has +been often described as a man with the "face of an angel, and the walk +of a clod-hopper." Ten years later I became well acquainted with him, +and from that time a most cordial friendship existed until his dying +day. He visited me as a speaker at our State convention in Trenton, N.Y. +I had him at my house at supper when my mother asked him if he would +take coffee. His droll reply was: "I hope to drink coffee, madame, in +heaven, but I cannot stand it in this world." After supper I informed my +guest that it was customary for my good mother and myself (for I was not +yet married), to have family worship immediately at the close of that +meal and asked him whether he would not join us. He cordially replied +that he would be most happy to do so, and it is quite probable that I +may be one of the few,--perhaps the only--clergyman in this land who +ever had Horace Greeley kneeling beside him in prayer. He attired +himself in the famous old white coat, and shambled along with my mother +to the place of meeting. He quite captivated her with a most pathetic +account of his idolized boy "Pickie," who had died a short time before. +Mr. Greeley was one of the most simple-hearted, great men whom I have +ever met; without a spark of ordinary vanity he was intensely +affectionate in his sympathies and loved a genuine kind word that came +from the heart. He relished more a quiet talk with an old friend in his +home at Chappaqua than all the glare of public notoriety. "Come up," he +often said to me, "and spend a Saturday at the farm. The good boys do +come and see me up there sometimes." Probably no man lived a purer life +than Horace Greeley. He was the most devoted of husbands to one of the +most eccentric of wives. His defenses of the spiritual sanctity of +marriage in reply to Dale Owen are among the most powerful productions +of his ever powerful pen. 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 life. + +John Bright once said: "Horace Greeley is the greatest of living +editors." He once told me that he had written editorials for a dozen +papers at one time. 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 day. His articles were freighted with great +power, for he was one of the strongest writers of the English language +on this continent. They were always brimful of thought, for Mr. Greeley +seldom wrote on any subject which he had not thoroughly mastered. +Speaking of a certain popular orator, who afterwards went as our +minister to China, he said to me: "Mr. B.---- is a pretty man, a very +pretty man, but he does not _study_, and no man ever can have permanent +power in this country unless he _studies_" + +Mr. Greeley prided himself upon his accuracy as an editor, but one day, +when writing an editorial, in which he denounced some political +misdemeanor in the County of Chatauqua, by a slip of his pen he wrote +the name of the adjoining county Cattaraugus. The next morning when he +saw it in the paper he went up into the composing room in a perfect rage +and called out, "Who put that Cattaraugus?" 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 +Horace," when he saw the word, with a most inexpressible meekness, +drawled out: "Will some one please to kick me down those stairs?" + +He abominated mendicancy and, although his native goodness of heart +often led him to give to the hundreds who came to him for pecuniary aid, +he one day said to me: "Since I have lived in New York I have given away +money enough to set up a merchant in business, and I sometimes doubt +whether I have done more good or harm by the operation. I am continually +beset by various clubs and societies all over the land to donate to them +the _Tribune_. I always tell them if it is worth reading it is worth +paying for. The curse of this country is the deadhead. I pay for my own +_Tribune_ every morning." + +From my old friend's theology I strongly dissented, but in practical +philanthropy he gave me many a lesson and still better stimulant of his +own unselfish example. He was always ready to work in the cause of +reform without pay and without applause. When temperance meetings were +held in my church he very gladly lent his effective services, refusing +any compensation, and there was no man in the city whose evening hours +were worth more in solid gold than his. It is said that he was once +called upon, in the absence of his minister, in a Universalist Church, +to go into the pulpit. He did so, and delivered a very pungent sermon on +the text, "The fool hath said in his heart there is no God." The +strongest points made by Mr. Greeley in the best of his printed essays +are those which emphasize the authority of God. A letter in his +characteristic hieroglyphics, the last one he ever wrote to me, and +which now lies before me, was in reply to one of mine, criticising the +_Tribune_ for speaking of Dr. Tyng's as a "church" and of Dr. Adams's +house of worship as a "meeting house." I told him if one was a church, +then the other was equally so. He replied: "I am of Puritan stock, on +one side, in America since 1640, and on the other since 1720. My people +worshiped God in a meeting house; they gave it the name, not I, and they +called the body of believers who met therein 'a church.' Episcopalians +speak otherwise. It is a bad sign that we do not seem disposed to hold +fast the form of sound words." + +I am not aware of any Scriptural authority for calling a steepled house +"a church." + +The last evening I ever spent with him was at a temperance meeting of +plain working people, to which he came several miles through a snow +storm. He spoke with great power, and when I told him afterwards it was +one of the finest addresses I had ever heard from him he said to me: "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 +Music." As he bade me good-night at yonder corner of Fulton Street, I +said to him: "Uncle Horace, will you not come and spend the night with +me?" He said, "No, I have much work to do before morning. I am coming +over soon to spend a week in Brooklyn with my brother-in-law, and I will +come and have a night with you." Alas, it was not long before he came to +spend a night in Brooklyn,--that night that knows no morning. On a +chilly November day, towards twilight, I was one of the crowd that +followed him to his resting place in Greenwood, and I always, when on my +way to my own plot, stop to gaze on the monument that bears the +inscription, _"Founder of the New York Tribune."_ + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE CIVIL WAR AND ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + +An enormous quantity of books, historic and reminiscent, have been +written about our Civil War, which, both in regard to the number of +combatants engaged, and the magnitude of the interests involved, and its +far-reaching consequences, was the most colossal conflict of modern +times. Before presenting a few of my own personal recollections of the +struggle, let me say that when the struggle was over, no one was more +eager than myself to bury the tomahawk, and to offer the calumet of +peace to our Southern fellow countrymen and fellow Christians. Whenever +I have visited them their cordial greeting has warmed the cockles of my +heart. I thank God that the great gash has been so thoroughly healed, +and that I have lived to see the day when the people of the North feel a +national pride in the splendid prowess of Lee, and the heroic Christian +character of Stonewall Jackson, and when some of the noblest tributes to +Abraham Lincoln have been spoken by such representative Southerners as +Mr. Grady, of Georgia, and Mr. Watterson, of Kentucky. I had hoped ere +this to see the Northern and Southern wings of our venerable +Presbyterian Church reunited; but I am confident that there are plenty +of people now living who will yet witness their happy ecclesiastical +nuptials. Terrible as was that war in the sacrifice of precious life, +and in the destruction of property, it was unquestionably inevitable. +Mr. Seward was right when he called the conflict "irrepressible." +Abraham Lincoln was a true prophet when he declared, at Springfield, +Ill., in June, 1858, that "A house divided against itself cannot stand; +I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half +free." When in my early life I spoke to my good mother about some +anti-slavery addresses that had been delivered, she said to me, with +wonderful foresight, "These speeches will avail but little; _slavery +will go down in blood."_ 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 North. + +My first glimpse of the long predicted conflict was the sight of the +Seventh Regiment,--composed of the flower of New York,--swinging down +Broadway in April, 1861, on its way to the protection of +Washington,--amid the thundering cheers of the bystanders. Before long I +offered my services to the "Christian commission" which had been +organized by that noble and godly minded patriot, George H. Stuart, of +Philadelphia, and I went on to Washington to preach to our soldiers. I +found Washington a huge military encampment; the hills around were white +with tents, and Pennsylvania Avenue was filled almost every day with +troops of horsemen, or with trains of artillery. While I was in +Washington I lodged with my beloved college professor, that eminent +Christian philosopher, Joseph Henry,--in the Smithsonian Institution, of +which he was the head. One night, after I had been out addressing our +boys in blue at one of the camps, and had retired for the night, +Professor Henry came into my room and, sitting down by my bed, discussed +the aspects of the struggle. His mental eye was as sharp in reading the +signs of the times as it had been when at Albany, thirty years before, +he made his splendid discovery in electro-magnetism. He said to me: +"This war may last several years, but it can have only one result, for +it is simply a question of dynamics. The stronger force must pulverize +the weaker one, and the North will win the day. When the war is over, +the country will not be what it was before; the triumph of the union +will leave us a prodigiously centralized government, and the old Calhoun +theory of 'State rights' will be dead. We shall have an inflated +currency--an enormous debt with a host of tax-gatherers, and huge +pension rolls. What is most needed now is wise statesmanship, and the +first quality of a statesman is _prescience_. In my position here, as +head of the Smithsonian, I cannot be a partisan! I did not vote the +Republican ticket, 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 Illinois." Every syllable of Professor Henry's +prognostication proved true, and nothing more true than his estimate of +Lincoln at a time when there was too much disposition to distrust him. + +As I have had for many years what my friends have playfully called +"Lincoln on the brain," let me say a few words in regard to the most +marvellous man that this country has produced in the nineteenth century. +His name is to-day a household word in every civilized land. Dr. Newman +Hall, of London, has told me that when he had addressed a listless +audience, he found that nothing was so certain to arouse them as to +introduce the name of Abraham Lincoln. Certainly no other name has such +electric power over every true heart from Maine to Mexico. The first +time I ever saw the man whom we used to call, familiarly and +affectionately, "Uncle Abe," was at the Tremont House in Chicago, a few +days after his election to the presidency. His room was very near my +own. I sent in my card, and he greeted me with a characteristic grasp of +the hand, and his first sentence rather touched my soft spot when he +said: "I have kept up with you nearly every week in the _New York +Independent_." His voice had a clear, magnetic ring, and his heart +seemed to be in his voice. Three months afterwards I saw him again, +riding down Broadway, New York (thronged with a gazing multitude), on +his way to assume the presidency at Washington. He stood up in a +barouche holding on with his hand to the seat of the driver. His +towering figure was filled out by a long blue cloak, and a heavy cape +which he wore. On his bare head rose a thick mass of black hair--the +crown which nature gave to her king. His large, melancholy eyes had a +solemn, far-away look as if he discerned the toils and trials that +awaited him. The great patriot-President, moving slowly on toward the +conflict, the glory and the martyrdom, that were reserved for him, still +remains in my memory, as the most august and majestic figure that my +eyes have ever beheld. He never passed through New York again until he +was borne through tears and broken hearts on his last journey to his +Western tomb. + +I did not see Lincoln again until two years afterwards, when I was in +Washington on duty for the Christian Commission. It was one of his +public levee nights, and as soon as I came up to him, his first words +were: "Doctor, I have not seen you since we met in the Tremont House in +Chicago." I mention this as an illustration of his marvelous memory; he +never forgot a face or a name or the slightest incident. My mother was +with me at the Smithsonian, and as she was extremely desirous to see the +President I took her over to the White House late on the following +afternoon. In those war times, when Washington was a camp, the White +House looked more like an army barracks than the Presidential mansion. +In the entrance hall that day were piles of express boxes, among which +was a little lad playing and tumbling them about. "Will you go and find +somebody to take our cards?" said my mother to the child. He ran off and +brought the Irishman, whose duty it was to receive callers at the door. +That was the same Irishman who, when the poor soldier's wife was going +in to plead for her husband's pardon of a capital offense he had +committed, said to her: "Be sure to take your baby in with you." When +she came out smiling and happy, Patrick said to her: "Ah, ma'am, _'twas +the baby that did it_." + +The shockingly careless appearance of the White House proved that +whatever may have been Mrs. Lincoln's other good qualities, she hadn't +earned the compliment which the Yankee farmer paid to his wife when he +said: "Ef my wife haint got an ear fer music, she's got an eye fer +dirt." When we reached the room of the President's Private Secretary, +my old friend, the Rev. Mr. Neill, of St. Paul's, told me that it was +military court day, when the President had to decide upon cases of army +discipline that came before him and when he received no calls. I told +Neill that my mother could never die happy if she had not seen Lincoln. +He took in our names to the President, who told him to bring us in. We +entered the room in which the Cabinet usually met--and there, before the +fire, stood the tall, gaunt form attired in a seedy frock-coat, with his +long hair unkempt, and his thin face the very picture of distress. "How +is Mrs. Lincoln?" inquired my mother. "Oh," said the President, "I have +not seen her since seven o'clock this morning; Tad, how is your mother?" +"She is pretty well," replied the little fellow, who was coiled up then +in an arm chair, the same lad we had seen playing down in the entrance +hall. We spent but a few moments with Mr. Lincoln, and when we came out +my mother exclaimed: "Oh, what a cruelty to keep that man here! Did you +ever see such a sad face in your life?" I never had, 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 House, +but may get some faint idea of the terribly trying life that Mr. Lincoln +led. + +Dr. Bellows, the President of the Sanitary Commission, once said to him: +"Mr. President, I am here at almost every hour of the day or night, and +I never saw you at the table, do you ever eat?" "I try to," replied the +President; "I manage to browse about pretty much as I can get it." After +the long wearing, nerve-taxing days were over in which he was glad to +relieve himself occasionally with a good story or a merry laugh, came +the nights of anxiety when sleep was often banished from his pillow. He +frequently wrapped himself in his Scotch shawl, and at midnight stole +across to the War Office, and listened to the click of the telegraph +instruments, which brought sometimes good news, and sometimes terrible +tales of defeat. On the day after he heard of the awful slaughter at +Fredericksburg, he remarked at the War Office: "If any of the lost in +hell suffered worse than I did last night, I pity them." Nothing but +iron nerves and a dependence on the divine arm bore him through. He once +said: "I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming +conviction that I had nowhere else to go; my own wisdom and that of all +around me seemed insufficient for the day." We call him "Our Martyr +President," but the martyrdom lasted for four whole years! + +The darkest crisis of the whole war was in the summer of 1862. I slipped +away for a few weeks of relaxation to Europe, sailing on the Cunarder +_China_, the first screw steamer ever built by that company. She was +under the command of Captain James Anderson, who was afterwards knighted +by Queen Victoria for his services in laying the Atlantic cable, and is +better known as Sir James Anderson. There was no Atlantic cable in those +days, and our steamer carried out the news of the seven days' battles +before Richmond, which terminated in the retreat of General McClellan. +We had a Fourth of July dinner on board, but between seasickness and +heart sickness it was the toughest experience of making a spread-eagle +speech I ever had. After landing at Queenstown I went to Belfast and +thence to Edinburgh. I found the people of Edinburgh intensely excited +over our war and the current of popular sentiment running against us +like a mill-race. For instance, I was recognized by my soft hat on the +street; a shoemaker put his head out of the door and shouted as I +passed: "I say, when are you going to be done with your butchering over +there?" The _Scotsman_ was hostile to the Union cause, and the old +_Caledonian Mercury_ was the only paper that stood by us; but it did so +manfully. On the day of my arrival a bulletin was posted in the +newspaper offices and on Change that McClellan and the Union army had +surrendered. The baleful report was received with no little exultation +by all who were engaged in the cotton trade. I sat up until midnight +with the editor of the _Mercury_, helping him to squelch the rumor and +the next morning expose the falsity of the news in his columns. + +Dr. John Brown, the immortal author of "Rab and His Friends," had called +on me at the Waverly Hotel, and that morning I breakfasted with him. At +the breakfast table I made a statement of our side of the conflict and +Dr. Brown said: "If you will write up that statement, I will get my +friend, Mr. Russell, the editor of the _Scotsman_, to publish it in his +paper." I did so and sent it to the care of Dr. Brown. On the following +Sabbath afternoon I attended the great prayer meeting in the Free Church +Assembly Hall, and Sir James Simpson was to preside. There was a crowd +of over a thousand people present. Simpson did not come, and so some +other elder occupied the chair. During the meeting I arose and modestly +asked that prayer might be offered for my country in this hour of her +peril and distress. There was an awful silence! In a few moments the +chairman meekly said: "Perhaps our American friend will offer the prayer +himself." I did so, for it was evident that all the Scotchmen present +considered our cause past praying for. + +On the morning of our departure my letter appeared in the _Scotsman_ +accompanied by a long and bitter reply by the editor. Within a week +several of the Scotch newspapers were in full cry, denouncing that +"bloody Presbyterian minister from America." + +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 pomp, on the Champs des +Mars. It was a magnificent spectacle. That day Mr. Slidell, the +representative of the Southern Confederacy, hung on the front of his +house an immense white canvas on which was inscribed: "Jefferson Davis, +the First President of the Confederate States of America." Our +ambassador, Hon. William L. Dayton, was a relative of mine, and I had +several conversations with him about the perilous situation of affairs +at home. Dayton said: "Our prospects are dark enough. All the monarchs +and aristocracies are against us; all the cotton and commercial +interests are against us. Emperor Louis Napoleon is a sphinx, but he +would like to help to acknowledge the Southern Confederacy. If he does +so Belgium and other powers will join him; they will break the blockade; +they will supply the Confederates with arms and then we must fight +Europe as well as the Southern States. Our only real friends are men +like John Bright, and those who believe that we are fighting for freedom +as well as for our National Union. Mr. Lincoln must declare for +emancipation and unless he does it within thirty days, I have written +to Mr. Seward that our cause is lost." + +I returned to London with a heavy heart; all of our friends there with +whom I conversed echoed the sentiments of Mr. Dayton. One of them said +to me: "Earl Russell has no especial love for your Union, but he +abominates negro slavery, and is very reluctant to acknowledge a new +slave-owning government. Prince Albert and the Queen are friendly to +you, but you must emancipate the slaves." + +My return passage from Liverpool was on board the _Asia_, and Captain +Anderson commanded her for that voyage. When we reached Boston, we heard +the distressing news of the second Battle of Bull Run, and our prospects +were black as midnight. Captain Anderson remarked to me, in a +compassionate tone: "Well, Mr. Cuyler, you Yankees had better give it up +now." "Never, never," I replied to him. "You will live to see the Union +restored and slavery extinguished." He laughed at me and bid me +"good-bye." A few years afterwards, I laughed back again when I met him +in New York. + +On Sunday evening, September 7, I addressed a vast crowd in my own +Lafayette Avenue Church, and told them frankly, that our only hope was +in a proclamation for freedom by President Lincoln. Henry Ward Beecher +invited me to repeat my address on the next Sunday evening in Plymouth +Church. I did so and the house was packed clear out to the sidewalk. At +the end of my address Mr. Beecher leaned over and said: "The Lord helped +you to-night." When the meeting closed Mr. Henry C. Bowen said, "Will +you and Mr. Beecher not start for Washington to-morrow morning to urge +Mr. Lincoln to proclaim emancipation?" We both agreed to go before the +week was over, but could not before. On the Wednesday of that very week +the Battle of Antietam was fought, and on the Friday morning we opened +our papers and read President Lincoln's first Proclamation of +Emancipation. The great deed was done; the night was over; the morning +had dawned. From that day onward our cause, under God, was saved; but +that proclamation saved the Union. No foreign power dared to oppose us +after that, and Gettysburg sealed the righteous act of Lincoln, the +Liberator, and decided the victory. + +At the beginning of this chapter I described the thrilling scenes at the +opening of the conflict; let me now narrate a still more thrilling one +at its termination. The war began by the surrender of Fort Sumter by +Major Anderson, April 13, 1861; the war virtually ended by the +restoration of the national flag by the same hand in the same Fort, on +April 14, 1865. + +I joined an excursion party from New York, on the steamer _Oceanus_, +and we went down to witness the impressive ceremonies in Sumter. We +found Charleston a scene of wretched desolation, and General Sherman, +who had once resided there, said he had never realized the horrors of +war until he had seen the terrible ruins of that once beautiful city. At +the time of my writing, now, Charleston is crowded every day with +visitors to its industrial Exposition, and the President is received +with ovations by its people. + +Our party went over to Fort Sumter in a steamer commanded by a negro, +who was an emancipated slave, but very soon became a member of Congress. +The broken walls of Sumter, brown, battered and lonely in the quiet +waves were hopelessly scarred, and all around it on the narrow beach lay +a stratum of bullets and broken iron several inches deep. + +The Fort that day was crowded with an immense assemblage. Among them +were the Hon. Henry Wilson, afterwards Vice-President, and +Attorney-General Holt, Judge Hoxie, of New York, William Lloyd Garrison +and George Thompson, the famous member of the English Parliament, who +had once been mobbed for his anti-slavery speech in this country. +General S.L. Woodford was in command for the day. Dr. Richard S. Storrs +offered an impressive prayer, and the oration was delivered by +direction of the Government, by Henry Ward Beecher. When the speech was +completed, Major Anderson drew out from a mail bag the identical bunting +that he had lowered four years before, and attached the flag to the +halyards, and when it began to ascend, General Gilmore grasped the rope +behind him, and, as it came along to our part of the platform several of +us grasped it also. Mr. Thompson shouted, "Give John Bull a hold of that +rope." When the dear old flag reached the summit of the staff, and its +starry eyes looked out over the broad harbor, 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 again. + +The frantic scene inside the Fort beggars description. We grasped hands +and shouted and my irrepressible old friend, Hoxie, of New York, with +tears in his eyes, embraced one after another, exclaiming: "This is the +greatest day of my life!" In the rainbow of those stars and stripes we +read that day the covenant that the deluge of blood was ended, and that +the ark of freedom had rested at length upon its Ararat. + +On the next day I addressed a thousand negro children, and when I +enquired, "May I send an invitation to the good Abraham Lincoln to come +down and visit you?" one thousand little black hands went up with a +shout. Alas, we knew not that at that very hour their beloved +benefactor was lying cold and silent in the East room at Washington! At +Fortress Monroe, on our homeward voyage, the terrible tidings of the +President's assassination pierced us like a dagger, on the wharf. Near +the Fortress poor negro women had hung pieces of coarse black muslin +around every little huckster's tables. "Yes, sah, Fathah Lincum's dead. +Dey killed our bes' fren, but God be libben; dey can't kill Him, I's sho +ob dat." 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 bondage." + +Upon our arrival in New York, we found the city draped in black, and +"the mourners going about the streets." When the remains of the murdered +President reached New York they were laid in state in the City Hall for +one day and night, and during that whole night the procession passed the +coffin--never ceasing for a moment. Between three and four o'clock in +the morning I took my family there, that they might see the face of our +beloved martyr, and we had to take our place in a line as far away as +Park Row. It is impossible to give any adequate description of the +funeral--whose like was never seen before or since--when eminent +authors, clergymen, judges and distinguished civilians walked on foot +through streets, shrouded in black to the house tops. The whole journey +to Springfield, Ill., was one constant manifestation of poignant grief. +The people rose in the night, simply to see the funeral train pass by. I +do not wonder that when Emperor Alexander, of Russia (who was himself +afterwards assassinated) heard the tidings of our President's death from +an American Ambassador, he leaped from his chair, and exclaimed, "Good +God, can it be so? He was the noblest man alive." + +Thirty-seven years have passed away, and to-day while our nation reveres +the name of Washington, as the Father of his Country; Abraham Lincoln is +the best loved man that ever trod this continent. The Almighty educated +him in His own Providence for his high mission. The "plain people," as +he called them, were his University; the Bible and John Bunyan were his +earliest text-books. Sometimes his familiarity with the Scriptures came +out very amusingly as when a deputation of bankers called on him, to +negotiate for a loan to the Government, and one of them said to him: +"You know, Mr. President, where the treasure is, there will the heart be +also." "I should not wonder," replied Lincoln, "if another text would +not fit the case better, 'Where the carcass is, there will the eagles be +gathered together,'" His innumerable jests contained more wisdom than +many a philosopher's maxims, and underneath his plebeian simplicity, +dress and manners, this great child of nature possessed the most +delicate instincts of the perfect gentleman. The only just scale by +which to measure any man is the scale of actual achievement; and in +Lincoln's case some of the most essential instruments had to be +fabricated by himself. + +The first account in the measurement of the man is that with a sublime +reliance on God, he conducted an immense nation through the most +tremendous civil war ever waged, and never committed a single serious +mistake. The Illinois backwoodsman did not possess Hamilton's brilliant +genius, yet Hamilton never read the future more sagaciously. He made no +pretension to Webster's magnificent oratory; yet Webster never put more +truth in portable form for popular guidance. He possessed Benjamin +Franklin's immense common sense, and gift of terse proverbial speech, +but none of his lusts and sceptical infirmities. The immortal +twenty-line address at Gettysburg is the high water mark of sententious +eloquence. With that speech should be placed the pathetic and equally +perfect letter of condolence to Mrs. Bixby of Boston after her five sons +had fallen in battle. 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 century. This +second address--his last great production--contained some of the best +illustrations of his fondness for balanced antithesis and rhythmical +measurement. There is one sentence which may be rendered into rhyme: + + "Fondly do we hope, + Fervently do we pray + That this mighty scourge of war + May soon pass away" + +Terrible as was the tragedy of that April night, thirty-seven years ago, +it may be still true that Lincoln died at the right time for his own +imperishable fame. 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 soldier, or drummer boy, that +filled the sacred mould of Gettysburg and Chickamauga. In an instant, as +it were, his career crystalized into that pure white fame which belongs +only to the martyr for justice, law and liberty. For more than a +generation his ashes have slumbered in his beloved home at Springfield, +and as the hearts of millions of the liberated turn toward that tomb, +they may well say to their liberator: "We were hungry and thou gavest us +the bread of sympathy; we were thirsty for liberty and thou gavest us to +drink; we were strangers, and thou didst take us in; we were sick with +two centuries of sorrow, and thou didst visit us; we were in the +oppressive house of bondage, and thou earnest unto us;" and the response +of Christendom is: "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the +joy of the Lord." + +In closing this chapter of my reminiscences, I may be allowed to express +my strong conviction that our Congress, impelled by generous feeling, +and what they regarded as a democratic principle of government, +committed a serious error in bestowing the right of suffrage +indiscriminately upon the male negro population of the South. A man who +had been all his life an ignorant "chattel personal" was suddenly +transformed into a sovereign elector. Instead of this precipitate +legislation, it would have been wiser to restrict the suffrage to those +who acquire a proper education, and perhaps also a certain amount of +taxable property. This policy would have avoided unhappy friction +between the races, and, what is more important, it would have offered a +powerful inducement to every colored man to fit himself for the honor +and grave responsibility of full citizenship. At this time one of the +noblest efforts made by wise philanthropy is that of educating, +elevating and evangelizing our colored fellow countrymen of the South. +To help the negro to help himself, is the key-note of these efforts. The +time is coming--yea, it has come already--when to the name of Abraham +Lincoln, the grateful negro will add the names of their best benefactor, +General Samuel C. Armstrong (the founder of Hampton Institute) and +Booker T. Washington. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +PASTORAL WORK. + + +The work of the faithful minister covers all the round week. On the one +day he teaches his people in the house of God, on the remaining days he +teaches and guides them in their own houses and wherever he may happen +to meet them. His labors, therefore, are twofold; the work of the +preacher and the work of the pastor. The two ought to be inseparable; +what the Providence of God and good common sense have joined together +let no man venture to put asunder. The great business of every true +minister is the winning of souls to Jesus Christ, and to bring them up +in godly living. In other words, to make bad men good, and good men +better. All this cannot be accomplished by two sermons a week, even if +they were the best that Paul himself could deliver; in fact, the best +part of Paul's recorded work was quite other than public preaching. As +for our blessed Master, He has left one extended discourse and a few +shorter ones, but oh, how many narratives we have of His personal +visits, personal conversation and labors of love with the sick, the +sinning, and the suffering! He was the shepherd who knew every sheep in +the flock. The importance of all that portion of a minister's work that +lies outside of his pulpit can hardly be overestimated. 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 +everybody. A majority of all congregations, rich or poor, is reached, +not so much through the intellect as through the affections. This is an +encouraging fact, that while only one man in ten may have been born to +become a very great preacher, the other nine, if they love their Master +and love human souls, can become great pastors. Nothing gives a minister +such heart-power as personal acquaintance and personal attention to +those whom he aims to influence; especially his personal attention will +be welcome in seasons of trial. Let the pastor make himself at home in +everybody's home. Let him go often to visit their sick rooms and kneel +beside their empty cribs, and comfort their broken hearts, and pray with +them. Let him go to the business men of his congregation when they have +suffered reverses, and give them a word of cheer; let him be quick to +recognize the poor and the children, and he will weave a cord around the +hearts of his people that will stand a prodigious pressure. His inferior +sermons (for every minister is guilty of such occasionally) will be +kindly condoned, and he can launch the most pungent truths at his +auditors, and they will not take offense. He will have won their hearts +to himself, and that is a great step toward drawing them to the house of +God and winning their souls to the Saviour. "A house-going minister," +said Chalmers, "makes a church-going people." There is still one other +potent argument for close intercourse with his congregation that many +ministers are in danger of ignoring or underestimating. James Russell +Lowell has somewhere said that books are, at best, but dry fodder, and +that we need to be vitalized by contact with living people. The best +practical discourses often are those which a congregation help their +minister to prepare. By constant and loving intercourse with the +individuals of his church he becomes acquainted with their +peculiarities, and this enlarges his knowledge of human nature. It is +second only to a knowledge of God's Word. If a minister is a wise man +(and neither God nor man has any use for fools) 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 preaches. + +In Dundee, Scotland, I conversed with a gray-headed member of St. +Peter's Presbyterian Church who, in his youth, listened to the sainted +Robert Murray McCheyne. He spoke of him with the deepest reverence and +love; but the one thing that he remembered after forty-six years was +that Mr. McCheyne, a few days before his death, met him on the street +and, laying hand upon his shoulder, said to him kindly: "Jamie, I hope +it is well with your soul. How is your sick sister? I am going to see +her again shortly." That sentence or two had stuck to the old Christian +for over forty years. It had grappled his pastor to him, and this little +narrative gave me a fresh insight into McCheyne's wonderful power. His +ministry was most richly successful, and largely because he kept in +touch with his people, and was a great pastor as well as a great +preacher. + +I determined from the very start in my ministry that I would be a +thorough pastor. A very celebrated preacher once said to me: "I envy you +your love for pastoral work, I would not do it if I could, I could not +do it if I would; for a single hour with a family in trouble uses up +more of my vitality than to prepare a sermon." My reply to him was: +"That may be true, but, after all, the business of a minister is to +endure these strains upon his nervous system if he would be a comforter, +as well as the teacher of his people." + +My practice was this: I devoted the forenoon of every day, except +Monday, to the preparation of my discourses. My motto was: "Study God's +Word in the morning, and door-plates in the afternoon." I found the +physical exercise in itself a benefit, and the spiritual benefits were +ten-fold more. 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 residence, and also of any case +of sickness or trouble of any kind. 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 me. In short, I endeavored to +treat my flock exactly as though they were my own family, and to be +perfectly at home in their homes. I managed to visit every family at +least once in each year and as much oftener as circumstances required. +As I had no "loafing" places, I easily got through my congregation, +which, in Brooklyn, numbered several hundreds of families. + +Spurgeon had an assistant pastor for his immense flock, but he made it a +rule to visit the sick or dying on as many occasions as possible. He +once said from his pulpit: "I have been this week to visit two of my +church members who were near Eternity, and both of them were as happy as +if they were going to a wedding. Oh, it makes me preach like a lion when +I see how my people can die." + +It was always my custom to take a particular neighborhood, and to call +upon every parishioner in that street, or district, but I seldom found +it wise to send word in advance to any family, that I would visit them +on a certain day or hour, for I might be prevented from going, and thus +subject them to disappointment; consequently, I had to run the risk of +finding them at home. If they were out I left my card, and tried again +at another time. In calling on my people unawares, I found it depended +upon myself to secure a cordial welcome, for I went in with a hearty +salutation and asked them to allow me to sit down with them wherever +they were, regardless of dress or ceremony, and soon I found myself +perfectly at home with them. No one should be so welcome as a faithful +pastor. I encouraged them to talk about the affairs of our church, about +the Sabbath services, and the truths preached, and the influences that +Sabbath messages were having upon them. In this way I have discovered +whether or not the shots were striking; for the gunnery that hits no one +is not worth the powder. + +Fishing for compliments is beneath any man of common sense, but it does +cheer the pastor's heart to be told, "Your sermon last Sunday brought me +a great blessing; it helped me all the week." Or better still, "Your +sermon brought me to decide for Christ." In a careful and delicate way, +I drew out our people in regard to their spiritual condition, and if I +found that any member of the family was anxious about his or her soul, I +managed to have a private and unreserved conversation with that person. +It is well for every minister to be careful how he guards the confidence +reposed in him. The family physician and the family pastor often have to +know some things they do not like to know, but they never should allow +any one else to know them. + +This intimate, personal intercourse with my flock enabled me more than +once to bring the undecided to a decision for Christ. In dealing with +such cases, whether in the home or in the inquiry-room, I aimed to +discover just what hindrance was in the path of each awakened soul. It +is a great point also for such a one to discover what it is that keeps +him or her from surrendering to Christ. If it be some habit or some evil +practice, that must be given up; if some heart sin, that we must yield, +even if it be like plucking out an eye or lopping off a right hand. It +was my aim, and ever has been, 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 them. We must shut every soul up to Christ. + +I requested my people to inform me promptly of every case of serious +sickness, and I could never be too prompt in responding to such a call. +However busy I might be in preparing sermons or any commendable +occupation everything else was laid aside. For a pastor should be as +quick to respond to a call of sickness as an ambulance is to reach the +scene of disaster. I sometimes found that a parishioner had been +suddenly attacked with dangerous illness and even my entrance in the +sick room might agitate the patient. At such times I found it necessary +to use all the tact and delicacy and discretion at my command. I would +never needlessly endanger a sick person by efforts to guide or console +an immortal spirit. I aimed to make my words few, calm and tender, and +make every syllable to point toward Jesus Christ. Whoever the sufferer +may be, saint or sinner, 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 fatal, but if we know +that death is near, in the name of the Master, let us be faithful as +well as tender. + +There are many cases of extreme and critical illness when the presence +of even the most loving pastor may be an unwise intrusion. An excellent +Christian lady who had been twice apparently on the brink of death said +to me: "Never enter the room of a person who is extremely low, unless +the person urgently requests you to, or unless spiritual necessity +absolutely compels it. You have no idea how the sight of a new face +agitates the sufferer, and how you may unconsciously and unintentionally +rob that sufferer of the little life that is fluttering in the feeble +frame," I felt grateful to the good woman for her advice, and have often +acted upon it, when the family have unwisely importuned me to do what +would have been more harmful than beneficial. On some occasions, when I +have found a sick room crowded by well-meaning but needless intruders, I +have taken the liberty to "put them all forth," as our Master did in +that chamber in which the daughter of Jairus was in the death slumber. + +A great portion of the time and attention which I bestowed upon the sick +was spent on chronic sufferers, who had been confined to their beds of +weariness for months or years. I visited them as often as possible. Some +of those bedridden sufferers were prisoners of Jesus Christ, who did me +quite as much good as I could possibly do them. What eloquent sermons +they preached to me on the beauty of submissive patience and on the +supporting power of the "Everlasting arms!" Such interviews strengthened +my faith, softened my heart, and infused into it something of the spirit +of Him who "Took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses." McCheyne, of +Dundee, said that before preaching on the Sabbath he sometimes visited +some parishioner, who might be lying extremely low, for he found it good +"to take a look over the verge." + +In my pastoral rounds I sometimes had an opportunity to do more +execution in a single talk than in a score of sermons. I once spent an +evening in a vain endeavor to bring a man to a decision for Christ. +Before I left, he took me up-stairs to the nursery, and showed me his +beautiful children in their cribs. I said to him tenderly: "Do you mean +that these sweet children shall never have any help from their father to +get to Heaven?" He was deeply moved, and in a month that man became an +active member of my church. He was glued to me in affection for all the +remainder of his useful life. On a cold winter evening I made a call on +a wealthy merchant in New York. As I left his door, and the piercing +gale swept in I said, "What an awful night for the poor!" He went back, +and bringing to me a roll of bank bills, he said: "Please hand these, +for me, to the poorest people you know of." After a few days I wrote to +him, sending him the grateful thanks of the poor whom his bounty had +relieved, and added: "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 +heart?" That sentence touched him in the core. He sent for me +immediately to come and converse with him. He speedily gave his heart to +Christ, united with, and became a most useful member of our church. But +he told me I was the first person who had ever spoken to him about his +spiritual welfare in nearly twenty years. In the case of this eminently +effective and influential Christian, one hour of pastoral work did more +than the pulpit efforts of almost a lifetime. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +SOME FAMOUS PREACHERS IN BRITAIN. + +_Binney.--Hamilton--Guthrie.--Hall.--Spurgeon.--Duff and others_ + + +In attempting to recall my recollections of the eminent preachers whom I +have known, I hardly know where to begin, or where to call a halt. I +shall confine myself entirely to those who are no longer living, except +as they may live in the memory of the service they wrought for their +Divine Master and their fellow men. When I first visited London, in +early September, 1842, the two ministers most widely known to Americans +were Henry Melvill and Thomas Binney. Melvill was the most popular +preacher in the Established Church. His place of worship was out at +Camberwell, and I found it so packed that I had to get a seat on one of +the steps in the gallery. He was a man of elegant bearing, and rolled +out his ornate sentences in a somewhat theatrical tone, but the hushed +audience drank in every syllable greedily. The splendid and thoroughly +evangelical sermons which he orated most carefully were exceedingly +popular in those days, and even yet they are well worth reading as +superb specimens of lofty, devout and resonant oratory. On a very warm +Sabbath evening I went into the business end of London to the "Weigh +House Chapel" and heard Dr. Thomas Binney. He was the leader of +Congregationalism, as Melvill was of the Church of England. On that warm +evening the audience was small, but the discourse was prodigiously +large. Binney had a kingly countenance, and a most unique delivery. His +topic was Psalm 147th, 3d and 4th verses. "God is the Creator of the +universe, and the comforter of the sorrowing." He thrust one hand into +his breeches pocket, and then ran his other hand through his hair, and +began his sermon with the stirring words: "The Jew has conquered the +world!" This was the prelude to a grand eulogy of the Psalms of David. +He then unfolded the first part of his text in a most original style, +made a long pause, scratched his head again, and said: "Now then, let us +take some new thoughts, and then we are done." The closing portion of +the rich discourse was on the tender consolations of our Heavenly +Father. + +Thirty years afterwards Dr. Binney was invited to meet me at breakfast +at the house of Dr. Hall, with "Tom Hughes," Dr. Henry Allon and other +notabilities. The noble veteran chatted very serenely, and offered a +most majestic prayer while he remained sitting in his arm-chair. His +physical disabilities made it difficult for him to stand; and very soon +afterwards the grand old man went up to his crown. When I was spending +two delightful days with Dr. McLaren, of Manchester, I described to him +Binney's remarkable sermon. "Were you there that night?" inquired +McLaren. "So was I, and though only a boy of sixteen, I remember the +whole of that discourse to this hour." It was certainly a rare pulpit +power that could fasten a discourse in two different memories for a +whole half century. + +Do many of the Londoners of this day remember Dr. James Hamilton, the +pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Regent's Square? They should do so, +for in his time he was the most popular devotional writer of both sides +of the Atlantic; and during my visit to London, in 1857, I was very +happy to form his acquaintance. He was a most cordial and charming man, +slender, tall, with dark eyes and hair, and a beaming countenance. When +one entered Hamilton's study he would hurry forward, seize his hands, +and taking both in his, reply to your "How do you do, sir," with "Come +in, come in; I am nicely, I assure ye." Would that all ministers were as +cordial and approachable. When I attended his church in Regent Square +they were singing, when I came in, a Psalm from the old Scotch Version. +The choristers sat in a desk below the pulpit. The singing was general +through the church, and excellent in style. Dr. Hamilton preached in a +gown, and, as the heat grew oppressive in the middle of his sermon, +threw it off. The discourse was delivered with extremely awkward +gestures, but in a voice of great sweetness. The text was: "My soul +thirsteth for the Living God." He described an arid wilderness, hot and +parched, and down beneath it a mighty vein of water into which an +artesian well was bored, and forthwith the waters gushed up through it +and swept over all the dry desert, making it one emerald meadow. "So," +said he, "it is the incarnate Jesus flowing up through our own dusty, +barren desert humanity, and overflowing us with Heavenly life and grace, +until what was once dreary and dead becomes a fruitful garden of the +Lord." The discourse was like a chapter from one of Hamilton's savory +volumes. Five years afterwards, I dined with Hamilton, and the Rev. +William Arnot (who afterwards was his biographer), and I went to his +church to deliver the preparatory discourse to the sacrament on the next +Sabbath. + +On my way up to London, I halted one night at Birmingham, and while out +on a stroll, came upon the City Hall, which was crowded with a great +meeting in aid of foreign missions. The heroic Robert Moffat, the +Apostle of South Africa, was addressing the multitude, who cheered him +in the old English fashion. Two years before that, Robert Moffat had met +a young man in a boarding house in Aldersgate Street, London, and +induced him to become a missionary in Africa. The young man was the +sublimest of all modern missionaries, David Livingstone. Two years after +that evening, Livingstone married Miss Mary Moffat (daughter of the man +to whom I was listening), in South Africa, and she became the sharer of +his trials and explorations. After Moffat had concluded his speech, a +broad-shouldered, merry-faced man, with thick grey hair rose on the +platform. "Who is that?" I inquired of my next neighbor. With a look of +surprise that I should ask such a question in Birmingham, he said: "It +is John Angell James." He was the man whom Dr. Cox wittily described as +"An angel vinculated between two Apostles." He spoke very forcibly, in a +hearty, humorous vein, and I could hardly understand how such a jovial +old gentleman could be the author of such a serious work as "The Anxious +Inquirer." 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 weep. Mr. +James looked like an old sea captain; but he was an admirable pilot of +awakened souls, whom thousands will bless through all eternity. + +Dr. Thomas Guthrie, of Edinburgh, was once pronounced by the _London +Times_ to be "The most eloquent man in Europe." Ruskin, Thackeray, +Macaulay, and other men of renown joined in the crowd that thronged St. +John's Church when they were in Edinburgh; and a highland drover was +once so excited that in the middle of a powerful sermon he called out: +"Naw, sirs, heard ye ever the like o' that?" My good wife made a run to +Edinburgh while I was stopping behind in England, and on her return to +me almost her first word was, "I have heard Guthrie; I am spoiled for +every one else as long as I live." Guthrie, "Lang Tam" (as the toughs on +the "Cowgate" in Edinburgh used to call him), was built for a great +orator. He was more than six feet high, and would be picked out in any +crowd as one of God's royal family. I once said to him: "You remind us +Americans of our famous statesman, Henry Clay," There was a striking +resemblance in the long-armed figure, the broad mouth and lofty brow, +and still more in the rich melody of voice, and magnetic rush of +electric eloquence, "There must certainly be a personal likeness," +replied the Doctor, "for not long ago I went into the house of Mr. +Norris, who came here from America, and said to myself, 'There is my +portrait on the wall,' but when I came nearer I espied under it the +name of 'Henry Clay.'" He used to say that in preaching he aimed at the +three P's: Prove, Paint and Persuade. His painting with the tongue was +as vivid as Rembrandt's painting with the brush. When I went to +Edinburgh, in 1872, as a delegate to the two Presbyterian General +Assemblies, Dr. Guthrie invited me to dine with him, and the gifted Dr. +John Ker, of Glasgow, was in the company. After dinner, Guthrie +literally took the floor, and poured out a flow of charming talk, +interspersed with racy Scotch anecdotes. Among others told was one about +the old Highland woman who said to him: "Doctor, nane of your modern +improvements for me. I want naething but good old Dauvid's Psalms, and I +want'em all sung to Dauvid's tunes, too." On the evening when I +addressed the Free Church Assembly, I was obliged to pass, on my way to +the platform, the front bench, on which sat the veteran missionary, +Alexander Duff, Principal Rainy, William Arnot, Dr. Guthrie and two or +three other celebrities. I have not run such a gauntlet on a single +bench in my life. When I had finished my address, Guthrie, clad in his +gray overcoat, leaped up, and kindly grasped my hand, and I went back to +my seat feeling an indescribable relief. Dr. Guthrie a short time after +attempted to visit our country, but was arrested at Queenstown by a +difficulty of the heart, and returned to Scotland, and lived but a +short time afterwards. + +Sly personal acquaintance with Newman Hall began during the darkest +period of our Civil War, in August, 1862 Up to that time I had only +known him as the author of that pithy and pellucid little booklet, "Come +to Jesus," which has belted the globe in forty languages, and been +published to the number of nearly 4,000,000 of copies. When our Civil +War broke out, Dr. Hall (with John Bright and Foster and Goldwin Smith) +threw himself earnestly on the side of our Union He made public speeches +for our cause over all England, and opened his house for parlor meetings +addressed by loyal Americans who happened to be in London. He invited me +to address one of these gatherings, but the necessity of my return home +prevented my acceptance. Two years after the close of the war he made +his first visit to the United States. He was received with enthusiastic +ovations. Union Leagues gave him public welcomes, Congress invited him +to preach in the House of Representatives; he delivered an address to +the Bostonians on Bunker Hill; and every denomination, including the +Episcopalians and Quakers, opened their pulpits to him everywhere. But +the crowning act of his unique Americanism was the erection of the +"Lincoln Tower" on his Church in London, as a tribute to Negro +Emancipation, and a memorial to International amity. The love that +existed between my brother, Dr. Hall, and myself was like the love of +David and Jonathan. The letters that passed between us would number up +into the hundreds, and his epistles had the sweet savor of "Holy +Rutherford," When he was in America, my house was his home, when I was +in London, I spent no small part of my time in his delightful "Vine +House," up on Hampstead Hill. The house remains in the possession of his +wife, a lady of high culture, intellectual gifts and of most devout +piety. One reason for the close intimacy between my British brother and +myself was that we were perfectly agreed on every social, civil and +religious question, and we never had a chance to sharpen our wits on the +hone of controversy. Our theology was all from the same Book, and our +main purposes in life were similar. Many of my American readers heard +Dr. Hall preach during some one of his three visits to the United +States. What marrowy, soul-quickening sermons he poured forth in a +clear, musical voice, and with a most earnest persuasiveness. Preaching +was as easy to him as breathing. Including the Sabbath, he delivered +seven or eight sermons in a week. Undoubtedly he delivered more +discourses than any ordained minister during the nineteenth century. +Peers and peasants, scholars and dwellers in the slums alike enjoyed +his preaching of God's message to immortal souls. His favorite theme was +the sin-atoning work of Christ Jesus; and the numbers converted under +his faithful preaching were exceedingly great. One of his discourses in +this country on "Jehovah Jireh," was especially helpful, and one on +"Touching the Hem of Christ's Garment," was a gem of spiritual beauty. +He generally maintained an even flow of evangelical thought, but +sometimes he rose into a burst of thrilling eloquence, as he did in Mr. +Beecher's church, when he made his noble appeal for Union between +England and America. From his youth he was fond of street preaching. I +have seen him gather a crowd, and hold them attentively while he sowed a +few seeds of truth in their hearts. + +I wish I had the space to describe some of the foregatherings that I +have had with my twin brother in the Gospel. We visited Italy together, +preached to "the Saints that are in Rome," and went down into that room +in the sub-basement of St. Clement's where Paul is believed to have held +meetings with them that were of Caesar's household. We roamed out on the +Appian Road, over which the great Apostle entered the Eternal City. So +conscientious was my brother Hall in his teetotalism that though tired +and thirsty, he never would touch the weak, common wine of the country, +lest his example might be plead in favor of the drinking usages. We +once went up to Olney and sat in Cowper's summer house, and entered John +Newton's church, and the old sexton told Dr. Hall that he had been +converted by "Come to Jesus." We went together to Stonehenge, and as we +passed over Salisbury Plain we recalled Hannah Moore's famous shepherd +who said: "The weather to-morrow will be what suits me, for what suits +God, suits me always." We spent a very delightful couple of days in +rowing down the romantic river Wye, stopping for lunch at Wordsworth's +Tintern Abbey. In his home he was a hospitable Gaius, with open doors +and hearts to friends from all lands. He had the merry sportiveness of a +schoolboy, and when our long talks in his study were over, he would +seize his hat and the chain of his pet dog, and cry out: "Come, brother, +come, and let us have a tramp over the Heath." He was a prodigious +pedestrian, and at three score and ten he held his own over a Swiss +glacier, with the members of the Alpine Club. He had hoped to equal his +famous predecessor, Rowland Hill, and preach till he was ninety; but +when he was near his eighty-sixth birthday he was stricken with +paralysis, and never left his bed again. Those last two weeks were spent +in the "Land of Beulah," and in full view of "The Celestial City." When +asked if he suffered pain, he replied: "I have no pain, and nothing to +disturb the solemnity of dying." On the morning of February fourteenth +he passed peacefully over the river, and, as Bunyan said of old +Valiant-for-the-Truth, "The trumpets sounded for him on the other side." +No monarch on his throne is so to be envied as he who now wears that +celestial crown. + +Can anything new be said about Charles H. Spurgeon? Perhaps not, 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 century. + +I heard him when he was a youth of twenty-two years, in his Park Street +Chapel; I heard him several times when he was at the zenith of his +vigor; I spent many a happy hour with him in his charming home. On my +last visit there I had a "good cry" when I saw his empty chair in its +old place in the study. I did not form any personal acquaintance with +him until the summer of 1872, and it soon ripened into a most warm and +cordial friendship. On each of my visits to London since that time I +have enjoyed an afternoon with him at his home. His first residence was +Helensburg House in Nightingale Road, Clapham, a Southwest District of +London. That beautiful home was his only, luxury; but he spent none of +his ample income on any sort of social enjoyment, and what did not go +for household expenses went for the support of his many religious +enterprises. On my first visit to him he greeted me in his free and +easy, open-handed way. I noticed that he was growing stouter than ever. +"In me," he jocularly said, "that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good +thing," We spent a joyous hour in his well filled library; he showed me +fifteen stately volumes of his printed sermons which have since been +more than doubled, besides several of his works translated into French, +German, Swedish, Dutch and other languages. The most interesting object +in the library was a small file of his sermon notes, each one on a half +sheet of note paper, or on the back of an ordinary letter envelope. When +I asked him if he "wrote his sermons out," his answer was: "I would +rather be hung." His usual method was to select the text of his Sunday +morning sermon on Saturday about six or seven o'clock, and spend half an +hour in arranging a skeleton and put it on paper; he left all the +phraseology until he reached the pulpit. During Sunday afternoon he +repeated the same process in preparing his evening discourse. "If I had +a month assigned me for preparing a sermon," said he to me, "I would +spend thirty days and twenty-three hours on something else and in the +last hour I would make the sermon, and if I could not do it then I +could not do it in a month." + +This sounds like a risky process, 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 religion. + +He was all the time, and everywhere filling up his cask, so that he had +only to turn the spigot and out flowed the pure Gospel in the most +transparent language. A stenographer took down the sermon, and it was +revised by Mr. Spurgeon on Monday morning. 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 +perspiration, and he slowly outgrew that remarkable sort of physical +suffering. + +Twenty years ago Mr. Spurgeon exchanged Helensburgh House for the still +more elegant mansion called "Westwood" on Beulah Hill, near Crystal +Palace, Sydenham. It is a rural paradise. At each of the visits I paid +him there, he used to come out with his banged-up soft hat, which he +wore indoors half of the time, and with a merry jest on his lips. On my +last visit, accompanied by my brother Hall, I found him suffering +severely from his neuralgic malady, but it did not affect his buoyant +humor. When I told him that my catarrhal deafness was worse than ever, +he replied: "Well, brother, console yourself with the thought that in +these days there is very little worth hearing." He took my brother Hall, +and myself out into his garden and conservatory and down to a rustic +arbor, where we sat down and told stories. There were twelve acres of +land attached to "Westwood," and he had us into the meadow, where we +laid down in the freshly mowed hay and inhaled its fragrance. Mrs. +Spurgeon, a most gifted and charming lady, had a dozen cows and the +profits of her dairy then supported a missionary in London; and the milk +was sent around the neighborhood in a wagon labeled, "Charles H. +Spurgeon, Milk Dealer." After our return, the great preacher showed us a +portfolio of caricatures of himself from _Punch_ and other publications. +At six o'clock we took supper and then came family worship--all the +servants being present Mr. Spurgeon followed my prayer with the most +wonderful prayer that perhaps I have ever heard from human lips, and I +said afterwards to my friend Hall, "To-night we got into 'the hidings of +his power,' for a man who can pray like that can outpreach the world." +In the soft hour of the gloaming we took our leave, and he went off to +prepare his sermon for the morrow. + +Spurgeon's power lay in a combination of half a dozen great qualities. +He was the master of a vigorous Saxon English style, the style of +Cobbett and Bunyan and the old English Bible. He possessed a most +marvelous memory--it held the whole Bible in solution; 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 before. +Once, however, he met for the second time a Mr. Partridge and called him +"Partridge." Quick as a flash he said: "Pardon me, sir, I did not intend +to make _game_ of you," He was a man of one Book, and had the most +implicit faith in every jot and tittle of God's Word. He preached it +without defalcation or discount, and this prodigious faith made his +preaching immensely tonic. His sympathies with all mankind were +unbounded, and the juices of his nature were enough to float an ark full +of living creatures. Joined to these gifts was a marvelous voice of +great sweetness, and a homely mother-wit that bubbled out in all his +talk and often in his sermons. Mightiest of all was his power of prayer, +and his inner life was hid with Christ in God. As an organizer he had +great executive abilities. His Orphanage, dozen missionary schools and +theological training school will be among his enduring monuments. The +last sermon I ever heard him deliver was in Dr. Newman Hall's church on +a week evening. He came hobbling into the study, his face the picture of +suffering. He said to me, "Brother Cuyler, if I break down, won't you +take up the service and go on with it?" I told him that he would forget +his pains the moment he got under way, and so it was, for he delivered a +most nutritious discourse to us. When the service was over, he limped +off to his carriage, wrapped himself in the huge cushions, and drove +away seven miles to his home at Upper Norwood. That was the last time I +ever saw my beloved friend. + +It seems strange that I shall never behold that homely, honest +countenance again; and since that time, London has hardly seemed to be +London without him. It is a cause for congratulation that his son, the +Reverend Thomas Spurgeon, is so successfully carrying forward the great +work of his sainted father. 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 students: "Some modern divines whittle away the +Gospel to the small end of nothing; they make our Divine Lord to be a +sort of blessed nobody; they bring down salvation to mere possibility; +they make certainties into probabilities and treat verities as mere +opinions. When you see a preacher making the Gospel smaller by degrees, +and miserably less, till there is not enough of it left to make soup +for a sick grasshopper, _get you gone with him_! As for me, I believe in +an infinite God, an infinite atonement, infinite love and mercy, an +everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure, and of which the +substance and reality is an Infinite Christ." + +I once asked Dr. James McCosh, who was the greatest preacher he ever +heard. He replied, "Of course, it was my Edinboro Professor, Dr. +Chalmers, but the grandest display of eloquence I ever listened to was +Dr. Alexander Duff's famous Plea for Foreign Missions, delivered before +the Scottish General Assembly at a date previous to the disruption," I +can say _Amen_ to Dr. McCosh, for the most overpowering oratory that I +ever heard was Duff's great missionary speech in the Broadway Tabernacle +during his visit to America. In the immense crowd were two hundred +ministers and the foremost laymen of the city. When the great missionary +arose (he was then in the prime of his power), his first appearance was +not impressive, for his countenance had no beauty and his gestures were +grotesquely awkward. With one arm he huddled his coat up to his +shoulder, with the other he sawed the air incontinently, and when +intensely excited, he leapt several inches from the floor as if about to +precipitate himself over the desk. All these eccentricities were +forgotten when once the great heart began to open its treasures to us, +and the subject of his resistless oratory began to enchain our souls. In +his vivid description of "Magnificent India" its dusky crowds and its +ancient temples, with its northern mountains towering to the skies; its +dreary jungles haunted by the tiger; its crystalline salt fields +flashing in the sun; and its Malabar hills redolent with the richest +spices, were all spread out before us like a panorama. + +When the Doctor had completed the survey of India, he opened his +batteries on the sloth and selfishness of too many of Christ's professed +followers; he poured contempt upon the men who said: "They are not so +_green_ as to waste their money on the farce of Foreign Missions." "No, +no, indeed," he continued, "they are not _green_, for greenness implies +verdure, and beauty, and there is not a single atom of verdure in their +parched and withered up souls." Under the burning satire and mellowing +pathos of his tremendous appeal for heathendom, tears welled out from +every eye in the house. I leaned over toward the reporter's table; many +of the reporters had flung down their pens--they might as well have +attempted to report a thunder storm. As the orator drew near his close, +he seemed like one inspired; his face shone as if it were, the face of +an angel. 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 heart. After +nearly two hours of this inundation of eloquence, he concluded with the +quotation of Cowper's magnificent verse, + + "One song employs all nations," etc + +With the utmost vehemence he rung out the last line: + + "Earth rolls the rapturous Hosanna round." + +He could not check his headway, and repeated the line a second time, +louder than before, and then with a tremendous voice that made the walls +reverberate, he shouted once more: + + "_Earth rolls the rapturous Hosanna round!_" + +and sunk back breathless and exhausted into his chair. "Shut up now this +Tabernacle," exclaimed Dr. James W. Alexander. "Let no man dare speak +here after that." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +SOME FAMOUS AMERICAN PREACHERS. + +_The Alexanders.--Dr. Tyng.--Dr. Cox.--Dr. Adams.--Dr. Storrs.--Mr. +Beecher.--Mr. Finney and Dr. B.M. Palmer_. + + +The necessary limitations of this chapter forbid any reference to many +distinguished American preachers whom I have seen or heard, but with +whom I had not sufficient personal acquaintance to furnish any material +for personal reminiscences. In common with multitudes of others on both +sides of the ocean, I had a hearty admiration for the brilliant genius +and masterful sermons of Phillips Brooks, but I only heard two of his +rapid and resonant addresses on anniversary occasions, and my +acquaintance with him was very slight. I heard only one discourse by +that remarkable combination of preacher, poet, patriot and philosopher, +Dr. Horace Bushnell, of Hartford,--his discourse on "Barbarism the Chief +Danger," delivered before the "Home Missionary Society." His sermon on +"Unconscious Influence," was enough to confer immortality on any +minister of Jesus Christ. I never was acquainted with him, but after his +death, I suggested to the residents of New Preston, that they should +name the mountain that rises immediately behind the home of his +childhood and youth, _Mount Bushnell_. The villagers assented to my +proposal, and the State Legislature ratified their act by ordering that +name to be placed on the maps of Connecticut. In this chapter, as in the +previous one, I shall give my recollections only of those who have ended +their career of service, and entered into their reward. + +During the six years that I spent in Princeton College and in the +Seminary (between 1838 and 1846) I came into close acquaintance with, +and I heard very often, the two great orators of the Alexander family. +Dr. Archibald Alexander, the father of a famous group of sons, was a +native of Virginia--had listened to Patrick Henry in his youth; had +married the daughter of the eloquent "Blind Preacher," Rev. James +Waddell, and even when as a young minister he had preached in Hanover, +New Hampshire. Daniel Webster, then a student in Dartmouth College, +predicted his future eminence. The students in the Seminary were wont to +call him playfully, "The Pope," for we had unbounded confidence in his +sanctified common-sense. I always went to him for counsel. His insight +into the human heart was marvelous; and in the line of close +experimental preaching, he has not had his equal since the days of +President Edwards. He put the impress of his powerful personality on a +thousand ministers who graduated from Princeton Seminary. + +In his lecture-desk and in the pulpit he was simplicity itself. His +sermons were like the waters of Lake George, so pellucid that you could +see every bright pebble far down in the depths; a child could comprehend +him, yet a sage be instructed by him. His best discourses were +extemporaneous, and he had very little gesture, except with his +forefinger, which he used to place under his chin, and sometimes against +his nose in a very peculiar manner. With a clear piping voice and +colloquial style he held his audience in rapt attention, disdaining all +the tricks of sensational oratory. Twice I heard him deliver his +somewhat celebrated discourse on "The Day of Judgment;" it was a +masterpiece of solemn eloquence, 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 day; and he continued to write +his practical articles for the religious press until he was almost +four-score. What an impressive funeral was his on that bright October +afternoon, in 1851, when two hundred ministers gathered in that +Westminster Abbey of Presbyterianism, the Princeton Cemetery! His ashes +slumber beside those of Witherspoon, Davies, Hodge, McCosh and Jonathan +Edwards. + +Among the six sons who stood that day beside that grave, the most +brilliant by far was the third son, Joseph Addison Alexander. Dr. +Charles Hodge said of him: "Taking him all in all, he was the most +gifted man with whom I have ever been personally acquainted," In +childhood, such was his precocity that he knew the Hebrew alphabet at +six years of age (I am afraid that some ministers do not know it at +sixty); and he could read Latin fluently when he was only eight! Of his +wonderful feats of memory I could give many illustrations; one was that +on the day that I was matriculated in the Seminary with fifty other +students, Professor Alexander went over to Dr. Hodge's study, and +repeated to him every one of our names! When using manuscript in the +pulpit, he frequently turned the leaves backward instead of forward, for +he knew all the sermon by heart! His commentaries--quite too few--remain +as monuments of his profound scholarship, and some of his articles in +the _Princeton Review_ sparkled with the keenest wit. + +Oh, 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 tops! His physique was remarkable, he had the ruddy +cheeks of a boy, and his square intellectual head we students used to +say "looked like Napoleon's." His voice was peculiarly melodious, +especially in the pathetic passages; his imagination was vivid in fine +imagery, and he had an unique habit of ending a long sentence in the +words of his text, which chained the text fast to our memories. The +announcement of his name always crowded the church in Princeton, and he +was flooded with invitations to preach in the most prominent churches of +New York, Philadelphia, and other cities. One of his most powerful and +popular sermons was on the text, "Remember Lot's Wife;" and he received +so many requests to repeat that sermon that he said to his brother James +in a wearied tone, "I am afraid that woman will be the death of me." + +There may still be old Philadelphians who can recall the magnificent +series of discourses which Professor Alexander delivered during the +winter of 1847 in the pulpit of Dr. Henry A. Boardman, while Dr. +Boardman was in Europe. The church was packed every Sabbath evening, +clear to the outer door, and many were unable to find room even in the +aisles. Dr. Alexander was then in his splendid prime. His musical voice +often swelled into a volume that rolled out through the doorway and +reached the passerby on the sidewalk! During that winter he pronounced +all his most famous sermons--on "The Faithful Saying," on "The City with +Foundations," on "Awake, Thou that Sleepest!" and on "The Broken and +Contrite Heart." It was after hearing this latter most original and +pathetic discourse that an eminent man exclaimed, "No such preaching as +that has been heard in this land since the days of Dr. John M. Mason." I +enjoy the perusal of the rich, unique, and spiritual sermons of my +beloved professor and friend; but no one who reads them can realize what +it was to listen to Joseph Addison Alexander in his highest and holiest +inspirations. + +Was Albert Barnes a great preacher? Yes; 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 Mr. Barnes a great ambassador of the Lord Jesus +Christ. He combined modesty and majesty to a remarkable degree. He had a +commanding figure, keen eye, handsome features, and a clear distinct +voice; but so diffident was he that he seldom looked about over his +congregation and rarely made a single gesture. His simple rule of +homiletics was, have something to say, and then say it. He stood up in +his pulpit and delivered his calm, clear, strong, spiritual utterances +with scarcely a trace of emotion, and the hushed assembly listened as if +they were listening to one of the oracles of God. His best sermons were +like a great red anthracite coal bed, with no flash, but kindled through +and through with the fire of the Holy Spirit Bashful, too, as he was, he +denounced popular sins with an intrepidity displayed by but few +ministers in our land. In the temperance reform he was an early pioneer. +For Albert Barnes I felt an intense personal attachment; he was my ideal +of a fearless, godly-minded herald of evangelical truth; and he had +begun his public ministry in Morristown, N.J., the home of my maternal +ancestry, and in the church in which my beloved mother had made her +confession of faith. When our Lafayette Avenue Church was +dedicated--just forty years ago--I urged him to deliver the discourse; +but he hesitated to preach extemporaneously, and his sight was so +impaired that he could not use a manuscript. At the age of seventy-two +he was suddenly and sweetly translated to heaven. Over the whole +English-speaking world his name was familiar as a plain teacher of God's +Word in very spiritual commentaries. + +A half century ago Dr. William B. Sprague, of Albany, was in the front +rank of Presbyterian preachers. His fine presence, his richly melodious +voice, his graceful style and fresh, practical evangelical thought made +him so popular that he was in demand everywhere for special occasions +and services. He was a marvel of industry. While preparing his +voluminous "Annals of the American Pulpit," and conducting an enormous +correspondence, he never omitted the preparation of new sermons for his +own flock. With that flock he lived and labored for forty years, and +when he resigned his charge (in 1869) he told me that when removing from +Albany, he buried his face and streaming eyes with his hands, for he +could not endure the farewell look at the city of his love. When I first +heard him in my student days I thought him an almost faultless pulpit +orator, and when he and the young and ardent Edward N. Kirk stood side +by side in Albany, no town in the land contained two nobler specimens of +the earnest, persuasive and eloquent Presbyterian preachers. + +When I came to New York as pastor of the Market Street Church, in 1853, +the most conspicuous minister in the city was the rector of St. George's +Episcopal Church on Stuyvesant Square. Every Sabbath the superb and +spacious edifice was thronged. It was quite "the thing" for strangers +who came to New York to go and hear Dr. Tyng. Even on Sunday afternoons +the house was filled; for at that service he preached what he called +"sermons to the children"--but they were not only sprightly, simple and +vivacious enough to attract the young, they also contained an abundance +of strong meat for persons of older growth. He was an enthusiast in +Sunday school work--had 2,500 scholars in his mission schools, and +possessed an unsurpassed power in nailing the ears of the young to his +pulpit. + +Dr. Tyng was the acknowledged leader of the "Low Church" wing of +Episcopacy in this country, both during his ministry in the Epiphany at +Philadelphia, and in St. George's at New York. He edited their weekly +paper, and championed their cause on all occasions. He was their +candidate for the office of Bishop of Pennsylvania in 1845, and the +contest was protracted through a long series of ballotings. It was +urged, and not without some reason, that his impetuous temper and strong +partisanship might make him a rather domineering overseer of the +diocese. He possessed an indomitable will and pushed his way through +life with the irresistible rush of a Cunarder under a full head of +steam. His temper was naturally very violent. One Sabbath evening he was +addressing my Sunday school in Market Street, and describing the various +kinds of human nature by resemblances to various animals, the lion, the +fox, the sloth, etc.: "Children," he exclaimed, "do you want to know +what I am? I am by nature a royal Bengal tiger, and if it had not been +for the grace of God to tame me, I fear that nobody could ever have +lived with me." There was about as much truth as there was wit in the +comparison. His congregation in St. George's knew his irrepressible +temperament so well that they generally let him have his own way. If he +wanted money for a church object or a cause of charity, he did not beg +for it; he demanded it in the name of the Lord. "When I see Dr. Tyng +coming up the steps of my bank," said a rich bank president to me, "I +always begin to draw my cheque; I know he will get it, and it saves my +time." + +His leading position among Low Churchmen was won not only by his +intellectual force and moral courage, but by his uncompromising devotion +to evangelical doctrine. He belonged to the same school with Baxter, +John Newton, Bickersteth, Simeon and Bedell. In England his intimate +friends were the Earl of Shaftesbury, Dr. McNeill and others of the most +pronounced evangelical type. The good old doctrines of redemption by the +blood of Christ, and of regeneration by the Holy Spirit were his +constant theme, and on these and kindred topics he was a delightful +preacher. + +Strong as he was in the pulpit, Dr. Tyng was the prince of platform +orators. He had every quality necessary for the sway of a popular +audience--fine elocution, marvelous fluency, piquancy, the courage of +his convictions and a magnetism that swept all before him. His voice was +very clear and penetrating, and he hurled forth his clean-cut sentences +like javelins. A more fluent speaker I never heard; not Spurgeon or +Henry Ward Beecher could surpass him in readiness of utterance. On one +occasion the Broadway Tabernacle was crowded with a great audience that +gathered to hear some celebrity; and the expected hero did not arrive. +The impatient crowd called for "Tyng, Tyng;" and the rector of St. +George's came forward, and on the spur of the moment delivered such a +charming speech that the audience would not let him stop. For many years +I spoke with him at meetings for city missions, total abstinence, Sunday +schools and other benevolent enterprises. He used playfully to call me +"one of his boys." At a complimentary reception given to J.B. Gough in +Niblo's Hall, Mr. Beecher and myself delivered our talks, and then +retired to the opposite end of the hall. Dr. Tyng took the rostrum with +one of his swift magnetic speeches. I leaned over to Beecher and +whispered, "That is splendid platforming, isn't it?" Beecher replied: +"Yes, indeed it is. He is the one man that I am afraid of. When he +speaks first I do not care to follow him, and if I speak first, then +when he gets up I wish I had not spoken at all." Some of Dr. Tyng's +most powerful addresses were in behalf of the temperance reform; he was +a most uncompromising foe of both of the dram shop and of the drinking +usages in polite society. He also denounced the theatre and the +ball-room with the most Puritanic vehemence. + +Dr. Stephen H. Tyng's chief power, like many other great preachers, was +when he was on his feet. He should be heard and not read. Some of the +discourses and addresses which enchained and thrilled his auditors +seemed tame enough when reported for the press. In that respect he +resembled Whitfield and Gough and many of our most effective stump +speakers. The result was that Dr. Tyng's fame, to a great degree, +perished with him. He published several books, of a most excellent and +evangelical character, but they lacked the thunder and the lightning +which make his uttered words so powerful, and probably none of his many +books are much read to-day. The influence of his splendid and heroic +personality was very great during a ministry of over fifty years, and +the glorious work which he wrought for his Master will endure to all +eternity. + +To have heard Dr. William Adams of New York at his best was better than +any lecture on "Homiletics"; to have met him at the fireside or in the +sick room of one of his parishioners was a prelection in pastoral +theology. + +The first time that I ever saw him was fully fifty years ago; he was +standing in the gallery of the old Broadway Tabernacle at an anniversary +of the American Bible Society, and Dr. James W. Alexander pointed him +out to me saying--"Yonder stands Dr. William Adams, he is the _hardest +student_ of us all." 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 land. He always drew out of a full +cask. Let young ministers lay this fact to heart. It was not by trick or +happy luck, or by pyrotechnics of rhetoric that Dr. Adams won and kept +his position in the forefront of metropolitan preachers. The "dead line +of fifty" was not to be found on his intellectual atlas. One of the last +talks with him that I now recall was on an early morning in Congress +Park, Saratoga. He had a pocket Testament in his hand, and he said to +me, "I find myself reading more and more the old books of my youth; I am +enjoying just now Virgil's Eclogues, but nothing is so dear to me as my +Greek Testament." + +All of Dr. Adams' finest efforts were thoroughly prepared and committed +to memory. He never risked a failure by attempting to shake a sermon or +a speech "out of his sleeve." His memory was one of his greatest gifts. +Sometimes when his soul was on fire, and his voice trembled with +emotion, he rose into the region of lofty impassioned eloquence. His +master effort on the platform was his address of welcome to the +members of the "Evangelical Alliance" in 1873. How the foreign +delegates--Doctors Stoughton, Christlieb, Dorner and the rest of +them--did open their eyes that evening to the fact that a Yankee-born +parson was, in elegant culture and polished oratory, a match for them +all. Dr. Adams' speech "struck twelve" for the Alliance at the start; +nothing during the whole subsequent sessions surpassed that opening +address, although Beecher and Dr. Joseph Parker were both among the +speakers. He closed the meeting of the Alliance in the Academy of Music +with a prayer of wonderful fervor, pathos and beauty. + +One of his grandest speeches was delivered before the Free Church +General Assembly in Edinburgh--in May, 1871. Dr. Guthrie told me that he +swept the assembly away by his stately bearing, sonorous voice and +classic oratory. The men whom he moved so mightily were such men as +Arnot and Guthrie and Rainy and Bonar,--the men who had listened to the +grandest efforts of Duff and of Chalmers. I well remember that when I +had to address the same assembly (as the American delegate) the next +year I was more disturbed by the apparition of my predecessor, Dr. +Adams, than by all the brilliant audience before me. + +Dr. Adams was gifted with what is of more practical value than genius, +and that was marvelous _tact_. That was with him an instinct and an +inspiration. It led him to always speak the right word, and do the right +thing at the right time. Personal politeness helped him also; for he was +one of the most perfect gentlemen in America. That practical sagacity +made him the leader of the "new school" branch of our church, during the +delicate negotiations for reunion in 1867, and on to 1870. He knew human +nature well, and never lost either his temper or his faith in the sure +result. 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 war, let us gratefully remember George W. Musgrave, the pilot of +the "old school" and William Adams, the pilot of the "new." + +The last sermon that I ever heard Dr. Adams deliver was in my Lafayette +Avenue Church pulpit a few years before his death. His text was the +closing passage of the fourth chapter of Second Corinthians. The whole +sermon was delivered with great majesty and tenderness. One illustration +in it was sublime. He was comparing the "things which are seen and +temporal" with the "things which are not seen and eternal." He described +Mont Blanc enveloped in a morning cloud of mist. The vapor was the +_seen_ thing which was soon to pass away;--behind it was the _unseen_ +mountain, glorious as the "great white throne" which should stand +unmoved when fifty centuries of mist had flown away into nothingness. +This passage moved the audience prodigiously. Many sat gazing at the +tall pale orator before them through their tears. The portrait of Dr. +Adams hangs on my study wall--alongside of the portrait of Chalmers--and +as I look at his majestic countenance now, I still seem to see him as on +that Sabbath morning he stood before us, with the light of eternity +beaming on his brow! + +In the summer of 1845 I was strolling with my friend Littell (the +founder of the _Living Age_), through the leafy lanes of Brookline, and +we came to a tasteful church. "That," said Mr. Littell, "is the Harvard +Congregational meeting house. They have lately called a brilliant young +Mr. Storrs, who was once a law student with Rufus Choate; he is a man of +bright promise." Two years afterward I saw and heard that brilliant +young minister in the pulpit of the newly organized Church of the +Pilgrims in Brooklyn. He had already found his place, and his throne. He +made that pulpit visible over the continent. That church will be "Dr. +Storrs' church" for many a year to come. + +Had that superbly gifted law student of Choate gone to the bar he would +inevitably have won a great distinction, and might have charmed the +United States Senate by his splendid eloquence. 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 audiences. But young Storrs chose the better part, and no +temptation of fame or pelf allured him from the higher work of preaching +Jesus Christ to his fellow men. He was--like Chalmers and Bushnell and +Spurgeon--a _born preacher_. Great as he was on the platform, or on +various ceremonial occasions, he was never so thoroughly "at home" as in +his own pulpit; his great heart never so kindled as when unfolding the +glorious gospel of redeeming love. The consecration of his splendid +powers to the work of the ministry helped to ennoble the ministry in the +popular eye, and led young men of brains to feel that they could covet +no higher calling. + +One of the remarkable things in the career of Dr. Storrs was that by far +the grandest portion of that career was after he had passed the age of +fifty! Instead of that age being, as to many others, a "dead line," it +was to him an intellectual _birth line_. He returned from Europe--after +a year of entire rest--and then, like "a giant refreshed by sleep," +began to produce his most masterly discourses and orations. His first +striking performance was that wonderful address at the twenty-fifth +anniversary of Henry Ward Beecher's pastorate in Plymouth Church, at the +close of which Mr. Beecher gave him a grateful kiss before the +applauding audience. Not long after that Dr. Storrs delivered those two +wonderful lectures on the "Muscovite and the Ottoman." The Academy of +Music was packed to listen to them; and for two hours the great orator +poured out a flood of history and gorgeous description without a scrap +of manuscript before him! He recalled names and dates without a moment's +hesitation! Like Lord Macaulay, Dr. Storrs had a marvelous memory; and +at the close of those two orations I said to myself, "How Macaulay would +have enjoyed all this!" His extraordinary memory was an immense source +of power to Dr. Storrs; and, although he had a rare gift of fluency, yet +I have no doubt that some of his fine efforts, which were supposed to be +extemporaneous, were really prepared beforehand and lodged in his +tenacious memory. + +Dean Stanley, on the day before he returned to England, said to me: "The +man who has impressed me most is your Dr. Storrs." 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 preaching, his characteristic reply was, "Oh, I am tired of +these _show occasions_," But he never grew tired of preaching Jesus +Christ and Him crucified. The Bible his old father loved was the book of +books that he loved, and no blasts of revolutionary biblical criticism +ever ruffled a feather on the strong wing with which he soared +heavenward. 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 death. + +All the world knew that Richard S. Storrs possessed wonderful brain +power, culture and scholarship; but only those who were closest to him +knew what a big loving heart he had. Some of the sweetest and tenderest +private letters that I ever received came from his ready pen. I was +looking over some of them lately; they are still as fragrant as if +preserved in lavender. His heart was a very pure fountain of noble +thought, and of sweet, unselfish affection. + +He died at the right time; his great work was complete; he did not +linger on to outlive himself. The beloved wife of his home on earth had +gone on before; he felt lonesome without her, and grew homesick for +heaven. His loving flock had crowned him with their grateful +benedictions; he waited only for the good-night kiss of the Master he +served, and he awoke from a transient slumber to behold the ineffable +glory. On the previous day his illustrious Andover instructor, Professor +Edwards A. Park, had departed; it was fitting that Andover's most +illustrious graduate should follow him; now they are both in the +presence of the infinite light, and they both behold the King in His +beauty! + +Fifty years ago one of the most famous celebrities in the Presbyterian +Church was Dr. Samuel Hanson Cox, famous for his linguistic attainments, +for his wit and occasional eccentricities, and very famous for his +bursts of eloquence on great occasions. He was at that time the pastor +of the First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, and resided in the street +where I am now writing (Oxford Street); and the street at the end of the +block was named "Hanson Place" in honor of him. His large wooden mansion +was then quite out of town, and was accordingly called "Rus Urban," In +that house he wrote--for the _New York Observer_--the unique series of +articles on New School Theology entitled "The Hexagon," and there he +entertained, with his elegant courtesy and endless flow of wit and +learning, many of the most eminent people who visited Brooklyn. The boys +used to climb into his garden to steal fruit; and, as a menace, he +affixed to his fence a large picture of a watch-dog, and underneath it a +dental sign, "Teeth inserted here!" The old mansion was removed years +ago. + +In 1846 he was the moderator of the "new school" Presbyterian General +Assembly. It was during the sessions of that assembly that the famous +debate was waged for several days on the exciting question of negro +slavery, and when some compromise resolutions were passed (for those +were the days of compromise salves and plasters)--Dr. Cox rose and +exclaimed, "Well, brethren, we have _capped Vesuvius_ for another year," +But "Vesuvius" would not stay capped, and in a few years one of its +violent eruptions sundered the "new school" church in twain. + +Dr. Cox was a vehement opponent of slavery, and his church in Laight +Street was assailed by a mob, and he was roughly handled. In 1833 he was +sent to England as the delegate to the British and Foreign Bible +Society, and at their anniversary meeting he delivered one of the most +brilliant speeches of his life. He came into the meeting a perfect +stranger, while Dr. Hamilton, of Leeds, was uttering a fierce invective +against American slavery. This aroused Dr. Cox's indignation, and when +he was called on to speak he commenced with exquisite urbanity as +follows: "My Lord Bexley, ladies and gentlemen! I have just landed from +America. 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 +Scripture!" This bold and novel introduction brought down the house with +a thunder of applause. After paying some graceful tributes to England +and thus winning the hearts of his auditors, he suddenly turned towards +Dr. Hamilton, and with the most captivating grace, he said: "I do not +yield to my British brother in righteous abhorrence of the institution +of negro slavery. I abhor it all the more because it was our disastrous +inheritance from our English forefathers, and came down to us from the +time when we were colonies of Great Britain! And now if my brother +Hamilton will enact the part of _Shem_, I will take the place of +_Japhet_, and we will walk backward and will cover with the mantle of +charity _the shame of our common ancestry_," This sudden burst of wit, +argument and eloquence carried the audience by storm, and they were +obliged to applaud the "Yankee orator" in spite of themselves. I count +this retort by Dr. Cox one of the finest in the annals of oratory. +Several years afterwards he visited England as a delegate to the first +Evangelical Alliance. It was attended by the foremost divines, scholars +and religious leaders of both Britain and the continent; and a brief +five-minutes' speech made by Dr. Cox was unanimously pronounced to have +been the most splendid display of eloquence heard during the whole +convocation. + +He owed a great deal to his commanding figure, fine voice, and graceful +elocution. His memory also was as marvelous as that of Dr. Storrs or +Professor Addison Alexander. One night, for the entertainment of his +fellow-passengers in a stagecoach, he repeated two cantos of Scott's +poem of "Marmion"! I have heard him quote, in a public address before +the New York University, a whole page of Cicero without the slip of a +single word! His passion for polysyllables was very amusing, and he +loved to astonish his hearers by his "sesquipedalian" phraseology. A +certain visionary crank once intruded into his study and bored him with +a long dissertation. Dr. Cox's patience was exhausted, and pointing to +the door, he said: "My friend, do you observe that aperture in this +apartment? If you do, I wish that you would describe rectilineals, very +speedily." + +I could fill several pages with racy anecdotes of the keen wit and the +varied erudition of my venerable friend. But let none of my readers +think of Dr. Cox as a clerical jester, or a pedant. He was a powerful +and intensely spiritual preacher of the living Gospel. In his New York +congregation were many of the best brains and fervent hearts to be found +in that city, and some of the leading laymen revered him as their +spiritual father. Sometimes he was betrayed into eccentricities, and his +vivid imagination often carried him away into discursive flights; yet +he never soared out of sight of Calvary's cross, and never betrayed the +precious Gospel committed to his trust. + +The first time that I ever saw Henry Ward Beecher was in 1848. He was +then mustering his new congregation in the building once occupied by Dr. +Samuel H. Cox. It was a weekly lecture service that I attended, by +invitation of a lady who invited me to "go and hear our new-come genius +from the West." The room was full, and at the desk stood a brown-cheeked +young man with smooth-shaved face, big lustrous eyes, and luxuriant +brown hair--with a broad shirt collar tied with a black ribbon. His text +was "Grow in Grace," and he gave us a discourse that Matthew Henry could +not have surpassed in practical pith, or Spurgeon in evangelical fervor. +I used to tell Mr. Beecher that even after making full allowance for the +novelty of a first hearing, I never heard him surpass that Wednesday +evening lecture. He was plucking the first ripe grapes of his affluent +vintage; his "pomegranates were in full flower, and the spikenard sent +forth its fragrance." The very language of that savory sermon lingers in +my memory yet. + +During my ministry in New York--from 1853 to 1860--I became intimate +with Mr. Beecher and spoke beside him on many a platform and heard him +in some of his most splendid efforts. He was a fascinating companion, +with the rollicking freedom of a schoolboy. I never shall forget an +immense meeting--in behalf of a liquor prohibition movement--held in +Triplet Hall. Mr. Beecher was at his best. In the midst of his speech, +he suddenly discharged a bombshell against negro slavery which dynamited +the audience and provoked a thunder of applause. For pure eloquence it +was the finest outburst I ever heard from his lips. Like Patrick Henry, +Clay, Guthrie, Spurgeon and other great masters of assemblies, he was +gifted with a richly melodious voice--which was especially effective on +the low and tender keys. This gave him great power in the pathetic +portions of his discourses. Of his superabounding humor I need not +speak. It bubbled out so naturally and spontaneously that he found it +difficult to restrain it even on the most grave occasions. Sometimes he +sinned against good taste, 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 ear." His most frequent offenses were in +the direction of flippant handling of sacred themes and Scripture +language. This he inherited from his illustrious father. + +Mr. Beecher is generally regarded as an extemporaneous preacher. This is +a mistake. He prepared most of his discourses carefully, and full +one-half of many of them were written out. Among these written passages +he interjected bursts of impromptu thoughts; and these were generally +the most effective passages in the sermon. While he repeated himself +often--especially on his favorite topic of God's love--yet it was always +in fresh language and with new illustrations. Abraham Lincoln said to +me, "The most marvelous thing about Mr. Beecher is his inexhaustible +fertility." + +During the Civil War he was at the acme of his power. He was then the +peerless orator of Christendom. It was his intention (as he once told +me) to resign his pastorate at the age of sixty and to devote the +remainder of his life to a ministry at large. But the tempest of +troubles which struck him about that time forbade his cherished design, +and he continued at his post until the touch of death silenced the magic +tongue. Nearly thirty years have elapsed since I sat by him on the +crowning evening of his career, at his "silver anniversary," in 1873. As +to his later utterances in theology, and on some questions of ethics, I +dissented from my old friend conscientiously, and I expressed to him my +dissent very candidly,--as becometh brethren. I am convinced that if +there were more fraternal frankness between the living, there would be +less hypocrisy over the departed. + +Charles G. Finney was the acknowledged king of American evangelists +until Dwight L. Moody came on the stage of action. They resembled each +other in untiring industry, unflinching courage, unswerving devotion to +the marrow of the Gospel, and unreserved consecration to the service of +Christ. 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 soul. Emptied of self, he was filled with the Holy Spirit. His +sermons were chain lightning, flashing conviction into the hearts of the +stoutest sceptics, and the links of his logic were so compact that they +defied resistance. Probably no minister in America ever numbered among +his converts so many lawyers and men of intellectual culture. + +Soon after commencing his law practice he was brought under the most +intense conviction of sin; and the narrative of his conversion--as given +in his autobiography--equals any chapter in John Bunyan's "Grace +Abounding." After light and peace broke into his agonized soul, he burst +into tears of joy, and exclaimed: "I am so happy that I cannot live," He +began at once to converse with his neighbors about their souls. When a +certain Deacon B. came into his office and reminded him that his cause +was to be tried at ten o'clock that morning, Mr. Finney replied, +"Deacon B., I have a retainer from the Lord Jesus Christ to plead His +cause, and cannot plead yours." The deacon was thunderstruck, and went +off and settled his suit with his antagonist immediately. + +From that time a law office was no place for the fervid spirit of +Charles G. Finney, and he resolved at once to prepare for the ministry. + +Revivals followed his red-hot discourses wherever he went. 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 bones, +and he shook from head to foot as if amid the thunderings of Sinai! He +felt an assurance that God would sustain him against all his enemies; +and then there came a "great lifting up," and a sweet calm followed +after the agitation. Such extraordinary spiritual experiences occurred +quite often during his career as a revivalist, and they remind one +strikingly of similar experiences of John Bunyan--to whom Finney bore a +certain degree of resemblance. At Rochester many of the leading lawyers +were attracted by his bold and logical style of speech; and among his +converts there was the distinguished jurist, Addison Gardner. It was +during his ministry in New York that he delivered his celebrated +"Lectures on Revivals," which were reprinted abroad and translated into +several foreign languages. Of all Mr. Finney's published productions, +these lectures are the most characteristic. Often extravagant in their +rhetoric, and sometimes rather reckless in theological statements, they +contain a mine of pungent truth which every young minister ought to +possess and to peruse very often. I shall never cease to thank God for +the inspiration they have imparted to my own humble ministry; and they +have had a place in my library close beside the "Pilgrim's Progress," +and the biographies of Payson and McCheyne, and the soul-quickening +sermons of Bushnell, Addison Alexander and Dr. McLaren. + +After his extended evangelistic labors in various cities, Mr. Finney was +appointed to a theological chair in the newly organized college at +Oberlin, Ohio. From this post, his irrepressible desire to kindle +revivals and to save souls often called him away, and he conducted two +famous evangelistic campaigns in Great Britain. He was the first man to +introduce American revivalistic methods into England and Scotland; but +his labors were never as wide, as influential, and generally acceptable +there as the subsequent labors of Messrs. Moody and Sankey. Forty years +of his busy and heaven-blessed life were spent at Oberlin, where he +impressed his powerful personality on a multitude of students of both +sexes; few religious teachers in America have ever moulded so many +lives, or had their opinions echoed from so many pulpits. + +With all my admiration of President Finney's character, I could not--as +a loyal Princetonian--subscribe to some of his peculiar opinions. It +was, therefore, with great surprise that I received from him a letter in +1873 (two years before his death) which contained the startling proposal +that I should be his successor in the college pulpit at Oberlin! He +wrote to me: "I think that there is no more important field of +ministerial labor in the world. I know that you have a great +congregation in Brooklyn, and are mightily prospered in your labors, but +your flock does not contain a _thousand students_ pursuing the higher +branches of education from year to year. Surely your field in Brooklyn +is not more important than mine was at the Broadway Tabernacle in New +York, nor can your people be more attached to you than mine were to me." +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 obsolete. When I mentioned this letter +to my beloved Princeton instructor, Dr. Charles Hodge, a few weeks +before his death, he simply remarked that "his Brother Finney had become +very sweet and mellow in his later years." And long before this time +the two great antagonistic theologians may have clasped hands in heaven. + +The closing years of President Finney's useful life were indeed mellow +and most lovable. In the days of his prime he had a commanding form, a +striking face and a clear, incisive style of speech. Simple as a child +in his utterances, he sometimes startled his hearers by his unique +prayers. For example, he was one day driven from his study at Oberlin by +a refractory stovepipe which persisted in tumbling down. At family +worship in the evening he said "Oh, Lord! thou knowest how the temper of +Thy servant has been tried to-day by that stovepipe!" Several other +expressions, quite as quaint and as piquant, might be quoted, if the +limits of this brief sketch would permit. What would be deemed +irreverent if spoken by some lips never sounded irreverent when uttered +by such a natural, fearless and yet devout a spirit as Charles G. +Finney. He retained his erect, manly form, his fresh enthusiasm and +intellectual vigor, to the ripe old age of eighty-three. On a calm +Sabbath evening--in August, 1875--he walked in his garden and listened +to the music from a neighboring church. Retiring to his chamber, the +messenger from his Master met him in the midnight hours, and before the +morning dawned his glorified spirit was before the throne! His is the +crown of one who turned many to righteousness. + +While I am writing this chapter of ministerial reminiscences, I receive +the sorrowful tidings that my dear old friend, Dr. Benjamin M. Palmer, +of New Orleans--the prince of Southern preachers--has closed his +illustrious career. To the last his splendid powers were unabated,--and +last year (although past eighty-three) he delivered one of his greatest +sermons before the University of Georgia! His massive discourses, based +on God's word, were a solid pile of concinnate argument, illuminated +with the divine light, and glowing with the divine love shed abroad in +his heart. In the spring of 1887, Mrs. Cuyler and myself visited New +Orleans, and I cared more to see Dr. Palmer than all the city besides. +He cordially welcomed me to the hospitalities of his house, and of that +pulpit which had so long been his throne. I do not wonder that the +people of New Orleans--of all classes and creeds--regarded him not only +with pride, but with an affection that greeted him at every step through +the city of which he was the foremost citizen. + +As my readers may all know, Dr. Palmer, through the Civil War, was a +most ardent Secessionist, and as honestly so as I was a Unionist. He +spent much time in preaching to the Confederate soldiers, and he +narrated to me an amusing incident which illustrated his calm and +imperturbable temperament. On a certain fast-day (appointed by the +Confederate authorities) he was to preach in a rural church within the +Confederate lines. The Northern army was lying so close to them that a +battle was imminent at any moment. Dr. Palmer had begun his "long +prayer," when a Federal shell landed immediately under the windows of +the church and exploded with a terrific crash! The doctor was not to be +shelled out of his duty, and he went steadily on to the end of his +prayer. When he opened his eyes the house was deserted! His congregation +had slipped quietly out, and left him "alone in his glory." + +Soon after my visit to New Orleans, my old friend was sorely bereaved by +the death of his wife. I wrote him a letter of condolence, and his reply +was, for sweetness and sublimity, worthy of Samuel Rutherford or Richard +Baxter. 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 M. Palmer. + +He says: "Truly my sorrow is a sorrow wholly by itself. What is to be +done with a love which belongs only to one, when that one is gone and +cannot take it up? It cannot perish, for it has become a part of our own +being. 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 are? I +have about me--blessed be God! a dear daughter and grandchildren; but I +cannot divide this love among them, for it is incapable of distribution. +What remains but to send it upward until it finds her to whom it belongs +by right of concentration through more than forty years." + +"I will not speak, my brother, of my pain--let that be; it is the +discipline of love, having its fruit in what is to be. But I will tell +you how a gracious Father fills this cloud with Himself--and covering me +in it, takes me into His pavilion. It is not what I would have chosen; +but in this dark cloud I know better what it is to be alone with Him; +and how it is best sometimes to put out the earthly lights, that even +the sweetest earthly love may not come between Him and me. 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 Calvary. I +have this to thank Him for, the greatest of all His mercies, and then +for this, that He gave her to me so long. The memories of almost half a +century encircle me as a rainbow. I can feed upon them through the +remainder of a short, sad life, and after that can carry them up to +Heaven with me and pour them into song forever. If the strings of the +harp are being stretched to a greater tension, it is that the praise may +hereafter rise to higher and sweeter notes before His throne--_as we bow +together there._" + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +SUMMERING AT SARATOGA AND MOHONK. + +_Bishop Haven.--Dr. Schaff.--President McCosh_. + + +To the laborious pastor of a large congregation some period of +recuperation during the summer is absolutely indispensable. The cavalry +officer who, when hotly pursued by the enemy, discovered that his +saddle-girths had become loose, and dismounted long enough to tighten +them, was a wise man, and affords a good example to us ministers. + +It was my custom to call a halt, lock my study door (stowing away my +pastoral cares in a drawer) and go away for five or six weeks, and +sometimes a little longer. A sea voyage was undertaken during half a +dozen vacations, but during a portion of forty-two summers I "pitched my +moving tent" in salubrious Saratoga, and a part of twenty-one summers +was spent on the heights of Mohonk. + +As this volume is issued in London as well as in New York, I will +mention some things in this chapter for my British readers with which +many of my own fellow-countrymen may be already familiar. 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 vacation. It is the most +widely known the world over of any of our American watering places and +is an exceedingly beautiful town. Its spacious Broadway, lined with +stately elms, is one of the most sightly avenues in our land; and some +of the superb hotels that front upon it fulfill the American demand for +"bigness." The most attractive spot to me has always been the beautiful +park that surrounds the famous Congress Spring, and to which every +morning I made my very early pilgrimage for my draught of its sparkling +water. + +The park covers but a few acres, but it is a continuous loveliness. When +its rich, soft greensward--worthy of Yorkshire or Devonshire--was +sparkling with the dew, and the fountains were in full play, and the +goodly breeze was singing through the trees, it was a place in which to +chant Dr. Arnold's favorite hymn:-- + + "Come, my soul, thou must be waking; + Now is breaking + O'er the earth another day; + Come to Him who made this splendor, + See thou render + All thy feeble strength can pay." + +The second reason for my choice of Saratoga was the variety of the +wonderful medicinal waters, and their renovating effects. "I can winter +better," said Governor Buckingham, "for even a short summer at +Saratoga," and my experience was quite similar. I honestly believe that +those waters have prolonged my life. In addition to the many health +fountains which have been veritable Bethesdas to multitudes, the dry, +bracing atmosphere is perfumed and tempered by the breezes from the pine +forests of the Adirondack Mountains. While some are attracted to +Saratoga by the waters and others by the air, I found both of them +equally beneficial. As far as its social life is concerned, there are, +as in all summer resorts, two very different descriptions of guests. One +class are devotees of fashion, who go there to gratify the "lust of the +eye, and the pride of life." They drive by day and dance by night; but +some devotees of pleasure have yielded too much to the ensnarements of +the gaming table and the race course. There is another and a more +numerous class made up of quiet business men and their families, +clergymen, college professors and persons in impaired health, who go for +recreation or recuperation. From this latter class, and in some measure +indeed from the former also, the churches of the town attract very large +congregations. It has been my privilege to deliver a little more than +two hundred sermons in Saratoga, and there is no place in which I have +found that a faithful and practical presentation of the "word of life" +is more eagerly welcomed. It is no place to exhibit a show sermon on +dress parade, but it is the very one in which to press home the word on +hearts and consciences, to arouse the impenitent, to give tonic truth to +the weak and the weary, to afford the word of comfort to the sorrowing +and soul-food to the many who hunger for the heavenly manna. I have +already narrated some of my pleasant experiences in preaching at +Saratoga, and I could add to them several other interesting incidents. + +For about thirty summers, and occasionally in the winter, I found a +happy home at Dr. Strong's "Remedial Institute" on Circular Street. This +is a family hotel during the summer, and a sanitarium during the +remainder of the year. Every morning the guests assemble for worship, +and the intolerable trio of fashion, frivolity and fiddles, has never +invaded the refined and congenial atmosphere of the house. My host, Dr. +Strong, is an active member of the Methodist Church in that town, and +naturally a large number of ministers of that denomination are his +summer guests. This was very pleasant for me, for, although I am loyally +attached to my own "clan," yet I have a peculiarly warm side for the +ecclesiastical followers of the Wesleys, and am some times introduced in +their conferences as a "Methodistical Presbyterian." At Dr. Strong's I +met many of the leading Methodist ministers, and was exceedingly +"filled with their company." I met, among others, the sweet-spirited +Bishop Jaynes, who always seemed to be a legitimate successor of the +beloved disciple John. If Bishop Jaynes recalled the apostle John, let +me say that the venerated father of my kind host and the founder of the +Sanitarium, the late Dr. Sylvester S. Strong, was such an impersonation +of charming courtesy and fervid spirituality that he might be a +counterpart of "Luke the beloved physician." He was an admirable +preacher before he entered the medical profession. Bishop Peck was a +very entertaining companion and most fraternal in his warmheartedness. +He was a man of colossal proportions, and it was quite proper that he +was appointed to the charge of the churches in the wide regions of +California and Oregon. When he came thence to the General Conference, he +presented his protuberant figure to the assembly, and began with the +humorous announcement, "The Pacific slope salutes you!" On that same +"slope" I discovered last year that Methodism has outgrown even the +formidable proportions of my old friend Dr. Peck. + +At Saratoga I first met the eloquent Apollos of American Methodism, +Bishop Matthew Simpson. Those who ever heard Henry Clay in our Senate +chamber, or Dr. Thomas Guthrie in Scotland, have a very distinct idea +of what Simpson was at his flood-tide of irresistible oratory. He +resembled both of those great orators in stature and melodious voice, in +graceful gesture, and in the magnificent enthusiasm that swept +everything before him. Like all that type of fascinating speakers--to +which even Gladstone belonged--he was rather to be heard than to be +read. It is enough that a Gospel preacher should produce great immediate +impressions on his auditors; it is not necessary that he should produce +a finished and permanent piece of literature. Bishop Simpson was the +bosom friend of Abraham Lincoln, and on more than one occasion he knelt +beside our much harassed President and prayed for the strength equal to +the day of trial. + +Among all the guests there was none to whom I was more closely and +lovingly drawn than to Bishop Gilbert Haven. None shed off such splendid +scintillations in our evening colloquies on the piazzas. Haven was not +comparable with his associate, Bishop Simpson, in pulpit oratory, for he +was rarely an effective public speaker on any occasion, but in +brilliancy of thought, which made him in conversation like the charge of +an electric battery, and in brilliancy of pen, that kindled everything +it touched, he was without a rival in the Methodist Church--or almost in +any other church in the land. Consistently and conscientiously a +radical, he always took extreme ground on such questions as negro +rights, female suffrage, and liquor prohibition, and he never retreated. +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 is. He did delight in the doctrines of grace with his +whole heart, and it is all the more grateful to me, as a Presbyterian, +to pay this honest tribute to his deeply devout and Christ-like +character. I knew him when he was a student in the Wesleyan University +at Middletown--somewhat rustic in his ways, but a bold, bright youth +hungry for knowledge. In 1862 he published a series of foreign letters +in the _New York Independent_, which Horace Greeley told me he regarded +as most remarkable productions. During the summer of that year I was +watching the sun rise from the summit of the Righi in Switzerland, and +was accosted by a sandy-haired man in an old oilcloth overcoat who asked +for some explanation about the mountain within our view. At the foot of +the Righi I fell in with him again, and was struck with his original and +vigorous thought. The same evening he marched into my room at the +"Schweitzer-Hoff," dripping with the rain, and introduced himself as +"Gilbert Haven." We ministered to the few Americans whom we could find +in Lucerne, and held a prayer meeting on the Sabbath evening in Haven's +room for our far-away country in her dark hour of distress. On that +evening began a friendship which waxed warmer and warmer until death +sundered the tie for a little while; the same hand that sundered can +reunite us. + +I am under a strong temptation to give my reminiscences of many notable +persons whom I was wont to meet at Saratoga, such as the urbane +ex-President Martin Van Buren, and that noble Christian statesman, +Vice-President Henry Wilson, and the cheery old poet John Pierpont, and +the erudite Horatio B. Hackett, of Newton Theological Seminary and the +level-headed Miss Catherine E. Beecher, and the gifted Queen of the +great temperance sisterhood, Miss Frances E. Willard, and General +Batcheler, the able American Judge, at Cairo, and that extraordinary +combination of courage, orthodox faith, and brilliant platform eloquence +the late Joseph Cook, of Ticonderoga. I would like also to attempt a +description of the gorgeous "Floral Festivals," which are celebrated in +every September, when the streets of the town blaze with processions of +vehicles decorated with flowers, and the sidewalks and house-fronts are +packed with thousands of delighted spectators; but if "of making many +books there is no end," there ought to be a proper end in the making of +a book. In the course of my life I may have done some very foolish +things, and quite too many sinful things, but I have always endeavored +to avoid doing too long a thing, if it were possible. + +During the last twenty-three years I have spent a portion of almost +every summer at Mohonk Lake Mountain House, a hostlery equally +celebrated for the culture of its guests and charms of its scenery. It +is situated on a spur of the Shawangunk Mountains, about six miles from +New Paltz, on the Wallkill Valley Railway. Its discoverer and proprietor +is Albert K. Smiley, who was for many years president of a Quaker Ladies +Academy in Providence, R.I., and is a gentleman of fine scholarship and +varied attainments. He is quite equal to discussing geology with +Professor Guyot (from whom one of the highest hilltops near his house is +named), or art with Huntington, or botany or landscape gardening with +Frederick L. Olmstead, or theology with Dr. Schaff, or questions of +philanthropy with General Armstrong or Booker T. Washington. + +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 resorts. Neither bar nor bottles nor ball-room nor bands are to +be found in this Christian home;--for a home it is--in its restful and +refining influences. The young people find no lack of innocent enjoyment +in the bowling alley or on the golf links, in the tennis tournaments or +in rowing upon the lake, with frequent regattas. Instead of the midnight +dance the evening hours are made enjoyable by social conversation, by +musical entertainments, by parlor lectures and other interesting +pastimes. The Sabbath at Mohonk realizes old George Herbert's +description of the + + "Sweet day so cool, so calm, so bright, + The bridal of the earth and sky;" + +Not a boat is loosened from its wharf on the lake; not a carriage is +geared up for a pleasure drive, 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 soul. The +spacious parlor is always crowded for the service of worship on every +morning during the week and also on the Sabbath. I can testify that on +the three-score Sabbaths when I have been called upon to conduct the +services, I have never found a more inspiring auditory. + +It is no easy thing to put the external beauties of Mohonk upon paper. +The estate covers four thousand acres, and is intersected with about +fifty miles of fine carriage drives. The garden, which contains a dozen +acres, is ablaze during the most of the season with millions of +flowers--many of them of rare variety. As the glory of Saratoga is its +springs, of Lake George its islands, of Trenton Falls the amber hue of +its waters, so the glory of Mohonk is its rocks. The little lake is a +crystal cup cut out of the solid conglomerated quartz. Its shores are +steep quartz rocks rising fifty feet perpendicularly from the water. The +face of "Sky Top" is heaped around with enormous boulders some thirty +feet in diameter. In among them extend rocky labyrinths which can be +explored with torches. On every hand are immense masses of Shawangunk +grit hurled together over the cliff as if with the convulsions of an +earthquake. Upon these acres of rock around the lake grow the most +luxuriant lichens and the forests in June are efflorescent with laurels +and azalias. The finest point of vantage is on Eagle Cliff; I have +climbed there often to see the sun go down in a blaze of glory +behind the Catskill Mountains. The three highest peaks of the +Catskills--Hunter, Slide, and Peekamoose--were in full view, in purple +and gold. Beneath me on one side was the verdant valley of Rondout; on +the other side the equally beautiful valley of the Wallkill. In the dim +distance we could discover the summits of the mountains in Pennsylvania, +New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts. + +When I took Newman Hall, toward sunset, to a crag or cliff overlooking +the lake, he said to me: "Next to Niagara I have seen nothing in America +equal to this." + +Mohonk has been a favorite summer resort of many of the most +distinguished people in our land. The Honorable Rutherford B. Hayes, +after his retirement from the presidential chair, loved to find +recreation in rowing his boat on the lake, and in making the ascent of +Sky Top. President Arthur came there during his term of office; and the +widow of General Grant, after spending a fortnight there, pronounced it +the most fascinating spot she had ever seen on this continent Among all +the guests who made their summer home there, none contributed more to +the intellectual enrichment of the company than my revered Christian +friend, Dr. Philip Schaff. No American of our day had such a vast +personal acquaintance with celebrated people. Dr. Schaff was the +intimate friend of Tholuck, Neander, Godet, Hengstenberg, and Dorner; he +was one day in familiar conversation with Dean Stanley in the Abbey and +another day with Gladstone; another day with Dollinger in Vienna, and +another day with Dr. Pusey at Oxford. The promise, "He shall stand +before kings," was often fulfilled to him. The veteran Kaiser William +had him at the royal table, and gave him intimate interview. The King +and Queen of Denmark came on the platform to congratulate him after one +of his eloquent speeches, and the Queen of Greece was one of his +correspondents. He shook hands with more ministers of all +denominations, and of all nationalities than any man of this age. He +was as cordially treated by Archbishop Canterbury as he was by Bismarck +at Berlin or the old Russian Archpriest Brashenski. Dr. Schaff was a +prodigy of industry. During half a century he was the foremost church +historian of this country; he led the work of the Sabbath Committee, and +was the master spirit of the Evangelical Alliance. He edited a volume of +hymnology, and wrote catechisms for children; he filled professors' +chairs in two seminaries and lectured on ecclesiastical history to +others. He published thirty-one volumes and edited two immense +commentaries; he was the president of the Committee on Biblical +Revision, and he crossed the ocean fourteen times as a fraternal +internuncio between the churches of Europe and America. His prodigious +capacity for work made Dr. Samuel Johnson seem an idler, and his varied +attainments and activities were fairly a match for Gladstone. + +To those of us who knew Dr. Schaff intimately, one of his most +attractive traits was his jovial humor and inexhaustible fund of +anecdotes. When I made a visit to California--journeying with him to the +Yosemite--his endless stories whiled away the tedium of the trip. How +often when he sat down to my own, or any other table, would he tell how +his old friend, Neander, when asked to say grace at a dinner, and roast +pig was the chief dish, very quaintly said: "O, Lord, if Thou canst +bless under the new dispensation what Thou didst curse under the old +dispensation, then graciously bless this leetle pig. Amen!" + +Another eminent scholar who was wont to seek recreation at Mohonk was +the venerable President McCosh, of Princeton University. Since Scotland +sent to Princeton Dr. John Witherspoon to preside over it, and to be one +of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, she has sent no +richer gift than Dr. James McCosh. For several years before he came to +America he was a professor in the Queen's College at Belfast. Passing +through Belfast in 1862, I looked in for a few moments at the Irish +Presbyterian General Assembly, which was convened in Dr. Cook's church, +and said to a man: "Whom can you show me here?" Pointing to a tall, +somewhat stooping figure, standing near the pulpit, he said: "There is +McCosh." I replied: "It is worth coming here to see the brightest man in +Ireland." What a great, all-round, fully equipped, many-sided mass of +splendid manhood he was! What a complete combination of philosopher, +theologian, preacher, scholar, and college president all rolled into +one! During the twenty years of his brilliant career at Princeton he +displayed much of Jonathan Edwards' metaphysical acumen, of John +Witherspoon's wisdom, Samuel Davies' fervor and Dr. "Johnny" McLean's +kindness of heart; the best qualities of his predecessors were combined +in him. He came here a Scotchman at the age of fifty-seven, and in a +year he became, as Paddy said, "a native American." + +To my mind the chief glory of Dr. McCosh's presidency at Princeton was +the fervid interest he felt in the religious welfare of his students. He +often invited me to come over and deliver sermons to them, and +occasionally a temperance address; for he was a zealous teetotaler and +prohibitionist, and I always lodged with him at his house. As I turn +over my book of correspondence I find many brief letters from him. In +the following one he refers to the remarkable revival in the college in +the winter and early spring of 1870: + + + COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY, PRINCETON, Jan. 9, 1873. + + _My dear Dr. Cuyler:_ + + In the name of the Philadelphian Society, and in my own name, I + request you to conduct our service on the day of prayer for + colleges, being Thursday the 30th of January. It is three years, if + I calculate rightly, since you performed that duty for us. That + visit was followed by the blessed work in which you took an active + part. May it be the same this year! The college is in an + interesting state: we have a great deal of the spirit of study; + there is a meeting for prayer every night except Friday; the class + prayer meetings are all well attended, in some of the classes as + many as sixty present; but we need a quickening. I do hope you will + come. Our habit is an address of half an hour or so at three PM in + the college chapel, and a sermon in one of the churches, especially + addressed to students, but open to all in the evening. Of course, + you will come to my house, and live with me. Yours as ever, + + James McCosh. + + +To hundreds of the alumni of Princeton this letter will stir the +fountain of old memories. They will hear in it the ring of the old +college bell; they will see the lines of students marching across the +campus to evening prayer and into the chapel. Upon the platform mounts +the stooping form of grand old "Uncle Jimmie," and in his broad and not +unmelodious Scotch accents he pours out his big, warm heart in prayer. +With honest pride in their Alma Mater, they will thank God that they +were trained for the battle of life by James McCosh. + +The limits of this narrative do not allow me to tell of all my +delightful "foregatherings" with that venerated Nestor of American art, +Daniel Huntington; and with General James Grant Wilson with his +_repertoire_ of racy Scotch stories; and with my true yoke-fellows in +the Gospel, Dr. Herrick Johnson, Dr. Marvin R. Vincent, and Dr. Samuel +J. Fisher--and with a group of infinitely witty women who regaled many +an evening hour with their merry quips and conundrums. The unwritten law +which prevails in that social realm is: "Each for all, and all for each +other." + +Mr. Smiley had been for some years a member of the United States Indian +Commission, and his experience in that capacity had awakened a deep +interest in the welfare of the remaining Aborigines, who had too often +been the prey of unscrupulous white men who came in contact with them. +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 being. His invitation brought +together such distinguished philanthropists as the veteran ex-Senator +Henry L. Dawes, General Clinton B. Fisk, General Armstrong, the founder +of Hampton Institute; Merrill E. Gates, Philip C. Garrett, Herbert Welsh, +and that picturesque and powerful friend of the red man, the late Bishop +Whipple of Minnesota. 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 +affairs. It has helped to make history. + +The great success of this conference, which meets in October of each +year, led my Quaker friend, Smiley, eight years ago, to inaugurate an +"Arbitration conference" for the promotion of international peace. It +was a happy thought and has yielded a rich fruitage. 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 F. +Edmunds of Vermont, the Rev. Edward Everett Hale of Boston, the Hon. +William J. Coombs, the Hon. Robert Treat Paine, Dr. B.F. Trueblood, John +B. Garrett and Joshua L. Bailey, Colonel George E. Waring, Hon. John W. +Foster, Chief Justice Nott, Warner Van Norden, 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 plowshares, and spears into pruning hooks. + +I especially sympathize with the spirit of this Arbitration conference, +not only because I abominate war _per se_, 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 conquests. 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 governed. It is an impious profanation of our flag of +freedom to make it the symbol of absolutism on any soil. In the conflict +now waging for true American principles, I heartily concur in the views +of the late Benjamin Harrison, who was one of the most clear-sighted +and patriotic of our Presidents. Just before his death I addressed to +that noble Christian statesman a letter of heartfelt thanks for the +position he was taking. With the following gratifying reply which I +received, I conclude my chapter on peace-loving "Smiley-land": + + INDIANAPOLIS, Dec 26, 1900 + + _My dear Dr. Cuyler_. + + I can hardly tell you how grateful your letter was to me, or how + highly I value your approval. My soul has been in revolt against + the doctrine of Congressional Absolutism. I want to save my + veneration for the men who made us a nation, and organized the + nation under the Constitution. 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 themselves. The + newspaper reports of my Ann Arbor address were most horribly + mangled, but the address will appear in the January number of the + _North American Review_. Allow me, my dear friend, to extend to you + the heartiest thanks, not only for your kind words, but for the + noble life which gives them value. + + With all good wishes of the Christmastide, + + Most sincerely your friend, + + BENJAMIN HARRISON. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +A RETROSPECT. + + +When I entered upon the Christian ministry fifty-six years ago, there +was no probability that I would live to see four-score. My father had +died at the early age of twenty-eight, and several of his brothers and +sisters had succumbed to pulmonary maladies. My mother was dangerously +ill several times, but had a wiry constitution and lived to eighty-five. +That my own busy life has held out so long is owing, under a kind +Providence, to the careful observation of the primal laws of health. I +have eschewed all indigestible food, stimulants, and intoxicants;--have +taken a fair amount of exercise; have avoided too hard study or sermon +making in the evenings--and thus secured sound and sufficient sleep. In +keeping God's commandments written upon the body I have found great +reward. 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 observed. +If as an optimist I may sometimes exaggerate the good, and minimize the +evil things, it is the curse of a pessimist that he can travel from Dan +to Beersheba and find nothing but barrenness. + +The first change for the better that I shall speak of is the progress I +have seen in church fellowship. The division of the Christian church +into denominations is a fixed fact and likely to remain so for a long +time to come. Nor is it the serious evil that many imagine. The +efficiency of an army is not impaired by division into corps, brigades +and regiments, as long as they are united against the common enemy; +neither does the Church of Christ lose its efficiency by being organized +on denominational lines, as long as it is loyal to its Divine head, and +united in its efforts to overcome evil, and establish the Kingdom of +Heaven. Some Christians work all the better in harness that suits their +peculiar tastes and preferences. Denominationalism becomes an evil the +moment it degenerates into bitter and bigoted sectarianism. Conflicts +between a dozen regiments is suicide to an army. When a dozen +denominations strive to maintain their own feeble churches in a +community that requires only three or four churches, then sectarianism +becomes an unspeakable nuisance. + +I could cite many instances to prove the great progress that has been +made in church fellowship. For example, my early ministry was in a town +in which the Society of Friends had a large meeting house, well filled +by a most intelligent, orthodox and devout congregation. But its members +never entered any other house of worship. I had the warmest personal +intimacy with some of its leading men, but they would say: "We would +like to hear thee preach on First Day, but the rules of our society +forbid it." I have lived to see the day when I am invited to speak in +Friends' meetings, and I have rejoiced to invite Quaker brothers, and +sisters also, to speak in my pulpit. When I visit London, the most +eminent living Quaker, J. Bevan Braithwaite, welcomes me to his +hospitable house, and we join in prayer together. I wish that the +exemplary and useful Society of Friends were more multiplied on both +sides of the sea. + +During the early half of the last century sectarian controversies ran +high, especially in the newly settled West. It was a common custom to +hold public discussions in school houses and frontier meeting houses, +where controverted topics between denominations were presented by chosen +champions before applauding audiences. Ministers fired hot shot at one +another's pulpits; churches were often as militant as mendicant, and all +those polemics were excused as contending most earnestly for the faith. +Both sides found their ammunition in the same Bible. When I was a +student in the Princeton Seminary, a classmate from Kentucky gave me a +little hymn-book used at the camp meetings in the frontier settlements +of his native region. In that book was a hymn, one verse of which +contains these sweet and irenic lines: + + "When I was blind, and could not see, + The Calvinists deceivèd me." + +Just imagine the incense of devout praise ascending heavenward in such a +thick smoke of sectarian contentions! All the denominations were more or +less afflicted with this controversial malady; and I will venture to say +that in Kentucky and Ohio and other new regions, the Presbyterians were +often a fair match for their Methodist neighbors in these theological +pugilistics. I might multiply illustrations of these unhappy clashings +and controversies that have often disfigured even the most evangelical +branches of Christendom. What a blessed change for the better have I +witnessed in my old days! Among the foremost efforts of denominational +fellowship was the organization of the American Bible Society, the +American Tract Society, and the American Sunday School Union. Later on +in the same century came those two splendid spiritual inventions--The +Young Men's Christian Association, and the Society of Christian +Endeavor. Sir George Williams, the founder of the one, and Dr. Francis +E. Clark, the father of the other, should be commemorated in a pair of +twin statues of purest marble, standing with locked arms and upholding a +standard bearing the sacred motto: "One is our Master, even Christ +Jesus, and all ye are brethren." To no man are we indebted more deeply +than to the now glorified Mr. Moody who made Christian fellowship the +indispensable feature of all his evangelistic endeavors--with Brother +Sankey leading the grand chorus of united praise. 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 Day. Personally I +rejoice to say that I have been permitted to preach the Gospel in the +pulpits of all the leading denominations, not excepting the +Episcopalian; and I once welcomed the noble and beloved Bishop Charles +P. McIlvaine of Ohio to my Lafayette Avenue Church pulpit, where he +pronounced a grand discourse on "The Unity of All Christians in the Lord +Jesus Christ." If I lived in England I should be heart and soul a +nonconformist. But I can gratefully acknowledge the many kind courtesies +which I have received from the clergy of the Established Church. Once, +when in London, I was invited to the annual dinner given by the Lord +Mayor to the archbishops and bishops, and I found myself the only +American clergyman present. The Archbishop of Canterbury, when Bishop +of London, did me the honor of presiding at a reception given me at +Exeter Hall, and whenever I have met the venerable Dr. Temple I have +been cheered by his warm-hearted and "democratic" cordiality of manner. +In return for the kindness shown me by my brilliant and scholarly +friend, Archdeacon Farrar, I was happy to preside at a reception given +him in Chickering Hall. He had a wide welcome in our land, but it was as +the untiring champion of temperance reform that he was especially +honored on that evening. He and Archdeacon Basil Wilberforce are among +the leaders in the crusade against the curse of strong drink. Amid some +evil portents and perils to the cause of evangelical religion, +one of the richest tokens for good is this steady increase of +interdenominational fellowship. For organic unity we need not yet +strive; it is enough that all the regiments and brigades in Christ's +covenant hosts march to the same music, fight together under the same +standard of Calvary's Cross, and press on, side by side, and shoulder to +shoulder, to the final victory of righteousness and truth and human +redemption. + +Another change for the better has been the enlargement of woman's sphere +of activity in the promotion of Christianity and of moral reform. As an +illustration of this fact, I may cite a rather unique incident in my +own experience. During the winter of 1872 I invited Miss Sarah F. +Smiley, an eminent and most evangelical minister in the Society of +Friends (and a sister of the Messrs. Albert and Daniel Smiley, the +proprietors of the Lake Mohonk House) to deliver a religious address in +my pulpit. The discourse she delivered was strong in intellect, orthodox +in doctrine and fervently spiritual in character; the large audience was +both delighted and edified. A neighboring minister presented a complaint +before the Presbytery of Brooklyn, alleging that my proceeding had been +both un-Presbyterian and un-Scriptural. The complainant was not able to +produce a syllable of law from our form of government forbidding what I +had done. Long years before, a General Assembly had recommended that +"women should not be permitted to address a promiscuous assemblage" in +any of our churches; but a mere "deliverance" of a General Assembly has +no binding legal authority. + +In my defense I was careful not to advocate the ordination of women to +the ministry in the Presbyterian Church, or their installation in the +pastorate. I contended that as our confession of faith was silent on the +subject, and that as godly women in the early church were active in the +promotion of Christianity (one of them named Anna having publicly +proclaimed the coming Messiah), and that as the ministry of my +excellent friend, the Quakeress, had for many years been attended by the +abundant blessings of the Holy Spirit, my act was rather to be commended +than condemned. The discussion before the Presbytery lasted for two days +and produced a wide and rather sensational interest over the country. +The final vote of the Presbytery, while withholding any censure of my +course under the circumstances, was adverse to the practice of +permitting women to address "promiscuous audiences" in our churches. Two +or three years afterwards, 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 +sessions. When the news of this action of the assembly reached us, the +old sexton of the Lafayette Avenue Church hoisted (to the great +amusement of our people) the stars and stripes on the church tower as a +token of victory. It has now become quite customary to invite female +missionaries, and other godly women, to address audiences composed of +both sexes in our churches; the padlock has been taken off the tongue of +any consecrated Christian woman who has a message from the Master. I +invited Miss Willard and Lady Henry Somerset to advocate the Christian +grace of temperance from my pulpit; and if I were still a pastor I +should rejoice to invite that good angel of beneficence, Miss Helen M. +Gould, to deliver there such an address as she lately made in the +splendid building she has erected for the "Naval Christian Association." + +Foreign missions were in their early and vigorous growth eighty years +ago. I rode in our family carriage to church with Sheldon Dibble and +Reuben Tinker, who were just leaving Auburn Theological Seminary to go +out as our pioneer missionaries to the Sandwich Islands. The _Missionary +Herald_ was taken in a great number of families and read with great +avidity. Many of the readers were people who not only devoutly prayed +"Thy Kingdom come," but who were willing to stick to a rag carpet, and +deny themselves a "Brussels," in order to contribute more to the spread +of that Kingdom. Wealth has increased to a prodigious and perilous +extent; but the percentage of money given to foreign missions is very +far from what it was in the day of my childhood. 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 pulpit; I suspect that it in +too many cases should be one of penitential confession. + +While I was a student in the Princeton Seminary we had a visit from the +veteran missionary, Levi Spalding, 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 +beheld. He told us that when he was a youth and his heart was first +drawn to the cause of missions, he told his good mother that he had +decided upon a missionary life (which was then thought equivalent to a +martyrdom), and she was perfectly overcome. He said to her: "Mother, +when you gave me as an infant to God in baptism, did you withhold me +from any service to which I might be called?" She assented in a +moment--went to the old chest--from it she took a half-dollar (all the +money she possessed in the world), and, handing it to him, said: "Levi, +you may go, and this starts you on your education." On his way over to +India his preaching converted all the sailors, including the ship's +carpenter, "whose heart was as hard as his broadaxe." That was the stuff +our first missionaries were made of. The tears flowed down our cheeks as +we listened to Spalding's recital, and the result of his visit was that +more than one of our students volunteered for the work of foreign +missions. + +It was also my great privilege during that Princeton course to put eye +upon a man who, by common consent, is regarded as the king of American +missionaries. On my way from Princeton to Philadelphia in the Christmas +week of '45 I found among my fellow passengers a gentleman with a very +benign countenance, and to my great delight I learned that he was +Adoniram Judson, who was on his final and memorable visit to his native +land, and was received everywhere with the most unbounded and reverent +enthusiasm. He had begun his work in Burmah in 1813, but under great +difficulties. During the first six years he made no converts; he defied +the demon of discouragement and labored on with increased faith and +zeal, and then came an abundant harvest. The colossal work of his life +in Burmah was the translation of the Holy Scriptures into the Burmese +language. To this work, which is likely to endure, he added a +Burmese-English dictionary. At length the toils and exposures broke down +his health and he was obliged to take several voyages in adjoining +waters. Soon after I saw him he married Miss Chubbuck and returned to +Burmah in the following year. The old conflict between the holy and +heroic heart and failing body was soon renewed. He resorted once more to +the sea for relief, but died during the passage, on April 12, 1850. When +crossing the Atlantic in the summer of 1885 I spent much of the time +with that noble minister, Rev. Edward Judson, of New York. A funeral at +sea occurred, and as the remains were disappearing in the water Mr. +Judson said to me, with solemn tenderness: "Just so my beloved father +was committed to the deep: his sepulchre is this great, wide ocean," +That ocean is a type of his world-wide influence. Not only in the +priority of time as a fearless pioneer into unknown dangers, but in +profound and patient scholarship, and in the beauty of a holy and +lovable personality, Adoniram Judson still hold the primacy among our +American missionary heroes. + +The progress which has been made in Christianizing heathendom during the +last century (which may well be called the century of foreign missions) +is familiar to every person of intelligence. The number of converts to +Christianity is at least two millions, and several millions more have +felt the influence of Christian civilization. The great mass have not +been suddenly revolutionized, as in Luther's time, but one by one +individual hearts yield to the gospel in nearly every land. As a serious +offset to these glorious results the commerce of nominally Christian +nations is often poisonous. Britain carries opium into China and India; +America and other civilized nations carry rum into Africa. The word of +life goes in the cabin, and the worm of death goes in the hold of the +same vessel! The sailors that have gone from nominally Christian +countries to various ports have often been very far from acting as +gospel missionaries. It is not only for their own welfare, but that they +may become representatives of Christianity that the noble "American +Seamen's Friend Society" has been organized. The work which that society +has wrought under the vigorous leadership of Dr. Stitt entitles it to +the generous support of all our churches. If toiling "Jack" braves the +tempest to bring us wealth from all climes, we owe it to him to provide +him the anchor of the gospel, and to save him from spiritual shipwreck. + +To no other benevolent society have I more cheerfully given service of +tongue and pen than to this one. An honest view of the foreign mission +enterprises to-day reveals the laying of broad foundations, and the +building of solid walls, rather than any completed achievements already +wrought. Blood tells, and God has entrusted his gospel to the +Anglo-Saxons and the other most powerful races on the globe. The +religion of the Bible is the only religion adapted to universal +humanity, and in the Bible is a definite pledge that to all humanity +that religion shall yet be preached. + +Among the great spiritual agencies born within my memory, none deserves +a higher place than The Young Men's Christian Association. When my +beloved brother, Sir George Williams (now an octogenarian) started the +first association in London on the 6th of June, 1844, he "builded better +than he knew," The modest room in his store overlooking Paternoster Row +in which he gathered the little praying band on that day is already an +historic spot. 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 existence, 1854. We met in a room in Stuyvesant +Institute and the heroic Howard Crosby was our president. We had no +library, or reading room, or gymnasium, or any of the appliances that +belong to the institutions of these days. After several migrations, our +association found its permanent home in the spacious building on +Twenty-third Street, to which Morris K. Jesup and William E. Dodge were +among the foremost contributors. The master spirit in the operations of +the New York Association for thirty years was Mr. Robert McBurney, who, +when he landed from Ireland, was only seventeen years of age. He was +among my evening congregation in the old Market Street Church. During my +seven years' pastorate in that church I delivered a great many +discourses and platform addresses on behalf of the association, and +through all of the subsequent years it has been a favorite object on +which to bestow my humble efforts. Here in Brooklyn a host of young-men +have found a moral shelter, and many of them a spiritual birthplace, in +the fine structure, reared largely from the munificent bequests of that +princely Christian philanthropist, the late Mr. Frederick Marquand. It +is not permitted to every good man or woman before they die to see the +glorious fruits of the trees they planted, but to the eyes of the +veteran George Williams the following facts must seem like a rehearsal +of heaven. The Young Men's Christian Association now belts the globe +with half a million of members, and ten times that number in some direct +connection with the organization. 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 development, +manly instruction and training for Christ's service. + +It has brought thousands of young men from impenitence to Christ Jesus, +and made thousands of young Christians more like Jesus in their daily +life. The most effective lay preacher of the century, D.L. Moody, +confessed that in his training for spiritual work he owed more to the +Young Men's Christian Association than to any other human agency. It has +moulded the students of colleges and universities; it has been the +salvation of many a soldier and sailor; it has led many into the gospel +ministry; it has taught the whole world the beauty and power of a living +unity in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit has set the Divine seal of His +blessing on its world-wide work, and to the triune God be all the praise +and all the glory. + +As I witnessed the birth of the Young Men's Christian Association, I +also saw the birth of a kindred organization, the "Society of Christian +Endeavor." Many years ago an absurd and extravagant statement was widely +afloat, claiming that I was the "grandsire" of this society. The simple +truth was that Dr. Francis E. Clark, its heaven-directed founder, had +seen in some religious journals my account of the good work wrought by +the Young People's Association of the Lafayette Avenue Church, and he +recognized the fact that its chief purpose was not mere sociality or +literary advancement, but the spiritual profit of its members. He +examined its constitution and reports, and when he constructed his first +Christian Endeavor Society in the Williston Church of Portland, Maine, +he adopted many of its features; and my beloved brother Clark, in his +public addresses, has generously acknowledged such obligation as he was +under to our Young People's Association (now in its thirty-fifth year of +prosperous activity). 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 century. As any attempt to +describe the sublime grandeur of Niagara would be a waste of time, 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 them. There is no civilized speech or +language where its voice is not heard; its line has gone out to all the +earth, and its words to the ends of the world. 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 it, 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 clime. + +One of the most striking improvements that I have witnessed has been in +the sanitary condition, both physical and moral, of our great cities. +The conditions in New York, when I came to the pastorate of the Market +Street Church almost fifty years ago, would seem incredible to the New +Yorkers of to-day. The disgusting depravities of the Fourth Ward, +afterwards made familiar by the reformatory efforts of Jerry McCauley, +were then in full blast, defying all police authority and outraging +common decency. The most hideous sink of iniquity and loathsome +degradation was in the once famous "Five Points," in the heart of the +Sixth Ward and within a pistol shot of Broadway. At the time of my +coming to New York public attention had been drawn to that quarter with +the opening of the "Old Brewery Mission," and by the first planting of +a kindred enterprise which grew into the now well-known "Five Points +House of Industry." The brave projector of this enterprise was the Rev. +L.M. Pease, a hero whose name ought not to be forgotten. As my church +was just off East Broadway, and within a short walk of the Five Points, +I took a deep interest in Mr. Pease's Christian undertaking, and aided +him by every means in my power. His wife became a member of my church. +The "Wild Maggie," whose escapades described in the _Tribune_ gained +such public notoriety, became also, after her reformation, one of our +church members and afterwards held the position of a school teacher. +After the resignation of Mr. Pease and his removal to North Carolina, +his place was taken by one of our Market Street elders, the devout and +godly minded Benjamin R. Barlow. In order to keep awake public interest +in the mission work at the Five Points, and to get ammunition, in its +behalf, I used to make nocturnal explorations of some of those satanic +quarters. I recall now one of those midnight forays of which, at the +risk of my reader's olfactories, I will give a brief glimpse. In company +with the superintendent of the mission and a policeman and a lad with a +lantern I struck for the "Cow Bay," the classic spot of which Charles +Dickens had given such a piquant description in his "American Notes" a +few years before. Climbing a stairway, from which the banisters had +long been broken away for firewood, we entered a dark room. There was +only a tallow candle burning in the corner, and in the room were huddled +twenty-five human beings. Along the walls were ranged the bunks--one +above the other--covered with rotting quilts and unwashed coverings. +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 color. +As the lad swings the lantern about we spy the rows of heads projecting +from under the stacks of rags. In one bed a gray-haired, disheveled head +cuddled close to the yellow locks of a slumbering child. While we are +reconnoitering, something like a huge dog runs past and dives under the +bed. "What is this, good friend?" we ask. "Oh, only the goat," replied a +merry Milesian. "Do the goats live with you all in this room?" "To be +sure they do, sir; we feeds 'em tater skins, and milks 'em for the +babies," Country born as we were, we have often longed to keep a dairy +in this city, but it never occurred to us that a bedroom was sufficient +for the purpose. Truly, necessity is the shrewd-witted mother of +invention! Opposite "Cow Bay" was "Cut-Throat Alley." Two murders a year +were about the average product of the civilization of this dark defile. +The keeper of the famous grog shop there, who died about that time, left +a fortune of nearly one hundred thousand dollars. In city politics the +keeper of such a den is one of the leaders of public opinion. We climbed +a stairway, dark and dangerous, till at length we reached the wretched +garret through whose open chinks the snow drifted in upon the floor. +Beside the single broken stove, the only article of furniture in the +apartments, sat a wretched woman wrapped in a tattered shawl moaning +over a terrible burn that covered her arms; she had fallen when +intoxicated upon the stove and no one had cared enough to carry her to +the hospital. She exclaimed, "For God's sake, gentlemen, can't you give +me a glass of gin?" A half eaten crust lay by her and a cold potato or +two, but the irresistible thirst clamored for relief before either pain +or hunger. "Good woman," said my friend, "where's Mose?" "Here he is." A +heap of rags beside her was uncovered, and there lay the sleeping face +of an old negro, apparently of fifty. In nearly every garret we entered +practical amalgamation was in fashion. The superintendent told me that +the negroes were fifty per cent. in advance of the Irish as to sobriety +and decency. Descending from the garret we entered a crowded cellar. The +boy's lantern shone on the police officer's cap and buttons. A crash was +heard, and the window at the opposite end of the cellar was shattered +and a mass of riddled glass fell on the floor. "Poor fool!" exclaimed +the policeman, "he thinks we are after him, but I will have him before +morning." From these sickening scenes of squalor, misery and crime what +a relief it was for us to return to the House of Industry, with its neat +school room and its capacious chapel and its row of little children +marching up to their little beds. It was like going into the light-house +after the storm. + +I have drawn this pen picture of but a part of the shocking revelations +of that night, not only that my readers may know what kind of work I +often engaged in during my New York pastorate, but that they may also +know what kind of city I labored in. New York is not to-day in sight of +the millennium; it still has a fearful amount of vice and heathenism; +and the self-denying men who are conducting the "University Settlement," +and the Christ-serving "King's Daughters," 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 Congo. Nevertheless it is true that a "Cow +Bay," or an "Old Brewery," 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 Park. The progress in sanitary purification has been most +remarkable. + +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 benefactor. I +allude to Mr. Anthony Comstock, the indefatigable Secretary of the +"Society for the Prevention of Vice." I knew him well when he was a +clerk in a dry goods store on Broadway, and when he undertook his first +purifying efforts, I little supposed that he was to achieve such +reforms. It was an Augean stable indeed that he set about cleansing. +Fifty years ago our city was flooded by obscene literature which sought +no concealment. The vilest books and pictures were openly sold in the +streets, and an enormous traffic was waged in what may be called the +literature of hell. Such a courageous crusade against those abominations +and against the gambling dens, by Mr. Comstock--even at the risk of +personal violence and in defiance of the most malignant +opposition--entitles him to a place among our veritable heroes. At a +time when deeds of military prowess receive such adulation, and when the +"man on horseback" outstrips the man on foot in the race for popular +favor, it is well to teach our young men that he who takes up arms +against the principalities and powers of darkness, and makes his own +life the savior of other lives, wins a knightly crown of heavenly honor +that outshines the stars, and "fadeth not away." + +The most unique organization that has been formed in our time for the +evangelizing of the lost masses is the "Salvation Army." When I was in +London, in the summer of 1885, I attended one of their monster meetings +in Exeter Hall. There was an enormous military band on the platform +behind the rostrum. Their Commander-in-Chief, General Booth, presided--a +tall, thin, nervous man, who looked more like an old-fashioned Kentucky +revivalist than an Englishman. His bright-eyed and comely wife, Mrs. +Catharine Booth, was with him. She was a woman of remarkable +intellectual force and spiritual character, as all must acknowledge who +have read her biography. Her speech (on the Protection of Young Girls) +was finely composed and finely delivered, and quite threw into the shade +a couple of members of Parliament who spoke from the same platform on +the same evening. When she made any telling point that awakened +applause, her husband leaped up, and gave the signal: "Fire a volley!" +Whereupon his troops gave a tremendous cheer, followed by a roll of +drums and a blast of trumpets. The chief agency which the army employs +to gather its audiences is music--whether it be the rattling of the +tambourine, or the martial sound of a brass band. Some of their hymns +are little better than pious doggerel, and they do not hesitate to add +to Perronet's grand hymn, "All hail the power of Jesus name," such a +stanza as the following: + + "Let our soldiers never tire, + In streets, in lane, in hall, + The red-hot Gospel's shot to fire + And crown Him Lord of All." + +Grotesque as are some of the methods of this novel organization, I +cannot but admire their zeal and courage in dredging among the submerged +masses with such spiritual apparatus as they can devise. They are doing +a work that God has honored, and that has reached and rescued a vast +number of outcasts. Their chief weakness is that they appeal mainly to +the emotions, and give too little solid instruction to their ignorant +hearers. 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 +together. Let us hope and pray that the period of their usefulness may +yet be protracted. + +While an abnormal agency, like the Salvation Army, may do some useful +service among the occupants of the slums, the greater work of reaching +and evangelizing the immense mass of plain, humble working people must +be done by the churches themselves. What do the dwellers in the +by-streets and the tenement houses need? They need precisely what the +dwellers in the brown stone houses on fine avenues need--a sanctuary to +worship in, a Sunday school for their children, a preacher to give them +the Gospel, and a pastor to visit them and watch over them--in short, a +spiritual home. As for bringing the poorer class of the back streets +into the elegant churches on the fashionable avenues it is an absurdity, +both geography and human nature are against it. The plainly dressed +laborers of the back districts could not come to the fine churches on +Fifth Avenue, or similar streets, because these edifices are already +occupied by their regular pew holders; they would not come, for they +would not feel at home there. Since the humbler toiling classes will not +come to the sanctuaries occupied by the rich, 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 +classes. Not mean and unattractive soup-house style of chapels should +they be, either--they ought to be handsome, cheerful, well-appointed +sanctuaries, manned by godly pastors who are not above the business of +saving souls that are clad in dirty shirts. And that is not all: 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 poor, but in plain clothes and with a hearty democratic +sympathy in their whole bearing. To reach the masses we must go after +them--and then stay with them when we get there. If broadcloth religion +waits for poverty and ignorance to cross the chasm to it, then may they +at last come to be a menace to the safety of society--with imprecations +on it for criminal neglect. Christianity must build the bridge across +the chasm, and then keep its steady procession crossing over it with +bright lamps for dark homes, and Bibles for darker souls, and bread for +hungry mouths, and, what is best of all, _personal intercourse and +personal sympathy_. The music of a Christmas carol would be very sweet +in poverty's garret; the advent of the living Jesus in the persons of +His true-hearted followers would be a "Merry Christmas" all the year +round. + +Brooklyn is not a city of slums, nor does it abound with the +sky-scraping tenement houses, like those in which the myriads of New +York live, but we have a large population of wage-earners of the humbler +class. These mainly occupy streets by themselves. In order to do our +part in giving the bread of life to these worthy people, Lafayette +Avenue Church has always maintained two, and sometimes three, auxiliary +chapels. Of these, the "Cuyler Chapel," built and supported entirely by +our Young People's Association, is a fair representative. It has an +excellent preacher, who visits the plain people in their homes; it has a +well-equipped Sunday school--prayer meetings, kindergarten--its own +Society of Christian Endeavor, and King's Daughters, its penny savings +bank and its temperance society--in short, every appliance essential to +a Christian church. Many others of our strong Brooklyn churches are +working precisely on the same practical, common-sense lines. If all the +wealthy churches in New York would illuminate the darker quarters of +that city with a hundred well-manned light-houses, well provided with +the soul-saving apparatus of the poor man's Gospel they would do more to +silence the cavils against Christianity, and more to bridge the chasm +between the rich and the poor than by any of the superficial methods of +the "Humanitarians." What a poor man wants is not only a clean shirt, a +clean home, and a clean account on Saturday night; he wants a clean +character and a clean soul for this world and the next. Christianity +makes a sad mistake if it is satisfied to give him a full stomach, and +leave him with a starving soul. + +In recent years we have heard much about the "Institutional Church" as +the long sought panacea. It is claimed by some persons that the churches +cannot succeed unless they add to ordinary spiritual instrumentalities, +various useful annexes, such as reading rooms, kindergartens, +dispensaries, and certain social entertainments. But it is a noteworthy +fact that the chief pioneer in "Institutional" methods was the late +Charles Haddon Spurgeon, and he was the prince of old-fashioned gospel +preachers. He never thought of his orphanage, and other benevolent +adjuncts of the Metropolitan Tabernacle as substitutes for the sovereign +purpose of his holy work, which was to convert the people to Jesus +Christ. He subordinated the physical, the mental, and the social to the +spiritual; and rightly judged that making clean hearts was the best way +to secure clean homes and clean lives. I have no doubt that a very +strong, well-manned and thoroughly spiritually managed church may wisely +maintain as many adjuncts, such as reading-rooms, libraries, +dispensaries, kindergartens and other humanitarian annexes as it has the +means to support. An illustration of this is seen in the successful and +Heaven-blessed Bethany Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, founded and +maintained and guided by that hundred-handed Briareus in the service of +Christ--my beloved friend, the Hon. John Wanamaker. The aim of that +great church and its well-known Sunday School, is to make people happy +by making them better, and to save them for this world after saving them +for another world. When a church has the spiritual purposes and +spiritual power of the London Tabernacle and the Bethany Church, and is +guided by a Spurgeon or a Wanamaker, it may safely become +"institutional." But some experiments that have been made to establish +churches of that name in this country have not always been conspicuously +successful. + +In taking this, my retrospective view at four-score, I have noted many +heart-cheering tokens of social and religious progress, and many +splendid mechanical and material inventions to make the world better and +happier. Yet I have also seen some painful symptoms of decline and +deterioration. All the changes have not been for the better; some have +been decidedly for the worse. For example, while there is an increase in +the number of the Christian churches, there is a lamentably steady +diminution of attendance at places of religious worship. Careful +investigation shows a constant falling off in church attendance--both in +the large towns, and in the rural districts. In spite of the blessed +influence of the Sunday School, the Young Men's Christian Association +and Christian Endeavor, there is an increasing swing of young people +away from the House of God, and therefore from soul-saving influences. +The Sabbath is not as generally kept sacred as formerly. One of the +indications of this sad fact is a decrease in church attendance, and +another is the enormous increase in the secular and godless Sunday +newspapers. Materialism and Mammonism work against spiritual religion, +and the social customs which wealth brings are adverse to a spiritual +life. As one illustration of this a distinguished pastor said to me: +"Forty years ago my people lived plainly, were ready for earnest +Christian work, and attended our devotional meetings; now they have +grown rich, our work flags, and our weekly services are almost +deserted." Half-day religion is on the increase almost everywhere. +Sporting and gambling are more rife than formerly. What is still worse, +the gambling element enters more largely into transactions of trade and +traffic. Divorces have become more easy and abundant, and, as Mr. +Gladstone once said to me: "This tends to sap one of the very +foundations of society," All these are deplorable evils to which none +but a fool will shut his eyes and by which none but a coward will be +frightened. _God reigns,_ even if the devil is trying to. The practical +questions for every one of us are: how can I become better? How can I +help to make this old sinning and sobbing world the better also? + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +A RETROSPECT, CONTINUED. + + +As I look over the changes that half a century has wrought in the social +life of my beloved country, I see some which awaken satisfaction--others +which are not so exhilarating. The enormous and rapid increase of wealth +is unparalleled in human history. In my boyhood, millionaires were rare; +there were hardly a score of them in any one of our cities. The two +typical rich men were Stephen Girard in Philadelphia and John Jacob +Astor in New York; and their whole fortunes were not equal to the annual +income of several of the rich men of to-day. Some of our present +millionaires are reservoirs of munificence, and the outflow builds +churches, hospitals, asylums, and endows libraries--and sends broad +streams of charity through places parched by destitution and suffering. +Others are like pools at the base of a hill--they receive the inflow of +every descending streamlet or shower, and stagnate into selfishness. +Wealth is a tremendous trust; it becomes a dangerous one when it owns +its owner. Our Brooklyn philanthropist, the late Mr. Charles Pratt, once +said to me: "There is no greater humbug than the idea that the mere +possession of wealth makes any man happy. I never got any happiness out +of mine until I began to do good with it." + +To the faithful steward there is a perpetual reward of good stewardship. +No investments yield a more covetable dividend than those made in gifts +of public beneficence. When Mr. Morris K. Jesup drives through New York +his eyes are gladdened in one street by the "Dewitt Memorial Chapel" +that he erected; in another by the Five Points House of Industry, of +which he is the president, and in still others by the Young Men's +Christian Association and kindred institutions, of which he is a liberal +supporter. + +Mr. John D. Rockefeller is reputed to have an annual income equal to +that of three or four foreign sovereigns; but his inalienable assets are +in the universities he has endowed, the churches he has helped to build, +the useful societies he has aided, and in the gold mines of public +gratitude which he has opened up. + +Many of our most munificent millionaires have been the architects of +their own fortunes. It is most commonly (with some happy exceptions) the +earned wealth, and not the inherited wealth that is bestowed most +freely for the public benefit. The Hon. William E. Dodge once stated in +a popular lecture that he began his career as a boy on a salary of fifty +dollars a year, and his board--part of his duty being to sweep out the +store in which he was employed. He lived to distribute a thousand +dollars a day to Christian missions, and otherwise objects of +benevolence. + +There are old men in Pittsburg (or were, not long ago), who remember the +bright Scotch lad, Andrew Carnegie, to whom they used to give a dime for +bringing telegraph messages from the office in which he was employed. +The benefits which he then derived from the use of a free library in +that city, have added to his good impulse, 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 England, and that of Astor in +America. The mention of this latter name tempts me to narrate an amusing +story of old John Jacob Astor, the founder of the fortune of that +family, and a man who was more noted for acquiring money than for giving +it away for any purpose. Mr. Astor came to New York a poor young man. +His wealth consisted mainly in real estate, which he purchased at an +early day. When the New York and Erie Railroad was projected (it was the +first one ever coming directly into New York), my friend, Judge Joseph +Hoxie, called on Mr. Astor to subscribe to the stock, telling him that +it would add to the value of his real estate. "What do I care for that?" +said the shrewd old German, "I never sells, I only buys." "Well," said +Judge Hoxie, "your son, William, has subscribed for several shares." "He +can do that," was the chuckling reply, "he has got a rich father." It is +a fair problem how many such possessors of real estate it would take to +build up the prosperity of a great city. + +There is one temptation to which great wealth has sometimes subjected +its possessors, which demands from me a word of patriotic protest. It is +the temptation to use it for political advancement. No fact is more +patent than the painful one that some ambitious men have secured public +offices, and even bought their way into legislative bodies, by the +abundancies of their purses united to skill in manipulating partisan +machines. This is a most serious menace to honest popular government. It +is one of the very worst forms of a plutocracy. 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 +day, they might paraphrase the words of Holy Writ and exclaim: "Take the +money-changers hence, and make not the temple of a nation's legislation +a house of merchandise." + +Foreign travel is no longer the novelty that it was once, and many +wealthy folk spend much of their time abroad since the Atlantic Ocean +has been reduced to a ferry. This growth of European travel has brought +its increment of information and culture; but, with new ideas from +abroad, have come also some new notions and usages that were better left +behind. A prohibitory tariff in that direction would "protect" some of +the unostentatiousness of social life that befits a republican people. +No young man or woman, who desires to attain proficience in any +department of scholarship, classical or scientific, need to betake +themselves to the universities of Europe. Those universities have come +to us in the shape of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell and our other +most richly endowed institutions of learning for both sexes. + +Quite too much of the social life of our country is more artificial than +formerly, and one result is the growing passion for publicity. Plenty of +ambitious people "make their beds in the face of the sun." Many things +are now chronicled in the press that were formerly kept behind the +closed doors of the home. The details of a dinner or a social company at +the fireside become the topics for the gossip of strangers. 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 courtship. In the somewhat +primitive days of my youth, young lovers kept their own secrets, and +were startled if their heart affairs were on other people's tongues; but +now-a-days marriage engagements are matters of public announcement--not +infrequently in the columns of a newspaper! It seems to be forgotten +that an engagement to marry may not always end in a marriage. The usage +of crowned heads abroad is no warrant for the new fashion, for royalty +has no privacies, 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 advocate. + +It has always required--but never more than now--no small amount of +moral courage on the part of newly married couples, whose incomes are +moderate, to resist the temptations of extravagant living. As the heads +of young men are often turned by the reports of great fortunes suddenly +acquired, so the ambition seizes upon many a young wife to cut a figure +in "society." Instead of "the household--motions light and free" that +Wordsworth describes, the handmaid of fashion leads the hollow life of +"keeping up appearances." If nothing worse than the slavery of debt is +incurred, home life becomes a counterfeit of happiness; but any one who +watches the daily papers will sometimes see obituaries there more +saddening than those which appear under the head of "Deaths," it is the +list of detected defaulters or peculators or swindlers of some +description--often belonging to the most respectable families. While the +ruin of those evil-doers is sometimes caused by club life or dissipated +habits, yet, in a large number of cases, the temptation to fraud has +been the snare of extravagant living. + +In my long experience as a city pastor I have watched the careers of +thousands of married pairs. One class have begun modestly in an +unfashionable locality with plain dress and frugal expenditure They have +eaten the wholesome bread of independence. I wish that every young woman +would display the good sense of a friend of mine, who received an offer +of marriage from a very intelligent and very industrious, but poor young +man who said to her: "I hear that you have offers of marriage from young +men of wealth; all that I can offer you is a good name, sincere love and +plain lodgings at first in a boarding house." She was wise enough to +discover the "jewel in the leaden casket" and accept his hand. He became +a prosperous business man and an officer of my church. As for the other +class, who begin their domestic career by a pitiable craze to "get into +society" and to keep up with their "set" in the vain show, is their fate +not written in the chronicles of haggard and jaded wives, and of +husbands drowned in debt or driven perhaps to stock-gambling or some +other refuge of desperation? + +In another portion of this autobiography I have uttered a prayer for the +revival of soul-kindling eloquence in the pulpit. In this age of dizzy +ballooning in finance and social extravagance, my prayer is: "Oh, for +the revival of old fashioned, sturdy, courageous frugality that 'hath +clean hands and a clean heart, and hath not lifted up its soul to +vanity!'" + +"Do you not discover a great advance in educational facilities and in +the enlargement of means to popular knowledge?" To this question I am +happy to give an affirmative reply. Schools and universities are more +richly endowed and our public schools have been greatly improved in many +directions. Among the educated classes, reading clubs and societies for +discussing sociological questions are more numerous, and so are free +lectures among the humbler classes. Books have been multiplied--and at +cheaper prices--to an enormous extent. In my childhood, books adapted to +the reach of children numbered not more than a score or two; now they +are multiplied to a degree that is almost bewildering to the youthful +mind. Newspapers printed for them, such as the _Youth's Companion_ and +the National Society's _Temperance Banner_, were then utterly unknown. +The sacred writer of the ecclesiastics needs not to tell the people of +this generation: "That of making many books there is no end." + +It is not, however, a matter for congratulation that so large a portion +of the volumes that are most read are works of fiction. In most of our +public libraries the novels called for are far in excess of all the +other books. Let any one scrutinize the advertising columns of literary +journals, and he will see that the only startling figures are those +which announce the enormous sale of popular works of fiction. I am not +uttering a tirade against any book simply because it is fictitious. Our +Divine Master spoke often in parables; Bunyan's matchless allegories +have guided multitudes of pilgrims towards the Celestial City. Fiction +in the clean hands of that king of romancers, Sir Walter Scott, threw +new light on the history and scenes of the past. Such characters as +"Jennie Deans" and her godly father might have been taken from John +Banyan's portrait gallery; Lady Di Vernon is the ideal of young +womanhood. Fiction has often been a wholesome relief to a good man's +overworked and weary brain. Many of the recent popular novels are +wholesome in their tone and the historical type often instructive. The +chief objection to the best of them is that they excite a distaste in +the minds of thousands for any other reading. Exclusive reading of +fiction is to any one's mind just what highly spiced food and alcoholic +stimulants are to the body. The increasing rage for novel reading +betokens both a famine in the intellect, and a serious peril to the +mental and spiritual life. The honest truth is that quite too large a +number of fictitious works are subtle poison. The plots of some of the +most popular novels turn on the sexual relation and the violation in +some form of the seventh commandment. They kindle evil passions; they +varnish and veneer vice; they deride connubial purity; they uncover what +ought to be hid, and paint in attractive hues what never ought to be +seen by any pure eye or named by any modest tongue. 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 manner. A +few popular writers of fiction present evangelical religion in its +winning features; they preach with the pen the same truths that they +preach from the pulpit. Two of the perils that threaten American youths +are a licentious stage and a poisonous literature. A highly intelligent +lady, who has examined many of the novels printed during the last +decade, said to me: "The main purpose of many of these books is to knock +away the underpinning of the marriage relation or of the Bible." If +parents give house room to trashy or corrupt books, they cannot be +surprised if their children give heart-room to "the world, the flesh, +and the evil one." When interesting and profitable books are so abundant +and so cheap, this increasing rage for novels is to me one of the +sinister signs of the times. + +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 activities. This change is especially marked in the literature +of the two great English-speaking nations. For example, there are now in +Great Britain no poets who are the peers of Wordsworth, Tennyson and +Browning;--no brilliant essayists who are the peers of Carlyle and +Macaulay, and no novelists who are the peers of Scott, Dickens and +Thackeray. In the United States we have no poets who are a match for +Bryant, Longfellow, Whittier and Holmes; and no essayists who are a +match for Emerson and James Russell Lowell--no jurists who are the +rivals of Marshall, Kent and Story; and no living historians equal +Bancroft, Prescott and Motley. These facts do not necessarily indicate +(as some assert) a widespread intellectual famine. The most probable +explanation of the fact is that the mental forces in our day exert +themselves in other directions. This is an age of scientific research +and scientific achievement. It is an age of material advancement, and in +those lines in which the human mind can "seek out many inventions." The +whole trend of human thought is under transformation. In ancient days +"a man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon thick trees." +The man is famous now who makes some useful mechanical invention, or +explores some unknown territory, or bridges the oceans with swift +steamers, or belts the earth with new railways, or organizes powerful +financial combinations. If the law of demand and supply is as applicable +to mental products as it is to the imports of commerce, then we may +readily understand that the realm of the ideal, which was ruled by the +Wordsworths, Carlyles and Longfellows, should be supplanted by a realm +in which the master minds should be political economists, or explorers, +or railway kings, or financial magnates, or empire-builders of some +description. The philosophical and poetical yield to the practical, when +"_cui bono?_" is the lest question which challenges all comers. This +change, if it be an actual one, may bring its losses as well as its +gains. We are thankful for all the precious boons which inventive genius +has brought to us--for telegraphs, and telephones, and photographic +arts, for steam engines and electric motors, for power presses and +sewing machines, for pain-killing chloroform, and the splendid +achievements of skillful surgery. But the mind has its necessities as +well as the body; 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 Duty," and a "Happy Warrior," a "Snow Bound," and a +"Thanatopsis," an "Evangeline" and a "Chambered Nautilus," a "Pippa +Passes" or a "Biglow Papers," an "In Memoriam" or a "Locksley Hall." + +One characteristic of the present time is the radical and revolutionary +spirit which condemns everything that is "old," especially in the realm +of religion. It arrogantly claims that the "advanced thought" of this +highly cultured age has broken with the traditional beliefs of our +benighted ancestors, and that modern congregations are too highly +enlighted to accept those antiquated theologies. No pretentions could be +more preposterous. Methinks that those stalwart farmers of New England, +who on a wintry Sabbath, sat and eagerly devoured for an hour the strong +meat of such theological giants as Jonathan Edwards, and Emmons and +Bellamy and Dwight, would laugh to scorn the ridiculous assumption of +the present day congregations, many of whom have fed on little else +during the week but novels and newspapers. This revolutionary spirit is +expert in pulling down; it is a sorry bungler at rebuilding. Nothing is +too sacred for its assaults. 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 tatters. King David has +been exiled from the Psalter; but no "sweet singers" have yet turned up +who could have composed those matchless minstrelsies. Paul is denied the +authorship of the Epistle to the Romans; but the mighty mind has not +been discovered which produced what Coleridge called the "profoundest +book in existence." The Scripture miracles are discarded, but +Christianity, which is the greatest miracle of all, is not accounted +for. The "new theology" which has well nigh banished the supernatural +from the Bible pays an homage to the principle of "evolution," which is +due only to the Almighty Creator of the universe. Spurgeon has wittily +said that if we are not the product of God's creating hand, but are only +the advanced descendants of the ape, then we ought to conduct our +devotions accordingly, and address our daily petitions "not to our +Father which is in Heaven, but to our father which is up a tree." + +I do not belong to that class which is irreverently styled "old fogies," +for I hold that genuine conservatism consists in healthful and regular +progress; and it has been my privilege to take an active part in a great +many reformatory movements; yet I am more warmly hospitable to a truth +which has stood the test of time and of trial. There are many things in +this world that are improved by age. Friendship is one of them, and I +have found that it takes a great many new friends to make an old one. +My Bible is all the dearer to me, not only because it has pillowed the +dying heads of my father and my mother, but because it has been the sure +guide of a hundred generations of Christians before them. When the +boastful innovators offer me a new system of belief (which is really a +congeries of unbeliefs) I say to them: "the old is better." Twenty +centuries of experience shared by such intellects as Augustine, Luther, +Pascal, Calvin, Newton, Chalmers, Edwards, Wesley and Spurgeon are not +to be shaken by the assaults of men, who often contradict each other +while contradicting God's truth. We have tested a supernaturally +inspired Bible for ourselves. As my eloquent and much loved friend, Dr. +McLaren, of Manchester has finely said: "We decline to dig up the piles +of the bridge that carries us over the abyss because some voices tell us +that it is rotten. It is perfectly reasonable to answer, 'We have tried +the bridge and it bears.' Which, being translated into less simple +language, is just the assertion of certitude, built on facts and +experience, which leaves no place for doubt. All the opposition will be +broken into spray against this rock-bulwark: 'Thy words were found, and +I did eat them, and they are the joy and rejoicing of my heart.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +MY HOME LIFE. + + +One of the richest of the many blessings that has crowned my long life +has been a happy home. 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 homeless, and, I fear, also a +wifeless man. During my own early ministry in Burlington, N.J., my +widowed mother and myself lodged with worthy Quakers, and realized +Charles Lamb's truthful description of that quiet, "naught-caballing +community." On our removal to Trenton, when I took charge of the newly +organized Third Presbyterian Church, we commenced housekeeping in what +had once been the residence of a Governor, a chief-justice, and a mayor +of the city; but was a very plain and modest domicile after all. My new +church building was completed in November, 1850, and opened with a full +congregation, and I was soon in the full swing of my pastoral duties. As +I have already stated in the opening chapter of this volume, my father +and mother first saw each other on a Sabbath day, and in a church. It +was my happy lot to follow their example. On a certain Sabbath in +January, 1851, a group of young ladies, who were the guests of a +prominent family in my congregation, were seated in a pew immediately +before the pulpit. As a civility to that family we called on the +following evening, upon their guests. One of the number happened to be a +young lady from Ohio who had just graduated from the Granville College, +in that State, and had come East to visit her relatives in Philadelphia. +The young lady just mentioned was Miss Annie E. Mathiot, a daughter of +the Hon. Joshua Mathiot, an eminent lawyer, who had represented his +district in Congress. That evening has been marked with a very white +stone in my calendar ever since. It was but a brief visit of a fortnight +that the fair maiden from the West made in Trenton; but when she, soon +afterwards returned to Ohio, she took with her what has been her +inalienable possession ever since and will be, "Till death us do part." +My courtship was rather "at long range;" for Newark, Ohio, was several +hundred miles away, and I have always found that a man who would build +up a strong church must be constantly at it, trowel in hand. On the 17th +of March, 1853, the venerable Dr. Wylie conducted for us a very simple +and solemn service of holy wedlock, closing with his fatherly +benediction, one of the best acts of his long and useful life. The +invalid mother of my bride (for Colonel Mathiot had died four years +previously) was present at our nuptials, and for the last time was in +her own drawing-room. Mrs. Mathiot was a daughter of Mr. Samuel +Culbertson, a leading lawyer of Zanesville, and was a lady of rare +refinement and loveliness. She had been a patient sufferer from a +painful illness of several months' duration, and peacefully passed away +to her rest in September of that year. + +Of the qualifications and duties of a minister's wife, enough has been +written to stock a small library. My own very positive conviction has +always been that her vows were made primarily, not to a parish, but to +her own husband; and if she makes his home and heart happy; if she +relieves him of needless worldly cares; if she is a constant inspiration +to him in his holy work, she will do ten-fold more for the church than +if she were the manager and mainspring of a dozen benevolent societies. +There is another obligation antecedent to all acts of Presbytery or +installing councils--the sweet obligation of motherhood. The woman who +neglects her nursery or her housekeeping duties, and her own heart-life +for any outside work in the parish does both them and herself serious +injury. If a minister's wife has the grace of a kind and tactful +courtesy toward all classes, she may contribute mightily to the popular +influence of her husband; and if she is a woman of culture and literary +taste, she can be of immense service to him in the preparation of his +sermons. The best critic that ministers can have is one who has a right +to criticize and to "truth it in love." Who has a better right to +reprove, exhort and correct with all long suffering than the woman who +has given us her heart and herself? 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 man. There is many a minister who would have been +spared the worst blunders of his life, if he had only consulted and +obeyed the instinctive judgment of a loving and sensible wife. If we +husbands hold the reins, it is the province of a wise and devoted wife +to tell us where to drive. + +It is very probable that my readers have suspected that this portraiture +of a model wife for a minister was drawn from actual life; and they are +right in their conjectures. In the discourse delivered to my flock on +the twenty-fifth anniversary of my pastorate was the following passage, +to whose truth the added years have only added confirmation, "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 years. From how many +mistakes and hasty indiscretions her quick sagacity has kept me, you can +never know. If you have any tribute of thanks for any good which I have +done you, do not offer it to me; go carry it down to yonder home, of +which she has been the light and the joy, and _lay it at her unselfish +feet."_ On that occasion (for the _only_ time) I heard a murmur of +applause run through my congregation. + +About the time of our marriage, I received a call from the Shawmut +Congregational Church of Boston, and soon afterwards overtures from a +Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, and from the First Presbyterian +Church of Chicago. All these attractive offers I declined, 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 labor. My ministry in +Trenton was one of unbroken happiness, and the Church were profusely +kind; but at the end of nearly four years I felt that my work there was +done. The young church had built a beautiful house of worship without a +dime of debt, and it was filled by a prosperous congregation. I was +ready for a wider field of labor. + +The Market Street Dutch Reformed Church, to which I was called, was down +town, within ten minutes' walk of the City Hall, and was beginning to +feel the inroads of the up-town migration, when my excellent +predecessor, Dr. Isaac Ferris, left it to become the Chancellor of the +New York University. Although most of the well-to-do families were +moving away, yet East Broadway was full of boarding houses packed with +young men and these in turn packed our church on Sabbath evenings. Of +the happy spiritual harvest-seasons in that old church, especially +during the great awakening in 1858, I have written in the chapter on +Revivals. I was as eager for work as Simon Peter was for a good haul in +fishing, and every week there, I met on the platform the representatives +of temperance societies: The Five Points House of Industry, Young Men's +Christian Associations, Sunday schools or some other religious or +reformatory enterprise. These outside activities were no hindrances to +either pulpit or pastoral work; and, like that famous English preacher +who felt that he could not have too many irons in the fire, I thrust in +tongs, shovel, poker and all. The contact with busy life and benevolent +labors among the poor supplied material for sermons; for the pastor of a +city church must touch life at a great many points. Our domestic +experiences in early housekeeping were very agreeable. The social +conditions of New York were less artificial than now. Pastoral calls in +the evening usually found the people in their homes, and I do not +believe there were a dozen theatre-goers in my congregation. After a +very busy and heaven-blest ministry of half a dozen years, I discovered +that the rapid migration up town would soon leave our congregation too +feeble for self-support. I accordingly started a movement to erect a new +edifice up on Murray Hill, and to retain the old building in Market +Street as an auxiliary mission chapel. A handsome subscription for the +erection of the up-town edifice was secured, and the "Consistory" (which +is the good Dutch designation of a board of church officers), convened +to vote the first payment for the land. The new site was not wisely +chosen, and many of my people were still opposed to any change; but the +casting vote of one good old man (whom I shall thank if I ever encounter +him in the Celestial World) negatived the whole enterprise, and it was +immediately abandoned. + +A few weeks before that decision, I had received a call to take charge +of a brave little struggling Presbyterian Church in the newer part of +Brooklyn. I sent for the officers, and informed them that if they would +purchase the ground on the corner of Lafayette Avenue and Oxford Street, +and pay for it in a fortnight, and promise to build for me a church with +good acoustics and capable of seating from eighteen hundred to two +thousand auditors, I would be their pastor. Instead of turning purple in +the lips at such a bold proposal, 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 dollar! I resigned Market Street Church +immediately, and on the next Sabbath morning, while the Easter bells +were ringing under a dark stormy sky, I came over and faced, for the +first time, the courageous founders of the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian +Church. The dear old Market Street Church lingered on for a few years +more, bleeding at every pore, from the fatal up-town migration, and then +peacefully disbanded. The solid stone edifice was purchased by some +generous Presbyterians in the upper part of the city, who organized +there the "Church of the Sea and Land," which is standing to-day, as a +well-manned light-house amid a dense tenement-house foreign population. +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 classes, 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 ministry. + +This portion of Brooklyn to which we removed in 1860, was very sparsely +settled, and Rev. Henry Ward Beecher said to me: "I do not see how you +can find a congregation there." He lived to say to me: "You are now in +the center, and I am out on the circumference," Brooklyn was then +pre-eminently a "city of churches," and, though we had not a dozen +millionaires, it was not infested with any slums. In a population of +over three hundred thousand there was then only a single theatre, and +when one of our people was asked: "What do you do for recreation over +there?" he replied, "We go to church." + +Certainly no one was ever attracted to our own modest little temporary +sanctuary by its beauty; for it was unsightly without, though very +cheerful within. Soon after we commenced the building of our present +stately edifice the startling report of cannon shook the land from sea +to sea. + + "And then we saw from Sumter's wall + The star-flag of the Union fall, + And armed hosts were pressing on + The broken lines of Washington." + +Every other public edifice in this city then in process of erection was +brought to a standstill; but we pushed forward the work, like Nehemiah's +builders, with a trowel in one hand and a weapon in the other. To raise +funds for the structure, required faith and self-denial, and in this +labor of love, woman's five fingers were busy and helpful. One brave +orphan girl in New York gave, from her hard earnings as a public school +teacher, a sum so large that the announcement of it from my pulpit +aroused great enthusiasm, and turned the scale at the critical moment, +and insured the completion of the structure. Justly may our pulpit +vindicate woman's place, and woman's province in the cause of Christ and +humanity, for without woman's help that pulpit might never have been +erected. + +On the 16th of March, 1862, our church edifice was dedicated to the +worship of Almighty God, Dr. Asa D. Smith, of Dartmouth College, +delivering the dedication sermon, and in the evening, my brilliant and +beloved brother, Professor Roswell D. Hitchcock, gave us one of his +incisive and inspiring discourses. The building accommodates eighteen +hundred worshippers, and in emergencies, twenty-five hundred. It is a +model of cheerfulness and convenience, and is so felicitous in its +acoustics that an ordinary conversational tone can be heard at the +opposite end of the auditorium. The picture of the Church in this volume +gives no adequate idea of the size of the edifice; for the Sunday School +Hall and lecture-room and social parlors are situated in the rear, and +could not be presented in the photographic view. I fear that too many +costly church edifices are erected that are quite unfit for our +Protestant modes of religious service. It is said that when Bishop +Potter was called upon to consecrate one of the "dim religious" +specimens of mediaeval architecture, and was asked his opinion of the +new structure, he replied: "It is a beautiful building, with only three +faults: you cannot see in it--you cannot hear in it--you cannot breathe +in it." + +I need not detail the story of my happy Brooklyn pastorate; for that is +succinctly given in the closing chapter of this volume. 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 townsmen. Brooklyn, although removed from New +York (for I cannot yet twist my tongue into calling it "Manhattan") by a +five minutes' journey on the East River Bridge, is a very different town +in its political and social aspects. New York is penned in on a narrow +island, and ground is worth more than gold. It is therefore piled up +with very fine apartment houses for the rich, or tenement houses for the +poor to more stories than the ancient buildings on the Canongate of +Edinburgh. Here in Brooklyn we have all Long Island to spread over, and +land is within the reach of even a parson's purse. A man never feels so +rich as when he owns a bit of real estate, and I take some satisfaction +in the bit of land in the front of my domicile, and in the rear, capable +of holding several fruit trees and rose-beds. Oxford Street has the deep +shade of a New England village. We come to know our neighbors here, +which is a degree of knowledge not often attained in New York or London. +The social life here is also less artificial than at the other end of +the bridge. There is less of the foreign element, and of either great +wealth or poverty; we have neither the splendor of Paris, nor the +squalor of the by-streets of Naples. The name of "Breucklen" was given +to our town by its original Dutch settlers, 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 England. My old friend, Mayor Low, +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 politics. For self-protection, I joined with my +lamented brother, the late Dr. Storrs, in an effort to maintain our +independence. Ours is pre-eminently a city of homes where the bulk of +the people live in an undivided dwelling, and I do not believe that +there is another city either in America, or elsewhere, that contains +over a million inhabitants, so large a proportion of whom are in a +school house during the week, and in God's house on the Sabbath. + +[Illustration: THE LAFAYETTE AVENUE CHURCH.] + +One of the glories of Brooklyn is its vast and picturesque "Prospect +Park," with natural forests, hills and dales and its superb outlook over +the bay and ocean. + +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 residence; and its bright show of +flowers makes it a constant delight to my neighbors. Last year some of +my fellow-townspeople made an exceedingly generous proposition to place +there a memorial statue; and I felt compelled to publish the following +reply to an offer which quite transcended any claim that I could have to +such an honor: + + 176 SOUTH OXFORD STREET, JUNE 12, 1901. + + MESS JOHN N. BEACH, D.W. MCWILLIAMS, AND THOMAS T. BARR. + + _My Dear Sirs_, + + 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 elsewhere. Do not, I entreat you, regard me as indifferent to a + proposition whose motive affords the most profound and heartfelt + gratitude; but a work of art in bronze or marble, such as has been + suggested, that would be creditable to our city, would require an + outlay of money that I cannot conscientiously consent to have + expended for the purpose of personal honor rather than of public + utility. 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 Avenues. If my most esteemed friend, Park + Commissioner Brower, will kindly have my name visibly and + permanently affixed to that little park, and will direct that it be + always kept as bright and beautiful with flowers as it now is, I + shall be abundantly satisfied. I have been permitted to spend + forty-one supremely happy years in this city which I heartily love, + and for whose people I have joyfully labored; and while the + permanent fruits of these labors remain, I trust I shall not pass + out of all affectionate remembrance. A monument reared by human + hands may fade away; but if God has enabled me to engrave my humble + name on any living hearts, they will be the best monument; for + hearts live on forever. While declining the proffered honor, may I + ask you to convey my most sincere and cordial thanks to the kind + friends who have joined with you in this generous proposal, and, + with warm personal regard, I remain, + + Yours faithfully, + + THEODORE L. CUYLER. + +I cannot refrain here from thanking my old friend, Dr. St. Clair +McKelway, the brilliant editor of the _Brooklyn Eagle_, for his generous +tribute which accompanied the publication of the above letter. His +grandfather, Dr. John McKelway, a typical Scotchman, was my family +physician and church deacon in the city of Trenton. Among the editorial +fraternity let me also mention here the name of my near neighbor, Mr. +Edward Gary, of the _New York Times_, who was with me in Fort Sumter, +at the restoration of the flag, and with whom I have foregathered in +many a fertilizing conversation. Away off on the slope above beautiful +Stockbridge, and surrounded by his Berkshire Hills, Dr. Henry M. Field +is spending the bright "Indian summer" of his long and honored career. +For forty years we held sweet fellowship in the columns of the _New York +Evangelist_. + +The experience of the great Apostle at Rome, who dwelt for nearly two +years in his "hired house," has been followed by numberless examples of +the ministers of the Gospel who have had a migratory home life. My +experience under rented roofs led me to build, in 1865, this dwelling, +which has housed our domestic life for seven and thirty years. A true +homestead is not a Jonah's gourd for temporary shelter from sun and +storm, it is a treasure house of accumulations. Many of its contents are +precious heirlooms; its apartments are thronged with memories of friends +and kinsfolk living or departed. Every room has its scores of occupants, +every wall is gladdened with the visions of loved faces. I look into +yonder guest chamber, and find my old friends, Governor Buckingham, and +Vice-President Wilson, who were ready to discuss the conditions of the +temperance reform which they had come to advocate. Down in the +dining-room the "Chi-Alpha" Society of distinguished ministers are +holding their Saturday evening symposium; in the parlor my Irish guest, +the Earl of Meath, is describing to me his philanthropies in London, and +his Countess is describing her organization of "Ministering Children." +In the library, Whittier is writing at the table; or Mr. Fulton is +narrating his missionary work in China; out on the piazza my veteran +neighbor, General Silas Casey, is telling the thrilling story of how he +led our troops at the storming of the Heights of Chapultepec; up the +steps comes dear old John G. Paton, with his patriarchal white beard, to +say "good-bye," before he goes back to his mission work in the New +Hebrides. + +No room in our dwelling is more sacred than the one in which I now +write. On its walls hang the portraits of my Princeton Professors, and +those of majestic Chalmers and the gnarled brow of Hugh Miller, the +Scotch geologist, the precious gifts of the author of "Rab and His +Friend." Near them is the bright face of dear Henry Drummond, looking +just as he did on that stormy evening when he came into my library a few +hours after his arrival from Scotland. I still recall his reply to me in +Edinburgh, when I cautioned him against permitting his scientific +studies to unspiritualize his activities. "Never you fear," said he, "I +am too busy in trying to save young men; and the only way to do that is +to lead them to the Lord Jesus Christ," In former years this room was +my beloved mother's "Chamber of Peace" that opens to the sun-rising. Her +pictured face looks down upon me now from the wall, and her Bible lies +beside me. In this room we gathered on the afternoon of September 14, +1887, around her dying bed. Her last words were: "Now kiss me good +night," and in an hour or two she fell into that sweet slumber which +Christ gives His beloved, at the ripe age of eighty-five. Her mental +powers and memory were unimpaired. On the monument which covers her +sleeping dust in Greenwood is engraved these words: "Return unto thy +rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee." + +This room is also hallowed by another tenderly sacred association. Here +our beloved daughter, Louise Ledyard Cuyler, closed her beautiful life +on the last day of September, 1881. On her return from Narragansett +Pier, she was stricken with a mysterious typhoid fever, which often lays +its fatal touch on the most youthful and vigorous frame. She had +apparently passed the point of danger, and one Sabbath when I read to +her that one hundred and twenty-first Psalm, which records the watchful +love of Him who "never sleeps," our hearts were gladdened with the +prospect of a speedy recovery. Then came on a fatal relapse; and in the +early hour of dawn, while our breaking hearts were gathered around her +dying bed, she had "another morn than ours." Why that noble and gifted +daughter, who was the inseparable companion of her fond mother, and who +was developing into the sweet graces of young womanhood, was taken from +our clinging arms at the early age of twenty-two, God only knows. Many +another aching parental heart has doubtless knocked at the sealed door +of such a mystery, and heard the only response, "What I do thou knowest +not now, but thou shalt know hereafter." Upon the monument that bears +her name, graven on a cross, amid a cluster of white lilies, is +inscribed: "I thank my God upon every remembrance of thee." The lovely +twin brother, "Georgie" (whose sweet life story is told in "The Empty +Crib"), reposes in our same family plot, and beside him lies a baby +brother, Mathiot Cuyler, who lived but twelve days. As this infant was +born on the twenty-fifth of December, 1873, his tiny tomb-stone bears +the simple inscription: "Our Christmas Gift." + +During all our seasons of domestic sorrow the cordial sympathies of our +noble-hearted congregation were very cheering; for we had always kept +open doors to them all, and regarded them as only an enlargement of our +own family. In our household joys, they too, participated. When the +twenty-fifth anniversary of our marriage occurred, they decorated our +church with flags and flowers and suspended a huge marriage-bell on an +arch before the pulpit. After the President of our Board of Trustees, +the Hon. William W. Goodrich, had completed his congratulatory address, +two of the officers of the church in imitation of the returning spies +from Eshcol marched in, "bearing between them on a staff" a capacious +bag of silver dollars. A curiously constructed silver clock is also +among the treasured souvenirs of that happy anniversary. + +In April, 1885, the close of the first quarter-century of my ministry +was celebrated by our church with very delightful festivities. Addresses +were delivered by his Honor Mayor Low, Dr. McCosh, of Princeton, Dr. +Richard S. Storrs, and the Hon. John Wanamaker, Post-Master General. A +duodecimo volume giving the history of our church and all its activities +was published by order of our people. + +From such a loyal flock in the full tide of its prosperity, to cut +asunder, required no small exercise of conscience and of courage. When +the patriarchal Dr. Emmons, of Franklin, Massachusetts, resigned his +church at the age of eighty, he gave the good reason: "I mean to stop +when I have sense enough to know that I have not begun, to fail." In +exercising the same grace, on a Sabbath morning in February, 1890, I +made before a full congregation the following announcement: "Nearly +thirty years have elapsed since I assumed the pastoral charge of the +Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church; 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 denomination. It +has two thousand three hundred and thirty members; and is third in point +of numbers in the United States. This church has always been to me like +a beloved child: I have given to it thirty years of hard and happy +labor. It is now my foremost desire that its harmony may remain +undisturbed, and that its prosperity may remain unbroken. 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 generation, and the time has now +come to transfer this most sacred trust to some other, who, in God's +good Providence, may have thirty years of vigorous work before him, and +not behind him. If God spares my life to the first Sabbath in April, it +is my purpose to surrender this pulpit back into your hands, and I shall +endeavor to co-operate with you in the search and selection of the right +man to stand in it. 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 happiness. 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 bear." + +The congregation was quite astounded by this unexpected announcement, +but they recognized the motive that prompted the step, and acted +precisely as I desired. They agreed at once to appoint a committee to +look for a successor. In order that I might not hamper him in any +respect, I declined the generous offer of our church to make me their +"Pastor Emeritus." + +As my pastorate began on an Easter Sabbath, in 1860, so it terminated at +the Easter in 1890. Before an immense assemblage I delivered, on that +bright Sabbath, the Valedictory discourse which closes the present +volume, and which gives in condensed form the history of the Lafayette +Avenue Church. + +Our noble people never do anything by halves; and a few evenings after +the delivery of my valedictory discourse they gave to their pastor and +his wife a public reception, for which the church, lecture-room and the +church parlors were profusely adorned; and were crowded with guests. +Congratulatory addresses were delivered by Dr. John Hall of the Fifth +Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York, by Professor William M. Paxton, of +Princeton Theological Seminary; and congratulatory letters were read +from the venerable poet, Whittier, the Hon. William Walter Phelps, Mr. +A.A. Low (the Mayor's father), General William H. Seward, Bishop Potter +and Dr. Herrick Johnson, besides a vast number of others renowned in +Church and State. On behalf of the Brooklyn pastors an address was +pronounced by the Rev. Dr. L.T. Chamberlain, which was a rare gem of +sparkling oratory. In his concluding passage he said: "Nor in all these +have I for an instant forgotten the dual nature of that ministry, which +has been so richly blessed. I recall that in the prophet's symbolic act, +he took to himself two staves, the one was 'Beauty,' while the other was +'Bands.' In the kingdom of grace and in the kingdom of nature, +loveliness is ever the fit complement of strength. Accordingly, to her, +who has been the enthroned one in the heart, the light-giver in the +home, the beloved of the church, we tender our most fervent good wishes +For her also we lift on high our faithful, tender intercession. To each, +to both, we give the renewed assurance of our abiding affection. God +grant that life's shadows may lengthen gently and slowly! Late, may you +both ascend to Heaven: long and happily may you abide with us here!" The +report of the proceedings of that evening says that at this reference to +the "dual" character of his ministry, "the veteran pastor sprang to his +feet and, seizing Dr. Chamberlain's hand, exclaimed; 'I thank you for +that, and the whole assembly's applause revealed its heartfelt +sympathy." I had declined more than once, for good reasons, the kind +offer of my generous flock to increase my salary, but, when on that +evening that crowned my thirty years of labor, my dear neighbor and +church elder, Mr. John N. Beach (on behalf of the congregation), put +into my hands a cheque for thirty thousand dollars, "not as a charity +but as a token of our warm hearted grateful love," I could only say with +the Apostle Paul: "I rejoice in the Lord that your care has _blossomed +out afresh_" (for this is the literal reading of the great apostle's +gratitude). + +The proceedings of that memorable evening were closed by a benediction +by the Rev. Dr. Charles L. Thompson, then Moderator of our General +Assembly and now the super-royal Secretary of our Board of Home +Missions. The proceedings were afterwards compiled in a beautiful volume +entitled "A Thirty Years' Pastorate," by the good taste and literary +skill of my beloved friend, the late Jacob L. Gossler. + +In justice to myself, let me say that I have given this narrative of the +closing scenes of my pastoral labors, not, I trust, as a matter of +personal vain glory; 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 pastor, whose simple aim has been, +with God's help, to do his duty. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +LIFE AT HOME--AND FRIENDS ABROAD. + + +A few months after my resignation, the Lafayette Avenue Church extended +an unanimous call to the Rev. Dr. David Gregg, who had become +distinguished as a powerful preacher, and the successful pastor of the +old, historic Park Street Church, of Boston. He is also widely known by +his published works, which display great vigor and beauty of style, and +a fervid spirituality. When Dr. Gregg came on to assume his office, I +was glad, not only to give him a hearty welcome, but to assure him that, +"as no one had ever come up into the pilot house to interfere with the +helmsman, so I would never lay my hand on the wheel that should steer +that superb vessel in all its future voyagings." From that day to this, +my relations with my beloved successor have been unspeakably fraternal +and delightful. While I have left the entire official charge of the +church in his hands, there have been many occasions on which we have +co-operated in various pastoral duties among a flock that was equally +dear to us both. Recently the Rev. George R. Lunn, a young minister of +exceedingly attractive qualities both in the pulpit and in personal +intercourse, has been installed as an assistant pastor. The divine +blessing has constantly rested upon the noble old church, which has gone +steadily on, like a powerful ocean steamer, well-manned, well-equipped, +well-freighted, and well guided by the compass of God's infallible word. +Last year the church rendered a signal service to the cause of Foreign +Missions by erecting a "David Gregg Hospital" and a "Theodore L. Cuyler +Church" in Canton, China. They are both under the supervision of the +Rev. Albert A. Fulton, who went out to China from our Lafayette Avenue +flock, and has been a most energetic and successful missionary for more +than twenty years. + +My ministry at large has brought a needed rest, not by idleness, but by +a change in the character of my employment. Instead of a weekly +preparation of sermons, has come the preparation of more frequent +contributions to the religious press. Instead of pastoral visitations +have been the journeyings to different churches, or colleges, and +universities and Young Men's Christian Associations for preaching +services. I doubt whether any other dozen years of my life have been +more crowded with various activities. To my dear wife and myself have +come increased opportunities for travel, which have been, during the +almost half century of our happy wedded life, a constant source of +enjoyment. We have journeyed together from Bar Harbor, in Maine, to +Coronado Beach, in Southern California. We have traversed together the +Adirondacks, the White Mountains and the Catskills, the prairies of +Dakota and the orange groves of Florida, the peerless parks of Del Monte +on the shores of the Pacific, and the "Royal Gorge" in the heart of the +Rocky Mountain Range. Our various trips to Europe have photographed on +our hearts the memories of many dear friends and faces, some of whom, +alas! have vanished into the unseen world. In the summer of 1889, when +we were at Ayr, the late Mr. Alexander Allan, came down for us in his +fine steam yacht, the _Tigh-na-Mara_, and took us up to his hospitable +"Hafton House" on the Holy Loch, a few miles below Glasgow. For several +days he gave us yachting excursions through Loch Goil, and the Kyles of +Bute, and Loch Long, with glimpses of Ben-Lomond and other monarchs of +the Highlands. When we saw the gorgeous purple garniture of heather in +full bloom, we no longer wondered that Sir Walter Scott was quite +satisfied to have his beloved hills devoid of forests. + +Another memorable visit of that summer was to Chillitigham Castle in +Northumberland, from whose towers we got views of Flodden Field and the +scenes of "Marmion." The venerable Earl of Tankerville (who was a +contemporary and supporter of Sir Robert Peel in Parliament), and his +warm-hearted Countess, who has long been a leader in various Christian +philanthropies, entertained us delightfully within walls that had stood +for six centuries. 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 Conqueror. They are +beautiful white creatures, still too wild to be approached very nearly; +and Sir Edwin Landseer, an old friend of the Earl, has preserved +life-sized portraits of two of them on the walls of the lofty dining +hall of the castle. When the servants, gardeners and other retainers +assembled for morning worship in the chapel, the handsome old Earl +presided at the melodeon, and the singing was from our American Sankey's +hymn-book, a style of music that would have startled the belted knights +and barons bold who worshipped in that chapel five centuries ago. + +While at Dundee, as the guests of Mr. Alexander H. Moncur, the +Ex-provost of the city, I had the satisfaction of preaching in St. +Peters Presbyterian Church, whose pastor, sixty years ago, was that +ideal minister, Robert Murray McCheyne. The Bible from which he +delivered his seraphic sermons was still lying on the pulpit. When I +asked a plain woman, the wife of a weaver, what she could tell me about +his discourses, her remarkable reply was: "It did me more good just to +see Mr. McCheyne walk from the door to his pulpit than to hear any other +man in Dundee." A fine tribute, that, to the power of a Christly +personality. A sermon in shoes is often more eloquent and +soul-convincing than a sermon on paper. I spent a very pleasant hour +with sturdy John Bright, and he told me that he had more relatives +living in America than in England. 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 him. The +separation of Bright and Gladstone on the question of Irish Home Rule +had a certain tragic element of sadness. When I spoke of this to Mr. +Gladstone, the old statesman of Hawarden tenderly replied: "Whenever I +think now of my dear old friend, 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 Dr. Schlieman in his superb house which was filled with the +trophies of his exploration of the Troad and Mycenae. I found him a most +genial man; and he told me that he had never surrendered his American +citizenship, acquired in 1850. 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 chat, or Euripides call with +an invitation to witness a rehearsal of the "Medea." Athens is to me the +most satisfactory of all the restored cities of antiquity, every relic +there is so indisputably genuine. My sunrise view from the Parthenon was +a fair match for a midnight view I once had of Olivet and Gethsemane. + +I cannot close these recollections of foreign friends without making +mention of the late Mr. William Tweedie and his successor the late Mr. +Robert Rae, the efficient Secretaries of the National Temperance League +(of which Archbishop Temple has long been the President). They rendered +me endless acts of kindness, and at their anniversary meetings I met +many of the most prominent advocates of the temperance reform in Great +Britain. It gives me a sharp pang to recall the fact that of all the +leaders whom I met at those meetings, the gallant Sir Wilfred Lawson and +Mr. Caine are almost the only survivors. + +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 birthday. Reluctant as I was to quit the _good Society of the +Seventies_, the transition into four-score was lubricated by so many +loving kindnesses that I scarcely felt a jolt or a jar. During the whole +month of January a steady shower of congratulatory letters poured in +from all parts of the land and from beyond sea, so that I was made to +realize the poet Wordsworth's modest confession: + + "I've heard of hearts unkind kind deeds + With coldness still returning, + Alas, the gratitude of men + Has oftener left me mourning." + +In anticipation of the event Mrs. Houghton, the editor of the _New York +Evangelist_, to which I have been so long a contributor, issued a +"Birthday Number" containing the most kindly expressions from +representatives of different Christian denominations, and officers of +various benevolent societies, and from representative men in secular +affairs, like Mr. Andrew Carnegie, Mr. Jesup, General Woodford, the Hon. +Mr. Coombs, Dr. St. Clair McKelway, and others. On the afternoon of +January 9th, the National Temperance Society honored me with a reception +at their Publication House in New York, which was attended by many +eminent citizens and clergymen, and "honorable women not a few." Letters +and telegrams from many quarters were read and an eloquent address was +pronounced by Mr. Joshua L. Bailey, the President of the Society. The +evening of my birthday, the 10th of January, was spent in our own +home, which was in full bloom with an immense profusion of flowers, and +enriched with beautiful gifts from many generous hearts. For three hours +it was the "joy unfeigned" of my family and myself to grasp again the +warm hands of our faithful Lafayette Avenue flock, and of my Brooklyn +neighbors who had for two-score years gladdened our lives, as the Great +Apostle was gladdened by his loyal friends at Thessalonica. + +[Illustration: DR CUYLER AT 80] + +[From a photograph, January, 1902] + +On Saturday evening the 11th, the "Chi Alpha" Society of New York, the +oldest and most widely known of clerical brotherhoods, gave me their +fraternal greetings at the residence of the venerable Mrs. William E. +Dodge, now blessed with unimpaired vigor, in the golden autumn of a life +protracted beyond four-score and ten. 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 America. Brief speeches were made; a beautiful +"address" was presented, which now, embossed and framed, adorns the +walls of my library. After this the Rev. Charles Lemuel Thompson, an +Ex-moderator of our General Assembly, and now the Secretary of the Board +of Home Missions, 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 King. 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 reprinted. I ought to +add that "Croton" is the name of the river and the reservoir that supply +New York with its wholesome water: + + _OUR CAPTAIN_. + + Fill--fill up your glasses--with Croton! + Fill full to the brim I say, + For the dearest old boy among us, + Who is ten times eight to-day. + + It is three times three and a tiger-- + It is hand to your caps, O men! + For our Captain of captains rejoices, + In his counting of eight times ten. + + Foot square on the bridge and gripping + As steady as fate the wheel, + He has taken the storms to his forehead, + And cheered in the tempest's reel. + + He has seen the green sea monsters + Go writhing down the gale, + But never a hand to slacken, + And never a heart to fail. + + So It's--Ho'--to our Captain dauntless, + Trumpet-tongued and eagle-eyed, + With the spray of the voyage behind him, + And the Pilot by his side. + + Together they sail into sunset-- + Slow down for the harbor bell, + For the flash of the port, and the message + "Well done"---It is well--It is well. + + So it's three times three and a tiger! + Breathe deep for the man we love, + His heart is the heart of a lion, + His soul is the soul of a dove. + + It is--Ho!--to the Captain we honor, + Salute we the man and the day, + On his brow are the snows of December, + In his heart are the bird songs of May. + +The Scripture passage from which I discoursed on the next Sabbath +morning, January 12th, 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 spent. +There are some people who have a pitiful dread of old age. For myself, +instead of it being a matter of sorrow or of pain, it is rather an +occasion of profound joy that God has enabled me to write in my family +record "Four score years." The October of life may be one of the most +fruitful months in all its calendar; and the "Indian summer" its +brightest period when God's sunshine kindles every leaf on the tree +with crimson and golden glories. Faith grows in its tenacity of fibre by +the long continued exercise of testing God, and trusting His promises. +The veteran Christian can turn over the leaves of his well-worn Bible +and say: "This Book has been my daily companion; I know all about this +promise and that one and that other one; for I have tried them for +myself, I have a great pile of cheques which my Heavenly Father has +cashed with gracious blessings." Bunyan brings his Pilgrim, not into a +second infant school where they may sit down in imbecility, or loiter in +idleness; he brings them into Beulah Land, where the birds fill the air +with music; and where they catch glimpses of the Celestial City. They +are drawing nearer to the end of their long journey and beyond that +river, that has no bridge, looms up the New Jerusalem in all its +flashing splendors. + +In a previous chapter I have told the story of our bereavement when God +took three of our precious children to Himself; but to-day we can chant +the twenty-third Psalm, for the overflowing cup of mercies that sweeten +our home, and for the two loving children that are spared to us. Our +eldest daughter, Mary, is the wife of Dr. William S. Cheeseman, an +eminent physician in the beautiful city of Auburn, the County-seat of my +native County of Cayuga. It is the site of one of our principal +Theological Seminaries, from which have graduated many of the foremost +ministers in our Presbyterian denomination. One of the earliest +professors of that institution was the revered Dr. Henry Mills, who +baptized me in my infancy. Auburn is also well known as the residence of +our celebrated statesman William H. Seward, who was Secretary of State +under President Lincoln. 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 papers; and just beyond is the bronze statue reared to +his memory. Our only living son, Theodore Ledyard Cuyler, Jr., the +surviving twin brother of "little Georgie," fills an honorable position +as an officer of the Postal Telegraph and Cable Company in New York. +Since the death of his lovely young wife, several years ago, he has +resided with us, and his only son, "Ledyard," is the joy of his +grandparents' hearts. The sister and niece of my wife complete our +household--and our happiness. + +My journey hence to the sun-setting must be brief at the farthest. I +only ask to live just as long as God has any work for me to do--and not +one moment longer. I do not seek to measure with this hand how high the +sun of life may yet be above the horizon; but when it does go down, may +my closing eyes behold the bright effulgence of Heaven's blessings upon +yonder glorious sanctuary, and its faithful flock. After my long day's +work for the Master is over, and this mortal body has been put to sleep +in yonder beautiful dormitory of "Greenwood" by the sea, I desire that +the inscription that shall be written over my slumbering dust may be, +"The Founder of Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +THE JOYS OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. + +_A Valedictory Discourse Delivered to the Lafayette Avenue Church, +April_ 6, 1890. + + +I invite your attention this morning to the nineteenth and twentieth +verses of the second chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Thessalonians: + + "For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? + Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ + at His coming? For ye are our glory and joy." + +These words were written by the most remarkable man in the annals of the +Christian Church. Great interest is attached to them from the fact that +they are part of the first inspired epistle that Paul ever wrote. Nay, +more. The letter to the Church of Thessalonica is probably the earliest +as to date of all the books of the New Testament. Paul was then at +Corinth, about fifty-two years old, in the full vigor of his splendid +prime. His spiritual son, Timothy, brings him tidings from the infant +church in Thessalonica, that awakens his solicitude. He yearns to go +and see them, but he cannot; so he determines to write to them; and one +day he lays aside his tent needle, seizes his pen, and, when that pen +touches the papyrus sheet the New Testament begins. The Apostle's great, +warm heart kindles and blazes as he goes on, and at length bursts out in +this impassioned utterance: "Ye are my glory and joy!" + +Paul, I thank thee for a thousand things, but for nothing do I thank +thee more than for that golden sentence. In these thrilling words, the +greatest of Christian pastors, rising above the poverty, homelessness, +and scorn that surrounded him, reaches forth his hand and grasps his +royal diadem. No man shall rob the aged hero of his crown. No chaplet +worn by a Roman conqueror in the hour of his brightest triumph, rivals +the coronal that Pastor Paul sees flashing before his eyes. It is a +crown blazing with stars; every star an immortal soul plucked from the +darkness of sin into the light and liberty of a child of God. Poor, is +he? He is making many rich. Despised is he? He wouldn't change places +with Caesar. Homeless is he? His citizenship is in heaven, where he will +find myriads whom he can meet and say to them: "Ye, ye are my glory and +joy." Sixteen centuries after Paul uttered these words, John Bunyan +re-echoed them when he said: + +"I have counted as if I had goodly buildings in the places where my +spiritual children were born. 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 world, or the lord of all the glory of +the earth without it. He that converteth a sinner from the error of his +ways doth save a soul from death, and they that be wise shall shine as +the brightness of the firmament." + +Now, the great Apostle expressed what every ambassador of Christ +constantly experiences when in the thick of the Master's work. His are +the joys of acquisition. His purse may be scanty, his teaching may be +humble, and the field of his labor may be so obscure that no bulletins +of his achievements are ever proclaimed to an admiring world. +Difficulties may sadden and discouragement bring him to his knees; but I +tell you that obscure, toiling man of God has a joy vouchsafed to him +that a Frederick or a Marlborough never knew on the field of bloody +triumph, or that a Rothschild never dreams of in his mansions of +splendor, nor an Astor with his stores of gold. Every nugget of fresh +truth discovered makes him happier than one who has found golden spoil. +Every attentive auditor is a delight; every look of interest on a human +countenance flashes back to illuminate his own. Above all, when the +tears of penitence course down a cheek and a returning soul is led by +him to the Saviour, there is great joy in heaven over a repentant +wanderer, and a joy in that minister's heart too exquisite to utter. +Then he is repaid in full measure, pressed down, running over into his +bosom. + +Converted souls are jewels in the caskets of faithful parents, teachers +and pastors. They shall flash in the diadem which the Righteous Judge +shall give them in that great day. Ah! it is when an ambassador of +Christ sees an army of young converts and listens to the first +utterances of their new-born love, and when he presides at a communion +table and sees his spiritual off-spring gathered around him, more true +joy that faithful pastor feels than "Caesar with a Senate at his heels." +Rutherford, of Scotland, only voiced the yearnings of every true +pastor's heart when he exclaimed: "Oh, how rich were I if I could obtain +of my Lord the salvation of you all! What a prey had I gotten to have +you all caught in Christ's net. My witness is above, that your heaven +would be the two heavens to me, and the salvation of you all would be +two salvations to me." + +Yet, my beloved people, 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 +it. For very many months my mind was balancing between the pulpit and +the attractions of a legal and political career. A single hour in a +village prayer-meeting turned the scale. But perhaps behind it all a +beloved mother's prayers were moving the mysterious hand that touched +the poised balance, and made souls outweigh silver, and eternity +outweigh time. + +Would that I could lift up my voice this morning in every academy, +college and university on this broad continent. I would say to every +gifted Christian youth, "God and humanity have need of you." He who +redeemed you by His precious blood has a sovereign right to the best +brains and the most persuasive tongues and the highest culture. Why +crowd into the already over-crowded professions? The only occupation in +America that is not overdone is the occupation of serving Jesus Christ +and saving souls. I do not affirm that a Christian cannot serve his +Master in any other sphere or calling than the Gospel ministry, but I do +affirm that the ambition for worldly gains and worldly honors is +sluicing the very heart of God's Church, and drawing out to-day much of +the Church's best blood in their greedy outlets. And I fearlessly +declare that when the most splendid talent has reached the loftiest +round on the ladder of promotion, that round is many rungs lower than a +pulpit in which a consecrated tongue proclaims a living Christianity to +a dying world. What Lord Eldon from the bar, what Webster from the +Senate-chamber, what Sir Walter Scott from the realms of romance, what +Darwin from the field of science, what monarch from Wall Street or +Lombard Street can carry his laurels or his gold up to the judgment seat +and say, "These are my joy and crown?" The laurels and the gold will be +dust--ashes. 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 throne, then he may say, "What is my hope, or joy, or crown of +rejoicing. Are not even ye in the presence of Christ at His coming?" + +Good friends, I have told you what aspirations led me to the pulpit as a +place in which to serve my Master; and I thank Christ, the Lord, for +putting me into the ministry. The forty-four years I have spent in that +office have been unspeakably happy. Many a far better man has not been +as happy from causes beyond control. He may have had to contend with +feeble health as I never have; or a despondent temperament, as I never +have; or have struggled to maintain a large household on a slender +purse; he may have been placed in a stubborn field, where the Gospel was +shattered to pieces on flinty hearts. From all such trials a kind +Providence has delivered your pastor. + +My ministry began in a very small church. For that I am thankful. Let no +young minister covet a large parish at the outset. The clock that is not +content to strike one will never strike twelve. In that little parish +at Burlington, N.J., I had opportunity for the two most valuable studies +for any minister--God's Book and individual hearts. My next call was to +organize and serve an infant church in Trenton, N.J., and for that I am +thankful. Laying the foundation of a new church affords capital tuition +in spiritual masonry, and the walls of that church have stood firm and +solid for forty years. The crowning mercy of my Trenton ministry was +this, that one Sunday while I was watering the flock, a goodlier vision +than that of Rebecca appeared at the well's mouth, and the sweet +sunshine of that presence has never departed from the pathway of my +life. To this hour the prosaic old capital of New Jersey has a halo of +poetry floating over it, and I never go through it without waving a +benediction from the passing train. + +The next stage of my life's work was a seven years' pastorate of Market +Street Church in the city of New York. To those seven years of hard and +happy labor I look back with joy. The congregation swarmed with young +men, many of whom have risen to prominence in the commercial and +religious life of the great metropolis. The name of Market Street is +graven indelibly on my heart. I rejoice that the quaint old edifice +still stands and welcomes every Sabbath a congregation of landsmen and +of sailors. During the year 1858 occurred the great revival, when a +mighty wind from Heaven filled every house where the people of God were +sitting, and the glorious work of that revival kept many of us busy for +six months, night and day. + +Early in the year 1860 a signal was made to me from this side of the +East River. It came from a brave little band then known as the Park +Presbyterian Church, who had never had any installed pastor. The signal +at first was unheeded; but a higher than human hand seemed to be behind +it, and I had only to obey. That little flock stood like the man of +Macedonia, saying, "Come over and help us," and after I had seen the +vision immediately I decided to come, assuredly concluding that God had +called me to preach the Gospel unto them. + +This morning my memory goes back to that chilly, stormy April Sunday +when my labors began as your first pastor. About two hundred and fifty +people, full of grace and grit, gathered on that Easter morning to see +how God could roll away stones that for two years had blocked their path +with discouragement. My first message many of you remember. It was, "I +determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him +crucified." Of that little company the large majority has departed. Many +of them are among the white-robed that now behold their risen Lord in +glory. Of the seventeen church officers--elders, deacons and +trustees--then in office, who greeted me that day, only four are living, +and of that number only one, Mr. Albion P. Higgins, is now a member of +this congregation. I wonder how many there are here this morning that +gathered before my pulpit on that Easter Sunday thirty years ago? 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 pews. + +(Thirteen people here stood up.) + +God bless you! If it hadn't been for you this ark would never have been +built. + +Ah! we had happy days in that modest chapel. The tempest of civil war +was raging, with Lincoln's steady hand at the helm. We got our share of +the gale; but we set our storm-sails, and every one that could handle +ropes stood at his or her place. Just think of the money contributions +that small church made during the first year of my pastorate--$20,000, +not in paper, but in gold. The little band in that chapel was not only +generous in donations but valiant in spirit, and it was under the +gracious shower of a revival that we removed into this edifice on the +16th of March, 1862. + +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 sentences. In 1863 Mr. William Wickes started a +mission school, which afterward grew into the present Cumberland Street +Church. In 1866 occurred that wonderful work of grace that resulted in +the addition of 320 souls to our membership, one hundred of them heads +of families. As a thank-offering to God for that rich blessing the +Memorial Mission School was established, which was soon organized into +the Memorial Presbyterian Church, now on Seventh Avenue, under the +excellent pastorate of my Brother Nelson. During the winter of 1867 a +conference of gentlemen was held in yonder study which set on foot the +present Classon Avenue Church, where my Brother Chamberlain administers +equally satisfactorily. Olivet Mission was organized in 1874. It will +always be fragrant with the memory of Horace B. Griffing, its first +superintendent. The Cuyler Chapel was opened on Atlantic Avenue in +March, 1886, by our Young People's Association, who are maintaining it +most vigorously. The little Corwin Mission on Myrtle Avenue was +established by a member of the church to perpetuate his name, and is +largely sustained by members of this church. + +Of all the efficient, successful labors of the Lafayette Avenue +Temperance Society, the Women's Home and Foreign Missionary Society, +their Benevolent Society, the Cuyler Mission Band, the Daughters of the +Temple, and other kindred organizations. I have no time or place to +speak this morning. But I must repeat now what I have said in years +past, that the two strong arms of this church are its Sunday School and +its Young People's Association. The former has been kept well up to the +ideal of such an institution. It is that of a training school of young +hearts for this life and for the life to come. God's blessing has +descended upon it like the morning dew. Of the large number of children +that have been enrolled in its classes 730 have been received into +membership with this church alone, and to the profession of faith in +Christ--to say nothing of those who have joined elsewhere. Warmly do I +thank and heartily do I congratulate our beloved brother, Daniel W. +McWilliams, and his faithful group of teachers, and the Superintendent +of the primary department and her group of assistants, on the seal which +God has set upon their loving work. They contemplate the long array of +children whom they have guided to Jesus; and they, too, can exclaim, +"What is our joy or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the Lord?" + +If the Sunday School has rendered good service, so has the well-drilled +and well-watered Young People's Association. The fires of devotion have +never gone out on the altar of their Monday evening gatherings. For +length of days and number of membership combined, probably it surpasses +all similar young people's associations in our country. About three +thousand names have been on its membership roll, and of this number +twelve have set their faces toward the Gospel ministry. Oh, what a +source of joy to me that I leave that association in such a high +condition of vigor and prosperity! No church can languish, no church can +die, while it has plenty of young blood in its veins. + +What has been the outcome of these thirty years of happy pastorate? As +far as the results can be tabulated the following is a brief +summary:--During my pastorate here I have preached about 2,750 +discourses, have delivered a very large number of public addresses in +behalf of Sunday Schools, Young Men's Associations, the temperance +reform, and kindred enterprises for advancing human welfare. I have +officiated at 682 marriages. I have baptized 962 children. The total +number received into the membership of this church during this time has +been 4,223. Of this number 1,920 have united by a confession of their +faith in Jesus Christ. An army, you see, an army of nearly two thousand +souls, have enlisted under the banner of King Jesus, and taken their +"sacramentum," or vow of loyalty, before this pulpit. What is our crown +of rejoicing? Are not even they in the presence of Christ at His +coming? + +It is due to you that I should commend your liberality in gifts to God's +treasury. During these thirty years over $640,000 have been contributed +for ecclesiastical and benevolent purposes, and about $700,000 for the +maintenance of the sanctuary, its worship, and its work. Over a million +and a quarter of dollars have passed through these two channels. The +successive boards of trustees have managed our financial affairs +carefully and efficiently. The architecture of this noble edifice is not +disfigured by any mortgage. I hope it never will be. + +There is one department of ministerial labor that has had a peculiar +attraction to me and afforded me peculiar joy. Pastoral work has always +been my passion. It has been my rule to know everybody in this +congregation, if possible, and seldom have I allowed a day to pass +without a visit to some of your homes. I fancied that you cared more to +have a warm-hearted pastor than a cold-blooded preacher, however +intellectual. To carry out thoroughly a system of personal oversight, to +visit every family, to stand by the sick and dying beds, to put one's +self into sympathy with aching hearts and bereaved households, is a +process that has swallowed up time, and I tell you it has strained the +nerves prodigiously. Costly as the process has been, it has paid. If I +have given sermons to you, I have got sermons from you. The closest tie +that binds us together is that sacred tie that has been wound around the +cribs in your nurseries, the couches in your sick chambers, the chairs +at your fireside, and even the coffins that have borne away your +precious dead. My fondest hope is that however much you may honor and +love my successor in this pulpit, 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 service. + +Here let me bespeak for my successor the most kind and reasonable +allowance as to pastoral labors. Do not expect too much from him. Very +few ministers have the peculiar passion for pastoral service that I have +had; and if Christ's ambassador who shall occupy this pulpit proclaims +faithfully the whole Gospel of God and brings a sympathetic heart to +your houses, do not criticize him unjustly because he may not attempt to +make twenty-five thousand pastoral visits in thirty years. House to +house visitation has only been one hemisphere of the pastor's work. I +have accordingly endeavored to guard the door of yonder study so that I +might give undivided energy to preparation for this pulpit. + +You know, my dear people, how I have preached and what I have preached. +In spite of many interruptions, I have honestly handled each topic as +best I could. The minister that foolishly runs races with himself is +doomed to an early suicide. 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 understand, and have been preached in full +view of the judgment seat. I have aimed to keep this pulpit abreast of +all great moral reforms and human progress, and the majestic marchings +of the kingdom of King Jesus. The preparation of my sermons has been an +unspeakable delight. The manna fell fresh every morning, and it had to +me the sweetness of angels' food. Ah, there are many sharp pangs before +me. None will be sharper than the hour that bids farewell to yonder +blessed and beloved study. For twenty-eight years it has been my daily +home--one of the dearest spots this side of Heaven. From its walls have +looked down upon me the inspiring faces of Chalmers, Charles Wesley, +Spurgeon, Lincoln and Gladstone; Adams, Storrs, Guthrie, Newman Hall, +and my beloved teachers, Charles Hodge and the Alexanders of Princeton. +Thither your infant children have been brought on Sabbath mornings, +awaiting their baptism. Thither your older children have come by +hundreds to converse with me about the welfare of their souls. Thither +have come all the candidates for admission to the fellowship of this +church, and have made there their confession of faith and their +allegiance to Christ. Oh, what blessed interviews with inquirers have +been held there! What sweet and happy fellowship with my successive +bands of helpers, some of whom have joined the general assembly of the +redeemed in glory. That hallowed study has been to me sometimes a Bochim +of tears, and sometimes a Hermon, when the vision was of no man save +Jesus only. And the work there has been a wider one for a far wider +multitude than these walls contain this morning. I have written there +nearly all the hundreds of articles which have gone out through the +religious press, over this country, over Great Britain, over Europe, +over Australia, Canada, India, and New Zealand. During my ministry I +have published about 3,200 of these articles. Many of them have been +gathered into books, many of them translated into Swedish, Spanish, +Dutch, and other foreign tongues. They have made the scratch of a very +humble pen audible to Christendom. The consecrated pen may be more +powerful than the consecrated tongue. I devoutly thank God for having +condescended to use my humble pen to the spread of his Gospel; and I +purpose with His help to spend much of the brief remainder of my life in +preaching His glorious Gospel through the press. + +I am sincerely sorry that the necessities of this hour seem to require +so personal a discourse this morning; but I must hide behind the +example of the great Apostle who gave me my text. Because He reviewed +His ministry among His spiritual children of Thessalonica, I may be +allowed to review my own, too--standing here this morning under such +peculiar circumstances. These thirty years have been to me years of +unbounded joy. Sorrow I have had, when death paid four visits to my +house; but the sorrow taught sympathy with the grief of others. Sins I +have committed--too many of them; your patient love has never cast a +stone. The faults of my ministry have been my own. The successes of my +ministry have been largely due under God, to your co-operation, and, +above all, to the amazing goodness of our Heavenly Father. Looking my +long pastorate squarely in the face, I think I can honestly say that I +have been no man's man; I have never courted the rich, nor wilfully +neglected the poor; I have never blunted the sword of the Spirit lest it +should cut your consciences, or concealed a truth that might save a +soul. In no large church is there a perfect unanimity of tastes as to +preaching. I do not doubt that there are some of you that are quite +ready for the experiment of a new face in this pulpit, and perhaps there +may be some who are lusting after the fat quail of elaborate or +philosophic discourse. For thirty years I have tried to feed you on +"nothing but manna." Whatever the difference of taste, you have always +stood by me, true as steel. This has been your spiritual home; and you +have loved your home, and you have drunk every Sunday from your own +well, and though the water of life has not always been passed up to you +in a richly embossed silver cup, it has drawn up the undiluted Gospel +from the inspired fountain-head. To hear the truth, to heed the truth, +to "back" the truth with prayer and toil, has been the delight of the +stanchest members of this church. Oh, the children of this church are +inexpressibly dear to me! There are hundreds here to-day that never had +any other home, nor ever knew any other pastor. I think I can say that +"every baptism has baptized us into closer fellowship, every marriage +has married us into closer union, every funeral that bore away your +beloved dead, only bound us more strongly to the living." 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 declined; for I long ago determined never to be +pastor of any other than Lafayette Avenue Church. + +What is my joy or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye--ye--in the +presence of Christ at His coming? Why, then, sunder a tie that is bound +to every fibre of my inmost heart? I will answer you frankly. There must +be no concealment or false pretexts between us. In the first place, as +I told you two months ago, I had determined to make my thirtieth +anniversary the terminal point of my present pastorate. I determined not +to outstay my fullest capacity for the enormous work demanded here. The +extent of that demanded work increases every twelve months. The +requirements of preaching twice every Sunday, to visit the vast number +of families directly connected with this church, attending funeral +services, conferring with committees about Christian work of various +kinds, and numberless other duties--all these requirements are +prodigious. Thus far, by the Divine help, I have carried that load. My +health to-day is as firm as usual; and I thank God that such forces of +heart and brain as He has given me are unabated. The chronic catarrh +that long ago muffled my ears to many a strain of sweet music, has never +made me too deaf to hear the sweet accents of your love. 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 down; and there must be no risk run with you or with +myself. I also desire to assist you in transferring this magnificent +vessel to the next pilot whom God shall appoint; and I wish to transfer +it while it is well-manned, well-equipped, and on the clear sea of an +unbroken financial and spiritual prosperity. 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 usefulness. + +For these reasons I present to-day my resignation of this sacred, +precious charge. It is my honest desire and purpose that this day must +terminate my present pastorate. For presenting this resignation I alone +am responsible before God, before this church and before the world. When +you shall have accepted my resignation, the whole responsibility for the +welfare of this beloved church will rest on your shoulders--not on mine. +My earnest prayer is that you may soon be directed to the right man to +be your minister, to one who shall unite all hearts and all hands, and +carry forward the high and holy mission to which God has called you. He +will find in me not a jealous critic, but a hearty ally in everything +that he may regard for the welfare of this church. + +As for myself I do not propose to sit down on the veranda and watch the +sun of life wheel downward in the west. The labors of a pen and of a +ministry at large will afford me no lack of employment. The welfare of +this church is inexpressibly dear to me--nothing is dearer to me this +side of heaven. If, therefore, while this flock remains shepherdless, +and in search of my successor, I can be of actual service to you in +supplying at any time this pulpit or performing pastoral labor, that +service, beloved, shall be performed cheerfully. + +The first thought, the only thought with all of us, is this church, +_this church_, THIS CHURCH. I call no man my friend, you must call no +man your friend that does not stand by the interests of Lafayette Avenue +Church. It is now called to meet a great emergency. For the first time +in twenty-eight years this church is subjected to a severe strain. +During all these years you had very smooth sailing. You have never been +crippled by debt; you have never been distracted with quarrels, and you +have never been without a pastor in your pulpit or your homes when you +needed him. And I suppose no church in Brooklyn has ever been subjected +to less strain than this one. Now you are called upon to face a new +condition of things, perhaps a new danger--certainly a new duty. The +duty overrides the danger. To meet that duty you are strong in numbers. +There are 2,350 names on your church register. Of these many are young +children, many are non-residents who have never asked a dismission to +other churches; but a great army of church members three Sabbaths ago +rose up before that sacramental table. You are strong in a holy harmony. +Let no man, no woman, break the ranks! You are strong in the protection +of that great Shepherd who never resigns and who never grows old. "Lo! I +am with you always! Lo! I am with you always! Lo! I am with you +always!" seems to greet me this morning from every wall of this +sanctuary. I confidently expect to see Lafayette Avenue Church move +steadily forward with unbroken column led by the Captain of our +salvation. All eyes are upon you. The eye that never slumbers or sleeps +is watching over you. If you are all true to conscience, true to your +covenants, true to Christ, the future of this dear church may be as +glorious as its past. And when another thirty years have rolled away, it +may still be a strong tower of the truth on which the smile of God shall +rest like the light of the morning. By as much as you love me, I entreat +you not to sadden my life or break my heart by ever deserting these +walls, or letting the fire of devotion burn down on these sacred altars. + +The hands of the clock warn me to close. This is one of the most trying +hours of my whole life. It is an hour when tears are only endurable by +being rainbowed with the memory of tender mercies and holy joys. When my +feet descend those steps to-day, this will no longer be my pulpit. I +surrender it back before God into your hands. One of my chiefest sorrows +is that I leave some of my beloved hearers out of Christ. Oh, you have +been faithfully warned here, and you have been lovingly invited here; +and once more, as though God did beseech you by me, I implore you in +Christ's name to be reconciled to God. This dear pulpit, whose teachings +are based on the Rock of Ages, will stand long after the lips that now +address you have turned to dust. It will be visible from the judgment +seat; and its witness will be that I determined to know not anything +among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. To-day I write the last +page in the record of thirty bright, happy, Heaven-blessed years among +you. What is written is written. I shall fold up the book and lay it +away with all its many faults; and it will not lose its fragrance while +between its leaves are the pressed flowers of your love. When my closing +eyes shall look on that record for the last time, I hope to discover +there only one name--the name that is above every name, the name of Him +whose glory crowns this Eastern morn with radiant splendor, the name of +Jesus Christ, King of kings, and Lord of lords. And the last words I +utter in this sacred spot are unto Him that loves us and delivers us +from sin with His precious blood; and unto God be all the praise and +thanks and dominion and glory for ever and ever. Amen. + + + + +INDEX. + +A + + +Adams, Dr. William, 201-205. +Albert, Prince, 32. +Alexander, Archibald, 82, 191-3. +Alexander, Dr. James W, 9. +Alexander, Dr. Joseph Addison, 82, 193-5. +Alexander, Stephen, 9. +Allen, Mr. Alexander, 314. +Allison, William J, 121. +American Seamen's Friend Society, 255. +Anderson, Captain James, 146, 149. +Armstrong, Samuel C, 158. +Astor, John Jacob, 273, 275-6. +Aurora, birthplace, I. + +B + + +Bailey, Joshua, 57. +Baillie, Mrs. Joanna, 30-1. +Barnes, Albert, 195. +Batcheler, General, 231. +Beecher, Henry Ward, 150, 152, 213-15, 295. +Beecher, Miss Catherine, 231. +Binney, Thomas, 170-172. +Blair, General Francis P., 10. +Bonar, Dr. Horatius, 40, 42. +Booth, Mrs. Catherine, 265. +Booth, General, 265. +Bowring, Sir John, 39-40. +Bright, John, 27, 134, 316. +Brown, Dr. John, 105, 109, 147. +Brooks, Phillips, 195. +Burns, Robert, 12, 17-19, 26. +Bushnell, Horace, 190-1. +Byron, Lord, 13. + +C + + +Campbell, Thomas, 31. +Carlyle, Thomas, 23-9. +Carnaham, Dr., President of Princeton, 9. +Carnegie, Andrew, 59-60, 275. +Cary, Edward, 301. +Cass, General Lewis, 34. +Channing, Dr. Ellery, 31. +Chauncey, Charles, 63. +Cheeseman, Dr. William, 322. +Chi Alpha Society, 319. +Christian Endeavor (See Young People's Society of, etc.). +Clark, Rev. Francis E., 87, 247, 258. +Comstock, Anthony, 264. +Cook, Joseph, 231. +Cox, Dr. Samuel Hanson, 209-13. +Crosby, Fanny, 43. +Cunningham, Professor, 13. +Cuyler, Benjamin Ledyard, Dr. Cuyler's father, 2; died, 3. +Cuyler, General, 2. +Cuyler, Dr., ancestry, 1, 2; childhood, 3; farm life, 4; early + religious training and reading, 5; preparation for college, + 8; college memories, 9-11; visits England and + France, Wordsworth, Dickens, Carlyle, Mrs. Baillie, + the Young Queen, Napoleon, 12-36; first public address, + 1842, 49, 50; visits Stockholm, 46; delivers his first + address in New York, 54; President National Temperance + Society, 57; views on temperance, 58-59; + chooses the ministry, 61; at Princeton Seminary, 62; + first pastorate, 62, 83; preaches at Saratoga, 64; methods + of preaching, 64-73; changes in pulpit methods, 75-81; + preaches five months at Wyoming Valley, 83, 84; work + in New York, 85, 86; Lafayette Avenue, 1860, 86; + methods of church work, 87-90; first literary contributions, + 93; origin of "Under the Catalpa," 95; extent + of literary labors, 95; first book, 96; inspiration of + "The Empty Crib," 96; inspiration of "God's Light on + Dark Clouds," 97; visits to famous people abroad, + Gladstone, 99-104, Dr. John Brown, 105-109; Dean + Stanley, 109-115; Earl Shaftesbury, 116, 117, interviews + with famous people at home--Irving, 118-121; Whittier, + 121-125; Webster, 125-132; Greeley, 132-137; Civil War, + 138, services to "The Christian Commission," 130; at + Washington, 131; first meeting with Lincoln, 142; to + Europe in 1862, 145-149; at Edinburgh, 146-147; at + Paris, 148; address on Emancipation, 149-150; trip to + Charleston, Fort Sumter, 151; views on pastoral work, + 159-169; British pastors--Binney, 170-72; Hamilton, + 172-3, Guthrie, 175-76; Hall, 177-181; Spurgeon, + 181-86; Duff, 187-89; reminiscences of Princeton Seminary + preachers, 191, reminiscences of famous American + preachers--Phillips Brooks, 190; Horace Bushnell, + 191-2, Archibald Alexander, 191-3; Joseph Addison + Alexander, 193-5; Albert Barnes, 195, Dr. William + B. Sprague, 196-197; Dr. Stephen H. Tyng, 197-200, + Dr. William Adams, 201-5; Samuel Hanson + Cox, 209-13; Henry Ward Beecher, 213-15; Rev. + Charles G. Finney, 216-220; Dr. Benjamin M. + Palmer, 221-223; summering at Saratoga, 224-232; + meets leading Methodists--Bishop Jaynes, Bishop + Simpson, Bishop Peck, etc, 227-8, Bishop Haven, + 229-31; summering at Mohonk, 232; Dr. Schaff, 235; + Dr. McCosh, 237-9; Mr. Smiley, 240; Indian Conferences + at Mohonk, 240; "Arbitration Conference," 240; + letter from President Harrison, 242, preservation of + health, 243, growth of church fellowship and diminution + of sectarianism, 244-9; exchanging pulpits, 246-9, + women in the pulpit--Miss Smiley, 249-50; foreign + missions, 251-254; Young Men's Christian Association, + 255-57; Christian Endeavor Society, 258; missionary + work in New York, 260-268; missionary work in + Brooklyn, 268-272; views on the modern novel, 281-82; + views on the new theology, 285-87; ministry in + Burlington and Trenton, N J, 288, marriage, 289; + his wife, 289-292; Market Street Dutch Reformed + Church of New York, 292-294; calls to various + churches, 292; Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, + 294; Brooklyn, 298; house, 302-303; death of his mother, + 304, death of his daughter, 304-5; celebration of quarter + century of ministry at Lafayette Church, 306; + resignation from the church, 307-09; travels, 314-317; + commemoration of 80th birthday, 317-20, valedictory + sermon, delivered at Lafayette Avenue Church, 325-46. +Cuyler, Theodore Ledyard, Jr., 323. + +D + + +Dayton, Hon. William L, 148. +Delano, Captain Joseph C, 12. +Dickens, Charles, 20-22. +Dix, General, 57. +Dod, Albert B, 9. +Dod, Hon. Amzi, 11. +Dodge, Hon William E, 56, 57, 275. +Dow, Neal, 53-55. +Drummond, Henry, 303. +Duff, Dr. Alexander, 187-89. +Duffield, John T., 10. + +F + + +Faraday, Sir Michael, 10. +Farrar, Archdeacon, 248. +Finney, Rev. Charles G., 76, 216-220. + +G + + +Girard, Stephen, 273. +Gladstone, William E., 99, 104, 272. +Gough, Hon. John B, 51-53. +Gould, Miss Helen M., 251. +Greeley, Horace, 132-137. +Gregg, Rev. Dr. David, 312. +Grellet, Stephen, 121. +Gurney, Mrs. Joseph John, 121. +Guthrie, Dr. Thomas, 175-176. + +H + + +Hackett, Horatio B., 231. +Hall, Rev Newman, 26, 177-181. +Hamilton College, 2 +Hamilton, Dr. James, 172-3 +Harrison, President Benjamin, letter to Dr. Cuyler, 242. +Harvey, Sir George, 107 +Hatfield, Dr. Edward F., 47. +Haven, Bishop, 229-31. +Hayes, President R.B., 235. +Henry, Joseph, 9, 10, 140. +Hodge, Archibald Alexander, 10. +Hodge, Dr. Charles, 82. +Hopkins, Dr. Mark, 57 +Howard, General O.O., 57. +Hoxie, Judge, 151, 152. +Huntington, Daniel, 259 + +I + + +Irving, Washington, 118-121. + +J + + +James, John Angell, 174 +Jaynes, Bishop, 227-8 +Jesup, Morris K., 274 +Judson, Adoniram, 253. + +K + + +Kirk, Rev. Edward N, 73. + +L + + +Ledyard, General Benjamin, Dr. Cuyler's grandfather, 1. +Ledyard, Hon Henry, 34. +Ledyard, Mary Forman, Dr. Cuyler's grandmother, 2. +Lewis, Senator Dixon H., 127. +Lincoln, Abraham, 141-146, 152-157, 229. +Little, Mr., founder of the "Living Age," 205. +Livingstone, David, 174. +Longfellow, Henry Wordsworth, 24. + +M + + +Mandeville, Rev. Gerrit, 8. +Marquand, Frederick, 256. +Mason, Dr. Lowell, 43, 44. +Mathew, Father Theobald, 49-51. +Mathiot, Annie E., Dr. Cuyler's wife, 289. +Melvill, Henry, 170. +Miller, Dr. Samuel, 82. +Moffat, Robert, 174. +Mohonk, 224, 232-42. +Mohonk Lake Mountain House, 232-242. +Montgomery, James, 37-8. +Montgomery, Satan, 38. +Moody, Dwight L., 90-91, 216, 247. +Morrell, Charles Horton, 4. +Morrell, Louise Frances, Dr. Cuyler's mother, 2. +Mott, Richard, 121. +Muhlenberg, Dr. William Augustus, 45-6. +McBurney, Robert, 256. +McChyne, Robert Murray, 315. +McCosh, President of Princeton, 237-9. +McSloane, Bishop Charles P., 247. +McKelway, Dr. St. Clair, 301. +McLaren, Dr. Alexander, 66, 73, 172. +McLean, "Uncle Johnny," 9. + +N + + +Napoleon, Grand Army of, 35. +Napoleon's Tomb, 35-6. +National Temperance Society and Publication House, 55, 57. +Nixon, John T., 10. + +P + + +Palmer, Dr. Benjamin M., 221-223. +Palmer, Dr. Ray, 43-5. +Park, Edwards A., Professor, 209. +Pease, Rev. L.M., 260. +Peck, Bishop, 228 +Phillipe, Louis, 34 +Pierpont, John, 231. +Pratt, Charles, 274 +Prentiss, Mrs. Elizabeth Payson, 47. + +R + + +Raffles, Dr., 12. +Renwick, Professor, 13. +Robertson, Frederick W., 73. +Rockefeller, John D., 274. +Roe, Robert, 317 + +S + + +Salvation Army, 265-7 +Sankey, Ira D., 91 +Saratoga, 224-26 +Schaff, Dr. Philip, 235-7. +Schlieman, Dr., 316 +Scott, Sir Walter, 16, 17, 30. +Scudder, Edward W., 10. +Seward, William H., 323. +Shaftesbury, Earl, 116-117. +Sloane, Rev. M., 42 +Simpson, Bishop Matthew, 228-9 +Smiley, Mr., Indian and Arbitration Conferences, 240-1. +Smiley, Miss Sara F., 249. +Smith, Dr. Samuel F., 46-47 +Society for the Prevention of Vice, 264, +Southey, Robert, 16. +Spalding, Levi, 251. +Spurgeon, Charles H., 181-86. +Spurgeon, Rev. Thomas, 186 +Sprague, Dr. William B., 196-197. +Stanley, Dean, 109-115 +Stitt, Dr., 255. +Storrs, Dr. Richard S., 205-209 +Strong's, Dr., Remedial Institute at Saratoga, 227. + +T + + +Temple, Dr., 248 +Thompson, Rev. Charles Lemuel, 319. +Torrey, Dr. John, 9 +Tweedie, William, 317 +Tyng, Dr. Stephen H., 197-200 + +V + + +Valedictory Sermon, 325-46 +Van Buren, President Martin, 231. +Van Rensellaer, 93 +Vickers, Mr., 37-8 +Victoria, Queen, 32-4. + +W + + +Walker, Richard W., 10 +Washington, Booker T., 158 +Webster, Daniel, 125-132 +Wells College, 3 +Whitcomb, Miss Mary, 51. +Whittier, John G., 121-125. +Wilberforce, William, 22 +Willard, Frances E., 231. +Williams, Sir George, 116, 246-7, 255. +Wilson, Professor, "Christopher North," 13. +Wilson, Vice-President Henry, 231. +Woman's Christian Temperance Union, 60. +Wordsworth, William, 13-16. + +Y + + +Young Men's Christian Association, 246-7, 255. +Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor, 246-7 + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Recollections of a Long Life +by Theodore Ledyard Cuyler + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RECOLLECTIONS OF A LONG LIFE *** + +***** This file should be named 12549-8.txt or 12549-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/5/4/12549/ + +Produced by PG Distributed Proofreaders. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: + https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + + diff --git a/old/12549-8.zip b/old/12549-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9e03990 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12549-8.zip diff --git a/old/12549.txt b/old/12549.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..01bb334 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12549.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8214 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Recollections of a Long Life, by Theodore Ledyard Cuyler + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Recollections of a Long Life + An Autobiography + +Author: Theodore Ledyard Cuyler + +Release Date: June 8, 2004 [EBook #12549] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RECOLLECTIONS OF A LONG LIFE *** + + + + +Produced by PG Distributed Proofreaders. Produced from images provided +by the Million Book Project. + + + + + +[Illustration: THEODORE LEDYARD CUYLER] + +RECOLLECTIONS OF A LONG LIFE + +AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY + +BY THEODORE LEDYARD CUYLER, D.D., LL.D. _Author of "God's Light on Dark +Clouds," "Heart Life," Etc._ + +1902. + + + + CONTENTS + + I + + BOYHOOD AND COLLEGE LIFE + + II + + GREAT BRITAIN SIXTY YEARS AGO + _Wordsworth--Dickens--The Land of Burns, etc_. + + III + + GREAT BRITAIN SIXTY YEARS AGO (Continued) + _Carlyle--Mrs. Baillie--The Young Queen--Napoleon_ + + IV + + HYMN-WRITERS I HAVE KNOWN + _Montgomery--Bonar--Bowring--Palmer and others_. + + 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--Dr. Brown--Dean Stanley--Shaftesbury, etc._ + + X + + SOME FAMOUS PEOPLE AT HOME + _Irving--Whittier--Webster--Greeley, etc_. + + XI + + THE CIVIL WAR AND ABRAHAM LINCOLN + + XII + + PASTORAL WORK + + XIII + + SOME FAMOUS PREACHERS IN BRITAIN + _Binney--Hamilton--Guthrie--Hall--Spurgeon--Duff and others_. + + XIV + + SOME FAMOUS AMERICAN PREACHERS + _The Alexanders--Dr. Tyng--Dr. Cox--Dr. Adams + --Dr. Storrs--Mr. Beecher, Mr. Finney and Dr. B.M. Palmer_. + + XV + + SUMMERING AT SARATOGA AND MOHONK + _Bishop Haven--Dr. Schaff--President McCook._ + + XVI + + A RETROSPECT + + XVII + + A RETROSPECT (Continued) + + 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 Church, April_ 6, 1890. + + ILLUSTRATIONS. + + THEODORE LEDYARD CUYLER + + DR. CUYLER WHEN PASTOR OF THE MARKET ST. CHURCH + + DR CUYLER AT 50 + + LAFAYETTE AVENUE CHURCH + + DR. CUYLER AT 80 + + +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 lake, which +should be a landmark through all the journey of life, and to which we +could tether our memory. I have always been thankful that the place of +my nativity was the beautiful village of Aurora, on the shores of the +Cayuga Lake in Western New York. My great-grandfather, General Benjamin +Ledyard, was one of its first settlers, and came there in 1794. He was a +native of New London County, Ct., a nephew of Col. William Ledyard, the +heroic martyr of Fort Griswold, and the cousin of John Ledyard, the +celebrated traveller, whose biography was written by Jared Sparks. When +General Ledyard came to Aurora some of the Cayuga tribe of Indians were +still lingering along the lakeside, and an Indian chief said to my +great-grandfather, "General Ledyard, I see that your daughters are very +pretty squaws." The eldest of these comely daughters, Mary Forman +Ledyard, was married to my grandfather, Glen Cuyler, who was the +principal lawyer of the village, and their eldest son was my father, +Benjamin Ledyard Cuyler. He became a student of Hamilton College, +excelled in elocution, and was a room-mate of the Hon. Gerrit Smith, +afterward eminent as the champion of anti-slavery. On a certain Sabbath, +the student just home from college was called upon to read a sermon in +the village church of Aurora, in the absence of the pastor, and his +handsome visage and graceful delivery won the admiration of a young lady +of sixteen, who was on a visit to Aurora. Three years afterward they +were married. My mother, Louisa Frances Morrell, was a native of +Morristown, New Jersey; and her ancestors were among the founders of +that beautiful town. Her maternal great-grandfather was the Rev. Dr. +Timothy Johnes, the pastor of the Presbyterian Church, who administered +the sacrament of the Lord's Supper to General Washington. Her paternal +great-grandfather was the Rev. Azariah Horton, pastor of a church near +Morristown, and an intimate friend of the great President Edwards. The +early settlers of Aurora were people of culture and refinement; and the +village is now widely known as the site of Wells College, among whose +graduates is the popular wife of ex-President Cleveland. + +In the days of my childhood the march of modern improvements had hardly +begun. There was a small steamboat plying on the Cayuga Lake. There was +not a single railway in the whole State. When I went away to school in +New Jersey, at the age of thirteen, the tedious journey by the +stagecoach required three days and two nights; every letter from home +cost eighteen cents for postage; and the youngsters pored over Webster's +spelling-books and Morse's geography by tallow candles; for no gas lamps +had been dreamed of and the wood fires were covered, in most houses, by +nine o'clock on a winter evening. There was plain living then, but not a +little high thinking. If books were not so superabundant as in these +days, they were more thoroughly appreciated and digested. + +My father, who was just winning a brilliant position at the Cayuga +County Bar, died in June, 1826, at the early age of twenty-eight, when I +was but four and one-half years old. The only distinct recollections +that I have of him are his leading me to school in the morning, and that +he once punished me for using a profane word that I had heard from some +rough boys. That wholesome bit of discipline kept me from ever breaking +the Third Commandment again. After his death, I passed entirely into +the care of one of the best mothers that God ever gave to an only son. +She was more to me than school, pastor or church, or all combined. God +made mothers before He made ministers; the progress of Christ's kingdom +depends more upon the influence of faithful, wise, and pious mothers +than upon any other human agency. + +As I was an only child, my widowed mother gave up her house and took me +to the pleasant home of her father, Mr. Charles Horton Morrell, on the +banks of the lake, a few miles south of Aurora. 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 grandfather! I had the free pure +air of the country, and the simple pleasures of the farmhouse; my +grandfather was a cultured gentleman with a good library, and at his +fireside was plenty of profitable conversation. Out of school hours I +did some work on the farm that suited a boy; I drove the cows to the +pasture, and rode the horses sometimes in the hay-field, and carried in +the stock of firewood on winter afternoons. My intimate friends were the +house-dog, the chickens, the kittens and a few pet sheep in my +grandfather's flocks. 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-bed! + +My Sabbaths in that rural home were like the good old Puritan Sabbaths, +serene and sacred, with neither work nor play. Our church (Presbyterian) +was three miles away, and in the winter our family often fought our way +through deep mud, or through snow-drifts piled as high as the fences. I +was the only child among grown-up uncles and aunts, and the first +Sunday-school that I ever attended had only one scholar, and my good +mother was the superintendent. She gave me several verses of the Bible +to commit thoroughly to memory and explained them to me; I also studied +the Westminster Catechism. I was expected to study God's Book for +myself, and not to sit and be crammed by a teacher, after the fashion of +too many Sunday-schools in these days, where the scholars swallow down +what the teacher brings to them, as young birds open their mouths and +swallow what the old bird brings to the nest. There is a lamentable +ignorance of the language of Scripture among the rising generation of +America, and too often among the children of professedly Christian +families. + +The books that I had to feast on in the long winter evenings were +"Robinson Crusoe," "Sanford and Merton," "The Pilgrim's Progress," and +the few volumes in my grandfather's library that were within the +comprehension of a child of eight or ten years old. I wept over "Paul +and Virginia," and laughed over "John Gilpin," the scene of whose +memorable ride I have since visited at the "Bell of Edmonton," During +the first quarter of the nineteenth century drunkenness was fearfully +prevalent in America; and the drinking customs wrought their sad havoc +in every circle of society. My grandfather was one of the first +agriculturists to banish intoxicants from his farm, and I signed a +pledge of total abstinence when I was only ten or eleven years old. +Previously to that, I had got a taste of "prohibition" that made a +profound impression on me. One day I discovered some "cherrybounce" in a +wine-glass on my grandfather's sideboard, and I ventured to swallow the +tempting liquor. When my vigilant mother discovered what I had done, she +administered a dose of Solomon's regimen in a way that made me "bounce" +most merrily. That wholesome chastisement for an act of disobedience, +and in the direction of tippling, made me a teetotaller for life; and, +let me add, that the first public address I ever delivered was at a +great temperance gathering (with Father Theobald Mathew) in the City +Hall of Glasgow during the summer of 1842. My mother's discipline was +loving but thorough; she never bribed me to good conduct with +sugar-plums; she praised every commendable deed heartily, for she held +that an ounce of honest praise is often worth more than many pounds of +punishment. + +During my infancy that godly mother had dedicated me to the Lord, as +truly as Hannah ever dedicated her son Samuel. When my paternal +grandfather, who was a lawyer, offered to bequeath his law-library to +me, my mother declined the tempting offer, and said to him: "I fully +expect that my little boy will yet be a minister." This was her constant +aim and perpetual prayer, and God graciously answered her prayer of +faith in His own good time and way. I cannot now name any time, day, or +place when I was converted. It was my faithful mother's steady and +constant influence that led me gradually along, and I grew into a +religious life under her potent training, and by the power of the Holy +Spirit working through her agency. A few years ago I gratefully placed +in that noble "Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church" of Brooklyn (of +which I was the founder and pastor for thirty years) a beautiful +memorial window to my beloved mother representing Hannah and her child +Samuel, and the fitting inscription: "As long as he liveth I have lent +him to the Lord." + +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 +Princeton, New Jersey. The religious impressions that began at home +continued and deepened until I united, at the age of seventeen, with the +Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. As an effectual instruction in +righteousness, my faithful mother's letters to me when a schoolboy were +more than any sermons that I heard during all those years. 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 prayers, teaching example, and holy influence. + +My preparation for college was partly under the private tutorship of the +good old Dutch dominie, the Rev. Gerrit Mandeville, who smoked his pipe +tranquilly while I recited to him my lessons in Caesar's Commentaries, +and Virgil; and partly in the well-known Hill Top School, at Mendham, +N.J. I entered Princeton college at the age of sixteen and graduated at +nineteen, for in those days the curriculum in our schools and +universities was more brief than at present. The Princeton college to +which I came was rather a primitive institution in comparison with the +splendid structures that now crown the University heights. There were +only seven or eight plain buildings surrounding the campus, the two +society-halls being the only ones that boasted architectural beauty. In +endowments the college was as poor as a church mouse. There were no +college clubs, no inter-collegiate games, thronged by thousands of +people from all over the land; but the period of my connection with the +college was really a golden period in its history. Never were its chairs +held by more distinguished occupants. The president of the college was +Dr. Carnahan, who, although without a spark of genius, was yet a man of +huge common sense, kindness of heart and excellent executive ability. In +the chair of the vice-president sat dear old "Uncle Johnny" McLean, the +best-loved man that ever trod the streets of Princeton. He was the +policeman of the faculty, and his astuteness in detecting the pranks of +the students was only equalled by his anxiety to befriend them after +they were detected. The polished culture of Dr. James W. Alexander then +adorned the Chair of the Latin Language and English Literature. Dr. John +Torrey held the chemical professorship. He was engaged with Dr. Gray in +preparing the history of American Flora. Stephen Alexander's modest eye +had watched Orion and the Seven Stars through the telescope of the +astronomer; the flashing wit and silvery voice of Albert B. Dod, then in +his splendid prime, threw a magnetic charm over the higher mathematics. +And in that old laboratory, with negro "Sam" as his assistant, reigned +Joseph Henry, the acknowledged king of American scientists. When, soon +after, he gave me a note of Introduction to Sir Michael Faraday, +Faraday said to me: "By far the greatest man of science your country has +produced since Benjamin Franklin is Professor Henry." With Professor +Henry I formed a very intimate friendship, and after he became the head +of the Smithsonian Institution I found a home with him whenever I went +to Washington. + +Our class, which graduated in 1841, contained several members who have +since made a deep mark in church and commonwealth. Professor Archibald +Alexander Hodge was one of us. He inherited the name and much of the +power of his distinguished father. Also General Francis P. Blair, who +rendered heroic service on the battle-field. John T. Nixon brought to +the bench of the United States Court, and Edward W. Scudder brought to +the Supreme Court Bench of New Jersey, legal learning and Christian +consciences. Richard W. Walker became a distinguished man in the +Southern Confederacy. Our class sent four men to professor's chairs in +Princeton. My best beloved classmate was John T. Duffield, who, after a +half century of service as professor of mathematics in the University, +closed his noble and beneficent career on the 10th of April, 1901. I +delivered the memorial tribute to him soon afterward in the Second +Presbyterian Church in the presence of the authorities of the +University. Another intimate friend was the Hon. Amzi Dodd, +ex-chancellor of New Jersey and the ex-president of the New Jersey Life +Insurance Company. He is still a resident of that State. During the past +three-score years it has been my privilege to deliver between sixty and +seventy sermons or addresses in Princeton, either to the students of the +University or of the Theological Seminary, or to the residents of the +town. The place has become inexpressibly dear to me as a magnificent +stronghold of Christian culture and orthodox faith, on the walls of +whose institutions the smile of God gleams like the light of the +morning. O Princeton, Princeton! in the name of the thousands of thy +loyal sons, let me gratefully say, "If we forget thee, may our right +hands forget their cunning, and our tongues cleave to the roofs of our +mouths!" + + + + +CHAPTER II + +GREAT BRITAIN SIXTY YEARS AGO + +_Wordsworth--Dickens--The Land of Burns, etc_. + + +The year after leaving college I made a visit to Europe, which, in those +days, was a notable event. As the stormy Atlantic had not yet been +carpeted by six-day steamers, I crossed in a fine new packet-ship, the +"Patrick Henry," of the Grinnell & Minturn Line. Captain Joseph C. +Delano was a gentleman of high intelligence and culture who, after he +had abandoned salt water, became an active member of the American +Association of Science. After twenty-one days under canvas and the +instructions of the captain, I learned more of nautical affairs and of +the ocean and its ways than in a dozen subsequent passages in the +steamships. + +On the second morning after our arrival in Liverpool I breakfasted with +that eminent clergyman, Dr. Raffles, who boasted the possession of one +of the finest collections of autographs in England. He showed me the +signature of John Bunyan; the original manuscript of one of Sir Walter +Scott's novels; the original of Burns' poem addressed to the parasite +on a lady's bonnet, which contained the famous lines: + + "Oh wad some power the giftie gie us + To see our sel's as others see us," + +besides several other manuscripts by the same poet, and also the +autograph of a challenge sent by Byron to Lord Brougham for alleged +insult, a fact to which no reference has been made in Byron's biography. +From Liverpool, with my friends Professor Renwick and Professor +Cuningham, I set out on a journey to the lakes of England. We reached +Bowness, on Lake Windermere, in the evening. The next morning we went up +to Elleray, the country residence of Professor Wilson ("Christopher +North"), who, unfortunately, was absent in Edinburgh. We hired a boatman +to row us through exquisitely beautiful Windermere, and in the evening +reached the Salutation Inn, at the foot of the lake. My great interest +in visiting Ambleside was to see the venerable poet, Wordsworth, who +lived about a mile from the village. I happened, just before supper, to +look out of the window of the traveller's room and espied an old man in +a blue cloak and Glengarry cap, with a bunch of heather stuck jauntily +in the top, driving by in a little brown phaeton from Rydal Mount. +"Perhaps," thought I to myself, "that may be the patriarch himself," and +sure enough it was. For, when I inquired about Mr. Wordsworth, the +landlord said to me, "A few minutes ago he went by here in his little +carriage." The next morning I called upon him. The walk to his cottage +was delightful, with the dew still lingering in the shady nooks by the +roadside, and the morning songs of thanksgiving bursting forth from +every grove. At the summit of a deeply shaded hill I found "Rydal Mount" +cottage. I was shown, at once, into the sitting-room, where I found him +with his wife, who sat sewing beside him. The old man rose and received +me graciously. By his appearance I was somewhat startled. Instead of a +grave recluse in scholastic black, whom I expected to see, I found an +affable and lovable old man dressed in the roughest coat of blue with +metal buttons, and checked trousers, more like a New York farmer than an +English poet. His nose was very large, his forehead a lofty dome of +thought, and his long white locks hung over his stooping shoulders; his +eyes presented a singular, half closed appearance. We entered at once +into a delightful conversation. He made many inquiries about Irving, +Mrs. Sigourney and our other American authors, and spoke, with great +vehemence, in favor of an international copyright law. He said that at +one time he had hoped to visit America, but the duties of a small office +which he held (Distributer of Stamps), and upon which he was partly +dependent, prevented the undertaking. He occasionally made a trip to +London to see the few survivors of the friends of his early days, but he +told me that his last excursion had proved a wearisome effort. His +library was small but select. He took down an American edition of his +works, edited by Professor Reed, and told me that London had never +produced an edition equal to it. When I was about to leave, the good old +poet got his broad slouched hat and put on his double purple glasses to +protect his eyes, and we went out to enjoy the neighboring views. We +walked about from one point to another and kept up a lively +conversation. He displayed such a winning familiarity that, in the +language of his own poem, we seemed + + "A pair of friends, though I was young, + And he was seventy-four." + +From the rear of his court-yard he showed me Rydal Water, a little lake +about a mile long, the beautiful church, and beyond it, Grassmere, and +still further beyond, Helvelyn, the mountain-king with a retinue of a +hundred hills. I might have spent the whole day in delightful +intercourse with the old man, but my fellow-travellers were going, and I +could make no longer inroads upon their time. When we returned to the +door of his cottage, he gave me a parting blessing; he picked a small +yellow flower and handed it to me, and I still preserve it in my +edition of his works, 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 Mount. + +After passing through Keswick, where the venerable poet Southey was +still lingering in sadly failing intelligence, we reached Carlisle the +same evening. 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 London. The driver, who might have answered to Washington +Irving's description, pointed out to me Netherby Hall, the mansion of +the Grahams, on "Cannobie lea," over which the young Lochinvar bore away +his stolen bride. We passed also Branksome Tower, the scene of the "Lay +of the Last Minstrel," and reached Selkirk in the early evening. The +next day I spent at Abbotsford. The Great Magician had been dead only +ten years, and his family still occupied the house with some of his old +employees who figure in Lockhart's biography. I sat in the great +arm-chair where Sir Walter Scott wrote many of his novels, and looked +out of the window of his bedchamber, through which came the rippling +murmurs of the Tweed, that consoled his dying hours. I heartily +subscribe to the opinion, expressed by Tennyson, that Sir Walter Scott +was the most extraordinary man in British literature since the days of +Shakespeare. + +After reaching Glasgow I made a brief trip into the Land of Burns. At +the town of Ayr I found an omnibus waiting to take me down to the +birthplace of the poet. At that time the number of visitors to these +regions was comparatively few, and the birthplace of the poet had not +been transformed, as now, into a crowded museum. On reaching a slight +elevation, since consecrated by the muse of Burns, there broke upon the +view his monument, his native cottage, Alloway Kirk, the scene of the +inimitable Tam o' Shanter, and behind them all the "Banks and Braes of +Bonnie Doon." I went first to the monument, 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 +Coilsfield. One of the volumes contains, in Burns' handwriting, "Thou +shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thy vows," +and a lock of Mary's hair, of a light brown color, given at the time, is +preserved in the treasured volumes. A few steps away is Alloway Kirk. +The old sexton was standing by the grave of Burns' father, and described +to me the route of "Tam o' Shanter." He showed me the chinks in the +sides through which the kirk seemed "all in a bleeze," 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 blew, + Swifter and swifter the dancers flew." + +After the old man had finished his recital, I asked him whether he had +ever seen the poet. "Only aince," he replied. "That was one day when he +was ridin' on a road near here. I met a friend who told me to hurry up, +for Rabbie Burns was just ahead. I whippit up my horse, and came up to a +roughly dressed man, ridin' slowly along, with his blue bonnet pulled +down over his forehead, and his eyes turned toward the groond." "Didn't +you speak to him?" I said. "Nay, nay," replied the man, in a tone of +deep reverence, "he was Rabbie Burns. _I dare na speak to him_. If he +had been any other mon I would have said 'good morrow to ye.'" Beautiful +and eloquent tribute, paid by an unlettered peasant, not to rank or to +wealth, but to a soul--a mighty soul though clad in "hodden grey" like +himself! + +The most interesting object was yet to be visited--the cottage of his +birth, I entered it with reverence; and a well dressed, but very old, +woman welcomed me in. "This is the room," she said. I looked around on +the rough stone walls and could not believe that it ever contained such +a soul; for the cottage, with all its subsequent repairs, was hardly +equal to the generality of our early log cabins. The old lady was very +affable. In her early life she had been connected with an inn at +Mauchline, and had seen the poet often. "Rabbie was a funny fellow," she +said; "I ken'd him weel; and he stoppit at our hoose on his way up to +Edinburgh to see the lairds." I asked her if he was not always humorous. +"Nae, nae," she replied, "he used to come in and sit doun wi' his hands +in his lap like a bashful country lad; very glum, till he got a drap o' +whuskey, or heard a gude story, _and then he was aff!_ He was very +poorly in his latter days." Those closing days in Dumfries, steeped in +poverty to the lips, forms one of the most tragic chapters in literary +history; 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 drink. An old lady of Kilmarnock told my friend, the +late Dr. Taylor of New York, that when a young woman she had gone to +Burns' house to assist in preparations for his funeral, and stated that +there was not enough decent linen in the house to lay out the most +splendid genius in all Scotland! When I was at Ayr, a sister of Burns, +Mrs. Begg, was still living, and I am always regretting that I did not +call upon her. His widow, Jean Armour, had died but a few years before; +and when a certain pert American who called upon the old lady had the +audacity to ask her: "Can you show me any relics of the poet?" answered +with majestic dignity: "Sir, _I am the only relic of Robert Burns_." + +I went abroad on this first visit to Europe keen for lion hunting, and +with an eager desire to see some of the men who had been my literary +benefactors. On my arrival in London, having a letter of introduction to +Charles Dickens, which a mutual friend had given to me, I resolved to +present it. Charles Dickens was an idol of my college days, and I had +spent a few minutes with him in Philadelphia during his recent visit to +the United States. He had returned from his triumphal tour about a month +before I landed in Liverpool. I called at his house, but he was not at +home. The next day he did me the honor to call on me at Morley's Hotel, +and, not finding me in, invited me up to his house near York Gate, +Regents Park. It was a dingy, brick house surrounded by a high wall, but +cheerful and cozy within. I found him in his sanctum, a singularly +shaped room, with statuettes of Sam Weller and others of his creations +on the mantelpiece. A portrait of his beautiful wife was upon the +wall--that wife, the separation from whom threw a strange, sad shadow +over his home. How handsome he was then! With his deep, dark, lustrous +eyes, that you saw yourself in, and the merry mouth wreathed with +laughter, and the luxuriant mass of dark hair that he wore in a sort of +stack over his lofty forehead! He had a slight lisp in his pleasant +voice, and ran on in rapid talk for an hour, with a shy reluctance to +talk about his own works, but with the most superabounding vivacity I +have ever met with in any man. His two daughters, one of whom afterward +married the younger Collins, a brother novelist, were then schoolgirls +of eight and ten years, came in, with books in their hands, to give +their father a good-morning kiss. After parting with him, when I had +reached his gate, he called after me in a very loud voice, "If you see +Mrs. Lucretia Mott, tell her that I have not forgotten the slave." His +"American Notes" appeared the next week. There were some things in that +hasty and faulty volume for which I sent him a cordial note of thanks, +and I speedily received the following characteristic reply, which I +still prize as a precious relic of the man: + + I DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, + REGENTS PARK, Oct. 26th, 1842. + + MY DEAR SIR:--I am heartily obliged to you for your + frank and manly letter. I shall always remember it in connection + with my American book; and never--believe me--save + in the foremost rank of its pleasant and honorable + associations. + Let me subscribe myself, as I really am + + Faithfully your Friend, + + CHARLES DICKENS. + + Mr. Theodore Ledyard Cuyler. + +I hold that Dickens was the most original genius in our fictitious +literature since the days of Walter Scott. As a social reformer his fame +is quite as great as it is as a master of romance. His pen was mighty to +the pulling down of many a social abuse, and from the loving kindness of +his writings has been got many an inspiration to deeds of charity. But +how could a man who went so far as he did go no further? How could the +reformer who struck at so many social wrongs spare that hideous +fountain-head of misery in London, the dram-shop? And how could he +descend to scurrilously satirize all societies formed for the promotion +of temperance? A still greater marvel is that so kind-hearted a man as +Mr. Dickens, who sought honestly the amelioration of the condition of +his fellow-men, could utterly ignore the transforming power of +Christianity. He did not cast contempt on the Bible, and never soiled +his pages with infidelity, neither did he ever enlighten, and warm and +vivify them with evangelical uplifting truth. Only a few feet of earth +separate the grave of Charles Dickens from the grave of William +Wilberforce. Both loved their fellow-men; but the great difference +between them was that one of them invoked the spiritual power of the +Gospel of Christ, which the other lamentably ignored. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +GREAT BRITAIN SIXTY YEARS AGO (_Continued_) + +_Carlyle--Mrs. Baillie--The Young Queen--Napoleon_ + + +One of the lions of whom I was in pursuit was Thomas Carlyle. Very few +Americans at that time had ever seen him, for he lived a very secluded +and laborious life in a little brick house at Chelsea, in the southwest +of London; and he rarely kept open doors. His life was the opposite to +that of Dickens and Macaulay, and he was never lionized, except when he +went to Edinburgh to deliver his address before the University, years +afterwards. I sent him a note in which I informed him of the +enthusiastic admiration which we college students felt for him, and that +I desired to call and pay him my respects. To my note he responded +promptly: "You will be welcome to-morrow at three o'clock, the hour when +I become accessible in my garret here." I found his "garret" to be a +comfortable front room on the second floor of his modest home. It was +well lined with books, and a portrait of Oliver Cromwell hung behind his +study chair. He was seated at his table with a huge German volume open +before him. His greeting was very hearty, but, with a comical look of +surprise, he said in broad Scotch: "You are a verra young mon." I told +him of the appetite we college boys had for his books, 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 before. "Your Mr. Longfellow," said +he, "called to see me yesterday. He is a man skilled in the tongues. +Your own name I see is Dootch. The word 'Cuyler' means a delver, or one +who digs underground. You must be a Dutchman." I told him that my +ancestors had come over from Holland a couple of centuries ago, and I +was proud of my lineage; for my grandfather, Glen Cuyler, was a +descendant of Hendrick Cuyler, one of the early Dutch settlers of +Albany, who came there in 1667. "Ah," said he, "the Dootch are the +brawvest people of modern times. The world has been rinnin' after a red +rag of a Frenchman; but he was nothing to William the Silent. When +Pheelip of Spain sent his Duke of Alva to squelch those Dutchmen they +joost squelched him like a rotten egg--aye, _they did_." + +I asked him why he didn't visit America, and told him that I had +observed his name registered at Ambleside, on Lake Windermere. "Nae, +nae," said he, "I never scrabble my name in public places." I explained +that it was on the hotel register that I had seen "Thomas Carlyle." "It +was not mine," he replied, "I never travel only when I ride on a horse +in the teeth of the wind to get out of this smoky London. I would like +to see America. You may boast of your Dimocracy, or any other 'cracy, or +any other kind of political roobish, but the reason why your laboring +folk are so happy is that you have a vast deal of land for a very few +people." In this racy, picturesque vein he ran on for an hour in the +most cordial, good humor. He was then in his prime, hale and athletic, +with a remarkably keen blue eye, a strong lower jaw and stiff iron gray +hair, brushed up from a capacious forehead; and he had a look of a +sturdy country deacon dressed up on a Sunday morning for church. He was +very carefully attired in a new suit that day for visiting, and, as I +rose to leave, he said to me: "I am going up into London and I will walk +wi' ye." We sallied out and he strode the pavement with long strides +like a plowman. I told him I had just come from the land of Burns, and +that the old man at the native cottage of the poet had drunk himself to +death by drinking to the memory of Burns. + +At this Carlyle laughed loudly, and remarked: "Was that the end of him? +Ah, a wee bit drap will send a mon a lang way." He then told me that +when he was a lad he used to go into the Kirkyard at Dumfries and, +hunting out the poet's tomb, he loved to stand and just read over the +name--"Rabbert Burns"--"Rabbert Burns." He pronounced the name with deep +reverence. 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 Hunt. At the corner of Hyde Park I +parted from Mr. Carlyle, and watched him striding away, as if, like the +De'il in "Tam O'Shanter," he had "business on his hand." + +Thirty years afterwards, in June, 1872, I felt an irrepressible desire +to see the grand old man once more, and I accordingly addressed him a +note requesting the favor of a few minutes' interview. His reply was, +perhaps, the briefest letter ever written. It was simply: + + "Three P.M. + T.C." + +He told me afterwards that his hand had become so tremulous that he +seldom touched a pen. My beloved friend, the Rev. Newman Hall, asked the +privilege of accompanying me, as, like most Londoners, he had never put +his eye on the recluse philosopher. We found the same old brick house, +No. 5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, without the slightest change outside or in. +But, during those thirty years the gifted wife had departed, and a sad +change had come over the once hale, stalwart man. After we had waited +some time, a feeble, stooping figure, attired in a long blue flannel +gown, moved slowly into the room. His gray hair was unkempt, his blue +eyes were still keen and piercing, and a bright hectic spot of red +appeared on each of his hollow cheeks. His hands were tremulous, and his +voice deep and husky. After a few personal inquiries the old man +launched out into a most extraordinary and characteristic harangue on +the wretched degeneracy of these evil days. The prophet, Jeremiah, was +cheerfulness itself in comparison with him. Many of the raciest things +he regaled us with were entirely too personal for publication. He amused +us with a description of half a night's debate with John Bright on +political economy, while he said, "Bright theed and thoud with me for +hours, while his Quaker wife sat up hearin' us baith. I tell ye, John +Bright _got_ as gude as he _gie_ that night"; and I have no doubt that +he did. + +Most of his extraordinary harangue was like an eruption of Vesuvius, but +the laugh he occasionally gave showed that he was talking about as much +for his own amusement as for ours. He was terribly severe on Parliament, +which he described as "endless babblement and windy talk--the same +hurdy-gurdies grinding out lies and inanities." The only man he had ever +heard in Parliament that at all satisfied him was the Old Iron Duke. "He +gat up and stammered away for fifteen minutes; but I tell ye, he was the +only mon in Parliament who gie us any credible portraiture of the +facts." He looked up at the portrait of Oliver Cromwell behind him, and +exclaimed with great vehemence: "I ha' gone doon to the verra bottom of +Oliver's speeches, and naething in Demosthenes or in any other mon will +compare wi' Cromwell in penetrating into the veritable core of the fact. +Noo, Parliament, as they ca' it, is joost everlasting babblement and +lies." We led him to discuss the labor question and the condition of the +working classes. 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 question." It did +my soul good, as a teetotaler, to hear his scathing denunciation of the +liquor traffic. He was fierce in his wrath against "the horrible and +detestable damnation of whuskie and every kind of strong drink." In this +strain the thin and weird looking old Iconoclast went on for an hour +until he wound up with declaring, "England has joost gane clear doon +into an abominable cesspool of lies, shoddies and shams--down to a +bottomless _damnation_. Ye may gie whatever meaning to that word that ye +like." He could not refrain from laughing heartily himself at the +conclusion of this eulogy on his countrymen. If we had not known that +Mr. Carlyle had a habit of exercising himself in this kind of talk, we +should have felt a sort of consternation. As it was we enjoyed it as a +postscript to "Sartor Resartus" or the "Latter Day" pamphlets, and +listened and laughed accordingly. As we were about parting from him with +a cordial and tender farewell, my friend, Newman Hall, handed him a copy +of his celebrated little book, "Come to Jesus," Mr. Carlyle, leaning +over his table, fixed his eye upon the inscription on the outside of the +booklet, and as we left the room, we heard him repeating to himself the +title "Coom to Jesus--Coom to Jesus." + +About Carlyle's voluminous works, his glorious eulogies of Luther, Knox +and Cromwell, his vivid histories, his pessimistic utterances, his +hatred of falsehood and his true, pure and laborious life, I have no +time or space to write. He was the last of the giants in one department +of British literature. He will outlive many an author who slumbers in +the great Abbey. I owe him grateful thanks for many quickening, +stimulating thoughts, and shall always be thankful that I grasped the +strong hand of Thomas Carlyle. + +One of the literary celebrities to whom I had credentials was the +venerable Mrs. Joanna Baillie, not now much read, but then well known +from her writings and her intimacy with Sir Walter Scott, and to whom +Lockhart devotes a considerable space in the biography. Her residence +was in Hampstead, and I was obliged, after leaving the omnibus, to walk +nearly a mile across open fields which are now completely built over by +mighty London. The walk proved a highly profitable one from the society +of an intelligent stranger who, like every true English gentleman, when +properly approached, was led to give all the information in his power. +When I reached the suburban village of Hampstead, after passing over +stiles and through fields, I at last succeeded in finding her residence, +a quiet little cottage, with a little parlor which had been honored by +some of the first characters of our age. "The female Shakespeare," as +she was sometimes called in those days, was at home and tripped into the +room with the elastic step of a girl, although she was considerably over +three score years and ten. She was very petite and fair, with a sweet +benignant countenance that inspired at once admiration and affection. +Almost her first words to me were: "What a pity you did not come ten +minutes sooner; for if you had you would have seen Mr. Thomas Campbell, +who has just gone away." I was exceedingly sorry to have missed a sight +of the author of "Hohenlinden" and the incomparable "Battle of the +Baltic," but was quite surprised that he was still seeking much society; +for in those days he was lamentably addicted to intoxicants. On more +than one public occasion he was the worse for his cups; and when, after +his death, a subscription was started to place his statue in Westminster +Abbey, Samuel Rogers, the poet, cynically said, "Yes, I will gladly give +twenty pounds any day to see dear old Tom Campbell stand steady on his +legs." 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 century. Mrs. Baillie +entertained me with lively descriptions of Sir Walter Scott, and of her +old friend, Mr. Wordsworth, who was her guest whenever he came up to +London. She expressed the warmest admiration for the moral and +political, though not all of the religious, writings of our Dr. +Channing, whom she pronounced the finest essayist of the time. She also +felt a curious interest (which I discovered in many other notable people +in England) to learn what she could in regard to our American Indians, +and expressed much admiration when I gave her some quotations from the +picturesque eloquence of our sons of the forest. + +Every American who visited London in those days felt a laudable +curiosity to see the young Queen, who had been crowned but four years +before. I went up to Windsor Castle, and after inspecting it, joined a +little group of people who were standing at the gateway which leads out +to the Long Drive and Virginia Water. They were waiting to get a look at +the young Queen, who always drove out at four o'clock. Presently the +gate opened and a low carriage, preceded by three horsemen, passed +through. It contained a plump baby, nearly two years of age, wrapped in +a buff cloak and held up in the arms of its nurse. That baby became the +Empress Dowager of Germany, the mother of the present Kaiser and of +Prince Henry, who has lately been our guest. In a few minutes afterwards +a pony phaeton, with two horses, passed through the gate and we all +doffed our hats. It was driven by handsome young Prince Albert, dressed +in a gray overcoat and silk hat. To this day I think of him as about the +most captivating young husband that I have ever seen. By his side sat +his young wife, dressed in a small white bonnet with pink feather and +wrapped in a white shawl. Her complexion was exceedingly fresh and fair. +Her light brown hair was dressed in the "Grecian" style, and as she +bowed gracefully I observed the peculiarity of her smile--that she +showed her teeth very distinctly. This resulted from the shortness of +her upper lip. "A pretty girl she is too" was the remark I heard from +the visitors as the carriage went on down the drive. That was my first +glimpse of royalty, and I little dreamed that she was to be the longest +lived sovereign that ever sat on the British throne, and the most +popular woman in all modern times. + +Thirty years rolled away and I saw the good Queen again. The Albert +Memorial, erected to the handsome Prince Consort, whom she idolized, had +just been completed, and one morning the Queen came incognito to make +her first private inspection of the memorial. Through the intimation of +a friend I hurried at once to the Park, and found a small company of +people gathered there. Her Majesty had just come, accompanied by Prince +Arthur, the Princess Louise and the young Princess Beatrice; and they +were examining the gorgeous new structure. The Queen wore a plain black +silk dress and her children were very plainly attired, so that they +looked like a group of good, honest republicans. 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 Majesty. I observed that when her +children bade her "good morning" they kneeled and kissed her hand. She +remained sitting in her carriage for some time, chatting and laughing +with her daughter Beatrice. Her countenance had become very florid and +her figure very stout. The last time that I saw her driving in the Park +her full, rubicund face made her look not only like the venerable +grandmother of a host of descendants, but of the whole vast empire on +which the sun never sets. 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 wedlock. All Christendom was a mourner beside +that royal tomb. + +From London I went on a very brief visit to Paris, at the time when +Louis Phillipe was at the height of his power and apparently securely +seated on his throne. Within a half a dozen years from that time he was +a refugee in disguise, and the kingdom of France was followed by the +Republic of Lamartine. My brief visit to Paris was made more agreeable +by the fact that my kinsman, the Hon. Henry Ledyard, was then in charge +of the American Embassy, in the absence of his father-in-law, General +Lewis Cass, our Ambassador, who had returned to America for a visit. The +one memorable incident of that brief sojourn in Paris that I shall +recall was a visit to the tomb of Napoleon, whose remains had been +brought home the year before from the Island of St. Helena. Passing +through the Place de la Concord and crossing the Seine, a ten minutes' +walk brought me to the Hospital des Invalides. I reached it in the +morning when the court in front was filled with about three hundred +veterans on an early parade. Many of them were the shattered relics of +Napoleon's Grand Army--glorious old fellows in cocked hats and long blue +coats, and weather-beaten as the walls around them. After a few moments +I hurried into the Rotunda, which is nearly one hundred feet in height, +surrounded by six small recesses, or alcoves. "Where is Napoleon?" said +I to one of the sentinels. "There," said he, pointing to a recess, or +small chapel, hung with dark purple velvet and lighted by one glimmering +lamp. I approached the iron railing and, there before me, almost within +arm's length, in the marble coffin covered by his gray riding coat of +Marengo, lay all that was mortal of the great Emperor. At his feet was a +small urn containing his heart, and upon it lay his sword and the +military cap worn at the battle of Eylau. Beside the coffin was gathered +a group of tattered banners captured by him in many a victorious fight. +Three gray-haired veterans, whose breasts were covered with medals, were +pacing slowly on guard in front of the alcove. I said to them in French: +"Were you at Austerlitz?" "Oui, oui," they said. "Were you at Jena?" +"Oui, oui." "At Wagram?" "Oui, oui," they replied. I lingered long at +the spot, listening to the inspiring strains of the soldiery without, +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 Lodi. It seemed to me as a +dream, 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 history. And yet, when all shall be summoned at last before +the Great Tribunal, a Wilberforce, a Shaftesbury, or an Abraham Lincoln +will never desire to change places with him. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +HYMN-WRITERS I HAVE KNOWN + +_Montgomery--Bonar--Bowring--Palmer and Others_ + + +Hymnology has always been a favorite study with me, and it has been my +privilege to be acquainted with several of the most eminent hymn-writers +within the last sixty or seventy years. It is a remarkable fact that +among the distinguished English-speaking poets, Cowper and Montgomery +are the only ones who have been successful in producing many popular +hymns; while the greatest hymns have been the compositions either of +ministers of the Gospel, like Watts, Wesley, Toplady, Doddridge, Newman, +Lyte, Bonar and Ray Palmer, or by godly women, like Charlotte Elliott, +Mrs. Sarah F. Adams, Miss Havergal and Mrs. Prentiss. During my visit to +Great Britain in the summer of 1842, I spent a few weeks at Sheffield as +the guest of Mr. Edward Vickers, the ex-Mayor of the city. His near +neighbor was the venerable James Montgomery, whose pupil he had been +during the short time that the poet conducted a school. Mr. Vickers +took me to visit the poet at his residence at The Mount. A short, +brisk, cheery old man, then seventy-one, came into the room with a spry +step. He wore a suit of black, with old-fashioned dress ruffles, and a +high cravat that looked as if it choked him. His complexion was fresh, +and snowy hair crowned a noble forehead. He had never married, but +resided with a relative. We chatted about America, and I told him that +in all our churches his hymns were great favorites. I unfortunately +happened to mention that when lately in Glasgow I had gone to hear the +Rev. Robert Montgomery, the author of "Satan," and other poems. It was +this "Satan Montgomery" whom Macaulay had scalped with merciless +criticism in the _Edinburgh Review_. The mention of his name aroused the +old poet's ire. "Would you believe it?" he exclaimed, indignantly, "they +attribute some of that fellow's performances to me, and lately a lady +wrote to me in reference to one of his most pompous poems, and said "it +was the _best that I had ever written!_" I do not wonder at my venerable +friend's vexation, for there was a world-wide contrast between his own +chaste simplicity and the stilted pomposity of his Glasgow namesake. +Montgomery, though born a Moravian and educated at a Moravian school, +was a constant worshipper at St. George's Episcopal Church, in +Sheffield. The people of the town were very proud of their celebrated +townsman, and after his death gave him a public funeral, and erected a +bronze statue to his memory. While he was the author of several volumes +of poetry, his enduring fame rests on his hymns, some of which will be +sung in all lands through coming generations. Four hundred own his +parentage and one hundred at least are in common use throughout +Christendom. He produced a single verse that has hardly been surpassed +in all hymnology: + + "Here in the body pent + Absent from Him I roam. + Yet nightly pitch my moving-tent, + A day's march nearer home." + +Hymnology has known no denominational barriers. While Toplady was an +Episcopalian, Wesley a Methodist. Newman and Faber Roman Catholics, +Montgomery a Moravian, and Bonar a Presbyterian, the magnificent hymn, + + "In the cross of Christ I glory," + +was written by a Unitarian. I had the great satisfaction of meeting its +author, Sir John Bowring, at a public dinner in London during the summer +of 1872. A fresh, handsome veteran he was, too--tall and straight as a +ramrod, and exceedingly winsome in his manners. He had been famous as +the editor of the _Westminster Review_ and quite famous in civil life, +for he was a member of the British Parliament and once had been the +Governor of Hong Kong. He produced several volumes, but will owe his +immortality to half a dozen superb hymns. Of these the best is "In the +cross of Christ I glory"; but we also owe to him that fine missionary +hymn, + + "Watchman, tell us of the night" + +He told my Presbyterian friend, Dr. Harper, in China, that the first +time he ever heard it sung was at a prayer meeting of American +missionaries in Turkey. Sir John died about four months after I had met +him, at the ripe age of eighty, and on his monument is inscribed only +this single appropriate line, "In the cross of Christ I glory." + +The first time I ever saw Dr. Horatius Bonar was in May, 1872, when I +was attending the Free Church General Assembly of Scotland as a delegate +from the Presbyterian Church in the United States. A warm discussion was +going on in the Assembly anent proposals of union with the U.P. body, +and the Anti-Unionists sat together on the left hand of the Moderator's +chair. In the third row sat a short, broad-shouldered man with noble +forehead and soft dark eyes. 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 old." I was glad to +be introduced to him, for I was an enthusiastic admirer of his hymns, +and I had a personal affection for his brother, Andrew, the author of +the delightful "Life of M'Cheyne." Although Horatius had won his +world-wide fame as a composer of hymns, he was, at that time, stoutly +opposed to the use of anything but the old Scotch version of the Psalms +in church worship. During my address to the Assembly I said: "We +Presbyterians in America sing the good old psalms of David." At this +point Dr. Bonar led in a round of applause, and then I continued: "We +also sing the Gospel of Jesus Christ as versified by Watts, Wesley, +Cowper, Toplady and _your own Horatius Bonar!"_ There was a burst of +laughter, and then I rather mischievously added: "My own people have the +privilege, not accorded to my brother's congregation, of singing his +magnificent hymns." By this time the whole house came down in a perfect +roar, and the confused blush on Bonar's face puzzled us--whether it was +on account of the compliment, or on account of his own inconsistency. +However, before his death he consented to have his own congregation sing +his own hymns, although it is said that two pragmatical elders rose and +strode indignantly down the aisle of the church. + +In August, 1889, when I was on a visit to Chillingham Castle, Lady +Tankerville said to me: "Our dear Bonar is dead." I left the next day +for Edinburgh and reached there in time to bear an humble part in the +funeral services. On the day of his obsequies there was a tremendous +downpour, which reminded me of the story of the Scotchman, who, on +arriving in Australia, met one of his countrymen, who said to him: "Hae +ye joost come fra Scotland and _is it rainin' yet_?" But in spite of the +storm the Morningside Church, by the entrance to the Grange Cemetery, +was well filled by a representative assembly. The service was confined +to the reading of the Scriptures, to two prayers and the singing of +Bonar's beautiful hymn, the last verse of which is + + "Broken Death's dread hands that bound us, + Life and victory around us; + Christ the King Himself hath crown'd us, + Ah, 'tis Heaven at last." + +As I was the only American present I was requested to close the service +with a brief word of prayer; and I rode down to the Canongate Cemetery +with grand old Principal John Cairns (who Dr. McCosh told me "had the +best head in Scotland"), and Bonar's colleague, the Rev. Mr. Sloane. On +our way to the place of burial Mr. Sloane told me that Bonar's two +finest hymns, + + "I heard the voice of Jesus say," etc.. + +and + + "I lay my sins on Jesus," etc, + +were originally composed for the children of his Sabbath school. And yet +they are the productions by which he has become most widely known +throughout Christendom. The storm-swept streets that day were lined with +silent mourners; and, under weeping skies, 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 century. + +Our own country has been very prolific in the production of hymns. The +venerable and devout blind songstress, Fanny Crosby (whom I often meet +at the house of my beloved neighbor, Mr. Ira D. Sankey), has produced +very many hundreds of them--none of very high poetic merit, but many of +them of such rich spiritual savour, and set to such stirring airs, that +they are sung by millions around the globe. By common consent in all +American hymnology the hymn commencing + + "My faith looks up to Thee, + Thou Lamb of Calvary," etc, + +is the best. Its author, Dr. Ray Palmer, when a young man, teaching in a +school for girls in New York, 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 soul," and put the memorandum book back into his vest pocket +and for two years carried the verses there, little dreaming that he was +carrying his own passport to immortality. Dr. Lowell Mason, the +celebrated composer of Boston, asked him to furnish a new hymn for his +next volume of "Spiritual Songs" for social worship, and young Palmer +drew out the four verses from his pocket. Mason composed for them the +noble tune, "Olivet," and to that air they were wedded for ever more. He +met Palmer afterwards, and said to him: "Sir, you may live many years, +and do many things, but you will be best known to posterity as the +author of 'My faith looks up to Thee.'" The prediction proved true. His +devoted heart flowed out in that one matchless lily that has filled so +many hearts and sanctuaries with its rich fragrance. Dr. Palmer preached +several times in my Brooklyn pulpit. He was once with us on a +sacramental Sabbath. 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 lines: + + "My faith looks up to Thee + Thou Lamb of Calvary, + Saviour Divine." + +It was like listening to a rehearsal for the celestial choir, and the +whole assembly was most deeply moved. Dr. Palmer was short in stature, +but his erect form and habit of brushing his hair high over his forehead +gave him a commanding look. He was the impersonation of genuine +enthusiasm. Some of his letters I shall always prize. They were the +outpourings of his own warm heart on paper. He fell asleep just before +he reached a round four score, and of our many hymn-writers no one has +yet "taken away his crown." + +It is quite fitting to follow this sketch of one noble veteran with a +brief reminiscence of an equally noble one, who bore the name of an +Episcopalian, although he was very undenominational in his broad +sympathies. Dr. William Augustus Muhlenberg was one of the most +apostolic men I have ever known in appearance and spirit. His gray head +all men knew in New York. He commanded attention everywhere by his +genial face and hearty manner of speech. I used to meet him at the +anniversaries of the Five Points Home of Industry. Everybody loved him +at first sight. All the world knows he was the founder of St. Luke's +Hospital in New York, and the extensive institutions of charity at St. +Johnsland, on Long Island. Of his hymns the most popular is + + "I would not live alway," etc. + +It was first written as an impromptu for a lady's album, and afterwards +amended into its present form. + +In his later years he regarded the tone of that hymn as too lugubrious; +and in a pleasant note to me he said: "Paul's 'For me to live is Christ' +is far better than Job's 'I would not live alway.'" My favorite among +his productions is the one on Noah's Dove, commencing, "O cease, my +wandering soul"; but the man was greater than any song he ever wrote. As +he was a bachelor he lived in his St. Luke's Hospital; and once, when he +was carrying a tray of dishes down to the kitchen and some one +protested, the patriarch replied: "Why not; what am I but a waiter here +in the Lord's hotel?" When very near his end the Chaplain of the +hospital prayed at his bedside for his recovery. "Let us have an +understanding about this," said Muhlenberg. "You are asking God to +restore me, and I am asking God to take me home. There must not be any +contradiction in our prayers, for it is evident that He cannot answer +them both." This was characteristic of his bluff frankness, as well as +of his heavenly-mindedness--he "would not live alway." + +In July, 1881, I was visiting Stockholm, and was invited to go on an +excursion to the University of Upsala with Dr. Samuel F. Smith. I had +never before met my celebrated countryman about whom his Harvard +classmate, Oliver Wendell Holmes, once wrote: + + "And there's a nice youngster of excellent pith-- + Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith; + 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 +celebration, in Park Street Church, Boston, in 1832, and has become our +national hymn. When I met the genial old man in Sweden, and travelled +with him for several days, he was on his way home from a missionary tour +in India and Burmah. He told me that he had heard the Burmese and +Telugus sing in their native tongue his grand missionary hymn, "The +Morning Light is Breaking." He was a native Bostonian, and was born a +few days before Ray Palmer. He was a Baptist pastor, editor, college +professor, and spent the tranquil summer evening of his life at Newton, +Mass.; and at a railway station in Boston, by sudden heart failure, he +was translated to his heavenly home. He illustrated his own sweet +evening hymn, "Softly Fades the Twilight Ray." + +Among the elect-ladies who have produced great uplifting hymns that +"were not born to die" was Mrs. Elizabeth Payson Prentiss, the daughter +of the saintly Dr. Edward Payson, of Portland, Maine. Her prose works +were very popular, and "Stepping Heavenward" had found its way into +thousands of hearts. But one day she--in a few hours--won her +immortality by writing a hymn, beginning with the lines, + + "More love to Thee, O Christ, + More love to Thee" + +It was printed on a fly-sheet, for a few friends, then found its way +into a hymn-book, edited by my well-beloved friend, Dr. Edwin F. +Hatfield, and then it took wing and flew over the world into many +foreign languages. I often met Mrs. Prentiss at the home of her husband, +Dr. George L. Prentiss, an eminent professor in the Union Theological +Seminary. She was a very bright-eyed little woman, with a keen sense of +humor, who cared more to shine in her own happy household than in a wide +circle of society. 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 fear. 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 fellowship. Mrs. +Prentiss has put a new song into the mouths of a multitude of those who +are "stepping heavenward." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE TEMPERANCE REFORM AND MY CO-WORKERS + + +As stated in the first chapter of this book, I became a teetotaler when +I was a child, and I also stated that the first public address I ever +delivered was in behalf of temperance. When I made my first visit to +Edinburgh in 1842 I learned that a temperance society of that city was +about to go over to Glasgow to greet the celebrated Father Theobald +Mathew, who was making his first visit to Scotland. I joined my +Edinburgh friends, and on arriving in Glasgow we found a multitude of +over fifty thousand people assembled on the green. In an open barouche, +drawn by four horses, stood a short, stout Irishman, with a handsome, +benevolent countenance, and attired in a long black coat with a silver +medal hanging upon his breast. After the procession, headed by his +carriage, had forced its way through the densely thronged street, it +halted in a small open square. Father Mathew dismounted, and began to +administer the pledge of abstinence to those who were willing to receive +it. They kneeled on the ground in platoons; the pledge was read aloud to +them; Father Mathew laid his hands upon them and pronounced a +benediction. From the necks of many a small medal attached to a cord was +suspended. In this rapid manner the pledge was administered to many +hundreds of persons within an hour, and fresh crowds continually came +forward. + +When I was introduced to the good man as an American, he spoke a few +kind words and gave me an "apostolic kiss" upon my cheek. As I was about +to make the first public speech of my life, 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 abstinence. The administration +of the pledge was followed by a grand meeting of welcome in the city +hall. Father Mathew spoke with modest simplicity and deep emotion, +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 bottle. After delivering my maiden speech I hastened back to +Edinburgh with the deputation from "Auld Reekie," and I never saw Father +Mathew again. He was, unquestionably, the most remarkable temperance +reformer who has yet appeared. While a Catholic priest in Cork, a Quaker +friend, Mr. Martin, who met him in an almshouse, said to him, "Father +Theobald, why not give thyself to the work of saving men from the +drink?" Father Mathew immediately commenced his enterprise. It spread +over Ireland like wildfire. It is computed that no less than five +millions of people took the pledge of total abstinence from intoxicating +poisons by his influence. The revolution wrought in his day, in his own +time and country, was marvellous, and, to this day, his influence is +perpetuated in the vast number of Father Mathew Benevolent Temperance +Societies. + +[Illustration: DR CUYLER AT 32 (When Pastor of the Market St Church, New +York)] + +Second only to Father Mathew in the number of converts which he has made +to total abstinence was that brilliant and dramatic platform orator, +John B. Gough. When he was a reckless young sot in Worcester, +Massachusetts, he had owed his conversion to a touch on his shoulder by +a shoemaker, named Joel Stratton, who had invited him to a Washingtonian +temperance meeting. Soon after that time he owed his conversion, under +God, to the influence of Miss Mary Whitcomb, the daughter of a Boylston +farmer in the neighborhood. He formed her acquaintance very soon after +he signed the temperance pledge in Worcester, and she consented to +assume the risk of becoming his wife. In the summer of 1856 I visited my +beloved friend Gough at his beautiful Boylston home to aid him in +revival services, which he was conducting in his own church, then +without a pastor. He was Sunday-school superintendent, pastor and leader +of inquiry meetings--all in himself. One evening he took me to the +house of his neighbor, Captain Flagg, and said to me: "Here, in this +house, Mary and I did our brief two or three weeks of courting. We +didn't talk of love, but only religion and about the welfare of my soul. +We prayed together every time we met; and it was such serious business +that I do not think I even kissed her until we were married. She took me +on trust, with three dollars in my pocket, and has been to me the best +wife God ever made." When they went to Boston, Dr. Edward N. Kirk +received Mr. Gough into the Mt. Vernon Street Church, just as many years +afterwards he received Mr. Moody to the same communion table. + +Of Mr. Gough's extraordinary platform powers I need not speak while +there are so many now living that sat under the enchantment of his +eloquence. 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 oratory. As an actor he might have been a second Garrick; as a +preacher of the Gospel he would have been a second Whitefield. My house +was his home when visiting our city for many years, and he used to tell +me that my letters to him were carried in his breast pocket until they +were worn to fragments. His last speech, delivered in Philadelphia, +displayed much of his early power, and the last sentence, "Young man, +keep a clean record," rung out as he fell stricken with apoplexy, and +the eloquent voice was silent forever. God's messenger met him where +every true warrior may well desire to be met--in the heat of the battle, +and with the harness on. + +My acquaintance with Neal Dow began in the early winter of 1852. He had +been chosen Mayor of Portland in the spring of the year, and then he +struck the bold stroke which was "heard round the world" and made him +famous as the father of Prohibition. 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 sale, and to seize and confiscate +them on the spot. It was this sharp scimitar of search and seizure which +gave the original Maine law its deadly power. He took his bill to the +seat of government and it was promptly passed by the legislature. He +brought it home in triumph, and in less than three months there was not +an open dram shop or distillery in Portland! He invited me to visit him, +and drove me over the city, whose pure air was not polluted with the +faintest smell of alcohol. It seemed like the first whiff of a +temperance millennium. An invitation was extended to him to a +magnificent public meeting in Tripler Hall, New York. At that meeting a +large array of distinguished speakers, including General Houston, of +Texas; the Hon. Horace Mann, of Massachusetts; Henry Ward Beecher, Dr. +Chapin and several other celebrities, appeared. On that evening I +delivered my first public address in New York, and have been told that +it was the occasion of my call to be a pastor in that city two years +afterwards. A gold medal was presented to Neal Dow that evening. He went +home with me to Trenton, 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 1851 +to 1857, the years of its widest successes. With him I addressed the +legislature of New York, who passed a law of prohibition very soon +afterwards. A forceful, magnetic man was General Dow, thoroughly honest +and courageous, with a womanly tenderness in his sympathies. I have been +permitted to know intimately many of the leaders in great moral reforms +on both sides of the ocean; but a braver, sounder heart was not to be +found than that which throbbed in the breast of Neal Dow. + +On his ninetieth birthday the hale veteran sent my wife his photograph. +She placed his white locks alongside of the photograph which Gladstone +gave her, and she calls them her duet of grand old men. The closing +years of General Dow's life, like the closing years of Martin Luther, +were clouded with anxiety. He saw the great movement which he had +championed checked by many difficulties and suffering some disastrous +reverses. Some States which had enacted total prohibition forty years +before had repealed the law. In the five States which retained it on +their statute books its salutary enforcement was dependent on the moral +sentiments in the various localities. In his own, beloved Maine, his own +beloved law had been trampled down in some places; in others made the +football of designing politicians. These reverses saddened the old +hero's heart, and he sent to the public meeting in Portland which +celebrated his ninety-third birthday this message: "That the purpose of +my life work will be fully accomplished at some time I do not doubt, and +my hope and expectation is that the obstacles which now obstruct us will +not long block the way." The name of Neal Dow will be always memorable +as one of the truest, bravest and purest philanthropists of the +nineteenth century. + +The most important organization for the promotion of temperance in our +country is the National Temperance Society and Publication House, which +was founded in 1865. I prepared its constitution, and the committee +which organized it met in the counting room of that eminent Christian +merchant, the late Hon. William E. Dodge. I once introduced him to the +Earl of Shaftesbury at a Lord Mayor's reception in London in these +words: "My lord, let me introduce you to William E. Dodge, the +Shaftesbury of America." To this day he is remembered as an ideal +Christian merchant and philanthropist. With him conscience ruled +everything, and God ruled conscience. He was one of the founders of a +great railway and cut the first sod for its construction. Long +afterwards the Board of Directors of the road proposed to drive their +trains and traffic through the Lord's day. Mr. Dodge said to his fellow +directors: "Then, gentlemen, put a flag on every locomotive with these +words inscribed on it, 'We break God's law for a dividend.' As for me, I +go out." He did go out, and disposed of his stock. Within a few years +the road went into the hands of a receiver, and the stock sank to thirty +cents on the dollar. + +During the Civil War, General Dix and his military staff gave Mr. Dodge +a complimentary dinner at Fortress Monroe. General Dix rapped on the +table and said to his brother officers: "Gentlemen, you are aware that +our honored guest is a water-drinker. I propose that to-day we join him +in his favorite beverage." Forthwith every wine-glass was turned upside +down as a silent tribute to the Christian conscience of their guest. +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 society. Mr. Dodge was elected the first +president of the National Temperance Society, and served it for eighteen +years and bestowed upon it his liberal donations. He closed his useful +and beneficent life in February, 1883, and he was succeeded in the +presidency of the Society by Dr. Mark Hopkins of Williams College, by +the writer of this book, by General O.O. Howard and by Joshua L. Bailey, +who is at present the head of the organization. The society has done a +vast and benevolent work, receiving and expending a million and a half +dollars, publishing many hundreds of valuable volumes, and widely +circulated tracts. + +The limits of this chapter will not allow me to pay my tribute to the +venerable Dr. Charles Jewett, Dr. Cheever, Albert Barnes, Dr. Tyng and +the great Christian statesman, Theodore Frelinghuysen, Miss Frances +Willard, Lady Henry Somerset, Joseph Cook and many others who have been +prominent in the promotion of this great Christian reform. It has been +my privilege to labor for it through my whole public life. I have +prepared thirty or forty tracts, written a great number of articles and +delivered hundreds of addresses in behalf of it, and preached many a +discourse from my own pulpit. 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 organization. It is of vital importance +that the young should be saved, and therefore I have urged temperance +lessons in the Sunday school and the early adoption of a total +abstinence pledge. 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 used. 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 hour, and +that must be given in the home, in the schools and from the pulpit and +from the public press. I have become convinced from long labor in this +reform that the ordinary license system is only a poultice to the dram +seller's conscience, and for restraining intemperance it is a ghastly +failure. Institutions and patent medicines to cure drinkers have only +had a partial success. The only sure cure for drunkenness is to stop +before you begin. Entire legal suppression of the dram shop is +successful where a stiff, righteous, public sentiment thoroughly +enforces it. Otherwise it may become a delusion and a farce. + +The best method of prohibition is what is known as "local option," +where the question is submitted to each community, whether the liquor +traffic shall be legalized or suppressed by public authority. 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 intoxicants. Legal enactments are right; but to +attempt to dam up a torrent and neglect the fountain-head is surely +insanity. The fountain-head of drunkenness is the _drinking usages_ +which create and sustain the saloons, which are often the doorways to +hell. In theory I always have been, and am to-day, a legal +suppressionist; but the most vital remedy of all is to break up the +demand for intoxicants, and to persuade people from wishing to buy and +drink them. That goes to the root of the evil. In endeavoring to remove +the saloon, 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 people. And another beneficent +plan is for corporations and employers to make abstinence from drink an +essential to employment. My generous friend, Mr. Andrew Carnegie, when +he recently gave a liberal donation to our National Temperance Society, +said to me: "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 intoxicants." The +experience of three-score years has taught me the inestimable value of +total abstinence; the benefit of the righteous law when it is well +enforced, and also that the church of Christ has no more right to ignore +the drink evil than it has to ignore theft, or Sabbath desecration, or +murder. Let me add also my grateful acknowledgment of the very effective +and Heaven-blessed work wrought by that noble organization, the Woman's +Christian Temperance Union. As woman has been the sorest sufferer from +the drink-curse, it is her province and her duty to do her utmost for +its removal. + + + + +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 ministry. Many of my +relatives urged me to become a lawyer, as my father and grandfather had +been, but my godly mother had dedicated me to the ministry from infancy, +and her influence all went in the same line with her prayers. With the +exception of my venerated and beloved kinsman, Dr. Cornelius C. Cuyler, +Pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, who died in +1850, no other man of my name has stood in an American pulpit. During +the winter of my return from Europe to my home on the Cayuga Lake, one +of my uncles invited me to go down and attend an afternoon prayer +service in the neighboring village of Ludlowville. There was a spiritual +awakening in the church, and the meeting was held in the parlor of a +private house. I arose and spoke for ten minutes. When the meeting was +over, more than one came to me and said: "Your talk did me good." On my +way home, as I drove along in my sleigh, the thought flashed into my +mind, "If ten minutes' talk to-day helped a few souls, why not preach +all the time?" That one thought decided the vexed question on the spot. +Our lives turn on small pivots, and if we let God lead us, the path will +open before our footsteps. I reached home that day, and informed my good +mother of my decision. She had always expected it and quietly remarked, +"Then, I have already spoken to Mr. Ford for his room for you in the +Princeton Seminary." My three years in the Seminary were full of joy and +profit. I made it a rule to go out as often as possible and address +little meetings in the neighboring school-houses, and found this a very +beneficial method of gaining practice. A young preacher must get +accustomed to the sound of his own voice; if naturally timid, he must +learn to face an audience and must first learn to speak; afterwards he +may learn to speak well. It is a wise thing for a young man to begin his +labors in a small congregation; he has more time for study, a better +chance to become intimately acquainted with individual characters, and +also a smaller audience to face. The first congregation that I was +called to take charge of, in Burlington, N.J. contained about forty +families. Three or four of these were wealthy and cultivated, the rest +were plain mechanics, with a few gardeners and coachmen. I made my +sermons to suit the comprehension of the gardeners and coachmen at the +end of the house, leaving the cultivated portion to gain what they could +from the sermon on its way. One of the wealthy attendants was Mr. +Charles Chauncey, a distinguished Philadelphia lawyer, who spent the +summer months in Burlington. Once after I had delivered a very simple +and earnest sermon on the "Worth of the Soul," I went home and said to +myself, "Lawyer Chauncey must have thought that was only a camp-meeting +exhortation." He met me during the week and to my astonishment he said +to me: "My young friend, I thank you for that sermon last Sunday; it had +the two best qualities of preaching--simplicity and down-right +earnestness. 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 office." That eminent lawyer's remark did me more +service than any month's study in the Seminary. It taught me that +cultivated audiences relished plain, simple scriptural truths as much as +did the illiterate, and that down-right earnestness to save souls hides +a multitude of sins in raw young preachers. + +Another instance that occurred in my early ministry did me a world of +good. I was invited to preach in the Presbyterian Church at Saratoga +Springs about two years after I was licensed. My topics were "Trusting +Jesus Christ" in the morning and "The Day of Judgment" at the evening +service. The next day, when I was buying my ticket at the railway +station to leave the town, a plain man (who was a baker in the village) +said to me: "Are you not the young man who spoke yesterday in our +meeting-house?" I told him that I was. "Well," said he, "I never felt +more sorry for any one in my life." "Why so?" I asked. His answer was: +"I said to myself, there is a youth just out of the Seminary, and he +does not know that a Saratoga audience is made up of highly educated +people from all parts of the land; but I have noticed that if a +minister, during his first ten minutes, can convince the people that he +is only trying to save their souls he _kills all the critics in the +house_." I have never ceased to thank God for the remark of that shrewd +Saratoga baker, who, I was told, had come there from New Haven, +Connecticut, and was a man of remarkable sagacity. That was one of the +profoundest bits of sound philosophy on the art of preaching that I have +ever encountered, and I have quoted it in every Theological Seminary +that I have ever addressed. If we ministers pour the living truths of +the Gospel red-hot into the ears and consciences of our audiences, 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 preaching. Cowards, also, are +never more pitiable than when in the pulpit. + +I will not enter here into the endless controversy about the comparative +merits of written or extemporized sermons. My own observation and +experience has been that no rule is the best rule. Every man must find +out by practice which method he can use to the best advantage and then +pursue it. No man ever fails who understands his forte, and no man +succeeds who does not. Some men cannot extemporize effectively if they +try ever so hard; there are others who, like Gladstone, can think best +when they are on their legs and are inspired by an audience. During the +first few years of my ministry I wrote out nearly all of my sermons. The +advantage of doing that is that it enables a young beginner to form his +own style at the outset by careful and systematic writing. Spurgeon, +often when a youth, read some of his sermons, although afterwards he +never premeditated a single sentence for the pulpit. Dr. Richard S. +Storrs was a most fluent extemporaneous speaker, but for twenty years he +carefully wrote all his discourses. My own habit, after a time, 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 +manuscript. This was generally the habit of Henry Ward Beecher. 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-paper, and +tacking it into a Bagster's Bible. Dr. John Hall wrote carefully, +leaving his manuscript at home; and so does Dr. Alexander McLaren, of +Manchester, who is to-day by far the most superb sermonizer in Great +Britain. The eloquent Guthrie, of Scotland, committed his discourses to +memory, and delivered them in a torrent of Godly emotion. + +In preparing my sermons my custom was, after taking some rest on Monday, +to get into my study early on Tuesday morning. To every student the best +hours of the day are those before the sun has reached the meridian. Then +the mind is the most clear and vigorous. I have never in my life +prepared sermons a dozen times after my supper. Severe mental work in +the evening is apt to destroy sound sleep; thousands of brain workers +are wrecked by insomnia. To secure freedom from needless interruption I +pinned on my study door "_Very Busy_." This had the wholesome effect of +shutting out all time-killers, and of shortening necessary calls of +those who had some important errand. Instead of leaving the selection of +my topic to the risk of any contingency, I usually chose my text on +Tuesday morning, and laid the keel of the sermon. I kept a large +note-book in which I could enter any passage of Scripture that would +furnish a good theme for pulpit consumption. 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 sermons. By this method I had +a treasury of texts from which I could draw every week. Let my readers +be careful to notice that word "Text." I have known men to prepare an +elaborate essay, theological, ethical or sociological, and then to perch +a text from the Bible on top of it. + +"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 brain. The best +discourses are not manufactured, they are a _growth_. God's inspired and +infallible Book must furnish the text. The connection between every good +sermon and its text is just as vital as the connection between a +peach-tree and its root. Sometimes an indolent minister tries to palm +off an old sermon for a pretended new one by changing the text, 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 animal. Intelligent +audiences see through such tricks and despise them. "Be sure your sin +will find you out." When a passage from the Holy Scripture has been +planted as a root and well watered with prayer, the sermon should spring +naturally from it. The central thought of the text being the central +thought of the sermon and all argument, all instruction and exhortation +are only the boughs branching off from the central trunk, giving unity, +vigor and spiritual beauty to the whole organic production. The unity +and spiritual power of a discourse usually depend upon the adherence to +the great divine truth contained in the inspired Book. The Bible text is +God's part of our sermon; and the more thoroughly we get the text into +our own souls, the more will we get it into the sermon, and into the +consciences of our hearers. To keep out of a rut I studied the infinite +variety of Sacred Scripture; its narratives and matchless biographies, +its jubilant Psalms, its profound doctrines, its tender pathos, its +rolling thunder of Sinai, and its sweet melodies of Calvary's redeeming +love. I laid hold of the great themes, and I found a half hour of +earnest prayer was more helpful than two or three hours of study. It +sometimes let a flash from the Throne flame over the page I was writing. + +To me, when preparing my Sabbath messages, God's Holy Word was the sum +of all knowledge, and a "Thus saith the Lord" was my invariable guide. I +found that in theology the true things were not new, and most of the new +things were not true. I remember how a visitor in New Haven was looking +for a certain house, and found himself in front of the residence of +Professor Olmstead, the eminent astronomer, whose stoves were then very +popular. The visitor inquired of an Irishman, who was working in front +of the house, "Who lives here?" The very Hibernian answer was, "Shure, +sur, 'tis Profissor Olmstead, a very great man; he _invents_ comets, and +has _discovered_ a new stove." In searching the Scriptures I used the +very best spiritual telescopes in my possession, and gladly availed +myself of all discoveries of divine truths made by profounder intellects +and keener visions than my own; but I leave this self-styled "advanced +age" to invent its own comets, and follow its own meteors. + +In one respect I have not followed the practice of many of my brethren, +for I never have wasted a single moment in defending God's Word in my +pulpit. I have always held that the Bible is a self-evidencing book; God +will take care of His Word if we ministers only take care to preach it. +We are no more called upon to defend the Bible than we are to defend the +law of gravitation. My beloved friend, Dr. McLaren, of Manchester, has +well said that if ministers, "instead of trying to _prop_ the Cross of +Christ, would simply _point_ men to that Cross, more souls would be +saved." The vast proportion of volumes of "Apologetics" are a waste of +ink and paper. If they could all be kindled into a huge bonfire, they +would shed more light than they ever did before. It is not our business +to answer every sceptic who shies a stone at the solid fortress of truth +in which God places His ambassadors. If Tobiah and Sanballat are +challenging us to come down into the plain, and meet them on their +level, our answer must ever be: "I am God's messenger, preaching God's +word and doing God's work. I cannot stop to go down and prove that your +swords are made of lath." + +To my younger brethren I would say: "Preach the Word, preach it with all +your soul, preach it in the strength of Jehovah's Spirit, and He will +give it the victory." + +I found the effectiveness of my sermons increased by the use of every +good illustration I could get hold of, but I tried to be careful that +they illustrated something. Where such are lugged into the sermon merely +for the sake of ornament, they are as much out of place as a bouquet +would be tied fast to a plough-handle. The Divine Teacher set us the +example of making vital truths intelligible by illustrations, when he +spoke so often in parables, and sometimes recalled historical incidents. +All congregations relish incidents and stories, when they are "pat" to +the purpose, and serious enough for God's house, 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 Springs, and closed it +with a solemn story of a man who died of remorse at the exposure of his +crime. The Hon. John McLean, a judge of the United States Supreme Court +and a prominent man in the Methodist Church, was in the congregation, +and the next day I called at the United States Hotel to pay my respects +to him. He said to me, "My young friend I was very much interested in +that story last evening; it clinched the sermon. Our ministers in +Cincinnati used to introduce illustrative anecdotes, but it seems to +have gone out of fashion and I am sorry for it." I replied to him, "Well +Judge, 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 +pulpit." There is one principle that covers all cases. It is this: +Whatever makes the Gospel or Jesus Christ more clear to the +understanding, more effective in arousing sinners, in converting souls, +in edifying believers and in promoting pure honest living is never out +of place in the pulpit. When we are preaching for souls we may use any +and every weapon of truth within our reach. + +Those who have sat before my pulpit will testify that I never spared my +lungs or their ears in the delivery of my discourses. The preaching of +the Gospel is spiritual gunnery, and many a well-loaded cartridge has +failed to reach its mark from lack of powder to propel it. The prime +duty of God's ambassador is to arouse the attention of souls before his +pulpit; to stir those who are indifferent; to awaken those who are +impenitent; to cheer the sorrow-stricken; to strengthen the weak, 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 +hearing, cost what it may: but that hearing he never will secure while +he addresses an audience in a cold, formal, perfunctory manner. +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 tears." I cannot impress it too strongly on +every young minister that the delivery of his sermon is half the battle. +Why load your gun at all if you cannot send your charge to the mark? +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 _perspiration_. A sermon that is but ordinary +as a production may have an extraordinary effect by direct and fervid +delivery. The minister who never warms himself will never warm up his +congregation. I once asked Albert Barnes, of Philadelphia, "Who is the +greatest preacher you have ever heard?" Mr. Barnes, who was a very +clear-headed thinker, replied: "I cannot answer your question exactly, +but the greatest specimen of preaching I ever heard was by the Rev. +Edward N. Kirk before my congregation during a revival; it produced a +tremendous effect." Those of us that knew Kirk knew that he was not a +man of genius or profound scholarship; but he was a true orator with a +superb voice and a sweet persuasiveness, and his whole soul was on fire +with the love of Jesus and the love of souls. + +It is not easy to define what that subtle something is which we call +pulpit magnetism. 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 which, when aided by the +Holy Spirit, produces conviction in their minds by the truth that is in +Jesus. The heart in the speaker's voice sends that voice into the hearts +of his hearers. It is an undoubted fact that pulpit fervor has been a +characteristic of almost all the preachers of a soul-winning Gospel. The +fire was kindled in the pulpit that kindled the pews. The discourses of +Frederick W. Robertson, of Brighton, were masterpieces of fresh thought, +but the crowds were drawn to his church because they were delivered +with a fiery glow. The king of living sermon-makers is Dr. McLaren, of +Manchester. His vigorous thought is put into vigorous language and then +vigorously spoken. He commits his grand sermons to memory, and then +looks his audience in the eyes, and sends his strong voice to the +furthest gallery. Last year after I had thanked him for his powerful +"Address on Preaching" to a thousand ministers in London, he wrote to +me: "It was an effort; for I could not trust myself to do without a +manuscript, and I am so unaccustomed to reading what I have to say that +it was like dancing a hornpipe in fetters," Yet manuscripts are not +always fetters; for Dr. Chalmers read every line of his sermons with +thrilling and tremendous effect. So did Dr. Charles Wadsworth in +Philadelphia, and so did Phillips Brooks in Boston. In my own experience +I have as often found spiritual results from the discourses partly or +mainly written out as from those spoken extemporaneously. While much may +depend upon the conditions in the congregation and much aid may be drawn +from the intercessory prayers of our people, the main thing is to have a +baptism of fire in our own hearts. Sometimes a sermon may produce but +little impression, yet the same sermon at another time and place may +deeply move an audience, and yield rich spiritual results. Physical +condition may have some influence on a minister's delivery; but the +chief element in the eloquence that awakens and converts sinners and +strengthens Christians is the unction of the Holy Spirit. Our best power +is the _power from on high_. + +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 faces. Then +the more fervor of soul you put into your preaching the more souls you +will win to your Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. + +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 youth. In the first place the average preacher in those days was more +doctrinal than at the present time. The masters in Israel evidently held +with Phillips Brooks that "no exhortation to a good life that does not +put behind it some great truth, as deep as eternity, can seize and hold +the conscience," Therefore they pushed to the front such deep and mighty +themes as the Attributes of God, the Divinity of Jesus Christ, the +Nature and Desert of Sin, the Atonement, Regeneration, Faith, +Resurrection, and Judgment to come, with Heaven and Hell as tremendous +realities. They emphasized the heinousness and the desert of sin as a +great argument for repentance and acceptance of Jesus Christ. A lapse +from that style of preaching is to be deplored; for as Gladstone truly +remarked, the decline or decay of a sense of sin against God is one of +the most serious symptoms of these times. + +Charles G. Finney, who was at the zenith of his power sixty years ago, +bombarded the consciences of sinners with a prodigious broadside of +pulpit doctrine; and many acute lawyers and eminent merchants were +converted under his discourses. No two finer examples of doctrinal +preaching--once so prevalent--could be cited than Dr. Lyman Beecher and +Dr. Horace Bushnell. The celebrated sermon by the former of these two +giants on the "Moral Government of God" was characterized by Thomas H. +Skinner as the mightiest discourse he had ever heard. Henry Ward Beecher +hardly exaggerated when he once said to me, "Put all of his children +together and we do not equal my father at his best." Dr. Bushnell's +masterly discourses with all their exquisite poetry and insight into +human hearts were largely bottomed and built on a theological basis. To +those two great doctrinal preachers I might add the names of my beloved +instructors, Dr. Archibald Alexander and Dr. Charles Hodge, of +Princeton, Albert Barnes and Professor Park, Dr. Thornwell, Dr. Bethune, +Dr. John Todd, Dr. G.T. Bedell, Bishop Simpson and President Stephen +Olin. + +Has the American pulpit grown in spiritual power since those days? Have +the churches thriven whose pastors have become more invertebrate in +their theology? + +Another characteristic of the average preacher sixty years ago was that +sermons were generally aimed at awakening the impenitent, and bringing +them to Jesus Christ. The evil of sin was emphasized; the way of +salvation explained; the claims of Christianity were presented; and +people were urged to immediate decision. Nowadays a large portion of +sermons are addressed to professing Christians; many others are +addressed to nobody in particular, but there is less of faithful, +fervid, loving and persuasive discourses to the unconverted. This is one +of the reasons for the lamentable decrease in the number of conversions. +If ministers are set to be watchmen of souls, how shall they escape if +they neglect the salvation of souls? + +I think, too, that we cannot be mistaken in saying that there has been a +decline in impassioned pulpit eloquence. There is a change in the +fashions of preaching. Students are now taught to be calm and +colloquial; to aim at producing epigrammatical essays; to discuss +sociological problems and address the intellects of their auditors +rather in the style of the lecture platform or college class room. The +great Dr. Chalmers "making the rafters roar" is as much a bygone +tradition in many quarters as faith in the Mosaic authorship of the +Pentateuch. I have often wished that the young Edward N. Kirk, who +melted to tears the professors and students of Yale during the revival +there, could come back to us and teach candidates for the ministry how +to preach. There was no stentorian shouting or rhetorical exhortation; +but there was an intense, solemn, white-heat earnestness that made his +auditors feel not only that life was worth living, but that the soul was +worth saving and Jesus Christ was worth serving, and Heaven was worth +securing, and that for all these things "God will bring us into +judgment." If Lyman Beecher and Dr. Edward Dorr Griffin and Finney did +not possess all of Kirk's grace of delivery, they possessed his fire, +and they made the Gospel doctrines glow with a living heat that burned +into the hearts and consciences of their auditors. + +May God send into our churches not only a revival of pure and undefiled +religion, but also a revival of old-fashioned soul-inspiring pulpit +eloquence! + +It is rather a delicate subject to touch upon, 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 pulpits. The questions, "Have we got any +Bible?" and "If any Bible, how much?" had not been hatched. When I was +in Princeton Seminary, our profoundly learned Hebrew Professor, Dr. J. +Addison Alexander no more disturbed us with the much-vaunted conjectural +Biblical criticisms than he disturbed us with Joe Smith's "golden +plates" at Nauvoo. For this fact I feel deeply thankful; and I comfort +myself with the reflection that the great British preachers of the last +dozen years--Dr. McLaren, Charles H. Spurgeon, Newman Hall, Canon Liddon, +Dr. Dale and Dr. Joseph Parker--have suffered no more from the virulent +attacks of the radical and revolutionary higher criticism than I have, +during my long and happy ministry. + +Ministers had some advantages sixty or seventy years ago over their +successors of our day. They had a more uninterrupted opportunity for the +preparation of their sermons and for thorough personal visitation of +their flocks. They were not importuned so often to serve on committees +and to be participants in all sorts of social schemes of charity. 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 calling. +"This one thing I do," said single-hearted Paul; and if Paul were a +pastor now in New York or Boston or Chicago, he would make short work of +many an intrusive rap of a time-killer at his study door. + +I have noted frankly a few of the changes that I have observed in the +methods of our American pulpit during my long life, but not, I trust, in +a pessimistic or censorious spirit God forbid that I should disparage +the noble, conscientious, self-denying and Heaven-blessed labors of +thousands of Christ's ministers in our broad land! They have greater +difficulties to encounter than I had when I began my work. They are +surrounded with an atmosphere of intense materialism. The ambition for +the "seen things" increasingly blinds men to the "things that are unseen +and eternal." Wealth and worldliness unspiritualize thousands of +professed Christians. The present artificial arrangements of society +antagonize devotional meetings and special efforts to promote revivals. +On Sabbath mornings many a minister has to shovel out scores of his +congregation from under the drifts (not very clean snow either) of the +mammoth Sunday newspapers. + +The zealous pastor of to-day has to contend with the lowered popular +faith in the authority of God's Word; with the lowered reverence for +God's day and a diminished habit of attending upon God's worship. Do +these increased difficulties demand a new Gospel? No; but rather a +mightier faith in the one we have. Do they demand new doctrines? No; +but more power in preaching the truths that have outlived nineteen +centuries. Do we need a new revelation of Jesus Christ? Yes, yes, in the +fuller manifestation of Him; in the more loving, courageous and +consecrated lives of His followers. Do we need a new Baptism of the Holy +Spirit? Verily we do need it; and then our pulpits will be clothed with +power, and our preachers will have tongues of fire, and every change +will be a change for the better advancement and enlargement of the +Kingdom of our adorable Lord. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +MY EXPERIENCE IN REVIVALS. + + +I have always counted it a matter for thankfulness that I made my +preparation for the ministry at Princeton Theological Seminary. The +period that I spent there, from September, 1843, to May, 1846, was a +golden period in its history. The venerable Archibald Alexander, +wonderfully endowed with sagacity and spiritual insight, instructed us +in the duties of the preacher and the pastor. Dr. Charles Hodge, the +king of Presbyterian theologians, was in the prime of his power. His +teachings have since been embodied in his masterful volume on +"Systematic Theology." Dr. Joseph Addison Alexander, who, Dr. Hodge +said, was, taking him all in all, "the most gifted man with whom I was +ever personally acquainted," was in the chair of Hebrew and Old +Testament literature. Urbane, old Dr. Samuel Miller, was the Professor +of Ecclesiastical History. Those wise men taught us not only to think, +but to believe. All education is atmospheric, and the atmosphere of +Princeton Seminary was deeply and sweetly Evangelical. At five o'clock +on the morning after I received my diploma, I was off for Wyoming +Valley in Pennsylvania, the Arcadian spot made famous in the volume of +Campbell's "Gertrude of Wyoming." I spent five months there supplying +the pulpit of the Rev. Mr. Mitchell, who was absent to recruit his +health. In the Autumn I received an invitation to take charge of the +Presbyterian Church of Burlington, N.J., founded by the princely and +philanthropic Dr. Cortland Van Rensellaer, son of the Patroon at Albany. +It was the very place for a young preacher to begin his work. The +congregation was small, and, therefore, I obtained an opportunity to +study individual character. It was a very difficult field of labor, and +it is good for a minister to bear the yoke in his youth. My work at +first was attended with many discouragements. I preached as pungently as +I was able, but no visible results seemed to follow. One day the wife of +one of my two church elders came to me in my study, and told me that her +son had been awakened by the faithful talk of a young Christian girl, +who had brought some work to her husband's shoe store. I said to the +elder's wife: "The Holy Spirit is evidently working on one soul--let us +have a prayer meeting at your house to-night." We spent the afternoon in +gathering our small congregation together, and when I got to her house +it was packed to the door. I have attended thousands of prayer meetings +since then, but never one that had a more distinct resemblance to the +Pentecostal gathering in "the upper room" at Jerusalem. The atmosphere +seemed to be charged with a divine electricity that affected almost +every one in the house. Three times over I closed the meeting with a +benediction, but it began again, and the people lingered until a very +late hour, melted together by "a baptism of fire." That wonderful +meeting was followed by special services every night, and the Holy +Spirit descended with great power. My little church was doubled in +numbers, and I learned more practical theology in a month than any +seminary could teach me in a year. + +That revival was an illustration of the truth that a good work of grace +often begins with the personal effort of one or two individuals. The +Burlington awakening began with the little girl and the elder's wife. We +ministers must never despise or neglect "the day of small things." + +Every pastor ought to be constantly on the watch, with open eye and ear, +for the first signs of an especial manifestation of the Spirit's +presence. Elijah, on Carmel, did not only pray; he kept his eyes open to +see the rising cloud. The moment that there is a manifestation of the +Spirit's presence, it must be followed up promptly. For example, during +my pastorate in the Market Street Church, New York, (from 1853 to +1860), I was out one afternoon making calls, and I discovered that in +two or three families there were anxious seekers for salvation. I +immediately called together the officers of the church, stated to them +my observations, instituted a series of meetings for almost every +evening, followed them with conversation with enquirers, and a large +ingathering of souls rewarded our efforts and prayers. 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 labors, whereas, it is sometimes +dashed out, as by a bucket of cold water thrown on by inconsistent or +quarrelsome church members. It was to Christians that St. Paul sent the +message, "Quench not the Spirit." + +In 1858 there began a marvelous work of grace, which extended not only +throughout the churches in New York, but throughout the whole country. +The flame was kindled at the beginning of the year in a noon-day prayer +meeting, instituted by that single-eyed servant of Christ, Jeremiah C. +Lamphier, who had once been a singer in the choir of my church. The +flame thus kindled in that meeting soon extended to my church in Market +Street, and presently spread over the whole city. The special feature of +the revival of 1858 was the noon-day prayer meeting. It was my privilege +to conduct the first noon meeting in Burton's old theatre in Chambers +Street, and in a few days after, a similar one in the Collegiate Church +in Ninth Street, and also the first prayer meeting in a warehouse at the +lower end of Broadway. It is not too much to say that often there were +not less than 8,000 to 10,000 of God's people, who came together at the +noon-tide hour with the spirit of supplication and prayer. The flame, +having spread over the city, then leaped to Philadelphia, and Jayne's +Hall, on Chestnut Street, was thronged by an immense number of people, +led by George H. Stuart. And so it went on from town to town, and from +city to city, over the length and breadth of our land. The revival +crossed the ocean and extended to Ireland. On a visit to Belfast I saw +handbills on the streets calling the people to noon-day gatherings. + +I began my ministry in Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn, +as its first pastor, in April, 1860. From the start I struck for souls; +and when our new edifice was dedicated we were under a refreshing shower +of the Divine Spirit. Six years after my installation as pastor, God +blessed us with an extraordinary downpour. The first drops were followed +by an abundance of rain. That revival began where revivals often +begin,--in the prayer meeting. It was on the evening of the 8th of +January, the first evening of the "week of prayer," which is generally +observed over the land. The meeting was held under the direction of our +Young People's Association,--that same body of young Christian workers +which gave the Rev Francis E. Clark both the inspiration and practical +hints for the formation of his first society of Christian Endeavor. What +a fearful bitter night was that 8th of January! Through that stinging +Arctic atmosphere came a goodly number with hearts on fire with the love +of Jesus. The prayers that night were well aimed; and a man, who +afterwards became a useful officer of the church, was converted on the +spot. On the Friday evening of that week our lecture-room was packed, +and when the elder requested that any who desired special prayer should +rise, two very prominent men in this community were on their feet in an +instant. The meeting was electrified; every one saw that God was with +us. There was no extraordinary excitement; the feeling was too deep for +that. We felt as the ancient Hebrew prophet felt when he heard the +"still small voice from heaven," and went out ready for action. I felt +at once that a great work for Christ had commenced. I called our +officers together at once, and, to use the naval phrase, we "cleared the +decks for action." As the good work had begun in our own church, without +any external assistance, we determined to carry on the work ourselves; +and during the next five months, I never had any pulpit help except on +two evenings during the week, when two fervid, discreet neighboring +pastors preached for me. Commonly, every church should do its own +spiritual harvesting--just as much as every pair of young lovers should +do their own love-making, and wise parents their own family training. +Looking outside is a temptation to shirk responsibility. If a preacher +can preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ faithfully, and the Lord God is +with him, why rob him of the joy of the harvest by sending away for any +stranger? + +My plan of action was this. Twice on each Sabbath, and on two evenings +in the week, I preached as clearly and pungently as I could; sometimes +to awakened souls, sometimes to backsliders, sometimes to the +impenitent, sometimes to souls who were seeking salvation. I spoke of +the great central truths:--personal guilt, Christ's atoning work, the +offices of the Spirit, redemption, the claims of the Saviour, the +necessity of immediate repentance, immediate acceptance of Christ and +the joy and power of an useful Christian life. During a revival, sermons +make themselves; they grow spontaneously. On the Monday evening of each +week our young people had the field with their regular gatherings, and +new converts were encouraged to narrate their experiences. On three +other evenings of the week the whole church had a service for prayer and +exhortation, conducted by our laymen. The praying women met on one +afternoon; the girls by themselves on another afternoon, and the boys on +another. During each week, from eleven to twelve, different meetings +were held, and in so large a congregation, these sub-divisions were +necessary. After every public service I held an inquiry meeting. I +invited people to converse with me in the study during the day, and I +made as much pastoral visitation from house to house as possible. + +"So built we the walls ... for the people had a mind to work." For five +months that blessed work went forward, and as a result a very great +number were added to the church, of whom about one hundred were heads of +families. Our sacramental Sabbaths were holy, joyous feasts, and the +sheaves were brought in with singing. Some of the new converts banded +themselves in a new organization, and to perpetuate the memory of that +glorious spiritual outpouring, they called it the "Memorial Presbyterian +Church." It now worships in the beautiful edifice on Seventh Avenue, and +is one of the most flourishing churches in Brooklyn. The effect of that +work of grace reached on into eternity. One of its first effects, on the +writer of these lines, was to confirm him in the opinion that the living +Gospel, sent by the Holy Spirit, is the one only way to save sinners; +that a church must back up a minister by its personal efforts, and when +preacher and people work together only for God's glory, He is as sure to +answer prayer as the morrow's sun is to rise in the heavens. + +It has not been my practice to invite the labors of an evangelist; but +in January, 1872, Mr. Dwight L. Moody, with whom I had as yet but a +slight acquaintance, but whom I since have honored and loved with my +whole heart, said to the superintendent of our Mission Chapel: "What a +nice place this is to hold some meetings in." He was cordially invited; +and at the end of a week about twenty persons had been mustered together +on the sharp winter evenings. "This seems slow work," I said to him. +"Very true," replied my sagacious brother. "It is slow, but if you want +to kindle a fire, you collect a handful of sticks, light them with a +match, and keep on blowing till they blaze. Then you may heap on the +wood. I am working here with a handful of Christians, endeavoring to +warm them up with love for Christ; and, if they keep well kindled, a +general revival will come, and outside sinners will be converted." He +was right; the revival did come. It spread into the parent church, and +over one hundred converts made their public confession of Christ before +our communion table. It was in those little chapel meetings that my +beloved brother, Moody, prepared his first "Bible Readings," which +afterward became so celebrated in this country and in Great Britain. A +few months afterward I met Mr. Moody in London. Coming one day into my +room, he said to me: "They wish me to come over here and preach in +England." I urged him at once to do so; "for," I said, "these English +people are the best people to preach to in the world." Moody then said, +"I will go home,--secure somebody to sing, and come over and make the +experiment." He did come home,--he secured my neighbor, Mr. +Sankey,--returned to England, and commenced the most extraordinary +revival campaign that had been known in Great Britain since the days of +Whitefield. I cannot dismiss this heaven-honored name without a word of +honest, loving tribute to the man and his magnificent work. D.L. Moody +was by far the most extraordinary proclaimer of the Gospel that America +has produced during the last century, as Spurgeon was the most +extraordinary in Great Britain. Those two heralds of salvation led the +column. They reached millions by their eloquent tongues, and their +printed words went out to the ends of the earth. The single aim of both +was to point to the cross of Christ, and to save souls; all their +educational and benevolent enterprises were subordinate to this one +great sovereign purpose. Neither one of them ever entered a college or +theological seminary; yet they commanded the ear of Christendom. The +simple reason was--they were both God-made preachers, and were both +endowed with immense common sense, and executive ability. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +AUTHORSHIP + + +Printers' ink stained my fingers in my boyhood; for, at the age of +fifteen, I ventured into a controversy on the slavery question, in the +columns of our county newspaper; and, in the same paper, published a +series of letters from Europe, in 1842. During my course of study in the +Princeton Theological Seminary, I was a contributor to several papers, +to _Godey's Magazine_ in Philadelphia, and to the "New Englander," a +literary and theological review published at New Haven. I wrote the +first article for the first number of the "Nassau Monthly," a Princeton +College publication, which still exists under another name. Up to the +year 1847 all my contributions had been to secular periodicals, but in +that year I ventured to send from Burlington, N.J., where I was then +preaching, a short article to the "New York Observer," signed by my +initials. This was followed by several others which, falling under the +eye of my beloved friend, the Rev. Dr. Cortland Van Rensellaer, led him +to say to me: "You are on the right track now; work on that as long as +you live," and I have obeyed his injunction. Within a year or two I +began to write for the "Presbyterian" at Philadelphia. Its proprietor +urged me to accept an editorial position, but I declined his proposal, +as I have declined several other requests to assume editorial positions +since. I would always rather write when I _choose_ than write when I +_must_, and I have never felt at liberty to hold any other position +while I was a pastor of a church. My contributions to the press never +hindered my work as a minister, for writing for the press promotes +perspicuity in preparing for the pulpit. + +In the summer of 1853 I was called from the Third Presbyterian Church of +Trenton to the Market Street Reformed Church of New York City. As a +loyal Dutchman, I began to write at once for the "Christian +Intelligencer," and have continued in its clean hospitable columns to +this day. At the urgent request of Mr. Henry C. Bowen I began to write +for his "Independent," and sent to its columns over six hundred +articles; but of all my associate contributors in those days, not a +solitary one survives. In May, 1860, My first article appeared in the +_New York Evangelist_, and during these forty-two years I have tested +the patience of its readers by imposing on them more than eighteen +hundred of my lubrications. As I was preparing one of my earliest +articles, I happened to spy the blossoms of the catalpa tree before my +window, and for want of a title I headed it "_Under the Catalpa_." The +tree flourishes still, and bids fair to blossom after the hand that pens +these lines has turned to dust. I need not recapitulate the names of all +the many journals to which I have sent contributions,--many of which +have been republished in Great Britain, Australia and other parts of the +civilized world. I once gave to my friend, Mr. Arthur B. Cook, the +eminent stenographer, some statistics of the number of my articles, and +the various journals in which they had appeared in this and other +countries. He made an estimate of the extent of their publication, and +then said to me: "It would be within bounds to say that your four +thousand articles have been printed in at least two hundred millions of +copies." The production of these articles involved no small labor, but +has brought its own reward. To enter a multitude of homes week after +week; to converse with the inmates about many of the most vital +questions in morals and religion; to speak words of guidance to the +perplexed; of comfort to the troubled, and of exhortation to the saints +and to the sinful--all these involved a solemn responsibility. That this +life-work with the pen has not been without fruit I gratefully +acknowledge. When a group of railway employees, at a station in England, +gathered around me to tender their thanks for spiritual help afforded +them by my articles, I felt repaid for hours of extra labor spent in +preaching through the press. + +My first attempt at book-making was during my ministry at Trenton, New +Jersey, when I published a small volume entitled "Stray Arrows." This +was followed at different times by several volumes of an experimental +and devotional character. In the spring of 1867 one of our beautiful +twin boys, at the age of four and a half years, was taken from us by a +very brief and violent attack of scarlet fever. We received a large +number of tender letters of condolence, 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 affliction. I +accordingly selected a number of them, added the simple story of our +precious child's short career, and handed the package to my beloved +friend and publisher, the late Mr. Peter Carter, with the request that +they be printed for private distribution. He urged, after reading them, +that I should allow him to publish them, which he did under the title of +"The Empty Crib, a Book of Consolation." That simple story of a sweet +child's life has travelled widely over the world and made our little +"Georgie" known in many a home. Mrs. Gladstone told me that when she and +her husband had read it, it recalled their own loss of a child under +similar circumstances. Dean Stanley read it aloud to Lady Augusta +Stanley in the Deanery of Westminster; 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 slumbering. Many thousands have visited that +grave and gazed with tender admiration on the exquisite marble medallion +of the childface,--by the sculptor, Charles Calverley,--which adorns the +monument. + +Fourteen years afterwards, in the autumn of 1881, "the four corners of +my house were smitten" again with a heart-breaking bereavement in the +death, by typhoid fever, of our second daughter, Louise Ledyard Cuyler, +at the age of twenty-two, who possessed a most inexpressible beauty of +person and character. Her playful humor, her fascinating charm of +manner, and her many noble qualities drew to her the admiration of a +large circle of friends, as well as the pride of our parental hearts. +After her departure I wrote, through many tears, a small volume entitled +"_God's Light on Dark Clouds,"_ with the hope that it might bring some +rays of comfort into those homes that were shadowed in grief. Judging +from the numberless letters that have come to me I cannot but believe +that, of all the volumes which I have written, this one has been the +most honored of God as a message-bearer to that largest of all +households--the household of the sorrowing. Let me add that I have +published a single volume of sermons, entitled "The Eagle's Nest," and a +volume of foreign travel, "From the Nile to Norway"; but all the +remainder of my score of volumes have been of a practical and devotional +character. Of the twenty-two volumes that I have written, six have been +translated into Swedish, and two into the language of my Dutch +ancestors. Thanks be to God for the precious privilege of preaching His +glorious Gospel with the types that out-reach ten thousand tongues! And +thanks also to a number of friends, whose faces I never saw, but whose +kind words have cheered me through more than a half century of happy +labors. I cannot conclude this brief chapter without expressing my deep +obligations to that noble organization, the "American Tract Society," +which has given a wide circulation to many of my books--including +"Heart-Life," "Newly Enlisted; or, Counsels to Young Converts"--and +"Beulah-Land," a volume of good cheer to aged pilgrims on their journey +heavenward. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +SOME FAMOUS PEOPLE ABROAD. + +_Gladstone.--Dr. Brown.--Dean Stanley.--Shaftesbury, etc._ + + +In a former chapter of this volume I gave my reminiscences of some +celebrities in Great Britain sixty years ago. In the present chapter I +group together several distinguished persons whom I met during +subsequent visits. The first time I ever saw Mr. Gladstone was in +August, 1857, when Lord Kinnaird kindly took me into the House of +Commons, and pointed out to me from a side gallery the most prominent +celebrities. A tall, finely formed man, in a clear resonant voice, +addressed the House for a few moments. "That is Gladstone," whispered +Lord Kinnaird. Mr. Gladstone had already won fame as a great financier +in the role of Chancellor of the Exchequer; but was at this time out of +office, occupying an independent position. He was already beginning to +break loose from Toryism, and ere long became the most brilliant and +powerful leader that the British Liberal party has ever followed. As an +orator he is ranked next to Bright; as a party manager, he was always a +match for Disraeli, and as a statesman he has won the foremost place in +British annals during the last half century. + +In June, 1872, I happened to be in London at the time of the great +excitement over the famous "Alabama difficulty." The Court of +Arbitration was sitting at Geneva; things were not going smoothly, and +there was danger of a rupture with the United States. At an anniversary +meeting at Exeter Hall I had made a speech in which I spoke of the +cordial feeling of my countrymen, and their desire to avoid a conflict +with the mother country. It was suggested to me that I should call on Mr. +Gladstone, who was then Premier; and my friend, Dr. Newman Hall,--who +had always had a warm personal attachment to Gladstone,--accompanied me. +The Premier then occupied a stately mansion in Carlton House Terrace, +next to the Duke of York's column. We found him in his private sitting +room with a cup of coffee before him and a morning newspaper in his +hand. Fifteen years had made a great change in his appearance. He had +become stouter and broader shouldered. His thin hair was turned gray, +and his large eyes and magnificent brow reminded me of Daniel Webster. +He received me cordially, and we spent half an hour in conversation +about the difficulties that seemed to be obstructing an amicable +settlement of the Alabama controversy. Mr. Gladstone appeared to be +puzzled about a recent belligerent speech delivered by Mr. Charles +Sumner in our Senate chamber, and I was glad to give him a hint or two +in regard to some of our eloquent Senator's idiosyncrasies. What +impressed me most in Gladstone's free, earnest talk was its solemn and +thoroughly Christian tone--he was longing for peace on principle. On my +telling him playfully that the time which belonged to the British Empire +was too precious for further talk, he said: "Come and breakfast with me +to-morrow morning, and we will finish our conversation." The next +morning Dr. Hall and myself presented ourselves at ten o'clock in Mr. +Gladstone's parlor. We had a very pleasant chat with Mrs. Gladstone (a +tall, slender lady, whose only claim to beauty was her benevolent +countenance), about the schemes of charity in which she was deeply +interested. At the breakfast table opposite to us were the venerable +Dean Ramsey, of Edinburgh, and Professor Talbot, of Oxford University. +The Premier indulged in some jocose remarks which encouraged me to tell +him stories about our Southern negroes, in whom he seemed to be much +interested. He laughed over the story of the eloquent colored brother +who, when asked how he came to preach so well, said: "Well, Boss, I +takes de text fust; I splains it; den I spounds it, and den _I puts in +de rousements_." Gladstone was quite delighted with this, and said it +was about the best description of real parliamentary eloquence. He told +us that one secret of his own marvelous health was his talent for sound, +unbroken sleep. "I lock all my public cares outside my chamber door," +said he, "and nothing ever disturbs my slumbers." While we were at +breakfast a package of dispatches was brought in and laid beside Mr. +Gladstone's plate. He left them quietly alone until the meal was over +and then, taking them to a corner of the parlor, perused them intently. +I saw that his face was lighted up with a pleasant smile. Beckoning me +to come to him he said, with much enthusiasm: "Doctor, here is good news +from the arbitrators at Geneva. The worst is over. I do not pretend to +know the purposes of Providence, but I am sure that no earthly power can +now prevent an honorable peace between your country and mine." 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 America. After entering +our names in the autograph book on the parlor table, we withdrew, and at +the door we met the Duke of Argyll, a member of the Premier's Cabinet, +who was calling on official business. + +[Illustration: DR CUYLER AT 50.] + +My next meeting with Gladstone was a very brief one, in the summer of +1885. He had lately resigned his third Premiership; his health was badly +impaired, his splendid voice was apparently ruined by an attack of +bronchitis, and the world supposed that his public career was ended. I +called at his house in Whitehall Terrace, and the servant informed me at +the door that the physicians had forbidden Mr. Gladstone to see any one. +I handed in my card, and said to the servant: "I leave for America +to-morrow, and only called to say good-bye to Mr. Gladstone." He +overheard my voice (not one of the feeblest), and, coming out into the +hall, greeted me most warmly, but in a voice almost inaudible from +hoarseness. I told him: "Do not attempt to speak, Mr. Gladstone; the +future of the British Empire depends upon your throat." He hoarsely +whispered, "No, no, my friend, it does not," and with a very hearty +handshake we parted. My prediction came true. Within a year the +marvelous old man had recovered his voice, recovered his popularity, +resumed the Liberal leadership, and for the fourth time was Prime +Minister of Great Britain. + +I supposed that I should never see the veteran statesman again, but four +years afterward, in July, 1889, he kindly invited me to come and see +him, and to bring my wife. It was the week before the celebration of his +golden wedding. He was occupying, temporarily, a house near Buckingham +Palace. Mrs. Gladstone, the good angel of his long life and happy home, +received us warmly, and, bringing out a lot of photographs of her +children and grandchildren, gave us a family talk. When her husband came +in, I was startled to observe how much thinner he had become and how +loosely his clothes hung upon him. But as soon as he began to talk, the +old fire flamed up, and he discoursed eloquently about Irish Home-Rule, +the divorce question, (one of his hobbies), and the dangers that +threatened America from plutocracy and laxity of wedlock, and the +facilities of divorce that sap the sanctities of domestic life. It was +during that conversation that Gladstone tittered the sentence that I +have often had occasion to quote. He said: "Amid all the pressure of +public cares and duties, I thank God for the Sabbath _with its rest for +the body and the soul_." One reason for his wonderful longevity was that +he had never robbed his brain of the benefits of God's appointed day of +rest. After our delightful talk was ended, the Grand Old Man went off in +pursuit of an imperial photograph, which he kindly signed with his +autograph, and gave to my wife, and it now graces the walls of the room +in which I am writing. + +Many men have been great in some direction: William Ewart Gladstone was +great in nearly all directions. Born in the same year with our Lincoln, +he was a great muscular man and horseman; a great orator, a great +political strategist, a great scholar, a great writer, great statesman +and a great Christian. The crowning glory of his character was a +stalwart faith in God's Word, and in the cross of Jesus Christ. He +honored his Lord, and his Lord honored him. Wordsworth drew a truthful +picture of Gladstone when he portrayed + + "The man who lifted high + Conspicuous object in a nation's eye, + Who, with a toward or untoward lot, + Prosperous or adverse, to his wish or not, + Plays in the many games of life, that one + Where what he most doth value must be won; + Whom neither shape of danger can dismay, + Nor thought of tender happiness betray; + And while the mortal mist is gathering, draws + His breath in confidence of Heaven's applause." + +Who has not wept over the brilliant and beloved Dr. John Brown's +unrivalled story, "Rab and His Friends," and been charmed with his +picture of "Pet Marjorie"? What student of style will deny that his +"Monograph" of his father is the finest specimen of condensed and vivid +biography in our language? When his "Spare Hours" appeared in America I +published an article in the "Independent" entitled, "The Last of the +John Browns," several copies of which had been forwarded to him by his +friends in this country. On my arrival in Edinburgh, July, 1862, he +called on me at the Waverly Hotel and invited me to breakfast with him. +He had the fair Saxon features of Scotland, with a smile like a Summer +morning. Not tall in stature, his head was somewhat bald, and he bore a +striking resemblance to our ex-President, Van Buren. He showed me in his +house some choice literary treasures; among them a little Greek +Testament, given to his great-grandfather, the famous John Brown, of +Haddington, the eminent commentator. Its history was curious: Brown of, +Haddington, was a poor shepherd boy, and once he walked twenty miles +through the night to St. Andrews to get a copy of the Greek Testament. +The book-seller at first laughed at him and said: "Boy, if you can read +a verse in this book, you may have it." Forthwith the lad read the verse +off glibly, and was permitted to carry off the Testament in triumph. You +may well suppose that the little volume is a sacred heirloom in the +Brown family, which for four generations has been famous. Of course, the +author of "Rab and His Friends" had several pictures of the illustrious +dog that figured in his beautiful story, and I noticed a pet spaniel +lying on the sofa in the drawing room. A day or two after, Dr. Brown +called on me, and kindly took me on a drive with him through Edinburgh; +and it was pleasant to see how the people on the sidewalk had cheery +salutes for the author of "Rab" as he rode by. We went up to Calton +Hill and made a call on Sir George Harvey, the famous artist, whom we +found in his studio, with brush in hand, and working on an Highland +landscape. Sir George was a hearty old fellow, and the two friends had a +merry "crack" together. When I asked Harvey if he had seen any of our +best American paintings, he replied "No, I have not; the best American +productions I have ever seen have been some of your missionaries. I met +some of them; they were noble characters." On our return from the drive +Dr. Brown gave me an elegant edition of "Rab," with Harvey's portrait of +the immortal dog, whose body was thickset like a little bull, and who +had "fought his way to absolute supremacy,--like Julius Caesar or the +Duke of Wellington." + +When in Edinburgh ten years afterwards, as a delegate to the General +Assemblies, I was so constantly occupied that I was able to see but +little of my genial friend, Dr. Brown. I sent him a copy of the little +book, "The Empty Crib," which had been recently published, and received +from him the following characteristic reply: + + 25 RUTLAND STREET, EDINBURGH, May 25, 1872. + + _My Dear Dr. Cuyler_ + + Very many thanks for your kind note, and the little book. It will + be my own fault if I am not the better for reading it. I have seen + nothing lovelier or more touching than the pictures of those _twin + heads_ "like unto the angels"; even there Georgie looks nearer the + better world than his brother. There is something perilous about + his eyes with their wistful beauty. With him "it is far better" + now, and may it be meet for Theodore to be long with you here. I + hoped to leave with you a book of my father's on the same subject, + entitled, "Comfortable Words," but it is out of print. If I can get + a copy, I will send it you. There are some letters of Bengel's + which, if you do not know, you will enjoy. + + I send you a note of introduction to John Ruskin, and I hope to + hear you to-morrow in Mr. Candlish's church. + + With much regret and best thanks, yours very truly, + + JOHN BROWN + + P.S. I was in Glen-Garry the other week, and quite felt that look + of nakedness, and as if it just came from the Maker's hand; it was + very impressive + +During the closing years of the Doctor's life he was often shadowed by +fits of deep melancholy. One day he was walking with a lady, who was +also subject to depression of spirits, and he said to her: "Tell me why +I am like a Jew?" She could not answer and he replied: "Because I am +_sad-you-see_" Tears and mirth dwelt very closely together in his keen, +fervid, sensitive spirit. 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 reading, and to have won +such a splendid name in literature. It is the attribute of true genius +that it can do great things easily, and can accomplish its feats in an +incredibly short time. He affirms that the immortal story of "Rab" was +written in a few hours! The precious relics of my friend that I now +possess are portraits of his father and of Dr. Chalmers, and of Hugh +Miller, which he presented to me, and which now adorn my study walls. + +While I have always dissented from some of his theological views and +utterances, I have always had an intense admiration for Dean Stanley, in +whose character was blended the gentleness of a sweet girl with +occasional display of the courage of a lion. Froude once said to me: "I +wish that Stanley was a little better hater." My reply was: "It is not +in Stanley to hate anybody but the devil." My acquaintance with the Dean +of Westminster dates from the summer of 1872. The Rev. Samuel Minton, a +very broad Church of England clergyman, 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 understanding. One day +I was invited by Mr. Minton to attend one of these lunch parties, and I +found that day at his table, Dr. Donald Frazer, Dr. Newman Hall, Dr. +Joseph Parker, Dean Stanley and Dr. Howard Wilkinson, afterwards Bishop +of Truro. Stanley felt perfectly at home among these "dissenters" and +asked me to give the company some account of a remarkable discourse, +which, he was told, Bishop McIlvaine, of Ohio, had recently delivered in +my Lafayette Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn, on "Christian Unity." In the +discourse, Bishop McIlvaine had said: "The only difference between the +Presbyterian denomination, and Episcopal denomination, is their +difference as to the orders of the ministry." The Dean was delighted +with my account, and said: "Just imagine the Bishop of London preaching +such a sermon in Newman Hall's or Spurgeon's pulpit; it would rock the +old dome of St. Paul's." In all of his intercourse with his dissenting +brethren the Dean never put on any airs of patronage, for though a loyal +Episcopalian, he recognized their equally divine ordination as ministers +of Jesus Christ. + +A few days afterwards I went up to get a look at Holly Lodge, the +residence of Lord Macaulay, in a side street just off Campden Hill. I +met the Dean just coming out of the gate. He had been attending a garden +party given by Lord Airlie, who then occupied the lodge. It was a +pleasant coincidence to meet the most brilliant ecclesiastical historian +at the door of the most brilliant civil historian of England. The Dean +stopped and chatted about Macaulay, of whom he was very fond, and then +said: "Just beyond is Holland House." We went a few paces and got a +glimpse of the famous mansion in which Lord Holland had entertained the +celebrities of America and Europe. One of the best hours I ever spent +with Stanley was at his own table in the Deanery. He was the most +delightful of hosts. Lady Augusta Stanley, daughter of the Earl of +Elgin, had been a favorite Maid of Honor to the Queen, and the Dean had +accompanied the Prince of Wales on his tour to the Orient. The Queen +quite frequently slipped away from the palace for a quiet chat at the +Deanery with this pair whom she so loved. A marble bust of Victoria, by +her daughter, the Princess Louise, stood in the parlor, a gift of the +Queen. If the Dean was very broad in his theology, his cultured wife was +as decidedly evangelical in hers and her religious influence was very +tonic in all respects. 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 Catechism. I was surprised at the small size of +the room that had held seventy or eighty commissioners. + +As I was very desirous of hearing the Dean preach in the Abbey, he sent +me a very kind invitation to come on the next Sabbath to the Deanery +before the service, and on account of my deafness Lady Augusta would +take me into a seat close to his pulpit. Accordingly she stowed me in a +small box-pew, which was close against the pulpit, and within arms' +length of the Dean. His sermon was a beautiful essay on Solomon and +great men, and in the course of it he said: "Such was the greatness of +our Lord Jesus Christ." I felt so pained by _what he did not say_ that I +ventured to write him a most frank and loving note, 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 +work,--that of our human redemption by His atoning death on Calvary. The +dear Dean, instead of taking offense, accepted the frank letter in the +same spirit in which it was written. A day or two after he sent me a +characteristic note, whose peculiar hieroglyphics, after much labor, I +was able to decipher; 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 letters. + + THE DEANERY OF WESTMINSTER, + + July 22, 1872 + + Dear Doctor---Pray accept my sincere thanks for your + very kind note. I quite appreciate your candor in mentioning + what you thought a defect in my sermon. It arose + from a fixed conviction which I have long formed, that + the only chance there is of my sermons doing any good is + by taking one topic at a time. The effect and the nature + of the death of Jesus Christ, I quite agree with you in + thinking to be a most important part of the Christian doctrine, + and Christian history. But as my sermon was on a + different subject--that of the right use of greatness--I felt + that I could not speak, even by way of allusion, to the + other great doctrine on which I had often preached before. + + I sincerely wish that I could come to America. Every + year that passes increases the number of my kind friends + in the New World, and my desire to see the United States. + + Farewell; and may all the blessings of our State and + Church follow you westward + + Yours faithfully, + + A.P. STANLEY. + +When Dean Stanley visited America in the autumn of 1878, I met him +several times, and he was especially cordial, and all the more so +because of my out-spoken letter. The first time I met him was at the +meeting of ministers of New York to give him a reception, and hear him +deliver a discourse on Dr. Robinson, the Oriental geographer. He +recognized me in the audience, came forward to the front of the +platform, beckoned me up, and gave me a hearty grasp of the hand. I +arranged to take him to Greenwood Cemetery on the morning before he +sailed for home, and after breakfasting with him at Cyrus W. Field's we +started for the cemetery. Dr. Phillip Schaff and Dr. Henry M. Field met +us at the ferry, and accompanied us. When we entered the elevated +railroad car, Stanley exclaimed: "This is like the chariots on the walls +of Babylon." With his keen interest in history he inquired when we +reached the lower part of the Bowery, near the junction of Chatham +Square "Was it not near here that Nathan Hale, the martyr, was +executed?" and he showed then a more accurate knowledge of our local +history than one New Yorker in ten thousand can boast! That was probably +the exact locality, and Dean Stanley had never been there before. Before +entering the Greenwood Cemetery he requested me to drive him to the spot +where my little child was buried, whose photograph in "The Empty Crib" I +have referred to in a previous chapter. When we reached the burial lot +he got out of the carriage, and in the driving wind, of a raw November +morning, spent some time in examining the marble medallion of the child, +and in talking with my wife most sweetly about him. I could have hugged +the man on the spot. It was so like Stanley. I do not wonder that +everybody loved him. We then drove to the tomb of Dr. Edward Robinson +and the Dean said to us: "In all my travels in Palestine I carried Dr. +Robinson's volume, 'Biblical Researches,' with me on horseback or on my +camel; it was my constant guide book." + +Three years afterward, on my arrival in London, from Palestine I learned +that Stanley was dangerously ill. On the door of the Deanery a bulletin +was posted: "The Dean is sinking." That night the good, great man, died. +On the 25th of July the august funeral service took place in +Westminster Abbey. Outside the Abbey thousands of people were assembled, +for the Dean was loved by all London. From a small gallery over the +"Poets' Corner" I looked down on the group, which contained Gladstone, +Shaftesbury, Matthew Arnold, and scores of England's mightiest and best. +After the "Dead March," began a long procession headed by Stanley's +lifelong friend, Archbishop Tait, of Canterbury, and the Prince of Wales +(his pupil), and followed by Browning, Tyndall, and a long line of +bishops, and poets and scholars moved slowly along under the lofty +arches to the tomb in Henry VII.'s Chapel. A fresh wreath of flowers +from the Queen was laid on the coffin. 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 son. I never have visited the Abbey +since, without halting for a few moments beside the chapel in which the +Dean and his beloved wife are slumbering. Greater than all his books or +literary achievements was Arthur Penryn Stanley, the modest, +true-hearted, unselfish, childlike, Christian man. + +Soon after I had begun my pastorate in New York, I became a member of +the Young Men's Christian Association, which was one of the first that +was organized in this country. Since that time I have delivered more +than one hundred addresses, in behalf of this institution, in my own +country and abroad. In June, 1857, the New York organization honored me +with what was then a novelty in America--a public breakfast, and +commissioned me as a delegate to the original parent association in +London. I there met that remarkable Christian merchant, Mr. George +Williams, who was the founder of the Association, and who had got much +of his first spiritual inspiration from reading the writings of our +American, Charles G. Finney. He is now Sir George Williams, my much +loved friend, 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 men. The President of that first organized +London Association was the celebrated philanthropist, the Earl of +Shaftesbury, a man whom I had long desired to meet. My acquaintance with +him began in Exeter Hall, at a Sabbath service held to reach the +non-church going classes. With one or two others we knelt together in a +small side room to invoke a blessing on the service in the great hall, +and he prayed most fervently. The Earl of Shaftesbury was not only the +author of great reformatory legislation in Parliament, and the +acknowledged leader of the Low Church Party in the Established Church. +He was also a leader of city missions, ragged schools, shoe-black +brigades, and other organizations to benefit the submerged classes in +London. He once invited all the thieves in London to meet him privately +in a certain hall, and there pleaded with them to abandon their wretched +occupation, and promised to aid those who desired to reform. He was fond +of telling the story of how, when his watch was stolen, the thieves +themselves compelled the rascal to come and return it, because he had +been the benefactor of the "long-fingered fraternity." The last time +that I saw the venerable philanthropist was just before his death (at +the age of eighty-four years). He was presiding at a convention of the +Young Men's Christian Association in Exeter Hall. In my speech I said: +"To-day I have seen Milton's Mulberry Tree at Cambridge University, and +the historic old tree is kept alive by being banked around with earth +clear to its boughs; and so is all Christendom banking around our +honored President to-night to keep him warm and hale, and strong, amid +the frosts of advancing age," The grand old man rewarded me with a bow +and a gracious smile, and the audience responded with a shout of +appreciation. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +SOME FAMOUS PEOPLE AT HOME. + +_Irvin,--Whittier.--Webster.--Greeley, etc_. + + +Washington Irving has fairly earned the title of the "Father of our +American Literature." The profound philosophical and spiritual treatises +of our great President Edwards had secured a reading by theologians and +deep thinkers abroad; but the American who first caught the popular ear +was the man who wrote "The Sketch Book," and made the name of +"Knickerbocker" almost as familiar as Sir Walter Scott made the name of +"Waverly." During the summer of 1856 I received a cordial invitation +from the people of Tarry town to come up to join them in an annual +"outing," with their children, on board of a steamer on the Tappan-Zee. +I accepted the invitation, and on arrival found the boat already filled +with the good people, and two or three hundreds of scholars from the +Sabbath schools. + +To my surprise and delight I found Washington Irving on board the +steamer. The veteran author had laid aside the fourth volume of the +"Life of Washington," which he was just preparing, to come away for a +bit of rest and recreation. I had never seen him before, but found him +precisely the type of man that I had expected. He was short, rather +stout, and attired in an old fashioned black summer dress, with "pumps" +and white stockings, and a broad Panama hat. As he was no novelty to his +neighbors I was able to secure more of his time; and, like the apostle +of old, I was exceedingly "filled with his company." He took me to the +upper deck of the steamer, 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 Hollow." He pointed out the +route of poor Ichabod Crane on his memorable night ride up the valley, +and so on to the Kakout, where his horse should have gone to reach +"Sleepy Hollow." Instead of that, obstinate Gunpowder plunged down over +that bridge where poor Ichabod encountered his fatal and final +catastrophe. The good old man's face was full of fun as he told me the +story. Irving was so exceedingly shy that he never could face any public +ovation, and yet he had a great deal of quiet enjoyment of his own +popularity. For example, one day when he was going with a young relative +up Broadway, which was thronged with omnibuses, he pointed out one of +the old "Knickerbocker" line of stages to the lad and said: "Billy, you +see how many coaches I own in this city, and you may take as many rides +in them as you like." + +After refreshments had been served to all the guests on board, we +gathered on the deck for the inevitable American practice of speech +making. In the course of my speech I gave an account of what was being +done for poor children in the slums of New York, and then introduced as +many Dutch stories as I could recollect for the special edification of +old "Geoffrey Crayon." As I watched his countenance, and heard his +hearty laughter and saw sometimes the peculiar quizzical expression of +his mouth, I fancied that I knew precisely how he looked when he drew +the inimitable pictures of Ichabod Crane, and Rip Van Winkle. When the +excursion ended, and we drew up to the shore, I bade him a very grateful +and affectionate farewell, and my readers, I hope, will pardon me if I +say to them that dear old Irving whispered quietly in my ear, "I should +like to be one of your parishioners." Three years afterwards, Irving was +borne by his neighbors at Tarrytown to his final resting place in the +old Dutch churchyard at the entrance of Sleepy Hollow. + +Twenty years afterwards my dear friend, Mr. William E. Dodge, drove me +up from his summer house at Tarrytown to see the simple tomb of the good +old Geoffrey Crayon, whose genius has gladdened innumerable admirers, +and whose writings are as pure as the rivulet which now flows by his +resting place. + +The pleasant little town of Burlington, N.J., in which I spent my +earliest ministry, was the headquarters of orthodox Quakers. I was +thrown much into the society of their most eminent people, and very +delightful society I found it. The venerable Stephen Grellet, their +apostle, who had held many interviews with the crowned heads of Europe, +resided a little way from me up the street; and I saw the good old man +with broad brimmed hat and straight coat pass my window every day. +Richard Mott lived but a little way from the town, and on the other side +resided the widow of the celebrated Joseph John Gurney. The wittiest +Quaker in the town was my neighbor, William J. Allinson, the editor of +the "Friends Review," and an intimate friend of John G. Whittier. One +afternoon he ran over to my room, and said: "Friend Theodore, John G. +Whittier is at my house, and wants to see thee; he leaves early in the +morning." I hastened across the street and, in the modest parlor of +Friend Allinson, I saw, standing before the fire, a tall, slender man in +Quaker dress, with a very lofty brow, and the finest eye I have ever +seen in any American, unless it were the deep ox-like eye of Abraham +Lincoln. We had a pleasant chat about the anti-slavery, temperance and +other moral reforms; and I went home with something of the feeling that +Walter Scott says he had after seeing "Rabbie Burns," Whittier was a +retiring, home-keeping man. He never crossed the ocean and seldom went +even outside of his native home in Massachusetts. During the summer of +1870 he ventured down to Brooklyn on a visit to his friend, Colonel +Julian Allen. On coming home one day, my servant said to me, "There was +a tall Quaker gentleman called here, and left his name on this piece of +paper." I was quite dumb-founded to read the name of "John G. Whittier," +and I lost no time in making my way up to the house where he was +staying. When I inquired how he had come to do me the honor of a call, +he said: "Well, yesterday, when I arrived and my friend Allen drove me +up here, we passed a meeting house with a tall steeple, and when I heard +it was thine, I determined to run down to thy house and see thee." As I +was to have the "Chi Alpha," the oldest and the most celebrated clerical +association of New York at my house the next afternoon, I invited him to +come and sup with them. He cordially consented, and it may be supposed +that the "Chi Alpha" was very glad to put aside for that evening all +other matters, and listen to the fresh, racy and humorous talk of the +great poet. Underneath his grave and shy sobriety, flowed a most gentle +humor. He could tell a good story, and when he was describing the usages +of the Quakers in regard to "Speaking in Meetings," he told us that +sometimes the voluntary remarks were not quite to the edification of the +meeting. It once happened that a certain George C---- grew rather +wearisome in his exhortations, and his prudent brethren, after solemn +consultation, passed the following resolution: "It is the sense of this +meeting that George C.---- be advised to remain silent, until such time +as the Lord shall speak through him _more to our satisfaction and +profit_." A resolution of that kind would not be out of place in some +ecclesiastical assemblies, nor in certain prayer gatherings that I wot +of. 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 autographs. "What shall it be?" he said. I told him that, +while some of his hymns and devoutly spiritual pieces, like "My soul and +I," were very dear to me, and while "Snow Bound" was his acknowledged +masterpiece, yet none of his verses did I oftener quote than this one, +in his poem on Massachusetts, He smiled at the selection, and +accordingly sat down and wrote: + + "She heeds no skeptic's puny hands, + While near the school the church-spire stands, + Nor fears the bigot's blinded rule, + While near the church-spire stands the school." + +Our walk to his place of sojourn in the moonlight was very delightful. +On the way I told him that not long before, when I quoted a verse of +Bryant's to Horace Greeley, Mr. Greeley replied: "Bryant is all very +well, but by far the greatest poet this country has produced is John +Greenleaf Whittier." "Did our friend Horace say that?" meekly inquired +Whittier, and a smile of satisfaction flowed over his Quaker +countenance. The man is not born yet who does not like an honest +compliment, especially if it comes from a high quarter. In the course of +my life I have received several very pleasant letters from my venerable +friend, the Quaker poet; but immediately after his eightieth birthday he +addressed me the following letter, which, believing it to be his last, I +framed and hung on the walls of my library: + + OAK KNOLL, + 12th month, 17th, 1887. + _My dear Dr. Cuyler_, + + + + I thank thee for thy loving letter to me on my birthday, + which I would have answered immediately but for illness; + and, my friend, I wish I was more worthy of the kind and + good things said of me. But my prayer is, "God be Merciful + to me." And I think my prayer will be answered, for + His Mercy and His Justice are one. May the Lord bless + thee. Thy friend sincerely, + + JOHN G. WHITTIER + +This note, so redolent of humility, was written a few days after he had +received a most superb birthday ovation from the public men of +Massachusetts, and from the most eminent literary men in all parts of +the nation. + +In the days of my boyhood the most colossal figure, physically and +intellectually, in American politics, was Daniel Webster. I well +remember when I first put eye upon him. It was when I was pursuing my +studies in the New York University Grammar School in preparation for +Princeton College. I was strolling one day on the Battery, and met a +friend who said to me: "Yonder goes Daniel Webster; he has just landed +from that man-of-war; go and get a good look at him." I hastened my +steps and, as I came near him, I was as much awe-stricken as if I had +been gazing on Bunker Hill Monument, He was unquestionably the most +majestic specimen of manhood that ever trod this continent. Carlyle +called him "The Great Norseman," and said that his eyes were like great +anthracite furnaces that needed blowing up. Coal heavers in London +stopped to stare at him as he stalked by, and it is well authenticated +that Sydney Smith said of him, "That man is a fraud; for it is +impossible for any one to be as great as he looks." + +Mr. Webster, as I saw him that day, was in the vigor of his splendid +prime. When he spoke in the Senate chamber it was his custom to wear the +Whig uniform, a blue coat with metal buttons and a buff waistcoat; but +that day he was dressed in a claret colored coat and black trousers. His +complexion was a swarthy brown. He used to say that while his handsome +brother Ezekiel was very fair, he "had all the soot of the family in his +face." Such a mountain of a brow I have never seen before or since. I +followed behind him until he entered the carriage of Mr. Robert Minturn +that was waiting for him, and as he rode away he looked like Jupiter +Olympus. Although I saw Mr. Webster several times afterwards, I never +heard him speak until the closing year of his life. The Honorable Lewis +Condit, of Morristown, N.J., was in Congress at the time when Webster +had his historic combat with Senator Hayne, of South Carolina, and was +present during the delivery of the most magnificent speech ever +delivered in our Senate. He described the historic scene to me minutely. + +Before twelve o'clock on the 26th day of January, 1830, the Senate +chamber was overflowing into the rotunda, and people were offering +prices for a few inches of breathing room in the charmed enclosure. +Senator Dixon H. Lewis, from Alabama, who weighed nearly four hundred, +became wedged in behind the Vice President's chair, unable to move, and +became imbedded in the crowd like a broad-bottomed schooner settled at +low tide into the mud. Being unable to see, he drew out his knife and +cut a hole through the stained glass screens that flanked the presiding +officer's chair. That aperture long remained as a memorial of Lewis's +curiosity to witness the greatest of American orators deliver the +greatest of American orations. The place was worthy of the hour and of +the combatants. It was the old Senate chamber, now occupied by the +United States Supreme Court, the same hall which had once resounded to +the eloquence of Rufus King, as it afterwards did to the eloquence of +Rufus Choate, and which had echoed the bursts of applause that once +greeted Henry Clay of Kentucky. On that memorable morning the +Vice-President's chair was occupied by that intellectual giant of the +South, John C. Calhoun. Before him were Van Buren, Forsyth, Hayne, +Clayton, the omniverous Benton, the sturdy John Quincy Adams, and, in +the seething crowd, was the gaunt skeleton form of John Randolph of +Roanoke. Mr. Condit told me that when Webster exclaimed: "The world +knows the history of Massachusetts by heart. There is Lexington, and +there is Bunker Hill and there they will remain forever,"--the group of +Bostonians seated in the gallery before him, broke down, and wept like +little children. Quite as effective as his eulogy of the "Old Bay +State," was his sudden and awful assault upon Senator Levi Woodbury, of +New Hampshire. This representative of Webster's native State had +supplied Colonel Hayne with a quantity of party pamphlets and documents +to be used as ammunition. Webster knew this fact and determined to +punish him. Turning suddenly towards Woodbury, he thundered out in a +tone of indignant scorn, as he shook his fist over his head: "I employ +no scavengers;" and the poor New Hampshire Senator ducked his bald head +as if struck by a bombshell. The closing passage of that memorable +speech could not have been extemporized. No mortal man could have thrown +off that magnificent piece of Miltonic prose at the heat, without some +deep premeditation. It is well known now that Mr. Webster afterwards +pruned, amended and decorated it until it is recognized as one of the +grandest passages in the English language. I take down my Webster and +read it occasionally, and it has in it the majestic "sound of many +waters." That great passage is the prelude of the mighty conflict which +thirty years afterwards was to be waged on the soil of Gettysburg and +Chickamauga. It became the condensed creed, and the battle-cry of the +long warfare for the nation's life. Well have there been placed in +golden letters on the pedestal of Webster's monument in Central Park the +last sublime line of that sentence: "Liberty and Union, now and forever: +one and inseparable." Mr. Webster's power in sarcastic invective was +terrific. After he had made his angry and ferocious rejoinder to the +charges of Mr. Charles J. Ingersoll, of Pennsylvania, the witty Dr. +Elder was asked, when he came out of the Senate chamber: "What did you +think of that speech?" Elder's reply was: "Thunder and lightning are +peaches and cream to such a speech as that." Mighty as Webster was in +intellectual power he had some lamentable weaknesses. He was indeed a +wonderful mixture of clay and iron. The iron was extraordinarily +massive, but the clay was loose and brittle. He had the temptations of +very strong animal passions, and sometimes to his intimate friends he +attempted to excuse some of his excesses of that kind. There has been +much controversy about Mr. Webster's habits in regard to intoxicants. +The simple truth is that during his visit to England in 1840 he was so +lionized and feted at public dinners that he brought home some convivial +habits which rather grew upon him in advancing years. On several public +occasions he gave evidence that he was somewhat under the influence of +deep potations. I once saw him when his imperial brain was raked with +the chain-shot of alcohol. The sight moved me to tears, and made me hate +more than ever the accursed drink that, like death, is no "respecter of +persons." + +I heard the last speech that Mr. Webster ever made. It was a few months +before his death in 1852. The speech was delivered at Trenton, N.J., in +the celebrated India rubber case, Goodyear _vs. _ Day, in which Webster +was the leading counsel for Goodyear, and Rufus Choate headed the list +of eloquent advocates in defense of Mr. Day. In that speech Webster was +physically feeble, so that after speaking an hour, he was obliged to sit +down for a time, while Mr. James T. Brady made a new statement with +regard to a portion of the evidence. At that time Webster was broken in +health. The most beautiful passage in his speech was his tribute to +woman, and at another point he indulged in a very ludicrous description +of the character of the first India rubber, which was offered as a +marketable article. He said: "When India rubber was first brought to +this country we had only the raw material, and they made overshoes and +hats of it. A present was sent to me of a complete suit of clothes made +of this India rubber, and on a cold winter day I found my rubber +overcoat was frozen as rigid as ice. I took it out on my lawn, set it +upright, put a broad brim hat on top of it, and there the figure stood +erect, and my neighbors, as they passed by thought they saw the old +farmer of Marshfield standing out under his trees." Some of his +sarcastic attacks upon Mr. Day were very bitter, and when he showed his +great, white teeth he looked like an enraged lion. + +A few months after that Trenton speech in October, 1852, he went to his +Marshfield home to die. His spirits were broken and he was sore from +political disappointments. His last few days were spent in a fight by +his powerful constitution against the inevitable. The last time he +walked feebly from his bed to his window he called out to his servant +man: "I want you to moor my yacht down there where I can see it from my +window; then I want you to hoist the flag at the mast head, and every +night to hang the lamp up in the rigging; when I go down I want to go +down with my colors flying and my lamp burning." He told them to put on +his monument, "Lord, I believe; help Thou my unbelief." In the final +moment he started up from his pillow long enough to say: "I still live." +He does live, and will ever live in the grateful memories of his +countrymen. + +While no one can deplore more than the writer the weaknesses and +mistakes of Daniel Webster, yet when I remember his intellectual +prowess and his magnificent services in defense of the Constitution, and +the integrity of our national union, I am ready to say: "Let us to all +his failings and faults be charitably kind and only remember the +glorious services he wrought to the country he loved." + +During the summer of 1840, when I was a college student at Princeton, I +went with a friend to the office of the _Log Cabin_, a Whig campaign +newspaper then published in Nassau Street, New York. It was during the +famous Tippecanoe campaign, which resulted in the election of General +Harrison. I was introduced to a singular looking man in rustic dress. He +was writing an editorial. His face had a peculiar infantile smoothness, +and his long flaxen hair fell down over his shoulders. I little dreamed +then that that uncouth man in tow trousers was yet to be the foremost +editor in America, and a candidate, unwisely, for President of the +United States. Horace Greeley, for it was he, who sat before me, has +been often described as a man with the "face of an angel, and the walk +of a clod-hopper." Ten years later I became well acquainted with him, +and from that time a most cordial friendship existed until his dying +day. He visited me as a speaker at our State convention in Trenton, N.Y. +I had him at my house at supper when my mother asked him if he would +take coffee. His droll reply was: "I hope to drink coffee, madame, in +heaven, but I cannot stand it in this world." After supper I informed my +guest that it was customary for my good mother and myself (for I was not +yet married), to have family worship immediately at the close of that +meal and asked him whether he would not join us. He cordially replied +that he would be most happy to do so, and it is quite probable that I +may be one of the few,--perhaps the only--clergyman in this land who +ever had Horace Greeley kneeling beside him in prayer. He attired +himself in the famous old white coat, and shambled along with my mother +to the place of meeting. He quite captivated her with a most pathetic +account of his idolized boy "Pickie," who had died a short time before. +Mr. Greeley was one of the most simple-hearted, great men whom I have +ever met; without a spark of ordinary vanity he was intensely +affectionate in his sympathies and loved a genuine kind word that came +from the heart. He relished more a quiet talk with an old friend in his +home at Chappaqua than all the glare of public notoriety. "Come up," he +often said to me, "and spend a Saturday at the farm. The good boys do +come and see me up there sometimes." Probably no man lived a purer life +than Horace Greeley. He was the most devoted of husbands to one of the +most eccentric of wives. His defenses of the spiritual sanctity of +marriage in reply to Dale Owen are among the most powerful productions +of his ever powerful pen. 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 life. + +John Bright once said: "Horace Greeley is the greatest of living +editors." He once told me that he had written editorials for a dozen +papers at one time. 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 day. His articles were freighted with great +power, for he was one of the strongest writers of the English language +on this continent. They were always brimful of thought, for Mr. Greeley +seldom wrote on any subject which he had not thoroughly mastered. +Speaking of a certain popular orator, who afterwards went as our +minister to China, he said to me: "Mr. B.---- is a pretty man, a very +pretty man, but he does not _study_, and no man ever can have permanent +power in this country unless he _studies_" + +Mr. Greeley prided himself upon his accuracy as an editor, but one day, +when writing an editorial, in which he denounced some political +misdemeanor in the County of Chatauqua, by a slip of his pen he wrote +the name of the adjoining county Cattaraugus. The next morning when he +saw it in the paper he went up into the composing room in a perfect rage +and called out, "Who put that Cattaraugus?" 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 +Horace," when he saw the word, with a most inexpressible meekness, +drawled out: "Will some one please to kick me down those stairs?" + +He abominated mendicancy and, although his native goodness of heart +often led him to give to the hundreds who came to him for pecuniary aid, +he one day said to me: "Since I have lived in New York I have given away +money enough to set up a merchant in business, and I sometimes doubt +whether I have done more good or harm by the operation. I am continually +beset by various clubs and societies all over the land to donate to them +the _Tribune_. I always tell them if it is worth reading it is worth +paying for. The curse of this country is the deadhead. I pay for my own +_Tribune_ every morning." + +From my old friend's theology I strongly dissented, but in practical +philanthropy he gave me many a lesson and still better stimulant of his +own unselfish example. He was always ready to work in the cause of +reform without pay and without applause. When temperance meetings were +held in my church he very gladly lent his effective services, refusing +any compensation, and there was no man in the city whose evening hours +were worth more in solid gold than his. It is said that he was once +called upon, in the absence of his minister, in a Universalist Church, +to go into the pulpit. He did so, and delivered a very pungent sermon on +the text, "The fool hath said in his heart there is no God." The +strongest points made by Mr. Greeley in the best of his printed essays +are those which emphasize the authority of God. A letter in his +characteristic hieroglyphics, the last one he ever wrote to me, and +which now lies before me, was in reply to one of mine, criticising the +_Tribune_ for speaking of Dr. Tyng's as a "church" and of Dr. Adams's +house of worship as a "meeting house." I told him if one was a church, +then the other was equally so. He replied: "I am of Puritan stock, on +one side, in America since 1640, and on the other since 1720. My people +worshiped God in a meeting house; they gave it the name, not I, and they +called the body of believers who met therein 'a church.' Episcopalians +speak otherwise. It is a bad sign that we do not seem disposed to hold +fast the form of sound words." + +I am not aware of any Scriptural authority for calling a steepled house +"a church." + +The last evening I ever spent with him was at a temperance meeting of +plain working people, to which he came several miles through a snow +storm. He spoke with great power, and when I told him afterwards it was +one of the finest addresses I had ever heard from him he said to me: "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 +Music." As he bade me good-night at yonder corner of Fulton Street, I +said to him: "Uncle Horace, will you not come and spend the night with +me?" He said, "No, I have much work to do before morning. I am coming +over soon to spend a week in Brooklyn with my brother-in-law, and I will +come and have a night with you." Alas, it was not long before he came to +spend a night in Brooklyn,--that night that knows no morning. On a +chilly November day, towards twilight, I was one of the crowd that +followed him to his resting place in Greenwood, and I always, when on my +way to my own plot, stop to gaze on the monument that bears the +inscription, _"Founder of the New York Tribune."_ + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE CIVIL WAR AND ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + +An enormous quantity of books, historic and reminiscent, have been +written about our Civil War, which, both in regard to the number of +combatants engaged, and the magnitude of the interests involved, and its +far-reaching consequences, was the most colossal conflict of modern +times. Before presenting a few of my own personal recollections of the +struggle, let me say that when the struggle was over, no one was more +eager than myself to bury the tomahawk, and to offer the calumet of +peace to our Southern fellow countrymen and fellow Christians. Whenever +I have visited them their cordial greeting has warmed the cockles of my +heart. I thank God that the great gash has been so thoroughly healed, +and that I have lived to see the day when the people of the North feel a +national pride in the splendid prowess of Lee, and the heroic Christian +character of Stonewall Jackson, and when some of the noblest tributes to +Abraham Lincoln have been spoken by such representative Southerners as +Mr. Grady, of Georgia, and Mr. Watterson, of Kentucky. I had hoped ere +this to see the Northern and Southern wings of our venerable +Presbyterian Church reunited; but I am confident that there are plenty +of people now living who will yet witness their happy ecclesiastical +nuptials. Terrible as was that war in the sacrifice of precious life, +and in the destruction of property, it was unquestionably inevitable. +Mr. Seward was right when he called the conflict "irrepressible." +Abraham Lincoln was a true prophet when he declared, at Springfield, +Ill., in June, 1858, that "A house divided against itself cannot stand; +I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half +free." When in my early life I spoke to my good mother about some +anti-slavery addresses that had been delivered, she said to me, with +wonderful foresight, "These speeches will avail but little; _slavery +will go down in blood."_ 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 North. + +My first glimpse of the long predicted conflict was the sight of the +Seventh Regiment,--composed of the flower of New York,--swinging down +Broadway in April, 1861, on its way to the protection of +Washington,--amid the thundering cheers of the bystanders. Before long I +offered my services to the "Christian commission" which had been +organized by that noble and godly minded patriot, George H. Stuart, of +Philadelphia, and I went on to Washington to preach to our soldiers. I +found Washington a huge military encampment; the hills around were white +with tents, and Pennsylvania Avenue was filled almost every day with +troops of horsemen, or with trains of artillery. While I was in +Washington I lodged with my beloved college professor, that eminent +Christian philosopher, Joseph Henry,--in the Smithsonian Institution, of +which he was the head. One night, after I had been out addressing our +boys in blue at one of the camps, and had retired for the night, +Professor Henry came into my room and, sitting down by my bed, discussed +the aspects of the struggle. His mental eye was as sharp in reading the +signs of the times as it had been when at Albany, thirty years before, +he made his splendid discovery in electro-magnetism. He said to me: +"This war may last several years, but it can have only one result, for +it is simply a question of dynamics. The stronger force must pulverize +the weaker one, and the North will win the day. When the war is over, +the country will not be what it was before; the triumph of the union +will leave us a prodigiously centralized government, and the old Calhoun +theory of 'State rights' will be dead. We shall have an inflated +currency--an enormous debt with a host of tax-gatherers, and huge +pension rolls. What is most needed now is wise statesmanship, and the +first quality of a statesman is _prescience_. In my position here, as +head of the Smithsonian, I cannot be a partisan! I did not vote the +Republican ticket, 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 Illinois." Every syllable of Professor Henry's +prognostication proved true, and nothing more true than his estimate of +Lincoln at a time when there was too much disposition to distrust him. + +As I have had for many years what my friends have playfully called +"Lincoln on the brain," let me say a few words in regard to the most +marvellous man that this country has produced in the nineteenth century. +His name is to-day a household word in every civilized land. Dr. Newman +Hall, of London, has told me that when he had addressed a listless +audience, he found that nothing was so certain to arouse them as to +introduce the name of Abraham Lincoln. Certainly no other name has such +electric power over every true heart from Maine to Mexico. The first +time I ever saw the man whom we used to call, familiarly and +affectionately, "Uncle Abe," was at the Tremont House in Chicago, a few +days after his election to the presidency. His room was very near my +own. I sent in my card, and he greeted me with a characteristic grasp of +the hand, and his first sentence rather touched my soft spot when he +said: "I have kept up with you nearly every week in the _New York +Independent_." His voice had a clear, magnetic ring, and his heart +seemed to be in his voice. Three months afterwards I saw him again, +riding down Broadway, New York (thronged with a gazing multitude), on +his way to assume the presidency at Washington. He stood up in a +barouche holding on with his hand to the seat of the driver. His +towering figure was filled out by a long blue cloak, and a heavy cape +which he wore. On his bare head rose a thick mass of black hair--the +crown which nature gave to her king. His large, melancholy eyes had a +solemn, far-away look as if he discerned the toils and trials that +awaited him. The great patriot-President, moving slowly on toward the +conflict, the glory and the martyrdom, that were reserved for him, still +remains in my memory, as the most august and majestic figure that my +eyes have ever beheld. He never passed through New York again until he +was borne through tears and broken hearts on his last journey to his +Western tomb. + +I did not see Lincoln again until two years afterwards, when I was in +Washington on duty for the Christian Commission. It was one of his +public levee nights, and as soon as I came up to him, his first words +were: "Doctor, I have not seen you since we met in the Tremont House in +Chicago." I mention this as an illustration of his marvelous memory; he +never forgot a face or a name or the slightest incident. My mother was +with me at the Smithsonian, and as she was extremely desirous to see the +President I took her over to the White House late on the following +afternoon. In those war times, when Washington was a camp, the White +House looked more like an army barracks than the Presidential mansion. +In the entrance hall that day were piles of express boxes, among which +was a little lad playing and tumbling them about. "Will you go and find +somebody to take our cards?" said my mother to the child. He ran off and +brought the Irishman, whose duty it was to receive callers at the door. +That was the same Irishman who, when the poor soldier's wife was going +in to plead for her husband's pardon of a capital offense he had +committed, said to her: "Be sure to take your baby in with you." When +she came out smiling and happy, Patrick said to her: "Ah, ma'am, _'twas +the baby that did it_." + +The shockingly careless appearance of the White House proved that +whatever may have been Mrs. Lincoln's other good qualities, she hadn't +earned the compliment which the Yankee farmer paid to his wife when he +said: "Ef my wife haint got an ear fer music, she's got an eye fer +dirt." When we reached the room of the President's Private Secretary, +my old friend, the Rev. Mr. Neill, of St. Paul's, told me that it was +military court day, when the President had to decide upon cases of army +discipline that came before him and when he received no calls. I told +Neill that my mother could never die happy if she had not seen Lincoln. +He took in our names to the President, who told him to bring us in. We +entered the room in which the Cabinet usually met--and there, before the +fire, stood the tall, gaunt form attired in a seedy frock-coat, with his +long hair unkempt, and his thin face the very picture of distress. "How +is Mrs. Lincoln?" inquired my mother. "Oh," said the President, "I have +not seen her since seven o'clock this morning; Tad, how is your mother?" +"She is pretty well," replied the little fellow, who was coiled up then +in an arm chair, the same lad we had seen playing down in the entrance +hall. We spent but a few moments with Mr. Lincoln, and when we came out +my mother exclaimed: "Oh, what a cruelty to keep that man here! Did you +ever see such a sad face in your life?" I never had, 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 House, +but may get some faint idea of the terribly trying life that Mr. Lincoln +led. + +Dr. Bellows, the President of the Sanitary Commission, once said to him: +"Mr. President, I am here at almost every hour of the day or night, and +I never saw you at the table, do you ever eat?" "I try to," replied the +President; "I manage to browse about pretty much as I can get it." After +the long wearing, nerve-taxing days were over in which he was glad to +relieve himself occasionally with a good story or a merry laugh, came +the nights of anxiety when sleep was often banished from his pillow. He +frequently wrapped himself in his Scotch shawl, and at midnight stole +across to the War Office, and listened to the click of the telegraph +instruments, which brought sometimes good news, and sometimes terrible +tales of defeat. On the day after he heard of the awful slaughter at +Fredericksburg, he remarked at the War Office: "If any of the lost in +hell suffered worse than I did last night, I pity them." Nothing but +iron nerves and a dependence on the divine arm bore him through. He once +said: "I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming +conviction that I had nowhere else to go; my own wisdom and that of all +around me seemed insufficient for the day." We call him "Our Martyr +President," but the martyrdom lasted for four whole years! + +The darkest crisis of the whole war was in the summer of 1862. I slipped +away for a few weeks of relaxation to Europe, sailing on the Cunarder +_China_, the first screw steamer ever built by that company. She was +under the command of Captain James Anderson, who was afterwards knighted +by Queen Victoria for his services in laying the Atlantic cable, and is +better known as Sir James Anderson. There was no Atlantic cable in those +days, and our steamer carried out the news of the seven days' battles +before Richmond, which terminated in the retreat of General McClellan. +We had a Fourth of July dinner on board, but between seasickness and +heart sickness it was the toughest experience of making a spread-eagle +speech I ever had. After landing at Queenstown I went to Belfast and +thence to Edinburgh. I found the people of Edinburgh intensely excited +over our war and the current of popular sentiment running against us +like a mill-race. For instance, I was recognized by my soft hat on the +street; a shoemaker put his head out of the door and shouted as I +passed: "I say, when are you going to be done with your butchering over +there?" The _Scotsman_ was hostile to the Union cause, and the old +_Caledonian Mercury_ was the only paper that stood by us; but it did so +manfully. On the day of my arrival a bulletin was posted in the +newspaper offices and on Change that McClellan and the Union army had +surrendered. The baleful report was received with no little exultation +by all who were engaged in the cotton trade. I sat up until midnight +with the editor of the _Mercury_, helping him to squelch the rumor and +the next morning expose the falsity of the news in his columns. + +Dr. John Brown, the immortal author of "Rab and His Friends," had called +on me at the Waverly Hotel, and that morning I breakfasted with him. At +the breakfast table I made a statement of our side of the conflict and +Dr. Brown said: "If you will write up that statement, I will get my +friend, Mr. Russell, the editor of the _Scotsman_, to publish it in his +paper." I did so and sent it to the care of Dr. Brown. On the following +Sabbath afternoon I attended the great prayer meeting in the Free Church +Assembly Hall, and Sir James Simpson was to preside. There was a crowd +of over a thousand people present. Simpson did not come, and so some +other elder occupied the chair. During the meeting I arose and modestly +asked that prayer might be offered for my country in this hour of her +peril and distress. There was an awful silence! In a few moments the +chairman meekly said: "Perhaps our American friend will offer the prayer +himself." I did so, for it was evident that all the Scotchmen present +considered our cause past praying for. + +On the morning of our departure my letter appeared in the _Scotsman_ +accompanied by a long and bitter reply by the editor. Within a week +several of the Scotch newspapers were in full cry, denouncing that +"bloody Presbyterian minister from America." + +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 pomp, on the Champs des +Mars. It was a magnificent spectacle. That day Mr. Slidell, the +representative of the Southern Confederacy, hung on the front of his +house an immense white canvas on which was inscribed: "Jefferson Davis, +the First President of the Confederate States of America." Our +ambassador, Hon. William L. Dayton, was a relative of mine, and I had +several conversations with him about the perilous situation of affairs +at home. Dayton said: "Our prospects are dark enough. All the monarchs +and aristocracies are against us; all the cotton and commercial +interests are against us. Emperor Louis Napoleon is a sphinx, but he +would like to help to acknowledge the Southern Confederacy. If he does +so Belgium and other powers will join him; they will break the blockade; +they will supply the Confederates with arms and then we must fight +Europe as well as the Southern States. Our only real friends are men +like John Bright, and those who believe that we are fighting for freedom +as well as for our National Union. Mr. Lincoln must declare for +emancipation and unless he does it within thirty days, I have written +to Mr. Seward that our cause is lost." + +I returned to London with a heavy heart; all of our friends there with +whom I conversed echoed the sentiments of Mr. Dayton. One of them said +to me: "Earl Russell has no especial love for your Union, but he +abominates negro slavery, and is very reluctant to acknowledge a new +slave-owning government. Prince Albert and the Queen are friendly to +you, but you must emancipate the slaves." + +My return passage from Liverpool was on board the _Asia_, and Captain +Anderson commanded her for that voyage. When we reached Boston, we heard +the distressing news of the second Battle of Bull Run, and our prospects +were black as midnight. Captain Anderson remarked to me, in a +compassionate tone: "Well, Mr. Cuyler, you Yankees had better give it up +now." "Never, never," I replied to him. "You will live to see the Union +restored and slavery extinguished." He laughed at me and bid me +"good-bye." A few years afterwards, I laughed back again when I met him +in New York. + +On Sunday evening, September 7, I addressed a vast crowd in my own +Lafayette Avenue Church, and told them frankly, that our only hope was +in a proclamation for freedom by President Lincoln. Henry Ward Beecher +invited me to repeat my address on the next Sunday evening in Plymouth +Church. I did so and the house was packed clear out to the sidewalk. At +the end of my address Mr. Beecher leaned over and said: "The Lord helped +you to-night." When the meeting closed Mr. Henry C. Bowen said, "Will +you and Mr. Beecher not start for Washington to-morrow morning to urge +Mr. Lincoln to proclaim emancipation?" We both agreed to go before the +week was over, but could not before. On the Wednesday of that very week +the Battle of Antietam was fought, and on the Friday morning we opened +our papers and read President Lincoln's first Proclamation of +Emancipation. The great deed was done; the night was over; the morning +had dawned. From that day onward our cause, under God, was saved; but +that proclamation saved the Union. No foreign power dared to oppose us +after that, and Gettysburg sealed the righteous act of Lincoln, the +Liberator, and decided the victory. + +At the beginning of this chapter I described the thrilling scenes at the +opening of the conflict; let me now narrate a still more thrilling one +at its termination. The war began by the surrender of Fort Sumter by +Major Anderson, April 13, 1861; the war virtually ended by the +restoration of the national flag by the same hand in the same Fort, on +April 14, 1865. + +I joined an excursion party from New York, on the steamer _Oceanus_, +and we went down to witness the impressive ceremonies in Sumter. We +found Charleston a scene of wretched desolation, and General Sherman, +who had once resided there, said he had never realized the horrors of +war until he had seen the terrible ruins of that once beautiful city. At +the time of my writing, now, Charleston is crowded every day with +visitors to its industrial Exposition, and the President is received +with ovations by its people. + +Our party went over to Fort Sumter in a steamer commanded by a negro, +who was an emancipated slave, but very soon became a member of Congress. +The broken walls of Sumter, brown, battered and lonely in the quiet +waves were hopelessly scarred, and all around it on the narrow beach lay +a stratum of bullets and broken iron several inches deep. + +The Fort that day was crowded with an immense assemblage. Among them +were the Hon. Henry Wilson, afterwards Vice-President, and +Attorney-General Holt, Judge Hoxie, of New York, William Lloyd Garrison +and George Thompson, the famous member of the English Parliament, who +had once been mobbed for his anti-slavery speech in this country. +General S.L. Woodford was in command for the day. Dr. Richard S. Storrs +offered an impressive prayer, and the oration was delivered by +direction of the Government, by Henry Ward Beecher. When the speech was +completed, Major Anderson drew out from a mail bag the identical bunting +that he had lowered four years before, and attached the flag to the +halyards, and when it began to ascend, General Gilmore grasped the rope +behind him, and, as it came along to our part of the platform several of +us grasped it also. Mr. Thompson shouted, "Give John Bull a hold of that +rope." When the dear old flag reached the summit of the staff, and its +starry eyes looked out over the broad harbor, 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 again. + +The frantic scene inside the Fort beggars description. We grasped hands +and shouted and my irrepressible old friend, Hoxie, of New York, with +tears in his eyes, embraced one after another, exclaiming: "This is the +greatest day of my life!" In the rainbow of those stars and stripes we +read that day the covenant that the deluge of blood was ended, and that +the ark of freedom had rested at length upon its Ararat. + +On the next day I addressed a thousand negro children, and when I +enquired, "May I send an invitation to the good Abraham Lincoln to come +down and visit you?" one thousand little black hands went up with a +shout. Alas, we knew not that at that very hour their beloved +benefactor was lying cold and silent in the East room at Washington! At +Fortress Monroe, on our homeward voyage, the terrible tidings of the +President's assassination pierced us like a dagger, on the wharf. Near +the Fortress poor negro women had hung pieces of coarse black muslin +around every little huckster's tables. "Yes, sah, Fathah Lincum's dead. +Dey killed our bes' fren, but God be libben; dey can't kill Him, I's sho +ob dat." 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 bondage." + +Upon our arrival in New York, we found the city draped in black, and +"the mourners going about the streets." When the remains of the murdered +President reached New York they were laid in state in the City Hall for +one day and night, and during that whole night the procession passed the +coffin--never ceasing for a moment. Between three and four o'clock in +the morning I took my family there, that they might see the face of our +beloved martyr, and we had to take our place in a line as far away as +Park Row. It is impossible to give any adequate description of the +funeral--whose like was never seen before or since--when eminent +authors, clergymen, judges and distinguished civilians walked on foot +through streets, shrouded in black to the house tops. The whole journey +to Springfield, Ill., was one constant manifestation of poignant grief. +The people rose in the night, simply to see the funeral train pass by. I +do not wonder that when Emperor Alexander, of Russia (who was himself +afterwards assassinated) heard the tidings of our President's death from +an American Ambassador, he leaped from his chair, and exclaimed, "Good +God, can it be so? He was the noblest man alive." + +Thirty-seven years have passed away, and to-day while our nation reveres +the name of Washington, as the Father of his Country; Abraham Lincoln is +the best loved man that ever trod this continent. The Almighty educated +him in His own Providence for his high mission. The "plain people," as +he called them, were his University; the Bible and John Bunyan were his +earliest text-books. Sometimes his familiarity with the Scriptures came +out very amusingly as when a deputation of bankers called on him, to +negotiate for a loan to the Government, and one of them said to him: +"You know, Mr. President, where the treasure is, there will the heart be +also." "I should not wonder," replied Lincoln, "if another text would +not fit the case better, 'Where the carcass is, there will the eagles be +gathered together,'" His innumerable jests contained more wisdom than +many a philosopher's maxims, and underneath his plebeian simplicity, +dress and manners, this great child of nature possessed the most +delicate instincts of the perfect gentleman. The only just scale by +which to measure any man is the scale of actual achievement; and in +Lincoln's case some of the most essential instruments had to be +fabricated by himself. + +The first account in the measurement of the man is that with a sublime +reliance on God, he conducted an immense nation through the most +tremendous civil war ever waged, and never committed a single serious +mistake. The Illinois backwoodsman did not possess Hamilton's brilliant +genius, yet Hamilton never read the future more sagaciously. He made no +pretension to Webster's magnificent oratory; yet Webster never put more +truth in portable form for popular guidance. He possessed Benjamin +Franklin's immense common sense, and gift of terse proverbial speech, +but none of his lusts and sceptical infirmities. The immortal +twenty-line address at Gettysburg is the high water mark of sententious +eloquence. With that speech should be placed the pathetic and equally +perfect letter of condolence to Mrs. Bixby of Boston after her five sons +had fallen in battle. 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 century. This +second address--his last great production--contained some of the best +illustrations of his fondness for balanced antithesis and rhythmical +measurement. There is one sentence which may be rendered into rhyme: + + "Fondly do we hope, + Fervently do we pray + That this mighty scourge of war + May soon pass away" + +Terrible as was the tragedy of that April night, thirty-seven years ago, +it may be still true that Lincoln died at the right time for his own +imperishable fame. 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 soldier, or drummer boy, that +filled the sacred mould of Gettysburg and Chickamauga. In an instant, as +it were, his career crystalized into that pure white fame which belongs +only to the martyr for justice, law and liberty. For more than a +generation his ashes have slumbered in his beloved home at Springfield, +and as the hearts of millions of the liberated turn toward that tomb, +they may well say to their liberator: "We were hungry and thou gavest us +the bread of sympathy; we were thirsty for liberty and thou gavest us to +drink; we were strangers, and thou didst take us in; we were sick with +two centuries of sorrow, and thou didst visit us; we were in the +oppressive house of bondage, and thou earnest unto us;" and the response +of Christendom is: "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the +joy of the Lord." + +In closing this chapter of my reminiscences, I may be allowed to express +my strong conviction that our Congress, impelled by generous feeling, +and what they regarded as a democratic principle of government, +committed a serious error in bestowing the right of suffrage +indiscriminately upon the male negro population of the South. A man who +had been all his life an ignorant "chattel personal" was suddenly +transformed into a sovereign elector. Instead of this precipitate +legislation, it would have been wiser to restrict the suffrage to those +who acquire a proper education, and perhaps also a certain amount of +taxable property. This policy would have avoided unhappy friction +between the races, and, what is more important, it would have offered a +powerful inducement to every colored man to fit himself for the honor +and grave responsibility of full citizenship. At this time one of the +noblest efforts made by wise philanthropy is that of educating, +elevating and evangelizing our colored fellow countrymen of the South. +To help the negro to help himself, is the key-note of these efforts. The +time is coming--yea, it has come already--when to the name of Abraham +Lincoln, the grateful negro will add the names of their best benefactor, +General Samuel C. Armstrong (the founder of Hampton Institute) and +Booker T. Washington. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +PASTORAL WORK. + + +The work of the faithful minister covers all the round week. On the one +day he teaches his people in the house of God, on the remaining days he +teaches and guides them in their own houses and wherever he may happen +to meet them. His labors, therefore, are twofold; the work of the +preacher and the work of the pastor. The two ought to be inseparable; +what the Providence of God and good common sense have joined together +let no man venture to put asunder. The great business of every true +minister is the winning of souls to Jesus Christ, and to bring them up +in godly living. In other words, to make bad men good, and good men +better. All this cannot be accomplished by two sermons a week, even if +they were the best that Paul himself could deliver; in fact, the best +part of Paul's recorded work was quite other than public preaching. As +for our blessed Master, He has left one extended discourse and a few +shorter ones, but oh, how many narratives we have of His personal +visits, personal conversation and labors of love with the sick, the +sinning, and the suffering! He was the shepherd who knew every sheep in +the flock. The importance of all that portion of a minister's work that +lies outside of his pulpit can hardly be overestimated. 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 +everybody. A majority of all congregations, rich or poor, is reached, +not so much through the intellect as through the affections. This is an +encouraging fact, that while only one man in ten may have been born to +become a very great preacher, the other nine, if they love their Master +and love human souls, can become great pastors. Nothing gives a minister +such heart-power as personal acquaintance and personal attention to +those whom he aims to influence; especially his personal attention will +be welcome in seasons of trial. Let the pastor make himself at home in +everybody's home. Let him go often to visit their sick rooms and kneel +beside their empty cribs, and comfort their broken hearts, and pray with +them. Let him go to the business men of his congregation when they have +suffered reverses, and give them a word of cheer; let him be quick to +recognize the poor and the children, and he will weave a cord around the +hearts of his people that will stand a prodigious pressure. His inferior +sermons (for every minister is guilty of such occasionally) will be +kindly condoned, and he can launch the most pungent truths at his +auditors, and they will not take offense. He will have won their hearts +to himself, and that is a great step toward drawing them to the house of +God and winning their souls to the Saviour. "A house-going minister," +said Chalmers, "makes a church-going people." There is still one other +potent argument for close intercourse with his congregation that many +ministers are in danger of ignoring or underestimating. James Russell +Lowell has somewhere said that books are, at best, but dry fodder, and +that we need to be vitalized by contact with living people. The best +practical discourses often are those which a congregation help their +minister to prepare. By constant and loving intercourse with the +individuals of his church he becomes acquainted with their +peculiarities, and this enlarges his knowledge of human nature. It is +second only to a knowledge of God's Word. If a minister is a wise man +(and neither God nor man has any use for fools) 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 preaches. + +In Dundee, Scotland, I conversed with a gray-headed member of St. +Peter's Presbyterian Church who, in his youth, listened to the sainted +Robert Murray McCheyne. He spoke of him with the deepest reverence and +love; but the one thing that he remembered after forty-six years was +that Mr. McCheyne, a few days before his death, met him on the street +and, laying hand upon his shoulder, said to him kindly: "Jamie, I hope +it is well with your soul. How is your sick sister? I am going to see +her again shortly." That sentence or two had stuck to the old Christian +for over forty years. It had grappled his pastor to him, and this little +narrative gave me a fresh insight into McCheyne's wonderful power. His +ministry was most richly successful, and largely because he kept in +touch with his people, and was a great pastor as well as a great +preacher. + +I determined from the very start in my ministry that I would be a +thorough pastor. A very celebrated preacher once said to me: "I envy you +your love for pastoral work, I would not do it if I could, I could not +do it if I would; for a single hour with a family in trouble uses up +more of my vitality than to prepare a sermon." My reply to him was: +"That may be true, but, after all, the business of a minister is to +endure these strains upon his nervous system if he would be a comforter, +as well as the teacher of his people." + +My practice was this: I devoted the forenoon of every day, except +Monday, to the preparation of my discourses. My motto was: "Study God's +Word in the morning, and door-plates in the afternoon." I found the +physical exercise in itself a benefit, and the spiritual benefits were +ten-fold more. 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 residence, and also of any case +of sickness or trouble of any kind. 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 me. In short, I endeavored to +treat my flock exactly as though they were my own family, and to be +perfectly at home in their homes. I managed to visit every family at +least once in each year and as much oftener as circumstances required. +As I had no "loafing" places, I easily got through my congregation, +which, in Brooklyn, numbered several hundreds of families. + +Spurgeon had an assistant pastor for his immense flock, but he made it a +rule to visit the sick or dying on as many occasions as possible. He +once said from his pulpit: "I have been this week to visit two of my +church members who were near Eternity, and both of them were as happy as +if they were going to a wedding. Oh, it makes me preach like a lion when +I see how my people can die." + +It was always my custom to take a particular neighborhood, and to call +upon every parishioner in that street, or district, but I seldom found +it wise to send word in advance to any family, that I would visit them +on a certain day or hour, for I might be prevented from going, and thus +subject them to disappointment; consequently, I had to run the risk of +finding them at home. If they were out I left my card, and tried again +at another time. In calling on my people unawares, I found it depended +upon myself to secure a cordial welcome, for I went in with a hearty +salutation and asked them to allow me to sit down with them wherever +they were, regardless of dress or ceremony, and soon I found myself +perfectly at home with them. No one should be so welcome as a faithful +pastor. I encouraged them to talk about the affairs of our church, about +the Sabbath services, and the truths preached, and the influences that +Sabbath messages were having upon them. In this way I have discovered +whether or not the shots were striking; for the gunnery that hits no one +is not worth the powder. + +Fishing for compliments is beneath any man of common sense, but it does +cheer the pastor's heart to be told, "Your sermon last Sunday brought me +a great blessing; it helped me all the week." Or better still, "Your +sermon brought me to decide for Christ." In a careful and delicate way, +I drew out our people in regard to their spiritual condition, and if I +found that any member of the family was anxious about his or her soul, I +managed to have a private and unreserved conversation with that person. +It is well for every minister to be careful how he guards the confidence +reposed in him. The family physician and the family pastor often have to +know some things they do not like to know, but they never should allow +any one else to know them. + +This intimate, personal intercourse with my flock enabled me more than +once to bring the undecided to a decision for Christ. In dealing with +such cases, whether in the home or in the inquiry-room, I aimed to +discover just what hindrance was in the path of each awakened soul. It +is a great point also for such a one to discover what it is that keeps +him or her from surrendering to Christ. If it be some habit or some evil +practice, that must be given up; if some heart sin, that we must yield, +even if it be like plucking out an eye or lopping off a right hand. It +was my aim, and ever has been, 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 them. We must shut every soul up to Christ. + +I requested my people to inform me promptly of every case of serious +sickness, and I could never be too prompt in responding to such a call. +However busy I might be in preparing sermons or any commendable +occupation everything else was laid aside. For a pastor should be as +quick to respond to a call of sickness as an ambulance is to reach the +scene of disaster. I sometimes found that a parishioner had been +suddenly attacked with dangerous illness and even my entrance in the +sick room might agitate the patient. At such times I found it necessary +to use all the tact and delicacy and discretion at my command. I would +never needlessly endanger a sick person by efforts to guide or console +an immortal spirit. I aimed to make my words few, calm and tender, and +make every syllable to point toward Jesus Christ. Whoever the sufferer +may be, saint or sinner, 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 fatal, but if we know +that death is near, in the name of the Master, let us be faithful as +well as tender. + +There are many cases of extreme and critical illness when the presence +of even the most loving pastor may be an unwise intrusion. An excellent +Christian lady who had been twice apparently on the brink of death said +to me: "Never enter the room of a person who is extremely low, unless +the person urgently requests you to, or unless spiritual necessity +absolutely compels it. You have no idea how the sight of a new face +agitates the sufferer, and how you may unconsciously and unintentionally +rob that sufferer of the little life that is fluttering in the feeble +frame," I felt grateful to the good woman for her advice, and have often +acted upon it, when the family have unwisely importuned me to do what +would have been more harmful than beneficial. On some occasions, when I +have found a sick room crowded by well-meaning but needless intruders, I +have taken the liberty to "put them all forth," as our Master did in +that chamber in which the daughter of Jairus was in the death slumber. + +A great portion of the time and attention which I bestowed upon the sick +was spent on chronic sufferers, who had been confined to their beds of +weariness for months or years. I visited them as often as possible. Some +of those bedridden sufferers were prisoners of Jesus Christ, who did me +quite as much good as I could possibly do them. What eloquent sermons +they preached to me on the beauty of submissive patience and on the +supporting power of the "Everlasting arms!" Such interviews strengthened +my faith, softened my heart, and infused into it something of the spirit +of Him who "Took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses." McCheyne, of +Dundee, said that before preaching on the Sabbath he sometimes visited +some parishioner, who might be lying extremely low, for he found it good +"to take a look over the verge." + +In my pastoral rounds I sometimes had an opportunity to do more +execution in a single talk than in a score of sermons. I once spent an +evening in a vain endeavor to bring a man to a decision for Christ. +Before I left, he took me up-stairs to the nursery, and showed me his +beautiful children in their cribs. I said to him tenderly: "Do you mean +that these sweet children shall never have any help from their father to +get to Heaven?" He was deeply moved, and in a month that man became an +active member of my church. He was glued to me in affection for all the +remainder of his useful life. On a cold winter evening I made a call on +a wealthy merchant in New York. As I left his door, and the piercing +gale swept in I said, "What an awful night for the poor!" He went back, +and bringing to me a roll of bank bills, he said: "Please hand these, +for me, to the poorest people you know of." After a few days I wrote to +him, sending him the grateful thanks of the poor whom his bounty had +relieved, and added: "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 +heart?" That sentence touched him in the core. He sent for me +immediately to come and converse with him. He speedily gave his heart to +Christ, united with, and became a most useful member of our church. But +he told me I was the first person who had ever spoken to him about his +spiritual welfare in nearly twenty years. In the case of this eminently +effective and influential Christian, one hour of pastoral work did more +than the pulpit efforts of almost a lifetime. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +SOME FAMOUS PREACHERS IN BRITAIN. + +_Binney.--Hamilton--Guthrie.--Hall.--Spurgeon.--Duff and others_ + + +In attempting to recall my recollections of the eminent preachers whom I +have known, I hardly know where to begin, or where to call a halt. I +shall confine myself entirely to those who are no longer living, except +as they may live in the memory of the service they wrought for their +Divine Master and their fellow men. When I first visited London, in +early September, 1842, the two ministers most widely known to Americans +were Henry Melvill and Thomas Binney. Melvill was the most popular +preacher in the Established Church. His place of worship was out at +Camberwell, and I found it so packed that I had to get a seat on one of +the steps in the gallery. He was a man of elegant bearing, and rolled +out his ornate sentences in a somewhat theatrical tone, but the hushed +audience drank in every syllable greedily. The splendid and thoroughly +evangelical sermons which he orated most carefully were exceedingly +popular in those days, and even yet they are well worth reading as +superb specimens of lofty, devout and resonant oratory. On a very warm +Sabbath evening I went into the business end of London to the "Weigh +House Chapel" and heard Dr. Thomas Binney. He was the leader of +Congregationalism, as Melvill was of the Church of England. On that warm +evening the audience was small, but the discourse was prodigiously +large. Binney had a kingly countenance, and a most unique delivery. His +topic was Psalm 147th, 3d and 4th verses. "God is the Creator of the +universe, and the comforter of the sorrowing." He thrust one hand into +his breeches pocket, and then ran his other hand through his hair, and +began his sermon with the stirring words: "The Jew has conquered the +world!" This was the prelude to a grand eulogy of the Psalms of David. +He then unfolded the first part of his text in a most original style, +made a long pause, scratched his head again, and said: "Now then, let us +take some new thoughts, and then we are done." The closing portion of +the rich discourse was on the tender consolations of our Heavenly +Father. + +Thirty years afterwards Dr. Binney was invited to meet me at breakfast +at the house of Dr. Hall, with "Tom Hughes," Dr. Henry Allon and other +notabilities. The noble veteran chatted very serenely, and offered a +most majestic prayer while he remained sitting in his arm-chair. His +physical disabilities made it difficult for him to stand; and very soon +afterwards the grand old man went up to his crown. When I was spending +two delightful days with Dr. McLaren, of Manchester, I described to him +Binney's remarkable sermon. "Were you there that night?" inquired +McLaren. "So was I, and though only a boy of sixteen, I remember the +whole of that discourse to this hour." It was certainly a rare pulpit +power that could fasten a discourse in two different memories for a +whole half century. + +Do many of the Londoners of this day remember Dr. James Hamilton, the +pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Regent's Square? They should do so, +for in his time he was the most popular devotional writer of both sides +of the Atlantic; and during my visit to London, in 1857, I was very +happy to form his acquaintance. He was a most cordial and charming man, +slender, tall, with dark eyes and hair, and a beaming countenance. When +one entered Hamilton's study he would hurry forward, seize his hands, +and taking both in his, reply to your "How do you do, sir," with "Come +in, come in; I am nicely, I assure ye." Would that all ministers were as +cordial and approachable. When I attended his church in Regent Square +they were singing, when I came in, a Psalm from the old Scotch Version. +The choristers sat in a desk below the pulpit. The singing was general +through the church, and excellent in style. Dr. Hamilton preached in a +gown, and, as the heat grew oppressive in the middle of his sermon, +threw it off. The discourse was delivered with extremely awkward +gestures, but in a voice of great sweetness. The text was: "My soul +thirsteth for the Living God." He described an arid wilderness, hot and +parched, and down beneath it a mighty vein of water into which an +artesian well was bored, and forthwith the waters gushed up through it +and swept over all the dry desert, making it one emerald meadow. "So," +said he, "it is the incarnate Jesus flowing up through our own dusty, +barren desert humanity, and overflowing us with Heavenly life and grace, +until what was once dreary and dead becomes a fruitful garden of the +Lord." The discourse was like a chapter from one of Hamilton's savory +volumes. Five years afterwards, I dined with Hamilton, and the Rev. +William Arnot (who afterwards was his biographer), and I went to his +church to deliver the preparatory discourse to the sacrament on the next +Sabbath. + +On my way up to London, I halted one night at Birmingham, and while out +on a stroll, came upon the City Hall, which was crowded with a great +meeting in aid of foreign missions. The heroic Robert Moffat, the +Apostle of South Africa, was addressing the multitude, who cheered him +in the old English fashion. Two years before that, Robert Moffat had met +a young man in a boarding house in Aldersgate Street, London, and +induced him to become a missionary in Africa. The young man was the +sublimest of all modern missionaries, David Livingstone. Two years after +that evening, Livingstone married Miss Mary Moffat (daughter of the man +to whom I was listening), in South Africa, and she became the sharer of +his trials and explorations. After Moffat had concluded his speech, a +broad-shouldered, merry-faced man, with thick grey hair rose on the +platform. "Who is that?" I inquired of my next neighbor. With a look of +surprise that I should ask such a question in Birmingham, he said: "It +is John Angell James." He was the man whom Dr. Cox wittily described as +"An angel vinculated between two Apostles." He spoke very forcibly, in a +hearty, humorous vein, and I could hardly understand how such a jovial +old gentleman could be the author of such a serious work as "The Anxious +Inquirer." 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 weep. Mr. +James looked like an old sea captain; but he was an admirable pilot of +awakened souls, whom thousands will bless through all eternity. + +Dr. Thomas Guthrie, of Edinburgh, was once pronounced by the _London +Times_ to be "The most eloquent man in Europe." Ruskin, Thackeray, +Macaulay, and other men of renown joined in the crowd that thronged St. +John's Church when they were in Edinburgh; and a highland drover was +once so excited that in the middle of a powerful sermon he called out: +"Naw, sirs, heard ye ever the like o' that?" My good wife made a run to +Edinburgh while I was stopping behind in England, and on her return to +me almost her first word was, "I have heard Guthrie; I am spoiled for +every one else as long as I live." Guthrie, "Lang Tam" (as the toughs on +the "Cowgate" in Edinburgh used to call him), was built for a great +orator. He was more than six feet high, and would be picked out in any +crowd as one of God's royal family. I once said to him: "You remind us +Americans of our famous statesman, Henry Clay," There was a striking +resemblance in the long-armed figure, the broad mouth and lofty brow, +and still more in the rich melody of voice, and magnetic rush of +electric eloquence, "There must certainly be a personal likeness," +replied the Doctor, "for not long ago I went into the house of Mr. +Norris, who came here from America, and said to myself, 'There is my +portrait on the wall,' but when I came nearer I espied under it the +name of 'Henry Clay.'" He used to say that in preaching he aimed at the +three P's: Prove, Paint and Persuade. His painting with the tongue was +as vivid as Rembrandt's painting with the brush. When I went to +Edinburgh, in 1872, as a delegate to the two Presbyterian General +Assemblies, Dr. Guthrie invited me to dine with him, and the gifted Dr. +John Ker, of Glasgow, was in the company. After dinner, Guthrie +literally took the floor, and poured out a flow of charming talk, +interspersed with racy Scotch anecdotes. Among others told was one about +the old Highland woman who said to him: "Doctor, nane of your modern +improvements for me. I want naething but good old Dauvid's Psalms, and I +want'em all sung to Dauvid's tunes, too." On the evening when I +addressed the Free Church Assembly, I was obliged to pass, on my way to +the platform, the front bench, on which sat the veteran missionary, +Alexander Duff, Principal Rainy, William Arnot, Dr. Guthrie and two or +three other celebrities. I have not run such a gauntlet on a single +bench in my life. When I had finished my address, Guthrie, clad in his +gray overcoat, leaped up, and kindly grasped my hand, and I went back to +my seat feeling an indescribable relief. Dr. Guthrie a short time after +attempted to visit our country, but was arrested at Queenstown by a +difficulty of the heart, and returned to Scotland, and lived but a +short time afterwards. + +Sly personal acquaintance with Newman Hall began during the darkest +period of our Civil War, in August, 1862 Up to that time I had only +known him as the author of that pithy and pellucid little booklet, "Come +to Jesus," which has belted the globe in forty languages, and been +published to the number of nearly 4,000,000 of copies. When our Civil +War broke out, Dr. Hall (with John Bright and Foster and Goldwin Smith) +threw himself earnestly on the side of our Union He made public speeches +for our cause over all England, and opened his house for parlor meetings +addressed by loyal Americans who happened to be in London. He invited me +to address one of these gatherings, but the necessity of my return home +prevented my acceptance. Two years after the close of the war he made +his first visit to the United States. He was received with enthusiastic +ovations. Union Leagues gave him public welcomes, Congress invited him +to preach in the House of Representatives; he delivered an address to +the Bostonians on Bunker Hill; and every denomination, including the +Episcopalians and Quakers, opened their pulpits to him everywhere. But +the crowning act of his unique Americanism was the erection of the +"Lincoln Tower" on his Church in London, as a tribute to Negro +Emancipation, and a memorial to International amity. The love that +existed between my brother, Dr. Hall, and myself was like the love of +David and Jonathan. The letters that passed between us would number up +into the hundreds, and his epistles had the sweet savor of "Holy +Rutherford," When he was in America, my house was his home, when I was +in London, I spent no small part of my time in his delightful "Vine +House," up on Hampstead Hill. The house remains in the possession of his +wife, a lady of high culture, intellectual gifts and of most devout +piety. One reason for the close intimacy between my British brother and +myself was that we were perfectly agreed on every social, civil and +religious question, and we never had a chance to sharpen our wits on the +hone of controversy. Our theology was all from the same Book, and our +main purposes in life were similar. Many of my American readers heard +Dr. Hall preach during some one of his three visits to the United +States. What marrowy, soul-quickening sermons he poured forth in a +clear, musical voice, and with a most earnest persuasiveness. Preaching +was as easy to him as breathing. Including the Sabbath, he delivered +seven or eight sermons in a week. Undoubtedly he delivered more +discourses than any ordained minister during the nineteenth century. +Peers and peasants, scholars and dwellers in the slums alike enjoyed +his preaching of God's message to immortal souls. His favorite theme was +the sin-atoning work of Christ Jesus; and the numbers converted under +his faithful preaching were exceedingly great. One of his discourses in +this country on "Jehovah Jireh," was especially helpful, and one on +"Touching the Hem of Christ's Garment," was a gem of spiritual beauty. +He generally maintained an even flow of evangelical thought, but +sometimes he rose into a burst of thrilling eloquence, as he did in Mr. +Beecher's church, when he made his noble appeal for Union between +England and America. From his youth he was fond of street preaching. I +have seen him gather a crowd, and hold them attentively while he sowed a +few seeds of truth in their hearts. + +I wish I had the space to describe some of the foregatherings that I +have had with my twin brother in the Gospel. We visited Italy together, +preached to "the Saints that are in Rome," and went down into that room +in the sub-basement of St. Clement's where Paul is believed to have held +meetings with them that were of Caesar's household. We roamed out on the +Appian Road, over which the great Apostle entered the Eternal City. So +conscientious was my brother Hall in his teetotalism that though tired +and thirsty, he never would touch the weak, common wine of the country, +lest his example might be plead in favor of the drinking usages. We +once went up to Olney and sat in Cowper's summer house, and entered John +Newton's church, and the old sexton told Dr. Hall that he had been +converted by "Come to Jesus." We went together to Stonehenge, and as we +passed over Salisbury Plain we recalled Hannah Moore's famous shepherd +who said: "The weather to-morrow will be what suits me, for what suits +God, suits me always." We spent a very delightful couple of days in +rowing down the romantic river Wye, stopping for lunch at Wordsworth's +Tintern Abbey. In his home he was a hospitable Gaius, with open doors +and hearts to friends from all lands. He had the merry sportiveness of a +schoolboy, and when our long talks in his study were over, he would +seize his hat and the chain of his pet dog, and cry out: "Come, brother, +come, and let us have a tramp over the Heath." He was a prodigious +pedestrian, and at three score and ten he held his own over a Swiss +glacier, with the members of the Alpine Club. He had hoped to equal his +famous predecessor, Rowland Hill, and preach till he was ninety; but +when he was near his eighty-sixth birthday he was stricken with +paralysis, and never left his bed again. Those last two weeks were spent +in the "Land of Beulah," and in full view of "The Celestial City." When +asked if he suffered pain, he replied: "I have no pain, and nothing to +disturb the solemnity of dying." On the morning of February fourteenth +he passed peacefully over the river, and, as Bunyan said of old +Valiant-for-the-Truth, "The trumpets sounded for him on the other side." +No monarch on his throne is so to be envied as he who now wears that +celestial crown. + +Can anything new be said about Charles H. Spurgeon? Perhaps not, 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 century. + +I heard him when he was a youth of twenty-two years, in his Park Street +Chapel; I heard him several times when he was at the zenith of his +vigor; I spent many a happy hour with him in his charming home. On my +last visit there I had a "good cry" when I saw his empty chair in its +old place in the study. I did not form any personal acquaintance with +him until the summer of 1872, and it soon ripened into a most warm and +cordial friendship. On each of my visits to London since that time I +have enjoyed an afternoon with him at his home. His first residence was +Helensburg House in Nightingale Road, Clapham, a Southwest District of +London. That beautiful home was his only, luxury; but he spent none of +his ample income on any sort of social enjoyment, and what did not go +for household expenses went for the support of his many religious +enterprises. On my first visit to him he greeted me in his free and +easy, open-handed way. I noticed that he was growing stouter than ever. +"In me," he jocularly said, "that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good +thing," We spent a joyous hour in his well filled library; he showed me +fifteen stately volumes of his printed sermons which have since been +more than doubled, besides several of his works translated into French, +German, Swedish, Dutch and other languages. The most interesting object +in the library was a small file of his sermon notes, each one on a half +sheet of note paper, or on the back of an ordinary letter envelope. When +I asked him if he "wrote his sermons out," his answer was: "I would +rather be hung." His usual method was to select the text of his Sunday +morning sermon on Saturday about six or seven o'clock, and spend half an +hour in arranging a skeleton and put it on paper; he left all the +phraseology until he reached the pulpit. During Sunday afternoon he +repeated the same process in preparing his evening discourse. "If I had +a month assigned me for preparing a sermon," said he to me, "I would +spend thirty days and twenty-three hours on something else and in the +last hour I would make the sermon, and if I could not do it then I +could not do it in a month." + +This sounds like a risky process, 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 religion. + +He was all the time, and everywhere filling up his cask, so that he had +only to turn the spigot and out flowed the pure Gospel in the most +transparent language. A stenographer took down the sermon, and it was +revised by Mr. Spurgeon on Monday morning. 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 +perspiration, and he slowly outgrew that remarkable sort of physical +suffering. + +Twenty years ago Mr. Spurgeon exchanged Helensburgh House for the still +more elegant mansion called "Westwood" on Beulah Hill, near Crystal +Palace, Sydenham. It is a rural paradise. At each of the visits I paid +him there, he used to come out with his banged-up soft hat, which he +wore indoors half of the time, and with a merry jest on his lips. On my +last visit, accompanied by my brother Hall, I found him suffering +severely from his neuralgic malady, but it did not affect his buoyant +humor. When I told him that my catarrhal deafness was worse than ever, +he replied: "Well, brother, console yourself with the thought that in +these days there is very little worth hearing." He took my brother Hall, +and myself out into his garden and conservatory and down to a rustic +arbor, where we sat down and told stories. There were twelve acres of +land attached to "Westwood," and he had us into the meadow, where we +laid down in the freshly mowed hay and inhaled its fragrance. Mrs. +Spurgeon, a most gifted and charming lady, had a dozen cows and the +profits of her dairy then supported a missionary in London; and the milk +was sent around the neighborhood in a wagon labeled, "Charles H. +Spurgeon, Milk Dealer." After our return, the great preacher showed us a +portfolio of caricatures of himself from _Punch_ and other publications. +At six o'clock we took supper and then came family worship--all the +servants being present Mr. Spurgeon followed my prayer with the most +wonderful prayer that perhaps I have ever heard from human lips, and I +said afterwards to my friend Hall, "To-night we got into 'the hidings of +his power,' for a man who can pray like that can outpreach the world." +In the soft hour of the gloaming we took our leave, and he went off to +prepare his sermon for the morrow. + +Spurgeon's power lay in a combination of half a dozen great qualities. +He was the master of a vigorous Saxon English style, the style of +Cobbett and Bunyan and the old English Bible. He possessed a most +marvelous memory--it held the whole Bible in solution; 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 before. +Once, however, he met for the second time a Mr. Partridge and called him +"Partridge." Quick as a flash he said: "Pardon me, sir, I did not intend +to make _game_ of you," He was a man of one Book, and had the most +implicit faith in every jot and tittle of God's Word. He preached it +without defalcation or discount, and this prodigious faith made his +preaching immensely tonic. His sympathies with all mankind were +unbounded, and the juices of his nature were enough to float an ark full +of living creatures. Joined to these gifts was a marvelous voice of +great sweetness, and a homely mother-wit that bubbled out in all his +talk and often in his sermons. Mightiest of all was his power of prayer, +and his inner life was hid with Christ in God. As an organizer he had +great executive abilities. His Orphanage, dozen missionary schools and +theological training school will be among his enduring monuments. The +last sermon I ever heard him deliver was in Dr. Newman Hall's church on +a week evening. He came hobbling into the study, his face the picture of +suffering. He said to me, "Brother Cuyler, if I break down, won't you +take up the service and go on with it?" I told him that he would forget +his pains the moment he got under way, and so it was, for he delivered a +most nutritious discourse to us. When the service was over, he limped +off to his carriage, wrapped himself in the huge cushions, and drove +away seven miles to his home at Upper Norwood. That was the last time I +ever saw my beloved friend. + +It seems strange that I shall never behold that homely, honest +countenance again; and since that time, London has hardly seemed to be +London without him. It is a cause for congratulation that his son, the +Reverend Thomas Spurgeon, is so successfully carrying forward the great +work of his sainted father. 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 students: "Some modern divines whittle away the +Gospel to the small end of nothing; they make our Divine Lord to be a +sort of blessed nobody; they bring down salvation to mere possibility; +they make certainties into probabilities and treat verities as mere +opinions. When you see a preacher making the Gospel smaller by degrees, +and miserably less, till there is not enough of it left to make soup +for a sick grasshopper, _get you gone with him_! As for me, I believe in +an infinite God, an infinite atonement, infinite love and mercy, an +everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure, and of which the +substance and reality is an Infinite Christ." + +I once asked Dr. James McCosh, who was the greatest preacher he ever +heard. He replied, "Of course, it was my Edinboro Professor, Dr. +Chalmers, but the grandest display of eloquence I ever listened to was +Dr. Alexander Duff's famous Plea for Foreign Missions, delivered before +the Scottish General Assembly at a date previous to the disruption," I +can say _Amen_ to Dr. McCosh, for the most overpowering oratory that I +ever heard was Duff's great missionary speech in the Broadway Tabernacle +during his visit to America. In the immense crowd were two hundred +ministers and the foremost laymen of the city. When the great missionary +arose (he was then in the prime of his power), his first appearance was +not impressive, for his countenance had no beauty and his gestures were +grotesquely awkward. With one arm he huddled his coat up to his +shoulder, with the other he sawed the air incontinently, and when +intensely excited, he leapt several inches from the floor as if about to +precipitate himself over the desk. All these eccentricities were +forgotten when once the great heart began to open its treasures to us, +and the subject of his resistless oratory began to enchain our souls. In +his vivid description of "Magnificent India" its dusky crowds and its +ancient temples, with its northern mountains towering to the skies; its +dreary jungles haunted by the tiger; its crystalline salt fields +flashing in the sun; and its Malabar hills redolent with the richest +spices, were all spread out before us like a panorama. + +When the Doctor had completed the survey of India, he opened his +batteries on the sloth and selfishness of too many of Christ's professed +followers; he poured contempt upon the men who said: "They are not so +_green_ as to waste their money on the farce of Foreign Missions." "No, +no, indeed," he continued, "they are not _green_, for greenness implies +verdure, and beauty, and there is not a single atom of verdure in their +parched and withered up souls." Under the burning satire and mellowing +pathos of his tremendous appeal for heathendom, tears welled out from +every eye in the house. I leaned over toward the reporter's table; many +of the reporters had flung down their pens--they might as well have +attempted to report a thunder storm. As the orator drew near his close, +he seemed like one inspired; his face shone as if it were, the face of +an angel. 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 heart. After +nearly two hours of this inundation of eloquence, he concluded with the +quotation of Cowper's magnificent verse, + + "One song employs all nations," etc + +With the utmost vehemence he rung out the last line: + + "Earth rolls the rapturous Hosanna round." + +He could not check his headway, and repeated the line a second time, +louder than before, and then with a tremendous voice that made the walls +reverberate, he shouted once more: + + "_Earth rolls the rapturous Hosanna round!_" + +and sunk back breathless and exhausted into his chair. "Shut up now this +Tabernacle," exclaimed Dr. James W. Alexander. "Let no man dare speak +here after that." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +SOME FAMOUS AMERICAN PREACHERS. + +_The Alexanders.--Dr. Tyng.--Dr. Cox.--Dr. Adams.--Dr. Storrs.--Mr. +Beecher.--Mr. Finney and Dr. B.M. Palmer_. + + +The necessary limitations of this chapter forbid any reference to many +distinguished American preachers whom I have seen or heard, but with +whom I had not sufficient personal acquaintance to furnish any material +for personal reminiscences. In common with multitudes of others on both +sides of the ocean, I had a hearty admiration for the brilliant genius +and masterful sermons of Phillips Brooks, but I only heard two of his +rapid and resonant addresses on anniversary occasions, and my +acquaintance with him was very slight. I heard only one discourse by +that remarkable combination of preacher, poet, patriot and philosopher, +Dr. Horace Bushnell, of Hartford,--his discourse on "Barbarism the Chief +Danger," delivered before the "Home Missionary Society." His sermon on +"Unconscious Influence," was enough to confer immortality on any +minister of Jesus Christ. I never was acquainted with him, but after his +death, I suggested to the residents of New Preston, that they should +name the mountain that rises immediately behind the home of his +childhood and youth, _Mount Bushnell_. The villagers assented to my +proposal, and the State Legislature ratified their act by ordering that +name to be placed on the maps of Connecticut. In this chapter, as in the +previous one, I shall give my recollections only of those who have ended +their career of service, and entered into their reward. + +During the six years that I spent in Princeton College and in the +Seminary (between 1838 and 1846) I came into close acquaintance with, +and I heard very often, the two great orators of the Alexander family. +Dr. Archibald Alexander, the father of a famous group of sons, was a +native of Virginia--had listened to Patrick Henry in his youth; had +married the daughter of the eloquent "Blind Preacher," Rev. James +Waddell, and even when as a young minister he had preached in Hanover, +New Hampshire. Daniel Webster, then a student in Dartmouth College, +predicted his future eminence. The students in the Seminary were wont to +call him playfully, "The Pope," for we had unbounded confidence in his +sanctified common-sense. I always went to him for counsel. His insight +into the human heart was marvelous; and in the line of close +experimental preaching, he has not had his equal since the days of +President Edwards. He put the impress of his powerful personality on a +thousand ministers who graduated from Princeton Seminary. + +In his lecture-desk and in the pulpit he was simplicity itself. His +sermons were like the waters of Lake George, so pellucid that you could +see every bright pebble far down in the depths; a child could comprehend +him, yet a sage be instructed by him. His best discourses were +extemporaneous, and he had very little gesture, except with his +forefinger, which he used to place under his chin, and sometimes against +his nose in a very peculiar manner. With a clear piping voice and +colloquial style he held his audience in rapt attention, disdaining all +the tricks of sensational oratory. Twice I heard him deliver his +somewhat celebrated discourse on "The Day of Judgment;" it was a +masterpiece of solemn eloquence, 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 day; and he continued to write +his practical articles for the religious press until he was almost +four-score. What an impressive funeral was his on that bright October +afternoon, in 1851, when two hundred ministers gathered in that +Westminster Abbey of Presbyterianism, the Princeton Cemetery! His ashes +slumber beside those of Witherspoon, Davies, Hodge, McCosh and Jonathan +Edwards. + +Among the six sons who stood that day beside that grave, the most +brilliant by far was the third son, Joseph Addison Alexander. Dr. +Charles Hodge said of him: "Taking him all in all, he was the most +gifted man with whom I have ever been personally acquainted," In +childhood, such was his precocity that he knew the Hebrew alphabet at +six years of age (I am afraid that some ministers do not know it at +sixty); and he could read Latin fluently when he was only eight! Of his +wonderful feats of memory I could give many illustrations; one was that +on the day that I was matriculated in the Seminary with fifty other +students, Professor Alexander went over to Dr. Hodge's study, and +repeated to him every one of our names! When using manuscript in the +pulpit, he frequently turned the leaves backward instead of forward, for +he knew all the sermon by heart! His commentaries--quite too few--remain +as monuments of his profound scholarship, and some of his articles in +the _Princeton Review_ sparkled with the keenest wit. + +Oh, 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 tops! His physique was remarkable, he had the ruddy +cheeks of a boy, and his square intellectual head we students used to +say "looked like Napoleon's." His voice was peculiarly melodious, +especially in the pathetic passages; his imagination was vivid in fine +imagery, and he had an unique habit of ending a long sentence in the +words of his text, which chained the text fast to our memories. The +announcement of his name always crowded the church in Princeton, and he +was flooded with invitations to preach in the most prominent churches of +New York, Philadelphia, and other cities. One of his most powerful and +popular sermons was on the text, "Remember Lot's Wife;" and he received +so many requests to repeat that sermon that he said to his brother James +in a wearied tone, "I am afraid that woman will be the death of me." + +There may still be old Philadelphians who can recall the magnificent +series of discourses which Professor Alexander delivered during the +winter of 1847 in the pulpit of Dr. Henry A. Boardman, while Dr. +Boardman was in Europe. The church was packed every Sabbath evening, +clear to the outer door, and many were unable to find room even in the +aisles. Dr. Alexander was then in his splendid prime. His musical voice +often swelled into a volume that rolled out through the doorway and +reached the passerby on the sidewalk! During that winter he pronounced +all his most famous sermons--on "The Faithful Saying," on "The City with +Foundations," on "Awake, Thou that Sleepest!" and on "The Broken and +Contrite Heart." It was after hearing this latter most original and +pathetic discourse that an eminent man exclaimed, "No such preaching as +that has been heard in this land since the days of Dr. John M. Mason." I +enjoy the perusal of the rich, unique, and spiritual sermons of my +beloved professor and friend; but no one who reads them can realize what +it was to listen to Joseph Addison Alexander in his highest and holiest +inspirations. + +Was Albert Barnes a great preacher? Yes; 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 Mr. Barnes a great ambassador of the Lord Jesus +Christ. He combined modesty and majesty to a remarkable degree. He had a +commanding figure, keen eye, handsome features, and a clear distinct +voice; but so diffident was he that he seldom looked about over his +congregation and rarely made a single gesture. His simple rule of +homiletics was, have something to say, and then say it. He stood up in +his pulpit and delivered his calm, clear, strong, spiritual utterances +with scarcely a trace of emotion, and the hushed assembly listened as if +they were listening to one of the oracles of God. His best sermons were +like a great red anthracite coal bed, with no flash, but kindled through +and through with the fire of the Holy Spirit Bashful, too, as he was, he +denounced popular sins with an intrepidity displayed by but few +ministers in our land. In the temperance reform he was an early pioneer. +For Albert Barnes I felt an intense personal attachment; he was my ideal +of a fearless, godly-minded herald of evangelical truth; and he had +begun his public ministry in Morristown, N.J., the home of my maternal +ancestry, and in the church in which my beloved mother had made her +confession of faith. When our Lafayette Avenue Church was +dedicated--just forty years ago--I urged him to deliver the discourse; +but he hesitated to preach extemporaneously, and his sight was so +impaired that he could not use a manuscript. At the age of seventy-two +he was suddenly and sweetly translated to heaven. Over the whole +English-speaking world his name was familiar as a plain teacher of God's +Word in very spiritual commentaries. + +A half century ago Dr. William B. Sprague, of Albany, was in the front +rank of Presbyterian preachers. His fine presence, his richly melodious +voice, his graceful style and fresh, practical evangelical thought made +him so popular that he was in demand everywhere for special occasions +and services. He was a marvel of industry. While preparing his +voluminous "Annals of the American Pulpit," and conducting an enormous +correspondence, he never omitted the preparation of new sermons for his +own flock. With that flock he lived and labored for forty years, and +when he resigned his charge (in 1869) he told me that when removing from +Albany, he buried his face and streaming eyes with his hands, for he +could not endure the farewell look at the city of his love. When I first +heard him in my student days I thought him an almost faultless pulpit +orator, and when he and the young and ardent Edward N. Kirk stood side +by side in Albany, no town in the land contained two nobler specimens of +the earnest, persuasive and eloquent Presbyterian preachers. + +When I came to New York as pastor of the Market Street Church, in 1853, +the most conspicuous minister in the city was the rector of St. George's +Episcopal Church on Stuyvesant Square. Every Sabbath the superb and +spacious edifice was thronged. It was quite "the thing" for strangers +who came to New York to go and hear Dr. Tyng. Even on Sunday afternoons +the house was filled; for at that service he preached what he called +"sermons to the children"--but they were not only sprightly, simple and +vivacious enough to attract the young, they also contained an abundance +of strong meat for persons of older growth. He was an enthusiast in +Sunday school work--had 2,500 scholars in his mission schools, and +possessed an unsurpassed power in nailing the ears of the young to his +pulpit. + +Dr. Tyng was the acknowledged leader of the "Low Church" wing of +Episcopacy in this country, both during his ministry in the Epiphany at +Philadelphia, and in St. George's at New York. He edited their weekly +paper, and championed their cause on all occasions. He was their +candidate for the office of Bishop of Pennsylvania in 1845, and the +contest was protracted through a long series of ballotings. It was +urged, and not without some reason, that his impetuous temper and strong +partisanship might make him a rather domineering overseer of the +diocese. He possessed an indomitable will and pushed his way through +life with the irresistible rush of a Cunarder under a full head of +steam. His temper was naturally very violent. One Sabbath evening he was +addressing my Sunday school in Market Street, and describing the various +kinds of human nature by resemblances to various animals, the lion, the +fox, the sloth, etc.: "Children," he exclaimed, "do you want to know +what I am? I am by nature a royal Bengal tiger, and if it had not been +for the grace of God to tame me, I fear that nobody could ever have +lived with me." There was about as much truth as there was wit in the +comparison. His congregation in St. George's knew his irrepressible +temperament so well that they generally let him have his own way. If he +wanted money for a church object or a cause of charity, he did not beg +for it; he demanded it in the name of the Lord. "When I see Dr. Tyng +coming up the steps of my bank," said a rich bank president to me, "I +always begin to draw my cheque; I know he will get it, and it saves my +time." + +His leading position among Low Churchmen was won not only by his +intellectual force and moral courage, but by his uncompromising devotion +to evangelical doctrine. He belonged to the same school with Baxter, +John Newton, Bickersteth, Simeon and Bedell. In England his intimate +friends were the Earl of Shaftesbury, Dr. McNeill and others of the most +pronounced evangelical type. The good old doctrines of redemption by the +blood of Christ, and of regeneration by the Holy Spirit were his +constant theme, and on these and kindred topics he was a delightful +preacher. + +Strong as he was in the pulpit, Dr. Tyng was the prince of platform +orators. He had every quality necessary for the sway of a popular +audience--fine elocution, marvelous fluency, piquancy, the courage of +his convictions and a magnetism that swept all before him. His voice was +very clear and penetrating, and he hurled forth his clean-cut sentences +like javelins. A more fluent speaker I never heard; not Spurgeon or +Henry Ward Beecher could surpass him in readiness of utterance. On one +occasion the Broadway Tabernacle was crowded with a great audience that +gathered to hear some celebrity; and the expected hero did not arrive. +The impatient crowd called for "Tyng, Tyng;" and the rector of St. +George's came forward, and on the spur of the moment delivered such a +charming speech that the audience would not let him stop. For many years +I spoke with him at meetings for city missions, total abstinence, Sunday +schools and other benevolent enterprises. He used playfully to call me +"one of his boys." At a complimentary reception given to J.B. Gough in +Niblo's Hall, Mr. Beecher and myself delivered our talks, and then +retired to the opposite end of the hall. Dr. Tyng took the rostrum with +one of his swift magnetic speeches. I leaned over to Beecher and +whispered, "That is splendid platforming, isn't it?" Beecher replied: +"Yes, indeed it is. He is the one man that I am afraid of. When he +speaks first I do not care to follow him, and if I speak first, then +when he gets up I wish I had not spoken at all." Some of Dr. Tyng's +most powerful addresses were in behalf of the temperance reform; he was +a most uncompromising foe of both of the dram shop and of the drinking +usages in polite society. He also denounced the theatre and the +ball-room with the most Puritanic vehemence. + +Dr. Stephen H. Tyng's chief power, like many other great preachers, was +when he was on his feet. He should be heard and not read. Some of the +discourses and addresses which enchained and thrilled his auditors +seemed tame enough when reported for the press. In that respect he +resembled Whitfield and Gough and many of our most effective stump +speakers. The result was that Dr. Tyng's fame, to a great degree, +perished with him. He published several books, of a most excellent and +evangelical character, but they lacked the thunder and the lightning +which make his uttered words so powerful, and probably none of his many +books are much read to-day. The influence of his splendid and heroic +personality was very great during a ministry of over fifty years, and +the glorious work which he wrought for his Master will endure to all +eternity. + +To have heard Dr. William Adams of New York at his best was better than +any lecture on "Homiletics"; to have met him at the fireside or in the +sick room of one of his parishioners was a prelection in pastoral +theology. + +The first time that I ever saw him was fully fifty years ago; he was +standing in the gallery of the old Broadway Tabernacle at an anniversary +of the American Bible Society, and Dr. James W. Alexander pointed him +out to me saying--"Yonder stands Dr. William Adams, he is the _hardest +student_ of us all." 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 land. He always drew out of a full +cask. Let young ministers lay this fact to heart. It was not by trick or +happy luck, or by pyrotechnics of rhetoric that Dr. Adams won and kept +his position in the forefront of metropolitan preachers. The "dead line +of fifty" was not to be found on his intellectual atlas. One of the last +talks with him that I now recall was on an early morning in Congress +Park, Saratoga. He had a pocket Testament in his hand, and he said to +me, "I find myself reading more and more the old books of my youth; I am +enjoying just now Virgil's Eclogues, but nothing is so dear to me as my +Greek Testament." + +All of Dr. Adams' finest efforts were thoroughly prepared and committed +to memory. He never risked a failure by attempting to shake a sermon or +a speech "out of his sleeve." His memory was one of his greatest gifts. +Sometimes when his soul was on fire, and his voice trembled with +emotion, he rose into the region of lofty impassioned eloquence. His +master effort on the platform was his address of welcome to the +members of the "Evangelical Alliance" in 1873. How the foreign +delegates--Doctors Stoughton, Christlieb, Dorner and the rest of +them--did open their eyes that evening to the fact that a Yankee-born +parson was, in elegant culture and polished oratory, a match for them +all. Dr. Adams' speech "struck twelve" for the Alliance at the start; +nothing during the whole subsequent sessions surpassed that opening +address, although Beecher and Dr. Joseph Parker were both among the +speakers. He closed the meeting of the Alliance in the Academy of Music +with a prayer of wonderful fervor, pathos and beauty. + +One of his grandest speeches was delivered before the Free Church +General Assembly in Edinburgh--in May, 1871. Dr. Guthrie told me that he +swept the assembly away by his stately bearing, sonorous voice and +classic oratory. The men whom he moved so mightily were such men as +Arnot and Guthrie and Rainy and Bonar,--the men who had listened to the +grandest efforts of Duff and of Chalmers. I well remember that when I +had to address the same assembly (as the American delegate) the next +year I was more disturbed by the apparition of my predecessor, Dr. +Adams, than by all the brilliant audience before me. + +Dr. Adams was gifted with what is of more practical value than genius, +and that was marvelous _tact_. That was with him an instinct and an +inspiration. It led him to always speak the right word, and do the right +thing at the right time. Personal politeness helped him also; for he was +one of the most perfect gentlemen in America. That practical sagacity +made him the leader of the "new school" branch of our church, during the +delicate negotiations for reunion in 1867, and on to 1870. He knew human +nature well, and never lost either his temper or his faith in the sure +result. 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 war, let us gratefully remember George W. Musgrave, the pilot of +the "old school" and William Adams, the pilot of the "new." + +The last sermon that I ever heard Dr. Adams deliver was in my Lafayette +Avenue Church pulpit a few years before his death. His text was the +closing passage of the fourth chapter of Second Corinthians. The whole +sermon was delivered with great majesty and tenderness. One illustration +in it was sublime. He was comparing the "things which are seen and +temporal" with the "things which are not seen and eternal." He described +Mont Blanc enveloped in a morning cloud of mist. The vapor was the +_seen_ thing which was soon to pass away;--behind it was the _unseen_ +mountain, glorious as the "great white throne" which should stand +unmoved when fifty centuries of mist had flown away into nothingness. +This passage moved the audience prodigiously. Many sat gazing at the +tall pale orator before them through their tears. The portrait of Dr. +Adams hangs on my study wall--alongside of the portrait of Chalmers--and +as I look at his majestic countenance now, I still seem to see him as on +that Sabbath morning he stood before us, with the light of eternity +beaming on his brow! + +In the summer of 1845 I was strolling with my friend Littell (the +founder of the _Living Age_), through the leafy lanes of Brookline, and +we came to a tasteful church. "That," said Mr. Littell, "is the Harvard +Congregational meeting house. They have lately called a brilliant young +Mr. Storrs, who was once a law student with Rufus Choate; he is a man of +bright promise." Two years afterward I saw and heard that brilliant +young minister in the pulpit of the newly organized Church of the +Pilgrims in Brooklyn. He had already found his place, and his throne. He +made that pulpit visible over the continent. That church will be "Dr. +Storrs' church" for many a year to come. + +Had that superbly gifted law student of Choate gone to the bar he would +inevitably have won a great distinction, and might have charmed the +United States Senate by his splendid eloquence. 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 audiences. But young Storrs chose the better part, and no +temptation of fame or pelf allured him from the higher work of preaching +Jesus Christ to his fellow men. He was--like Chalmers and Bushnell and +Spurgeon--a _born preacher_. Great as he was on the platform, or on +various ceremonial occasions, he was never so thoroughly "at home" as in +his own pulpit; his great heart never so kindled as when unfolding the +glorious gospel of redeeming love. The consecration of his splendid +powers to the work of the ministry helped to ennoble the ministry in the +popular eye, and led young men of brains to feel that they could covet +no higher calling. + +One of the remarkable things in the career of Dr. Storrs was that by far +the grandest portion of that career was after he had passed the age of +fifty! Instead of that age being, as to many others, a "dead line," it +was to him an intellectual _birth line_. He returned from Europe--after +a year of entire rest--and then, like "a giant refreshed by sleep," +began to produce his most masterly discourses and orations. His first +striking performance was that wonderful address at the twenty-fifth +anniversary of Henry Ward Beecher's pastorate in Plymouth Church, at the +close of which Mr. Beecher gave him a grateful kiss before the +applauding audience. Not long after that Dr. Storrs delivered those two +wonderful lectures on the "Muscovite and the Ottoman." The Academy of +Music was packed to listen to them; and for two hours the great orator +poured out a flood of history and gorgeous description without a scrap +of manuscript before him! He recalled names and dates without a moment's +hesitation! Like Lord Macaulay, Dr. Storrs had a marvelous memory; and +at the close of those two orations I said to myself, "How Macaulay would +have enjoyed all this!" His extraordinary memory was an immense source +of power to Dr. Storrs; and, although he had a rare gift of fluency, yet +I have no doubt that some of his fine efforts, which were supposed to be +extemporaneous, were really prepared beforehand and lodged in his +tenacious memory. + +Dean Stanley, on the day before he returned to England, said to me: "The +man who has impressed me most is your Dr. Storrs." 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 preaching, his characteristic reply was, "Oh, I am tired of +these _show occasions_," But he never grew tired of preaching Jesus +Christ and Him crucified. The Bible his old father loved was the book of +books that he loved, and no blasts of revolutionary biblical criticism +ever ruffled a feather on the strong wing with which he soared +heavenward. 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 death. + +All the world knew that Richard S. Storrs possessed wonderful brain +power, culture and scholarship; but only those who were closest to him +knew what a big loving heart he had. Some of the sweetest and tenderest +private letters that I ever received came from his ready pen. I was +looking over some of them lately; they are still as fragrant as if +preserved in lavender. His heart was a very pure fountain of noble +thought, and of sweet, unselfish affection. + +He died at the right time; his great work was complete; he did not +linger on to outlive himself. The beloved wife of his home on earth had +gone on before; he felt lonesome without her, and grew homesick for +heaven. His loving flock had crowned him with their grateful +benedictions; he waited only for the good-night kiss of the Master he +served, and he awoke from a transient slumber to behold the ineffable +glory. On the previous day his illustrious Andover instructor, Professor +Edwards A. Park, had departed; it was fitting that Andover's most +illustrious graduate should follow him; now they are both in the +presence of the infinite light, and they both behold the King in His +beauty! + +Fifty years ago one of the most famous celebrities in the Presbyterian +Church was Dr. Samuel Hanson Cox, famous for his linguistic attainments, +for his wit and occasional eccentricities, and very famous for his +bursts of eloquence on great occasions. He was at that time the pastor +of the First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, and resided in the street +where I am now writing (Oxford Street); and the street at the end of the +block was named "Hanson Place" in honor of him. His large wooden mansion +was then quite out of town, and was accordingly called "Rus Urban," In +that house he wrote--for the _New York Observer_--the unique series of +articles on New School Theology entitled "The Hexagon," and there he +entertained, with his elegant courtesy and endless flow of wit and +learning, many of the most eminent people who visited Brooklyn. The boys +used to climb into his garden to steal fruit; and, as a menace, he +affixed to his fence a large picture of a watch-dog, and underneath it a +dental sign, "Teeth inserted here!" The old mansion was removed years +ago. + +In 1846 he was the moderator of the "new school" Presbyterian General +Assembly. It was during the sessions of that assembly that the famous +debate was waged for several days on the exciting question of negro +slavery, and when some compromise resolutions were passed (for those +were the days of compromise salves and plasters)--Dr. Cox rose and +exclaimed, "Well, brethren, we have _capped Vesuvius_ for another year," +But "Vesuvius" would not stay capped, and in a few years one of its +violent eruptions sundered the "new school" church in twain. + +Dr. Cox was a vehement opponent of slavery, and his church in Laight +Street was assailed by a mob, and he was roughly handled. In 1833 he was +sent to England as the delegate to the British and Foreign Bible +Society, and at their anniversary meeting he delivered one of the most +brilliant speeches of his life. He came into the meeting a perfect +stranger, while Dr. Hamilton, of Leeds, was uttering a fierce invective +against American slavery. This aroused Dr. Cox's indignation, and when +he was called on to speak he commenced with exquisite urbanity as +follows: "My Lord Bexley, ladies and gentlemen! I have just landed from +America. 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 +Scripture!" This bold and novel introduction brought down the house with +a thunder of applause. After paying some graceful tributes to England +and thus winning the hearts of his auditors, he suddenly turned towards +Dr. Hamilton, and with the most captivating grace, he said: "I do not +yield to my British brother in righteous abhorrence of the institution +of negro slavery. I abhor it all the more because it was our disastrous +inheritance from our English forefathers, and came down to us from the +time when we were colonies of Great Britain! And now if my brother +Hamilton will enact the part of _Shem_, I will take the place of +_Japhet_, and we will walk backward and will cover with the mantle of +charity _the shame of our common ancestry_," This sudden burst of wit, +argument and eloquence carried the audience by storm, and they were +obliged to applaud the "Yankee orator" in spite of themselves. I count +this retort by Dr. Cox one of the finest in the annals of oratory. +Several years afterwards he visited England as a delegate to the first +Evangelical Alliance. It was attended by the foremost divines, scholars +and religious leaders of both Britain and the continent; and a brief +five-minutes' speech made by Dr. Cox was unanimously pronounced to have +been the most splendid display of eloquence heard during the whole +convocation. + +He owed a great deal to his commanding figure, fine voice, and graceful +elocution. His memory also was as marvelous as that of Dr. Storrs or +Professor Addison Alexander. One night, for the entertainment of his +fellow-passengers in a stagecoach, he repeated two cantos of Scott's +poem of "Marmion"! I have heard him quote, in a public address before +the New York University, a whole page of Cicero without the slip of a +single word! His passion for polysyllables was very amusing, and he +loved to astonish his hearers by his "sesquipedalian" phraseology. A +certain visionary crank once intruded into his study and bored him with +a long dissertation. Dr. Cox's patience was exhausted, and pointing to +the door, he said: "My friend, do you observe that aperture in this +apartment? If you do, I wish that you would describe rectilineals, very +speedily." + +I could fill several pages with racy anecdotes of the keen wit and the +varied erudition of my venerable friend. But let none of my readers +think of Dr. Cox as a clerical jester, or a pedant. He was a powerful +and intensely spiritual preacher of the living Gospel. In his New York +congregation were many of the best brains and fervent hearts to be found +in that city, and some of the leading laymen revered him as their +spiritual father. Sometimes he was betrayed into eccentricities, and his +vivid imagination often carried him away into discursive flights; yet +he never soared out of sight of Calvary's cross, and never betrayed the +precious Gospel committed to his trust. + +The first time that I ever saw Henry Ward Beecher was in 1848. He was +then mustering his new congregation in the building once occupied by Dr. +Samuel H. Cox. It was a weekly lecture service that I attended, by +invitation of a lady who invited me to "go and hear our new-come genius +from the West." The room was full, and at the desk stood a brown-cheeked +young man with smooth-shaved face, big lustrous eyes, and luxuriant +brown hair--with a broad shirt collar tied with a black ribbon. His text +was "Grow in Grace," and he gave us a discourse that Matthew Henry could +not have surpassed in practical pith, or Spurgeon in evangelical fervor. +I used to tell Mr. Beecher that even after making full allowance for the +novelty of a first hearing, I never heard him surpass that Wednesday +evening lecture. He was plucking the first ripe grapes of his affluent +vintage; his "pomegranates were in full flower, and the spikenard sent +forth its fragrance." The very language of that savory sermon lingers in +my memory yet. + +During my ministry in New York--from 1853 to 1860--I became intimate +with Mr. Beecher and spoke beside him on many a platform and heard him +in some of his most splendid efforts. He was a fascinating companion, +with the rollicking freedom of a schoolboy. I never shall forget an +immense meeting--in behalf of a liquor prohibition movement--held in +Triplet Hall. Mr. Beecher was at his best. In the midst of his speech, +he suddenly discharged a bombshell against negro slavery which dynamited +the audience and provoked a thunder of applause. For pure eloquence it +was the finest outburst I ever heard from his lips. Like Patrick Henry, +Clay, Guthrie, Spurgeon and other great masters of assemblies, he was +gifted with a richly melodious voice--which was especially effective on +the low and tender keys. This gave him great power in the pathetic +portions of his discourses. Of his superabounding humor I need not +speak. It bubbled out so naturally and spontaneously that he found it +difficult to restrain it even on the most grave occasions. Sometimes he +sinned against good taste, 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 ear." His most frequent offenses were in +the direction of flippant handling of sacred themes and Scripture +language. This he inherited from his illustrious father. + +Mr. Beecher is generally regarded as an extemporaneous preacher. This is +a mistake. He prepared most of his discourses carefully, and full +one-half of many of them were written out. Among these written passages +he interjected bursts of impromptu thoughts; and these were generally +the most effective passages in the sermon. While he repeated himself +often--especially on his favorite topic of God's love--yet it was always +in fresh language and with new illustrations. Abraham Lincoln said to +me, "The most marvelous thing about Mr. Beecher is his inexhaustible +fertility." + +During the Civil War he was at the acme of his power. He was then the +peerless orator of Christendom. It was his intention (as he once told +me) to resign his pastorate at the age of sixty and to devote the +remainder of his life to a ministry at large. But the tempest of +troubles which struck him about that time forbade his cherished design, +and he continued at his post until the touch of death silenced the magic +tongue. Nearly thirty years have elapsed since I sat by him on the +crowning evening of his career, at his "silver anniversary," in 1873. As +to his later utterances in theology, and on some questions of ethics, I +dissented from my old friend conscientiously, and I expressed to him my +dissent very candidly,--as becometh brethren. I am convinced that if +there were more fraternal frankness between the living, there would be +less hypocrisy over the departed. + +Charles G. Finney was the acknowledged king of American evangelists +until Dwight L. Moody came on the stage of action. They resembled each +other in untiring industry, unflinching courage, unswerving devotion to +the marrow of the Gospel, and unreserved consecration to the service of +Christ. 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 soul. Emptied of self, he was filled with the Holy Spirit. His +sermons were chain lightning, flashing conviction into the hearts of the +stoutest sceptics, and the links of his logic were so compact that they +defied resistance. Probably no minister in America ever numbered among +his converts so many lawyers and men of intellectual culture. + +Soon after commencing his law practice he was brought under the most +intense conviction of sin; and the narrative of his conversion--as given +in his autobiography--equals any chapter in John Bunyan's "Grace +Abounding." After light and peace broke into his agonized soul, he burst +into tears of joy, and exclaimed: "I am so happy that I cannot live," He +began at once to converse with his neighbors about their souls. When a +certain Deacon B. came into his office and reminded him that his cause +was to be tried at ten o'clock that morning, Mr. Finney replied, +"Deacon B., I have a retainer from the Lord Jesus Christ to plead His +cause, and cannot plead yours." The deacon was thunderstruck, and went +off and settled his suit with his antagonist immediately. + +From that time a law office was no place for the fervid spirit of +Charles G. Finney, and he resolved at once to prepare for the ministry. + +Revivals followed his red-hot discourses wherever he went. 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 bones, +and he shook from head to foot as if amid the thunderings of Sinai! He +felt an assurance that God would sustain him against all his enemies; +and then there came a "great lifting up," and a sweet calm followed +after the agitation. Such extraordinary spiritual experiences occurred +quite often during his career as a revivalist, and they remind one +strikingly of similar experiences of John Bunyan--to whom Finney bore a +certain degree of resemblance. At Rochester many of the leading lawyers +were attracted by his bold and logical style of speech; and among his +converts there was the distinguished jurist, Addison Gardner. It was +during his ministry in New York that he delivered his celebrated +"Lectures on Revivals," which were reprinted abroad and translated into +several foreign languages. Of all Mr. Finney's published productions, +these lectures are the most characteristic. Often extravagant in their +rhetoric, and sometimes rather reckless in theological statements, they +contain a mine of pungent truth which every young minister ought to +possess and to peruse very often. I shall never cease to thank God for +the inspiration they have imparted to my own humble ministry; and they +have had a place in my library close beside the "Pilgrim's Progress," +and the biographies of Payson and McCheyne, and the soul-quickening +sermons of Bushnell, Addison Alexander and Dr. McLaren. + +After his extended evangelistic labors in various cities, Mr. Finney was +appointed to a theological chair in the newly organized college at +Oberlin, Ohio. From this post, his irrepressible desire to kindle +revivals and to save souls often called him away, and he conducted two +famous evangelistic campaigns in Great Britain. He was the first man to +introduce American revivalistic methods into England and Scotland; but +his labors were never as wide, as influential, and generally acceptable +there as the subsequent labors of Messrs. Moody and Sankey. Forty years +of his busy and heaven-blessed life were spent at Oberlin, where he +impressed his powerful personality on a multitude of students of both +sexes; few religious teachers in America have ever moulded so many +lives, or had their opinions echoed from so many pulpits. + +With all my admiration of President Finney's character, I could not--as +a loyal Princetonian--subscribe to some of his peculiar opinions. It +was, therefore, with great surprise that I received from him a letter in +1873 (two years before his death) which contained the startling proposal +that I should be his successor in the college pulpit at Oberlin! He +wrote to me: "I think that there is no more important field of +ministerial labor in the world. I know that you have a great +congregation in Brooklyn, and are mightily prospered in your labors, but +your flock does not contain a _thousand students_ pursuing the higher +branches of education from year to year. Surely your field in Brooklyn +is not more important than mine was at the Broadway Tabernacle in New +York, nor can your people be more attached to you than mine were to me." +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 obsolete. When I mentioned this letter +to my beloved Princeton instructor, Dr. Charles Hodge, a few weeks +before his death, he simply remarked that "his Brother Finney had become +very sweet and mellow in his later years." And long before this time +the two great antagonistic theologians may have clasped hands in heaven. + +The closing years of President Finney's useful life were indeed mellow +and most lovable. In the days of his prime he had a commanding form, a +striking face and a clear, incisive style of speech. Simple as a child +in his utterances, he sometimes startled his hearers by his unique +prayers. For example, he was one day driven from his study at Oberlin by +a refractory stovepipe which persisted in tumbling down. At family +worship in the evening he said "Oh, Lord! thou knowest how the temper of +Thy servant has been tried to-day by that stovepipe!" Several other +expressions, quite as quaint and as piquant, might be quoted, if the +limits of this brief sketch would permit. What would be deemed +irreverent if spoken by some lips never sounded irreverent when uttered +by such a natural, fearless and yet devout a spirit as Charles G. +Finney. He retained his erect, manly form, his fresh enthusiasm and +intellectual vigor, to the ripe old age of eighty-three. On a calm +Sabbath evening--in August, 1875--he walked in his garden and listened +to the music from a neighboring church. Retiring to his chamber, the +messenger from his Master met him in the midnight hours, and before the +morning dawned his glorified spirit was before the throne! His is the +crown of one who turned many to righteousness. + +While I am writing this chapter of ministerial reminiscences, I receive +the sorrowful tidings that my dear old friend, Dr. Benjamin M. Palmer, +of New Orleans--the prince of Southern preachers--has closed his +illustrious career. To the last his splendid powers were unabated,--and +last year (although past eighty-three) he delivered one of his greatest +sermons before the University of Georgia! His massive discourses, based +on God's word, were a solid pile of concinnate argument, illuminated +with the divine light, and glowing with the divine love shed abroad in +his heart. In the spring of 1887, Mrs. Cuyler and myself visited New +Orleans, and I cared more to see Dr. Palmer than all the city besides. +He cordially welcomed me to the hospitalities of his house, and of that +pulpit which had so long been his throne. I do not wonder that the +people of New Orleans--of all classes and creeds--regarded him not only +with pride, but with an affection that greeted him at every step through +the city of which he was the foremost citizen. + +As my readers may all know, Dr. Palmer, through the Civil War, was a +most ardent Secessionist, and as honestly so as I was a Unionist. He +spent much time in preaching to the Confederate soldiers, and he +narrated to me an amusing incident which illustrated his calm and +imperturbable temperament. On a certain fast-day (appointed by the +Confederate authorities) he was to preach in a rural church within the +Confederate lines. The Northern army was lying so close to them that a +battle was imminent at any moment. Dr. Palmer had begun his "long +prayer," when a Federal shell landed immediately under the windows of +the church and exploded with a terrific crash! The doctor was not to be +shelled out of his duty, and he went steadily on to the end of his +prayer. When he opened his eyes the house was deserted! His congregation +had slipped quietly out, and left him "alone in his glory." + +Soon after my visit to New Orleans, my old friend was sorely bereaved by +the death of his wife. I wrote him a letter of condolence, and his reply +was, for sweetness and sublimity, worthy of Samuel Rutherford or Richard +Baxter. 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 M. Palmer. + +He says: "Truly my sorrow is a sorrow wholly by itself. What is to be +done with a love which belongs only to one, when that one is gone and +cannot take it up? It cannot perish, for it has become a part of our own +being. 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 are? I +have about me--blessed be God! a dear daughter and grandchildren; but I +cannot divide this love among them, for it is incapable of distribution. +What remains but to send it upward until it finds her to whom it belongs +by right of concentration through more than forty years." + +"I will not speak, my brother, of my pain--let that be; it is the +discipline of love, having its fruit in what is to be. But I will tell +you how a gracious Father fills this cloud with Himself--and covering me +in it, takes me into His pavilion. It is not what I would have chosen; +but in this dark cloud I know better what it is to be alone with Him; +and how it is best sometimes to put out the earthly lights, that even +the sweetest earthly love may not come between Him and me. 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 Calvary. I +have this to thank Him for, the greatest of all His mercies, and then +for this, that He gave her to me so long. The memories of almost half a +century encircle me as a rainbow. I can feed upon them through the +remainder of a short, sad life, and after that can carry them up to +Heaven with me and pour them into song forever. If the strings of the +harp are being stretched to a greater tension, it is that the praise may +hereafter rise to higher and sweeter notes before His throne--_as we bow +together there._" + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +SUMMERING AT SARATOGA AND MOHONK. + +_Bishop Haven.--Dr. Schaff.--President McCosh_. + + +To the laborious pastor of a large congregation some period of +recuperation during the summer is absolutely indispensable. The cavalry +officer who, when hotly pursued by the enemy, discovered that his +saddle-girths had become loose, and dismounted long enough to tighten +them, was a wise man, and affords a good example to us ministers. + +It was my custom to call a halt, lock my study door (stowing away my +pastoral cares in a drawer) and go away for five or six weeks, and +sometimes a little longer. A sea voyage was undertaken during half a +dozen vacations, but during a portion of forty-two summers I "pitched my +moving tent" in salubrious Saratoga, and a part of twenty-one summers +was spent on the heights of Mohonk. + +As this volume is issued in London as well as in New York, I will +mention some things in this chapter for my British readers with which +many of my own fellow-countrymen may be already familiar. 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 vacation. It is the most +widely known the world over of any of our American watering places and +is an exceedingly beautiful town. Its spacious Broadway, lined with +stately elms, is one of the most sightly avenues in our land; and some +of the superb hotels that front upon it fulfill the American demand for +"bigness." The most attractive spot to me has always been the beautiful +park that surrounds the famous Congress Spring, and to which every +morning I made my very early pilgrimage for my draught of its sparkling +water. + +The park covers but a few acres, but it is a continuous loveliness. When +its rich, soft greensward--worthy of Yorkshire or Devonshire--was +sparkling with the dew, and the fountains were in full play, and the +goodly breeze was singing through the trees, it was a place in which to +chant Dr. Arnold's favorite hymn:-- + + "Come, my soul, thou must be waking; + Now is breaking + O'er the earth another day; + Come to Him who made this splendor, + See thou render + All thy feeble strength can pay." + +The second reason for my choice of Saratoga was the variety of the +wonderful medicinal waters, and their renovating effects. "I can winter +better," said Governor Buckingham, "for even a short summer at +Saratoga," and my experience was quite similar. I honestly believe that +those waters have prolonged my life. In addition to the many health +fountains which have been veritable Bethesdas to multitudes, the dry, +bracing atmosphere is perfumed and tempered by the breezes from the pine +forests of the Adirondack Mountains. While some are attracted to +Saratoga by the waters and others by the air, I found both of them +equally beneficial. As far as its social life is concerned, there are, +as in all summer resorts, two very different descriptions of guests. One +class are devotees of fashion, who go there to gratify the "lust of the +eye, and the pride of life." They drive by day and dance by night; but +some devotees of pleasure have yielded too much to the ensnarements of +the gaming table and the race course. There is another and a more +numerous class made up of quiet business men and their families, +clergymen, college professors and persons in impaired health, who go for +recreation or recuperation. From this latter class, and in some measure +indeed from the former also, the churches of the town attract very large +congregations. It has been my privilege to deliver a little more than +two hundred sermons in Saratoga, and there is no place in which I have +found that a faithful and practical presentation of the "word of life" +is more eagerly welcomed. It is no place to exhibit a show sermon on +dress parade, but it is the very one in which to press home the word on +hearts and consciences, to arouse the impenitent, to give tonic truth to +the weak and the weary, to afford the word of comfort to the sorrowing +and soul-food to the many who hunger for the heavenly manna. I have +already narrated some of my pleasant experiences in preaching at +Saratoga, and I could add to them several other interesting incidents. + +For about thirty summers, and occasionally in the winter, I found a +happy home at Dr. Strong's "Remedial Institute" on Circular Street. This +is a family hotel during the summer, and a sanitarium during the +remainder of the year. Every morning the guests assemble for worship, +and the intolerable trio of fashion, frivolity and fiddles, has never +invaded the refined and congenial atmosphere of the house. My host, Dr. +Strong, is an active member of the Methodist Church in that town, and +naturally a large number of ministers of that denomination are his +summer guests. This was very pleasant for me, for, although I am loyally +attached to my own "clan," yet I have a peculiarly warm side for the +ecclesiastical followers of the Wesleys, and am some times introduced in +their conferences as a "Methodistical Presbyterian." At Dr. Strong's I +met many of the leading Methodist ministers, and was exceedingly +"filled with their company." I met, among others, the sweet-spirited +Bishop Jaynes, who always seemed to be a legitimate successor of the +beloved disciple John. If Bishop Jaynes recalled the apostle John, let +me say that the venerated father of my kind host and the founder of the +Sanitarium, the late Dr. Sylvester S. Strong, was such an impersonation +of charming courtesy and fervid spirituality that he might be a +counterpart of "Luke the beloved physician." He was an admirable +preacher before he entered the medical profession. Bishop Peck was a +very entertaining companion and most fraternal in his warmheartedness. +He was a man of colossal proportions, and it was quite proper that he +was appointed to the charge of the churches in the wide regions of +California and Oregon. When he came thence to the General Conference, he +presented his protuberant figure to the assembly, and began with the +humorous announcement, "The Pacific slope salutes you!" On that same +"slope" I discovered last year that Methodism has outgrown even the +formidable proportions of my old friend Dr. Peck. + +At Saratoga I first met the eloquent Apollos of American Methodism, +Bishop Matthew Simpson. Those who ever heard Henry Clay in our Senate +chamber, or Dr. Thomas Guthrie in Scotland, have a very distinct idea +of what Simpson was at his flood-tide of irresistible oratory. He +resembled both of those great orators in stature and melodious voice, in +graceful gesture, and in the magnificent enthusiasm that swept +everything before him. Like all that type of fascinating speakers--to +which even Gladstone belonged--he was rather to be heard than to be +read. It is enough that a Gospel preacher should produce great immediate +impressions on his auditors; it is not necessary that he should produce +a finished and permanent piece of literature. Bishop Simpson was the +bosom friend of Abraham Lincoln, and on more than one occasion he knelt +beside our much harassed President and prayed for the strength equal to +the day of trial. + +Among all the guests there was none to whom I was more closely and +lovingly drawn than to Bishop Gilbert Haven. None shed off such splendid +scintillations in our evening colloquies on the piazzas. Haven was not +comparable with his associate, Bishop Simpson, in pulpit oratory, for he +was rarely an effective public speaker on any occasion, but in +brilliancy of thought, which made him in conversation like the charge of +an electric battery, and in brilliancy of pen, that kindled everything +it touched, he was without a rival in the Methodist Church--or almost in +any other church in the land. Consistently and conscientiously a +radical, he always took extreme ground on such questions as negro +rights, female suffrage, and liquor prohibition, and he never retreated. +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 is. He did delight in the doctrines of grace with his +whole heart, and it is all the more grateful to me, as a Presbyterian, +to pay this honest tribute to his deeply devout and Christ-like +character. I knew him when he was a student in the Wesleyan University +at Middletown--somewhat rustic in his ways, but a bold, bright youth +hungry for knowledge. In 1862 he published a series of foreign letters +in the _New York Independent_, which Horace Greeley told me he regarded +as most remarkable productions. During the summer of that year I was +watching the sun rise from the summit of the Righi in Switzerland, and +was accosted by a sandy-haired man in an old oilcloth overcoat who asked +for some explanation about the mountain within our view. At the foot of +the Righi I fell in with him again, and was struck with his original and +vigorous thought. The same evening he marched into my room at the +"Schweitzer-Hoff," dripping with the rain, and introduced himself as +"Gilbert Haven." We ministered to the few Americans whom we could find +in Lucerne, and held a prayer meeting on the Sabbath evening in Haven's +room for our far-away country in her dark hour of distress. On that +evening began a friendship which waxed warmer and warmer until death +sundered the tie for a little while; the same hand that sundered can +reunite us. + +I am under a strong temptation to give my reminiscences of many notable +persons whom I was wont to meet at Saratoga, such as the urbane +ex-President Martin Van Buren, and that noble Christian statesman, +Vice-President Henry Wilson, and the cheery old poet John Pierpont, and +the erudite Horatio B. Hackett, of Newton Theological Seminary and the +level-headed Miss Catherine E. Beecher, and the gifted Queen of the +great temperance sisterhood, Miss Frances E. Willard, and General +Batcheler, the able American Judge, at Cairo, and that extraordinary +combination of courage, orthodox faith, and brilliant platform eloquence +the late Joseph Cook, of Ticonderoga. I would like also to attempt a +description of the gorgeous "Floral Festivals," which are celebrated in +every September, when the streets of the town blaze with processions of +vehicles decorated with flowers, and the sidewalks and house-fronts are +packed with thousands of delighted spectators; but if "of making many +books there is no end," there ought to be a proper end in the making of +a book. In the course of my life I may have done some very foolish +things, and quite too many sinful things, but I have always endeavored +to avoid doing too long a thing, if it were possible. + +During the last twenty-three years I have spent a portion of almost +every summer at Mohonk Lake Mountain House, a hostlery equally +celebrated for the culture of its guests and charms of its scenery. It +is situated on a spur of the Shawangunk Mountains, about six miles from +New Paltz, on the Wallkill Valley Railway. Its discoverer and proprietor +is Albert K. Smiley, who was for many years president of a Quaker Ladies +Academy in Providence, R.I., and is a gentleman of fine scholarship and +varied attainments. He is quite equal to discussing geology with +Professor Guyot (from whom one of the highest hilltops near his house is +named), or art with Huntington, or botany or landscape gardening with +Frederick L. Olmstead, or theology with Dr. Schaff, or questions of +philanthropy with General Armstrong or Booker T. Washington. + +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 resorts. Neither bar nor bottles nor ball-room nor bands are to +be found in this Christian home;--for a home it is--in its restful and +refining influences. The young people find no lack of innocent enjoyment +in the bowling alley or on the golf links, in the tennis tournaments or +in rowing upon the lake, with frequent regattas. Instead of the midnight +dance the evening hours are made enjoyable by social conversation, by +musical entertainments, by parlor lectures and other interesting +pastimes. The Sabbath at Mohonk realizes old George Herbert's +description of the + + "Sweet day so cool, so calm, so bright, + The bridal of the earth and sky;" + +Not a boat is loosened from its wharf on the lake; not a carriage is +geared up for a pleasure drive, 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 soul. The +spacious parlor is always crowded for the service of worship on every +morning during the week and also on the Sabbath. I can testify that on +the three-score Sabbaths when I have been called upon to conduct the +services, I have never found a more inspiring auditory. + +It is no easy thing to put the external beauties of Mohonk upon paper. +The estate covers four thousand acres, and is intersected with about +fifty miles of fine carriage drives. The garden, which contains a dozen +acres, is ablaze during the most of the season with millions of +flowers--many of them of rare variety. As the glory of Saratoga is its +springs, of Lake George its islands, of Trenton Falls the amber hue of +its waters, so the glory of Mohonk is its rocks. The little lake is a +crystal cup cut out of the solid conglomerated quartz. Its shores are +steep quartz rocks rising fifty feet perpendicularly from the water. The +face of "Sky Top" is heaped around with enormous boulders some thirty +feet in diameter. In among them extend rocky labyrinths which can be +explored with torches. On every hand are immense masses of Shawangunk +grit hurled together over the cliff as if with the convulsions of an +earthquake. Upon these acres of rock around the lake grow the most +luxuriant lichens and the forests in June are efflorescent with laurels +and azalias. The finest point of vantage is on Eagle Cliff; I have +climbed there often to see the sun go down in a blaze of glory +behind the Catskill Mountains. The three highest peaks of the +Catskills--Hunter, Slide, and Peekamoose--were in full view, in purple +and gold. Beneath me on one side was the verdant valley of Rondout; on +the other side the equally beautiful valley of the Wallkill. In the dim +distance we could discover the summits of the mountains in Pennsylvania, +New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts. + +When I took Newman Hall, toward sunset, to a crag or cliff overlooking +the lake, he said to me: "Next to Niagara I have seen nothing in America +equal to this." + +Mohonk has been a favorite summer resort of many of the most +distinguished people in our land. The Honorable Rutherford B. Hayes, +after his retirement from the presidential chair, loved to find +recreation in rowing his boat on the lake, and in making the ascent of +Sky Top. President Arthur came there during his term of office; and the +widow of General Grant, after spending a fortnight there, pronounced it +the most fascinating spot she had ever seen on this continent Among all +the guests who made their summer home there, none contributed more to +the intellectual enrichment of the company than my revered Christian +friend, Dr. Philip Schaff. No American of our day had such a vast +personal acquaintance with celebrated people. Dr. Schaff was the +intimate friend of Tholuck, Neander, Godet, Hengstenberg, and Dorner; he +was one day in familiar conversation with Dean Stanley in the Abbey and +another day with Gladstone; another day with Dollinger in Vienna, and +another day with Dr. Pusey at Oxford. The promise, "He shall stand +before kings," was often fulfilled to him. The veteran Kaiser William +had him at the royal table, and gave him intimate interview. The King +and Queen of Denmark came on the platform to congratulate him after one +of his eloquent speeches, and the Queen of Greece was one of his +correspondents. He shook hands with more ministers of all +denominations, and of all nationalities than any man of this age. He +was as cordially treated by Archbishop Canterbury as he was by Bismarck +at Berlin or the old Russian Archpriest Brashenski. Dr. Schaff was a +prodigy of industry. During half a century he was the foremost church +historian of this country; he led the work of the Sabbath Committee, and +was the master spirit of the Evangelical Alliance. He edited a volume of +hymnology, and wrote catechisms for children; he filled professors' +chairs in two seminaries and lectured on ecclesiastical history to +others. He published thirty-one volumes and edited two immense +commentaries; he was the president of the Committee on Biblical +Revision, and he crossed the ocean fourteen times as a fraternal +internuncio between the churches of Europe and America. His prodigious +capacity for work made Dr. Samuel Johnson seem an idler, and his varied +attainments and activities were fairly a match for Gladstone. + +To those of us who knew Dr. Schaff intimately, one of his most +attractive traits was his jovial humor and inexhaustible fund of +anecdotes. When I made a visit to California--journeying with him to the +Yosemite--his endless stories whiled away the tedium of the trip. How +often when he sat down to my own, or any other table, would he tell how +his old friend, Neander, when asked to say grace at a dinner, and roast +pig was the chief dish, very quaintly said: "O, Lord, if Thou canst +bless under the new dispensation what Thou didst curse under the old +dispensation, then graciously bless this leetle pig. Amen!" + +Another eminent scholar who was wont to seek recreation at Mohonk was +the venerable President McCosh, of Princeton University. Since Scotland +sent to Princeton Dr. John Witherspoon to preside over it, and to be one +of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, she has sent no +richer gift than Dr. James McCosh. For several years before he came to +America he was a professor in the Queen's College at Belfast. Passing +through Belfast in 1862, I looked in for a few moments at the Irish +Presbyterian General Assembly, which was convened in Dr. Cook's church, +and said to a man: "Whom can you show me here?" Pointing to a tall, +somewhat stooping figure, standing near the pulpit, he said: "There is +McCosh." I replied: "It is worth coming here to see the brightest man in +Ireland." What a great, all-round, fully equipped, many-sided mass of +splendid manhood he was! What a complete combination of philosopher, +theologian, preacher, scholar, and college president all rolled into +one! During the twenty years of his brilliant career at Princeton he +displayed much of Jonathan Edwards' metaphysical acumen, of John +Witherspoon's wisdom, Samuel Davies' fervor and Dr. "Johnny" McLean's +kindness of heart; the best qualities of his predecessors were combined +in him. He came here a Scotchman at the age of fifty-seven, and in a +year he became, as Paddy said, "a native American." + +To my mind the chief glory of Dr. McCosh's presidency at Princeton was +the fervid interest he felt in the religious welfare of his students. He +often invited me to come over and deliver sermons to them, and +occasionally a temperance address; for he was a zealous teetotaler and +prohibitionist, and I always lodged with him at his house. As I turn +over my book of correspondence I find many brief letters from him. In +the following one he refers to the remarkable revival in the college in +the winter and early spring of 1870: + + + COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY, PRINCETON, Jan. 9, 1873. + + _My dear Dr. Cuyler:_ + + In the name of the Philadelphian Society, and in my own name, I + request you to conduct our service on the day of prayer for + colleges, being Thursday the 30th of January. It is three years, if + I calculate rightly, since you performed that duty for us. That + visit was followed by the blessed work in which you took an active + part. May it be the same this year! The college is in an + interesting state: we have a great deal of the spirit of study; + there is a meeting for prayer every night except Friday; the class + prayer meetings are all well attended, in some of the classes as + many as sixty present; but we need a quickening. I do hope you will + come. Our habit is an address of half an hour or so at three PM in + the college chapel, and a sermon in one of the churches, especially + addressed to students, but open to all in the evening. Of course, + you will come to my house, and live with me. Yours as ever, + + James McCosh. + + +To hundreds of the alumni of Princeton this letter will stir the +fountain of old memories. They will hear in it the ring of the old +college bell; they will see the lines of students marching across the +campus to evening prayer and into the chapel. Upon the platform mounts +the stooping form of grand old "Uncle Jimmie," and in his broad and not +unmelodious Scotch accents he pours out his big, warm heart in prayer. +With honest pride in their Alma Mater, they will thank God that they +were trained for the battle of life by James McCosh. + +The limits of this narrative do not allow me to tell of all my +delightful "foregatherings" with that venerated Nestor of American art, +Daniel Huntington; and with General James Grant Wilson with his +_repertoire_ of racy Scotch stories; and with my true yoke-fellows in +the Gospel, Dr. Herrick Johnson, Dr. Marvin R. Vincent, and Dr. Samuel +J. Fisher--and with a group of infinitely witty women who regaled many +an evening hour with their merry quips and conundrums. The unwritten law +which prevails in that social realm is: "Each for all, and all for each +other." + +Mr. Smiley had been for some years a member of the United States Indian +Commission, and his experience in that capacity had awakened a deep +interest in the welfare of the remaining Aborigines, who had too often +been the prey of unscrupulous white men who came in contact with them. +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 being. His invitation brought +together such distinguished philanthropists as the veteran ex-Senator +Henry L. Dawes, General Clinton B. Fisk, General Armstrong, the founder +of Hampton Institute; Merrill E. Gates, Philip C. Garrett, Herbert Welsh, +and that picturesque and powerful friend of the red man, the late Bishop +Whipple of Minnesota. 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 +affairs. It has helped to make history. + +The great success of this conference, which meets in October of each +year, led my Quaker friend, Smiley, eight years ago, to inaugurate an +"Arbitration conference" for the promotion of international peace. It +was a happy thought and has yielded a rich fruitage. 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 F. +Edmunds of Vermont, the Rev. Edward Everett Hale of Boston, the Hon. +William J. Coombs, the Hon. Robert Treat Paine, Dr. B.F. Trueblood, John +B. Garrett and Joshua L. Bailey, Colonel George E. Waring, Hon. John W. +Foster, Chief Justice Nott, Warner Van Norden, 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 plowshares, and spears into pruning hooks. + +I especially sympathize with the spirit of this Arbitration conference, +not only because I abominate war _per se_, 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 conquests. 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 governed. It is an impious profanation of our flag of +freedom to make it the symbol of absolutism on any soil. In the conflict +now waging for true American principles, I heartily concur in the views +of the late Benjamin Harrison, who was one of the most clear-sighted +and patriotic of our Presidents. Just before his death I addressed to +that noble Christian statesman a letter of heartfelt thanks for the +position he was taking. With the following gratifying reply which I +received, I conclude my chapter on peace-loving "Smiley-land": + + INDIANAPOLIS, Dec 26, 1900 + + _My dear Dr. Cuyler_. + + I can hardly tell you how grateful your letter was to me, or how + highly I value your approval. My soul has been in revolt against + the doctrine of Congressional Absolutism. I want to save my + veneration for the men who made us a nation, and organized the + nation under the Constitution. 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 themselves. The + newspaper reports of my Ann Arbor address were most horribly + mangled, but the address will appear in the January number of the + _North American Review_. Allow me, my dear friend, to extend to you + the heartiest thanks, not only for your kind words, but for the + noble life which gives them value. + + With all good wishes of the Christmastide, + + Most sincerely your friend, + + BENJAMIN HARRISON. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +A RETROSPECT. + + +When I entered upon the Christian ministry fifty-six years ago, there +was no probability that I would live to see four-score. My father had +died at the early age of twenty-eight, and several of his brothers and +sisters had succumbed to pulmonary maladies. My mother was dangerously +ill several times, but had a wiry constitution and lived to eighty-five. +That my own busy life has held out so long is owing, under a kind +Providence, to the careful observation of the primal laws of health. I +have eschewed all indigestible food, stimulants, and intoxicants;--have +taken a fair amount of exercise; have avoided too hard study or sermon +making in the evenings--and thus secured sound and sufficient sleep. In +keeping God's commandments written upon the body I have found great +reward. 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 observed. +If as an optimist I may sometimes exaggerate the good, and minimize the +evil things, it is the curse of a pessimist that he can travel from Dan +to Beersheba and find nothing but barrenness. + +The first change for the better that I shall speak of is the progress I +have seen in church fellowship. The division of the Christian church +into denominations is a fixed fact and likely to remain so for a long +time to come. Nor is it the serious evil that many imagine. The +efficiency of an army is not impaired by division into corps, brigades +and regiments, as long as they are united against the common enemy; +neither does the Church of Christ lose its efficiency by being organized +on denominational lines, as long as it is loyal to its Divine head, and +united in its efforts to overcome evil, and establish the Kingdom of +Heaven. Some Christians work all the better in harness that suits their +peculiar tastes and preferences. Denominationalism becomes an evil the +moment it degenerates into bitter and bigoted sectarianism. Conflicts +between a dozen regiments is suicide to an army. When a dozen +denominations strive to maintain their own feeble churches in a +community that requires only three or four churches, then sectarianism +becomes an unspeakable nuisance. + +I could cite many instances to prove the great progress that has been +made in church fellowship. For example, my early ministry was in a town +in which the Society of Friends had a large meeting house, well filled +by a most intelligent, orthodox and devout congregation. But its members +never entered any other house of worship. I had the warmest personal +intimacy with some of its leading men, but they would say: "We would +like to hear thee preach on First Day, but the rules of our society +forbid it." I have lived to see the day when I am invited to speak in +Friends' meetings, and I have rejoiced to invite Quaker brothers, and +sisters also, to speak in my pulpit. When I visit London, the most +eminent living Quaker, J. Bevan Braithwaite, welcomes me to his +hospitable house, and we join in prayer together. I wish that the +exemplary and useful Society of Friends were more multiplied on both +sides of the sea. + +During the early half of the last century sectarian controversies ran +high, especially in the newly settled West. It was a common custom to +hold public discussions in school houses and frontier meeting houses, +where controverted topics between denominations were presented by chosen +champions before applauding audiences. Ministers fired hot shot at one +another's pulpits; churches were often as militant as mendicant, and all +those polemics were excused as contending most earnestly for the faith. +Both sides found their ammunition in the same Bible. When I was a +student in the Princeton Seminary, a classmate from Kentucky gave me a +little hymn-book used at the camp meetings in the frontier settlements +of his native region. In that book was a hymn, one verse of which +contains these sweet and irenic lines: + + "When I was blind, and could not see, + The Calvinists deceived me." + +Just imagine the incense of devout praise ascending heavenward in such a +thick smoke of sectarian contentions! All the denominations were more or +less afflicted with this controversial malady; and I will venture to say +that in Kentucky and Ohio and other new regions, the Presbyterians were +often a fair match for their Methodist neighbors in these theological +pugilistics. I might multiply illustrations of these unhappy clashings +and controversies that have often disfigured even the most evangelical +branches of Christendom. What a blessed change for the better have I +witnessed in my old days! Among the foremost efforts of denominational +fellowship was the organization of the American Bible Society, the +American Tract Society, and the American Sunday School Union. Later on +in the same century came those two splendid spiritual inventions--The +Young Men's Christian Association, and the Society of Christian +Endeavor. Sir George Williams, the founder of the one, and Dr. Francis +E. Clark, the father of the other, should be commemorated in a pair of +twin statues of purest marble, standing with locked arms and upholding a +standard bearing the sacred motto: "One is our Master, even Christ +Jesus, and all ye are brethren." To no man are we indebted more deeply +than to the now glorified Mr. Moody who made Christian fellowship the +indispensable feature of all his evangelistic endeavors--with Brother +Sankey leading the grand chorus of united praise. 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 Day. Personally I +rejoice to say that I have been permitted to preach the Gospel in the +pulpits of all the leading denominations, not excepting the +Episcopalian; and I once welcomed the noble and beloved Bishop Charles +P. McIlvaine of Ohio to my Lafayette Avenue Church pulpit, where he +pronounced a grand discourse on "The Unity of All Christians in the Lord +Jesus Christ." If I lived in England I should be heart and soul a +nonconformist. But I can gratefully acknowledge the many kind courtesies +which I have received from the clergy of the Established Church. Once, +when in London, I was invited to the annual dinner given by the Lord +Mayor to the archbishops and bishops, and I found myself the only +American clergyman present. The Archbishop of Canterbury, when Bishop +of London, did me the honor of presiding at a reception given me at +Exeter Hall, and whenever I have met the venerable Dr. Temple I have +been cheered by his warm-hearted and "democratic" cordiality of manner. +In return for the kindness shown me by my brilliant and scholarly +friend, Archdeacon Farrar, I was happy to preside at a reception given +him in Chickering Hall. He had a wide welcome in our land, but it was as +the untiring champion of temperance reform that he was especially +honored on that evening. He and Archdeacon Basil Wilberforce are among +the leaders in the crusade against the curse of strong drink. Amid some +evil portents and perils to the cause of evangelical religion, +one of the richest tokens for good is this steady increase of +interdenominational fellowship. For organic unity we need not yet +strive; it is enough that all the regiments and brigades in Christ's +covenant hosts march to the same music, fight together under the same +standard of Calvary's Cross, and press on, side by side, and shoulder to +shoulder, to the final victory of righteousness and truth and human +redemption. + +Another change for the better has been the enlargement of woman's sphere +of activity in the promotion of Christianity and of moral reform. As an +illustration of this fact, I may cite a rather unique incident in my +own experience. During the winter of 1872 I invited Miss Sarah F. +Smiley, an eminent and most evangelical minister in the Society of +Friends (and a sister of the Messrs. Albert and Daniel Smiley, the +proprietors of the Lake Mohonk House) to deliver a religious address in +my pulpit. The discourse she delivered was strong in intellect, orthodox +in doctrine and fervently spiritual in character; the large audience was +both delighted and edified. A neighboring minister presented a complaint +before the Presbytery of Brooklyn, alleging that my proceeding had been +both un-Presbyterian and un-Scriptural. The complainant was not able to +produce a syllable of law from our form of government forbidding what I +had done. Long years before, a General Assembly had recommended that +"women should not be permitted to address a promiscuous assemblage" in +any of our churches; but a mere "deliverance" of a General Assembly has +no binding legal authority. + +In my defense I was careful not to advocate the ordination of women to +the ministry in the Presbyterian Church, or their installation in the +pastorate. I contended that as our confession of faith was silent on the +subject, and that as godly women in the early church were active in the +promotion of Christianity (one of them named Anna having publicly +proclaimed the coming Messiah), and that as the ministry of my +excellent friend, the Quakeress, had for many years been attended by the +abundant blessings of the Holy Spirit, my act was rather to be commended +than condemned. The discussion before the Presbytery lasted for two days +and produced a wide and rather sensational interest over the country. +The final vote of the Presbytery, while withholding any censure of my +course under the circumstances, was adverse to the practice of +permitting women to address "promiscuous audiences" in our churches. Two +or three years afterwards, 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 +sessions. When the news of this action of the assembly reached us, the +old sexton of the Lafayette Avenue Church hoisted (to the great +amusement of our people) the stars and stripes on the church tower as a +token of victory. It has now become quite customary to invite female +missionaries, and other godly women, to address audiences composed of +both sexes in our churches; the padlock has been taken off the tongue of +any consecrated Christian woman who has a message from the Master. I +invited Miss Willard and Lady Henry Somerset to advocate the Christian +grace of temperance from my pulpit; and if I were still a pastor I +should rejoice to invite that good angel of beneficence, Miss Helen M. +Gould, to deliver there such an address as she lately made in the +splendid building she has erected for the "Naval Christian Association." + +Foreign missions were in their early and vigorous growth eighty years +ago. I rode in our family carriage to church with Sheldon Dibble and +Reuben Tinker, who were just leaving Auburn Theological Seminary to go +out as our pioneer missionaries to the Sandwich Islands. The _Missionary +Herald_ was taken in a great number of families and read with great +avidity. Many of the readers were people who not only devoutly prayed +"Thy Kingdom come," but who were willing to stick to a rag carpet, and +deny themselves a "Brussels," in order to contribute more to the spread +of that Kingdom. Wealth has increased to a prodigious and perilous +extent; but the percentage of money given to foreign missions is very +far from what it was in the day of my childhood. 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 pulpit; I suspect that it in +too many cases should be one of penitential confession. + +While I was a student in the Princeton Seminary we had a visit from the +veteran missionary, Levi Spalding, 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 +beheld. He told us that when he was a youth and his heart was first +drawn to the cause of missions, he told his good mother that he had +decided upon a missionary life (which was then thought equivalent to a +martyrdom), and she was perfectly overcome. He said to her: "Mother, +when you gave me as an infant to God in baptism, did you withhold me +from any service to which I might be called?" She assented in a +moment--went to the old chest--from it she took a half-dollar (all the +money she possessed in the world), and, handing it to him, said: "Levi, +you may go, and this starts you on your education." On his way over to +India his preaching converted all the sailors, including the ship's +carpenter, "whose heart was as hard as his broadaxe." That was the stuff +our first missionaries were made of. The tears flowed down our cheeks as +we listened to Spalding's recital, and the result of his visit was that +more than one of our students volunteered for the work of foreign +missions. + +It was also my great privilege during that Princeton course to put eye +upon a man who, by common consent, is regarded as the king of American +missionaries. On my way from Princeton to Philadelphia in the Christmas +week of '45 I found among my fellow passengers a gentleman with a very +benign countenance, and to my great delight I learned that he was +Adoniram Judson, who was on his final and memorable visit to his native +land, and was received everywhere with the most unbounded and reverent +enthusiasm. He had begun his work in Burmah in 1813, but under great +difficulties. During the first six years he made no converts; he defied +the demon of discouragement and labored on with increased faith and +zeal, and then came an abundant harvest. The colossal work of his life +in Burmah was the translation of the Holy Scriptures into the Burmese +language. To this work, which is likely to endure, he added a +Burmese-English dictionary. At length the toils and exposures broke down +his health and he was obliged to take several voyages in adjoining +waters. Soon after I saw him he married Miss Chubbuck and returned to +Burmah in the following year. The old conflict between the holy and +heroic heart and failing body was soon renewed. He resorted once more to +the sea for relief, but died during the passage, on April 12, 1850. When +crossing the Atlantic in the summer of 1885 I spent much of the time +with that noble minister, Rev. Edward Judson, of New York. A funeral at +sea occurred, and as the remains were disappearing in the water Mr. +Judson said to me, with solemn tenderness: "Just so my beloved father +was committed to the deep: his sepulchre is this great, wide ocean," +That ocean is a type of his world-wide influence. Not only in the +priority of time as a fearless pioneer into unknown dangers, but in +profound and patient scholarship, and in the beauty of a holy and +lovable personality, Adoniram Judson still hold the primacy among our +American missionary heroes. + +The progress which has been made in Christianizing heathendom during the +last century (which may well be called the century of foreign missions) +is familiar to every person of intelligence. The number of converts to +Christianity is at least two millions, and several millions more have +felt the influence of Christian civilization. The great mass have not +been suddenly revolutionized, as in Luther's time, but one by one +individual hearts yield to the gospel in nearly every land. As a serious +offset to these glorious results the commerce of nominally Christian +nations is often poisonous. Britain carries opium into China and India; +America and other civilized nations carry rum into Africa. The word of +life goes in the cabin, and the worm of death goes in the hold of the +same vessel! The sailors that have gone from nominally Christian +countries to various ports have often been very far from acting as +gospel missionaries. It is not only for their own welfare, but that they +may become representatives of Christianity that the noble "American +Seamen's Friend Society" has been organized. The work which that society +has wrought under the vigorous leadership of Dr. Stitt entitles it to +the generous support of all our churches. If toiling "Jack" braves the +tempest to bring us wealth from all climes, we owe it to him to provide +him the anchor of the gospel, and to save him from spiritual shipwreck. + +To no other benevolent society have I more cheerfully given service of +tongue and pen than to this one. An honest view of the foreign mission +enterprises to-day reveals the laying of broad foundations, and the +building of solid walls, rather than any completed achievements already +wrought. Blood tells, and God has entrusted his gospel to the +Anglo-Saxons and the other most powerful races on the globe. The +religion of the Bible is the only religion adapted to universal +humanity, and in the Bible is a definite pledge that to all humanity +that religion shall yet be preached. + +Among the great spiritual agencies born within my memory, none deserves +a higher place than The Young Men's Christian Association. When my +beloved brother, Sir George Williams (now an octogenarian) started the +first association in London on the 6th of June, 1844, he "builded better +than he knew," The modest room in his store overlooking Paternoster Row +in which he gathered the little praying band on that day is already an +historic spot. 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 existence, 1854. We met in a room in Stuyvesant +Institute and the heroic Howard Crosby was our president. We had no +library, or reading room, or gymnasium, or any of the appliances that +belong to the institutions of these days. After several migrations, our +association found its permanent home in the spacious building on +Twenty-third Street, to which Morris K. Jesup and William E. Dodge were +among the foremost contributors. The master spirit in the operations of +the New York Association for thirty years was Mr. Robert McBurney, who, +when he landed from Ireland, was only seventeen years of age. He was +among my evening congregation in the old Market Street Church. During my +seven years' pastorate in that church I delivered a great many +discourses and platform addresses on behalf of the association, and +through all of the subsequent years it has been a favorite object on +which to bestow my humble efforts. Here in Brooklyn a host of young-men +have found a moral shelter, and many of them a spiritual birthplace, in +the fine structure, reared largely from the munificent bequests of that +princely Christian philanthropist, the late Mr. Frederick Marquand. It +is not permitted to every good man or woman before they die to see the +glorious fruits of the trees they planted, but to the eyes of the +veteran George Williams the following facts must seem like a rehearsal +of heaven. The Young Men's Christian Association now belts the globe +with half a million of members, and ten times that number in some direct +connection with the organization. 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 development, +manly instruction and training for Christ's service. + +It has brought thousands of young men from impenitence to Christ Jesus, +and made thousands of young Christians more like Jesus in their daily +life. The most effective lay preacher of the century, D.L. Moody, +confessed that in his training for spiritual work he owed more to the +Young Men's Christian Association than to any other human agency. It has +moulded the students of colleges and universities; it has been the +salvation of many a soldier and sailor; it has led many into the gospel +ministry; it has taught the whole world the beauty and power of a living +unity in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit has set the Divine seal of His +blessing on its world-wide work, and to the triune God be all the praise +and all the glory. + +As I witnessed the birth of the Young Men's Christian Association, I +also saw the birth of a kindred organization, the "Society of Christian +Endeavor." Many years ago an absurd and extravagant statement was widely +afloat, claiming that I was the "grandsire" of this society. The simple +truth was that Dr. Francis E. Clark, its heaven-directed founder, had +seen in some religious journals my account of the good work wrought by +the Young People's Association of the Lafayette Avenue Church, and he +recognized the fact that its chief purpose was not mere sociality or +literary advancement, but the spiritual profit of its members. He +examined its constitution and reports, and when he constructed his first +Christian Endeavor Society in the Williston Church of Portland, Maine, +he adopted many of its features; and my beloved brother Clark, in his +public addresses, has generously acknowledged such obligation as he was +under to our Young People's Association (now in its thirty-fifth year of +prosperous activity). 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 century. As any attempt to +describe the sublime grandeur of Niagara would be a waste of time, 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 them. There is no civilized speech or +language where its voice is not heard; its line has gone out to all the +earth, and its words to the ends of the world. 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 it, 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 clime. + +One of the most striking improvements that I have witnessed has been in +the sanitary condition, both physical and moral, of our great cities. +The conditions in New York, when I came to the pastorate of the Market +Street Church almost fifty years ago, would seem incredible to the New +Yorkers of to-day. The disgusting depravities of the Fourth Ward, +afterwards made familiar by the reformatory efforts of Jerry McCauley, +were then in full blast, defying all police authority and outraging +common decency. The most hideous sink of iniquity and loathsome +degradation was in the once famous "Five Points," in the heart of the +Sixth Ward and within a pistol shot of Broadway. At the time of my +coming to New York public attention had been drawn to that quarter with +the opening of the "Old Brewery Mission," and by the first planting of +a kindred enterprise which grew into the now well-known "Five Points +House of Industry." The brave projector of this enterprise was the Rev. +L.M. Pease, a hero whose name ought not to be forgotten. As my church +was just off East Broadway, and within a short walk of the Five Points, +I took a deep interest in Mr. Pease's Christian undertaking, and aided +him by every means in my power. His wife became a member of my church. +The "Wild Maggie," whose escapades described in the _Tribune_ gained +such public notoriety, became also, after her reformation, one of our +church members and afterwards held the position of a school teacher. +After the resignation of Mr. Pease and his removal to North Carolina, +his place was taken by one of our Market Street elders, the devout and +godly minded Benjamin R. Barlow. In order to keep awake public interest +in the mission work at the Five Points, and to get ammunition, in its +behalf, I used to make nocturnal explorations of some of those satanic +quarters. I recall now one of those midnight forays of which, at the +risk of my reader's olfactories, I will give a brief glimpse. In company +with the superintendent of the mission and a policeman and a lad with a +lantern I struck for the "Cow Bay," the classic spot of which Charles +Dickens had given such a piquant description in his "American Notes" a +few years before. Climbing a stairway, from which the banisters had +long been broken away for firewood, we entered a dark room. There was +only a tallow candle burning in the corner, and in the room were huddled +twenty-five human beings. Along the walls were ranged the bunks--one +above the other--covered with rotting quilts and unwashed coverings. +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 color. +As the lad swings the lantern about we spy the rows of heads projecting +from under the stacks of rags. In one bed a gray-haired, disheveled head +cuddled close to the yellow locks of a slumbering child. While we are +reconnoitering, something like a huge dog runs past and dives under the +bed. "What is this, good friend?" we ask. "Oh, only the goat," replied a +merry Milesian. "Do the goats live with you all in this room?" "To be +sure they do, sir; we feeds 'em tater skins, and milks 'em for the +babies," Country born as we were, we have often longed to keep a dairy +in this city, but it never occurred to us that a bedroom was sufficient +for the purpose. Truly, necessity is the shrewd-witted mother of +invention! Opposite "Cow Bay" was "Cut-Throat Alley." Two murders a year +were about the average product of the civilization of this dark defile. +The keeper of the famous grog shop there, who died about that time, left +a fortune of nearly one hundred thousand dollars. In city politics the +keeper of such a den is one of the leaders of public opinion. We climbed +a stairway, dark and dangerous, till at length we reached the wretched +garret through whose open chinks the snow drifted in upon the floor. +Beside the single broken stove, the only article of furniture in the +apartments, sat a wretched woman wrapped in a tattered shawl moaning +over a terrible burn that covered her arms; she had fallen when +intoxicated upon the stove and no one had cared enough to carry her to +the hospital. She exclaimed, "For God's sake, gentlemen, can't you give +me a glass of gin?" A half eaten crust lay by her and a cold potato or +two, but the irresistible thirst clamored for relief before either pain +or hunger. "Good woman," said my friend, "where's Mose?" "Here he is." A +heap of rags beside her was uncovered, and there lay the sleeping face +of an old negro, apparently of fifty. In nearly every garret we entered +practical amalgamation was in fashion. The superintendent told me that +the negroes were fifty per cent. in advance of the Irish as to sobriety +and decency. Descending from the garret we entered a crowded cellar. The +boy's lantern shone on the police officer's cap and buttons. A crash was +heard, and the window at the opposite end of the cellar was shattered +and a mass of riddled glass fell on the floor. "Poor fool!" exclaimed +the policeman, "he thinks we are after him, but I will have him before +morning." From these sickening scenes of squalor, misery and crime what +a relief it was for us to return to the House of Industry, with its neat +school room and its capacious chapel and its row of little children +marching up to their little beds. It was like going into the light-house +after the storm. + +I have drawn this pen picture of but a part of the shocking revelations +of that night, not only that my readers may know what kind of work I +often engaged in during my New York pastorate, but that they may also +know what kind of city I labored in. New York is not to-day in sight of +the millennium; it still has a fearful amount of vice and heathenism; +and the self-denying men who are conducting the "University Settlement," +and the Christ-serving "King's Daughters," 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 Congo. Nevertheless it is true that a "Cow +Bay," or an "Old Brewery," 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 Park. The progress in sanitary purification has been most +remarkable. + +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 benefactor. I +allude to Mr. Anthony Comstock, the indefatigable Secretary of the +"Society for the Prevention of Vice." I knew him well when he was a +clerk in a dry goods store on Broadway, and when he undertook his first +purifying efforts, I little supposed that he was to achieve such +reforms. It was an Augean stable indeed that he set about cleansing. +Fifty years ago our city was flooded by obscene literature which sought +no concealment. The vilest books and pictures were openly sold in the +streets, and an enormous traffic was waged in what may be called the +literature of hell. Such a courageous crusade against those abominations +and against the gambling dens, by Mr. Comstock--even at the risk of +personal violence and in defiance of the most malignant +opposition--entitles him to a place among our veritable heroes. At a +time when deeds of military prowess receive such adulation, and when the +"man on horseback" outstrips the man on foot in the race for popular +favor, it is well to teach our young men that he who takes up arms +against the principalities and powers of darkness, and makes his own +life the savior of other lives, wins a knightly crown of heavenly honor +that outshines the stars, and "fadeth not away." + +The most unique organization that has been formed in our time for the +evangelizing of the lost masses is the "Salvation Army." When I was in +London, in the summer of 1885, I attended one of their monster meetings +in Exeter Hall. There was an enormous military band on the platform +behind the rostrum. Their Commander-in-Chief, General Booth, presided--a +tall, thin, nervous man, who looked more like an old-fashioned Kentucky +revivalist than an Englishman. His bright-eyed and comely wife, Mrs. +Catharine Booth, was with him. She was a woman of remarkable +intellectual force and spiritual character, as all must acknowledge who +have read her biography. Her speech (on the Protection of Young Girls) +was finely composed and finely delivered, and quite threw into the shade +a couple of members of Parliament who spoke from the same platform on +the same evening. When she made any telling point that awakened +applause, her husband leaped up, and gave the signal: "Fire a volley!" +Whereupon his troops gave a tremendous cheer, followed by a roll of +drums and a blast of trumpets. The chief agency which the army employs +to gather its audiences is music--whether it be the rattling of the +tambourine, or the martial sound of a brass band. Some of their hymns +are little better than pious doggerel, and they do not hesitate to add +to Perronet's grand hymn, "All hail the power of Jesus name," such a +stanza as the following: + + "Let our soldiers never tire, + In streets, in lane, in hall, + The red-hot Gospel's shot to fire + And crown Him Lord of All." + +Grotesque as are some of the methods of this novel organization, I +cannot but admire their zeal and courage in dredging among the submerged +masses with such spiritual apparatus as they can devise. They are doing +a work that God has honored, and that has reached and rescued a vast +number of outcasts. Their chief weakness is that they appeal mainly to +the emotions, and give too little solid instruction to their ignorant +hearers. 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 +together. Let us hope and pray that the period of their usefulness may +yet be protracted. + +While an abnormal agency, like the Salvation Army, may do some useful +service among the occupants of the slums, the greater work of reaching +and evangelizing the immense mass of plain, humble working people must +be done by the churches themselves. What do the dwellers in the +by-streets and the tenement houses need? They need precisely what the +dwellers in the brown stone houses on fine avenues need--a sanctuary to +worship in, a Sunday school for their children, a preacher to give them +the Gospel, and a pastor to visit them and watch over them--in short, a +spiritual home. As for bringing the poorer class of the back streets +into the elegant churches on the fashionable avenues it is an absurdity, +both geography and human nature are against it. The plainly dressed +laborers of the back districts could not come to the fine churches on +Fifth Avenue, or similar streets, because these edifices are already +occupied by their regular pew holders; they would not come, for they +would not feel at home there. Since the humbler toiling classes will not +come to the sanctuaries occupied by the rich, 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 +classes. Not mean and unattractive soup-house style of chapels should +they be, either--they ought to be handsome, cheerful, well-appointed +sanctuaries, manned by godly pastors who are not above the business of +saving souls that are clad in dirty shirts. And that is not all: 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 poor, but in plain clothes and with a hearty democratic +sympathy in their whole bearing. To reach the masses we must go after +them--and then stay with them when we get there. If broadcloth religion +waits for poverty and ignorance to cross the chasm to it, then may they +at last come to be a menace to the safety of society--with imprecations +on it for criminal neglect. Christianity must build the bridge across +the chasm, and then keep its steady procession crossing over it with +bright lamps for dark homes, and Bibles for darker souls, and bread for +hungry mouths, and, what is best of all, _personal intercourse and +personal sympathy_. The music of a Christmas carol would be very sweet +in poverty's garret; the advent of the living Jesus in the persons of +His true-hearted followers would be a "Merry Christmas" all the year +round. + +Brooklyn is not a city of slums, nor does it abound with the +sky-scraping tenement houses, like those in which the myriads of New +York live, but we have a large population of wage-earners of the humbler +class. These mainly occupy streets by themselves. In order to do our +part in giving the bread of life to these worthy people, Lafayette +Avenue Church has always maintained two, and sometimes three, auxiliary +chapels. Of these, the "Cuyler Chapel," built and supported entirely by +our Young People's Association, is a fair representative. It has an +excellent preacher, who visits the plain people in their homes; it has a +well-equipped Sunday school--prayer meetings, kindergarten--its own +Society of Christian Endeavor, and King's Daughters, its penny savings +bank and its temperance society--in short, every appliance essential to +a Christian church. Many others of our strong Brooklyn churches are +working precisely on the same practical, common-sense lines. If all the +wealthy churches in New York would illuminate the darker quarters of +that city with a hundred well-manned light-houses, well provided with +the soul-saving apparatus of the poor man's Gospel they would do more to +silence the cavils against Christianity, and more to bridge the chasm +between the rich and the poor than by any of the superficial methods of +the "Humanitarians." What a poor man wants is not only a clean shirt, a +clean home, and a clean account on Saturday night; he wants a clean +character and a clean soul for this world and the next. Christianity +makes a sad mistake if it is satisfied to give him a full stomach, and +leave him with a starving soul. + +In recent years we have heard much about the "Institutional Church" as +the long sought panacea. It is claimed by some persons that the churches +cannot succeed unless they add to ordinary spiritual instrumentalities, +various useful annexes, such as reading rooms, kindergartens, +dispensaries, and certain social entertainments. But it is a noteworthy +fact that the chief pioneer in "Institutional" methods was the late +Charles Haddon Spurgeon, and he was the prince of old-fashioned gospel +preachers. He never thought of his orphanage, and other benevolent +adjuncts of the Metropolitan Tabernacle as substitutes for the sovereign +purpose of his holy work, which was to convert the people to Jesus +Christ. He subordinated the physical, the mental, and the social to the +spiritual; and rightly judged that making clean hearts was the best way +to secure clean homes and clean lives. I have no doubt that a very +strong, well-manned and thoroughly spiritually managed church may wisely +maintain as many adjuncts, such as reading-rooms, libraries, +dispensaries, kindergartens and other humanitarian annexes as it has the +means to support. An illustration of this is seen in the successful and +Heaven-blessed Bethany Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, founded and +maintained and guided by that hundred-handed Briareus in the service of +Christ--my beloved friend, the Hon. John Wanamaker. The aim of that +great church and its well-known Sunday School, is to make people happy +by making them better, and to save them for this world after saving them +for another world. When a church has the spiritual purposes and +spiritual power of the London Tabernacle and the Bethany Church, and is +guided by a Spurgeon or a Wanamaker, it may safely become +"institutional." But some experiments that have been made to establish +churches of that name in this country have not always been conspicuously +successful. + +In taking this, my retrospective view at four-score, I have noted many +heart-cheering tokens of social and religious progress, and many +splendid mechanical and material inventions to make the world better and +happier. Yet I have also seen some painful symptoms of decline and +deterioration. All the changes have not been for the better; some have +been decidedly for the worse. For example, while there is an increase in +the number of the Christian churches, there is a lamentably steady +diminution of attendance at places of religious worship. Careful +investigation shows a constant falling off in church attendance--both in +the large towns, and in the rural districts. In spite of the blessed +influence of the Sunday School, the Young Men's Christian Association +and Christian Endeavor, there is an increasing swing of young people +away from the House of God, and therefore from soul-saving influences. +The Sabbath is not as generally kept sacred as formerly. One of the +indications of this sad fact is a decrease in church attendance, and +another is the enormous increase in the secular and godless Sunday +newspapers. Materialism and Mammonism work against spiritual religion, +and the social customs which wealth brings are adverse to a spiritual +life. As one illustration of this a distinguished pastor said to me: +"Forty years ago my people lived plainly, were ready for earnest +Christian work, and attended our devotional meetings; now they have +grown rich, our work flags, and our weekly services are almost +deserted." Half-day religion is on the increase almost everywhere. +Sporting and gambling are more rife than formerly. What is still worse, +the gambling element enters more largely into transactions of trade and +traffic. Divorces have become more easy and abundant, and, as Mr. +Gladstone once said to me: "This tends to sap one of the very +foundations of society," All these are deplorable evils to which none +but a fool will shut his eyes and by which none but a coward will be +frightened. _God reigns,_ even if the devil is trying to. The practical +questions for every one of us are: how can I become better? How can I +help to make this old sinning and sobbing world the better also? + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +A RETROSPECT, CONTINUED. + + +As I look over the changes that half a century has wrought in the social +life of my beloved country, I see some which awaken satisfaction--others +which are not so exhilarating. The enormous and rapid increase of wealth +is unparalleled in human history. In my boyhood, millionaires were rare; +there were hardly a score of them in any one of our cities. The two +typical rich men were Stephen Girard in Philadelphia and John Jacob +Astor in New York; and their whole fortunes were not equal to the annual +income of several of the rich men of to-day. Some of our present +millionaires are reservoirs of munificence, and the outflow builds +churches, hospitals, asylums, and endows libraries--and sends broad +streams of charity through places parched by destitution and suffering. +Others are like pools at the base of a hill--they receive the inflow of +every descending streamlet or shower, and stagnate into selfishness. +Wealth is a tremendous trust; it becomes a dangerous one when it owns +its owner. Our Brooklyn philanthropist, the late Mr. Charles Pratt, once +said to me: "There is no greater humbug than the idea that the mere +possession of wealth makes any man happy. I never got any happiness out +of mine until I began to do good with it." + +To the faithful steward there is a perpetual reward of good stewardship. +No investments yield a more covetable dividend than those made in gifts +of public beneficence. When Mr. Morris K. Jesup drives through New York +his eyes are gladdened in one street by the "Dewitt Memorial Chapel" +that he erected; in another by the Five Points House of Industry, of +which he is the president, and in still others by the Young Men's +Christian Association and kindred institutions, of which he is a liberal +supporter. + +Mr. John D. Rockefeller is reputed to have an annual income equal to +that of three or four foreign sovereigns; but his inalienable assets are +in the universities he has endowed, the churches he has helped to build, +the useful societies he has aided, and in the gold mines of public +gratitude which he has opened up. + +Many of our most munificent millionaires have been the architects of +their own fortunes. It is most commonly (with some happy exceptions) the +earned wealth, and not the inherited wealth that is bestowed most +freely for the public benefit. The Hon. William E. Dodge once stated in +a popular lecture that he began his career as a boy on a salary of fifty +dollars a year, and his board--part of his duty being to sweep out the +store in which he was employed. He lived to distribute a thousand +dollars a day to Christian missions, and otherwise objects of +benevolence. + +There are old men in Pittsburg (or were, not long ago), who remember the +bright Scotch lad, Andrew Carnegie, to whom they used to give a dime for +bringing telegraph messages from the office in which he was employed. +The benefits which he then derived from the use of a free library in +that city, have added to his good impulse, 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 England, and that of Astor in +America. The mention of this latter name tempts me to narrate an amusing +story of old John Jacob Astor, the founder of the fortune of that +family, and a man who was more noted for acquiring money than for giving +it away for any purpose. Mr. Astor came to New York a poor young man. +His wealth consisted mainly in real estate, which he purchased at an +early day. When the New York and Erie Railroad was projected (it was the +first one ever coming directly into New York), my friend, Judge Joseph +Hoxie, called on Mr. Astor to subscribe to the stock, telling him that +it would add to the value of his real estate. "What do I care for that?" +said the shrewd old German, "I never sells, I only buys." "Well," said +Judge Hoxie, "your son, William, has subscribed for several shares." "He +can do that," was the chuckling reply, "he has got a rich father." It is +a fair problem how many such possessors of real estate it would take to +build up the prosperity of a great city. + +There is one temptation to which great wealth has sometimes subjected +its possessors, which demands from me a word of patriotic protest. It is +the temptation to use it for political advancement. No fact is more +patent than the painful one that some ambitious men have secured public +offices, and even bought their way into legislative bodies, by the +abundancies of their purses united to skill in manipulating partisan +machines. This is a most serious menace to honest popular government. It +is one of the very worst forms of a plutocracy. 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 +day, they might paraphrase the words of Holy Writ and exclaim: "Take the +money-changers hence, and make not the temple of a nation's legislation +a house of merchandise." + +Foreign travel is no longer the novelty that it was once, and many +wealthy folk spend much of their time abroad since the Atlantic Ocean +has been reduced to a ferry. This growth of European travel has brought +its increment of information and culture; but, with new ideas from +abroad, have come also some new notions and usages that were better left +behind. A prohibitory tariff in that direction would "protect" some of +the unostentatiousness of social life that befits a republican people. +No young man or woman, who desires to attain proficience in any +department of scholarship, classical or scientific, need to betake +themselves to the universities of Europe. Those universities have come +to us in the shape of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell and our other +most richly endowed institutions of learning for both sexes. + +Quite too much of the social life of our country is more artificial than +formerly, and one result is the growing passion for publicity. Plenty of +ambitious people "make their beds in the face of the sun." Many things +are now chronicled in the press that were formerly kept behind the +closed doors of the home. The details of a dinner or a social company at +the fireside become the topics for the gossip of strangers. 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 courtship. In the somewhat +primitive days of my youth, young lovers kept their own secrets, and +were startled if their heart affairs were on other people's tongues; but +now-a-days marriage engagements are matters of public announcement--not +infrequently in the columns of a newspaper! It seems to be forgotten +that an engagement to marry may not always end in a marriage. The usage +of crowned heads abroad is no warrant for the new fashion, for royalty +has no privacies, 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 advocate. + +It has always required--but never more than now--no small amount of +moral courage on the part of newly married couples, whose incomes are +moderate, to resist the temptations of extravagant living. As the heads +of young men are often turned by the reports of great fortunes suddenly +acquired, so the ambition seizes upon many a young wife to cut a figure +in "society." Instead of "the household--motions light and free" that +Wordsworth describes, the handmaid of fashion leads the hollow life of +"keeping up appearances." If nothing worse than the slavery of debt is +incurred, home life becomes a counterfeit of happiness; but any one who +watches the daily papers will sometimes see obituaries there more +saddening than those which appear under the head of "Deaths," it is the +list of detected defaulters or peculators or swindlers of some +description--often belonging to the most respectable families. While the +ruin of those evil-doers is sometimes caused by club life or dissipated +habits, yet, in a large number of cases, the temptation to fraud has +been the snare of extravagant living. + +In my long experience as a city pastor I have watched the careers of +thousands of married pairs. One class have begun modestly in an +unfashionable locality with plain dress and frugal expenditure They have +eaten the wholesome bread of independence. I wish that every young woman +would display the good sense of a friend of mine, who received an offer +of marriage from a very intelligent and very industrious, but poor young +man who said to her: "I hear that you have offers of marriage from young +men of wealth; all that I can offer you is a good name, sincere love and +plain lodgings at first in a boarding house." She was wise enough to +discover the "jewel in the leaden casket" and accept his hand. He became +a prosperous business man and an officer of my church. As for the other +class, who begin their domestic career by a pitiable craze to "get into +society" and to keep up with their "set" in the vain show, is their fate +not written in the chronicles of haggard and jaded wives, and of +husbands drowned in debt or driven perhaps to stock-gambling or some +other refuge of desperation? + +In another portion of this autobiography I have uttered a prayer for the +revival of soul-kindling eloquence in the pulpit. In this age of dizzy +ballooning in finance and social extravagance, my prayer is: "Oh, for +the revival of old fashioned, sturdy, courageous frugality that 'hath +clean hands and a clean heart, and hath not lifted up its soul to +vanity!'" + +"Do you not discover a great advance in educational facilities and in +the enlargement of means to popular knowledge?" To this question I am +happy to give an affirmative reply. Schools and universities are more +richly endowed and our public schools have been greatly improved in many +directions. Among the educated classes, reading clubs and societies for +discussing sociological questions are more numerous, and so are free +lectures among the humbler classes. Books have been multiplied--and at +cheaper prices--to an enormous extent. In my childhood, books adapted to +the reach of children numbered not more than a score or two; now they +are multiplied to a degree that is almost bewildering to the youthful +mind. Newspapers printed for them, such as the _Youth's Companion_ and +the National Society's _Temperance Banner_, were then utterly unknown. +The sacred writer of the ecclesiastics needs not to tell the people of +this generation: "That of making many books there is no end." + +It is not, however, a matter for congratulation that so large a portion +of the volumes that are most read are works of fiction. In most of our +public libraries the novels called for are far in excess of all the +other books. Let any one scrutinize the advertising columns of literary +journals, and he will see that the only startling figures are those +which announce the enormous sale of popular works of fiction. I am not +uttering a tirade against any book simply because it is fictitious. Our +Divine Master spoke often in parables; Bunyan's matchless allegories +have guided multitudes of pilgrims towards the Celestial City. Fiction +in the clean hands of that king of romancers, Sir Walter Scott, threw +new light on the history and scenes of the past. Such characters as +"Jennie Deans" and her godly father might have been taken from John +Banyan's portrait gallery; Lady Di Vernon is the ideal of young +womanhood. Fiction has often been a wholesome relief to a good man's +overworked and weary brain. Many of the recent popular novels are +wholesome in their tone and the historical type often instructive. The +chief objection to the best of them is that they excite a distaste in +the minds of thousands for any other reading. Exclusive reading of +fiction is to any one's mind just what highly spiced food and alcoholic +stimulants are to the body. The increasing rage for novel reading +betokens both a famine in the intellect, and a serious peril to the +mental and spiritual life. The honest truth is that quite too large a +number of fictitious works are subtle poison. The plots of some of the +most popular novels turn on the sexual relation and the violation in +some form of the seventh commandment. They kindle evil passions; they +varnish and veneer vice; they deride connubial purity; they uncover what +ought to be hid, and paint in attractive hues what never ought to be +seen by any pure eye or named by any modest tongue. 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 manner. A +few popular writers of fiction present evangelical religion in its +winning features; they preach with the pen the same truths that they +preach from the pulpit. Two of the perils that threaten American youths +are a licentious stage and a poisonous literature. A highly intelligent +lady, who has examined many of the novels printed during the last +decade, said to me: "The main purpose of many of these books is to knock +away the underpinning of the marriage relation or of the Bible." If +parents give house room to trashy or corrupt books, they cannot be +surprised if their children give heart-room to "the world, the flesh, +and the evil one." When interesting and profitable books are so abundant +and so cheap, this increasing rage for novels is to me one of the +sinister signs of the times. + +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 activities. This change is especially marked in the literature +of the two great English-speaking nations. For example, there are now in +Great Britain no poets who are the peers of Wordsworth, Tennyson and +Browning;--no brilliant essayists who are the peers of Carlyle and +Macaulay, and no novelists who are the peers of Scott, Dickens and +Thackeray. In the United States we have no poets who are a match for +Bryant, Longfellow, Whittier and Holmes; and no essayists who are a +match for Emerson and James Russell Lowell--no jurists who are the +rivals of Marshall, Kent and Story; and no living historians equal +Bancroft, Prescott and Motley. These facts do not necessarily indicate +(as some assert) a widespread intellectual famine. The most probable +explanation of the fact is that the mental forces in our day exert +themselves in other directions. This is an age of scientific research +and scientific achievement. It is an age of material advancement, and in +those lines in which the human mind can "seek out many inventions." The +whole trend of human thought is under transformation. In ancient days +"a man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon thick trees." +The man is famous now who makes some useful mechanical invention, or +explores some unknown territory, or bridges the oceans with swift +steamers, or belts the earth with new railways, or organizes powerful +financial combinations. If the law of demand and supply is as applicable +to mental products as it is to the imports of commerce, then we may +readily understand that the realm of the ideal, which was ruled by the +Wordsworths, Carlyles and Longfellows, should be supplanted by a realm +in which the master minds should be political economists, or explorers, +or railway kings, or financial magnates, or empire-builders of some +description. The philosophical and poetical yield to the practical, when +"_cui bono?_" is the lest question which challenges all comers. This +change, if it be an actual one, may bring its losses as well as its +gains. We are thankful for all the precious boons which inventive genius +has brought to us--for telegraphs, and telephones, and photographic +arts, for steam engines and electric motors, for power presses and +sewing machines, for pain-killing chloroform, and the splendid +achievements of skillful surgery. But the mind has its necessities as +well as the body; 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 Duty," and a "Happy Warrior," a "Snow Bound," and a +"Thanatopsis," an "Evangeline" and a "Chambered Nautilus," a "Pippa +Passes" or a "Biglow Papers," an "In Memoriam" or a "Locksley Hall." + +One characteristic of the present time is the radical and revolutionary +spirit which condemns everything that is "old," especially in the realm +of religion. It arrogantly claims that the "advanced thought" of this +highly cultured age has broken with the traditional beliefs of our +benighted ancestors, and that modern congregations are too highly +enlighted to accept those antiquated theologies. No pretentions could be +more preposterous. Methinks that those stalwart farmers of New England, +who on a wintry Sabbath, sat and eagerly devoured for an hour the strong +meat of such theological giants as Jonathan Edwards, and Emmons and +Bellamy and Dwight, would laugh to scorn the ridiculous assumption of +the present day congregations, many of whom have fed on little else +during the week but novels and newspapers. This revolutionary spirit is +expert in pulling down; it is a sorry bungler at rebuilding. Nothing is +too sacred for its assaults. 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 tatters. King David has +been exiled from the Psalter; but no "sweet singers" have yet turned up +who could have composed those matchless minstrelsies. Paul is denied the +authorship of the Epistle to the Romans; but the mighty mind has not +been discovered which produced what Coleridge called the "profoundest +book in existence." The Scripture miracles are discarded, but +Christianity, which is the greatest miracle of all, is not accounted +for. The "new theology" which has well nigh banished the supernatural +from the Bible pays an homage to the principle of "evolution," which is +due only to the Almighty Creator of the universe. Spurgeon has wittily +said that if we are not the product of God's creating hand, but are only +the advanced descendants of the ape, then we ought to conduct our +devotions accordingly, and address our daily petitions "not to our +Father which is in Heaven, but to our father which is up a tree." + +I do not belong to that class which is irreverently styled "old fogies," +for I hold that genuine conservatism consists in healthful and regular +progress; and it has been my privilege to take an active part in a great +many reformatory movements; yet I am more warmly hospitable to a truth +which has stood the test of time and of trial. There are many things in +this world that are improved by age. Friendship is one of them, and I +have found that it takes a great many new friends to make an old one. +My Bible is all the dearer to me, not only because it has pillowed the +dying heads of my father and my mother, but because it has been the sure +guide of a hundred generations of Christians before them. When the +boastful innovators offer me a new system of belief (which is really a +congeries of unbeliefs) I say to them: "the old is better." Twenty +centuries of experience shared by such intellects as Augustine, Luther, +Pascal, Calvin, Newton, Chalmers, Edwards, Wesley and Spurgeon are not +to be shaken by the assaults of men, who often contradict each other +while contradicting God's truth. We have tested a supernaturally +inspired Bible for ourselves. As my eloquent and much loved friend, Dr. +McLaren, of Manchester has finely said: "We decline to dig up the piles +of the bridge that carries us over the abyss because some voices tell us +that it is rotten. It is perfectly reasonable to answer, 'We have tried +the bridge and it bears.' Which, being translated into less simple +language, is just the assertion of certitude, built on facts and +experience, which leaves no place for doubt. All the opposition will be +broken into spray against this rock-bulwark: 'Thy words were found, and +I did eat them, and they are the joy and rejoicing of my heart.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +MY HOME LIFE. + + +One of the richest of the many blessings that has crowned my long life +has been a happy home. 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 homeless, and, I fear, also a +wifeless man. During my own early ministry in Burlington, N.J., my +widowed mother and myself lodged with worthy Quakers, and realized +Charles Lamb's truthful description of that quiet, "naught-caballing +community." On our removal to Trenton, when I took charge of the newly +organized Third Presbyterian Church, we commenced housekeeping in what +had once been the residence of a Governor, a chief-justice, and a mayor +of the city; but was a very plain and modest domicile after all. My new +church building was completed in November, 1850, and opened with a full +congregation, and I was soon in the full swing of my pastoral duties. As +I have already stated in the opening chapter of this volume, my father +and mother first saw each other on a Sabbath day, and in a church. It +was my happy lot to follow their example. On a certain Sabbath in +January, 1851, a group of young ladies, who were the guests of a +prominent family in my congregation, were seated in a pew immediately +before the pulpit. As a civility to that family we called on the +following evening, upon their guests. One of the number happened to be a +young lady from Ohio who had just graduated from the Granville College, +in that State, and had come East to visit her relatives in Philadelphia. +The young lady just mentioned was Miss Annie E. Mathiot, a daughter of +the Hon. Joshua Mathiot, an eminent lawyer, who had represented his +district in Congress. That evening has been marked with a very white +stone in my calendar ever since. It was but a brief visit of a fortnight +that the fair maiden from the West made in Trenton; but when she, soon +afterwards returned to Ohio, she took with her what has been her +inalienable possession ever since and will be, "Till death us do part." +My courtship was rather "at long range;" for Newark, Ohio, was several +hundred miles away, and I have always found that a man who would build +up a strong church must be constantly at it, trowel in hand. On the 17th +of March, 1853, the venerable Dr. Wylie conducted for us a very simple +and solemn service of holy wedlock, closing with his fatherly +benediction, one of the best acts of his long and useful life. The +invalid mother of my bride (for Colonel Mathiot had died four years +previously) was present at our nuptials, and for the last time was in +her own drawing-room. Mrs. Mathiot was a daughter of Mr. Samuel +Culbertson, a leading lawyer of Zanesville, and was a lady of rare +refinement and loveliness. She had been a patient sufferer from a +painful illness of several months' duration, and peacefully passed away +to her rest in September of that year. + +Of the qualifications and duties of a minister's wife, enough has been +written to stock a small library. My own very positive conviction has +always been that her vows were made primarily, not to a parish, but to +her own husband; and if she makes his home and heart happy; if she +relieves him of needless worldly cares; if she is a constant inspiration +to him in his holy work, she will do ten-fold more for the church than +if she were the manager and mainspring of a dozen benevolent societies. +There is another obligation antecedent to all acts of Presbytery or +installing councils--the sweet obligation of motherhood. The woman who +neglects her nursery or her housekeeping duties, and her own heart-life +for any outside work in the parish does both them and herself serious +injury. If a minister's wife has the grace of a kind and tactful +courtesy toward all classes, she may contribute mightily to the popular +influence of her husband; and if she is a woman of culture and literary +taste, she can be of immense service to him in the preparation of his +sermons. The best critic that ministers can have is one who has a right +to criticize and to "truth it in love." Who has a better right to +reprove, exhort and correct with all long suffering than the woman who +has given us her heart and herself? 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 man. There is many a minister who would have been +spared the worst blunders of his life, if he had only consulted and +obeyed the instinctive judgment of a loving and sensible wife. If we +husbands hold the reins, it is the province of a wise and devoted wife +to tell us where to drive. + +It is very probable that my readers have suspected that this portraiture +of a model wife for a minister was drawn from actual life; and they are +right in their conjectures. In the discourse delivered to my flock on +the twenty-fifth anniversary of my pastorate was the following passage, +to whose truth the added years have only added confirmation, "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 years. From how many +mistakes and hasty indiscretions her quick sagacity has kept me, you can +never know. If you have any tribute of thanks for any good which I have +done you, do not offer it to me; go carry it down to yonder home, of +which she has been the light and the joy, and _lay it at her unselfish +feet."_ On that occasion (for the _only_ time) I heard a murmur of +applause run through my congregation. + +About the time of our marriage, I received a call from the Shawmut +Congregational Church of Boston, and soon afterwards overtures from a +Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, and from the First Presbyterian +Church of Chicago. All these attractive offers I declined, 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 labor. My ministry in +Trenton was one of unbroken happiness, and the Church were profusely +kind; but at the end of nearly four years I felt that my work there was +done. The young church had built a beautiful house of worship without a +dime of debt, and it was filled by a prosperous congregation. I was +ready for a wider field of labor. + +The Market Street Dutch Reformed Church, to which I was called, was down +town, within ten minutes' walk of the City Hall, and was beginning to +feel the inroads of the up-town migration, when my excellent +predecessor, Dr. Isaac Ferris, left it to become the Chancellor of the +New York University. Although most of the well-to-do families were +moving away, yet East Broadway was full of boarding houses packed with +young men and these in turn packed our church on Sabbath evenings. Of +the happy spiritual harvest-seasons in that old church, especially +during the great awakening in 1858, I have written in the chapter on +Revivals. I was as eager for work as Simon Peter was for a good haul in +fishing, and every week there, I met on the platform the representatives +of temperance societies: The Five Points House of Industry, Young Men's +Christian Associations, Sunday schools or some other religious or +reformatory enterprise. These outside activities were no hindrances to +either pulpit or pastoral work; and, like that famous English preacher +who felt that he could not have too many irons in the fire, I thrust in +tongs, shovel, poker and all. The contact with busy life and benevolent +labors among the poor supplied material for sermons; for the pastor of a +city church must touch life at a great many points. Our domestic +experiences in early housekeeping were very agreeable. The social +conditions of New York were less artificial than now. Pastoral calls in +the evening usually found the people in their homes, and I do not +believe there were a dozen theatre-goers in my congregation. After a +very busy and heaven-blest ministry of half a dozen years, I discovered +that the rapid migration up town would soon leave our congregation too +feeble for self-support. I accordingly started a movement to erect a new +edifice up on Murray Hill, and to retain the old building in Market +Street as an auxiliary mission chapel. A handsome subscription for the +erection of the up-town edifice was secured, and the "Consistory" (which +is the good Dutch designation of a board of church officers), convened +to vote the first payment for the land. The new site was not wisely +chosen, and many of my people were still opposed to any change; but the +casting vote of one good old man (whom I shall thank if I ever encounter +him in the Celestial World) negatived the whole enterprise, and it was +immediately abandoned. + +A few weeks before that decision, I had received a call to take charge +of a brave little struggling Presbyterian Church in the newer part of +Brooklyn. I sent for the officers, and informed them that if they would +purchase the ground on the corner of Lafayette Avenue and Oxford Street, +and pay for it in a fortnight, and promise to build for me a church with +good acoustics and capable of seating from eighteen hundred to two +thousand auditors, I would be their pastor. Instead of turning purple in +the lips at such a bold proposal, 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 dollar! I resigned Market Street Church +immediately, and on the next Sabbath morning, while the Easter bells +were ringing under a dark stormy sky, I came over and faced, for the +first time, the courageous founders of the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian +Church. The dear old Market Street Church lingered on for a few years +more, bleeding at every pore, from the fatal up-town migration, and then +peacefully disbanded. The solid stone edifice was purchased by some +generous Presbyterians in the upper part of the city, who organized +there the "Church of the Sea and Land," which is standing to-day, as a +well-manned light-house amid a dense tenement-house foreign population. +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 classes, 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 ministry. + +This portion of Brooklyn to which we removed in 1860, was very sparsely +settled, and Rev. Henry Ward Beecher said to me: "I do not see how you +can find a congregation there." He lived to say to me: "You are now in +the center, and I am out on the circumference," Brooklyn was then +pre-eminently a "city of churches," and, though we had not a dozen +millionaires, it was not infested with any slums. In a population of +over three hundred thousand there was then only a single theatre, and +when one of our people was asked: "What do you do for recreation over +there?" he replied, "We go to church." + +Certainly no one was ever attracted to our own modest little temporary +sanctuary by its beauty; for it was unsightly without, though very +cheerful within. Soon after we commenced the building of our present +stately edifice the startling report of cannon shook the land from sea +to sea. + + "And then we saw from Sumter's wall + The star-flag of the Union fall, + And armed hosts were pressing on + The broken lines of Washington." + +Every other public edifice in this city then in process of erection was +brought to a standstill; but we pushed forward the work, like Nehemiah's +builders, with a trowel in one hand and a weapon in the other. To raise +funds for the structure, required faith and self-denial, and in this +labor of love, woman's five fingers were busy and helpful. One brave +orphan girl in New York gave, from her hard earnings as a public school +teacher, a sum so large that the announcement of it from my pulpit +aroused great enthusiasm, and turned the scale at the critical moment, +and insured the completion of the structure. Justly may our pulpit +vindicate woman's place, and woman's province in the cause of Christ and +humanity, for without woman's help that pulpit might never have been +erected. + +On the 16th of March, 1862, our church edifice was dedicated to the +worship of Almighty God, Dr. Asa D. Smith, of Dartmouth College, +delivering the dedication sermon, and in the evening, my brilliant and +beloved brother, Professor Roswell D. Hitchcock, gave us one of his +incisive and inspiring discourses. The building accommodates eighteen +hundred worshippers, and in emergencies, twenty-five hundred. It is a +model of cheerfulness and convenience, and is so felicitous in its +acoustics that an ordinary conversational tone can be heard at the +opposite end of the auditorium. The picture of the Church in this volume +gives no adequate idea of the size of the edifice; for the Sunday School +Hall and lecture-room and social parlors are situated in the rear, and +could not be presented in the photographic view. I fear that too many +costly church edifices are erected that are quite unfit for our +Protestant modes of religious service. It is said that when Bishop +Potter was called upon to consecrate one of the "dim religious" +specimens of mediaeval architecture, and was asked his opinion of the +new structure, he replied: "It is a beautiful building, with only three +faults: you cannot see in it--you cannot hear in it--you cannot breathe +in it." + +I need not detail the story of my happy Brooklyn pastorate; for that is +succinctly given in the closing chapter of this volume. 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 townsmen. Brooklyn, although removed from New +York (for I cannot yet twist my tongue into calling it "Manhattan") by a +five minutes' journey on the East River Bridge, is a very different town +in its political and social aspects. New York is penned in on a narrow +island, and ground is worth more than gold. It is therefore piled up +with very fine apartment houses for the rich, or tenement houses for the +poor to more stories than the ancient buildings on the Canongate of +Edinburgh. Here in Brooklyn we have all Long Island to spread over, and +land is within the reach of even a parson's purse. A man never feels so +rich as when he owns a bit of real estate, and I take some satisfaction +in the bit of land in the front of my domicile, and in the rear, capable +of holding several fruit trees and rose-beds. Oxford Street has the deep +shade of a New England village. We come to know our neighbors here, +which is a degree of knowledge not often attained in New York or London. +The social life here is also less artificial than at the other end of +the bridge. There is less of the foreign element, and of either great +wealth or poverty; we have neither the splendor of Paris, nor the +squalor of the by-streets of Naples. The name of "Breucklen" was given +to our town by its original Dutch settlers, 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 England. My old friend, Mayor Low, +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 politics. For self-protection, I joined with my +lamented brother, the late Dr. Storrs, in an effort to maintain our +independence. Ours is pre-eminently a city of homes where the bulk of +the people live in an undivided dwelling, and I do not believe that +there is another city either in America, or elsewhere, that contains +over a million inhabitants, so large a proportion of whom are in a +school house during the week, and in God's house on the Sabbath. + +[Illustration: THE LAFAYETTE AVENUE CHURCH.] + +One of the glories of Brooklyn is its vast and picturesque "Prospect +Park," with natural forests, hills and dales and its superb outlook over +the bay and ocean. + +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 residence; and its bright show of +flowers makes it a constant delight to my neighbors. Last year some of +my fellow-townspeople made an exceedingly generous proposition to place +there a memorial statue; and I felt compelled to publish the following +reply to an offer which quite transcended any claim that I could have to +such an honor: + + 176 SOUTH OXFORD STREET, JUNE 12, 1901. + + MESS JOHN N. BEACH, D.W. MCWILLIAMS, AND THOMAS T. BARR. + + _My Dear Sirs_, + + 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 elsewhere. Do not, I entreat you, regard me as indifferent to a + proposition whose motive affords the most profound and heartfelt + gratitude; but a work of art in bronze or marble, such as has been + suggested, that would be creditable to our city, would require an + outlay of money that I cannot conscientiously consent to have + expended for the purpose of personal honor rather than of public + utility. 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 Avenues. If my most esteemed friend, Park + Commissioner Brower, will kindly have my name visibly and + permanently affixed to that little park, and will direct that it be + always kept as bright and beautiful with flowers as it now is, I + shall be abundantly satisfied. I have been permitted to spend + forty-one supremely happy years in this city which I heartily love, + and for whose people I have joyfully labored; and while the + permanent fruits of these labors remain, I trust I shall not pass + out of all affectionate remembrance. A monument reared by human + hands may fade away; but if God has enabled me to engrave my humble + name on any living hearts, they will be the best monument; for + hearts live on forever. While declining the proffered honor, may I + ask you to convey my most sincere and cordial thanks to the kind + friends who have joined with you in this generous proposal, and, + with warm personal regard, I remain, + + Yours faithfully, + + THEODORE L. CUYLER. + +I cannot refrain here from thanking my old friend, Dr. St. Clair +McKelway, the brilliant editor of the _Brooklyn Eagle_, for his generous +tribute which accompanied the publication of the above letter. His +grandfather, Dr. John McKelway, a typical Scotchman, was my family +physician and church deacon in the city of Trenton. Among the editorial +fraternity let me also mention here the name of my near neighbor, Mr. +Edward Gary, of the _New York Times_, who was with me in Fort Sumter, +at the restoration of the flag, and with whom I have foregathered in +many a fertilizing conversation. Away off on the slope above beautiful +Stockbridge, and surrounded by his Berkshire Hills, Dr. Henry M. Field +is spending the bright "Indian summer" of his long and honored career. +For forty years we held sweet fellowship in the columns of the _New York +Evangelist_. + +The experience of the great Apostle at Rome, who dwelt for nearly two +years in his "hired house," has been followed by numberless examples of +the ministers of the Gospel who have had a migratory home life. My +experience under rented roofs led me to build, in 1865, this dwelling, +which has housed our domestic life for seven and thirty years. A true +homestead is not a Jonah's gourd for temporary shelter from sun and +storm, it is a treasure house of accumulations. Many of its contents are +precious heirlooms; its apartments are thronged with memories of friends +and kinsfolk living or departed. Every room has its scores of occupants, +every wall is gladdened with the visions of loved faces. I look into +yonder guest chamber, and find my old friends, Governor Buckingham, and +Vice-President Wilson, who were ready to discuss the conditions of the +temperance reform which they had come to advocate. Down in the +dining-room the "Chi-Alpha" Society of distinguished ministers are +holding their Saturday evening symposium; in the parlor my Irish guest, +the Earl of Meath, is describing to me his philanthropies in London, and +his Countess is describing her organization of "Ministering Children." +In the library, Whittier is writing at the table; or Mr. Fulton is +narrating his missionary work in China; out on the piazza my veteran +neighbor, General Silas Casey, is telling the thrilling story of how he +led our troops at the storming of the Heights of Chapultepec; up the +steps comes dear old John G. Paton, with his patriarchal white beard, to +say "good-bye," before he goes back to his mission work in the New +Hebrides. + +No room in our dwelling is more sacred than the one in which I now +write. On its walls hang the portraits of my Princeton Professors, and +those of majestic Chalmers and the gnarled brow of Hugh Miller, the +Scotch geologist, the precious gifts of the author of "Rab and His +Friend." Near them is the bright face of dear Henry Drummond, looking +just as he did on that stormy evening when he came into my library a few +hours after his arrival from Scotland. I still recall his reply to me in +Edinburgh, when I cautioned him against permitting his scientific +studies to unspiritualize his activities. "Never you fear," said he, "I +am too busy in trying to save young men; and the only way to do that is +to lead them to the Lord Jesus Christ," In former years this room was +my beloved mother's "Chamber of Peace" that opens to the sun-rising. Her +pictured face looks down upon me now from the wall, and her Bible lies +beside me. In this room we gathered on the afternoon of September 14, +1887, around her dying bed. Her last words were: "Now kiss me good +night," and in an hour or two she fell into that sweet slumber which +Christ gives His beloved, at the ripe age of eighty-five. Her mental +powers and memory were unimpaired. On the monument which covers her +sleeping dust in Greenwood is engraved these words: "Return unto thy +rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee." + +This room is also hallowed by another tenderly sacred association. Here +our beloved daughter, Louise Ledyard Cuyler, closed her beautiful life +on the last day of September, 1881. On her return from Narragansett +Pier, she was stricken with a mysterious typhoid fever, which often lays +its fatal touch on the most youthful and vigorous frame. She had +apparently passed the point of danger, and one Sabbath when I read to +her that one hundred and twenty-first Psalm, which records the watchful +love of Him who "never sleeps," our hearts were gladdened with the +prospect of a speedy recovery. Then came on a fatal relapse; and in the +early hour of dawn, while our breaking hearts were gathered around her +dying bed, she had "another morn than ours." Why that noble and gifted +daughter, who was the inseparable companion of her fond mother, and who +was developing into the sweet graces of young womanhood, was taken from +our clinging arms at the early age of twenty-two, God only knows. Many +another aching parental heart has doubtless knocked at the sealed door +of such a mystery, and heard the only response, "What I do thou knowest +not now, but thou shalt know hereafter." Upon the monument that bears +her name, graven on a cross, amid a cluster of white lilies, is +inscribed: "I thank my God upon every remembrance of thee." The lovely +twin brother, "Georgie" (whose sweet life story is told in "The Empty +Crib"), reposes in our same family plot, and beside him lies a baby +brother, Mathiot Cuyler, who lived but twelve days. As this infant was +born on the twenty-fifth of December, 1873, his tiny tomb-stone bears +the simple inscription: "Our Christmas Gift." + +During all our seasons of domestic sorrow the cordial sympathies of our +noble-hearted congregation were very cheering; for we had always kept +open doors to them all, and regarded them as only an enlargement of our +own family. In our household joys, they too, participated. When the +twenty-fifth anniversary of our marriage occurred, they decorated our +church with flags and flowers and suspended a huge marriage-bell on an +arch before the pulpit. After the President of our Board of Trustees, +the Hon. William W. Goodrich, had completed his congratulatory address, +two of the officers of the church in imitation of the returning spies +from Eshcol marched in, "bearing between them on a staff" a capacious +bag of silver dollars. A curiously constructed silver clock is also +among the treasured souvenirs of that happy anniversary. + +In April, 1885, the close of the first quarter-century of my ministry +was celebrated by our church with very delightful festivities. Addresses +were delivered by his Honor Mayor Low, Dr. McCosh, of Princeton, Dr. +Richard S. Storrs, and the Hon. John Wanamaker, Post-Master General. A +duodecimo volume giving the history of our church and all its activities +was published by order of our people. + +From such a loyal flock in the full tide of its prosperity, to cut +asunder, required no small exercise of conscience and of courage. When +the patriarchal Dr. Emmons, of Franklin, Massachusetts, resigned his +church at the age of eighty, he gave the good reason: "I mean to stop +when I have sense enough to know that I have not begun, to fail." In +exercising the same grace, on a Sabbath morning in February, 1890, I +made before a full congregation the following announcement: "Nearly +thirty years have elapsed since I assumed the pastoral charge of the +Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church; 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 denomination. It +has two thousand three hundred and thirty members; and is third in point +of numbers in the United States. This church has always been to me like +a beloved child: I have given to it thirty years of hard and happy +labor. It is now my foremost desire that its harmony may remain +undisturbed, and that its prosperity may remain unbroken. 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 generation, and the time has now +come to transfer this most sacred trust to some other, who, in God's +good Providence, may have thirty years of vigorous work before him, and +not behind him. If God spares my life to the first Sabbath in April, it +is my purpose to surrender this pulpit back into your hands, and I shall +endeavor to co-operate with you in the search and selection of the right +man to stand in it. 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 happiness. 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 bear." + +The congregation was quite astounded by this unexpected announcement, +but they recognized the motive that prompted the step, and acted +precisely as I desired. They agreed at once to appoint a committee to +look for a successor. In order that I might not hamper him in any +respect, I declined the generous offer of our church to make me their +"Pastor Emeritus." + +As my pastorate began on an Easter Sabbath, in 1860, so it terminated at +the Easter in 1890. Before an immense assemblage I delivered, on that +bright Sabbath, the Valedictory discourse which closes the present +volume, and which gives in condensed form the history of the Lafayette +Avenue Church. + +Our noble people never do anything by halves; and a few evenings after +the delivery of my valedictory discourse they gave to their pastor and +his wife a public reception, for which the church, lecture-room and the +church parlors were profusely adorned; and were crowded with guests. +Congratulatory addresses were delivered by Dr. John Hall of the Fifth +Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York, by Professor William M. Paxton, of +Princeton Theological Seminary; and congratulatory letters were read +from the venerable poet, Whittier, the Hon. William Walter Phelps, Mr. +A.A. Low (the Mayor's father), General William H. Seward, Bishop Potter +and Dr. Herrick Johnson, besides a vast number of others renowned in +Church and State. On behalf of the Brooklyn pastors an address was +pronounced by the Rev. Dr. L.T. Chamberlain, which was a rare gem of +sparkling oratory. In his concluding passage he said: "Nor in all these +have I for an instant forgotten the dual nature of that ministry, which +has been so richly blessed. I recall that in the prophet's symbolic act, +he took to himself two staves, the one was 'Beauty,' while the other was +'Bands.' In the kingdom of grace and in the kingdom of nature, +loveliness is ever the fit complement of strength. Accordingly, to her, +who has been the enthroned one in the heart, the light-giver in the +home, the beloved of the church, we tender our most fervent good wishes +For her also we lift on high our faithful, tender intercession. To each, +to both, we give the renewed assurance of our abiding affection. God +grant that life's shadows may lengthen gently and slowly! Late, may you +both ascend to Heaven: long and happily may you abide with us here!" The +report of the proceedings of that evening says that at this reference to +the "dual" character of his ministry, "the veteran pastor sprang to his +feet and, seizing Dr. Chamberlain's hand, exclaimed; 'I thank you for +that, and the whole assembly's applause revealed its heartfelt +sympathy." I had declined more than once, for good reasons, the kind +offer of my generous flock to increase my salary, but, when on that +evening that crowned my thirty years of labor, my dear neighbor and +church elder, Mr. John N. Beach (on behalf of the congregation), put +into my hands a cheque for thirty thousand dollars, "not as a charity +but as a token of our warm hearted grateful love," I could only say with +the Apostle Paul: "I rejoice in the Lord that your care has _blossomed +out afresh_" (for this is the literal reading of the great apostle's +gratitude). + +The proceedings of that memorable evening were closed by a benediction +by the Rev. Dr. Charles L. Thompson, then Moderator of our General +Assembly and now the super-royal Secretary of our Board of Home +Missions. The proceedings were afterwards compiled in a beautiful volume +entitled "A Thirty Years' Pastorate," by the good taste and literary +skill of my beloved friend, the late Jacob L. Gossler. + +In justice to myself, let me say that I have given this narrative of the +closing scenes of my pastoral labors, not, I trust, as a matter of +personal vain glory; 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 pastor, whose simple aim has been, +with God's help, to do his duty. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +LIFE AT HOME--AND FRIENDS ABROAD. + + +A few months after my resignation, the Lafayette Avenue Church extended +an unanimous call to the Rev. Dr. David Gregg, who had become +distinguished as a powerful preacher, and the successful pastor of the +old, historic Park Street Church, of Boston. He is also widely known by +his published works, which display great vigor and beauty of style, and +a fervid spirituality. When Dr. Gregg came on to assume his office, I +was glad, not only to give him a hearty welcome, but to assure him that, +"as no one had ever come up into the pilot house to interfere with the +helmsman, so I would never lay my hand on the wheel that should steer +that superb vessel in all its future voyagings." From that day to this, +my relations with my beloved successor have been unspeakably fraternal +and delightful. While I have left the entire official charge of the +church in his hands, there have been many occasions on which we have +co-operated in various pastoral duties among a flock that was equally +dear to us both. Recently the Rev. George R. Lunn, a young minister of +exceedingly attractive qualities both in the pulpit and in personal +intercourse, has been installed as an assistant pastor. The divine +blessing has constantly rested upon the noble old church, which has gone +steadily on, like a powerful ocean steamer, well-manned, well-equipped, +well-freighted, and well guided by the compass of God's infallible word. +Last year the church rendered a signal service to the cause of Foreign +Missions by erecting a "David Gregg Hospital" and a "Theodore L. Cuyler +Church" in Canton, China. They are both under the supervision of the +Rev. Albert A. Fulton, who went out to China from our Lafayette Avenue +flock, and has been a most energetic and successful missionary for more +than twenty years. + +My ministry at large has brought a needed rest, not by idleness, but by +a change in the character of my employment. Instead of a weekly +preparation of sermons, has come the preparation of more frequent +contributions to the religious press. Instead of pastoral visitations +have been the journeyings to different churches, or colleges, and +universities and Young Men's Christian Associations for preaching +services. I doubt whether any other dozen years of my life have been +more crowded with various activities. To my dear wife and myself have +come increased opportunities for travel, which have been, during the +almost half century of our happy wedded life, a constant source of +enjoyment. We have journeyed together from Bar Harbor, in Maine, to +Coronado Beach, in Southern California. We have traversed together the +Adirondacks, the White Mountains and the Catskills, the prairies of +Dakota and the orange groves of Florida, the peerless parks of Del Monte +on the shores of the Pacific, and the "Royal Gorge" in the heart of the +Rocky Mountain Range. Our various trips to Europe have photographed on +our hearts the memories of many dear friends and faces, some of whom, +alas! have vanished into the unseen world. In the summer of 1889, when +we were at Ayr, the late Mr. Alexander Allan, came down for us in his +fine steam yacht, the _Tigh-na-Mara_, and took us up to his hospitable +"Hafton House" on the Holy Loch, a few miles below Glasgow. For several +days he gave us yachting excursions through Loch Goil, and the Kyles of +Bute, and Loch Long, with glimpses of Ben-Lomond and other monarchs of +the Highlands. When we saw the gorgeous purple garniture of heather in +full bloom, we no longer wondered that Sir Walter Scott was quite +satisfied to have his beloved hills devoid of forests. + +Another memorable visit of that summer was to Chillitigham Castle in +Northumberland, from whose towers we got views of Flodden Field and the +scenes of "Marmion." The venerable Earl of Tankerville (who was a +contemporary and supporter of Sir Robert Peel in Parliament), and his +warm-hearted Countess, who has long been a leader in various Christian +philanthropies, entertained us delightfully within walls that had stood +for six centuries. 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 Conqueror. They are +beautiful white creatures, still too wild to be approached very nearly; +and Sir Edwin Landseer, an old friend of the Earl, has preserved +life-sized portraits of two of them on the walls of the lofty dining +hall of the castle. When the servants, gardeners and other retainers +assembled for morning worship in the chapel, the handsome old Earl +presided at the melodeon, and the singing was from our American Sankey's +hymn-book, a style of music that would have startled the belted knights +and barons bold who worshipped in that chapel five centuries ago. + +While at Dundee, as the guests of Mr. Alexander H. Moncur, the +Ex-provost of the city, I had the satisfaction of preaching in St. +Peters Presbyterian Church, whose pastor, sixty years ago, was that +ideal minister, Robert Murray McCheyne. The Bible from which he +delivered his seraphic sermons was still lying on the pulpit. When I +asked a plain woman, the wife of a weaver, what she could tell me about +his discourses, her remarkable reply was: "It did me more good just to +see Mr. McCheyne walk from the door to his pulpit than to hear any other +man in Dundee." A fine tribute, that, to the power of a Christly +personality. A sermon in shoes is often more eloquent and +soul-convincing than a sermon on paper. I spent a very pleasant hour +with sturdy John Bright, and he told me that he had more relatives +living in America than in England. 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 him. The +separation of Bright and Gladstone on the question of Irish Home Rule +had a certain tragic element of sadness. When I spoke of this to Mr. +Gladstone, the old statesman of Hawarden tenderly replied: "Whenever I +think now of my dear old friend, 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 Dr. Schlieman in his superb house which was filled with the +trophies of his exploration of the Troad and Mycenae. I found him a most +genial man; and he told me that he had never surrendered his American +citizenship, acquired in 1850. 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 chat, or Euripides call with +an invitation to witness a rehearsal of the "Medea." Athens is to me the +most satisfactory of all the restored cities of antiquity, every relic +there is so indisputably genuine. My sunrise view from the Parthenon was +a fair match for a midnight view I once had of Olivet and Gethsemane. + +I cannot close these recollections of foreign friends without making +mention of the late Mr. William Tweedie and his successor the late Mr. +Robert Rae, the efficient Secretaries of the National Temperance League +(of which Archbishop Temple has long been the President). They rendered +me endless acts of kindness, and at their anniversary meetings I met +many of the most prominent advocates of the temperance reform in Great +Britain. It gives me a sharp pang to recall the fact that of all the +leaders whom I met at those meetings, the gallant Sir Wilfred Lawson and +Mr. Caine are almost the only survivors. + +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 birthday. Reluctant as I was to quit the _good Society of the +Seventies_, the transition into four-score was lubricated by so many +loving kindnesses that I scarcely felt a jolt or a jar. During the whole +month of January a steady shower of congratulatory letters poured in +from all parts of the land and from beyond sea, so that I was made to +realize the poet Wordsworth's modest confession: + + "I've heard of hearts unkind kind deeds + With coldness still returning, + Alas, the gratitude of men + Has oftener left me mourning." + +In anticipation of the event Mrs. Houghton, the editor of the _New York +Evangelist_, to which I have been so long a contributor, issued a +"Birthday Number" containing the most kindly expressions from +representatives of different Christian denominations, and officers of +various benevolent societies, and from representative men in secular +affairs, like Mr. Andrew Carnegie, Mr. Jesup, General Woodford, the Hon. +Mr. Coombs, Dr. St. Clair McKelway, and others. On the afternoon of +January 9th, the National Temperance Society honored me with a reception +at their Publication House in New York, which was attended by many +eminent citizens and clergymen, and "honorable women not a few." Letters +and telegrams from many quarters were read and an eloquent address was +pronounced by Mr. Joshua L. Bailey, the President of the Society. The +evening of my birthday, the 10th of January, was spent in our own +home, which was in full bloom with an immense profusion of flowers, and +enriched with beautiful gifts from many generous hearts. For three hours +it was the "joy unfeigned" of my family and myself to grasp again the +warm hands of our faithful Lafayette Avenue flock, and of my Brooklyn +neighbors who had for two-score years gladdened our lives, as the Great +Apostle was gladdened by his loyal friends at Thessalonica. + +[Illustration: DR CUYLER AT 80] + +[From a photograph, January, 1902] + +On Saturday evening the 11th, the "Chi Alpha" Society of New York, the +oldest and most widely known of clerical brotherhoods, gave me their +fraternal greetings at the residence of the venerable Mrs. William E. +Dodge, now blessed with unimpaired vigor, in the golden autumn of a life +protracted beyond four-score and ten. 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 America. Brief speeches were made; a beautiful +"address" was presented, which now, embossed and framed, adorns the +walls of my library. After this the Rev. Charles Lemuel Thompson, an +Ex-moderator of our General Assembly, and now the Secretary of the Board +of Home Missions, 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 King. 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 reprinted. I ought to +add that "Croton" is the name of the river and the reservoir that supply +New York with its wholesome water: + + _OUR CAPTAIN_. + + Fill--fill up your glasses--with Croton! + Fill full to the brim I say, + For the dearest old boy among us, + Who is ten times eight to-day. + + It is three times three and a tiger-- + It is hand to your caps, O men! + For our Captain of captains rejoices, + In his counting of eight times ten. + + Foot square on the bridge and gripping + As steady as fate the wheel, + He has taken the storms to his forehead, + And cheered in the tempest's reel. + + He has seen the green sea monsters + Go writhing down the gale, + But never a hand to slacken, + And never a heart to fail. + + So It's--Ho'--to our Captain dauntless, + Trumpet-tongued and eagle-eyed, + With the spray of the voyage behind him, + And the Pilot by his side. + + Together they sail into sunset-- + Slow down for the harbor bell, + For the flash of the port, and the message + "Well done"---It is well--It is well. + + So it's three times three and a tiger! + Breathe deep for the man we love, + His heart is the heart of a lion, + His soul is the soul of a dove. + + It is--Ho!--to the Captain we honor, + Salute we the man and the day, + On his brow are the snows of December, + In his heart are the bird songs of May. + +The Scripture passage from which I discoursed on the next Sabbath +morning, January 12th, 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 spent. +There are some people who have a pitiful dread of old age. For myself, +instead of it being a matter of sorrow or of pain, it is rather an +occasion of profound joy that God has enabled me to write in my family +record "Four score years." The October of life may be one of the most +fruitful months in all its calendar; and the "Indian summer" its +brightest period when God's sunshine kindles every leaf on the tree +with crimson and golden glories. Faith grows in its tenacity of fibre by +the long continued exercise of testing God, and trusting His promises. +The veteran Christian can turn over the leaves of his well-worn Bible +and say: "This Book has been my daily companion; I know all about this +promise and that one and that other one; for I have tried them for +myself, I have a great pile of cheques which my Heavenly Father has +cashed with gracious blessings." Bunyan brings his Pilgrim, not into a +second infant school where they may sit down in imbecility, or loiter in +idleness; he brings them into Beulah Land, where the birds fill the air +with music; and where they catch glimpses of the Celestial City. They +are drawing nearer to the end of their long journey and beyond that +river, that has no bridge, looms up the New Jerusalem in all its +flashing splendors. + +In a previous chapter I have told the story of our bereavement when God +took three of our precious children to Himself; but to-day we can chant +the twenty-third Psalm, for the overflowing cup of mercies that sweeten +our home, and for the two loving children that are spared to us. Our +eldest daughter, Mary, is the wife of Dr. William S. Cheeseman, an +eminent physician in the beautiful city of Auburn, the County-seat of my +native County of Cayuga. It is the site of one of our principal +Theological Seminaries, from which have graduated many of the foremost +ministers in our Presbyterian denomination. One of the earliest +professors of that institution was the revered Dr. Henry Mills, who +baptized me in my infancy. Auburn is also well known as the residence of +our celebrated statesman William H. Seward, who was Secretary of State +under President Lincoln. 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 papers; and just beyond is the bronze statue reared to +his memory. Our only living son, Theodore Ledyard Cuyler, Jr., the +surviving twin brother of "little Georgie," fills an honorable position +as an officer of the Postal Telegraph and Cable Company in New York. +Since the death of his lovely young wife, several years ago, he has +resided with us, and his only son, "Ledyard," is the joy of his +grandparents' hearts. The sister and niece of my wife complete our +household--and our happiness. + +My journey hence to the sun-setting must be brief at the farthest. I +only ask to live just as long as God has any work for me to do--and not +one moment longer. I do not seek to measure with this hand how high the +sun of life may yet be above the horizon; but when it does go down, may +my closing eyes behold the bright effulgence of Heaven's blessings upon +yonder glorious sanctuary, and its faithful flock. After my long day's +work for the Master is over, and this mortal body has been put to sleep +in yonder beautiful dormitory of "Greenwood" by the sea, I desire that +the inscription that shall be written over my slumbering dust may be, +"The Founder of Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +THE JOYS OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. + +_A Valedictory Discourse Delivered to the Lafayette Avenue Church, +April_ 6, 1890. + + +I invite your attention this morning to the nineteenth and twentieth +verses of the second chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Thessalonians: + + "For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? + Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ + at His coming? For ye are our glory and joy." + +These words were written by the most remarkable man in the annals of the +Christian Church. Great interest is attached to them from the fact that +they are part of the first inspired epistle that Paul ever wrote. Nay, +more. The letter to the Church of Thessalonica is probably the earliest +as to date of all the books of the New Testament. Paul was then at +Corinth, about fifty-two years old, in the full vigor of his splendid +prime. His spiritual son, Timothy, brings him tidings from the infant +church in Thessalonica, that awakens his solicitude. He yearns to go +and see them, but he cannot; so he determines to write to them; and one +day he lays aside his tent needle, seizes his pen, and, when that pen +touches the papyrus sheet the New Testament begins. The Apostle's great, +warm heart kindles and blazes as he goes on, and at length bursts out in +this impassioned utterance: "Ye are my glory and joy!" + +Paul, I thank thee for a thousand things, but for nothing do I thank +thee more than for that golden sentence. In these thrilling words, the +greatest of Christian pastors, rising above the poverty, homelessness, +and scorn that surrounded him, reaches forth his hand and grasps his +royal diadem. No man shall rob the aged hero of his crown. No chaplet +worn by a Roman conqueror in the hour of his brightest triumph, rivals +the coronal that Pastor Paul sees flashing before his eyes. It is a +crown blazing with stars; every star an immortal soul plucked from the +darkness of sin into the light and liberty of a child of God. Poor, is +he? He is making many rich. Despised is he? He wouldn't change places +with Caesar. Homeless is he? His citizenship is in heaven, where he will +find myriads whom he can meet and say to them: "Ye, ye are my glory and +joy." Sixteen centuries after Paul uttered these words, John Bunyan +re-echoed them when he said: + +"I have counted as if I had goodly buildings in the places where my +spiritual children were born. 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 world, or the lord of all the glory of +the earth without it. He that converteth a sinner from the error of his +ways doth save a soul from death, and they that be wise shall shine as +the brightness of the firmament." + +Now, the great Apostle expressed what every ambassador of Christ +constantly experiences when in the thick of the Master's work. His are +the joys of acquisition. His purse may be scanty, his teaching may be +humble, and the field of his labor may be so obscure that no bulletins +of his achievements are ever proclaimed to an admiring world. +Difficulties may sadden and discouragement bring him to his knees; but I +tell you that obscure, toiling man of God has a joy vouchsafed to him +that a Frederick or a Marlborough never knew on the field of bloody +triumph, or that a Rothschild never dreams of in his mansions of +splendor, nor an Astor with his stores of gold. Every nugget of fresh +truth discovered makes him happier than one who has found golden spoil. +Every attentive auditor is a delight; every look of interest on a human +countenance flashes back to illuminate his own. Above all, when the +tears of penitence course down a cheek and a returning soul is led by +him to the Saviour, there is great joy in heaven over a repentant +wanderer, and a joy in that minister's heart too exquisite to utter. +Then he is repaid in full measure, pressed down, running over into his +bosom. + +Converted souls are jewels in the caskets of faithful parents, teachers +and pastors. They shall flash in the diadem which the Righteous Judge +shall give them in that great day. Ah! it is when an ambassador of +Christ sees an army of young converts and listens to the first +utterances of their new-born love, and when he presides at a communion +table and sees his spiritual off-spring gathered around him, more true +joy that faithful pastor feels than "Caesar with a Senate at his heels." +Rutherford, of Scotland, only voiced the yearnings of every true +pastor's heart when he exclaimed: "Oh, how rich were I if I could obtain +of my Lord the salvation of you all! What a prey had I gotten to have +you all caught in Christ's net. My witness is above, that your heaven +would be the two heavens to me, and the salvation of you all would be +two salvations to me." + +Yet, my beloved people, 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 +it. For very many months my mind was balancing between the pulpit and +the attractions of a legal and political career. A single hour in a +village prayer-meeting turned the scale. But perhaps behind it all a +beloved mother's prayers were moving the mysterious hand that touched +the poised balance, and made souls outweigh silver, and eternity +outweigh time. + +Would that I could lift up my voice this morning in every academy, +college and university on this broad continent. I would say to every +gifted Christian youth, "God and humanity have need of you." He who +redeemed you by His precious blood has a sovereign right to the best +brains and the most persuasive tongues and the highest culture. Why +crowd into the already over-crowded professions? The only occupation in +America that is not overdone is the occupation of serving Jesus Christ +and saving souls. I do not affirm that a Christian cannot serve his +Master in any other sphere or calling than the Gospel ministry, but I do +affirm that the ambition for worldly gains and worldly honors is +sluicing the very heart of God's Church, and drawing out to-day much of +the Church's best blood in their greedy outlets. And I fearlessly +declare that when the most splendid talent has reached the loftiest +round on the ladder of promotion, that round is many rungs lower than a +pulpit in which a consecrated tongue proclaims a living Christianity to +a dying world. What Lord Eldon from the bar, what Webster from the +Senate-chamber, what Sir Walter Scott from the realms of romance, what +Darwin from the field of science, what monarch from Wall Street or +Lombard Street can carry his laurels or his gold up to the judgment seat +and say, "These are my joy and crown?" The laurels and the gold will be +dust--ashes. 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 throne, then he may say, "What is my hope, or joy, or crown of +rejoicing. Are not even ye in the presence of Christ at His coming?" + +Good friends, I have told you what aspirations led me to the pulpit as a +place in which to serve my Master; and I thank Christ, the Lord, for +putting me into the ministry. The forty-four years I have spent in that +office have been unspeakably happy. Many a far better man has not been +as happy from causes beyond control. He may have had to contend with +feeble health as I never have; or a despondent temperament, as I never +have; or have struggled to maintain a large household on a slender +purse; he may have been placed in a stubborn field, where the Gospel was +shattered to pieces on flinty hearts. From all such trials a kind +Providence has delivered your pastor. + +My ministry began in a very small church. For that I am thankful. Let no +young minister covet a large parish at the outset. The clock that is not +content to strike one will never strike twelve. In that little parish +at Burlington, N.J., I had opportunity for the two most valuable studies +for any minister--God's Book and individual hearts. My next call was to +organize and serve an infant church in Trenton, N.J., and for that I am +thankful. Laying the foundation of a new church affords capital tuition +in spiritual masonry, and the walls of that church have stood firm and +solid for forty years. The crowning mercy of my Trenton ministry was +this, that one Sunday while I was watering the flock, a goodlier vision +than that of Rebecca appeared at the well's mouth, and the sweet +sunshine of that presence has never departed from the pathway of my +life. To this hour the prosaic old capital of New Jersey has a halo of +poetry floating over it, and I never go through it without waving a +benediction from the passing train. + +The next stage of my life's work was a seven years' pastorate of Market +Street Church in the city of New York. To those seven years of hard and +happy labor I look back with joy. The congregation swarmed with young +men, many of whom have risen to prominence in the commercial and +religious life of the great metropolis. The name of Market Street is +graven indelibly on my heart. I rejoice that the quaint old edifice +still stands and welcomes every Sabbath a congregation of landsmen and +of sailors. During the year 1858 occurred the great revival, when a +mighty wind from Heaven filled every house where the people of God were +sitting, and the glorious work of that revival kept many of us busy for +six months, night and day. + +Early in the year 1860 a signal was made to me from this side of the +East River. It came from a brave little band then known as the Park +Presbyterian Church, who had never had any installed pastor. The signal +at first was unheeded; but a higher than human hand seemed to be behind +it, and I had only to obey. That little flock stood like the man of +Macedonia, saying, "Come over and help us," and after I had seen the +vision immediately I decided to come, assuredly concluding that God had +called me to preach the Gospel unto them. + +This morning my memory goes back to that chilly, stormy April Sunday +when my labors began as your first pastor. About two hundred and fifty +people, full of grace and grit, gathered on that Easter morning to see +how God could roll away stones that for two years had blocked their path +with discouragement. My first message many of you remember. It was, "I +determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him +crucified." Of that little company the large majority has departed. Many +of them are among the white-robed that now behold their risen Lord in +glory. Of the seventeen church officers--elders, deacons and +trustees--then in office, who greeted me that day, only four are living, +and of that number only one, Mr. Albion P. Higgins, is now a member of +this congregation. I wonder how many there are here this morning that +gathered before my pulpit on that Easter Sunday thirty years ago? 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 pews. + +(Thirteen people here stood up.) + +God bless you! If it hadn't been for you this ark would never have been +built. + +Ah! we had happy days in that modest chapel. The tempest of civil war +was raging, with Lincoln's steady hand at the helm. We got our share of +the gale; but we set our storm-sails, and every one that could handle +ropes stood at his or her place. Just think of the money contributions +that small church made during the first year of my pastorate--$20,000, +not in paper, but in gold. The little band in that chapel was not only +generous in donations but valiant in spirit, and it was under the +gracious shower of a revival that we removed into this edifice on the +16th of March, 1862. + +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 sentences. In 1863 Mr. William Wickes started a +mission school, which afterward grew into the present Cumberland Street +Church. In 1866 occurred that wonderful work of grace that resulted in +the addition of 320 souls to our membership, one hundred of them heads +of families. As a thank-offering to God for that rich blessing the +Memorial Mission School was established, which was soon organized into +the Memorial Presbyterian Church, now on Seventh Avenue, under the +excellent pastorate of my Brother Nelson. During the winter of 1867 a +conference of gentlemen was held in yonder study which set on foot the +present Classon Avenue Church, where my Brother Chamberlain administers +equally satisfactorily. Olivet Mission was organized in 1874. It will +always be fragrant with the memory of Horace B. Griffing, its first +superintendent. The Cuyler Chapel was opened on Atlantic Avenue in +March, 1886, by our Young People's Association, who are maintaining it +most vigorously. The little Corwin Mission on Myrtle Avenue was +established by a member of the church to perpetuate his name, and is +largely sustained by members of this church. + +Of all the efficient, successful labors of the Lafayette Avenue +Temperance Society, the Women's Home and Foreign Missionary Society, +their Benevolent Society, the Cuyler Mission Band, the Daughters of the +Temple, and other kindred organizations. I have no time or place to +speak this morning. But I must repeat now what I have said in years +past, that the two strong arms of this church are its Sunday School and +its Young People's Association. The former has been kept well up to the +ideal of such an institution. It is that of a training school of young +hearts for this life and for the life to come. God's blessing has +descended upon it like the morning dew. Of the large number of children +that have been enrolled in its classes 730 have been received into +membership with this church alone, and to the profession of faith in +Christ--to say nothing of those who have joined elsewhere. Warmly do I +thank and heartily do I congratulate our beloved brother, Daniel W. +McWilliams, and his faithful group of teachers, and the Superintendent +of the primary department and her group of assistants, on the seal which +God has set upon their loving work. They contemplate the long array of +children whom they have guided to Jesus; and they, too, can exclaim, +"What is our joy or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the Lord?" + +If the Sunday School has rendered good service, so has the well-drilled +and well-watered Young People's Association. The fires of devotion have +never gone out on the altar of their Monday evening gatherings. For +length of days and number of membership combined, probably it surpasses +all similar young people's associations in our country. About three +thousand names have been on its membership roll, and of this number +twelve have set their faces toward the Gospel ministry. Oh, what a +source of joy to me that I leave that association in such a high +condition of vigor and prosperity! No church can languish, no church can +die, while it has plenty of young blood in its veins. + +What has been the outcome of these thirty years of happy pastorate? As +far as the results can be tabulated the following is a brief +summary:--During my pastorate here I have preached about 2,750 +discourses, have delivered a very large number of public addresses in +behalf of Sunday Schools, Young Men's Associations, the temperance +reform, and kindred enterprises for advancing human welfare. I have +officiated at 682 marriages. I have baptized 962 children. The total +number received into the membership of this church during this time has +been 4,223. Of this number 1,920 have united by a confession of their +faith in Jesus Christ. An army, you see, an army of nearly two thousand +souls, have enlisted under the banner of King Jesus, and taken their +"sacramentum," or vow of loyalty, before this pulpit. What is our crown +of rejoicing? Are not even they in the presence of Christ at His +coming? + +It is due to you that I should commend your liberality in gifts to God's +treasury. During these thirty years over $640,000 have been contributed +for ecclesiastical and benevolent purposes, and about $700,000 for the +maintenance of the sanctuary, its worship, and its work. Over a million +and a quarter of dollars have passed through these two channels. The +successive boards of trustees have managed our financial affairs +carefully and efficiently. The architecture of this noble edifice is not +disfigured by any mortgage. I hope it never will be. + +There is one department of ministerial labor that has had a peculiar +attraction to me and afforded me peculiar joy. Pastoral work has always +been my passion. It has been my rule to know everybody in this +congregation, if possible, and seldom have I allowed a day to pass +without a visit to some of your homes. I fancied that you cared more to +have a warm-hearted pastor than a cold-blooded preacher, however +intellectual. To carry out thoroughly a system of personal oversight, to +visit every family, to stand by the sick and dying beds, to put one's +self into sympathy with aching hearts and bereaved households, is a +process that has swallowed up time, and I tell you it has strained the +nerves prodigiously. Costly as the process has been, it has paid. If I +have given sermons to you, I have got sermons from you. The closest tie +that binds us together is that sacred tie that has been wound around the +cribs in your nurseries, the couches in your sick chambers, the chairs +at your fireside, and even the coffins that have borne away your +precious dead. My fondest hope is that however much you may honor and +love my successor in this pulpit, 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 service. + +Here let me bespeak for my successor the most kind and reasonable +allowance as to pastoral labors. Do not expect too much from him. Very +few ministers have the peculiar passion for pastoral service that I have +had; and if Christ's ambassador who shall occupy this pulpit proclaims +faithfully the whole Gospel of God and brings a sympathetic heart to +your houses, do not criticize him unjustly because he may not attempt to +make twenty-five thousand pastoral visits in thirty years. House to +house visitation has only been one hemisphere of the pastor's work. I +have accordingly endeavored to guard the door of yonder study so that I +might give undivided energy to preparation for this pulpit. + +You know, my dear people, how I have preached and what I have preached. +In spite of many interruptions, I have honestly handled each topic as +best I could. The minister that foolishly runs races with himself is +doomed to an early suicide. 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 understand, and have been preached in full +view of the judgment seat. I have aimed to keep this pulpit abreast of +all great moral reforms and human progress, and the majestic marchings +of the kingdom of King Jesus. The preparation of my sermons has been an +unspeakable delight. The manna fell fresh every morning, and it had to +me the sweetness of angels' food. Ah, there are many sharp pangs before +me. None will be sharper than the hour that bids farewell to yonder +blessed and beloved study. For twenty-eight years it has been my daily +home--one of the dearest spots this side of Heaven. From its walls have +looked down upon me the inspiring faces of Chalmers, Charles Wesley, +Spurgeon, Lincoln and Gladstone; Adams, Storrs, Guthrie, Newman Hall, +and my beloved teachers, Charles Hodge and the Alexanders of Princeton. +Thither your infant children have been brought on Sabbath mornings, +awaiting their baptism. Thither your older children have come by +hundreds to converse with me about the welfare of their souls. Thither +have come all the candidates for admission to the fellowship of this +church, and have made there their confession of faith and their +allegiance to Christ. Oh, what blessed interviews with inquirers have +been held there! What sweet and happy fellowship with my successive +bands of helpers, some of whom have joined the general assembly of the +redeemed in glory. That hallowed study has been to me sometimes a Bochim +of tears, and sometimes a Hermon, when the vision was of no man save +Jesus only. And the work there has been a wider one for a far wider +multitude than these walls contain this morning. I have written there +nearly all the hundreds of articles which have gone out through the +religious press, over this country, over Great Britain, over Europe, +over Australia, Canada, India, and New Zealand. During my ministry I +have published about 3,200 of these articles. Many of them have been +gathered into books, many of them translated into Swedish, Spanish, +Dutch, and other foreign tongues. They have made the scratch of a very +humble pen audible to Christendom. The consecrated pen may be more +powerful than the consecrated tongue. I devoutly thank God for having +condescended to use my humble pen to the spread of his Gospel; and I +purpose with His help to spend much of the brief remainder of my life in +preaching His glorious Gospel through the press. + +I am sincerely sorry that the necessities of this hour seem to require +so personal a discourse this morning; but I must hide behind the +example of the great Apostle who gave me my text. Because He reviewed +His ministry among His spiritual children of Thessalonica, I may be +allowed to review my own, too--standing here this morning under such +peculiar circumstances. These thirty years have been to me years of +unbounded joy. Sorrow I have had, when death paid four visits to my +house; but the sorrow taught sympathy with the grief of others. Sins I +have committed--too many of them; your patient love has never cast a +stone. The faults of my ministry have been my own. The successes of my +ministry have been largely due under God, to your co-operation, and, +above all, to the amazing goodness of our Heavenly Father. Looking my +long pastorate squarely in the face, I think I can honestly say that I +have been no man's man; I have never courted the rich, nor wilfully +neglected the poor; I have never blunted the sword of the Spirit lest it +should cut your consciences, or concealed a truth that might save a +soul. In no large church is there a perfect unanimity of tastes as to +preaching. I do not doubt that there are some of you that are quite +ready for the experiment of a new face in this pulpit, and perhaps there +may be some who are lusting after the fat quail of elaborate or +philosophic discourse. For thirty years I have tried to feed you on +"nothing but manna." Whatever the difference of taste, you have always +stood by me, true as steel. This has been your spiritual home; and you +have loved your home, and you have drunk every Sunday from your own +well, and though the water of life has not always been passed up to you +in a richly embossed silver cup, it has drawn up the undiluted Gospel +from the inspired fountain-head. To hear the truth, to heed the truth, +to "back" the truth with prayer and toil, has been the delight of the +stanchest members of this church. Oh, the children of this church are +inexpressibly dear to me! There are hundreds here to-day that never had +any other home, nor ever knew any other pastor. I think I can say that +"every baptism has baptized us into closer fellowship, every marriage +has married us into closer union, every funeral that bore away your +beloved dead, only bound us more strongly to the living." 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 declined; for I long ago determined never to be +pastor of any other than Lafayette Avenue Church. + +What is my joy or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye--ye--in the +presence of Christ at His coming? Why, then, sunder a tie that is bound +to every fibre of my inmost heart? I will answer you frankly. There must +be no concealment or false pretexts between us. In the first place, as +I told you two months ago, I had determined to make my thirtieth +anniversary the terminal point of my present pastorate. I determined not +to outstay my fullest capacity for the enormous work demanded here. The +extent of that demanded work increases every twelve months. The +requirements of preaching twice every Sunday, to visit the vast number +of families directly connected with this church, attending funeral +services, conferring with committees about Christian work of various +kinds, and numberless other duties--all these requirements are +prodigious. Thus far, by the Divine help, I have carried that load. My +health to-day is as firm as usual; and I thank God that such forces of +heart and brain as He has given me are unabated. The chronic catarrh +that long ago muffled my ears to many a strain of sweet music, has never +made me too deaf to hear the sweet accents of your love. 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 down; and there must be no risk run with you or with +myself. I also desire to assist you in transferring this magnificent +vessel to the next pilot whom God shall appoint; and I wish to transfer +it while it is well-manned, well-equipped, and on the clear sea of an +unbroken financial and spiritual prosperity. 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 usefulness. + +For these reasons I present to-day my resignation of this sacred, +precious charge. It is my honest desire and purpose that this day must +terminate my present pastorate. For presenting this resignation I alone +am responsible before God, before this church and before the world. When +you shall have accepted my resignation, the whole responsibility for the +welfare of this beloved church will rest on your shoulders--not on mine. +My earnest prayer is that you may soon be directed to the right man to +be your minister, to one who shall unite all hearts and all hands, and +carry forward the high and holy mission to which God has called you. He +will find in me not a jealous critic, but a hearty ally in everything +that he may regard for the welfare of this church. + +As for myself I do not propose to sit down on the veranda and watch the +sun of life wheel downward in the west. The labors of a pen and of a +ministry at large will afford me no lack of employment. The welfare of +this church is inexpressibly dear to me--nothing is dearer to me this +side of heaven. If, therefore, while this flock remains shepherdless, +and in search of my successor, I can be of actual service to you in +supplying at any time this pulpit or performing pastoral labor, that +service, beloved, shall be performed cheerfully. + +The first thought, the only thought with all of us, is this church, +_this church_, THIS CHURCH. I call no man my friend, you must call no +man your friend that does not stand by the interests of Lafayette Avenue +Church. It is now called to meet a great emergency. For the first time +in twenty-eight years this church is subjected to a severe strain. +During all these years you had very smooth sailing. You have never been +crippled by debt; you have never been distracted with quarrels, and you +have never been without a pastor in your pulpit or your homes when you +needed him. And I suppose no church in Brooklyn has ever been subjected +to less strain than this one. Now you are called upon to face a new +condition of things, perhaps a new danger--certainly a new duty. The +duty overrides the danger. To meet that duty you are strong in numbers. +There are 2,350 names on your church register. Of these many are young +children, many are non-residents who have never asked a dismission to +other churches; but a great army of church members three Sabbaths ago +rose up before that sacramental table. You are strong in a holy harmony. +Let no man, no woman, break the ranks! You are strong in the protection +of that great Shepherd who never resigns and who never grows old. "Lo! I +am with you always! Lo! I am with you always! Lo! I am with you +always!" seems to greet me this morning from every wall of this +sanctuary. I confidently expect to see Lafayette Avenue Church move +steadily forward with unbroken column led by the Captain of our +salvation. All eyes are upon you. The eye that never slumbers or sleeps +is watching over you. If you are all true to conscience, true to your +covenants, true to Christ, the future of this dear church may be as +glorious as its past. And when another thirty years have rolled away, it +may still be a strong tower of the truth on which the smile of God shall +rest like the light of the morning. By as much as you love me, I entreat +you not to sadden my life or break my heart by ever deserting these +walls, or letting the fire of devotion burn down on these sacred altars. + +The hands of the clock warn me to close. This is one of the most trying +hours of my whole life. It is an hour when tears are only endurable by +being rainbowed with the memory of tender mercies and holy joys. When my +feet descend those steps to-day, this will no longer be my pulpit. I +surrender it back before God into your hands. One of my chiefest sorrows +is that I leave some of my beloved hearers out of Christ. Oh, you have +been faithfully warned here, and you have been lovingly invited here; +and once more, as though God did beseech you by me, I implore you in +Christ's name to be reconciled to God. This dear pulpit, whose teachings +are based on the Rock of Ages, will stand long after the lips that now +address you have turned to dust. It will be visible from the judgment +seat; and its witness will be that I determined to know not anything +among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. To-day I write the last +page in the record of thirty bright, happy, Heaven-blessed years among +you. What is written is written. I shall fold up the book and lay it +away with all its many faults; and it will not lose its fragrance while +between its leaves are the pressed flowers of your love. When my closing +eyes shall look on that record for the last time, I hope to discover +there only one name--the name that is above every name, the name of Him +whose glory crowns this Eastern morn with radiant splendor, the name of +Jesus Christ, King of kings, and Lord of lords. And the last words I +utter in this sacred spot are unto Him that loves us and delivers us +from sin with His precious blood; and unto God be all the praise and +thanks and dominion and glory for ever and ever. Amen. + + + + +INDEX. + +A + + +Adams, Dr. William, 201-205. +Albert, Prince, 32. +Alexander, Archibald, 82, 191-3. +Alexander, Dr. James W, 9. +Alexander, Dr. Joseph Addison, 82, 193-5. +Alexander, Stephen, 9. +Allen, Mr. Alexander, 314. +Allison, William J, 121. +American Seamen's Friend Society, 255. +Anderson, Captain James, 146, 149. +Armstrong, Samuel C, 158. +Astor, John Jacob, 273, 275-6. +Aurora, birthplace, I. + +B + + +Bailey, Joshua, 57. +Baillie, Mrs. Joanna, 30-1. +Barnes, Albert, 195. +Batcheler, General, 231. +Beecher, Henry Ward, 150, 152, 213-15, 295. +Beecher, Miss Catherine, 231. +Binney, Thomas, 170-172. +Blair, General Francis P., 10. +Bonar, Dr. Horatius, 40, 42. +Booth, Mrs. Catherine, 265. +Booth, General, 265. +Bowring, Sir John, 39-40. +Bright, John, 27, 134, 316. +Brown, Dr. John, 105, 109, 147. +Brooks, Phillips, 195. +Burns, Robert, 12, 17-19, 26. +Bushnell, Horace, 190-1. +Byron, Lord, 13. + +C + + +Campbell, Thomas, 31. +Carlyle, Thomas, 23-9. +Carnaham, Dr., President of Princeton, 9. +Carnegie, Andrew, 59-60, 275. +Cary, Edward, 301. +Cass, General Lewis, 34. +Channing, Dr. Ellery, 31. +Chauncey, Charles, 63. +Cheeseman, Dr. William, 322. +Chi Alpha Society, 319. +Christian Endeavor (See Young People's Society of, etc.). +Clark, Rev. Francis E., 87, 247, 258. +Comstock, Anthony, 264. +Cook, Joseph, 231. +Cox, Dr. Samuel Hanson, 209-13. +Crosby, Fanny, 43. +Cunningham, Professor, 13. +Cuyler, Benjamin Ledyard, Dr. Cuyler's father, 2; died, 3. +Cuyler, General, 2. +Cuyler, Dr., ancestry, 1, 2; childhood, 3; farm life, 4; early + religious training and reading, 5; preparation for college, + 8; college memories, 9-11; visits England and + France, Wordsworth, Dickens, Carlyle, Mrs. Baillie, + the Young Queen, Napoleon, 12-36; first public address, + 1842, 49, 50; visits Stockholm, 46; delivers his first + address in New York, 54; President National Temperance + Society, 57; views on temperance, 58-59; + chooses the ministry, 61; at Princeton Seminary, 62; + first pastorate, 62, 83; preaches at Saratoga, 64; methods + of preaching, 64-73; changes in pulpit methods, 75-81; + preaches five months at Wyoming Valley, 83, 84; work + in New York, 85, 86; Lafayette Avenue, 1860, 86; + methods of church work, 87-90; first literary contributions, + 93; origin of "Under the Catalpa," 95; extent + of literary labors, 95; first book, 96; inspiration of + "The Empty Crib," 96; inspiration of "God's Light on + Dark Clouds," 97; visits to famous people abroad, + Gladstone, 99-104, Dr. John Brown, 105-109; Dean + Stanley, 109-115; Earl Shaftesbury, 116, 117, interviews + with famous people at home--Irving, 118-121; Whittier, + 121-125; Webster, 125-132; Greeley, 132-137; Civil War, + 138, services to "The Christian Commission," 130; at + Washington, 131; first meeting with Lincoln, 142; to + Europe in 1862, 145-149; at Edinburgh, 146-147; at + Paris, 148; address on Emancipation, 149-150; trip to + Charleston, Fort Sumter, 151; views on pastoral work, + 159-169; British pastors--Binney, 170-72; Hamilton, + 172-3, Guthrie, 175-76; Hall, 177-181; Spurgeon, + 181-86; Duff, 187-89; reminiscences of Princeton Seminary + preachers, 191, reminiscences of famous American + preachers--Phillips Brooks, 190; Horace Bushnell, + 191-2, Archibald Alexander, 191-3; Joseph Addison + Alexander, 193-5; Albert Barnes, 195, Dr. William + B. Sprague, 196-197; Dr. Stephen H. Tyng, 197-200, + Dr. William Adams, 201-5; Samuel Hanson + Cox, 209-13; Henry Ward Beecher, 213-15; Rev. + Charles G. Finney, 216-220; Dr. Benjamin M. + Palmer, 221-223; summering at Saratoga, 224-232; + meets leading Methodists--Bishop Jaynes, Bishop + Simpson, Bishop Peck, etc, 227-8, Bishop Haven, + 229-31; summering at Mohonk, 232; Dr. Schaff, 235; + Dr. McCosh, 237-9; Mr. Smiley, 240; Indian Conferences + at Mohonk, 240; "Arbitration Conference," 240; + letter from President Harrison, 242, preservation of + health, 243, growth of church fellowship and diminution + of sectarianism, 244-9; exchanging pulpits, 246-9, + women in the pulpit--Miss Smiley, 249-50; foreign + missions, 251-254; Young Men's Christian Association, + 255-57; Christian Endeavor Society, 258; missionary + work in New York, 260-268; missionary work in + Brooklyn, 268-272; views on the modern novel, 281-82; + views on the new theology, 285-87; ministry in + Burlington and Trenton, N J, 288, marriage, 289; + his wife, 289-292; Market Street Dutch Reformed + Church of New York, 292-294; calls to various + churches, 292; Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, + 294; Brooklyn, 298; house, 302-303; death of his mother, + 304, death of his daughter, 304-5; celebration of quarter + century of ministry at Lafayette Church, 306; + resignation from the church, 307-09; travels, 314-317; + commemoration of 80th birthday, 317-20, valedictory + sermon, delivered at Lafayette Avenue Church, 325-46. +Cuyler, Theodore Ledyard, Jr., 323. + +D + + +Dayton, Hon. William L, 148. +Delano, Captain Joseph C, 12. +Dickens, Charles, 20-22. +Dix, General, 57. +Dod, Albert B, 9. +Dod, Hon. Amzi, 11. +Dodge, Hon William E, 56, 57, 275. +Dow, Neal, 53-55. +Drummond, Henry, 303. +Duff, Dr. Alexander, 187-89. +Duffield, John T., 10. + +F + + +Faraday, Sir Michael, 10. +Farrar, Archdeacon, 248. +Finney, Rev. Charles G., 76, 216-220. + +G + + +Girard, Stephen, 273. +Gladstone, William E., 99, 104, 272. +Gough, Hon. John B, 51-53. +Gould, Miss Helen M., 251. +Greeley, Horace, 132-137. +Gregg, Rev. Dr. David, 312. +Grellet, Stephen, 121. +Gurney, Mrs. Joseph John, 121. +Guthrie, Dr. Thomas, 175-176. + +H + + +Hackett, Horatio B., 231. +Hall, Rev Newman, 26, 177-181. +Hamilton College, 2 +Hamilton, Dr. James, 172-3 +Harrison, President Benjamin, letter to Dr. Cuyler, 242. +Harvey, Sir George, 107 +Hatfield, Dr. Edward F., 47. +Haven, Bishop, 229-31. +Hayes, President R.B., 235. +Henry, Joseph, 9, 10, 140. +Hodge, Archibald Alexander, 10. +Hodge, Dr. Charles, 82. +Hopkins, Dr. Mark, 57 +Howard, General O.O., 57. +Hoxie, Judge, 151, 152. +Huntington, Daniel, 259 + +I + + +Irving, Washington, 118-121. + +J + + +James, John Angell, 174 +Jaynes, Bishop, 227-8 +Jesup, Morris K., 274 +Judson, Adoniram, 253. + +K + + +Kirk, Rev. Edward N, 73. + +L + + +Ledyard, General Benjamin, Dr. Cuyler's grandfather, 1. +Ledyard, Hon Henry, 34. +Ledyard, Mary Forman, Dr. Cuyler's grandmother, 2. +Lewis, Senator Dixon H., 127. +Lincoln, Abraham, 141-146, 152-157, 229. +Little, Mr., founder of the "Living Age," 205. +Livingstone, David, 174. +Longfellow, Henry Wordsworth, 24. + +M + + +Mandeville, Rev. Gerrit, 8. +Marquand, Frederick, 256. +Mason, Dr. Lowell, 43, 44. +Mathew, Father Theobald, 49-51. +Mathiot, Annie E., Dr. Cuyler's wife, 289. +Melvill, Henry, 170. +Miller, Dr. Samuel, 82. +Moffat, Robert, 174. +Mohonk, 224, 232-42. +Mohonk Lake Mountain House, 232-242. +Montgomery, James, 37-8. +Montgomery, Satan, 38. +Moody, Dwight L., 90-91, 216, 247. +Morrell, Charles Horton, 4. +Morrell, Louise Frances, Dr. Cuyler's mother, 2. +Mott, Richard, 121. +Muhlenberg, Dr. William Augustus, 45-6. +McBurney, Robert, 256. +McChyne, Robert Murray, 315. +McCosh, President of Princeton, 237-9. +McSloane, Bishop Charles P., 247. +McKelway, Dr. St. Clair, 301. +McLaren, Dr. Alexander, 66, 73, 172. +McLean, "Uncle Johnny," 9. + +N + + +Napoleon, Grand Army of, 35. +Napoleon's Tomb, 35-6. +National Temperance Society and Publication House, 55, 57. +Nixon, John T., 10. + +P + + +Palmer, Dr. Benjamin M., 221-223. +Palmer, Dr. Ray, 43-5. +Park, Edwards A., Professor, 209. +Pease, Rev. L.M., 260. +Peck, Bishop, 228 +Phillipe, Louis, 34 +Pierpont, John, 231. +Pratt, Charles, 274 +Prentiss, Mrs. Elizabeth Payson, 47. + +R + + +Raffles, Dr., 12. +Renwick, Professor, 13. +Robertson, Frederick W., 73. +Rockefeller, John D., 274. +Roe, Robert, 317 + +S + + +Salvation Army, 265-7 +Sankey, Ira D., 91 +Saratoga, 224-26 +Schaff, Dr. Philip, 235-7. +Schlieman, Dr., 316 +Scott, Sir Walter, 16, 17, 30. +Scudder, Edward W., 10. +Seward, William H., 323. +Shaftesbury, Earl, 116-117. +Sloane, Rev. M., 42 +Simpson, Bishop Matthew, 228-9 +Smiley, Mr., Indian and Arbitration Conferences, 240-1. +Smiley, Miss Sara F., 249. +Smith, Dr. Samuel F., 46-47 +Society for the Prevention of Vice, 264, +Southey, Robert, 16. +Spalding, Levi, 251. +Spurgeon, Charles H., 181-86. +Spurgeon, Rev. Thomas, 186 +Sprague, Dr. William B., 196-197. +Stanley, Dean, 109-115 +Stitt, Dr., 255. +Storrs, Dr. Richard S., 205-209 +Strong's, Dr., Remedial Institute at Saratoga, 227. + +T + + +Temple, Dr., 248 +Thompson, Rev. Charles Lemuel, 319. +Torrey, Dr. John, 9 +Tweedie, William, 317 +Tyng, Dr. Stephen H., 197-200 + +V + + +Valedictory Sermon, 325-46 +Van Buren, President Martin, 231. +Van Rensellaer, 93 +Vickers, Mr., 37-8 +Victoria, Queen, 32-4. + +W + + +Walker, Richard W., 10 +Washington, Booker T., 158 +Webster, Daniel, 125-132 +Wells College, 3 +Whitcomb, Miss Mary, 51. +Whittier, John G., 121-125. +Wilberforce, William, 22 +Willard, Frances E., 231. +Williams, Sir George, 116, 246-7, 255. +Wilson, Professor, "Christopher North," 13. +Wilson, Vice-President Henry, 231. +Woman's Christian Temperance Union, 60. +Wordsworth, William, 13-16. + +Y + + +Young Men's Christian Association, 246-7, 255. +Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor, 246-7 + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Recollections of a Long Life +by Theodore Ledyard Cuyler + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RECOLLECTIONS OF A LONG LIFE *** + +***** This file should be named 12549.txt or 12549.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/5/4/12549/ + +Produced by PG Distributed Proofreaders. 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