Letters During the Remainder of His Pastorate in New York, 1857–1859
NEW YORK, October 26, 1857.
THROUGH the tender mercy of our God, we reached the wharf about 5 yesterday, and home about 7. Our passage was short for a return, being eleven days, but very rough and even stormy, so that our wheels were all but denuded of paddleboxes on our arrival. The “Baltic” and her captain (Comstock) are all that could be wished. The vessel is staunch and noble, and I have seldom had more sublime emotions, than when standing on the high poop I watched the plunge of the fore-parts, and the succeeding rise, with a spring and buoyancy of motion that seemed to mock at the roaring ocean. I caused our little boy to observe how apt is the Bible figure Ps. xciii. I preached yesterday, the first time since May. How deeply grateful we ought to be, that during six months’ absence, no case of indisposition has occurred in our circle here; all alive and all well; let the God of our salvation be exalted! I was everywhere a most reluctant traveller, and drew a lengthening chain. My own general health is almost robust; and yet I have the same catch in my throat. I had not seen an American paper for a long time, and very seldom at all, so that I had much to learn on my arrival. In our ship’s company of 160, we had some pleasing characters. A Major Copeland of Boston was with us, returning from Sebastopol, (which he calls Say’-vast-o’ple,) after contracting to raise the sunken ships. I knew of only one Englishman. Major Win.
1 This was in the ship. The text was 1 Peter iv. 3. On the next Lord’s day (Nov. 1) he preached to his own congregation, at both services, from Habakkuk iii. 17, 18.
Preston of S. C. was also a passenger. Beyond all expectation, our boys were waiting us, one having come from Princeton, and the other from Freehold. On looking at the papers, I find my self sadly behindhand, and in church-matters quite unable to enter into the spirit of the fight. Say some words of sincere kindness from us both to our A. friends. I do not know whether they got any account of my very delightful visit to their kinsman, the Rev. Charles Livingston, rector of St. Lawrence’s, Ventnor Cove, Isle of Wight, one of the best men I saw during my exile. He is rather proud of his North River connexions, and asked numerous questions about them. Several deaths have occurred during the six months; among them were Mr. Rufus Davenport, perhaps our oldest man, and Mr. James Struthers, who was an elder elect, and so far as human judgment goes, -one of the most spiritual Christians in our church. The people have generally returned, and are in a promising state, as to attendance; I even hope for more, as there is a marked reviving of religious interest during the six months of our absence. It will take me some days to get the heavy roll of the ship out of my brain; I don’t remember ever to have felt it so much. Paix U soil!
NEW YORK, November 3, 1857.
I am glad you think of coming this way. After fast-day, preparatory lecture and communion, (next Sabbath,) I shall feel a little more ease of mind than now. I hitched at once into the old rut, wrote two full sermons last week, and have been hard at visiting ever since my return. I am fleshier than need be, and harder than my wont, having roughed it in all weathers, and borne twice as much fatigue as in ’51; but the ring of irritation, phlegm, and strangle in my pipes remains much as before; I mean D. v. to speak, &c., exactly as if it wasn’t there, till some thing decisive stops me.
November 4th. — Good democratic turn in the election here. The new law, prescribing glass globes for the ballots, and forbidding ticket-booths within 150 yards, has wrought much quiet; yet our plebs is very much in ferment. London amazed me more than ever by its size, being a sort of world. People of one part have no knowledge of people in another. This, how ever, is much the case in New York. To-day my walk lay by the intersection of 4th and 10th streets; I suppose thousands would be surprised to hear that these parallels meet.
The clergy here seem all to be in -good case, notwithstanding complaints of hard work. In Scotland, and I suppose in England too, the dinner-institution, always at six, when work is over, with the free, hearty converse of numerous friends, non sine Baccho, tends to give a corpulency and a crimson, which make American clerks seem slim in comparison. Pastoral visiting in the cities is less practised’ than with us, but elders’ visiting much more. Deacons were nearly obsolete at the Disruption; the Free Church has made a point of reviving them, but the Kirk remains as before, and many in the United Presbyterian Church formally rejected them as needless. At baptisms, the fathers stand in a row, before the minister; the mothers sit in some neighbouring pew; the children are kept behind the pulpit-stair, or in a room hard by, till the moment of affusion. Very sensibly, a napkin hangs over the rail. The above is an induction from two particulars. The reading of sermons has greatly increased among the Scotch, and greatly decreased among the Evangelicals in England. Sitting in prayer is all but universal among the Dissenters, and widely prevalent in the Church, though under pretence of kneeling. In Scotland, the prayer after sermon is usually as long as the one before, dwelling on intercession, &c.
NEW YORK, November 16, 1857.
Lonesome, indeed, is this habitation, as my wife and children arc in the Jerseys, and the dreary easterly rain makes egress undesirable for sore throat folks. Natheless, I have spent most of the day abroad, as the arrears of visits (occasioned by my absence) to cases of trouble are very large. If I had received your queries anent Maidenhead during my first and longest sojourn in London-town, I think I should have run down to see it, as many trains go every day; it is 22^- miles W., up the Thames, from London 27 by railway, right bank, in Berkshire, and in 1851 had 3,607 population. It is partly in Bray parish, (vide Vicar of ditto,) and partly in Cookham, and is reached by the Great Western Railway. The living is in diocess of Oxon. It is one long street, neat, paved, and like all English towns of thrift, lighted with gas; it is not exactly on the river bank, being on the Bath Road. It used to be called South Ealington, and between the bridge and town you find a relic of antiquity in almshouses for eight poor men and their wives. The aforementioned bridge has seven stone arches, and three smaller arches of brick at each end. The railway crosses Thames at Maidenhead, by a magnificent viaduct. The market is on Wednesday, chiefly for corn. The scenery just above, is beautiful. Near are Clicfden, seat of the Marquis of Stafford,
1 What follows was in answer to inquii’ies I made of him, (for the history of the Trenton church,) as to the town in England from winch the old name of the present village of Lawrenceville was taken. VOL. II. 12* and Taplow Court, seat of the Earl of Orkney. At the Grey hound Inn, Charles I. took leave of his family. Shortly before arriving at Maidenhead, you pass Salt Hill, famous for the Eton Montem, which was abolished in 184$, and after clearing the town, you go through Maidenhead Thicket. I ought to say MaidenAi/ie is the transition-name; liyth or hyd, as a termination, denoting a landing, or accessible bank. My nearest approach was at Windsor and Eton, and I dare say I saw it in both visits from the top of Windsor Castle. Of all these towns and villages in the valley of the Thames, the same general observations will hold good; they are in summer embowered in green, with a moist delicate look about trees and herbage, which strikes an American as peculiarly enchanting; and though all the trees are plantations, they are so dexterously placed, and often so ancient and cherished, that the full, round “bourgeoning” of their heads affords a noble relief to peeping towers and spires. The old towns, if irregular, are romantic and quaint, and you see numerous buildings of which the pattern at least is as old as the Conquest. Instead of Ealington, I note that some give Arlington as the former name. In the 26 of Edward III. it was, nevertheless, incorporated by the name of the “Fraternity or Guild of the Brothers and Sisters of Maiden Hithe” When coaching or riding were the modes of locomotion on this great highway between London and Bristol, Maidenhead-thicket was infested by footpads. The story of the Vicar of Bray (between Maidenhead and Windsor) is found in an old song, and in Fuller; he changed his religion four times regno Henry VIII., Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I., living and dying “Vicar of Bray.” (For above valuable facts, we are indebted to Black’s Picturesque Tourist in England; Knight’s Geogr. of Brit. Empire; and Hughson’s London and Neighbourhood, 1808, 6 vols. 8vo.)
I continue to cough, and begin to think I shall as long as I preach, yet I am well up in colour, fat and paunch, eat well, drink kindly, sleep so-so, and altogether am in good case to retire on a pension, turn president, go to Congress, or negotiate a loan in Europe.
NEW YORK, December 14, 1857.
I scarcely recover from the stunning effect of the tidings. In such cases the mind falls back on former impressions, and I find my ties with the Doctor closer than I had thought. I knew him as a child, and then on, during many years, including my
1 Of the sudden death of our mutual friend, one of the ciders of the Trenton church, Dr. Francis A. Ewing, several times mentioned in the first volume.
residence in Trenton. His early religious experience was revealed to me in detail.
NEW YORK, January 1, 1858.
I and we wish thee and thine a happy New Year in every high and good sense. There were sixty murders and one hanging in this city in 1857. My motto text is: “Thy kingdom come.” I have been reading a lately found account of Bossuet’s last, days, by his private secretary. It appears that &>r years the Bible was his chief study. His secretary read the gospel of John again and again to him, and the seventeenth chapter sixty times, when the bishop was on his death-bed.
Lying, stealing and bribery, perjury, covetousness and rapine, make things sometimes look to me like some prophetic tableaux.
The churches are using terrible blast-bellows to get up
artificial heat in our city and neighbourhood. Our light materials catch, and I am often anxious in the attempt to hold on our regular way. I know twenty young people, whom I could foment into any given amount of excitement in two weeks. What amazes me is, that the men who apply these methods, at set times, are at other times as little raised above worldly thoughts and deeds as common folks.
NEW YORK, February 5, 1858.
Yesterday I was invited to survey a clerical class of gymnasts, beating the air, &c., under Prof. Langdon, an Englishman. There were seven, viz., Drs. Hutton, Hitchcock, IT. Smith, Chambers, Cook, Field and Ganz. It was funny; coats off, and all together, sometimes so — sometimes so. [Here were outline sketches of the postures.] Part of it would have answered Spurgeon’s description of a male dance. They laboured (as the Shakers say) for an hour: it was evidently fine exercise. A blind woman is playing the fiddle very well in the streets; we saw one lead an orchestra in Switzerland. It is dreadful to observe, after all our glorying contrast of Protestant with Catholic countries, how deep is the popular degradation of London and Edinburgh. Pauperism in our own cities is becoming an institution. The number of books in France on the subject is amazing. If Col well [page 166] had given us what he knows in this department of literature, without his crotchets, he would have done great service. I am in great doubt whether the doctrine against casual alms (e. g. at the door) is not sacrificing plain scripture to doubtful theories of economic science.
1 He afterwards himself practised the “Langdonics.”
NEW YORK, March 1, 1858.
March comes in like a wet, half-grown lamb. I record with a sense of dependence that the last sign of my cough has left me for about three weeks, and that I am more fleshy. An undue and irregular beating of the heart, though lessened, remains. I am nearly fifty-four years old, (March 13.) In the serious retrospect of life, I see nothing so dark as my sins; nor did they ever seem more hateful. We admit seven on examination, and eight on certificate. Preaching is assuming a more prominent place than heretofore. A great danger is lest a go-ahead, joyous, auction-like, unreverent elation take possession of the [daily] prayer-meetings. Up town this has been very much avoided by the lead wrhich ministers have taken. Did I write of visits I am paying every day or two to the Roman Catholic Hospital of St. Vincent de Paul? A young medical student, a pay-patient, is there recovering from typhoid fever, and was baptized by me. There are twelve sisters of charity, and 120 beds. This young man has been nursed in the best manner conceivable. I have seen five or six of the ladies, including the superior. They have treated me with a very graceful courtesy, and are altogether a winning generation. The tidings of the revival on every side certainly tends to set people a-thinking about their souls; which is a point gained. I feel it overshadowing my own mind, and opening ways of address to the careless, as well as shutting me up to the most important class of subjects.
NEW YORK, April 2, 1858.
I have generally discredited people who say they have no time to write, but lately I have been tempted to plead that excuse. Though I have aimed to keep down and regulate excitement among us, and have had no additional service but an exhortation on Monday to such as seek instruction on points connected with conversion, I perceive such a degree of inquiry as has never met me in my ministry. The number of declared inquirers is not more than twenty-five, and most of these have dates a good way back; but the feelings of communicants and the indescribable tone of assemblies, are new to me. From the start I have held myself ready to adapt measures to emerging demands; I how ever feel glad I have pursued the repressive method; which, by
1 About this time he wrote “The Revival and its Lessons,” a series of eleven tracts, published by Randolph. A large number of these were distributed at the police stations. The one addressed to firemen was sent to each of the engine houses in sufficient number to furnish a copy to each member of the department. A late Edinburgh paper advei’tises the fifth thousand of the “Revival Lessons.” See page 237.
the way, has lost me sundry good opinions even among my own flock. Study I cannot, being run down by persons, in any of whom I never knew, in search of counsel. The uptown prayer-meetings are very sober and edifying. I am told that the general tendency in all is to increased decorum. The openness of thousands to doctrine, reproof, &c., is undeniable. Our lecture is crowded unendurably — many going away. The publisher of Spurgeon’s sermons, says he has sold a hundred thousand. All booksellers agree, that while the general trade is down, they never sold so many religious books. You may rest assured that there is a great awakening among us, of which not one word gets into the papers; and that there are meetings of great size, as free from irreverence as any you ever saw. I have never seen sacramental seasons more tender and still than some meetings held daily in churches in our part of town. The best token I have seen of revival was our meeting of Presbytery. I never was at such a one. Brethren seemed flowing together in love, and reported a great increase of attention in all their churches — and this within a very few days. The inquiring condition among ourselves is strange, and all but universal; God grant it may be continued, or exchanged for true grace in them all.
We are just setting up a daily (nightly) prayer-meeting in our Mission Chapel for the poor, (really not nominally.) It is superintended by a Committee of about ten leading gentlemen, under sanction of the session. Among the numerous cases of persons seeking me as pastor, most of the inquirers have been inquiring long. Numbers are often given rashly; no man knows how many are convinced; perhaps thirty such are known to me; I lay little stress on registration in this matter, and deprecate publicity. I have found it a good way to appoint a certain hour every day, for persons willing to be talked with. Never have 1 felt so much the need of plain elementary instruction as to the simplest matters in religion. The greater the excitements around us, the more I see the absolute necessity of knowledge. People come to me, who have not even the meaning of justification.
NEW YORK, April 15, 1858.
The attendance on the union meetings here is not lessened. Last week the meeting, which embraces Potts, Van Zandt, Hutton, Prentice, A. D. Smith, &c., was at our church. The house was filled. Every day but one it was as solemn and tender as most, communion seasons. Constant attendance for weeks leaves my judgnient unaltered, that it is bad to throw the meeting open for whomsoever to speak and pray.
NEW YORK, April 29, 1858.
While it is in my mind I will jot down something about Finixey, whom I heard last night at Cheever’s. Assembly mid “clling. F. looks sound and well, but, of course, older. He preaches in spectacles, and with a” brief,” which he mentions: “my little brief, here.” Manner much subdued. Voice ringing and capital, but with Yankee twang and nasality. Perfectly colloquial and lawyerlike; avoiding every big word, and as plain as any one could be talking to children. Says the same thing over and over and over, sometimes pausing between, with a singular effect on attention and memory. Doctrinal and argumentative, but not hortatory; with numerous anecdotes and illustrations. Text was: “This is the record,” &c. His sermon (exceptis excipiendis) might have been preached by the Erskines or McCheyne. It was all about Christ and believing. E. //., “All you have to do is to believe” “There is the record: God has given his Son.” “He says not ‘I will give so and so, if you do so, &c.,’ but God hath given” “You are all looking inward for feelings and experience, before believing. Believe first. Believe the record. Then you will have feelings.” Figure: A New York beggar. Steamer bring news of a great donation to him; £10,000. Certificate of deposit in Wall St. put in his hands. But he does not believe it. * I am no rich man; rich men have fine clothes, money, coach and horses, my experience is all the other way.’ ““Belief of the record brings soul into union with Christ, and experience ensues.” He was able and tremendous against infidels. The interest, though intellectual, was intense. I find his plan and all the details graven in my memory. He keeps up the obsolete custom of an Inquiry Meeting, after sermon.
Seriousness prevails among us. I have had no extra meetings, except four exhortations on doctrines connected with conversion, &c. The best means I have alighted on is an hour given out to receive persons seeking direction every day. This has brought many, and some very often; and the interviews have been sometimes long and always private. I expect to take in on examination more than thirty-five, and less than fifty. The daily prayer-meetings are unabated in interest. Long attendance in no degree reconciles me to the license given to A B or C, to teach or pray; nor to the advertisements requesting prayer. The presence of numerous ministers in fraternity, and their frequent remarks and expositions, produce a good impression.
NEW YORK, May 7, 1858. I am on the Committee of Examination of the Senior Class in Princeton,1 and expect to go thither on Tuesday. During that sojourn I wish to run down for an hour or so to your metropolis. I feel it almost necessary to interrupt the tension of thought and feeling. Our Session has admitted fifty-seven on examination, and four on certificate.2 The majority are persons with whom 1 have been dealing for years.3 I know of no abatcmentTri religious interest. ‘The noon-day prayer-meeting (this week in the 1st Church) was crowded. There must have been twenty ministers yesterday; still, solemn, and tender; more like a communion than a prayer-meeting.
May 10. — The whole lower floor of our church was filled with communicants yesterday. Dabney’s sermon (by appointment of the Board of Foreign Missions) was a marvellous one, for logic, weight, and scholarship. Mary S., one of the loveliest of our new converts, died on the morning of the communion.
NEW YORK, May 19, 1858
Last night [Tuesday] I concluded my series on Acts; sixty-eight lectures. I have never put any one in my place, and never substituted any other passage. The attendance has constantly increased. In no instance have I ever penned a line in preparation for them. In the latter parts I have been unspeakably aided by Addison’s Commentary. Professor M. is here under medical care, but one of those cases religiously which refresh the soul. A Jeffersonian-infidel, then a Channing-Unitarian, now I doubt not (though he doubts) a childlike Christian. He is a silverhaired old gentleman, of the true school.
I have no plans for the summer. My brain needs rest. Spurgeon’s fourth volume shows improvement. The selection is made here, out of the “Pulpit,” wThich contains all he ever utters. He preaches out of doors everywhere but in London, where he fears the tumultuous consequences.
NEW YORK, May 26, 1858.
In three days I have had three funerals. One was our penultimate African, set. 97^. Funeral in Black church. Sang four verses of a Long Metre to “China,” [Common Metre.] The entire congregation effected synalsepha and ecthlipsis of the
1 In 1851 he was elected a trustee of the College of New Jersey. Thus his name stands on the catalogue as a student, tutor, professor, and trustee.
2 The whole number of new communicants received in the years 1858-’9, was 125 on examination; 32 on certificate. These numbers include those who worshipped at the Mission Chapel.
3 Among those who came to their first communion on this occasion, Dr Alexander had the happiness of receiving one of his sons. Another son had lately received his license as a probationer for tho ministry.
redundant syllables with great skill, and the singing was delightful. The General Assembly dissolved on Tuesday. The impression on New Orleans was favourable. A young Cuban Las just called to get advice about religion, previously to his starting for Paris, where he will learn physic. Great numbers must have their views of religion modified by residence here. I fear, how ever, often with skeptical results. The Cesarean simplicity of Thiers’s histories increases as he goes on. What point-blank lying he convicts Napoleon of!
NEW YORK, June 7, 1858.
Having passed through a winter of unexampled employment writh perfect health, I am’ seized with a severe cough upon the accession of summer. A conspiracy was detected yesterday of the “Forty Thieves,” East River Mohocks, to break up a mission school by sending rowdies to make a noise, and then having a gang without. The captain of the police had wind of this, and placed the entire force of the ward in the station-house, and undress detectives in every neighbouring lot and resort; so they were dispersed.
P.’s discourse at pleased numbers, not including” P. P.
of this Parish.” His speech was commonplaces garnished with sophomore rhetoric; no method; no force, except in terms; no tincture of letters, and every here and there a demagogical lugging in of the dear demos, and their wrongs at the hands of science, &c. It was well delivered.
Henry returned to-day from a very useful trip to the extreme North, where he has been fly-fishing in Moosehead Lake. Even after Adirondack and Lake Superior, he gives these mountains and lakes the palm. He lay out, i. e. in birch shanties, five nights, and brought home (with young Auchincloss) eighty pounds of trout in ice. The largest brook-trout was three pounds.
NEW YORK, July 10, 1858
Addison is somewhere in town; but he takes his carpet-bag and determines during his walk whether and whither he shall go. During his vacation he is all the time moving. My congregation is almost all gone, but the church will not be closed. Samuel’s and my flock will lie down together. We shall to morrow receive one on certificate, and sixteen on examination. When will an American Statesman furnish three such volumes, as those of Gladstone on Homer? 1 Herodotus is also coming
1 “Studies in Homer and the Homeric Age,” by the Hon. W. E. Gladstone, member of Parliament for Oxford University, and Chancellor of the Exchequer.
out, under the Rawlinsons, with all the elucidations of Egypt arid Nineveh. The sea-breeze has made the evenings and nights perfectly comfortable all this month, though the days were broil ing a fortnight ago.
PRINCETON, August 9, 1858.
Affairs at the Branch went on much as usual after your exit. I preached at Redbank; a very nice little church. I have not, for a long time, seen so much talking and laughing in church. Religious revival has not much visited that country.
During our period of epistolary commerce, now = x-f2 years, no event has occurred so startling as the Oceanic-cable. I am stupefied. Yet, after all, the practical results may be less momentous than is said. I hope V. R. ‘will send a religious sentiment, for it will be in every one’s mouth. Still more do I pray that it may augur and promote everlasting peace in the English-speaking world.2
Weary, weary, am I of these [theological] controversies de lana caprina. I have a peculiar position; being in favour of strict subscription, but to a very short creed. If at any time you would like to inspect the views of the Plymouth Brethren, or Darby ites, I can lend you some able and pleasing tracts of theirs. Gosse, the naturalist, and Tragelles, the biblical critic, belong to them.
NEW YORK, September 7, 1858.
Almost for the first time in our lives, we old folks are Darbyand-Joan-ing it at home, without any progeny. It happens, without plan, that all our young are at Princeton. I stayed at Saratoga, after I had become more than conviva satur. The Daily prayer-meetings prevail there; and, from the great conflux of clergy and laity, the good and evil of that institution are very prominent. I met there Drs. Woodbridge of Hadley, Bullock of Kentucky, Eowler of Utica, Parker of China, Worcester of Salem, Cook of Boston, Magoon of Albany, Ludlow of Po’kecpsie, Chauncey of Highbridge, Buddington of Brooklyn, and Cleaveland of New Haven. At our house lodged, the gambler
of New York, McCormick of the reaping machine, and Christy of the Minstrelsy. The last is a well-behaved, grave-looking man, who drives a pair of milk-white Arabian horses, the gift of
1 The correspondents met, during this month, at Long Branch.
2 The Queen’s Message was a mere congratulation upon “the successful completion of the great international work;” but the English directors of the company had added to their magnetic announcement of the supposed union of the two countries by telegraph, the quotation: “Glory to God in the highest: on earth peace: good will toward men.”
some potentate to our President. I have been very well. Our church is very thin, most of the hearers being strangers. We have been very much stirred up and entertained lately, by the visit and speeches of Jno. McGregor, Esq., of London, on the Open-air-preaching, ragged-schools, and other philanthropies of England. He is a barrister of the Middle Temple, a downright, rapid, witty, merry speaker, whose description of low life in London arid the means of dealing with it, was sometimes almost in the Dickens vein. It appears from his statements, that hundreds of open-air discourses are delivered simultaneously in London, by laymen, who do not sing, or pray, or even take off the hat. He lays great stress on all these particulars. Has himself spoken about five hours every Sunday, for several years. From his own mode, and the incidental specimens, these discourses, in the endeavour to gain attention, are in great danger of losing all reverence, tenderness, and unction. They are, how ever, a good deal like Latimer’s preachings at Paul’s Cross. Many of the plans would require great modification for America, in regard to such differences as these: the immense over-peopling of Britain, the homogeneousness of the upper and lower classes as to nation, all being English, (and this applies to all such efforts as “Hearts and Hands,”)1 and the certain and complete protection afforded by London police. Yet his appeals were awakening in a high degree. After I am dead and gone, I feel sure our cities will have large and elegant free churches. I would not object to sumptuousness, if it went to elevate, solace, and enrich the poor. Trench’s book on the authorized version is delightful. Our communion is coming on, with only three on examination. My volume of sermons is nearly printed, but will not be out I suppose, before November.2 I have never sent a book to press with as little self-gratulation. “What a purgatorial spot is Staten Island, “where every prospect pleases, and only man is vile.” 3 The governor fulminates on paper, but I do not see what good will come of it. The Bench, which used to be our resource when the populace was corrupt, now lets the ringleaders slip through. I have little hope even of tardy justice in the way of mulct. I have been halting on one foot several weeks; perhaps sprain — perhaps rheumatism — I guess no further. My brother’s East River mission school has grown entirely out of their accommodations. A number of the most prominent children, who sing hymns
1 A recent book on duties to the humbler classes.
2 “Discourses on Common Topics of Christian Faith and Practice,” published by Scribner.
3 The allusion is to the repeated burning of buildings in the course of erection for a public hospital for contagious diseases.
about Jesus, are Israelites. I heard them sing the ditty, “Where, oh where are the Hebrew children?”
I most earnestly wish that these frequent prayer-meetings, which have now grown into regular feasts-and fasts, could have infused into them some scriptural instruction.
NEW YORK, October 7, 1858.
South [Sermons] has always been a stand-by of mine; a powerful accuser, even to gall, and as un-Christlike in temper as if no gospel had ever appeared. By an association of contraries, I think of A. N. Groves, a Plymouth-ist, a missionary on his own hook, whose life is out by Nisteel. I do not think I ever came across a holier, lovelier, less worldly person. I do not think I ever was so much rebuked by a human composition. We admit twenty -two on examination, from Mr. Rowell’s Mission work; two Germans, three Dutch, three English, the rest Scotch and Irish; all promising, all respectable working-folk. He must have gathered some sixty thus. I think J. A. A. has excelled in his commentary on Mark. I await completion, before I make a sermon out of the cable. Our sham Crystal-Palace is no more. The greatest loss [by its destruction] is probably that of poor inventors. No wonder ships may burn, when a building of iron and glass is consumed, with a hundred workmen and two thousand visiters in it, a reservoir next-door, and crack fire-engines all ready inside.
NEW YORK, November 23, 1858.
The weather is dismal. On Sunday night it seemed very much against our Opera-house service; but the door-keeper estimates the attendance at 3,000.2 No doubt, on a clear night, the applicants will be 6,000. Numbers sat in the lobbies and saloons, of the very class who are never seen in church. The collection covered the whole expense, with 15 per cent. over. I wish I could see a free church to hold just as many, and as easy to speak in. Our fault-finders, however, who spy the evil in all plans of others, and suggest none of their own, find objection to this night-meeting also. Carlyle’s book3 is very funny in parts, but as a whole is as unreadable as a bill in chancery. The daily prayer-meetings down town keep up with great spirit, having an influx of strangers; our uptown ones have no
1 Several clergymen had preached and printed discourses on the Ocean Telegraph, upon its first promise of successful operation.
>J “The Academy of Music” was opened on the evening of November 21st for a series of religious services. Dr. Alexander preached on that occasion from Rev. xxii. 17.
3 “Frederick the Great.”
revival character, but simply the grave and occasionally tender character of an ordinary large meeting of Christians. Sawp er’s translation reads like a travesty: “And after breakfast Jesus says to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you you love me? And Simon replied, Yes, Lord, you know that I am your friend.” 3Kai/SaAi£erai is always rendered “offended with me,” &c. The tendency in our churches here is to gather enormously in a few favourite spots. I have never succeeded in getting a single man to leave us, for the purpose of building up weak churches, and I have had every occasion to ask it and press it. As population moves up, each of the lower churches in its turn dwindles. It is just the same with the Baptists and Methodists. The old John street incunabula cannot be cited as an exception, as that house is kept as a sort of relic. The Episcopalians arc the principal free-churches, since the Methodists went over so largely to pewsyism. I observed in London that the parish system does not prevent this evil in towns; the great throngs being generally at some newly erected shrine.
NEW YORK, January 4, 1859.
I wish you and yours a happy New Year. Ours always begins laboriously; 1 and as it came in on Saturday, there was not much rest. My reins, by occasional suffering, instruct me, with regard to weakness and mortality; and at this moment I am ailing — though unusually wTell in general health. I read a MjS. by a Liberian minister, in which, not content with mentioning their <; ladies,” he speaks of them as “fair ones.” My sentence for 1859 is: “God, my exceeding joy;” Hebrew, “the gladness of my joy;” Greek and Vulgate, “the gladdener of my youth;” French (of Ostervald, giving the force of Vx) “le Dieu fort de ma joie et de mon ravissement.” May He be such to us all! I have just read 200 MS. pages of a journal kept by Williams, secretary of the China legation, during all the proceedings which resulted in the famous treaty. Thirty-two vessels were there. One is led to pity the poor Chinese; and W., as a missionary, is very much on their side. They were, as you know, very near Peking; in the Peiho River, 40° N. He speaks of the British as selfish and surly, and is very severe upon the opium matter. Our negotiations were materially furthered by the wisdom, kindness, and peaceful tendencies of the Russian ambassador, Count Poutiatine. Williams thinks China wilt at once be flooded by Jesuits from France. They number their Catholic natives at 800,000. He also thinks it doubtful whether
1 Alluding to the custom of general calls on New Year’s day.
Protestant missions will be greatly benefited. The timidity of the people, in their greatest masses, is made more striking than ever. Their forts at the mouth of the river, were demolished almost instanter, and 3,100 were slain.
NEW YORK, February 11, 1859.
I have just come in from our Mission Chapel, where nineteen have been admitted on examination, making nearly 70 in the Chapel, during the year. A very able paper is struggling here, called the “Saturday Press,” a really dignified literary print. Why docs not Everett [in the N. Y. Ledger] give us his reminiscences of Germany, Greece, St. James’s, or even the Socinian pulpit 1
YORK, March 4, 1859.
Mr. Everett is now speaking, [Oration on Washington.] I had an offer of the devotional performance. This part of “ministerial duty has always been very revolting to me. I really miss Walsh,1 and few perhaps do. About six months ago, I sent to the “Journal of Commerce” an article on Walsh, with, inter alia, some account of his “Appeal.” How yearningly one’s thoughts go after the destiny of a soul like his! He had noble, rare moral traits; his patriotism seemed never chilled by expatriation; he was always the American, and of an old time type. Good, worthy, equable, honest Dr. Carnahan is gone; abiit ad plures?
Till your direct testimony came into court, I would have almost made oath to the statement of the preface.3 It has been
1 Mr. Walsh died at Paris, February 7, 1859. Many passages in preceding letters show the high regard in which Dr. Alexander held the literary character of Mr. Walsh. He attributed to the daily reading of the “National Gazette,” while yet a young writer, some of the prominent peculiarities of his own style. Perhaps this influence caused him to sacrifice somewhat of ease and fluency to the exact and classical stateliness demanded by his model. He himself called it (in Walsh) “twists of diction.”
2 Dr. Carnahan died March 2, 1859.
3 I had corrected a statement in the preface of his “Revival Tracts,” which mentioned that the celebrated stanzas by his brother Addison, entitled “The Doomed Man,” inserted in one of the tracts, were then published for the first time with the author’s consent. I informed him that the poem had been sent to me by Addison, and was inserted in the “Sunday School Journal,” (April 5, 1837,) and that the original had a stanza which, at my recommendation, was omitted as being too horrible. It was the sixth, and read thus:
“But angels know the fatal sign,
And tremble at the sight;
And devils trace each livid line
“With desperate delight.”
the common on dit in the family for years; he has talked of himself as “the doomed man” constantly, seeing the reprints, &c. I will try to alter the stereogram.
You doubtless have received the “Prescott Memorial,” and have read the alleged dictum of P. that Robertson’s “style was that of a schoolmistress.” But see Philip the Second, i. 356. “Robertson... recommended ... by a classic elegance of style which has justly given him a preeminence among the historians of the great emperor.” I am, (as I suppose we shall say,)
truthfully yours.
NEW YORK, April 4, 1859.
The signs look like war in Europe; who can estimate the awfulness of such a conjuncture! I find four or five letters from Walsh, chiefly about the Review. The last u Knicker bocker” contains some irreverence to the manes of our quondam friend, Dr. McHenry. My irritation of the larynx has been on me annoyingly for about two weeks. I have, for the first time, to treat a case of spiritualism. A man, well educated, sound health, good habits, strong mind in every other direction; but perfectly hag-ridden by spirits of his wife, his father, and Robert Hall. He sits up sometimes whole nights, writing; or rather his hand is used by the spirits; the character varying with the spirit. He himself is willing to believe it demoniacal possession; but I have not felt clear to take this ground with him. I have had a heavy stroke of indisposition these last few days, and was unable to preach yesterday afternoon. Mr. Jenkins [of Philadelphia] preached last evening [in Academy of Music] with great acceptance; Plumer comes next. A member of my church talks of building a church for some poor congregation in the West.
NEW YORK, April 19, 1859.
For the first time in my life I have been attacked with some thing like chills — now about a fortnight. The beginning was a tremendous shake, which made all quake again; since then, crawls, or whatever be the name of those simulations. During these the feeling of “misery” has been very great. I have spoken to very few persons of it, but since the beginning of the year, I have lost all power in the middle-finger of my right hand. The finger stutters in writing; indeed, I cannot use it at all. Whether this is paralysis I know not, but I regard it as a Divine
1 Editor of the “American Monthly Magazine” in Philadelphia, for which ve had written in 1824.
monition. I am under regular and active treatment. Writing, which was a solace, has become a very burdensome task.
1 On the 2Gth April he wrote: “I have to preach a Sunday School ser mon next Sunday. My chills are suspended. Deo gratias.” On the 1st of May I heard him preach the sermon referred to, which was delivered with what struck me as an unusual and unnecessary power of voice. He preached again on the following Lord’s-day, (May 8, communion; 1 Peter ii. 24,) which proved to be his last sermon. On the 9th he wrote to me, “My health has steadily gone down: yet, through mercy, I was enabled to get through the communion services. I expect to sail for Richmond on Wednesday. I shall probably be addressable at Drake’s Branch, Charlotte County, from the 14th to 21st, and afterwards at University of Virginia till 29th.” On the next day (10th) he wrote: “A change in the signs of Providence has changed my plans. So obviously my cough has increased, and my flesh decreased, that Session and Trustees, motu proprio, last night ordered me to vacate from now till October 1. I propose to go to Virginia in about a fortnight. Don’t stay at home an hour; but if it be fair I will try to drop in chez vous some day this week.” On the 12th his report was “No changes.” On the 25th — “though all packed up, and on the eve of starting, we are forbidden by the doctor to go, in consequence of my severe cough, but more particularly a fever which comes on at night. Plans uncertain. I have not gained any. I endeavour to cast my burden on the Lord.”
In the correspondence of this month he wrote, (in dissent from my opinion that it is better for ministers to prevent actual invitations to new positions which they know they would not accept) as follows: “All my little observations confirm me in the judgment, that such things should not be crushed in ovo; though my own practice has been different. A man runs before Providence, who answers a question before it is asked. The case cannot be before him, till he knows the vote, &c. He has a right, as Christ’s servant, to the testimonial in his favour, even of an appointment which he declines. His congregation have a right to the credit derivable from his preferring them, in case of refusal. The simple, natural method is the best.”
It was also during the low state of his health in the middle of this May, that he wrote for “The Presbyterian” an affectionate notice of the Rev. Henry V. Johns, D. D., of the Episcopal Church, then recently deceased. From that article I extract a paragraph of biographical interest:
“The first person with whom I ever talked freely, respecting the infinite concerns of my soul, was Henry V. Johns; and he has told me that a like remark would be true of himself. It was in Nassau Hall, then the principal edifice of Princeton College; and in No. 27, in the ‘second entry;’ a locality fresh in the ‘memory of old Nassovians. We were boys of sixteen; though I was about to commence bachelor of arts. Such conversations begin, one scarcely knows how; in a short time we had unbosomed ourselves to one another, and entered upon a close and tender friendship which I trust in God is never to cease. During the days in which Henry was under the work of the law, and humbly doubting whether indeed he had attained to justification or not, he used to walk in the grove behind the college, which, alas! with other forest shades of my boyhood, has long since vanished away. As he strayed, musing, his eye was attracted by a small folded paper upon the ground; this he picked up, and afterwards showed to me; it contained these words: ‘And they that are Christ’s have crucified
NEW YORK, Nay 28, 1859.
As I am ready to catch at any little straw of amendment, I feel cheered by being very slightly better to-day, though after a bad night of vexing dreams and wakings. My cough is in abeyance; the disguised chill and consequent fever return every evening. I have taken a refreshing drive for three successive days.
Upon any fair calculation of probabilities, how likely is it that a promiscuous assembly at Indianapolis will decide a question aright for the whole church? I have long looked in vain for any scriptural or rational foundation for supreme “courts,” having half a continent for their scope. This feeling of mine does not extend to Presbyteries.
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, June 7, 1859.
Your alternative of a tour to the West [in preference to the South] would not have suited me at all. I know nobody there, and conveyances and railroads are not what I need. In Virginia I have mountains, numerous friends, at whose houses (as here) 1 can be sheltered, with sweet, rural quiet, and daily horse-exercise. I could not have come even here, if Dr. Cabell, with considerate kindness, had not gone to New York for me. At the time Dr. Delafield arrested my trip, my cough and expectoration were excessive. I had night-sweats, and my pulse was at 120. It has come down to 84. The journey has done me good, though I have very bad nights. The weather here has been almost cold; the hills and mountains are beautifully clad, but the corn is not so high as in Jersey. Strawberries still linger, of fine quality, and plentiful. We shall probably remain some weeks here, and at a magnificent farm of Mr. Franklin Minor, about five miles off*.
After having written and printed a good deal about sickness, health, &c., I find there are pages of experience to turn over, which are quite new. Especially do I see that we may be brought into stumbling and stripping dispensations, of which
the flesh with the affections and lusts, Gal. v. 24. Try* yourself by The incident made a deep impression on us both, carrying to our apprehensions at that time something of the supernatural. We have talked it over in later years, and there is reason to believe that it had a moulding influence on Johns’s experience and life. Soon after this we became communicants, at our respective homes.”
1 May 30. — “I have had a somewhat refreshing night’s rest, which I have not had before during some weeks.” In a few days (June 2) he set out with his wife and youngest child for Virginia. All his arrangements indicated that he thought it probable he should never return; and as the train passed Princeton his emotions gave unequivocal signs of his reflecting that it was likely to be the last view he should have of that endeared place.
during their continuance we cannot comprehend the nature. I never felt more perfectly resigned to God’s will, or more disposed to justify all his dealings, be it life or death, or disability. This is my strong permanent feeling. Nevertheless, with this, and perhaps from physical depression, all things seem sad. The chords are unstrung, and the instrument relaxed. Give my love to all yours, and to inquisitive friends.
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, June 23, 1859.
By a dispensation very merciful to me, the summer heats have been held olF thus far. The harvest is in full blast — what a cheering sight! I presume I saw during a drive this morning several wheat-fields, of 300 acres each, under the process. McCormick’s reaper is largely used. The improvements here are great, and still going on. To the Rotunda they have added a great projection with a new Corinthian prostyle on the North front. Their great room is very noble, and has a full-size copy of Raphael’s School of Athens. At great expense they are now working to convey water from a neighbouring mount to every part of the precincts. A charming parsonage has been built for their chaplain, on a green hillside, among trees. One of the best-placed and finest buildings is an Infirmary for sick students. It is supplied with every convenience, aired throughout by Emer son’s ventilator, hot and cold baths, English water-closets, &c. They have a professional teacher of gymnastics, and two gymnasiums, one for summer and one for winter. Russian vapourbaths are on the grounds, which Dr. C. takes every few days, leaping from the sweating one into a very cold plunge. Their “public day” is the 29th, when every thing breaks up. Dr. Gessner Harrison, now their oldest professor, has resigned. The demand for schools is truly surprising. I suppose there are a dozen country-grammar boarding-schools in this county. Gentle men’s sons are very glad to take such places.
If they did not keep saying so, I should not know that I was any better than a month ago. I lie awake most of the night with slight fever, and seldom fail of a chill during the twenty four hours. A slight dinner is the only meal for which I have
1 On the 9th June Dr. Alexander wrote to his intimate friend, James M. Halsted, Esq., of New York — l< Since our arrival here, I have on the whole been a gainer. While I cannot say that my cough is gone, it is wonderfully lessened, and quite suspended for long periods. My nights are bad, and I suffer from a dyspeptic colic, which makes very strict diet necessary. My appetite is good, and I am riding on horseback every day. My friends think I shall recover, ngainst the fall. That is as God pleases, unto whom I desire to submit myself.”
VOL. II. 13 any appetite. Quinine in large doses makes me for days as deaf as the late excellent “K. H.” * They begin to let me have rasp berries and ice-cream.2
1 The newspaper signature of the Rev. Richard Webster, of Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania.
2 The last letter but one, ever written by this faithful hand, so far as I have been able to discover, is the one I subjoin, from the Warm Springs, addressed to his brother Addison, in Princeton. Like the preceding letters from Virginia to myself, it was written with a pencil, but with no signs of debility.
•” BATH COTTKT HOUSE, July 13, 1859.
“Writing costs me so much, that this must go for an answer to A.’s and J.’s letters. We arrived here on the 13th, perhaps the hottest day of the season. Though feeling the heat, we are all benefited by the marked change to mountain air. The bath agrees with me; it is 38 feet diameter, 5 feet deep, and 98° Fahrenheit; being moreover clear as crystal. The waters are also drunk, being weak Epsom salts, and a dash of sulphur. The hotel is well kept, the mutton is delicious, and venison is on the table twice a day. The guests do not number more than forty. This place is in danger of being left out of the fashionable range; it is no longer on the way to the White Sulphur and Sweet Springs, and is accessible only by very heavy mountain staging. It is nevertheless, for picturesque scenery, above all the others.
“Since coming here I have felt better in several respects; better sleep, excellent appetite, and a slight accession of strength. I am taking no physic, except Dr. Delafield’s tonic prescription of Citr. Ferri cum Cinchona; it comes mixed chemically. My absolute strength is small: I was
in error about my weight; it is 142 Ibs I think the heat must be
very great in the plains. Drought prevails here; there has been no shower for three weeks.
“If my aunt and cousins are still with you, remember me to them kindly. I was so utterly unlit for visiting, that I did not fulfil my purpose of going to Staunton and Lexington.
“This is a very wild country; venison, however, rises in price; it is now six cents a pound. A buck is brought in, on an average, once a day. Partridges and pheasants abound. A fox crossed right before our horses’ heads on the Warm Spring mountain. We shall probably remain a week, and then go for more permanent quarters to the Red Sweet Springs. I neglected to say, that I feel quite free of my intermittent, neither have I any regular cough.”
The final effort of his letter-writing was to address some lines to a young nephew in New York, who was suffering with a broken arm.