' ! ' 
 
 t! ii !
 
 HOME! 
 
 THE PILGRIMS' FAITH REVIVED. 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES T. TORREY. 
 
 Written duiing his incarceration in Baltimore Jail, after his 
 conviction, and while awaiting his sentence. 
 
 ' Aye, call it holy ground, 
 
 The land whereon they trod ; 
 They left unstained what there they found, 
 
 Freedom to worship God.' 
 
 PUBLISHED FOR THE BENEFIT OF HIS FAMILY. 
 
 SALEM: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY JOHN P. JEWETT AND COMPANY. 
 CINCINNATI : GEORGE L. WEED. 
 
 1845. 

 
 iv PREFACE. 
 
 speak, a local scenery. I have drawn its scenes, its incidents, 
 its illustrations, mostly from the Home of my childhood. 
 It even takes, in part, the form of personal narrative. Other 
 incidents were not wanting, derived from countless sources, 
 to illustrate great principles. But I love to connect every- 
 thing I write with the endearments, the sorrows, the joys 
 of Home : the scenes and friends whom I loved in youth. 
 And I have trusted that it would give a more familiar, home- 
 like character to views intended to guide the steps of those 
 who seek a Home on high. There is not an incident, not 
 a narrative or an illustration but is true, in fact, so far as I 
 know. Most of them are drawn from my own personal 
 recollections, and are connected with the life and death of 
 those I dearly loved. 
 
 The local and personal allusions, while I trust they will 
 offend none, will I hope benefit some of my early and still 
 loved associates. At the same time, to the general reader, 
 they illustrate traits of human character and principles of 
 action that are as universal as the elements of fallen or re- 
 generate manhood. 
 
 The ' Plot ' is simply the decline of spiritual religion in 
 a Puritan church, and its revival. The causes of both are 
 illustrated by incidents of every kind, so as to present the 
 contrast between the worldly and spiritual mind as vividly 
 as may be. 
 
 If one illustration provoke a smile, another may cause 
 a tear. Smiles and tears make up our life. I love both, in 
 their places. Sometimes they each spring from an heart 
 of agony; sometimes each is the herald of joy. 
 
 I have not avoided brief discussions of topics both pro- 
 found and exciting. And I never go out of my way to 
 avoid a thought that is new, or possibly, offensive, so be, 
 that I believe it true. 
 
 So, Reader, the writer and his book you know. May it 
 help you to value and enjoy that every-day religion which 
 fills the bosom of the prisoner with the Peace of God, and 
 by which our feet may be safely guided in the path that 
 leads from our earthly dwelling-place to our HEAVENLY 
 HOME. 
 
 CHARLES T. TOEEET. 
 
 Baltimore, Md. 
 
 Dec. 20, 1844.
 
 CONTENTS, 
 
 PREFACE Pages 3, 4 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Our town described Early settlers Piety with knowledge Edu- 
 cated ministry No village No foreign source of corruption 
 The Pastor settled Parish funds The causes of declension. 
 (1) Theoretical errors. (2) Bad morality No life remains 
 
 1330 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The gold dimmed Causes. (1) Civil rights conferred on church 
 members only. (2) Half-way covenant True views of the sa- 
 craments. (3) Worldly churches will have worldly ministers 
 Whitefield rejected Teachers of error. (4) Influence of the 
 Revolution The way the tones paid taxes War no friend of 
 Christ 3148 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Like people, like priest The worldly pastor described The De- 
 ist in the pulpit Church discipline neglected Religious ideas 
 lost The heart wiser than the intellect The Deacon's faith 
 Pure faith connected with prosperity The Ball . 49 62 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The shades grow darker Pulpit exchanges with errorists No so- 
 cial prayer The closet forgotten Neglect of worship The 
 Sabbath desecrated Covetousness, which is idolatry Exam- 
 ples ' '. -' y . 6371 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Intemperance abounding Death and crime Lewdness The sins 
 of the parents visited on their children, a true story The covenant 
 remembered . . 72 81
 
 VI CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Party spirit Preaching at men Uses of sects and parties Bible 
 politics Supremacy of the law of God . . . 82 91 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Relics of faith A mother Spirit in heaven Old associations. 
 The illustration Old books Conscience recognizes the truth 
 Literature and religion The libraries Home, a mission field ! 
 The faithful preacher Social prayer, revived The new com- 
 mandment obeyed Religion and education . . 92 107 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Belle of Home . 108122 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The mission sermons Givers not losers Weakness made strong; 
 Folly, wise The dream The poor widow The learned taught 
 humility The sailor preacher The heart the best controversial- 
 ist The sons of Home, abroad The natural heart shown 
 
 123142 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Physic for a guilty conscience ! 143 164 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Old ties broken The faithful pastor Old GeorgeThe Bible class 
 The vicious saved Election justified ; the narrative The 
 strayed sheep looked up The aged sinner saved The poor- 
 house Temperance The last argument, holy living 165 184 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The dead left alone ! Satire, yet truth Religion imitated Spir- 
 it without knowledge Preaching of Christ, but not preaching 
 Christ The wild flower Paid pastors no " hirelings" 185 199 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 A century passed Twilight Logic of the heart Spiritual dis- 
 cernment The "set time to favor Zion" come The revival 
 The wise need teaching . . . 200 214
 
 CONTENTS. Vli 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 " The early loved, the early lost" .... 215235 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Diversities of character Causes. Natural gifts Feelings vary 
 Education Preaching The metaphysicians Course of Provi- 
 dence ; Facts Diversities of belief. Illustrations Sources of 
 error all truths saving " The same Spirit" Our Home above. 
 
 236255

 
 HOME! 
 
 " They left unstained, what there they found, 
 Freedom to worship God !" 
 
 FeKcia Hemans. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Our town described Early settlers Piety with knowl- 
 edge Educated Ministry No village No foreign 
 source of corruption The Pastor settled Parish funds. 
 Two causes of declension, (1) Theoretical errors, (2) 
 Bad morality No life remains. 
 
 " Home '. home ! sweet home ! 
 Be it ever so homely, 
 There's no place like home !" 
 
 " OUR TOWN," the scene of my narrative, is one of 
 the first thirteen incorporated towns of New Eng- 
 land. I shall call it simply, HOME. Long years 
 have passed since I ceased to be more than a 
 chance visitor there ; but there's not a hill, nor a 
 stream, not a quiet meadow, or forest grove, not 
 one of its dwellings many of which bear the 
 mosses of nearly two centuries on their venerable 
 roofs, in which I do not feel that tender, and ap- 
 2
 
 14 HOME. 
 
 propriating interest which is ever linked with that 
 sweet word, HOME. No lapse of time, no change 
 of pursuits, no alienations of feeling or sentiment 
 blot from my memory one scene of my childhood. 
 In my dreams, in the prison cell of a distant city, I 
 revisit every old haunt, think where I plucked the 
 butter-cups and violets ; and the old moss grown 
 nut tree, the button wood where the oriole hung 
 her nest of fine thread, far beyond the reach of the 
 most daring ; the dear old mansion where my early 
 youth was passed so rapidly; and, more than all, 
 the playmates, whose every feature, every joyous 
 laugh, every little sorrow, all seem as vividly before 
 me, as if it were yesterday's scenes. 
 
 So, no matter what the maps call it, its name 
 shall be HOME. 
 
 The first white settler in Home, was one of my 
 own ancestors. His humble calling, a tanner, did 
 not exempt him from the malice of those who 
 " wore out the Saints of the Most High," in the 
 Fatherland. So, gathering up his household goods, 
 cheered by the smiles of his Christian partner, he 
 crossed the waste of waters, and, with a courage 
 few dared imitate, plunged into the wilderness 
 above twenty miles from any habitation of a Chris- 
 tian man. His meek confidence in them, and the 
 utility of his calling, gained him the favor of the
 
 HOME. 15 
 
 savages, and they gave him a large tract of cleared 
 land, part of their own corn fields, as a token of 
 their love and gratitude. His line of descendants 
 still live on the hallowed spot where the first 
 prayer ascended to our Fathers' God from the 
 domestic altar. He came to the town in ] 622. A 
 few years more converted the wild woods and 
 swamps into the fields and rich meadows of the 
 pleasant farming and fishing town of Home. 
 
 The eastern border, for some twelve miles, rests 
 on the sea-shore. It is a long, rocky beach, on 
 which the surges never cease to beat, which has 
 been the last sand touched by many a shipwrecked 
 sailor, and is interrupted by several high hills, or 
 cliffs. In some past century these cliffs were long 
 promontories, jutting out into the ocean waves. 
 Storm after storm has beat upon them, and now, 
 more than two thirds of their soil has fallen, and 
 been washed away. Twenty years ago, I remem- 
 ber riding on firm soil, at a safe distance from the 
 then peaceful brink of one of the cliffs, more than 
 an hundred feet beyond the present reach of the 
 fierce waves. And the huge rocks that once dot- 
 ted the top, now help to break the power of the 
 waters, far out from the shore. These cliffs, in 
 1622 were covered with the cornfields of the In- 
 dians. At the foot of one of them stood their wig-
 
 16 HOME. 
 
 warns. Near by, stands the old mansion, or its 
 successor, built on the soil they gave the friendly 
 Christian tanner. Between another, and a rocky 
 headland, is our little tide harbor, giving shelter to 
 our fishing craft, and a few vessels engaged in the 
 coasting trade. 
 
 For more than fifteen miles, our southern border 
 rests on the winding banks of a little river, famed 
 for its excellent fisheries, and still more for its ship- 
 building. Here our carpenters launched the first 
 American vessel that ever doubled the stormy Cape 
 Horn, and coasted the western shores of our con- 
 tinent. It was manned, in part, tradition says, by 
 our towns-people. 
 
 From the broad meadows of the river banks, the 
 land rises gently towards the North and West, 
 towards a range of hills that we call mountains, 
 though the dwellers on the sides of the White 
 Hills would smile at the designation. Mount Hope, 
 the highest, may be 300 feet above the tide level. 
 From these hills many little brooks and streamlets 
 find their way to the river, and sea side. There is 
 not an abrupt hill, not a precipice, save one on the 
 sea shore, in all the town. The hills slope gently 
 down to the streams ; and these flow with hardly a 
 murmur, through the woods and wilds till they are 
 lost in the large river, having just descent enough
 
 HOME. 17 
 
 to supply mill sites to saw the boards, and grind 
 the corn and rye we use. The whole tone of the 
 scenery is quiet, peaceful, loving, if I may so apply 
 the word. The soil is everywhere good, yielding 
 fair returns to the farmer's toil. 
 
 HOME was early settled by a large number of 
 energetic men, who, without exception, engaged in 
 farming. Even the ministers, till within my own 
 recollection, cultivated the parsonage lands, set 
 apart for the support of the gospel by the piety of 
 the early settlers. The physicians followed the 
 same example. So did the merchants. And as 
 for a lawyer, to this day, with over 4000 people, we 
 have neither crimes nor quarrels enough to support 
 one ! They, too, have been farmers, although sev- 
 eral of them have adorned the highest judicial sta- 
 tions in the Commonwealth and the Nation. 
 
 Till within ten years, there was nothing like a 
 village in Home. The people are so evenly dis- 
 tributed over its wide surface, that each lives on 
 his own separate farm, yet not a house in all Home 
 is out of sight of its neighbor. I remember one 
 house, in my boyhood, that was so surrounded with 
 noble pine forests, that, in spite of its situation on 
 a hill top, no other house was visible from it. It 
 was a topic of general congratulation, among the 
 neighbors, when the fall of several huge trees, that 
 2*
 
 18 HOME. 
 
 had braved the storms of centuries, gave that lonely 
 family a view of a chimney top, perhaps a hundred 
 rods away ! " Yes, we feel much more social, now," 
 remarked the kind woman, who for thirty years 
 had not been able to see her neighbors without 
 going to their houses, or receiving their visits. 
 
 There are, there always have been, some rich, 
 very rich men in our town. But the social inequal- 
 ities that riches and poverty too often create were 
 scarcely ever known. I remember one rich man 
 who made himself very generally odious, because 
 he would have his hired laborers eat in the kitchen, 
 instead of seating them at the family table. " He 
 was so proud, he would die poor," was once said of 
 him. He did not, but his children may. 
 
 For a century and an half, hardly a foreigner has 
 entered Home. The few who came were soon as- 
 similated to the habits and feelings of a people 
 born, living, and dying on the same soil. I can re- 
 member twenty families in one section of the town, 
 which, for seven, eight and nine generations have 
 lived on the same spot ; no rare thing in the old 
 countries, but quite so in our new and ever moving 
 land. No foreign sources of corruption, therefore, 
 ever came in to make the sons unworthy to bear 
 the names of their sires. If they have fallen, the 
 root of evil is from within.
 
 HOME. 19 
 
 The first settlers were generally men of property. 
 Many of them were scholars and accomplished 
 gentlemen. They impressed on their children a 
 love of learning, and a refinement of manners that 
 has never wholly disappeared, in the darkest periods 
 of the annals of Home. 
 
 Sound in their religious faith, taught the value of 
 a good hope towards God by the lessons of perse- 
 cution, there was not, perhaps, for two generations 
 a head of a family who did not belong to the 
 church ; not a house in which the morning and 
 evening sacrifice of prayer and thanksgiving was 
 omitted. 
 
 No law was ever needed to induce the people 
 to sustain a sufficient number of excellent free 
 schools. And, for more than a century from the 
 settlement, a public " grammar" school, supplied to 
 all who desired it, the means of a more enlarged 
 course of study. While the rigor of the early faith 
 and piety remained, no town set a greater value on 
 the higher branches of education than the people 
 of Home. 
 
 At an early period two large churches were 
 gathered, and pastors were settled ; men who com- 
 bined the most fervent piety with the best edu- 
 cation the Universities of the mother country, or our 
 own infant Harvard could afford. An ignorant
 
 20 
 
 clergyman was never suffered to disgrace a pulpit, 
 in Home. Oh, had the people always cared as 
 much for the deeper dishonor done to it, by the 
 want of a pure faith and the graces of the Spirit, 
 how different would have been the results ! Piety 
 without knowledge soon becomes mere weak fanat- 
 icism. But knowledge without piety only " puffeth 
 up" the natural heart with pride, and leads the spirit 
 far away from God. 
 
 Nothing better illustrates the spirit of our fathers, 
 than the mode of providing a pastor, as it is spread 
 out, on many a page of the early town records of 
 Home. The whole town took part in it ; for not a 
 family was found in its limits who lived without, at 
 least, the forms of religion. It was a municipal 
 act, as well as an act of the members of the church, 
 in their ecclesiastical capacity. This was, indeed, 
 an error of our fathers, which later experience has 
 corrected. But with them, the hearts of all so 
 united in the work, that it made little difference in 
 the first century. 
 
 The first step was to assemble all the church, and 
 appoint a day of public fasting and prayer, that God 
 would guide them in the selection of a candidate 
 for the pastoral office. From sunset till sunset 
 again, the entire people fasted, literally. In every 
 house, the reading of the Scriptures and prayer oc-
 
 HOME. 21 
 
 cupied the intervals of public worship. Commonly 
 some neighboring pastor preached to them two 
 sermons, appropriate to their condition, and to the 
 solemn duties connected with their objects. Those 
 long, long sermons ! Each from two to four hours 
 long ! How did our fathers and mothers endure 
 it, even in summer weather, not to speak of the 
 cold, icy winter's day, when the sun had no power 
 to melt the icicle on the sheltered south eaves, and 
 neither stove nor fireplace shed a genial glow over 
 any part of their vast wooden edifices for worship. 
 Their faith warmed them, or else they were made 
 of sterner stuff than their children. 
 
 Then followed the appointment of a committee 
 of the wisest men of the church to take the advise 
 of the neighboring churches and pastors respecting 
 a candidate, unless, indeed, one of eminent gifts 
 was at hand, respecting whom no such advice 
 could be needed. 
 
 The candidate came. For six months or a year 
 he " went in and out before the people," preached 
 the word, visited the sick, comforted the afflicted, 
 taught the young, counselled the aged. In a word, 
 he discharged, as he was able, all the offices of a 
 pastor. Even all this did not decide his settle- 
 ment, in every case. Another day of prayer and 
 fasting was observed, "to know the mind of the
 
 22 HOME. 
 
 Spirit whether He would call" the candidate to 
 the permanent discharge of these duties. If any 
 doubt remained, the matter was still deferred, and 
 other days of prayer set apart. Then, if the people 
 were united, the advice of the surrounding churches 
 and pastors was sought ; not, indeed, as having any 
 binding control over their choice, but as a matter of 
 brbtherly affection and courtesy. Then followed 
 the solemn services of the ordination. No wonder 
 that the pastoral relation, so maturely formed, was 
 an enduring bond, that nothing but death, or the 
 misconduct of the pastor could sever. Care was 
 needed, in forming ties, so sacred in their objects, 
 with which the spiritual welfare of an entire gene- 
 ration was to be bound up. 
 
 Before the final decision, the people, in their mu- 
 nicipal capacity, assembled to provide, in a suita- 
 ble manner, for the support of their pastor, so that 
 no grinding necessity might compel him to neglect 
 his study for the labors of the field ; though it was 
 not deemed improper for him to sow and reap his 
 own glebe, as well as scatter the seeds of spiritual 
 life, and gather in the harvest of immortality. 
 
 At these meetings, as well as on the ordinary 
 Sabbath services, every person, of every age, not in 
 actual attendance on the sick, was expected to be 
 present Causeless absence was noted, the offend-
 
 HOME. 23 
 
 er visited and tenderly reproved. And, if admoni- 
 tion did not avail, he was fined, as an offender 
 against the rules of good morals, as well as the 
 laws of God's house. We deem this unwise ; but 
 our fathers, erroneous as they were in some things, 
 judged rightly of the value of social worship, both 
 to the morals and spiritual well-being of man. 
 
 The pious, in every generation, have their modes 
 of imparting religious instruction to the young. 
 Our fathers knew its vital import, as well as we. 
 In every family that feared God, family instruction 
 was given on the Sabbath, and from day to day, 
 " rising up early and teaching them " to walk in the 
 path of life. The pastor, too, every month, assem- 
 bled the youth, not merely to hear the catechism, 
 but to give such lessons on its great truths as were 
 adapted to their age. 
 
 I do not wonder that errorists ridicule that old 
 catechism ! Its quaint terms, half obsolete, save in 
 books of technical theology, cannot obscure the 
 brightness and logical harmony of the great truths 
 it contains. And it is a foolish undervaluing of the 
 intellectual powers of our children, to suppose that 
 most of them cannot understand these primary doc- 
 trines of the Bible, stated in logical form, as well as 
 when clothed in the attractions of parable, or story. 
 Error can never gain control over the conscience,
 
 24 HOME. 
 
 when the mind is imbued with clear, logical con- 
 ceptions of these divine truths. 
 
 In both the parishes of Home, the erring piety of 
 our fathers made ample provision, by large vested 
 funds, for the permanent support of the ministry. 
 I say ' erring ;' for it is far better to leave to every 
 generation the duty, and blessing too, of feeding 
 their spiritual guides, by their own free-will offer- 
 ings. They love their pastor more, because they 
 impart to him their " carnal things," in return for 
 the spiritual joy, peace and comfort they derive from 
 his labors. The widest observation proves that the 
 pastor's dependence does not diminish his fidelity. 
 It is the reverse, with all who are fitted, either by 
 nature or grace to preach the gospel at all. And 
 those who best "commend themselves to every 
 man's conscience, in the sight of God," by a plain 
 and loving exhibition of the guilt of man, and the 
 glory of the cross will always, or almost always, 
 find the most liberal support 
 
 For more than a century the hopes and prayers of 
 the fathers of Home were justified by the general 
 piety, pure morality, and high intelligence of their 
 descendants. 
 
 One instance of their superiority over the general 
 prejudices of their age, I am too proud of to omit. 
 
 The witchcraft delusion, after destroying thou-
 
 HOME . 
 
 25 
 
 sands of lives in every part of Protestant and Catho- 
 lic Europe, began to infect the land of the Pilgrims 
 also. For a brief period, the popular delusion was 
 strong. The wisest magistrates, the profoundest 
 scholars, the most devout ministers were carried 
 away with it. In a few instances even death was 
 inflicted upon victims, not more deluded than those 
 who adjudged their doom. But, even when the 
 frenzy was at its height there were not wanting wise 
 and good men who pitied the weakness they could 
 not help censuring ; and who deemed a merciful 
 forbearance a better remedy for popular delusion 
 than the hangman's scourge and rope. The people 
 of Home from the very first, resisted the mania. 
 Their enlightened members of the Governor's coun- 
 cil, and of the Legislature, with the hearty concur- 
 rence of both pastors and people, strove to rescue 
 the supposed witches from their fate, and to repeal 
 the sanguinary edicts against them. It is a matter 
 of history that their efforts were ultimately crowned 
 with success. Intelligence so much in advance of 
 their age, firmness in resisting a force to which a 
 Hale and a Mather yielded, deserve high praise. I 
 am proud of my early HOME. 
 
 The causes that dimmed the lustre of the most 
 fine gold, in their details, I reserve for another chap- 
 ter. Some general thoughts will close this. 
 3
 
 26 HOME. 
 
 There are two generic modes in which a reli- 
 gious community become corrupted. Their moral- 
 ity may be debased, while their attachment to cor- 
 rect theoretical truths is not, at first, abated. Or, 
 their faith in sound doctrines may be shaken, with- 
 out affecting the tone of social morals, often for a 
 long period. 
 
 Both these modes of corruption destroy spiritual 
 life in the soul, equally. " Faith without works is 
 dead, living alone," no matter how strong it may be, 
 or with how vivid feelings it may be connected. 
 And the most correct outward life will not obtain 
 the pardon of our sin ; for " the just shall live by 
 faith." 
 
 The evil of a dead faith, besides separating the 
 soul from God, will certainly, in the end, destroy 
 good morals. Dead faith Tiers fruits ; but they are 
 bitter as the apples of Sodom. 
 
 The evil of impure living will, in the end, destroy 
 correct faith ; for sinners, determined to live in sin, 
 "will not hear sound doctrine," but " heap to them- 
 selves teachers," who will connive at their sins, and 
 persuade them they are in the road to heaven, 
 while the pit is wide open to devour them alive. 
 
 Such are the restraints thrown around the minis- 
 try, that corruption in morals seldom begins with 
 them. But the world has but one example, that
 
 HOME. 27 
 
 of Swedenborg of errors in the theory of the faith 
 which do not spring from the teachers of religion. 
 Examples of both modes of corruption are common 
 enough in all ages and in every land. Our own 
 supplies many. When men begin to regard reli- 
 gion as something intended for the Sabbath, the 
 sick bed, or old age, instead of the guide of their 
 daily life in all its actions, civil, as well as individ- 
 ual and social, it is easy to see that their faith is dy- 
 ing; it will soon be dead. They may still have 
 deep and pervading religious excitements, and call 
 them " revivals." There may be a keen s~ense of 
 sin, humiliation ; followed by peace, joy, rapture ! 
 The human soul is naturally devout. The worship- 
 per of Brahma and Guadama may have as sincere 
 and profound emotion as the follower of Christ. Is 
 his heart purified ? His life gives the answer. The 
 Spanish pirate had his priests. With profound hu- 
 mility, with many tears, with deep remorse, with 
 penance and scourges he bought absolution ; then 
 filled with hope, he returned to his work of butch- 
 ery. The slaveholder of our land, often professes a 
 correct creed, has clear views of the divine charac- 
 ter, sees the evil of sin, in general, humbles him- 
 self, finds peace, and deems himself forgiven. Then 
 he turns to make the poor work without wages, 
 sells the righteous in the market, " a boy, for a har-
 
 28 HOME. 
 
 lot, a girl, for a pair of shoes ;" and tears asunder 
 the ties of nature and love. Still he thinks he is a 
 child of God. The debased morals of churches 
 that allow slavery has been very widely followed by 
 doctrinal errors, far more widely than northern men 
 are aware. Popular preaching, in these churches, 
 more and more fails to exhibit the humbling doc- 
 trines of the cross, and becomes merely eloquent 
 appeals to the natural feelings and sympathies, or 
 acquired tastes of the audience. Among the more 
 ignorant classes, dreams and delusions more gross 
 than witchcraft, and animal or if you will mag- 
 netic excitements, as baleful as they are foolish, take 
 the place of a correct faith and pure life. 
 
 Instances of the other form of corruption are 
 found, among us, in small sects, and in individuals. 
 My narrative will supply many. Though, in a com- 
 munity like New England, where the public law is 
 one, for the rich and the poor; where no man's 
 vices are screened by his dependance or his power ; 
 where in every town some correct religious faith 
 and practice sheds light on the lingering darkness* 
 even gross religious errors cannot debase the morals 
 of social life, so soon, or so widely, as happens in 
 the other class of cases. 
 
 Besides, as this form of corruption begins always 
 with the ministers, those who preach a lax faith, in
 
 29 
 
 doctrines, are often the more eager to enforce a 
 correct outward deportment and amiable manner. 
 They have lost the highest sources of power to en- 
 force a pure life ; but they may be diligent in using 
 the influences that remain. As they declare heav- 
 en depends on correct morals and amiable social 
 conduct, they often succeed in forming such char- 
 acters as that of the young ruler, who lacked but 
 "one thing," the spirit of self-denying love that 
 should have given harmony to the inner and out- 
 ward man. 
 
 This class of teachers are eager to show that 
 without the cross, without an atoning Saviour, and 
 a sanctifying Spirit, they can make men as lovely 
 in their social life, as pure in morals, as free from 
 acts of dishonor or dishonesty, as those who com- 
 bine evangelical faith with the same teachings of 
 morality. In a town where purifying agencies of 
 greater power once acted, or still exist, with some 
 power, they succeed in many instances. 
 
 " When Jesus looked upon him, he loved " the 
 young ruler. As he looks down from his throne 
 in glory, where he still wears man's loving nature 
 and human sympathies, no doubt he loves, in the 
 same degree, the amiable fruits of the labors of 
 these teachers. " But ONE THING thou lackest." 
 The life of faith they do not live. The heart of 
 3*
 
 30 HOME. 
 
 love for divine purity, justice and goodness they do 
 not possess. They will " go away sorrowful " from 
 the gates of glory, which they thought would so 
 certainly open to receive them. 
 
 So then, the emotion, the enthusiasm of faith may 
 exist, in connection with a corrupt morality. 
 
 And amiable manners and correct morals may 
 remain after correct ideas of the gospel of salvation 
 are lost 
 
 The one is "faith without works." Can faith 
 save him ? The other is " works without faith." 
 Is a man justified by works only ? Neither is an 
 example of true rdigion. In that, " faith works by 
 love, purifies the heart, and overcomes the world." 
 
 The spirit of life within throws around the out- 
 ward life the glory, the sweetness, the peace and 
 beauty of its own nature.
 
 HOME. 31 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The gold dimmed Causes ( 1 ) civil rights conferred on 
 church members only (2) Half-way covenant True 
 view of the sacraments (3) Worldly churches will have 
 worldly ministers Whitefield rejected Teachers of er- 
 ror (4) Influence of the Revolution The way the 
 tones paid taxes War no friend of Christ. 
 
 ONE hundred years rolled away, without one of 
 those blessed seasons of refreshing from the pres- 
 ence of the Lord, which has taken the name of a 
 " revival." The light of holy living and pure faith 
 went out, and death reigned where the power and 
 living beauty of the faith had been so nobly mani- 
 fested, in the earlier periods of the annals of Home. 
 The fathers slept, and their sons built their sepul- 
 chres, but failed to inherit their mantles of piety. 
 
 The causes of this sad change were many. Some 
 of them of a general and public nature ; others lo- 
 cal, though not without many examples elsewhere. 
 
 The earliest source of corruption, in which the 
 churches of Home shared, in common with many 
 others, was one of the errors of our fathers. They 
 wished to base their civil polity entirely on the
 
 32 HOME . 
 
 maxims and principles of religion. The wish was 
 laudable ; the means of attaining it, an educated, 
 pious ministry, free, self-governed churches, faith- 
 ful instruction of their household, a sanctified Sab- 
 bath, universal free education, were most wisely 
 adapted to the end. To these, other measures of a 
 more doubtful character were added. The most in- 
 jurious was the law by which civil rights were con- 
 fined to members of the churches. This was full 
 of evil, in every way. It was a powerful motive to 
 a mere formal and hypocritical profession of a faith 
 in which the heart had no share. As every mind 
 was imbued with the theory of a correct faith, and 
 more or less familiar with the outlines of religious 
 experience, both by reading and from often listen- 
 ing to its details ; such a hollow profession was not 
 very difficult, when the outward life of the candi- 
 date did not compel the church to exclude him. 
 Indeed such was the real respect for religion, in the 
 popular mind, that such professions did not always 
 involve conscious hypocrisy. The worldly motive 
 gave unconscio'us power to the effects of religious 
 education. So have I seen the carefully trained chil- 
 dren of Christian families admitted to the church- 
 es, without any want of sincerity or emotion, on 
 either part, but with faint evidence indeed that the 
 love of God had been shed abroad in their hearts 
 by the Holy Spirit.
 
 HOME. 33 
 
 So, when men of correct lives, wealth, talent and 
 energy, punctual in their attention to the forms of 
 religion, sought admission to the church, as a means 
 of obtaining civil rights, it became a very difficult 
 matter to exclude them. 
 
 Slowly, but certainly, the churches were filled 
 with worldly men ; amiable in their life, but with- 
 out living faith in the cross. 
 
 It is true, the civil law referred to was repealed 
 at an early day. But the influence of it long re- 
 mained. It was necessary to a man's good repute, 
 and it smoothed the path to influence and honor to 
 belong to the church, long after the law ceased to 
 require it. No churches suffered more from this 
 cause than the rich and intelligent churches of 
 Home. With a single exception, in an adjacent 
 town, they were the first in the land to show the 
 evil fruits of it. 
 
 At a somewhat later period they drank deeply of 
 the evils that flowed from what is known as the 
 "half-way-covenant," by which, without any per- 
 sonal profession of their faith, parents were allowed 
 to present their children for baptism, and covenant, 
 before God and man, to train them up in the pre- 
 cepts of a faith whose power they neither acknow- 
 ledged nor felt, in their own souls. This was, it is 
 true, only the resumption of one of the long con-
 
 34 HOME. 
 
 tinned and early corruptions of the church, against 
 which the Puritan fathers had protested. Their 
 clear, anointed eyes saw the folly and sin of the 
 baptism of merely nominal Christians and their 
 children, as the persecuting church from which they 
 fled then practised, and still did. It was only a 
 mockery of faith for parents to take God's name 
 and covenant on their lips, when His love did not 
 fill their hearts. 
 
 True, the eloquence and zeal of a Stoddard re- 
 vived the custom, with reference mainly to another 
 idea ; but that was one of the most noxious of the 
 errors of the Papal church. It was, that the sacra- 
 ments and offices of religion had in themselves a 
 sanctifying power ; or, at least, impenitent men 
 were to use them to obtain it ; a principle which 
 has no legitimate application to anything but the 
 hearing of the word and prayer ; and to the last, in 
 a restricted sense, only. Indeed, there is very little 
 natural relation between the symbols of Christianity, 
 and the idea we connect with them, in the sacra- 
 ments. Anything else might represent the body, or 
 love of the dying Saviour, as well as bread. It is 
 chosen because it is the commonest article, in daily 
 use, that we may never eat without "discerning the 
 Lord's body," if our hearts are filled with His love. 
 The fruit of the vine has no possible analogy to
 
 HOME. 35 
 
 those spiritual changes in the affections of the soul 
 which faith in the atoning blood, or offered free 
 pardon of Christ effects. Nor has the water of 
 baptism, applied to the cleansing of the body any 
 but a remote analogy to the changes the Holy Spirit 
 produces in the heart, when love, joy and peace 
 take the place of selfishness, sorrow and remorse. 
 It is only as the clear intellect and pure heart dwell 
 on the ideas and truths associated with these out- 
 ward symbols, that they have any more influence in 
 sanctifying our nature than the occupation of killing 
 and dressing sheep, bullocks and goats, in which 
 the priesthood under the old law were so much 
 employed. All these sacrifices and forms are a 
 system of Mnemonics, designed to connect holy and 
 sanctifying truths with familiar acts, such as the 
 preparation and use of articles of food and drink, 
 and the purifying of the body, by daily ablutions. 
 The spiritual heart never eats bread or drinks water, 
 but the self denying love that bled on the cross, and 
 the grace that proffers free pardon and renovated 
 affections is more or less present to the mind. The 
 sacraments are only more formal, and highly ne- 
 cessary and useful mementoes of the same truths. 
 So Christ seeks to connect himself with our familiar 
 acts, that " every thought may be brought into cap- 
 tivity to the obedience of Christ," or regulated by the
 
 36 HOME. 
 
 same holy love that governed his acts of suffering 
 and grace. 
 
 The crowd of these baptized semi-church mem- 
 bers, whose outward life was free from any serious 
 reproach, and who constantly attended on the forms 
 of worship, yet never or seldom were taught the 
 value of piety and prayer by parental example, soon 
 became very great. Their admission to the other 
 sacraments, and all the rights of membership, it 
 was very difficult to resist. The number of world- 
 ly members in the churches became very great. 
 From this class not a few were taken to supply the 
 want of religious teachers. Serious, perhaps de- 
 vout, such men, without heartfelt piety, could not 
 be expected to preach with fidelity the doctrines of 
 the cross by which the pride of man is abased, and 
 all his glory counted as dross. They did not A 
 large class of worldly ministers soon filled the pul- 
 pits. Learned, often eminent for their talents and 
 eloquence, they won the popular favor, and became, 
 in many instances, the advocates of religious doc- 
 trines that accorded better with the state of their 
 own hearts, unrenewed by divine grace, than with 
 the teachings of the Bible. 
 
 It is only a matter of justice to acknowledge the 
 aid and influence of our Baptist brethren, in ban- 
 ishing a second time, from the Puritan churches
 
 HOME. 37 
 
 this child of English Episcopacy and Popery. Every 
 sect exercises an influence in correcting the errors 
 of others ; while important truths are only cherish- 
 ed with a heartier zeal. 
 
 That the writings of Belsham, Priestly and others 
 had some influence on a few of the educated men 
 of Home is beyond doubt Still, on tninds not pre- 
 viously prepared for them, by the causes adverted 
 to, and other agencies of like character, they had 
 little power. No reasonings ever led a truly con- 
 verted man to deny the doctrines of depravity and 
 regeneration. No arguments against the Deity and 
 atonement of our Saviour ever shook the faith of 
 one who enjoyed daily communion with him. But 
 the reasoning intellect not irradiated by the love of 
 the Spirit, is more easily led astray. 
 
 The more local causes of declension at Home are 
 not without general interest. For the causes that 
 affect the spiritual life of communities are much 
 the same, everywhere. 
 
 Almost one hundred years ago, after the death of 
 a venerable and faithful pastor, under whose min- 
 istry the last " revival" had occurred, a young man, 
 eminent for his learning, his winning manners, his 
 fervid eloquence, but without the love of God in 
 his heart, became a candidate for settlement. Won 
 by his attractive qualities, more than usual haste 
 4
 
 38 HOME. 
 
 was made to engage him to become the pastor of 
 one of the churches. Amiable and correct in his 
 deportment, this young man had imbibed views 
 approaching as nearly to Deism as those of any of 
 his successors in our time. There was no dissent 
 from doctrines contained in the creed of the church, 
 and cherished in the hearts of the pious. He avoid- 
 ed the discussion of them, or else, endeavored, as 
 he said, to divest them of the needless philosophy 
 of other days in which they were clothed. Whether, 
 like some in our day, he had discovered errors in 
 the ethical views of the apostles, I know not. But 
 his preaching was not such as the fathers loved. 
 The worldly part of the church were pleased with 
 one who did not disturb them with new demands 
 on their affections, in God's behalf. It was known 
 that he was not a " high-toned Calvinist," as spirit- 
 ual men already began to be called. But few sus- 
 pected that he did not believe in the modified faith 
 of the " moderates" of the time. His brief minis- 
 try, brief for those days, ten years, was closed by 
 his death. But the poison distilled so sweetly from 
 his lips had spread widely, and prepared the way 
 for his successor. 
 
 Nearly contemporary with him, in the other 
 church, presided one of the fairest intellects that 
 adorned the annals of New England, afterwards the
 
 head of our leading University. Predominant in 
 genius, varied and profound learning, eloquence 
 that charmed the wisest into, at least a momenta- 
 ry forgetfulness of his errors, this eminent man 
 united a deep rooted hostility to spiritual religion, 
 with those doctrinal errors by which, alone, he is 
 now widely known to mankind. He was the first 
 author in our land who sought to shake the faith 
 of men in the justice of the retributions of eternity. 
 Every scholar has read his treatise, and the reply to 
 it by the Master Spirit of that age, and yet the hum- 
 ble preacher of a spiritual faith. 
 
 The great errorist did not so openly assail the 
 other doctrines of the Bible. He hinted doubts 
 whether the depravity of the heart was entire ; 
 whether man's dependance on divine grace was 
 complete ; urged more strongly man's freedom of 
 action ; and dwelt chiefly, in his preaching, on the 
 effects of religion on the social charities of life. 
 
 His eloquence in the pulpit, and the influence of 
 his writings did very much to shake the faith of the 
 younger part of the people in Home, and all the 
 surrounding country. Two such eloquent and pop- 
 ular men, both without Christ in their hearts, both 
 avoiding every doctrine obnoxious to human pride ; 
 both learned, commanding the respect of all their 
 generation, might have made shipwreck of the faith
 
 40 HOME. 
 
 of the people, almost, had no other agencies been 
 at work for that end. If they could not move the 
 matured disciple from his steadfastness, they might, 
 and did prepare a new race, to stand in the room 
 of their pious fathers, without the same zeal for 
 pure principles and holy living. What lessons are 
 these of the need of looking first for holiness, next 
 for soundness in the faith of those to whom we en- 
 trust the care of souls ! I speak of both of these 
 men as without spirituality. An unconverted min- 
 ister, in that age, was not very rare, as the records 
 of the times too certainly prove. The churches, 
 grown worldly, sought and found pastors after their 
 own hearts, and those who avoided the " offence of 
 the cross" voted themselves the "enlightened," 
 the " liberal party " of their day. Endowed with in- 
 tellectual resources, many of them were above their 
 fellows. But their wisdom was that of " this world," 
 which is " foolishness with God." 
 
 One fact deserves mention, both as an instance 
 and a proof of the feelings of the great man. No 
 one now doubts whatever may be his creed that 
 Wesley and Whitefield were " chosen vessels " of 
 mercy to revive spiritual life in the Protestant world. 
 The one founded a community, tireless in their be- 
 neficent labors for the good of man. The other, 
 though he gave his name to no sect, exerted per-
 
 HOME. 41 
 
 haps a wider influence, by his preaching, in reviv- 
 ing the life of religion in all sects. His sermons 
 were not very logical or didactic. But with an el- 
 oquence never surpassed, and a pathos that moved 
 the heart, " day and night, with tears " he preached 
 the simple and majestic doctrines of redemption. 
 The worldly ministers and churches resisted bis la- 
 bors. But to all who received him, God made him 
 the source of the richest spiritual gifts. The pas- 
 tors of Home not only refused to receive White- 
 field, or bid him God speed ! but took the lead in 
 the remonstrances of the worldly lovers of ease 
 against his labors. 
 
 Such a " comet " was not to be suffered. Such 
 " excitements crazed men," instead of imbuing their 
 minds with " rational views of religion." The peo- 
 ple followed the example of their pastors, and the pall 
 of spiritual death gathered more darkly over them. 
 
 The creeds of the churches were still adhered to 
 in form; and sounder models of a saving faith are 
 seldom to be found ; but it is doubtful whether at 
 this period, one half the people believed them. 
 
 I shall not confine myself to precise dates or the 
 order of events. The war of the Revolution follow- 
 ed, preceded by years of bloody struggle with the 
 French and Indians, in which many a soldier from 
 Home gallantly discharged a soldier's duty. 
 4*
 
 42 HOME. 
 
 War is the scourge of God, with which he chas- 
 tises guilty nations. When waged for the noblest 
 objects, to obtain or preserve civil, personal or re- 
 ligious liberty, it is still a fearful curse. It substi- 
 tutes the law of force for the rules of right and jus- 
 tice. It sanctions every disregard of the rights of 
 mankind, given them by God their Creator, in or- 
 der to inflict the greatest possible evils on those 
 whom we are bound to love as our brethren, and 
 to benefit as the sons of one father. Property, pu- 
 rity, honor, life, all fall a sacrifice to its power. And 
 no man can inflict such evils upon another without 
 diminishing in his own heart, the sense of the sa- 
 cred nature of the obligation to respect all these, in 
 all men. God never made one man or nation to be 
 the enemy of another. Wars and fightings are the 
 product of " lusts," wicked passions alone. The 
 " religious " wars that followed the Reformation al- 
 most destroyed the immediate spiritual benefits of 
 that great awakening of the human soul to light and 
 pardon. Our own Revolution, though exempt from 
 some of the evils that have followed in the train of 
 war, brought curses as well as blessings with it I 
 speak not of the sacking and burning of towns, the 
 plundering of the hamlet and farm, the waste of 
 life and vast loss of property in other forms. All 
 these are evils that pass away in half a generation,
 
 HOME . 43 
 
 and are forgotten. But the moral results of that 
 contest were not all such as the patriot and the 
 Christian could desire. 
 
 The French soldiery brought with them the 
 coarse, brutal, hut witty infidelity then rife in their 
 native land. Multitudes of our youth, and even 
 eminent statesmen were carried away captive by 
 the ridicule of Voltaire, the eloquence of Rosseau, 
 and the sophisms of Bayle, Diderot, D'Alembertand 
 their co-laborers in the bold attempt to "crush the 
 wretch," as the shallow wit of Fermay dared to call 
 that Glorious One " in whom dwelleth all the full- 
 ness of the Godhead, bodily." 
 
 Despite the efforts of Washington to repress both, 
 profane swearing and intemperance became com- 
 mon in the army, among both officers and soldiers. 
 It is said that a profane oath was never known, in 
 Home, before the war. The vice became frequent, 
 on the return of the soldiers. Home was a patriot- 
 ic town. She supplied more soldiers to the army 
 than any town in the country, in proportion to the 
 population. The bones of her sons repose in every 
 battls-field, from Bunker Hill to Yorktowu. But of 
 those who survived, alas, many returned to scourge 
 their families by their intemperance, and defile the 
 ears of their children by their curses. The young 
 are eager imitators. Their nature is seen in the
 
 44 HOME. 
 
 readiness with which they run, not walk, in the 
 road that leads to death. The generation that fol- 
 lowed learned a full measure of these pernicious 
 ways. 
 
 As the bitterness of that contest has long since 
 passed away, and the descendants of whig and to- 
 ry alike enjoy and rejoice in the blessings of equal 
 liberty, we can afford to do justice to those who 
 were then spoken of as " enemies of their country," 
 I mean the tories. It is beyond question true, that 
 many of the wisest, purest, most pious, liberty-lov- 
 ing men of that age opposed the war, from its be- 
 ginning to its close. Some few really preferred a 
 monarchy. Among the patriot statesmen, after the 
 war, even, such a party existed ! Many more were 
 averse to severing the ties that bound them to the 
 mother country, at least, till oppression took forms 
 less capable of endurance. Some did not see why 
 subjects who claimed the rights secured by the 
 Common Law of England, should not be governed 
 by the authority of the king and parliament who 
 were the public ministers of that law. Others were 
 men of peace, hating and dreading civil strife ; but, 
 when it was over, quite ready to enjoy its results. 
 
 The tories had one of two courses before them, 
 when Independence was once declared. They 
 must abandon their homes, and all their property
 
 HOME. 45 
 
 they could not carry with them, and enlist in the 
 British army, or flee to foreign lands ; or else, they 
 must remain in quiet, waiting for the event, and 
 submitting to all the exactions of their more patri- 
 otic brethren. And it is capable of ample proof, 
 that the whigs made their tory neighbors pay far 
 more than their share of all the expenses of a war 
 opposed both to their principles and wishes. 
 
 Nearly an hundred of the most substantial farm- 
 ers of Home were tories, in feeling. The town re- 
 cords show that, at one time, as many as sixty were 
 placed under the special surveillance of the Com- 
 mittee of Safety ; the helpless lamb in the lion's 
 mouth was not more sure of being made a victim ! 
 It is amusing to read over the doings of our patriot- 
 ic sires ! Large requisitions often came from Head 
 Quarters for supplies for the troops. Was clothing 
 wanting for the naked soldiers at Valley Forge ? 
 The Committee of Safety discovered that their tory 
 brethren had sheared more sheep, and woven more 
 cloth, by far, than the whigs. Were provisions 
 needed ? Every one knew that the tones' crops 
 were better than those of their neighbors' ! They 
 had nothing else to do, but to till the ground ! Was 
 money wanted to pay the valiant defenders of their 
 country ? The whigs were ready to sacrifice life, 
 but they, the tories, had such hordes of English
 
 46 HOME. 
 
 gold ! So, in all cases, the requisition was met, in 
 chief, by levying contributions on the defenceless 
 lories. " It was but just that the enemies of the lib- 
 erties of the people should be made to pay for their 
 want of patriotism." Much as our whig fathers and 
 mothers sacrificed on the altar of their country, no 
 one, who has looked into the local annals of that 
 time can doubt that the resident tories were taxed 
 far more for the expenses of the war. They would 
 not peril limb or life ; but in every other form they 
 must serve their country ! Happily, the grandson 
 of a member of the Committee of Safety the tax 
 levying power of that day can sit with the grand- 
 child of the then tory, and smile at the deeds of '76, 
 and rejoice in the freedom secured both by the per- 
 ils and trials of the time. But the disregard of the 
 common laws and rights of property, and the feel- 
 ings of good neighborhood and social life was not 
 without effect in hastening the decay of piety, where 
 its fires already burned so dim. Alienations, jeal- 
 ousies, revenge, remembered scorn and party bit- 
 terness, the inevitable fruits of civil strife, are not 
 found in the catalogue of the graces of the Spirit. 
 The public mind was so entirely absorbed in the 
 great conflict, that even the forms of Sabbath wor- 
 ship were often forgotten, and family prayer omit- 
 ted in many a dwelling, whose heads were fighting
 
 HOME. 47 
 
 their country's battles, or maddened by whig taxes 
 to support a cause they hated. 
 
 Down to the beginning of that war, hardly a fam- 
 ily or an individual was ever needlessly absent from 
 public worship. In almost every house, certainly 
 in all those of church-members, social worship and 
 the instruction of the young were not neglected. 
 " Oh yes, I larri't all that, in my young days," was 
 the remark of an aged, and profane woman to me, 
 when I reproved her for her sins. " We all larn't 
 the catechise, in them days, and said it to our min- 
 ister ; but I never was much the better for it" It 
 was too true. Her father, after fighting his country's 
 battles, died a drunkard. I would not have the 
 reader think that such inelegant phrases are com- 
 mon in Home. They are very rare. But I often 
 think of that old woman one who was very kind 
 to me in childhood, as one of the sorrowful results 
 of the want of an example of the power of religion 
 in the parents, before the eyes of the young one 
 of the kindest hearts God ever made in a woman's 
 breast was embittered against the truth by a drunk- 
 en father's influence. Of all the scores of our pa- 
 triot soldiers, I can recall but four or five who died 
 with the Christian's hope. Oh how many went 
 down to the dark, dishonored grave of the drunkard ! 
 And few of the first generation of their descend-
 
 48 
 
 ants showed any more proofs of spiritual life. From 
 the grosser evils of war Home was happily exempt; 
 but its moral desolations were deeply felt, and there 
 was less of the power of religion, than in many 
 places, to resist them. Too grateful to our fathers, 
 we cannot be, for the legacy of freedom they left 
 us. But that should not close our eyes to the evils 
 of warfare, even to obtain blessings so great Let 
 us learn the lesson so debasing to the glory of fall- 
 en man, that a warlike people will certainly become 
 depraved in morals. The highest glories are those 
 of peace. When the world's history is reviewed at 
 the Judgment, and re-written in the future life, the 
 man of peace will take the place of the soldier as 
 the only real benefactor of his kind. Hasten, O 
 Lord, that day, when, 
 
 " No war, nor battle's sound, 
 Is heard the earth around," 
 
 but Christ, the Prince of Peace shall reign over a 
 world of holy hearts !
 
 HOME. 
 
 49 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Like people, like priest The worldly pastor described 
 The deist in the pulpit Church discipline neglected 
 Religions ideas lost The heart wiser than the intellect 
 The deacon's faith Pure faith connected with pros- 
 perity The ball. 
 
 A WORLDLY flock will not have a spiritual shep- 
 herd. Those who love sin do not love to be re- 
 proved for it, nor will they, commonly, bear it, un- 
 less the reproofs of the faithful pastor are enforced 
 by examples of holy living, and his hands are stay- 
 ed up by fervent prayer. 
 
 Not far from the close of the French War, a pas- 
 tor was settled in one of our churches, who was 
 eminent for almost everything but fidelity to a pas- 
 tor's proper duties. A patriot he was ; none loved 
 his country better ; none more ready to serve her 
 and exhort others to do so, in the hour of her peril. 
 A statesman was he ; none were more capable of 
 sound judgment respecting the measures of gov- 
 ernment; few more decided in the expression of 
 their views. A gentleman, in manners ; dignified, 
 courteous, refined, at least in his earlier life ; amia- 
 5
 
 50 HOME. 
 
 ble in bis manners and feelings. A scholar ; few 
 wore the honors of their Alma Mater with a better 
 grace ; he deserved them. A wit ; the country 
 round, to the end of time, will remember his dry 
 jests, his proverbial sayings, often full of point and 
 practical wisdom. A farmer ; his sermons on ag- 
 riculture, on soils, on the culture of fruit, on bees, 
 on cattle and sheep, on every interest of the hus- 
 bandman, would do honor to the orator of a Cattle 
 Fair. They were of much service to the labor of 
 the town. He ever inculcated industry as the 
 highest of social virtues. It does save multitudes 
 from sin who would perish in it, if they lived an 
 idle life. 
 
 He was social in his habits ; a good companion 
 to the young and old was the pastor ; none more so. 
 Every one welcomed him, for they expected in- 
 struction or amusement, but fatal defect ! not a 
 reproof for their sinful life, or a warning to repent. 
 He had a fund of common sense ; no better coun- 
 seller could be found in the affairs of life, none was 
 resorted to with so much confidence. He was re- 
 spected and loved, but not for his fidelity to the 
 souls of his people. 
 
 That he believed in the doctrine of the Trinity, 
 his papers show. But he held it to be too myste- 
 rious to preach upon it. Selfish, he knew men to
 
 HOME. 51 
 
 he ; some of his keenest maxims are hits at man's 
 natural tendency to sin. But no faithful picture of 
 our fallen nature, no warning to " flee from the 
 wrath to come," fell from his lips. He used to say 
 that his " young people were very good ; he should 
 not trouble them with the doctrine of a new birth ; 
 he would be bound for them !" The atoning Sa- 
 viour he did not know, the cross he did not preach. 
 True, he never derided the great Hope of the guilty ; 
 but he allowed a whole generation to live without 
 that Hope. 
 
 He was an acute judge and delineator of char- 
 acter. His funeral prayers contained a minute 
 sketch of the deceased person's life, and a shrewd, 
 often very humorous delineation of his virtues and 
 foibles, and even of his manners and personal pe- 
 culiarities. Crowds attended his funeral services 
 to hear this treat ; a scene sometimes painful to 
 those who were not his friends. It was commonly 
 said that he " prayed all his people into heaven," 
 though it was sometimes dryly added, " he had very 
 hard work with such an one !" There was no rever- 
 ence, no humility in bis prayers ; and people forgot 
 the solemnity of an approach to the throne of God. 
 
 The catechetical instruction of the young he laid 
 aside, on the plea that it was not suited for their tender 
 minds. Nor did he ever substitute any other form
 
 of imparting the truths of the gospel to them. The 
 young treasured up his proverbs, but these had lit- 
 tle to do with Christ or the way of life. At his 
 death, there was not one young person, of either 
 sex, belonging to his church ! The use of the 
 creed was finally laid aside, in the admission of 
 members. Persons of good moral life, were never 
 objected to as members, because they had not been 
 born of the Spirit. All inquiries into the state of 
 their hearts ceased. It was customary, in the re- 
 spectable circles, to unite with the church on the 
 occasion of marriage, the birth of children, or in 
 seasons of affliction. It was respectable to do so. 
 Still, the members of the church constantly lessen- 
 ed, till few remained who had not reached middle 
 life. Gradually it ceased to be expected that mem- 
 bers of the church would maintain family worship, 
 on week days, or at alL At a more recent period I 
 can well remember when only two of that church 
 ever prayed in public, or in their families. But one 
 ehurch officer did so. 
 
 The pastor visited his people ; the wealthy, edu- 
 cated, and refined, often ; but nearly all once a year. 
 But the objects of pastoral visits, the instruction of 
 the family, and the acquaintance with the spiritual 
 wants of the individual members of it, personal ex- 
 hortation to holy living, and even prayer were for-
 
 53 
 
 gotten. As he advanced in life, many ceased to be 
 visited at all. In his, and his successor's time, some 
 families could say, "no minister has entered our 
 house for thirty years, save at a wedding or a fu- 
 neral." 
 
 As pastoral visits ceased or lost their appropriate 
 character, the people began very extensively to^ neg- 
 lect public worship, save at intervals, that grew 
 more and more rare. When the pastor ceased to 
 teach the young, parents soon followed the evil ex- 
 ample. Family worship, and family instruction 
 became almost equally rare. The poor, and the 
 distant members of the flock, not attracted by the 
 preaching of the cross, or warned by a faithful 
 pastor, ceased to frequent the house of God. 
 
 In the other church, the like causes had pro- 
 duced to some extent, the same results, though a 
 spiritual pastor had succeeded the great teacher of 
 error, and his labors had fanned awhile the decay- 
 ing spark of holiness. 
 
 Thus lived and died a whole generation who 
 " knew not the Lord," with few exceptions. There 
 was very little positive error prevalent, at the close 
 of this period ; none in an active or organized form, 
 to deceive the simple. There was not enough of 
 spiritual truth exhibited to alarm the corrupt heart, 
 and lead it to seek any theoretical " refuge of lies" 
 5*
 
 54 HOME. 
 
 to soothe the awakened conscience. The pastors to 
 whom I listened in my childhood were little calcu- 
 lated to restore the lost soul of religion, the spirit 
 of love. They are both in their graves, in their 
 eternity. I loved them both, I loved their children, 
 I would speak of them with tenderness. But were 
 they Gol's ministers? One of them was a man 
 amiable in his social character, gentle in his man- 
 ners, a lover of children. Respectable as a preach- 
 er, he rather alluded to, than uttered the truths of 
 religion, which yet he did not really mean to de- 
 ny. Probably, till near the close of life, he lived 
 without piety in his own soul. Still, those who 
 preferred preaching more directly addressed to the 
 conscience, and that which approached nearer to 
 the good old gospel of salvation, preferred him to 
 his co-laborer. There was not enough of vital 
 power to rekindle the flame of pure religion ; not 
 enough of error or obvious want of truth to destroy 
 the piety that other causes had iaduced. Of the 
 other, it was once said, that his head was a huge 
 lumber garret, full 'of every kind of learning, which 
 he lacked the skill to use. A poet by nature, his 
 sermons were often beautiful ; solemn they never 
 were. Elegant in person, and, when he chose, in 
 manners also, his pride made him unsocial with the 
 poor and obscure of the flock. Visits, save to a
 
 HOME. 55 
 
 few favorites among the wealthy, he never made. 
 Few believed that he prayed in secret His pub- 
 lic prayers were well described by a rude but clear 
 headed laborious man, as " very handsome com- 
 pliments to the Almighty." I have listened to the 
 prayers of men of every sect. It is often said that 
 men will pray the truths they deny in their preach- 
 ing. Not so with him. 1 never knew another man 
 in whose prayers there was so little recognition of 
 sin, our dependence, need of mercy, a Saviour, or 
 a possible future retribution. With him, the Sa- 
 viour was a man, simply ; a good one, though 
 not free from imperfections in judgment or opin- 
 ion. The writings of the apostles were imper- 
 fect records of a gospel, which we were to be- 
 lieve or reject, as their statement accorded with 
 our own reason and advanced state of know- 
 ledge. No sacrifice for sin was needed. The good- 
 ness of God would overlook our imperfections, the 
 result of weakness, more than intention. The 
 heart was not depraved, but pure by nature, as an 
 angel's; and needed only an appropriate educa- 
 tion to fit it to mingle with them, if, indeed, there 
 were angels. To be " born again," was to renounce 
 heathenism, or Judaism. It applied to none in 
 Christian lands, save those of openly immoral life. 
 If there was any hell, there was no devil ! It was
 
 56 HOME. 
 
 often said that our minister " had preached the 
 devil out of town," though few exactly believed it ! 
 Eternal punishment was derided, the atonement 
 scoffed at, pretences to spiritual life scorned, evan- 
 gelical faith habitually treated as a pitiable weak- 
 ness, or fond superstition. Such were the les- 
 sons of more than a quarter of a century. To such 
 lessons I listened in my childhood. The doctrines 
 he derided were never clearly stated ; so that the 
 people, having no other source of knowledge, were 
 prejudiced against truths, the nature and import of 
 which few of them knew. It is no strange thing 
 that the churches became quite small. 
 
 In all this period, church discipline was utterly 
 neglected. I can recall openly profane, drunken, 
 lascivious persons, and those not in obscure life, 
 who were quietly tolerated in the church. Indeed, 
 I remember hearing a sermon in which the right to 
 define the terms of membership was ridiculed. 
 The practice and theory accorded well. The his- 
 tory of the church is everywhere full of warning 
 to fidelity in discipline. Who would respect a 
 church, when its richest member was openly al- 
 leged, without denial, to be an immoral man ? Why 
 care about belonging to a church, when there was 
 no recognized difference, in life, spirit, or future hopes, 
 between those who were, and those who were not
 
 HOME. 57 
 
 members of it ? Where a church is kept pure, by 
 faithful discipline, and the power of a living faith, 
 it assimilates to its own purity the world around it. 
 The same high tone of morals that reigns within, 
 will also prevail around it, to the extent of its in- 
 fluence. But where discipline casts no immoral 
 person out of the church, the power of the church 
 to purify the world is lost 
 
 I have often been struck with the dearth of re- 
 ligious ideas, in communities situated as Home once 
 was. Even the highly cultivated and literary, un- 
 der such influences, have often not the least ac- 
 quaintance with truths familiar to the children of a 
 Christian household. One of the most intellectual 
 women of Home, one not unknown in the litera- 
 ture of the country, once wished me to explain 
 what " we," (Christians) " meant by atonement She 
 had never kuown what ideas we attached to it" 
 She was once a member of a church. But when, 
 as sometimes happens, the Holy Spirit begins to 
 teach persons so trained, and to open their eyes to 
 a perception of spiritual things, the struggle of the 
 mind with its own ignorance and errors is curious, 
 as well as painful. Conversing, once, with one of 
 the purest minds that adorn our land a mind so 
 trained, but taught in heart, by the Spirit, to an ex- 
 tent far beyond her intellectual perceptions of the
 
 58 HOME. 
 
 truth, I saw evident proofs that the Life of God 
 was begun in the soul. The spirit and power of 
 Love was there. Self-denial was familiar. There 
 was a deep sense, a personal conviction of inward 
 depravity, that no teaching of man's native purity 
 could shake. The worldly and spiritual were clear- 
 ly discerned. The doctrinal views of Christ were 
 very defective. There was a feeling of dependance 
 on him, without any distinct knowledge of its ne- 
 cessity. Said I, " do you not, when you enjoy pray- 
 er and communion with God, feel such a love for, 
 and reliance on Christ, as you know you ought not 
 to feel on any save the Infinite God ?" There was 
 an agitated pause. " Yes," she said, " and it has 
 often troubled me, to reconcile my theory with my 
 heart." The heart, taught of God, was right ; the 
 theory, received from the teachers of error, was 
 wrong. With others, hearing only error, and not 
 taught of the Spirit, the ideas of the gospel are all 
 novelties. With the Bible in their hands, and, 
 sometimes read, they seem utterly unacquainted 
 with its principles. It struck me with astonishment, 
 once, in preaching in such a community, to see 
 how the most familiar truths had all the force of 
 novelties. It requires years of labor to make an 
 adult mind, so trained to be ignorant, acquainted 
 with the truths a little child easily learns and often
 
 HOME. 59 
 
 loves. The worthy deacon who " believed as the 
 minister did," but was not sure what the minister 
 believed, is no unapt representative of this class of 
 men. Thougli I am concerned chiefly with the 
 moral and spiritual results of the declension, there 
 are other features that have forcibly struck me. 
 True religion is eminently favorable both to indus- 
 try and enlarged enterprise. Its great truths give 
 vigor to the mind, and fit it for success in worldly 
 pursuits. For twenty years our young men, if they 
 had any higher enterprise or ambition, left Home 
 for other, often distant places. Few of this class 
 remained ; not enough to supply the places of the 
 fathers. I can count up almost twenty old family 
 mansions, inhabited for two hundred years, that 
 have decayed from this cause. For an equal pe- 
 riod a visible decline in agriculture was noticed. 
 Good farms lying uncultivated were not rare. 
 
 On a revival of the early faith, both the agricul- 
 tural prosperity of the town returned, and the ac- 
 tive youth began to settle in Home ; till, at last, in 
 one section of it, a village, for the first time in its 
 history sprang up ; a village evidently gathered as 
 the fruit of a purer religion. The connection be- 
 tween a pure faith and worldly prosperity is not 
 unknown to wicked men. I know another town, 
 where some men who were bitterly hostile to the
 
 60 
 
 truths of the Bible were consulting about measures 
 to increase the value of their property. Their vil- 
 lage seemed about to decay. Valuable inhabitants 
 were retained in their employment with difficulty. 
 " We must have a church, said one." It was 
 agreed to by all. "What shall it be?" was the 
 next inquiry. On mature deliberation they decid- 
 ed to have a thoroughly evangelical church, as best 
 adapted to secure an industrious, pure, refined com- 
 munity, increase its members, and so, ensure the 
 enhanced value of their property. They have not 
 been disappointed in the result. And some of them, 
 who, in enmity to the Saviour, thus acknowledged 
 his power to benefit mankind, have since learned 
 the value of his grace in their own hearts. 
 
 Return we to the darker shades of the picture. 
 A fact occurring at a later date illustrates the state 
 of spiritual death such causes produce. There is 
 no more evil in dancing than in jumping the rope, 
 in itself The abuses of it have armed pure church- 
 es so generally against it. But it is a characteristic 
 of a dead faith, that no difference of life or spirit is 
 expected when persons unite with the church. A 
 young and tenderly conscientious girl made a pro- 
 fession of her faith. The thanksgiving ball, with its 
 midnight revelry, occurred soon after, just before 
 the communion day. She was invited to attend.
 
 HOME. 61 
 
 " Shall I go ?" she asked one of the oldest members 
 of the church. " Certainly ; it would be foolish to 
 decline. Religion interferes with none of our 
 pleasures." In one sense it is so. It requires us to 
 lay aside nothing, which, on the whole, is a source 
 of enjoyment, at least without supplying far higher 
 and purer sources of happiness in its stead. I never 
 heard, in the old churches of Home, any difference 
 between the characters of men ascribed to their 
 profession of the faith of the gospel, as it was then 
 preached. And there was no reason to do so ! 
 Our Lord told the disciples, that the world would 
 hate them. " If ye were of the world, the world 
 would love his own. But because ye are not of the 
 world, therefore the world hateth you." The amia- 
 ble qualities of the Christian are fitted to win the 
 love of worldly persons. But when the difference 
 of principle and spirit becomes so small that the 
 Christian or professed disciple's life ceases to re- 
 prove sin, there is no ground for alienation. The 
 most determined lover of sin need not hate such dis- 
 ciples. But the holy are like the refiner's fire. 
 Their very presence is a restraint on sinful thoughts, 
 feelings and conduct, such as wicked men cannot 
 well endure. As all barriers to membership were 
 laid aside, any one who wished could become a 
 church member, whose conscience did not, after 
 6
 
 62 HOME. 
 
 all, whisper the need of some fitness he did not 
 possess to approach the table of the Lord. Even 
 when the pastor invited some to unite, conscience 
 led them to refuse. And though the church 
 danced at the midnight ball, not a few disliked to 
 see the minister there, even as a looker on. u It 
 did not seem right." The office reproved their 
 folly, long after the teachings or holy living of the 
 man who filled it ceased to do so. " Stop sinning ; 
 the minister is coming," should be the result of 
 his approach. And when he lives the life of faith 
 on the son of God, his very shadow, like that of 
 Peter, shall check the spiritual disease of the fallen 
 soul. His voice, though melting with tender love, 
 shall reprove with more power than the earth- 
 quake's terror, or the whirlwind's rage.
 
 63 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The shades grow darker Pulpit exchanges with error- 
 ists No social prayer The closet forgotten Neglect 
 of worship The Sabbath desecrated Covetousness, 
 which is idolatry : examples. 
 
 WHETHER the elders of the present race of our 
 pastors were wise in refusing to exchange pulpit 
 services with the teachers of error, many doubted. 
 It was needful to show men that such teachers 
 were not recognized as ministers of Christ. And 
 outward conduct impresses most men far more than 
 mere words. But it is certain that this non-inter- 
 course sealed the spiritual death of many churches 
 in which a " little strength" remained. Their pas- 
 tors deemed themselves insulted ; the people pitied, 
 sympathized with them; and then, shut up to their 
 lifeless teachings, they refused to hear the words of 
 life at all. Many towns became, at once, mission- 
 ary ground, in which it was harder to find a place 
 to utter saving truth than in the towns of Hindostau. 
 The bitterness of religious strife entered social life, 
 and friends could no longer speak to friends of 
 Christ and God without rousing every baleful pas-
 
 64 HOME. 
 
 sion. The darkest days of Home were subsequent 
 to this separation, though causes of a revival of a 
 purer faith had arisen. The last results of religious 
 error and an unfaithful ministry are best seen as 
 they contrast with the rising power of a pure faith. 
 Nay, they are not fully developed till that contrast 
 is felt. 
 
 Social religion disappeared from Home. For 
 eighty years tradition has no record of a prayer- 
 meeting in the town. And when the deistical 
 pastor, with great reluctance consented to the es- 
 tablishment of a Sabbath school, but two members 
 were found in the church willing to pray in public. 
 The popular feeling respecting prayer was shown 
 in a remark of a plain -man. A sick man, in a 
 dying state, wished to hear prayer. The pastor 
 was absent. None could be found to pray for him. 
 The physician, long a member of the church, de- 
 clined. Alas, he did not pray in secret! "Why," 
 said the man, " I should think the doctor might 
 have prayed. He has learning enough." It did not 
 enter into the man's head that a humble heart was 
 the element of acceptable prayer, or that a spiritual 
 experience would fit a man, however poorly gifted, 
 to pray with the dying far better than the possession 
 of all knowledge. 
 
 The neglect of secret prayer was nearly as uni-
 
 versal as the omission of it in the family. Not that, 
 in hours of sickness or danger the mind never 
 turned to God, or ever used the words of petition 
 to Him. I have smiled at the sensitiveness of 
 many when I have asked them, "do you pray in 
 secret ?" Those who seldom or never did, always 
 evaded it ; often with some marks of displeasure. 
 But it was plain enough they had no habits of 
 secret prayer, no stated seasons for it, no delight in 
 it. Among those who do pray, and love to do so ? 
 it is always easy to learn the facts respecting their 
 habits of secret prayer. They have no motive for 
 hiding it. But the prayerless would not be thought 
 utterly to forget God ! I could never learn, by dili- 
 gent inquiry, that ten members of the churches of 
 Home habitually prayed in secret. Their life in 
 this respect was in keeping with their whole con- 
 duct Private prayer, social prayer, public prayer, 
 are all linked together in the heart that loves to 
 pray. In a whole church one is not forgotten till 
 the others are laid aside. 
 
 The neglect of public worship increased, as the 
 power of the gospel ceased to be felt in the lives of 
 its professed votaries. At a period more recent, 
 less than one-third of the adult inhabitants of Home 
 were habitually found in all the places of public 
 worship. The services at weddings and funerals 
 6*
 
 were the only occasions on which anything like 
 religion was seen in this dark group. But many, 
 in sight of the church and the pastor's house, were 
 equally negligent. Yet none reproved, none in- 
 vited, none warned them. " No man cared for their 
 souls." I always set down the neglect of public 
 worship to the want of faithfulness in the pastor. 
 Faithful preaching, and faithful pastoral visits, with 
 much prayer, will leave few or none to neglect the 
 public means of grace. How unlike the early 
 habits of the people of Home, when every occa- 
 sional absence was matter of inquiry, if not of re- 
 proof! 
 
 Sabbath desecration followed, of course. There 
 were few who made it a day of toil. It was rather 
 a day of jollity, of social visits, of idle talk, of rides, 
 of wandering in the fields to pick berries ; a day of 
 pleasure, instead of a season for worship, for read- 
 ing, for prayer, or beneficial converse. Labor was 
 not avoided because God forbade it, but because it 
 was irksome. The holy day, became a holiday 
 merely. The physical rest of the day was enjoyed, 
 and that is a great blessing to man and beast ; but 
 its spiritual objects were worse than lost. The pro- 
 found religious ignorance of these neighborhoods, 
 by dwellers in a Christian town, can hardly be con- 
 ceived. The name of Christ was not unknown ;
 
 but his character and offices were alike forgotten. 
 Sinful man does not " like to retain God in his 
 knowledge." And without a faithful ministry and 
 a living church, a Christian town, in a few years, 
 would relapse into virtual heathenism. There are 
 two errors, equally fatal, in the end. One is ultra 
 spiritualism, which is so holy as to need no Sabbath, 
 no days of worship, no union of hearts in prayer and 
 praises. The other extreme makes religion a thing 
 for the Sabbath, the sick bed and old age. We 
 need a Sabbath to cultivate our spiritual nature. 
 But truly spiritual affections go with us everywhere. 
 The merchant of Albany, N. Y., who asked " What 
 lias religion to do with selling lumber?" had as 
 little correct knowledge of the nature of true piety, 
 t\s the man who needs no hours sacred to devotion, 
 no Bible to guide his already perfect mind in the 
 way of truth. In Home, in my young days, we had 
 the lumber merchant's religion, so far as there was 
 any. It had no power to control men's passions, no 
 influence over their daily business. 
 
 " The love of money is the root of all evil," or of 
 every kind and form of sin, according to the cir- 
 cumstances in which the covetous, grasping spirit 
 is placed. Sometimes he plunders the poor with- 
 out regard to law. At others, he uses every unfair 
 advantage within the letter of the Statutes. The
 
 68 HOME. 
 
 poor man may be covetous, but in the rich only does 
 the sin become widely injurious to others. "Cov- 
 etousness is idolatry." No surer mark of a fallen 
 church is found than covetousness and the oppres- 
 sion of the poor on the part of the rich. Some of 
 the richest men in Home belonged to the churches, 
 in my boyhood. One of them, the least guilty, in- 
 creased his gains by loans at usurious interest, on 
 mortgages, which he seldom allowed to be redeem- 
 ed. His immense wealth has fallen into the hands 
 of the pious, who will use it for God and the good 
 of man. Another died the owner of several farms 
 obtained by loans on mortgage to those rendered 
 needy by intemperance and other vices. For half 
 their value he stripped them of their possessions, 
 and then held them as tenants. What difference 
 made it in his relations to the church ? 
 
 Still another obtained almost equal wealth by 
 means more openly criminal. By the same system 
 of loans he obtained control over the poor. He 
 encouraged their intemperance by paying them for 
 labor in rum. He despoiled them of their earnings 
 by settling their accounts while they were half 
 drunken. They must submit to his extortion, or be 
 turned out of dwellings no longer their own. All 
 these proud, ungodly men, were members of the 
 fallen churches of Home. If they were the worst,
 
 HOME. 69 
 
 they were the richest Their sin did not destroy 
 their honor. The common sense of mankind 
 might decide that such men were not fitted for a 
 holy heaven. But none questioned their right to 
 a place in the churches called by the holy name of 
 Christ. Their power for evil was greater ; their 
 breasts more hardened than those of many others. 
 The naturally generous despised their acts of mean- 
 ness, now and then brought to public notice. But 
 their worldly spirit too surely reigned in the church- 
 es to incur any censure. Most men did not see, in 
 their spirit, anything so very unlike their own, or 
 so different from that of other church members, as 
 to require rebuke. They died, and the "people 
 made a great mourning for them." Funeral ser- 
 mons spake of their social virtues, their regard for 
 religion, their titles to the esteem of their fellow 
 men. Who has not some virtues ? Some qualities 
 that win respect and love ? When the young ruler 
 "went away sorrowful because he had great pos- 
 sessions," he showed the power of a worldly, cove- 
 tous spirit over his soul. He could not give up all 
 he had for Christ's sake. He would have been a 
 worthy member of our churches in Home, never- 
 theless. Was he not so excellent that Jesus loved 
 him? He had many virtues, one sin. With very 
 many the balance is very far the other way. They
 
 70 HOME. 
 
 have many sins, few redeeming traits. The one 
 sin shut him out from the favor of God just as sure- 
 ly as if his head were gray with a life of varied 
 crime. No sin now debases the true living church- 
 es of our Lord so much as covetousness. To give 
 that which is entirely convenient without the sacri- 
 fice of one hour of ease, one luxury, one social com- 
 fort, one mode of increasing one's gains, is all that 
 many deem requisite to illustrate their faith. It 
 does illustrate their faith. It is small indeed ! The 
 few who give more freely of money, withhold time 
 and personal labor for man's welfare. That is 
 more valuable than money. The fewer still who 
 appropriate a tenth of their income to benevolence 
 and charity have reached a sublime height of self- 
 denial to which the many dare not aspire ! True, 
 if all the churches did so much, there would be no 
 lack of means to renew on earth the glory of para- 
 dise in one generation. But the spirit of love in 
 the heart is even more wanting than the gifts of 
 gold. Both are needed to fill the world with the 
 knowledge of Christ. In vain do we profess to 
 consecrate our all to Christ, while we do so little 
 for him, and by our life prove that the spirit of self- 
 denial does not rule in our hearts. As well might 
 Ananias and Sapphira claim the favor of God, as 
 the members of a worldly church who profess so
 
 HOME. 71 
 
 much, and withhold so much more than is meet, 
 from the service of God. He who lives to himself, 
 is not a disciple. He who heaps up gold for him- 
 self, is not the imitator of Christ. He who makes 
 money for Christ, is a rare disciple, and may be set 
 down, with a degree of certainty, as one " whose 
 life is hid with Christ, in God."
 
 72 HOME. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Intemperance abounding-* Death and crime Lewdness 
 The sins of the parents visited on their children a true 
 story One covenant remembered. 
 
 IN what part of our land have not the curses of 
 alcohol been felt, in every form of suffering and woe 
 by which man's lot is made bitter ? The only dif- 
 ference in the degrees in which the woe prevailed 
 arose from the previous moral and religious state of 
 the community. Sixty years ago drunkenness was 
 rare in our New England towns. In 1780 a vene- 
 rable relative noticed, in a small country tavern, the 
 amount of liquors sold. It was three barrels annu- 
 ally. In 1830 he visited the same tavern, kept in the 
 same old house, hardly a shingle of which was 
 changed, and found the amount sold had increased 
 to thirty barrels a year ! This is perhaps, an average, 
 measure of the increased frequency of intemperate 
 drinking in fifty years. The impulse towards it 
 was given by the habits acquired in the army ; and 
 the rapid increase of agricultural products, espe- 
 cially after the beginning of this century, without a
 
 HOME. 73 
 
 market for them. The cheapness of grain reduced 
 the price of distilled liquors to a point without ex- 
 ample in the history of commerce. When the re- 
 ligious and moral tone of society did not arm it for 
 resistance, the tide of woe flowed over almost 
 every dwelling. 
 
 The early morality of Home was slowly under- 
 mined, yet never so debased as to make it, com- 
 pared with its neighbors, an immoral town. At 
 least, I never thought so ; though I must admit that 
 the proportion of public crimes has been greater 
 than in any other farming town in the State, as the 
 records of our prison too surely tell. Writing in 
 the prison of a distant city, without books, I cannot 
 compare the statistics of intemperance so well. 
 But I know the amount was great. 
 
 In a neighborhood of about two miles in circuit, 
 enchaining the most refined portion of Home, the 
 number of deaths, for fifteen years prior to 183G was 
 about seventy, not including children and youth 
 under twenty years of age knowing every one of 
 them, and their personal history, two gentlemen de- 
 clared that fifty of these deaths resulted from in- 
 temperance. True, in some cases, the disease that 
 closed life was called " fever " or " consumption ;" 
 and was so, in fact ; a fever of the brain and a con- 
 sumption of the vital energy of the man. But hard 
 7 

 
 74 
 
 drinking brought on the disease ; and the substitu- 
 tion of a softer name, only served to hide from the 
 public, not from the neighbors, the real truth. It 
 might wound the spirit of the mourner to call it by 
 a harsher name. So 'colds,' 'fevers,' 'asthmas,' 
 ' consumptions ' and ' apoplexy ' were suffered to 
 give name to the remorseless evil that filled the 
 drunkard's grave with victims. Who can severely 
 censure these cheats of affection, which sooth our 
 sorrow, and impose on no one ! Those who were 
 thus cut down, were of every class in society, every 
 age and both sexes. Intemperate women always 
 died of consumption and fevers! In the darkest 
 hours of the reign of alcohol, the idea of a drunken 
 woman was abhorrent to public feeling, at Home. 
 Such things existed, but little was said of them. 
 
 In my own history occurred another proof of the 
 vices of alcohol. My venerable guardian, one of the 
 best guardians an orphan ever had, on the final ad- 
 justment of our accounts, exhibited an item of near- 
 ly a thousand dollars of uncollected debts. Filled 
 with surprise, I asked the reason. With deep emo- 
 tion he replied, " It would have turned forty families 
 out of doors to do it." They were debts for liquors, 
 sold by the small quantity, in those days of dark- 
 ness when kind, good men were blinded to the evils 
 of this traffic. I knew the history of every family.
 
 HOME. 75 
 
 They were all poor, after the lapse of eighteen 
 years. A score of bodies had been carried from 
 their dilapidated houses to the drunkard's grave. 
 Vice, misery, want clung to them. Lewdness, petty 
 thefts, brawls, idleness, rags, disease, sudden death, 
 there, as elsewhere, followed in the train of Rum. 
 Who shall not bless God for the dawn of the bright 
 day of total abstinence ? To scores of families hi 
 Home it has carried peace, and prepared the way 
 for the reception of spiritual blessings. 
 
 Vice and irreligion help each other. The vicious 
 hate the purity of the gospel. The votaries of a 
 lax faith have lost the highest restraints upon crime. 
 The cross has more power to purify the social life 
 than all the maxims of prudence or the motives that 
 appeal to man's fears and hopes. 
 
 So few, out of the circle of " moral reform " 
 agencies are aware of the extent of the sin of lewd- 
 ness, that it is difficult to speak of it without excit- 
 ing prejudice and giving offence. That it was more 
 prevalent in Home during the last generation than 
 the present, or in any previous period of its history, 
 is beyond all doubt. That men high in rank were 
 not free from it is known. The extent to which it 
 prevailed among the intemperate and the ignorant, 
 who were, by the causes already narrated, thrown 
 beyond the reach of such religious influences as
 
 76 HOME. 
 
 existed, can hardly be known. The evil began to 
 pass away before the public mind was roused to its 
 enormity or its extent. In one respect I always 
 admired the feelings common in Home, on this 
 topic. The fallen woman was an object of pity, not 
 of contempt and scorn. Drive the lewd man from 
 society if you will, but welcome his victim back to 
 the paths of virtue and honor. 
 
 In no other instance is that fearful law of retri- 
 bution, the " visiting of the sins of the fathers upon 
 their children," so frequently illustrated as in this. 
 The wealthiest, and one of the most honored men 
 in Home, in a past generation, was a libertine. 
 One son inherited his wealth, his honors. He, too, 
 followed in the same career of sin. In the third 
 generation his name and race were extinct Anoth- 
 er instance of it I must not omit, for the striking 
 lessons it imparts. 
 
 D. was a well-educated girl, belonging to a 
 wealthy family of Home. Endowed with superior 
 talents, and remarkable personal beauty and grace, 
 her intense vanity, and strong passions, without the 
 restraints of the gospel, made her an almost willing 
 victim of the seducer. He was a husband, a father. 
 She fled to the city, to hide her sin from the eyes 
 of all who knew her. There, in the process of 
 time, she became the owner of one of those fester-
 
 77 
 
 ing sores on social life, a public brothel. In that 
 den of shame and crime, she gave birth to two sons, 
 Samuel and James. Their fathers were never 
 known. Not wholly lost to the impulses of nature, 
 she loved these more, worse than orphans, with an 
 intense, idolatrous affection. Educated herself, she 
 resolved to spare no expense, to hesitate at no crime 
 even, to give them the best education the land af- 
 forded. Doubtless, too, as I have known in other 
 like cases, the guilty mother, her spirit gnawed by 
 the pangs of remorse, longed to save her sons from 
 lives of sin. Such inconsistences are often seen. 
 She determined they should never know their mo- 
 ther's dreadful trade, nor their own dark origin. 
 
 The gains of sin were hoarded to be lavished on 
 these sons. They were both sent to Harvard, and 
 graduated with distinguished honor. Their minds 
 were minds of great power and brilliancy. 
 
 Samuel, in that part of his career, became a de- 
 voted follower of Christ His heart burning with 
 holy love, he decided to become a minister of the 
 gospel. Little did he know that the wages of 
 whoredom supplied the means of his support at 
 Andover ; little did others suspect it. There, too, 
 he was conspicuous for his mental endowments, 
 his scholarship, his stainless purity of life. 
 James, even more highly gifted, entered the Har- 
 7*
 
 78 
 
 vard Medical School. At this period he became 
 acquainted with and corrupted by the vices of his 
 mother's house. I knew him well. A more agree- 
 able, well-informed companion one seldom meets. 
 But he soon added intemperance to lewdness. An 
 hospital student, availing himself of his chemical 
 knowledge to neutralize their medicinal effects, he 
 drank up even the tinctures prepared for the sick, 
 for the sake of the alcohol in which they were dis- 
 solved ! Driven from his rank and profession by 
 his vices, he went to sea, as a common sailor. 
 Four years later, rotten with loathsome diseases, he 
 died as the fool dieth, in the same hospital where 
 he had once studied the healing art The sin of 
 his parents slew him ! 
 
 But the cup of retribution was not yet full. Sam- 
 uel early became the pastor of one of our best 
 -churches, not far from Home. Clear and forcible 
 in his preaching, sound in faith, warm in his affec- 
 tions, he was useful and beloved by his excellent 
 flock. His works praised him. He became a fre- 
 quent contributor to the religious press. His ex- 
 cellent pen won praises from which his humility and 
 modesty shrank. 
 
 He engaged, with applause, in the controversies 
 of the time. Who has not read his -letters on the 
 existence and agency of fallen spirits ? Ascribed at
 
 HOME. 79 
 
 the hour, to many of our leading divines, they were 
 the fruits of his leisure. 
 
 As if Providence would not, even for the sake of 
 this excellent man, wave the law of retribution 'in 
 a few months he died of a broken heart. Men said 
 disease slew him. The disease was a wounded 
 spirit. His pure and sensitive mind, lacerated, in 
 every faculty by sins of which he was the inno- 
 cent victim, could not endure the load of life. The 
 body was broken in its struggles to be free. The 
 sins of his parents slew him, also ! 
 
 The wretched, guilty mother still lives, lives in 
 sin, without God, without hope. "Keep thyself 
 pure " is the lesson, written in characters of judg- 
 ment by the finger of Providence on every page of 
 man's dark history. " Blessed are the pure in 
 heart, for they shall see God." 
 
 Nor is that law of social retribution which thus 
 connects the sins of the parent with the life of the 
 child unjust, or intended as a mere punishment. It 
 is designed to restrain men from crime by the be- 
 fore-known judgments their sins may bring upon 
 the objects of their warmest love. If their children 
 imitate their parents' sins, their doom is plainly just. 
 If, like one of these young men, they turn from 
 sin, it is no punishment to them to remove them to 
 heaven. While their sufferings, as pure and inno-
 
 80 HOME. 
 
 cent victims of a parent's crimes, still more im- 
 pressively show the evil nature of sin. The law, 
 then, is wise and beneficent in its aims. It is only 
 the counterpart of the other law of blessing, by 
 which God " shows mercy to thousands of them 
 that love him and keep his commandments," and to 
 their children for many generations. 
 
 If the sins and worldliness and departures from 
 the faith, in a past generation, brought into being 
 a race " who knew not God," no doubt the same 
 God remembered his " covenant which he made 
 with our fathers," and counted up all their fervent 
 prayers and holy vows, when he began to revive 
 again his work of grace in the hearts of their pos- 
 terity, in our own day. The sacred spot where the 
 first family altar was built in Home, and where 
 seven generations offered the sacrifices of prayer 
 and praise, cannot, will not, in coming time, be 
 the home of unbelief and sin ! No, our fathers' 
 God will not so forget his mercy ! Though, for a 
 brief space, " he hid, as it were, his face from us," 
 he will return again, and raise up a holy race, who 
 shall keep his covenant ; for he will write it in their 
 hearts. "He is God, the faithful God, which keep- 
 eth covenant and mercy with them that love him 
 and keep his commandments, to a thousand gener- 
 ations." 

 
 In vain does error vaunt itself on its temporary 
 possession, of the houses where our fathers wor- 
 shipped, and the funds they devoted to the support 
 of the worship of the Saviour they loved. He will 
 yet restore them all. Error has its office. It may 
 linger still, that the sons of God may be made 
 manifest by their rejection of it. Already its pow- 
 er over the popular mind is gone. The sentiments 
 of its votaries are daily assimilated more and more 
 to the faith of the gospel. And, what is far more 
 delightful, to a true son of the Pilgrims, the " rock 
 of the Spirit " in the hearts of many, in the fruits 
 of holiness, is even more manifest than the evident 
 progress in correct intellectual views of divine 
 things. 
 
 So shall the next generation that in which my 
 children shall mingle be united once more, both 
 in the pure faith and holy living that prepared our 
 fathers to be the founders of a great, and free na- 
 tion.
 
 82 HOME. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Party spirit Preaching at men Uses of sects and parties 
 Bible politics Supremacy of the Law of God. 
 
 PARTY SPIRIT is not an evil, in its own nature. 
 Men agree in their views. They deem them im- 
 portant to their own welfare and that of their fellow- 
 men. They desire to see them adopted by all, and 
 controlling the actions of all. The laws of their 
 nature lead them to associate together to spread 
 their views and accomplish their designs. They 
 talk, they meet, they write, they print, they sing, they 
 pray, to gain their ends. Common objects and pur- 
 suits call forth, in some degree, their affections, 
 their passions, their zeal. They become, by use, 
 and feeling, bound to those with whom they labor 
 for common ends -just in proportion to their ideas 
 of the nature of these ends, and the toils and diffi- 
 culties they surmount in gaining them, will be the 
 strength of their union with their fellows, and their 
 alienation from those who resist them. 
 
 All this is proper, is right. It accords with the 
 highest and best principles and laws of our mental
 
 HOME. 83 
 
 and social nature. The mind and heart make men 
 partisans. The thoroughly selfish and idle and 
 sluggish only are not so, in some things, at least 
 
 The evils of party spirit are found only in its ex- 
 cesses and abuses. With our fallen nature, it is 
 hard to avoid them, even when the objects we seek 
 are high, honorable, holy. If the objects are right, 
 and the means we employ are wise and right also, 
 no degree of zeal or party spirit that is necessary to 
 secure the ends, is ever excessive. A want of zeal, 
 in such a case, is the error. 
 
 These principles apply alike to the religious, the 
 political, and the social concerns of man. Those 
 who are too idle to think, or too imbecile to decide, 
 and too sluggish for action, may deem otherwise. 
 But mankind will have few benefits to thank them 
 for. Such forms of party, or more properly, social 
 action, are needed to call forth man's highest pow- 
 ers. Men talk idly when they would have us be- 
 lieve that they can banish the spirit of party from 
 politics or religion. They must destroy man's pow- 
 er of loving ; nay, root out every emotion from his 
 soul ; make him indifferent to the approval of his 
 fellows, careless of their censures, and reckless of 
 all obligations to them, before the emulation, rivalry 
 and competition, that form the grosser elements of 
 party are rooted out ; grosser, yet not evil. The
 
 84 HOME. 
 
 evil still is in excess or abuse. When party is di- 
 rected to unworthy ends ; when detraction, slander, 
 forgery, bribery, falsehood, or any other sinful means 
 are resorted to, to attain them, party spirit becomes 
 a ruthless demon, riding on a stormy sea of human 
 passions, dashing its waves of crime over all that is 
 pure and valuable in man's life. 
 
 There are evils connected with almost all sects 
 in religion, because men, from their sinful passions, 
 reject some truth, or exaggerate its value, or resort 
 to sinful means to gain power over the conscience. 
 But the benefits of the competition of sects far out- 
 weigh those minor evils. He who would blot out 
 from being one of the sects which yet, with admitted 
 errors, embrace the great doctrines of the cross, is 
 an enemy to the hope of man ! He would, if suc- 
 cessful, delay for a century the triumph of that Re- 
 deemer, who is equally the object of supreme love 
 and reverence to the truly pious in all sects. Every 
 evangelical sect enters some neglected part of the 
 vineyard ; brings to light some valuable truths, or 
 points out some new modes of action, besides in- 
 culcating the great truths in which all unite, and 
 which form the proper basis of a Christian life. 
 
 Even sects of errorists are not without value, in 
 showing Christians their sins, and compelling them 
 to greater fidelity and more self-denial. Entire
 
 HOME. 85 
 
 union of opinion and action is desirable. But life, 
 power, activity, diffusion, are far more so. In the 
 revival of pure religion in the Pilgrim churches, 
 sects not known to our fathers, holding views in 
 some points as we judge erroneous, have acted 
 a most important part Neither here, nor in the 
 world at large, can one common faith dispense with 
 their labors without great loss. I never preach 
 against sects, but against every sin 1 can discover in 
 any, especially in my own. This is the true road to 
 peace, union, harmony, activity and perfect love. 
 
 In political life sects are equally useful, m the 
 present state of man. They are no longer masses 
 of men led blindly by demagogues ; but minds ruled 
 by thought, influenced by discussions, by reflection, 
 by principles of action. There may be, there are, 
 excesses of party zeal. Bad men are magnified 
 into gods; men of feeble intellects into giants; cor 
 rupt measures are made to seem all-important to 
 the well-being of the land, in some men's eyes. But 
 still, every contest, governed as it now is, by the 
 power of the press, that is, by thought, read, spoken, 
 reflected on, becomes an invaluable part of the edu- 
 cation of the national mind. The more important 
 the principles involved, the more excited and radi- 
 cal the debates become, the more valuable is the
 
 86 HOME. 
 
 strife to the interests of man, end as it may. For 
 truth, justice, right, will finally triumph. 
 
 That the occasional excesses of such contests do 
 harm, become the sources of corruption to individu- 
 al minds, and of religious declension in churches, is 
 true. In one or two periods of our history, this has 
 been illustrated. When, for instance, one of our 
 pastors in Home so far forgot his calling and duties 
 as to invite a gross political assault on a distin- 
 guished statesman in his own church, on the Sab- 
 bath, on account of political differences, it was a 
 gross sin. The evil it inflicted time could not 
 wholly remove. 
 
 The heat of the partisan is not for the pulpit, or 
 the Sabbath. These have higher aims and duties. 
 Yet is not the pastor to neglect to preach political 
 truths, at his peril. The Bible lays down the prin- 
 ciples that should control governments, as well as 
 individual men. It leaves no community at liberty 
 to place an immoral man in office. The ruler must 
 be just. He must be one who will "judge the 
 cause of the widow, the orphan, the poor, the op- 
 pressed." To vote for men of a different character 
 is a crime. It is every pastor's duty to point it out, 
 and warn the flock against the sin. The duty of 
 rulers to regard the Sabbath, to frame just laws, to 
 protect the weak, to succor the oppressed, to culti-
 
 HOME. 87 
 
 vaie peace and harmony, and avoid the occasions 
 of strife and war; the great principles of equality 
 and purity on which all laws should be based; these 
 are as much a part of the Scripture doctrines as the 
 atonement of Christ. Even the claims of minuter 
 measures, and particular men to support, so far as 
 these involve moral or religious principle, it is some- 
 times the faithful pastor's duty to discuss. He 
 should do it with dignity, candor, holy zeal for God, 
 and human welfare. He will offend some ; so does 
 fidelity in any part of his duties. But he will ben- 
 efit and please more. Some forty years ago, on the 
 eve of an excited contest, a single sermon, by an 
 eminent and spiritual pastor decided the State elec- 
 tion. One who reads it now, can see in it only a vin- 
 dication of great and pure principles, such as ought 
 always to regulate the conduct of men in their civil 
 duties. The separation of the citizen from the 
 Christian ; the formation of one set of rulers to gov- 
 ern the man in civil life, and another to control his 
 conduct in the church, is an error destructive to 
 pure morals and good government. If the citizen 
 shall establish rules and laws, diverse from the Bi- 
 ble, and claim for them an equal or higher au- 
 thority over him, as a citizen, he usurps the author- 
 ity of God, and defies his wrath. There is no surer 
 mark of the fallen state of the slave-holding churches,
 
 than their attempts to cover up all the sins and 
 crimes they connive at, by the plea that the civil 
 law sanctions them. Enough for a Christian that 
 the law of God condemns them. So in all other 
 cases. 
 
 The churches can never regain their just power 
 over the human mind ; the pastoral office will nev- 
 er be invested with its proper dignity, till the supre- 
 macy of God's laws over all the constitutions, laws 
 and civil conduct of men is faithfully enforced, on 
 every proper occasion, and felt by all who call them- 
 selves Christians. The timid and sluggish shrink 
 from a bold conflict with human passion. They 
 will " preach the cross only" would they did ! 
 Would God that they exalted the " Prince of the 
 kings [rulers, law-givers, magistrates, judges, officers] 
 of the earth" in men's thoughts, till the power of 
 His cross was confessed in every law, every election 
 to office, every form of civil polity. The idea that 
 the cross has relation to the affections only ; or, 
 that it is the object of the gospel to renovate the 
 heart, and therefore, that the pastor may omit the 
 plain and constant enforcement of its claim to con- 
 trol the life, is a most pernicious error " I aim 
 to make men Christians by imbuing their hearts 
 with holy love." That is right ; only " go on, to 
 perfection." Let not your faith be without works,
 
 HOME. 89 
 
 or fruit in the life. Let not men learn that they may 
 consult their oivn will, in all the laws that govern 
 the rights to life, liberty, property, purity and honor ; 
 and still be good subjects of Christ, if they regard 
 his will in their other relations and personal con- 
 cerns. The great idea of the gospel is, that Christ 
 must rule the whole man, in all his life, all his rela- 
 tions, all his duties. It is not the Christian's aim to 
 govern his affections, only, or his conduct in private 
 life alone, or his public action merely, by the laws 
 of the Bible. Each and all, from his birth till he 
 enters the Permanent Life before him, are to be 
 governed by the word of God. To enforce a wick- 
 ed law, as a magistrate, is much more wicked than 
 to violate, in single cases, a just law. The evil is 
 greater, longer, and more widely felt. To forget 
 our social duties to our neighbors, is, in some re- 
 spects, a greater evil, than to cherish sin in our own 
 hearts, for the same reason. But in the well in- 
 structed, living, loving disciple, the holy affections 
 that rule his heart will secure the control of holy 
 principles over every part of his outward life. The 
 corrupt politician is not a good Christian. The 
 maker and executor of wicked laws cannot truly 
 and really obey God (from the heart) They " tithe 
 the mint, anise and cumin," yet allow their con- 
 duct, when it concerns the social welfare of thousands 
 8*
 
 90 HOME. 
 
 to be such as God abhors, and his word condemns. 
 " The weightier matters" are not done. Not so can 
 they please or honor God. How is it men, who in 
 other points of view, seem to be good men, justify 
 themselves in such errors ? The truth is this, our 
 consciences are at rest, and we hope for Divine favor, 
 when we conform to the. standard of duty in our own 
 minds; no matter how erroneous or even criminal 
 that standard may be, in fact, when compared with 
 the law of God. Hope and peace, and devout af- 
 fections can exist with almost any amount of error 
 and sin. And the moment the supremacy of any- 
 thing but the teachings of the Holy Spirit and 
 Word of God is admitted, that instant we lay the 
 basis for false hopes, peace which comes only from 
 our own hearts, and not from God ; and for a devo- 
 tion, that, however sincere, pleases God no more 
 than the equally sincere worship of the Brahmin at 
 the shrine of Siva. Isaiah i. and LVIII. 
 
 No doubt, the excesses of party strife had some 
 influence in destroying the remnants of piety in 
 Home. But there, as elsewhere, the neglect to en- 
 force the supremacy of God's law, and the con- 
 sequent divorce of men's religion and politics, had 
 a far more disastrous influence. An eminent states- 
 man, and true Christian once said to me, that noth- 
 ing had so much contributed to expose the minis-
 
 HOME. 91 
 
 try to contempt, in our country, as their agency, in 
 this divorce of spiritual religion from the political 
 and social duties of life. Men want a religion that 
 Will regulate their daily business, their " selling 
 lumber," their voting, their travelling, their social 
 visits, their entire life. Such a religion honors its 
 great Author; and the vivid and tender and bold 
 enforcement of its claims, will clothe his ministers 
 with almost Divine power.
 
 92 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Relics of faith A mothers spirit in heaven Old associa- 
 tions The illustration Old books Conscience recog- 
 nizes the truth Literature and religion The Li- 
 braries Home, a mission field ! The faithful preacher 
 Social prayer revived The " new commandment" 
 obeyed Religion and education. 
 
 THE stately ship that 
 
 " Walked the waters like a thing of life," 
 is driven on the rocks, and the power of the waves 
 breaks her strength, despoils her of her beauty, and 
 scatters the fragments along the sands. Still, in 
 every piece, though it is incapable of giving again 
 a home and a shelter to the bold sailor, the eye of 
 skill sees proofs of what it once was. Science 
 could even tell her tonnage, her model, from pieces 
 hardly worth saving for fire-wood. There were 
 relics of the shipwreck of the faith in the churches 
 of Home, long after they became " dead," so dead 
 that all hope of recovery by a power from within 
 had ceased. But they were few. Thirty years ago 
 there were only about twenty in all the town who
 
 HOME. 93 
 
 even professed to be converted persons, or to have 
 had any other religious experience than other world- 
 ly persons. Neither of the pastor's were of the 
 number. One of them not only openly admitted 
 it, but ridiculed all pretences to regeneration, in 
 any other sense than a reformation from vice. Still, 
 and it often surprised me, the people habitually 
 made a distinction between the converted and those 
 who were not ! Those who did not believe that 
 conversion, or any internal, spiritual renovation of 
 man's affections was necessary to fit them for heav- 
 en, still saw there was a difference between those 
 who loved God and those who did not Its nature 
 few had any idea of; but none doubted that those 
 who spoke of their sense of sin, their peace, their 
 hopes, their joys, their Saviour, had found in re- 
 ligion something that most men had not. The lives 
 of such persons were watched with great eagerness. 
 Every error, every passion, every natural foible was 
 noted, in contrast with the feelings of the heart, in 
 whirh the converted told them the basis of piety 
 was laid. The few pious, at this time, were either 
 aged persons, or in middle life, with perhaps two 
 exceptions. One of these, a beautiful flower, in all 
 the sweetness of its bloom, was cut down before 
 the Christian character was matured, though not be- 
 fore intimate friends had learned to love it, and
 
 94 
 
 hope much from its fruit. Blessed mother ! tliou 
 art among the holy ones, who stand in the pres- 
 ence of the Lord ! If thou dost ever stop praising, 
 and cease to strike thy harp in the heavenly choir, 
 is it not to pity human woe ; to succor thy tempted 
 child ; to wipe away the penitent tear from the 
 burning cheek, the cold sweat of remorse from the 
 brow, and pour consolation into the broken heart ? 
 Are not these the work of the ministering spirits ? 
 Did not the eye of boyhood feast on the spiritual 
 beauty of thy face, the beauty of death, when the 
 eye filled with rapture saw " within the veil," and 
 the spirit tasted heavenly manna, to give it vigor for 
 its upward flight ? Once thou didst recall the mind 
 from the heavenly vision. Calling the little, the 
 only son to thy couch, the thin, wasted hand, whose 
 soft touch is never forgotten, parted his light hair ; 
 and with many a murmured prayer thou didst in- 
 voke the orphan's God to be his father. "Mother, 
 I give him to you, train him up for God," broke 
 from thy dying lips. And then thou didst leave the 
 body of death to put on immortality. Mother, is 
 thy son forgotten, amid the blaze of the glory of 
 the celestial city ? Does not the glorious One still 
 wear our nature ? Is he not still " touched with 
 the feeling of our infirmities." and alive to human 
 sympathies ? And when the circle of earth's wor-
 
 HOME.. 95 
 
 shippers bow before him, does He not bid them 
 cherish every pure emotion of our nature ? Is a 
 mother's love banished from Heaven ? Art thou 
 not saying to thy child, "Hasten, put on the robes 
 of holy light the Lamb giveth thee, and come up hith- 
 er !" And when the Lord revealed himself, in mer- 
 cy to thy child, and said his sins were forgiven, wert 
 thou not there ? Was it not thy form, thy face, thy 
 smiles, that formed a part of the cloud of glory that 
 surrounded Him, when his word of peace was 
 spoken ? Aye, and thou wilt welcome him, with 
 all a mother's holy heart, when, perhaps thy own 
 gentle hand does death's office, to open before his 
 eyes the glory on which thou didst look, when thy 
 dying lips blessed him. Blessed mother, thy son 
 will come ! He longs to meet thee ! 
 
 The few really pious, surrounded and chilled by 
 the atmosphere of death, just lived; their light 
 shone not brightly enough to penetrate the thick 
 gloorn ; or at least to scatter it. 
 
 Those who love error, know well how hard it is 
 to root out a traditionary respect for the truths of 
 pure religion. The very words of the language 
 have the truth so associated with them, that no hu- 
 man skill can ever change the impression they 
 make on the mind. Those who sought to destroy 
 the faith of the sons of the Pilgrims knew it well.
 
 96 HOME. 
 
 Hence in years gone by, their watchful endeavor to 
 avoid all those terms in customary use, to desig- 
 nate the several truths of our faith. While they 
 spoke of the " atonement," it was in vain to 
 try to destroy the sense of dependance on the 
 blood of Christ for the pardon of our sins. While 
 they told of the regeneration, men would not for- 
 get that their fathers, and even a few who still lived, 
 thought that man's nature was corrupted, and need- 
 ed an entire moral change to prepare him for heav- 
 en. The omission of the old Doxologies of praise 
 to the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, alarmed the 
 consciences of men who had long and complacent- 
 ly listened to teachings that denied the doctrine of 
 the Triune God. " Our fathers worshipped in this 
 mountain." The feeling the words express, ap- 
 plies equally to the places, names and forms of 
 worship and faith. Men will embrace error, be- 
 cause it is preached in the house where their fathers 
 praised God ; they would reject it in another place. 
 So their associations with the truth linger, also, 
 after its power over the mind and heart is lost, so 
 far as their salvation from sin is concerned. 
 
 One day I sat by the side of one of the most in- 
 telligent and conscientious members of the church 
 in Home ; one who had much semblance, if not 
 the reality of spiritual life. Incidentally, the pas-
 
 HOME. 97 
 
 tor was spoken of as not believing in the atone- 
 ment. It was referred to, merely as a matter per- 
 fectly well known. She became silent, her eyes 
 filled with tears. Her heart was grieved. For 
 twenty years she had heard the great sacrifice for 
 sin denied, derided, treated as a heathenish corrup- 
 tion of the faith. Still, she could not believe it pos- 
 sible that the pastor denied the atonement ! He cer- 
 tainly spoke of it in his sermons. And, in her 
 mind, the power of old associations connected the 
 good old Bible doctrine with the word, in spite of 
 years of false teaching. Her own hopes rested, in- 
 deed, on the faith of the fathers. She has gone to 
 prove the strength of that tried foundation ! When 
 did it ever fail ? " The heavens being on fire, shall 
 be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fer- 
 vent heat," but none who ever reposed on the aton- 
 ing blood of Christ for the pardon of sin shall find 
 their hopes vain. Such faith will purify their hearts, 
 and teach them holy living, support them in holy 
 dying, and open the gates of His revealed glory to 
 the ascending spirit. 
 
 Another thing contributed to keep alive tradition- 
 ary respect for the gospel. It was the multitude of 
 old choice books in Home ; the legacy of a reading, 
 praying race. Every old family dwelling has its 
 relics ; a volume of Baxter, Bunyan, Mather, Han- 
 9
 
 98 HOME. 
 
 cock, Clark, Owen, Jeremy Taylor, Henry, More, 
 Carew, Gill, Latimer, Horseley, and a score more, 
 known, read and loved by the earlier generations. 
 Some are sadly worn, the old clasps gone, a cover 
 lost, chapters torn out, volumes missing ; but 
 enough left, and taken often enough from the old 
 closets, for curiosity's sake, to keep alive some re- 
 gard for the faith of the fathers. Probably a 
 thousand unmutilated volumes of choice and rare 
 old books still exist in Home. Those who never 
 read, will not hear of parting with them ! They 
 are family relics, and bear a sacred character. In 
 such an old torn volume I first feasted on that great 
 poem for all ages, the Pilgrim's Progress. Invested 
 with all the charms and spirit of poetry, without its 
 forms, more true to human nature than even Shak- 
 speare, rich in all jhe varied forms of Christian ex- 
 perience ; it is a romance to charm the young, a 
 guide full of wisdom for the most gifted and ma- 
 tured. Bunyan was a man for all ages of our race, 
 for all time. What a crown is his ! 
 
 Words are ideas to most men, " living powers," 
 as Coleridge has it, not the mere vehicles of 
 thought. The power of the old associations I 
 speak of was occasionally felt, when by any chance 
 a preacher of the old faith entered the pulpits of 
 Home. Such instances were rare, especially after
 
 HOME. 99 
 
 exchanges with erroneous teachers ceased. But 
 their sermons were never forgotten, and were often 
 referred to. If the pastors, in hours of sorrow, or 
 at other times, preached with more solemnity and 
 point than usual, the remark ever was, " Why, he 
 preached almost like Mr. So-and-so ;" showing, that 
 the occasional exhibitions of gospel truth, and the 
 force of old associations had established in the 
 mind a higher standard of truth and of pastoral fidel- 
 ity than that to which they were used. In a few 
 instances, in later times, conversions to Christ may 
 be traced to this source. The old cherished family 
 bibles, in which often the names of ten genera- 
 tions are written ; the old tomb-stones that even 
 now are hardly legible, on which their names were 
 again inscribed ; the old family mansions in which 
 they prayed and gave thanks ; the old books they 
 loved to read, all these must pass away, and mingle 
 with the dust before these old and blessed associa- 
 tions shall die out of the mind, and the Puritan's 
 faith become a matter of mere history, even if none 
 of the living race still loved it and knew its saving 
 power. 
 
 God has many-ways of reviving the power of a 
 pure faith in his churches. Sometimes he comes 
 in majesty, " suddenly to his temple," and a com- 
 munity is born in a day. But, in every case I ever
 
 100 HOME. 
 
 knew, such displays of his grace occurred where a 
 large number of minds had been before instructed 
 in the truth. The power of sympathy is essential 
 to an extended revival ; and that cannot exist much 
 beyond the circle of those who, in their understand- 
 ings, assent to the same general principles of faith. 
 Grace acts according to, and not against these and 
 all other laws of our nature. In a town where re- 
 ligion had so decayed, as in Home, a longer pro- 
 cess of regeneration was needed. The seed was to 
 be sown by the way-side, in the fields, everywhere, 
 ' here a little, there a little,' as time and changes 
 fitted individual minds to receive it. When so 
 much is to be done, and the soil to be tilled is so 
 little prepared to bring fruit to perfection, many 
 agencies are needed, before the golden harvest is 
 ripe. And these agencies are not all strictly reli- 
 gious in their character. The revival of literature 
 preceded the religious awakening of the fifteenth 
 century. Indeed the latter would hardly have been 
 possible, without the first to prepare for it, unless 
 at the expense of three more such centuries of 
 blood as followed the first proclamation of the gos- 
 pel. The same work indeed, was to be done, but 
 by a new power, that of the press, which gives to 
 one mind the influence of ten thousand tongues. 
 
 In Home the first agencies in the revival of a 
 pure faith were similar.
 
 HOME. 101 
 
 Two young men, men of intelligence and serious 
 thought, hut not pious, were the first to do anything 
 that acted permanently on the popular mind. A 
 social library, comprising the best works in history 
 and general literature was started, by their agency. 
 It was the source of renewed thought in many 
 minds. Quickened intellects will often turn to re- 
 ligious ideas, some more naturally than others. 
 Emotion follows thought, as well as excites it. And 
 the value of the religious character that is formed, 
 often depends chiefly on the state of the mind be- 
 fore it is subjected to the control of holy love. 
 That these young men, one of whom had a pious 
 mother, and the other a native of another place, had 
 ideas of religion much in advance of their townsmen 
 is certain. They saw the darkness around them. 
 They sought to remove it, by such means as an 
 awakened, but not renewed heart may employ. 
 Besides the general impulse they and a few others 
 gave to reading and thought, they formed an exten- 
 sive moral and religious library. It embraced the 
 most valuable religious literature then accessible, at 
 cheap rates, with not a little of error and some fol- 
 ly. Bat it placed the works of Baxter, Law, Watts, 
 Doddridge, and the sermons of some eminent Ame- 
 rican writers, together with much religious biogra- 
 phy, in the hands of many who had no other means 
 9
 
 102 HOME. 
 
 of learning the time nature of the gospel. True, the 
 " veil " still remained on their hearts " in reading 
 these volumes, as well as the Bible. There was 
 none to teach them what these things meant. The 
 pastors preached nothing, or else in opposition to 
 the truths the books contained. Still, it was a 
 dawning of light It supplied the only religious 
 reading known to the generation then on the stage, 
 save their occasional glances at the pages of some 
 old Puritan volume. The few pious took great de- 
 light in them. The naturally thoughtful read them, 
 with care, and the fallow ground of their hearts 
 was broken up, and in some measure prepared to 
 hear the truth preached. In a few, in humble life, 
 these books perhaps, became the means of con- 
 version. 
 
 Some such have died, of whom the Christian had 
 hope, though their light was feeble. Piety ob- 
 scured by error, repressed by contempt, with none 
 to cheer the heart, and with imperfect views of its 
 obligations, has very little active power, in the igno- 
 rant and obscure. And grace does not so violate 
 nature, and set at nought the social constitution of 
 man, as to make it otherwise, save in rare cases. 
 
 I have said that many towns became in fact, mis- 
 sionary fields. Home was so, in every important 
 respect, if a large population, living in ignorance or 

 
 HOME. 108 
 
 neglect of Christ constitutes one. So one of the 
 few godly pastors near Home regarded it. He was 
 a young, ardent man, pious in spirit, not without 
 genius, trained in those clear views of doctrinal 
 truth that distinguish the writings of his eminent 
 instructor, the late venerable pastor of Franklin. 
 This young man became pastor of a church in a 
 town adjoining which a little light lingered. Hence- 
 forth his life was one of toil. His style of preach- 
 ing was bold, fearless, manly, full of reasoning, 
 sometimes lofty in thought, and sublime in denun- 
 ciations of woe to the guilty. It lacked somewhat 
 the tender spirit of Christ But for some classes of 
 minds it was just what was needed to break the 
 slumbers of ages. He sought out the scattered few 
 who still loved the old ways in which the fathers 
 trod. His labors were blessed to the people of 
 Home. He brought them together, for the first 
 time in eighty years of the annals of Home, for so- 
 cial prayer and praise. Henceforth the social pray- 
 er meeting was never lost. Two or three met to- 
 gether, and the Lord was there. He placed in their 
 hands those volumes of great and clear thought, 
 Emmons 1 Sermons. He preached the gospel from 
 house to house, wherever he could gain access. 
 Few of the rich welcomed him ; many cursed him. 
 His preaching, in keeping with his model, was full
 
 104 HOME. 
 
 of instruction. A Christian formed under its in- 
 fluence must needs be a thinking one. It was very 
 discriminating in respect to the nature and proofs 
 of holiness in the heart and life. It tried the spirit 
 most thoroughly. None could easily be familiar 
 with such books and such sermons, and mistake 
 his own true character. The growth of piety in 
 the hearts of those who were spiritual before, was 
 marked. They became active. They began to 
 reprove sin, to rebuke error, to warn them to re- 
 pentance. The Lord added a few to their number, 
 including one or two of the most respected and in- 
 telligent women in Home. Great decision of char- 
 acter marked these struggling disciples. If some, 
 at times, showed a want of meekness, it was true 
 that their trials were severe. But in general, their 
 meekness was great. And every one had occasion 
 to say, " behold how these love one another." 
 They lived, in most instances, at a distance from 
 each other. There was very little to bring them 
 together, save the love of Christ. And when they 
 met, it was like the meeting of tenderly attached 
 friends. Their faces shone. For hours I have seen 
 two or three stand, exposed to the sun's hot rays, 
 or the winter's cold, talking of their hopes, joys, 
 sorrows ; of their Christ, the fountain of their life. 
 Neighbors would pass by, and speak to them ; hours
 
 HOME. 105 
 
 would elapse, but wholly absorbed in their great 
 theme, they knew it not. It was the exhibition of 
 new and strange feelings. For the first time in al- 
 most a century, the power of brotherly love was set 
 before the minds of the people of Home. They 
 were mocked,- insulted, derided, sneered at, laugh- 
 ed at, but still, more and more respected, every day. 
 People wondered what they found in religion to 
 talk so much about ! Some were accused of neg- 
 lecting their social duties, to wander away to dis- 
 tant meetings, or to talk and pray ; but the accuser 
 knew better. Some few were persons of great in- 
 telligence and high standing. It was a great mys- 
 tery to many, how such persons could take the de- 
 light they did in visiting some of the most obscure 
 and illiterate persons in town. " It was very 
 strange," it was said, " that religion need lead peo- 
 ple into low company !" As if such a term could 
 apply to those in whom the Saviour had taken up 
 his abode ! True, they were ignorant of literature. 
 Their language was not always elegant or correct 
 Their logic was worse ; but they loved Christ, and 
 that changed their whole nature. That refined 
 their manners. The Bible, always in their hands, 
 and loved, gave dignity to their language and topics 
 for conversation. The Lord, who is " the wisdom 
 of God," taught them truths more important than
 
 106 HOME. 
 
 any known to those who despised them. The con- 
 stant familiarity with great truths educated their 
 minds. How often have I noticed a feeble intellect 
 made vigorous by this new, living power ! 
 
 Strange that sin should so blind men that they 
 should ever dream that hearty love for the Holy 
 Author of man's intellect, could do otherwise than 
 ennoble the mind! Look at the world's history. 
 Just where the faith of Christ has the most power, 
 there the masses of mind are best educated. No 
 material progress or improvements in education 
 come from those who are not humble Christians. 
 The greatest discovery in modern times was made 
 on Plymouth Rock, by Carver, Alden and Bradford. 
 It is the Free School, open to every child, rich 
 and poor, without pay, and sustained by the pro- 
 perty of the community. That gave power to the 
 press. That is now renovating the world. That 
 is destroying superstition. That converts the des- 
 potisms of the continent into wise, pati iotic govern- 
 ments. A people educated in Free Schools can- 
 not be oppressed. Give the American slaves a 
 year's schooling, and no earthly power could rivet 
 their fetters another hour. The masses of mankind 
 will owe their social redemption to the little band 
 of Plymouth Rock. 
 
 As with masses of men, so with smaller bodies
 
 HOME. 107 
 
 and individual minds. A religious community read 
 more, think more, converse more on literary topics, 
 write more for the press than one where the power 
 of the gospel is lost, either by the prevalence of 
 errors in theory, or corrupt morals. For example, 
 in a little town in Massachusetts, inhabited wholly 
 by shoe-makers, and embracing less than 2000 in- 
 habitants, there are more Literary Periodicals taken, 
 than in the Capital of Virginia. This is an indica- 
 tion of an almost universal truth Piety and know- 
 ledge, in the masses, are ever united. Corrupt re- 
 ligion, and you dethrone the power that gives en- 
 ergy to the intellect. That power is holy love, the 
 great source of activity in all the Universe of God. 
 In. the revival of a purer faith in Home, there has 
 been a marked increase of attention to education, 
 more thought, more reading of periodicals and 
 books, more production of literature. In a word, 
 all the evidences of a better educated town. The 
 gospel makes the simple wise, as well as saves the 
 guilty from death.
 
 HOME. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE BELLE OF HOME. 
 
 L Life's daim. 
 
 WAS she beautiful ? Even now her faded face 
 has lines of beauty. She was rather above the 
 medium stature. Her form, constrained by no cor- 
 sage, was perfect in outline. Dressed in a taste 
 partly her own, and partly conformed to the mode, 
 her beauty was rather shaded, not injured by it. 
 Her skin was pure as the Parian marble. Every 
 motion was graceful, easy. Her dancing was like 
 that of the fairies. Her features were well formed ; 
 but the broad forehead, and clear hazel eye, full of 
 intelligence, gave an expression of dignity rather 
 than gentleness to her face. Yet the gentlest of 
 human beings was she. She would not tread on 
 the worm or the ant Had they not life, and a 
 right to their share of enjoyment? Of all our 
 youth, none excelled her in the vigor of her strong 
 intellect, and sound judgment ; none were better 
 versed in literature. She was rather proud ; proud 
 of an old, honored name ; proud of station, wealth,
 
 HOME. 109 
 
 intellect, education, beauty, and the applause all 
 these gave her. Is it strange? Yet who more 
 truly modest? Who less assuming? Who more 
 gentle to inferiors ! Perhaps the very consciousness 
 of her own elevated position saved her from harsh- 
 ness to them ; it does so affect proud persons. But 
 who had a warmer heart ? Nay, who united such 
 self-control with a more intensely passionate nature ? 
 She was not vain ; pride prevented that. Enemies 
 she could not have ; she was not vied, for she 
 treated none unkindly. She loved gaiety ; and the 
 circles to which she had access were gay. They 
 were the wealthy, educated, but not pious circles of 
 Home and of our cities. She had read her Bible ; 
 nor were religious authors forgotten. But there 
 was no example of piety, in her father's house ; no 
 early education of the mind and affections under 
 the influence of the gospel. She was " without 
 God," though not without high hopes of present 
 and future joys. She was kind to the poor, when 
 it came in her way ; but what could she know of 
 poverty ? What should call the courted and petted 
 daughter of luxury to the abodes of want and sin? 
 She loved, and was loved in return. He was 
 one whom she had known from childhood. In in- 
 tellectual strength he was her fit companion. In 
 learning, his University sent forth few equals, of 
 10
 
 110 HOME. 
 
 his years. His manly person and manly character 
 were all that woman could ask in the object of her 
 passionate love. And her love was passionate ; 
 all the strength of her nature was poured into this 
 tide of love. Was he not worthy to be her heart's 
 idol ! His very calling seemed to sanctify such an 
 idolatrous love. He was about to become the pas- 
 tor of a refined, intelligent and rich church, in a 
 county seat. That he was a truly converted man, 
 nobody in their circle supposed. Neither they, nor 
 the church, nor he deemed it important. He was 
 amiable, gifted, serious ; he had made it his profes- 
 sion. True, there had been whispers of excesses 
 over the cup, in college. But that, of course, a 
 clergyman would avoid. Besides, in those days 
 every gentleman, as a part of the dignity of his char- 
 acter, must have a dozen kinds of liquors on his 
 sideboard. There was no danger. Still, for some 
 family reason their union was not to take place for 
 two or three years. What matter ? Should they 
 not meet, write, and ever love ? Besides, she was 
 not quite conscious of fitness for the duties of a par- 
 son's wife; and she was young; only nineteen. Jf 
 life continued, what promise of the future could 
 be fairer ? Earth's blessings and joys were sure, 
 and heaven's were not so very hard to obtain. 
 What evil had she ever done ? So dawned life on 
 ELLEN C .
 
 H O M K . Ill 
 
 II. The day. 
 
 " Did you ever hear of such a thing ? why Ellen 
 C. is a going to have a Sunday school, to teach all 
 the children in the town to be Christians! She 
 must be crazy." " Where did she get such foolish 
 whims ? Such things were never heard of in Home, 
 before. True, in old times, I have heard my 
 father say, they used to teach children the cate- 
 chism. But that has long been laid aside, and with 
 good reason. Nobody now believes that children 
 need any religion to fit them for heaven." 
 
 " Very true, deacon ; it is of no use to try to 
 make Christians of children. They are all inno- 
 cent, till they grow up. And it is time enough then 
 to attend to religion." 
 
 " I agree with you, 'Squire. Ellen must be crazy. 
 Where did she get the idea ?" 
 
 " My wife was there yesterday, and says she has 
 just returned from Portland. She says Ellen in- 
 sulted her." 
 
 " Insulted your wife ! A lady like Ellen !" 
 
 " It amounted to that, deacon. My wife was there, 
 on a social visit. Ellen would scarcely talk of any- 
 thing but religion, all the afternoon. It was nothing 
 but " faith," and " Christ," and the " new birth." At 
 last she got my wife into her chamber and began
 
 112 HOME. 
 
 to warn her to repent, and even wept. Finally she 
 offered to pray with her, and prayed for her just as 
 if she was a heathen. If that is not an insult, what 
 is ? My wife, you know, was a member of our 
 church before Ellen was born, and is as good a 
 Christian as any woman in Home. And then, to 
 crown all, she began to beg her to pray with our 
 children, every day, that they might become Chris- 
 tians. That, I suppose, is what this Sunday school 
 means." 
 
 " It is wonderful ! I agree with you, she must be 
 crazy. I thought such things had ceased among 
 educated and enlightened men." 
 
 The magistrate was an old member of our church. 
 And truly, the town was in an uproar, for such a 
 quiet one. There were then not more than ten or 
 twelve Sabbath schools in our land. In Home, 
 religious education for the young had long been 
 voted needless, by the most respectable people in 
 town. Out of the little circle of the pious it was 
 wholly uncared for. Parents, indeed, taught their 
 children to avoid gross sins, like lying, oaths, and 
 theft, and to be kind and obedient. But nobody 
 thought of making them religious. What need 
 of it? 
 
 Ellen was changed. The lover of worldly plea- 
 sure she had ceased to be. The Bible was her
 
 HOME. 113 
 
 companion. Her closet was heaven revealed on 
 earth. She loved social life, as much as ever ; hut 
 her whole aim seemed to he to lead her friends to 
 Christ, a Saviour of whose character aud offices 
 both they and she had been profoundly ignorant, a 
 year before. It was no reformation in morals, but 
 a change in the heart, that formed the theme of her 
 discourse. The sold, laden with forgotten sin, and 
 hastening to the bar of God, was the object of her 
 prayers, her solicitude, her love. Literature and 
 the elegancies of life were not forgotten ; but the 
 welfare of the soul was first in her daily thoughts. 
 The 'Squire did not understand such feelings ; the 
 deacon did not; the parson did not This love for 
 the souls of men was a novelty in their circle. 
 True, the few pious people in town talked so. 
 But they were all persons advanced in life. "To 
 see one," as the minister's wife said, " so young, so 
 intelligent and lovely, at the age when she ought to 
 enjoy life, adopting such views, was a pity !" 
 
 What had changed gay Ellen, to praying Ellen? 
 She had passed the summer in a distant state, on 
 a visit There she listened to the preaching of 
 Payson. Won by his eloquence to attend to the 
 truths he uttered, the Holy Spirit taught her that 
 she was, what she had hardly ever thought of be- 
 fore, a sinner ready to perish, without a Saviour. 
 10*
 
 114 HOME. 
 
 That Saviour was soon manifested in his glory, 
 and received as the object of love and worship. 
 Her strong mind soon perceived the harmony of 
 the whole circle of divine truths, and she cordially 
 embraced them. In his church she first saw, and 
 at once appreciated the immense value of a Sabbath 
 school, then a novelty in the land. She learned 
 the value of social prayer. As she thought of 
 Home, her view of the objects and duties of life at 
 once changed. She knew there were a few Chris- 
 tians, who felt as she now did. But only one of 
 them moved in her own circle, and she was in the 
 decline of life. Ellen had never talked with her. 
 But it seemed so easy to convince enlightened 
 people, like those of Home, of the value of her new 
 hopes and plans, that she could not expect to be 
 opposed. And there was one drop of sweetness in 
 her cup. Would she not now be a fitter com- 
 panion, a better pastor's wife for her betrothed ? 
 Then came the alarming question, whether he, the 
 chosen, worshipped one, shared in such feelings ? 
 He had never spoken of them. But love had been 
 their theme ; and that was the reason. At any rate, 
 she would know very soon. She could not write to 
 him, on such a subject No, the first hours of their 
 joyful meeting should be devoted to the topic. 
 Surely he must love the Saviour, whose love it was 
 his business to preach.
 
 HOME. 115 
 
 Autumn drew near. Ellen returned to Home, 
 and began at once, in the fulness of her soul, to tell 
 of her Saviour. She could not now be blind to the 
 spiritual state of her friends. All loved her, and 
 few, therefore, to her face, treated her efforts with 
 any want of respect The parson, and a few others, 
 affected to regard it as a mere change in the intel- 
 lectual views of religion, induced by an eloquent 
 and gifted preacher. Some would try to reason 
 her out of these " strange ways," as they called them. 
 Some opposed her with earnestness, with bitter 
 feelings. A few scoffed. But her arguments and 
 her meekness soon quelled that A small number 
 listened with deep interest, and received instruction 
 and profit The old disciples rejoiced and thanked 
 God that one so beloved and fitted for wide useful- 
 ness was added to their number. In a few months 
 she announced her plan of a Sabbath school for 
 children. If her conversation had excited emotion, 
 and, with the worldly, suspicions of her sanity, this 
 confirmed them. The great idea of training the 
 young for Christ, was practically lost in Home. 
 Such a thing as a pious child was unknown. Chil- 
 dren and young people, every body said, went to 
 heaven as a matter of course. What need of any 
 change in them? What need of a religious school 
 for them ? Could they not learn to read the Bible
 
 116 HOME. 
 
 at home ? Religion was for the mature mind, not 
 for infancy ! " Out of the mouths of babes and 
 sucklings, Thou hast perfected praise." Our Sa- 
 viour's words had no example in Home to illustrate 
 its meaning, for ages. Its meaning was unknown, 
 as far as it referred to this world. 
 
 We little ones wondered, as well as our elders, 
 what this same Sabbath school might mean. But 
 we all knew Miss Ellen ; and an eager crowd gath- 
 ered in the school-house on a bright sunny Sabbath, 
 after the close of the public services of the sanctua- 
 ry. There were not five of us all who had ever 
 heard any one pray, but the ministers in the pulpit. 
 Only two in the vicinage maintained family worship. 
 Not a few parents, too, had come with their chil- 
 dren to see the strange thing. And when Miss El- 
 len, with her gentle voice trembling with emotion, 
 began to speak to us of prayer, a gaze of eager cu- 
 riosity was fixed on her. She knelt before us, none 
 following her example, and began, in melting ac- 
 cents, to invoke the presence of the Holy Spirit. It 
 was strange, crazy, indeed, so ran popular feeling 
 for a woman to pray so publicly. Who ever 
 heard of such a thing ? But there were some who 
 rejoiced at it. 
 
 It was truly a Primitive Sunday School ! No 
 Sabbath School Libraries were then in being. No
 
 HOME. 117 
 
 Societies to create them existed. Juvenile litera- 
 ture was very limited. There was none of it in all 
 Home of more value than " Goody Two Shoes," and 
 similar stories. No " Question Books" nor Bible 
 Dictionaries existed for Sunday schools. So Miss 
 Ellen taught us to recite Watts' hymns, and whole 
 chapters of the Bible. They who recited most and 
 best, received rewards, such as the teacher of the 
 week day-school gave us. Those who learned the 
 most during the season, were to have a New Testa- 
 ment. Then she sung with us, and sometimes ex- 
 plained the Scriptures we recited, or exhorted us 
 to love the Saviour. It was " harmless," people said, 
 though they " could see no good to come of it" 
 Good ? There was in it all the elements of the re- 
 generation of the town ! It revived in men's minds 
 the idea that the young needed a Saviour. It was a 
 lesson on the need of a new heart, that impressed 
 the most thoughtless. True, the means were not so 
 adapted to awaken thought and lead the heart of a 
 child to Christ, as those our Sabbath school children 
 now enjoy. But the lesson was never lost in Home, 
 on the community, or on those children. Of all 
 that youthful group, hardly one now lives a prayer- 
 less life ! Widely scattered over the world, almost 
 every living one is a living Christian. Some have 
 already entered the Permanent Life before us, leav-
 
 118 HOME. 
 
 ing behind them the evidences of their genuine faith 
 and holy love. True, other agencies have led them 
 to Christ; but here the seeds of life were sown. 
 The only immediate result of the school, was the 
 recalling to men's minds the principles before ad- 
 verted to. But that was a great stride towards a 
 revival of a pure faith. It did not fail to call forth 
 opposition. And, before the summer closed, it was 
 an understood thing that " Miss Ellen C. was crazy." 
 Poor Ellen ! the storm was indeed near ! 
 
 ID. The Cloud, 
 
 "Ellen C. has run off! Get up quick! All the 
 neighbors are out in search of her. She took no 
 clothes that they can find, and, if she is not found 
 before night, she will perish in the cold." Such 
 was the startling cry that roused us, before daylight, 
 one of the coldest March mornings I ever knew. 
 The snow still covered the ground. The night had 
 been cold and frosty. Clouds hung over the eastern 
 sky, and everything boded a cold storm of sleet and 
 rain, if not a fall of snow. A few hours of such 
 weather must destroy the life of a delicate woman, 
 without much clothing, and who had no reason to 
 guide her feeble steps. The day was one of intense 
 anxiety. More than an hundred men searched the 
 barns, fields and woods for miles around. No trace
 
 HOME. 119 
 
 of her was to be found. It began to be suspected 
 that suicide had closed her career. 
 
 Ellen was indeed insane. What had broken 
 down that glorious intellect ? 
 
 Little did she think what keen reproaches, what 
 taunts, what scorn, what alienations of friends, and 
 malice of foes, would follow her efforts to win the 
 young and old to Christ. But, hard as the struggle 
 was, all this could be borne, for Christ was honored. 
 He had suffered, and his followers must. 
 
 But there were pangs in store for her, she had 
 never looked for. He, the loved one, the idolized, 
 treated her new hopes and joys as enthusiastic folly, 
 or worse ! And, worse than all, it began to be whis- 
 pered that the wine cup was so often in his hands, 
 that honor and reputation would soon be lost, if it 
 was not already. The heart's worshipped one, 
 proved unworthy ! Love leaned on a broken reed 
 that pierced its heart. The shock was too great for 
 such a passionate nature. Had that nature, from 
 infancy, been subjected to the control of the gospel, 
 Si. might have withstood it ; but now, after days and 
 nights of sleepless anguish, the glorious intellect 
 gave way. Reason was unstrung, and Ellen be- 
 came a maniac ! The resources of the healing art 
 were employed in vain ; reason would not come 
 back at their bidding. Who did not mourn that so
 
 120 HOME. 
 
 dark a cloud had passed over her life ? Some of 
 the enemies of her holy faith said, that " it was 
 just what they had expected from her new notions 
 of religion." But there were candid men who saw 
 further, or knew better. And now, she had left 
 her dwelling in the night time. 
 
 Hundreds of willing hearts had gathered, before 
 dawn, from a wide region of country, with lanterns 
 and rakes. The river margin was minutely exam- 
 ined, and no trace of her discovered. Parts of it 
 were dragged. The ponds were still closed with 
 ice, save one ; but no discovery was made there. 
 
 Dividing into groups, as day broke, they determi- 
 ned to leave no square rod of ground unexplored. 
 Happily the weather was somewhat warmer, though 
 it was almost freezing. Few looked to see Ellen 
 alive. The woods, fields, fences, barns, houses, 
 swamps, all were explored again and again. About 
 noon, one thought he saw something white moving 
 in a clump of bushes he had just passed. Turning 
 again, poor Ellen was found, in her night dress, al- 
 most exhausted. She had wandered about for 
 hours, and at last laid down in the shallow water in 
 which the bushes grew, and tried, she said, to drink 
 herself to death, when she found them too shallow 
 to drown her. She was tenderly conveyed to her 
 home again. Little evil resulted from the exposure,
 
 but no good. To this day she is the same. Her 
 mania is generally of a quiet, harmless sort. Some- 
 times she is some great one : a king, a mighty con- 
 queror. Her favorite fancy is, that she is Christ, 
 With looks of dignity and kindness she will de- 
 mand the homage due to her as the Saviour. Of- 
 ten she will suffer herself to be reasoned out of her 
 fancies; and then her conversation is both spiritual 
 and instructive. In the common affairs of life it is 
 not seen, save in the indifference to them all. Like 
 many other insane persons, no one ever heard Ellen 
 allude to her early sorrows. Even now, Christians 
 love to visit her. Holy love to her Saviour and to 
 all who bear his image, so fills her heart, that none 
 can doubt the reality of her religious affections. 
 Insane, the intellect may be ; but conscience will 
 not suffer men to say that such holy affections are 
 insane. They know they are right and rational. 
 The power of the uncontrolled human affections 
 may unseat reason ; but none can doubt that the 
 love of God rules in the heart Education for the 
 intellect only, does not diminish the amount of 
 crime or insanity. There's not an affection of our 
 nature but requires more care and nurture, often 
 more restraint, than any power of the intellect. 
 Religious influence in early youth, is the only power 
 that can so educate the heart When Sabbath 
 11
 
 122 HOME. 
 
 schools and parental fidelity have fully done their 
 office, we shall need no insane hospitals, no prisons. 
 " The child shall be an hundred years old," because 
 its tender spirit shall be taught by the Holy Spirit, 
 and formed into the divine model of holy purity, 
 intelligence and love.
 
 HOME. 123 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The mission sermons Givers not losers Weakness made 
 strong ; folly, wise The dream The poor widow The 
 learned taught humility The sailor preacher The 
 heart, the best controversialist New sects arise when 
 needed The sons of Home, abroad The natural heart 
 shown. 
 
 PERHAPS, on earth, the bright intellect of Ellen C. 
 will never awaken to a distinct perception of the 
 results of her labors and prayers. But in the Spirit 
 land, where the mind sees all effects and knows all 
 the causes of human action, will not her soul re- 
 joice ? 
 
 Sabbath schools were not again resumed in Home 
 for many years ; but the power of that humble ef- 
 fort was never forgotten. 
 
 In pursuing the detail of causes of revived faith, I 
 shall dwell most on those which relate to princi- 
 ples of action, not the mere detail of events. 
 
 The work of missions to the heathen, that thrice 
 blessed labor of holy zeal, commenced before the 
 separation between the friends and foes of the Pil- 
 grim faith was complete. In all classes, many op-
 
 124 
 
 posed the plan, at first But many others were in- 
 terested, for a time, even from the novelty of the 
 thing. Missions to the heathen ! Since Mayhew's 
 time the churches had not heard of such a thing. 
 Neither, in the Protestant world, had the idea been 
 acted on, by system, in any country, till a recent 
 date. One of the first missionaries sent forth by 
 our churches, visited Home, and laid before the 
 people the objects of his mission. Some knew it 
 was an " orthodox " movement, and that it called 
 for their money. A covetous rich man declared he 
 would give nothing. A rich church-member left 
 her money at home, for she " would not encourage 
 beggars." The plain, faithful preaching, and the 
 picture of the state of the heathen world lying in 
 wickedness affected many hearts unused to such 
 emotions. The covetous man gave liberally, and 
 the lady borrowed, that she might do so likewise. 
 It was the first time, for ages, that the churches at 
 Home had been called on, as Christians, to act out 
 the spirit of benevolence to the guilty ! There was 
 not much piety left. The appeal was novel ; the 
 topics new ; the sympathies awakened, more than 
 the conscience. But the result was creditable to 
 their liberality. It tended to establish again in the 
 minds of men, the idea of duty towards sinful men. 
 The giver is doubly blessed. His sympathies will
 
 H O If E . 125 
 
 follow bis gifts. This enlarges his affections, and 
 his mind also. It tends to prepare his mind for di- 
 vine influences for his own salvation. So that the 
 maxim, " there is that giveth, and yet increaseth," 
 is based on a law of our nature. It is part of our 
 spirit and nature too. And if I had no other ob- 
 ject in training my children to liberal habits, I would 
 do it as a means of preparing them to receive and 
 be benefited in the highest degree by the grace of 
 the gospel. And I have remarked, that of those 
 who were most deeply interested, on that occasion, 
 quite a number have since become God's children. 
 It is not that divine grace is bestowed as a reward 
 for beneficent acts but because such acts break 
 down the bulwarks of our selfish nature, and pre- 
 pare the soul, pursuant to its own laws, to receive 
 the truth in the love of it. There is no doubly for- 
 tified wall of 'selfish habits to oppose the claims of 
 a gospel whose essence is self-denying love, or be- 
 nevolence in heart and life. "He that watereth 
 shall also himself be watered," expresses the same 
 law of our nature. So has God written on man's 
 nature every principle of his law. And there is 
 not an element in our nature but is set at naught 
 by a life of sin. If the churches can be induced to 
 give, to the point of real sacrifice, a manifest increase 
 of holiness and blessing will therefore follow, by 
 11*
 
 126 
 
 the same law. On the other hand, " there is that 
 withholdeth more than is meet ; but it tendeth to 
 poverty." It makes God frown, because it is cher- 
 ishing selfish feelings. Selfish feelings contract and 
 impair the vigor of the mental powers, both by 
 their direct influence, and by removing the highest 
 motives and incitements to mental action ; and also 
 by excluding from the mind the most ennobling 
 thoughts on a vast variety of topics. These alone 
 would educate and invigorate the mind. 
 
 An eminent living statesman is accustomed to 
 prepare himself for any great intellectual effort by 
 the reading of the Psalms, Prophets, Epistles and 
 other portions of the Bible. It is not to borrow 
 thoughts ; for they often contain nothing germane to 
 his intended labor. But he finds it gives more vig- 
 or to his mind, more clearness and justness to his 
 views than all other modes of training. Often have 
 I found the effect of prayer by which the intellect 
 was brought under the same class of spiritual influ- 
 ences that flow from the Bible strengthen the me- 
 mory, guide the wavering judgment aright, and add 
 force, dignity and beauty to efforts from which I 
 have before drawn back, as tasks beyond the reach 
 of my powers. So Luther reasoned, in his maxim, 
 " To have prayed well is to have studied well." 
 
 By the same law, right action aids in the in-
 
 H O M K . 127 
 
 vestigation of truth. u He that doetli his will, shall 
 know of the doctrine, whether it be of God." The 
 marked and beneficent spiritual changes in sects of 
 errorists that have warmly enlisted in temperance, 
 anti-slavery, moral reform, and other labors of Chris- 
 tian benevolence is noticed, even by themselves. 
 Their bitterness against the pure faith and those 
 who love it ceases. Acting on its principles, they 
 gradually assimilate their belief to it. They often 
 think the change is in others ; but it is in their own 
 hearts, and results from the operation of the law of 
 benevolence. 
 
 " Sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor." 
 What meant the precept, and its promise, " and 
 thou shalt have treasure in heaven ?" The same 
 law explains it It did not promise heaven as a re- 
 ward for an act of self-denial ; but such acts tend 
 most powerfully to secure the possession of right 
 affections towards God and man. It is by the same 
 law that beneficent action in states and communities 
 prepares men's hearts for a general diffusion of 
 spiritual blessings. But to return. 
 
 The influence of several pious school-teachers, 
 from abroad, was a great blessing in Home. Their 
 prayers, their lives taught the young to respect piety. 
 Their intelligence reunited, in older minds, the asso- 
 ciation between piety and knowledge. Those who 

 
 128 HOME. 
 
 once looked on spiritual religion as a weakness, 
 could no longer do so. Observation showed, too, 
 that the intellectual growth of the young mind un- 
 der such teachers, was more rapid, was more health- 
 ful. So strongly is this often felt, that I have known 
 infidels take great pains to secure pious teachers in 
 schools placed tinder their control. The power of 
 the gospel is hidden from their own hearts, but 
 they see its beneficial results, and desire to enjoy 
 them. 
 
 Who does not admire the condescension of God 
 to human weakness ; his pity for man's folly and 
 guilt ! Men's weaknesses, errors and sins are often 
 made the means of recalling themselves or others to 
 the path of life. Such instances have not been want- 
 ing in Home. 
 
 A young and lovely woman, from the very hum- 
 blest class of society, extremely ignorant, though 
 not without good powers of mind, was early mar- 
 ried, and removed to a distant State. There, under 
 the influence of a revival in the Methodist body, she 
 became the subject of Divine grace. Widowed and 
 childless, she returned to her native town. She 
 brought with her poverty, so far as this world's 
 goods went, but a rich heart, for God and his Son 
 made it their dwelling. Who could doubt it, who 
 saw her holy living, and listened to her converse-
 
 HOME. 129 
 
 tion ? There was only one other Christian in the 
 neighborhood, a lady in much higher station ; but 
 they became almost inseparable friends. The great 
 Lord of life was the chiefest among ten thousands 
 to each, and they saw him in each other. It was a 
 dark neighborhood ; and her old associates, her 
 near neighbors, all with whom she was most likely 
 to come in contact, were of the class I have before 
 spoken of; illiterate, neglecters of the Bible and of 
 public worship. 
 
 Ardent in feeling, she convinced them all of her 
 sincerity, a great point gained. One of the most 
 useful living ministers, one who lays no claim to 
 profound scholarship or eminent talents, when I 
 asked the secret of his usefulness, especially to the 
 educated, a class for whose benefit I always thought 
 his labors poorly adapted, replied, " I know not, 
 unless it is, that they all have a deep conviction 
 that I am sincere" or hearty, in the work. It is not 
 merely to be in earnest, or zealous, or eloquent ; 
 but to make men feel that there is a singleness of 
 purpose that looks alone to the good of their souls. 
 That is the sincerity my excellent and honored 
 friend intended. " I seek not yours, but you," was 
 equally the lesson of the widow's life. 
 
 Then, she was not very refined ; she was not 
 above them, but one of their own sort of folks. They
 
 130 
 
 could talk to her freely ! Nay, they could out-argue 
 her, sometimes, if they could not prove that her 
 manifest holiness was a fancy ; that they did not 
 try ! Then the widow was credulous, in some mat- 
 ters, to an extreme. Endowed with a fund of com- 
 mon sense, in the affairs of life, she yet was full of 
 dreams and visions of both earthly and heavenly 
 things. 
 
 It is in vain to reason a large portion of even ed- 
 ucated persons out of their faith in dreams. Call it 
 credulity, or what you will, there is a fascination 
 about these visions of the night few can wholly re- 
 sist. So it is with " signs," both of events in the 
 natural and social and spiritual worlds. No strength 
 of philosophical intellect, no treasures of learning, 
 no sceptical habits of mind, no want of natural rev- 
 erence, frees the mind wholly from this influence. 
 And many will think that the mind, shut out from 
 the fetters of sense, has glimpses of the future, and 
 of the spirit world which are not accorded to our 
 waking hours. It may all be delusion, but it is one 
 that is only refined, not banished, by increasing 
 knowledge. Among the illiterate such ideas are 
 nearly universal. They also connect them with re- 
 ligion also. And the representations of the Scrip- 
 ture that such things have been, leads them to attach 
 a value to our dreams far beyond their intrinsic in- 

 
 HOME. 131 
 
 terest With the philosophy of dreams with all 
 philosophies of dreaming ! I have long been fa- 
 miliar. They have little real philosophy in them ! 
 Why undertake to explain the action of mind with- 
 out a body? (For this is clearly essential to any 
 full exposition of it). Idle as most dreams are, their 
 influence over the life is sometimes very great. 
 " He that hath a dream, let him tell a dream." In 
 my childhood, when about seven years old, I dream- 
 ed I was dead, and in hell ! It seemed not unlike 
 the scenery of our world. Its devil, not unlike a 
 smiling man ! He offered to the lost, beautiful and 
 fragrant fruits, that turned to bitter ashes in the 
 mouth ; and still he smiled ! There seemed no re- 
 straint on men's motions, or intercourse. Their suf- 
 ferings were in their hearts. Full of anguish at be- 
 ing shut up with the wicked, I approached the low 
 wall that seemed to divide the place from heaven ! 
 Child as I was, I could see over it ; but had no pow- 
 er to climb it. It seemed as if the help must come 
 from the heavenly side. I looked around for it. 
 Presently, the forms of my venerable grand-parents 
 seemed to pass by, mingled with throngs of happy 
 faces. I called for help. They only looked at me 
 mournfully, and passed on. I could not blame or 
 envy them. " It is right, it isjiist" was the feeling 
 irresistibly impressed on my mind. For the first 

 
 132 
 
 time in my life, I knelt, and tried to pray, not to be 
 saved from hell ; for it never had, in all my life, any 
 terror to my mind ; but to be reserved from such a 
 just punishment. The habit of secret prayer then 
 formed, was never wholly lost, through long years 
 of youthful folly and sin, till I united with Yale 
 College Church, in 1831. I attach no value to 
 dreams. For years, when in health, I have had 
 none. I listen impatiently to the recital of them. 
 Still the most permanent influence that has acted 
 on my life, perhaps, was this dream of early child- 
 hood! 
 
 I wonder not at their power over minds natural- 
 ly credulous, and also devout. No doubt the wid- 
 ow's visions and semi-prophecies, which always 
 boded blessings, tended very greatly to secure to 
 her faith its proper influence over a large class of 
 minds. To them, it was the poetry and romance 
 of religion. They who are insensible to such in- 
 fluences, and laugh at them when they appear in 
 the grosser forms of dreams and trances, should 
 never read Paradise Lost, or the Faery Queen ! 
 The widow had strong faith in the power of pray- 
 er. She was sure that God would answer her. Nay, 
 in a vision He had shown her that He was soon to 
 revive his work of grace in Home. Had she not 
 seen in a dream, a great light flaming up, in the
 
 HOME. 133 
 
 direction of the dwelling of a rich family ; and then 
 little lights also, at intervals, all over the town ? 
 People smiled at her " silly fancies," but they had 
 a good influence, still ! And her tender appeals to 
 the heart were, in connection with her holy living, 
 the means of leading several, in her own class, to 
 love the Saviour. What a feast it was, when Jive 
 women, in that one neighborhood, could meet and 
 talk and sing and pray to the Saviour they loved ! 
 There was not such another place in all the town. 
 Some set it all down as the dreams of silly women : 
 but others sighed and wished they could share the 
 same joys and hopes, if it was only in their dreams ! 
 
 In another circle, equally ignorant, perhaps more 
 so, in a distant corner of the town, a like influence 
 was exerted by a poor despised man, who had been 
 brought to Christ by the preaching of a Baptist 
 pastor, in a distant place where he sought work. 
 His prayers, and those of a few others gathered 
 around him, resulted in the end, in the formation 
 of a Baptist church. 
 
 There is far too little sympathy between the ed- 
 ucated and the ignorant. When men learn that 
 God endows them with knowledge only that they 
 may do more to benefit their fellows, they will not 
 be " puffed up" nor disgust their less favored breth- 
 ren by their pride in their superior intelligence. 
 12
 
 134 HOME. 
 
 Education and learning have little moral value if 
 they do not teach us to be " clothed with humility," 
 to be meek, gentle, patient, especially with the poor 
 and obscure, the ignorant and the weak. The pas- 
 tor's of Home were ever men of learning ; but they 
 had alienated the poor and the ignorant from God's 
 house by their neglect, by their pride, by the.ir want 
 of sympathy. The poor, no longer had the gospel 
 preached to them, to any great extent. The deep 
 rooted prejudices such classes entertain against ed- 
 ucated ministers, who does not know ? The man 
 of learning can overcome them, if be will. His 
 knowledge was given him, in trust, for their good. 
 They know their claims upon it. But they have as 
 much pride as the man of learning, and do not like 
 to see the airs of the teacher put on ! They want 
 its results, and will joyfully receive them from one 
 whose meekness arrogates no superiority, and 
 whose justice and true benevolence sees in every 
 man a brother, and a child of the same Father. 
 In this should the man of education learn to be 
 a child ; while in understanding he is a man. 
 
 Too many of those who preach a purer faith, 
 practically despise the poor. They are donnish ; 
 they love and seek educated society. They forget, 
 insensibly, the claims of the ignorant and the poor. 
 The Literary Soiree is a source of high enjoyment ;
 
 HUME. 135 
 
 and for this they forego the far richer pleasure of 
 imparting their stores to those who lack. This is 
 the true source of the prejudices of masses of men 
 against education in the pastor and in other profes- 
 sional men. And, in reference to these prejudices, 
 I have often thought, that the popular lectures on 
 the sciences by our literary men were, in fact, a 
 most effective preaching of the gospel ! 
 
 It is no reproach, now, to the ministry of the 
 Baptist and Methodist bodies, to say, that a large 
 portion of their predecessors were extremely illit- 
 erate, and themselves in many cases, filled with pre- 
 judices against learning in the ministry. But that 
 very circumstance, combined with their encourage- 
 ment of " visions," " trances," " dreams," and like ex- 
 cesses, with their warm piety and love of souls, 
 won them popular favor with the neglected and ig- 
 norant classes. When one, now among the most 
 eloquent men of our time, began his career, in a 
 back school-house in Home, it is said he could not 
 read. But one could hear him preach for a mile ! 
 He " cried aloud," indeed, and " spared not" his 
 lungs or men's ears ! He was visionary, though 
 pious ; ignorant, though sincere ; " God gave him 
 all, he said, for no man had ever lar'nt him," or 
 " torched him !" It was very true, so far as the af- 
 fections of his heart, and his yearning, longing de- 

 
 136 HOME. 
 
 sire to save souls were concerned. He knew little, 
 but he felt much. He spoke, like a thunder clap, 
 when a gentle whisper was enough; but the words 
 he uttered in loudest tones were, " sin," " death," 
 "judgment," " Christ and the cross." His own 
 feelings suited well the prejudices of his hearers. 
 They knew as much or more than he, of every 
 thing save " the love of God shed abroad in their 
 hearts by the Holy Ghost." And God helped him 
 to teach some of them that divine lesson. Known, 
 now, all over our own, and in other lands, praised 
 in the Senate house, for his usefulness, he can still 
 throw the arm of a brother round the neck of a 
 diseased and guilty sailor, and ask his brother to go 
 with him to the Saviour for healing and pardon, 
 with the same simple zeal he showed in Home, 
 long years ago. Neither his voice nor his words 
 are forgotten there. 
 
 The pastors of Home, while they gave men no 
 ideas of the real nature of the faith of our fathers, 
 succeeded in filling them with prejudices against the 
 words employed to express some of the offensive 
 doctrines of the cross ; doctrines essential to a ma- 
 tured and intelligent piety, though not, with most 
 minds, to its existence, or its joys. I speak of the 
 great principles of the divine government over men, 
 including all that is embraced in the idea of God's 

 
 137 
 
 sovereign dominion. The humble, cordial, entire, 
 unlimited submission of all our hopes, fears, joys 
 and wishes to the Divine Will, must be in some 
 form secured. It is, though by a great diversity of 
 means. The Methodist body, in proportion to the 
 intelligence and real holiness of its members see it, 
 though they are opposed to some of those Scriptu- 
 ral doctrines that, in the higher class of reasoning 
 minds, are connected with such submission, as 
 cause with effect. But their very hostility to these 
 views gave them favor with many men, to whom, 
 after conciliating their prejudices on these and other 
 points, they preached the glory of the atoning Sa- 
 viour, as a deliverer from sin. I have no doubt 
 they have won many thousands to Christ, thus. 
 And when the Holy Spirit does this blessed work, 
 in filling the heart with the love of God, the same 
 elements of faith, submission, humility, meekness, 
 zeal, brotheily kindness and charity, will, in the 
 end, always appear, however diverse and imperfect 
 the teachings may be to the intellect. And truly 
 spiritual men differ far less than they sometimes 
 think, in respect to all the doctrines that enter into 
 the elements of a Christian life. There are some 
 men, many minds, by their very constitution, limited 
 to the " first principles" of the faith. For others, 
 in order to attain perfection and ripeness of char- 
 12*
 
 138 HOME. 
 
 acter, other doctrines are needed. And the Bible 
 has its " heights and depths" for some, as well as 
 its glorious but simple truths for others. But it has 
 often delighted me to see how truths intellectually 
 rejected, entered in fact, deeply into the Christian 
 experience of those who denied them. The logi- 
 cal statement of the idea was rejected, but the 
 grace of the Holy Spirit had given power to the 
 principle, in the heart. It early taught me a lesson 
 respecting controversy with real Christians. We 
 can agree, and make prayers towards unity in the 
 faith, just so long as tee reason to, and from the heart, 
 and that heart is enriched with the teachings of the 
 blessed Spirit. Reverse the process, and every 
 step commonly widens our differences, and produ- 
 ces bitter feelings among those who should love as 
 brethren. Every sect, as holiness increases, learn 
 to place a higher value on an educated ministry. 
 But if, when they have obtained it, they pervert the 
 blessing, become "puffed up," and neglect to min- 
 ister to the ignorant, the weak, the poor, and suffer 
 them to be alienated from their hearts, God will 
 raise up other sects, who will be fitted to meet even 
 the prejudices of the ignorant, and who have hu- 
 mility enough to " condescend to men of low es- 
 tate." The new sect may differ from the old, in 
 some even important doctrine of the Bible. But
 
 HOME. 139 
 
 go long as they hold fast the cross of Christ, God 
 will use their labors to raise up many sons and 
 daughters for glory, who otherwise might have per- 
 ished in sin. He " will have all men come unto 
 him." And when one sect neglect any part of His 
 vineyard, He shows the pity and tenderness of His 
 Divine heart by sending others who shall teach 
 those who err, and guide them to the Lamb. 
 
 I said that for a generation, the young and en- 
 terprising were drawn away from Home to other 
 places. God, the God of our fathers ordered this, 
 in mercy to the posterity of his covenant keeping 
 children. It is a remarkable fact, that of all the 
 scores who thus left their native soil, God, in a few 
 years, brought nearly all back to the faith of their 
 fathers, both in intellect and in heart. True, in 
 some instances, this was easily traced to the power 
 of a spiritual religion in the places of their new 
 abode. But in the most cases, it was not so. In 
 one town, where the darkness was dense as that of 
 Home, in its darkest hours, God raised up a church, 
 eminently spiritual and intelligent, planted on the 
 faith of the fathers, and composed almost entirely 
 of the sons and daughters of Home. In many and 
 distant States, often under the worst influences, the 
 Spirit sought them out, and led their feet to the 
 Rock, and that Rock was the Christ their fathers 
 loved. He is one that " keepeth his covenant."
 
 140 HOME. 
 
 One was a preacher of error, surrounded by a 
 rich church who loved him ; far away from Home. 
 But he was near to the heart of our fathers' God. 
 And, in the pride of his intellect, and strength of his 
 love for error, his heart was bowed before the cross 
 of the Saviour, whose power and glory he denied. 
 Another, eager for gain, in the marts of a crowded 
 city, was taught to get gain richer than the most 
 fine gold. Another, where " storm was upon the 
 midnight waters" far from the land and from the 
 influences of the gospel, was led by His hand who 
 guides the storm, to rest on the same Saviour. Did 
 they cease to love their birth-place, when Divine 
 love filled their hearts ? Their letters, their visits, 
 their prayers, will answer. They warned, they 
 reasoned, they prayed, and with tears often be- 
 sought the old friends of their youth to be recon- 
 ciled to God. And it was not in vain. Though 
 the prophet is less honored in his own country, 
 sometimes, yet in other cases he finds willing hearts, 
 that, for love's sake will receive his message. The 
 more instances of such conversion occurred, and 
 the oftener these loved ones returned, the more the 
 gospel became associated, in men's minds, with all 
 the tender, human affections of our nature. And 
 this is always a great point gained. The power of 
 sympathy can then act, in subduing the pride of
 
 HOME. 141 
 
 the heart, and recalling the erring intellect to the 
 faith of the fathers. It is difficult to exert a direct 
 influence for Christ over our family relations. They 
 know our faults so well, and we are so conscious 
 that they do, that we are reluctant to address 
 them with the fidelity we can freely use with stran- 
 gers. But if we truly live for Christ, and our sin- 
 cere devotion is manifest, not all our known foibles 
 and sins will prevent the voice of affection from 
 reaching the heart True, a man's foes sometimes 
 are found in his own household. Some are embit- 
 tered against the gospel in proportion as they be- 
 come acquainted with its nature. Perhaps the 
 most bitter enemy of the gospel in all Home, is one 
 of those, who for many years has most clearly un- 
 derstood its principles ; nay, had much to do, in 
 earlier days, with its revival. The love of sin in 
 the heart will not always yield to the voice of con- 
 science or an enlightened judgment So our Lord 
 teaches when he tells unbelievers, " Now ye have 
 both seen and hated both me and my Father." The 
 very preaching of its truths leads some sinners to 
 embrace their opposite errors. And the manifesta- 
 tions of the power of grace in some hearts, are ac- 
 companied by a more bitter hostility in the hearts 
 of those who refuse to have Christ reign over them. 
 The proud, the vain, the lover of pleasure, the man 
 ambitious of worldly honor, as well as the openly
 
 J 42 HOME. 
 
 vicious, will show the enmity of their hearts against 
 the Holy one, when the gospel disturbs their self- 
 complacency ; they will resist its claims till the pow- 
 er of the Spirit softens their hearts, convinces them 
 of their sinful nature and life, and leads them to re- 
 joice in Christ, their Saviour. 
 
 How flamed the enmity to the gospel, in many 
 hearts in Home, when, at last, the truly pious, en- 
 couraged by their increasing numbers, established 
 Sabbath worship, and employed pastors, once more, 
 like in faith and holiness, to those whose ministry 
 our fathers loved ! " The town would be impover- 
 ished by so many churches." The valuations show 
 a large increase of wealth ! " These people will 
 come to poverty, by paying so much to new teach- 
 ers and churches, and other new objects." The 
 pious have rapidly and steadily increased in wealth, 
 in almost every instance! "They mean to say we 
 are not Christians." Ah, there spake the guilty 
 conscience, awakening from the sleep of ages, and 
 seeing Christ afar off! The gospel was no longer 
 to be veiled from men's understandings, though 
 they were still free to reject the reign of holy love 
 over their hearts. Grace has a " constraining" but 
 no compulsory power over man. God worketh in 
 us, both to will and to do his pleasure, but never 
 forces one heart into his service. The Christian 
 convert says, " I rejoice to do thy will, O God !"
 
 HOME. 143 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PHYSIC FOR A GUILTY CONSCIENCE. 
 
 I. The wedding. 
 
 IT was an old family mansion, built when timber 
 was plenty and boards cheap ! The very garret con- 
 tained more square feet than a modern built cottage 
 ornee. The high spacious rooms, painted in land- 
 scape, furnished with heavy, old, rich carved furni- 
 ture spoke of wealth and ancestral taste. The 
 yellow paint was something faded ; but the twin- 
 ing honeysuckle and jasmine added a far richer 
 ornament, reaching to the very roof tree, and half 
 shading the windows. The very offices round the 
 dwelling look like plenty. The barns long ranges 
 of building are filled with hay and grain ; and 
 the hired man is just driving into the yard a herd 
 of cattle and sheep that a Patriarch might not de- 
 spise for numbers or beauty. Between the barn 
 and corn-house you can just get a glimpse, over 
 the hill tops, of the rich hickory woods that furnish 
 that noble wood-pile, with its two years' supply of 
 seasoned wood in advance, that looks provident for
 
 144 HOME. 
 
 human comfort. The dwellers here need fear no 
 fierce wintry storm ! Look, where the sun is just 
 setting in a blaze of glory, that perfectly dazzles 
 you ! Shade your eyes, and get a view of that 
 noble orchard of every variety of fruit, and the 
 garden and shrubbery, close at your feet No want 
 of fruits or pulse for the well furnished table, or 
 cider richer than wine for the cellar. Just now the 
 laborers are gathering the last winter apples. Count 
 up the barrels. One, two, twenty, eighty, two 
 hundred barrels ! Why there's fruit enough for all 
 Home. Doubtless there is a greater variety stored 
 and preserved. For you may see round the gar- 
 den rows of quince trees, plumbs, apricots, pears, 
 currants, raspberries, and every other delicious thing 
 our cold climate will nourish. And there is even a 
 green house, yonder, half hidden under the hill- 
 side, for exotic flowers and fruits, and to supply 
 early vegetables for the table. 
 
 Then in front, and round the dwelling, see how 
 rich the green turf is, spotted over with rose bushes 
 and lilacs. But lift up your eyes a little. See the 
 successive terraces, faced with hewn stone, rough 
 hewn, for ornament ; and loaded with every flower 
 that will bloom in autumn. You see the roots of 
 many a spring and summer beauty have been 
 carried to the hot house. Here is taste presiding
 
 over wealth. Raise your eyes again, and follow 
 my hand ! Do you see that green spot, to the east, 
 under that hill, where the horses are drinking? 
 There is the spring. Now trace the little stream 
 down hitherwards, through the pasture, by the line 
 of verdure. It crosses the road in a broad sheet of 
 clear, sparkling water. There is a load of guests, 
 coming to the bridal, driving over the rustic bridge. 
 Who are they, I wonder ? No matter ; the rich 
 and happy have many friends. The brook passes 
 so close to the terrace wall that we must go to it, 
 to see the pickerel and trout disporting in its hollows. 
 Mark how it winds away to the south, through that 
 broad rich meadow, till it is lost in the woods, 
 almost a mile off. Follow the high road, in the 
 same direction, and count the houses, of every 
 form, size and fashion. There you can see the 
 oldest house in town ! Just over it you see the high 
 steeple of our church. Some people do say, that 
 it is a pity the vane is so near to heaven, and 
 the people's hearts so far off! But come! I see 
 the guests are going into the parlor, the parson 
 must have come whije we have been gazing on the 
 bride's rich farm and fine prospects. 
 
 There stands the young bride, the owner of the 
 old mansion, and its rich grounds. She is clad in 
 simple white. Why shpuld she be ornamented? 
 13
 
 146 HOME. 
 
 Every one knows she is rich. She is rather short 
 no fault, in my eye. Her form is round, a little too 
 full ; but never mind it. Her long hair curls in the 
 neck. There's a single rose bud, half blown, stuck 
 in the golden clasp of her girdle, and another half 
 hidden in that ringlet over the left brow. Her blue 
 eyes, that commonly lack expression, are surely 
 beautiful now ! She is speaking to his sister ; that 
 accounts for it. The expression is mild ; but the 
 slight move of the lip and nostril speak of decision. 
 That round forehead, and head drawn back, tell of 
 pride as well as power. The smile is too stately 
 for me ; but I am not the lover ; only his cousin, 
 which makes all the odds in the world. See that 
 rich library! There are many things which the 
 elegant literature of our own and other lands and 
 tongues can supply. It is most of it a bridal pre- 
 sent. I wish there was more of religion, less of 
 taste, there. There is, to be sure, Blair, beside of 
 Byron ; Lathrop's sermons, stuck between two 
 volumes of Rosseau's Emilie ; but they are not 
 much, that is, not so very much better. So, it is 
 literature without religion. How old is the bride ? 
 Just twenty-four, to-day. 
 
 The bridegroom is not tall, but certainly the 
 most elegant man in the room, tho' the parson does 
 feel so proud of his stately form! He must be
 
 HOME. 147 
 
 a In M 1 1 twenty-six. I don't quite like his eye ; it is 
 too sensual. But his fine features are manly. They 
 say he was wild in college. Nay, that he was car- 
 ried to his room intoxicated, commencement night 
 But he has studied Jaw, since, and it is to be hoped 
 he learned the laws of temperance. His old, rich 
 family, honored for generations, would not suffer 
 him to marry this heiress if he .was not correct in 
 his habits. I don't like to see so much infidel litera- 
 ture in that book case. If he must have the Hen- 
 riade, he might have left out the Dictionaire Phi- 
 losophique, so called, because there's no philosophy 
 in it! But how happy James looks! I did not 
 think, when I laughed with him, last spring, about 
 the heiress, that they would be united so soon, if 
 ever. But he has gained his first cause, and I do 
 not believe he will care to plead another ! 
 
 The solemn words of blessing were uttered. 
 There was stillness, some tears, then kisses, con- 
 gratulations, feasting, the sparkling goblet, mirth, 
 wit and song, till the guests retired to their homes. 
 
 II. The funeral. 
 
 Two years later the same guests were again as- 
 sembled, clothed in the garments of woe. There 
 was a crowd in and around the dwelling, filling 
 every room and the whole yard. There was an 
 41
 
 148 HOME. 
 
 expression of pity and pain, rather than sorrow, on 
 almost every face. Look back a little. James was 
 by birth, education, professional attainments, men- 
 tal gifts and wealth, justly entitled to rank with the 
 first young men of his time. The pet son, he had 
 been too much indulged. The collage bills were 
 large ; but so were his father's, before him. There 
 were too many " wines" and " suppers," by far, for 
 entire sobriety; but he graduated with honor. 
 Young men would be wild, a little ; so his father 
 said, and the whole family agreed. His profession 
 was only to give him some gentlemanly calling. 
 There was no lack of wealth. Besides, political 
 eminence was what he aspired to, and what his 
 friends wished. Now married into an old and 
 wealthy family, with popular talents, pleasing man- 
 ners, education, leisure, and many friends, what 
 might he not hope for ? 
 
 The friends and the bride knew not that the 
 habits of intemperance were already formed ; that 
 the eye was often brilliant with the excitement of 
 champaign, and the song inspired by incipient de- 
 lirium. We little thought of such things, then, in 
 the days of darkness. Fond of elegant literature 
 were the whole family circle. The bridal months 
 passed away brilliantly, happily. The cloud in the 
 distance was not noted. In the opening spring, he
 
 HOME. 149 
 
 must become the gentleman farmer. He must 
 work with his laborers, or pretend to, and drink 
 with them. By autumn he was often drunk with 
 them ! By another year, his only associates were 
 low, drunken laborers, intoxicated in the field before 
 noon, every day. The farm was neglected, money 
 wasted, friends lost, bad passions roused, oaths 
 common, brutality towards all but his wife, frequent, 
 and hope of reform gone ! Who shall tell how the 
 young, childless woman mourned over her lost 
 visions of bliss ? How she sought refuge from 
 trouble in literary pursuits, in music, in song, in 
 social visits ! How her pale cheek and passion- 
 less eye told of a breaking heart ! Had one word 
 of unkindness ever fallen from him, it would have 
 broken ! So he died, as the fool dieth, and we all 
 came to mourn with the living, and to bury the 
 loathsome body out of her sight. There was no 
 consolation for her, in the character of the departed ; 
 the healing power of the gospel she knew not. 
 The pastor, in his prayer, said that time soothed our 
 sorrows, and the offices of friendship. So why 
 speak of the gospel ? So we buried him, and left 
 the young widow alone to weep. 
 
 IH The brother's letter. 
 
 " Dearest G. My beloved and most cherished sis- 
 13*
 
 150 HOME. 
 
 ter, my heart is deeply wounded by the news of 
 your affliction. If my love, my tears, my very life 
 could give you consolation, you know they should 
 be yours. I will not, I must not, speak of him you 
 have lost. I do mourn over his untimely grave ; 
 but, my sister, I mourn far more for you ! You 
 have no comforter ! You would not hear me, in 
 the hours of joy. Your heart ached with the ex- 
 cess of your happiness, present and in near pros- 
 pect. You said you admired the divine beneficence, 
 and were grateful for every blessing ; you loved the 
 Giver! Ah sister, your love and gratitude were 
 only the refection of your own happiness. Even-- 
 thing smiled on you, and your smiles answered 
 again. You were offended when I told you that 
 your heart was far from God, and was lifted up with 
 sinful pride. You almost denied that I loved you, 
 or appreciated your character. Am I not right, sis- 
 ter ? Did I not see in you the picture of my own 
 nature, softened as woman's form is, but still the 
 same ? When I preached the wiles of error, and 
 believed in the native purity of my proud heart, 
 was I not just so deceived myself? I thought I 
 loved God ; but he was not in all my thoughts, in 
 the real holiness of his character. My proud heart 
 was not subdued to his sovereign will. May I read 
 your heart, dearest G. ? Has affliction, so sharp,
 
 HOME. 151 
 
 so severe, so overwhelming, prepared you to see 
 what is passing within ? You weep all day, and re- 
 fuse to be comforted. The words of sympathy 
 seem to be mockery. At night you sleep only from 
 exhaustion. In the morning you ask, ' Why is my 
 lot so much more bitter than that of others ?' In 
 the evening you say, ' I surely have not deserved 
 it What sin have I committed, that God should 
 be so severe ? Is this his goodness that smiled so 
 serenely upon me ? I expected sorrow and death 
 at some time ; but not to have the hopes of my 
 youth so blasted. How have I deserved, not suffer- 
 ing only, but this shame ?' Do I read you right, 
 G. ? Is not this the voice of your heart ? And, in 
 in the stillness of the night, does no voice add, 
 ' your heart is not right in the sight of the Holy 
 One ?' Three months have now passed away, 
 since that sad day ; and you write me you have no 
 comforter still. Suffer one who loves you with 
 both a brother's and a father's tenderness, to probe 
 your heart, before I point you to that only Comforter 
 I know. You find your loved music has lost its 
 soothing power ; he used to sing with you. Did you 
 ever ' make melody in your heart, unto the Lord ?' 
 Did you ever sing to His praise, with devout affec- 
 tions ? 
 You loved literature. But what was it ? Did it
 
 HOME. 
 
 tell aught of God, his holy law, the evil of siu, the 
 coming judgment, the cross of a Redeemer's mercy 
 and agony, the life beyond the dark valley ? Was 
 not every book of this nature omitted or unread ? 
 You read the Bible at times, I know. But did you 
 make it the guide of your life ? Did you ever try 
 to regulate your affections and your thoughts by its 
 holy precepts ? Did you ever seriously try to please 
 God, for one entire week, or even day of your life ? 
 I know you united with the church, on your mar- 
 riage. But did you really feel that you were conse- 
 crating your heart to Christ? That you were, 
 thenceforth, to ' walk in newness of life ?' I know 
 you have sometimes prayed ; but did you ever real- 
 ly delight in the presence of the Holy God ? Or 
 was it an irksome thought that he read your heart, 
 and knew your very thoughts before they were your 
 own ? You say you find no pleasure in your former 
 literary pursuits, because they so constantly remind 
 you of past joys and present sufferings. But if you 
 really regarded your Maker as having a right to dis- 
 pose of you, would you so murmur ? Is he not 
 holy ? Is he not perfect in wisdom ? Is he not al- 
 ways just ? (I ask your conscience and your under- 
 standing; do not let your heart answer for them). 
 Does he ever willingly afflict or grieve the children 
 of men ? Must there not be in your own character,
 
 HOME. 153 
 
 ample reasons to justify all these judgments of his 
 hand? I know the innocent, the righteous some- 
 times suffer. I know you are free from outward 
 stain, and grosser passions. But are you holy ? 
 
 Three years ago, you made choice of your com- 
 panion. Which was dearest to your heart, he, or 
 your God ? Did you not feel that you were strong, 
 your life of joy secure beyond doubt or change ? 
 Was not your heart lifted up with pride ? Was 
 you humble in the day of your prosperity ? Ah, do 
 I not know my sister's heart from my own ? Have 
 we not had, from infancy, the same joys, sorrows, 
 books, favorite topics of thought, views of men, of 
 society, and of ' our place 1 in it ? Did you not think 
 it a strange thing, five years ago, to have your proud 
 brother commend humility, meekness, and forgive- 
 ness of injuries? Did not my sister ask me, 'if I 
 would be coward enough to submit to insult?' 
 Did you not say that such a religion you could not 
 respect ? Was not that the heart of pride ? ' God 
 resisteth the proud ; he knoweth their thoughts afar 
 off; but he giveth grace to the humble.' 
 
 You say you shrink even from the society of dear 
 friends. Is not this the fruit of your mortified 
 pride ? Dearest sister, I weep over your sorrows. 
 But I cannot alleviate them by suggesting any ali- 
 ment for a sinful heart I see in all your excessive
 
 154 HOME. 
 
 sorrow, only the fruits of a proud, selfish, passion- 
 ate, unrenewed heart, just such as mine was when 
 we wept together by our dying mother's bedside. 
 Have you forgotten my passionate grief? Did I 
 not murmur against the Holy One ? I love all that 
 circle of friends around you. There is not one of 
 them but I connect some early joy with their forms 
 and voices. But does one of them all speak to you 
 of the sinful heart, and the atoning Saviour? 
 They speak of divine goodness in sparing you yet 
 many blessings. But is there one of them all that 
 tells you of the goodness of God in afflicting you ? 
 No, they do not understand that. Their hearts 
 have learned submission as little as we had learned 
 it, when mother died. Now sister, I beseech you, 
 turn not away from the view of your own sinful 
 heart. Let your mind dwell on it, till by God's 
 Spirit, you discover, as I did, in my own bosom, its 
 dark, deadly depravity. Humble yourself before 
 God, and confess your guilt, your pride, your sinful 
 life of worldly pleasure, your forgetfulness of the 
 claims of his holy character to your love ; of his law, 
 to your heart's obedience ; of your fellow-men, to 
 your wealth, your prayers, your toils for their good. 
 Did you ever think of loving the souls of others ? 
 When you taught poor Lily to read the Bible, was 
 her salvation from sin and death your motive ?
 
 HOME. 155 
 
 Did you pray that her heart might be holy ? You 
 pitied one so ignorant ; but did you weep over her sin- 
 fulness? Satisfied that she reformed her outward 
 life, did you seek to purify her heart? I speak of her 
 as a test of the state of your heart, because she was 
 so entirely under your control. You won praise, 
 and deserved it, for the decision that rescued her 
 from a life of shame, and restored her to society. 
 But was it compassion for the woman, or a desire to 
 save the sinner ? Did you ever think of praying 
 with her ? Did you speak to her of Christ, the dy- 
 ing Saviour, who would take away her sins ? or was 
 it only of virtue, honor, restored happiness and re- 
 spect ? You did well ; but did you act as a Chris- 
 tian ? 
 
 Have I read your heart, my sister ? Oh then let 
 me point you to my Comforter? Look up to the 
 cross ! He died to save you. He has all the affec- 
 tions of a loving, human heart. He wept over the 
 grave of his friend. He wept with the sisterssof 
 Bethany. His warmest sympathies are ever with 
 the sorrowing. And then, he has poiotr ; power to 
 take away the very source of all sorrow ; power to 
 say: 'daughter, thy sins are forgiven thee.' His 
 hand can wipe away all tears, and His Holy Spirit 
 fill your bosom, in an hour, with peace, comfort, 
 joy. He can reveal to you his own holy, pure, self-
 
 156 HOME. 
 
 denying character, as the one worthy object of your 
 entire love and worship ; and fill your soul with 
 such peace as all the world cannot impart or take 
 from you. He takes away the remorse for sin, the 
 humiliating sense of guilt, the shame of sin. He 
 teaches us to abhor our sinful pride, to be clothed 
 with humility, to rejoice in affliction, to strive to 
 console ourselves, not by solitude and tears, but by 
 doing good to others. You say your poor neighbor 
 is dead. Have you been there, two mourners, to 
 weep together ? I think I see your heart. It says : 
 ' she is not a proper associate for me.' I grant it ; 
 but the refined, the educated, the gifted, may weep 
 with the humblest and most debased of the poor. 
 Did not your very station, and your common sor- 
 row render it fitting that you should forget, for the 
 time, the barriers of society, and carry peace to the 
 guilty family if you could ? Ah, sister, the blessed 
 Comforter was wanting to your own heart ! The 
 spirit of Christ, the image of Divine benevolence 
 was not in your own bosom, and you knew not how 
 to comfort one who, like you, had both shame and 
 sorrow at once. Oh sister, whom I have so long 
 loved, for whom 1 have prayed and wept, even in 
 your proudest days of happiness, let fraternal love 
 warn as well as entreat you to flee at once to the 
 Saviour. Cast on him your double burden of sor-
 
 HOME. 157 
 
 row and sin ; He will forgive the one, and soothe the 
 other, as no power of earthly sympathy can, as no 
 ministering angel may. Lift up your fallen spirit to 
 the revealed Deity ; the God clothed in the likeness 
 of sinful flesh, for the very purpose of removing our 
 sins and woes, and so making us ' partakers of the 
 Divine nature.' In the face of the Man of sorrows, 
 behold the compassion of a God. In the eye of 
 human sympathy, that weeps over the tomb of the 
 loved one, see the mercy of the Lord of all power. 
 In the voice of his tender love, hear the words of 
 glory : ' I am the Resurrection and the Life. He 
 that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall 
 he live !' Is not here a balm for your spirit ? Is 
 not here a power to give you consolation and 
 peace ? Is there not here One worthy of love ? In 
 living to Him and for Him who died for us, will 
 you not find comfort ? Is he not wisdom, strength, 
 life, peace, all the soul needs ? Come, beloved G., 
 lay aside the spirit of heaviness,, and take from 
 Christ the garments of praise. Devote your life to 
 Him. Your literary tastes, your musical talents, 
 your social influence, your wealth, let att be given 
 to the task of winning others to his love. Who, in 
 all your circle, give proof that the love of God is 
 the spring of their actions? In whose face does 
 Christ appear, in the glory of his self-denying love ? 
 14
 
 158 HOME. 
 
 Oh, wake to live for him ! My dearest sister, I have 
 written with many tears, with constant prayer. In 
 the day of prosperity you thought me harsh, too 
 strict, wanting in the mildness of the Christian, be- 
 cause I could not smile on a life of pleasure. Now, 
 in the day of sorrows, hear my voice of love, and 
 let our Saviour bid you live. Then you shall re- 
 joice that you have been afflicted ; that your bright 
 morning found so bitter a night so near. 
 With sympathy arid love, 
 
 Your brother W. 
 March 12, 18." 
 
 u Cruel, cruel brother ! Why must he add more 
 bitterness to my grief? Does he not know I differ 
 from him, in his new creed ? Arn I to be set down 
 as one utterly lost in sin ? But after all" and here 
 was a pause of serious reflection, followed by a 
 flood of tears " after all, he is not unkind. And 
 I am proud. Oh, he has been reading my heart 
 too truly ! I have lived to myself, and not for 
 Christ. There is something more than a creed in all 
 this. Let me read it again." It was read again, and 
 again. Conscience acknowledged the truth of the 
 dark picture, so faithfully, yet tenderly drawn. The 
 sinful heart began a fierce struggle. Pride coun- 
 selled anger at the reprover. The letter was torn 
 in two, and cast indignantly aside ; and the weep-
 
 HOME. 159 
 
 ing, passionate widow fled to her chamber, and 
 wept alone, on her bed, in agony there was no 
 sleep for her that night. 
 
 IV. The Physicians. 
 
 A week later, the young widow was tossing on 
 her bed, unable to rise. She was sick, so they all 
 said, around her ; all but one, the humble woman 
 who had dreamed, so long before, of the great light, 
 just in the direction of this dwelling! She saw the 
 struggles of the sin-sick soul. But she was only 
 the nurse for the body. Never left alone, regarded 
 as a weak enthusiast, she could not speak to the 
 proud and sick lady, of the Saviour. What ailed 
 her ? The pastor came, once and again. She did 
 not weep ; yet she seemed in anguish ? " Where 
 is your pain ?" 
 
 " Oh, it is my heart ; I have crucified my Sa- 
 viour ! I have rejected Him who bought me with 
 His blood. I must die in sin !" 
 
 " But you wander, you are not such a guilty being. 
 How have you sinned so much ? Surely your woes 
 will cancel such sins as your pure life allowed." 
 
 M Oh, my heart is full of pride and selfishness. I 
 have lived without God." 
 
 " Surely, my dear G , you are wrong calm 
 
 yourself. You have always respected religion, you
 
 160 HOME. 
 
 have sincerely admired the benevolence and good- 
 ness of God in all his works and ways. You have 
 never wilfully broken his laws. He will not be a 
 severe Judge." 
 
 " Oh yes, I have never loved his holiness. I loved 
 pleasure, and was dead while I lived. God was 
 afar off, and Christ had no comeliness to my soul. 
 I saw no need of a dying Saviour ; and now his 
 frown is upon my soul ! Oh pray that my sins 
 may be forgiven, or I must perish." 
 
 " Surely you do not fear that you are to be cast 
 into an eternal hell, for any sin you have commit- 
 ted!" 
 
 " Oh, I have sinned. My sins are great. How 
 shall I wash away my sins ? It is not that I fear 
 wrath, but because I deserve it, that I cry for relief. 
 Oh, what shall I do ?" 
 
 It was a new case for the pastor. He had heard 
 of such things, among the benighted " orthodox," 
 but he regarded it as weakness, or worse. In vain, 
 day after day he tried to calm her spirit. It would 
 not rest. The agitated mind prostrated the , vigor 
 of the body. The pulses quickened, and beat with 
 the violence of a fever. The clear, powerful intel- 
 lect dwelt always on the great evil of sin, a sinful 
 heart, in which the love of pleasure reigned, where 
 the love of Christ should have ruled alone. The
 
 HOME. 161 
 
 pastor knew no remedy for her disease ; he was 
 not sure but it was insanity. So the physician was 
 sent for. He, two, was a member, and, in fact, if 
 not by formal choice, for many years an officer of 
 the church. He had heard cries for mercy by the 
 couch of the dying sinner. But here was a new 
 case for him. Here was one of spotless life, amia- 
 ble temper, well educated, groaning in anguish over 
 the sins of the heart ! It was a new case. Then 
 he felt the pulse, and the brow that burned like 
 fire. She had a fever ! There was danger of in- 
 flammation of the brain ! He ordered her an emet- 
 ic, and some powders every two hours ! They 
 were faithfully given. Poor medicine to purge 
 away the burden of sin from the guilty conscience ! 
 
 That night the widow remembered the torn let- 
 ter. " Oh run Mrs. M., and bring me a letter you 
 will find in the parlor. Oh, I was wicked to tear 
 it." It was brought, read again with tears. Now, 
 it was no longer cruel. It told of Christ, just such 
 a Saviour, just such a comforter, just such a Phy- 
 sician as her soul needed. She turned to the pious 
 nurse. " Is there any hope that Christ will receive 
 one so guilty as 1 am ? Oh, I have been blind to all 
 his dying love !" 
 
 " He came to seek and to save that which was 
 lost ;" " not to call the righteous, but sinners to 
 14*
 
 162 HOME. 
 
 repentance." "Though your sins be as scarlet, 
 they shall be white as wool." " The blood of 
 Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." So answered 
 the poor widow, in the words of holy writ, while 
 the rich widow, poor in her riches, bowed with all 
 her soul to the majesty of the simple word of God. 
 Now the glory of the cross was revealed to her ; 
 and she cried out, " Oh, I have found Him ; I have 
 found my Saviour ; help me to praise Him ! Oh, 
 what a glorious, holy, kind, gracious Lord he is !" 
 
 Then her sweet voice burst out into a song of 
 praise, in the words so often sung without thought, 
 
 " Now to the Lamb that once was slain, 
 Be endless honors given." 
 
 Before the stanza was ended, her voice chocked. 
 But it was with rapture ! She " made melody in 
 her heart unto the Lord." 
 
 The morning dawned sweetly. It was the Sab- 
 bath. The fever of the pulse was gone. The 
 calmness of holy joy was in the soul, and the clear 
 intellect saw the glory of the Invisible God reveal- 
 ed in his Son. It was a day of joy and praise. 
 Such a Sabbath had not been known in that old 
 mansion for half a century. The very air seemed 
 vocal with praise. 
 
 The news soon spread far and wide. The pas-
 
 HOME. 163 
 
 tor came, and found a gentle, joyous spirit, meek 
 and mild, but fervent in exhorting him, too, to seek 
 that Saviour she had found. The physician was 
 pointed to a remedy for sin he had never known. 
 Friends were warned, counselled, entreated, prayed 
 for. Some doubted, some mocked, some listened. 
 But the pious rejoiced and thanked God^that the 
 " great light" shone ! The poor widow said the 
 " little lights" would soon appear ! And they did ! 
 I cannot follow the after life ; the praying wife and 
 mother, the leader of the social circle for worship, 
 the teacher of the Sabbath school, the Bible class ; 
 the faithful guide to youthful relatives, the reprover 
 of sin and unbelief in the matured. Life closed 
 too soon. But not till many precious fruits followed 
 that strange sickness, and the remedies of the phy- 
 sicians! There was no insanity here; nothing to 
 destroy the force of the example. Here was wealth, 
 education, literary tastes, fashion, loveliness, all con- 
 secrated to Christ, with views of truth so clear, 
 with humility so marked, with experience so rich, 
 that none who were willing to see could doubt it 
 was the work of God. It carried the gospel, in its 
 living power, again, into the centre of the most re- 
 fined circle of Home and its vicinage. So the 
 widow's God became her friend. Her comforter 
 was her Saviour. And henceforth, in the eyes of
 
 164 HOME. 
 
 all, she lived for him. There were errors, foibles, 
 weaknesses ; but " the life of faith on the Son of 
 God," was not concealed by them. The brother re- 
 joiced. The angels rejoiced. And doth not the 
 Lord rejoice over the " lost, found ?" He " taketh 
 them in his arms, and carrieth them in his bosom." 
 He has " loved them with an everlasting love." On 
 his throne of glory his heart is in all their sorrow, 
 and rejoices in all the bliss he bestows on them, in 
 the fulness of his own love. And when they lay 
 aside the body of clay, " his hand shall lead them 
 in green pastures, and by the still waters ;" his voice 
 shall teach them the "new song" which none can 
 sing but his redeemed ones. There " his servants 
 shall serve him," in holy, useful, blessed activity, 
 forever.
 
 HUME. 165 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 1 
 
 Old tics broken THE FAITHFUL PASTOR Old George 
 The Bible Class The vicious saved Election justi- 
 fied ; the narrative The strayed sheep looked up 
 The aged sinner saved The poor-house Sabbath 
 schools Laws of sanctification Temperance The 
 last argument ; holy living. 
 
 HARD was the struggle when the disciples at 
 last withdrew from the places where our fathers had 
 worshipped so long. The very graves around 
 seemed to reproach them ! On that seat, the now gray 
 headed man of fourscore, when a tiny boy had seen 
 
 1 As the details of the preceding chapter are simple mat- 
 ters of history, the reader may be interested to know some 
 additional facts, inadvertently omitted by the author,, serv- 
 ing to connect the heroine of the last chapter with " the 
 faithful pastor " of the following. He it is, who was sum- 
 moned to her aid, when the advice of her accustomed 
 spiritual guide and the prescriptions of her physician all 
 proved unavailing. He it is, who with the " poor widow," 
 stood by the bed-side of that agonized woman and talked 
 to her of the good physician ; Jold her of that bleeding and 
 atoning Lamb, and urged her to believe and live. And 
 when, at last, her " lips were filled with rejoicing," his voice
 
 166 HOME. 
 
 his silken haired great grand-father, as he worshipped 
 " leaning on the top of his staff." Every beam of 
 the old edifice had some sacred association. There 
 were the friends of his childhood. With them he 
 must part, for Christ's sake. The wife left the hus- 
 band behind. The child did not always follow the 
 parent. And when, for the last time, the aged 
 walked slowly away from that house, after linger- 
 ing in its aisles, on its door-stone, by the hill-side, 
 many a sad look was cast back, and the head bow- 
 ed down, the tear trickled over faces not often seen 
 so moistened by the tears of sorrow. But Christ 
 required it. The faith of the gospel was no longer 
 preached ; the Lord had given them numbers and 
 a heart to maintain his worship in its purity ; and 
 all these old and tender associations must be brok- 
 en up. 
 
 The formation of churches composed of living 
 members of the body of Christ, was soon followed 
 by the settlement of faithful pastors. Then, in suc- 
 
 mingled with hers in ascriptions of praise. It was their 
 first song together, but not their last, as the domestic altar 
 and the secret chamber of the wife and husband will at- 
 test 
 
 The indulgent reader will readily pardon the author for 
 the above omission, when told that the entire manuscript 
 of this book was written in the eleven days which intervened 
 between Mr. Torrey's conviction and sentence. PUB.
 
 HOME. 167 
 
 cession, all the varied means of growth in know- 
 ledge and grace were enjoyed, and the work of re- 
 novation was more rapidly onward. 
 
 True, the bitter feelings connected with the sep- 
 arations closed, for a time, some minds against the 
 truth. It spoke so loudly to men of the fallen state 
 of the old churches, that many, whose hearts were 
 ruled, partly by pride, and partly by old associa- 
 tions, were grieved and angry. So there were re- 
 proaches, curses, tears. The path of duty is not al- 
 ways a pleasant one. Peace does not always follow 
 the steps that the wisdom of the just may indicate. 
 Still, us time run on, such feelings passed away. 
 Many wished to hear the new pastors. If their 
 doctrines were not always understood, or, if under- 
 stood, not loved, still there was no doubt about their 
 holy living. They had faults, weaknesses, foibles, 
 like other men. But their zeal, humility, faith and 
 love for the soul were not hid. 
 
 The idea of the faithful pastor was revived once 
 more. One was a man of polished manners. He 
 was a ripe scholar, an agreeable companion. His 
 preaching was instructive, his doctrine ever main- 
 tained by reference to the Bible alone. There was 
 a directness and plainness in his addresses to the 
 conscience, that it was not easy to avoid. It was 
 his rule, that no man should ever be able to say,
 
 168 HOME. 
 
 " I have seen the pastor, and he never spoke to me 
 of the soul and the Saviour." It was not always 
 wise ; but the honest fidelity with which he acted 
 on it, commanded respect. " The man must be in 
 earnest," it was said. It was a new thing, too. 
 Our old pastors were not superior to him in talent, 
 learning or refinement. But they never talked so to 
 all men, and to the very children, of sin, death, and 
 Christ the Lamb of God. 
 
 There was a despised couple, a woman of feeble 
 powers, and the man commonly known as old 
 George. Perhaps, in past days, rum had done its 
 work in destroying the manhood of the man. Then 
 they were poor ; objects of charity, just kept out of 
 the alms-house. Their little old dwelling, with its 
 one room and a garret, was the meanest hovel in 
 all the parish. True, it was very neat. The worn 
 out floor was clean and nicely sanded. In summer 
 the fire-place was always filled with pine boughs, 
 and wreaths of winter-green and wild flowers were 
 thrown over the little looking-glass and mantle- 
 piece. The mind was feeble, but the love of God's 
 beautiful things was not lost They could not say 
 it, but they saw his smiles in their flowers and fo- 
 liage. 
 
 Among the very first to frequent the new place 
 of worship was this humble couple. There was
 
 HOME. 169 
 
 many a patch, not always of uniform color, in the 
 old garments. But they were decent. Modestly, 
 they took the " lowest seat" But they were not de- 
 spised, there, as the worldly church despised them. 
 Nor did the Holy One refuse to be called their Fa- 
 ther. So " this poor man cried, and the Lord heard 
 him," and filled his bosom and that of his rneek 
 companion with the fruits of the Spirit, love, joy 
 and peace. 
 
 The pastor rejoiced to see how " God chose the 
 weak things of the world to confound the mighty.'' 
 Their little hut was made the plane of stated pray- 
 er, and evening preaching. Many an excellent ser- 
 mon was preached there. People said it was not 
 " respectable," and wondered the pastor could find 
 no better place ; and when he formed a Bible Class 
 there, too, and made it so interesting that the chil- 
 dren of our first families flocked to that poor house 
 even in stormy nights, the thing became even more 
 strange. The invitation to meet in more "decent" 
 places was given ; but the pastor saw that God hon- 
 ored the poor hut, and he would do what the Lord 
 had done. So the Bible Class generally met in the 
 little room, from year to year. How full of humble, 
 quiet happiness that poor man and his wife were, 
 on those days ! Had God, in very deed so honor- 
 ed their low estate ? Did the rich, the proud, the 
 15
 
 170 HOME. 
 
 wise come to their old dwelling to learn the way of 
 life ? How could they thank God enough, for such 
 honor ! In that little room a family altar was built. 
 There was none in the houses of the rich, 
 for a mile around. In that little garret was a 
 place for constant secret prayer. Did the rich love 
 to pray to " Our Father who seeth in secret ?" So 
 they honored God, and he honored them, and made 
 their little hut a bethel. Souls were born there. 
 And now, when a few years only have passed 
 away, every regular member of the Bible Class, 
 save one or two, is a child of God ! Some have al- 
 ready entered into their rest. Some live, and their 
 light shines. 
 
 Three of the group are pastor's wives ; one is a 
 professor in a theological school, two more are pre- 
 paring to preach the gospel to the lost. When the 
 world te burned up, if that little hovel does 
 not sooner decay, many will wish to have it spared ! 
 If the arts of design are cultivated in a future world, 
 as I doubt not they will be many a pencil dipped 
 in light will depict that old cottage, and its humble 
 inmates. 
 
 As religion honored the weak, so it began to re- 
 form the profligate. In two instances, men of the 
 most depraved morals, brutal in ignorance, drunken, 
 profane, lewd, " to every good work reprobate,"
 
 HOME. 171 
 
 were reclaimed, and became striking proofs of the 
 power of grace. Everybody admitted that they 
 " needed to be born again." But it struck some, 
 very forcibly, that no such results had followed the 
 popular preaching, for a long time. Morality had 
 been promoted by it, no doubt. But the conversion 
 of a thoroughly bad man into one noted for purity, 
 meekness and self-denial, was a new thing in Home. 
 It seemed to some that Christ had indeed come to 
 call sinners to repentance. In one instance the 
 effect was striking. A man of strong mind, well 
 acquainted with the truths of the gospel, had long 
 been resisting the voice of love. His reasoning in- 
 tellect was thoroughly convinced that the doctrine 
 of election was true; a part of God's government, 
 not merely revealed in the Bible, but written all 
 over the history of man and angels. And he did 
 not deny the right of the wise, holy, and just God 
 to decide the destiny of all his creatures. 
 
 But the heart refused to submit to the authority 
 that the conscience and mind admitted to be right. 
 The struggle was severe. One night, a young rela- 
 tive, who had found Christ in a distant city, had 
 been speaking, in a little upper room, of the Saviour 
 he had found. The sinful heart was touched, but 
 the old struggle revived again. 
 
 u Why," said the sinner, " why am I left ? I have
 
 172 
 
 often felt that it was a great hardship that others 
 were taken and I was left. There are this and that 
 man naming the converts who have always lived 
 bad lives, profligate, swearers, despising everything 
 that is good. Still they are converted. I have al- 
 ways been moral, respected religion, and tried to 
 do right towards others ; but there's no mercy, no 
 pardon for my sinful heart." The strong man's 
 frame shook with the anguish of his mind. 
 
 " Perhaps," it was said, " these guilty men will 
 be better examples than you, more needed, here, to 
 show the power of grace. And, then, are you quite 
 sure that a mother's prayers and holy life have not 
 kept you from grosser depravity than these men show- 
 ed ? Are you sure your heart is really any better ? 
 You admit that you are a sinner ?" " Oh yes, I feel 
 that ; that is all my trouble. I may he as guilty as 
 they, in heart ; but why are they preferred to me ?" 
 
 " I am not God, to answer to his motives. But 
 if you are guilty, is he under any obligation to have 
 mercy on you ?" 
 
 " No, I know he is not bound to save me." 
 " Then, look at your heart. Even now, it rebels 
 against the principles of his government that you 
 admit to be founded in his own wisdom, power and 
 justice. With such a heart, is it not just and right 
 that God should leave you to perish ?"
 
 H b M E . 173 
 
 The conscience of the sinner answered " yes." 
 "Then, if you do perish, the justice of God will be 
 known in it. God has seen your sinful heart, been 
 very gracious to you, long-suffering has marked all 
 his dealings with you ; blessings are multiplied to 
 win your gratitude ; Christ is as freely offered to 
 you, as to any other man. And if, after all, you 
 are a " vessel of wrath," will not God be justified, 
 by your own character, in the eyes of all men ?" 
 
 The sinner again assented in silence. " Now, it 
 is not certain that you are to be lost. You are yet 
 alive ; you see your guilt ; conscience is not dead- 
 ened ; the Holy Spirit is evidently striving with you 
 to lead you to Christ And, the only way in which 
 you, or we can know whether you are elected or 
 not, will be by the result of the conflict between 
 your heart and the Holy Spirit. Is it not so ? Then, 
 suppose you grieve the Holy Spirit to depart from 
 you. Will that change one fact in the Divine Gov- 
 ernment ? It may settle the question that you per- 
 ish ; but your admitted sins will justify God, no 
 matter what his reasons may be for sparing others 
 as guilty as you. The very fact of your election is 
 unknown to you or others. And it is in vain to ask 
 the reasons of a fact, when the fact itself is beyond 
 our knowledge." 
 
 "But what shall I do, then?" 
 15*
 
 174 HOME. 
 
 " That is just the point. Submit to the govern- 
 ment of God. It must be founded in perfect wis- 
 dom, justice and goodness, whether you see all 
 God's motives and reasons for action, or not. Let 
 me ask you ; which would be the most guilty of the 
 two, in refusing submission ; these debased, igno- 
 rant men, or you, with your clear views of God's 
 character and will ? Which would God be more 
 honored in sparing, in view of the degrees of light 
 you enjoy ? And if spared, are you any ways sure 
 that your whole life, here and hereafter, will be as 
 useful to the kingdom of Christ as theirs ?" 
 
 He admitted there might be very good reasons, be- 
 sides his own guilt, why others should be saved in pre- 
 ference to him and this is the doctrine of election, 
 the whole of it : viz. '" That there are reasons, aside 
 from the obligations of justice to the moral character of 
 the subjects of Divine government, why one man is 
 made a subject of Divine mercy, and another is not" 
 Is it not according to common sense, as well as the 
 Bible ? 
 
 " Then what is your plain duty ? Are you wiser 
 than God, that you shall undertake to judge of his 
 decisions, before you know what they are, or on 
 what they are based ? Enough for you to know 
 that he has provided for your pardon, by the blood 
 of his Son ; and that he offers you mercy if you will
 
 HOME. 175 
 
 submit to have him reign over you. Will you do 
 so ?" 
 
 So the proud heart was broken, and the sinner 
 knelt, and confessed his guilty rebellion, and rose 
 up "justified;" the love of God filling his heart. 
 No longer he complains that others are saved ; he 
 only wonders why he was spared ; why frowning 
 justice consented to smile on his soul, and mercy 
 stooped to heal his sinful heart. And, in every 
 form of trial and suffering, since that hour, he has 
 proved that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ was 
 sufficient for him. 
 
 The faithful pastor did not omit to preach in the 
 neglected districts, where piety had been almost for- 
 gotten. There, indeed, the gospel was welcomed. 
 The young, especially, crowded the school-houses 
 and dwellings to hear the words of life. Some, too, 
 came to mock. Some of the older sinners were 
 angry at being disturbed in their sins. Repent ; 
 not they ! Keep the Sabbath ? Why, they did'nt 
 work much, and as for avoiding other modes of 
 desecrating it, that was an " orthodox" affair. But 
 still, in those districts where the people had so en- 
 tirely forgotten the public worship of God, there 
 was very little error prevalent, the heart did not 
 seem so indurated by sin. One family after an- 
 other, who Find listened to the evening sermon in the
 
 176 HOME. 
 
 school-room, began to frequent the house of wor- 
 ship. A visible improvement in morals, intelligence, 
 good manners, jftid taste in dress appeared, even 
 where the heart was not affected. In a few years, 
 these neglected, forgotten districts were more fully 
 instructed in the truths of the gospel than, perhaps, 
 any other part of Home. On those who sat in 
 darkness, great light shone. There was one con- 
 version, early in the revival of pure faith in Home, 
 that always impressed me very much. It was that 
 of an aged sinner. 
 
 He was a soldier, both in the old French war, 
 and in the Revolution. He had a mind of far more 
 than ordinary power ; his reasoning faculties were 
 especially strong. No disguises of sophistry could 
 blind his powers of analysis. I believe he always 
 derided, as weak, the arguments men urged against 
 the doctrines of the Pilgrims. Not that he cared 
 for religion ; not he ! In the army he became in- 
 temperate and infidel in his views, or rather in his 
 fedings more properly. He never would hear any 
 one assail the truth without reply ! He had a frame 
 of iron. No severity of toil seemed to shake it. 
 In old age he had the strength of early manhood. 
 But he lived in sin. In other days, his life was a 
 standing reproach to the gospel. For who so con- 
 stantly and powerfully defended the doctrines of the
 
 HOME. 1 77 
 
 Bible, as this gray headed sinner! Men said that 
 they preferred a better life with a shorter creed ! 
 They did not so much consider that his life was at 
 war with his theory. At last, when nearly fourscore 
 years old, the Holy Spirit made the truths his lips 
 had always defended, a sword to slay the sins of 
 his heart The gray head became a crown of glory, 
 because it was found in the way of righteousness. 
 Storm or sunshine, his venerable form was always 
 in the pulpit, by the side of the minister, though 
 he lived remote from the meeting. The last time 
 I saw him was at his own fireside. He had lived 
 to see almost one hundred years. Many around 
 him had risen up to bless him for his prayers, his 
 warnings, his holy living. He spoke with an old 
 soldier's ardor of the struggles of our fathers in the 
 days of peril ; but his eyes lighted up with rapture 
 when the Captain of salvation was named. " Yes, 
 I shall soon see him in his glory ! I am waiting to 
 be called home. And then I shall no longer be 
 fettered with this dying body ; for I know I shall be 
 like Him." 
 
 The people of Home were ever humane to the 
 poor. It was one of the first towns in the country 
 to provide well, handsomely, for their comfort But 
 the soul was forgotten, till the faithful pastor set the 
 example of preaching in the poor-house. There, 

 
 178 HOME. 
 
 too, fruits of his fidelity were found. Thus, in all 
 Home, the poor, once more, had the gospel preach- 
 ed to them. If the gospel was hidden from any 
 class, as such, it was from the rich. For, perhaps 
 at no period did the selfish, grasping spirit of our 
 rich men become so manifest, and so hard to be 
 borne by its victims, as after the restoration of the 
 pure faith was begun. They hardened themselves 
 in sin, and sometimes took no little pains to draw 
 others away from the faith. With what fiendish 
 joy one of them once boasted of his success in 
 " driving religion out of the head" of a young man 
 who bad been awakened, and seemed almost per- 
 suaded to be a Christian ! The young man after- 
 wards became a profligate infidel, and for years 
 was a despiser of all good, and especially of the 
 work of the Holy Spirit 
 
 The spiritual pastors 1 at once gave their atten- 
 tion to the instruction of the young. The Sabbath 
 schools and Bible classes they formed in different 
 parts of the town embraced not only the youth of 
 their own churches, but many others, who had no 
 religious instruction at home. The aged, too, soon 
 began to join the classes ; the more readily, because 
 the old country habit of staying at noon was still 
 
 1 Referring to the Baptists and Methodists, as well as 
 the Congregationalists. . .
 
 HOME. 179 
 
 common. I never felt deeper emotion than when 
 standing before a Sabbath school class composed of 
 eight persons over seventy years of age. All but 
 one of them were old disciples. What could youth 
 teach them of the love of Christ, or the experiences 
 of the Christian life ? The teacher became the 
 pupil. But the example was a blessed one. It 
 taught all men to reverence the Bible, to see gray 
 heads sitting down with little children, often their 
 great grand-children, to study its sacred pages. 
 
 The teachers of error began to be aware of the 
 power the Sabbath school was gaining, for the gos- 
 pel, over the minds of the young. Much as they 
 derided Ellen C's school, years before, it now began 
 to be found out, that if the young mind was so pure 
 by nature, it would not continue so without appro- 
 priate education. This drew some away from the 
 influences of the gospel. But with hardly one ex- 
 ception, all of the first generation of Sabbath schol- 
 ars are now members of the churches. For some 
 years, there were scarcely any others converted to 
 Christ. I know not that many were converted by 
 the direct agency of Sabbath school instruction. 
 But they were prepared by it for an intelligent 
 hearing of the gospel. So that it was the same 
 thing, in the end. Give me a thorough, intelligent 
 acquaintance with the doctrines of the Bible, in the
 
 180 HOME. 
 
 hearer, if you wish to have his soul subdued by the 
 power of the cross. It is a mistake to suppose that 
 such an acquintance with the truth hardens the 
 heart. Nay, repeated awakenings, by the Holy 
 Spirit, do not harden the heart, unless the power 
 of grace is directly and wilfully resisted. It rather 
 prepares the way for an easier conquest of the af- 
 fections for Christ. Probably very little faithful 
 teaching is unaccompanied by divine influence. 
 It would be a sad task, indeed, to teach our chil- 
 dren day by day, morning and evening, " here a 
 little and there a little," if the necessary effect, by 
 the laws of their nature, sinful as it may be, was to 
 harden them, up to the hour of their conversion. 
 My mind was first called to the fallacy of the pop- 
 ular notion on this subject, by the reports of the 
 Ceylon Mission. The substance of the repeated 
 statements of Poor, Winslow, Scudder, and other 
 spiritual men and clear observers, was, that those 
 who had once been awakened, were the surest to 
 be again the subjects of divine influence, and the 
 most certain to become, after a time, the children 
 of God. Much observation, since, has confirmed 
 the view. While the renewal of the heart, in one 
 respect, is the work of divine power, in a moment 
 of time, still, every power of the soul, before and 
 after that point, is gradually educated by the Holy 

 
 HOME. 181 
 
 Spirit, and trained to harmonious, holy action. 
 This is the reason why those who are well trained 
 for years, are more useful and well balanced disci- 
 ples, than persons who have lived to adult years 
 ignorant of the gospel. The soil is better fitted for 
 the sower ; the harvest is richer. When will men 
 learn that the power of the Holy Spirit is ever act- 
 ing upon every human soul ? that its sanctifying 
 power is, in general, just in proportion to the amount 
 of truth, adapted to the condition and wants of the 
 individual mind! that this is the philosophy of 
 the direction to divide rightly the word of truth, 
 giving to every man his portion in due season? 
 that, in a word, the laws of sandification are as 
 fixed, as immutable, and may be as perfectly known 
 as the principles of Chemistry or any other science ? 
 I have much wished to see some profound rea- 
 soning intellect, governed by holy affections, devote 
 years of life to an analysis of Christian experience, as 
 developed by the lives of all classes of men. The 
 greatest source of error would be, that we have so 
 imperfect a record of the errors and sins of any. 
 Who would ever know that Payson had a fault, 
 from his memoir? Yet, if he had not sins many 
 and obvious, his diary is only a new case of the 
 morbid anatomy of diseased piety ? The biography 
 that so conceals the nature of the sins of an emi- 
 16
 
 182 HOME. 
 
 nent Christian is of little value, with reference to 
 any real progress in divine life. The value of the 
 lessons of the judgment day will very much depend 
 on its perfect development of the sins of the holy, 
 their struggles with temptation, and the modes in 
 which the victory was secured. 
 
 The temperance reform, like all other reforma- 
 tions in morals, is no party or sectarian work. Yet 
 it is true, beyond question, that those who loved 
 the pure faith were its earliest, most ardent friends. 
 For years, the pious who were not its friends were 
 the rare exceptions. It was not so with other men. 
 But in the end, all men are led to see the moral 
 value of such reforms ; and a thousand motives, 
 besides a regard to man's spiritual welfare may, nay 
 ought to excite men to labor in them. For every 
 right motive, whether it is drawn from the influence 
 an act may exert on ourselves or others, our pre- 
 sent good, or our salvation, should have its proper 
 place. Only, let the love of Christ be the control- 
 ling, governing principle of our life. Then we 
 shall please him, while we benefit our fellow-men. 
 
 There is a large class of men who do not judge 
 of the truth or value of any religious doctrine by its 
 effects on their sympathies, or its appeals to their 
 reason. They may admit your arguments to be 
 strong, your proofs decisive, your appeals eloquent.
 
 HOME. 183 
 
 Still, they refuse to submit their own hearts to its 
 claims. It is not from enmity to the gospel. They 
 hate it no more than other sinners ; perhaps not so 
 much. They treat it with respect. But they want 
 to see its value tested by experience. As they see 
 men made more pure, honest, meek, humble, be- 
 nevolent, by its power, they yield themselves to its 
 control It is in vain you tell them that God has 
 a rightful claim to their hearts, to-day. They may 
 admit it. But if they see God manifest in the life 
 of the disciple, and that life is holy, your argument 
 has power. The class of cautious, ultra, prudent 
 men, I believe are seldom won to Christ by any 
 other power than that of the Christian life. And, 
 on the introduction of the pure faith where it has 
 been forgotten or is unknown, the influence of re- 
 ligion on the temper, the passions, the social habits, 
 the morals, and other more obvious acts of the 
 Christian, will be far more carefully weighed, by 
 this class of men, than the inward spirit. If the 
 outer temple is fair and firm, they may venture 
 within. The more sanguine, at once examine the 
 very penetralia of the building. It is not easy to 
 say which form the most useful Christians when 
 they are converted. But their very nature makes 
 the first more firm in purpose, though their power 
 to win others by appeals to their affections is less.
 
 184 HOME. 
 
 It once tried me, very much, when I saw this cau- 
 tious, steady, cool-headed class of men, in Home, 
 so steadily, as it seemed, holding themselves aloof 
 from the influences of the gospel. I set them down 
 as hardened in their worldliness. It was only their 
 natural temperament. When time enough had 
 elapsed to argue with them by the power of holy 
 living, they began, one after another, to yield them- 
 selves to Christ Holy families were needed, to 
 develope the power of the gospel, in all the relations 
 of life. God raised them up, and scattered them, 
 as if on purpose, in every remote section of the 
 town ; so that none might want the means, in their 
 ordinary intercourse with men, of comparing the 
 teachings of the spiritual faith with the lives of 
 those who claimed to love it. The result was and 
 is favorable to the truth. What preaching could 
 not do for some, holy living and holy dying have 
 done. Men have seen the truth 
 
 " drawn out in living characters," 
 
 and therefore they have said that they too would 
 yield their best affections to its control.
 
 185 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The dead left alone Satire, yet truth Religion imitated 
 Spirit without knowledge Preaching of Christ, but 
 not preaching Christ The wild flower Piety in chil- 
 dren Benevolence Paid pastors no "hirelings." 
 
 WHEN the godly withdraw from a corrupt church, 
 the first effect upon the old body is evil. It leaves 
 the corrupt to themselves. They have none, or very 
 little, of the principle of life remaining. " The 
 blind lead the blind, and both fall into the ditch." 
 It should induce caution. We may decide rashly 
 to withdraw from the corrupt body, before all hope 
 of renewed life is really gone. And while we are 
 permitted, even with much suffering, to labor within 
 the body to revive it, it is seldom wise to withdraw. 
 When once the pious have separated, it requires 
 time and many forms of influence to give, from 
 without, the impulse to reform within the body. 
 But it can be done. Faith and perseverance build 
 the city, or destroy it. 
 
 No more severe or just estimate of the spiritual 
 condition of the decayed church, when the pious 
 16*
 
 lOO HOME. 
 
 have departed was ever drawn, than in a letter that 
 a fallen minister addressed to one of the churches 
 of Home, after the death of their pastor. It was to 
 this effect : 
 
 " Dear Friends. I warmly sympathize with you 
 in view of the great loss you have sustained in the 
 removal of your pastor to another, and, I trust, a 
 better world. I feel for the church, and would be 
 glad to do anything in my power for its welfare. 
 I will very gladly come and preach for you, at a 
 cheap rate, till you have time to look about you for 
 another shepherd. And I am not at all particular 
 what doctrines I preach ; be it Unitarianism, Univer- 
 salism or Orthodoxy. I will conform to the wishes 
 you may express on the subject, being always will- 
 ing to give satisfaction to my employers, and espe- 
 cially to benefit those in whom I naturally feel so 
 deep an interest, as I do in the people of Home. 
 Let me hear soon, and believe me, I am as you are, 
 and you are as I am. W. W." 
 
 The pious are stable in their opinions, because 
 their doctrinal views enter deeply into their Chris- 
 tian experience. But when the truth is lost, the 
 mind of man is often like the waves of the sea. 
 There is very little definiteness of ideas or firmness 
 of belief on religious topics. There is a marked
 
 HOME. 187 
 
 disposition, always, to substitute " sincerity" or " lib- 
 erality," or some other equivocal virtue, for true 
 holiness ; and amiable manners and feelings, for the 
 love of Christ. The people, in general, were " not 
 particular about doctrines," unless the majority 
 might be averse to the truth. A few desired to 
 hear the faith of the fathers once more. One hum- 
 ble man spoke of the need of a pious pastor. The 
 most, wanted the zeal and efficiency of true reli- 
 gion, without the doctrines that gave them birth. 
 In a word, the gospel had so far impressed all 
 minds, that a conviction that some important change 
 in their condition was needed, was universal. Some 
 preferred to adopt a newer system of error. Others 
 preferred to attempt an imitation of the religious 
 life, without the principles on which it should have 
 been founded. 
 
 The Sabbath school, it was vejp easy to copy, in 
 form, though it was not so" easy to find men willing 
 to pray at the opening of its session, if the pastor 
 was not there. 
 
 The social prayer-meeting was far more difficult 
 to copy. Men were not in the habit of praying. 
 They had no great idea of the power or utility of 
 prayer ; and their hearts did not love it So the 
 meeting became a social gathering, where ladies 
 brought their knitting, and fruits and jellies were
 
 188 HOME. 
 
 served up. Still, the opening prayer, and the hour 
 spent in conversation respecting Bible truths, were 
 not without benefit. The teaching here, and in the 
 Sabbath school, might be full of error ; but there 
 could hardly fail to be much truth also. And when 
 men meet together for the very purpose of studying 
 the Bible, with reference to its practical influence 
 over their own hearts and lives, it cannot fail to 
 have a decided tendency to sanctify them, or to 
 prepare them to be sanctified. When the Bible is 
 familiarly studied, not all the daring sophistries of 
 the false teacher can divest the mind of the impres- 
 sions which its plain statements of the truths of 
 redemption will make. Family worship, in a few 
 instances, was re-established, by the aid of'forms of 
 prayer. But in many, the use of these forms as 
 read, became the substitute of secret prayer. 
 
 The influence from without is felt in various 
 forms. Some, while on visits to friends abroad, be- 
 come truly converted to Christ. Holy affections 
 are kindled in their hearts. And, to the extent to 
 which there is time to mature their experience as 
 Christians, their intellectual views of the gospel be- 
 come correct Returning, however, under the old 
 influences before they have time even fully to under- 
 stand the nature of their new emotion, listening 
 again to the teachings of error, they make slow pro-
 
 HOME. 189 
 
 gress in the intellectual knowledge of the gospel. 
 But their zeal, their spirituality, their love, the 
 sense of guilt and the need of a holy nature remain. 
 These fail not to make an impression for good on 
 others. Not a few, too, are thus converted, by the 
 occasional hearing of the word, or by reading, at 
 home. Like the other class, their imperfect know- 
 ledge hinders their progress in divine life ; still life 
 exists. They cease to oppose the gospel. They 
 are zealous for its reforming 7 influence and agencies. 
 They are benevolent in their lives. In many a 
 church where error is preached, praying circles of 
 true children of God have thus been formed. They 
 are found in every stage of progress. One, by heart- 
 felt experience has learned the value of one, an- 
 other of five, another of ten important ideas, never, 
 or seldom, heard in the pulpit. They are somewhat 
 like a blind man feeling his way cautiously in the 
 dark. Their progress is slow, but their steps firm. 
 It is progress. 
 
 Some persons of this class have entered the min- 
 istry, in such churches. Their serious, pungent 
 preaching, has been followed by real revivals of re- 
 ligion, of true religion ; imperfect in its views, de- 
 fective in its experiences, but still bearing the im- 
 press of the Holy Spirit. Of course, the truth not 
 seen by the mind, cannot be employed by the Spirit
 
 190 HOME. 
 
 to sanctify the heart But life once begun, the 
 Lord of life will carry on His gracious work to its 
 consummation, in the world of glory. 
 
 Such instances, of a recent date, are not wanting 
 in the churches of Home. May God multiply them 
 a hundred fold ! 
 
 In the attempt to revive the spirit of piety with- 
 out its principles, many of the richest treasures of 
 Christian faith in our language, have been widely 
 circulated in Home, and elsewhere. The practical 
 works of Flavel, Baxter, Bunyan, Edwards, the 
 Abbotts, and a score more, full of spiritual and sav- 
 ing truth, not stated in offensive logical forms, but 
 in its relation to the affections of sinful and holy 
 hearts, cannot be read without saving benefit to 
 many. "Circulate these volumes," I once said to a 
 dear friend, " and we shall soon agree in our views 
 of Christ and his gospel." 
 
 " If the result follows such means, I shall heartily 
 rejoice in it," was the reply. The work is begun ! 
 
 How often have I mourned over the defective 
 preaching of the truths of salvation ! The great de- 
 fect is the logical forms by which the truth is taken 
 out of its relations to human character and experi- 
 ence. No matter about the logic of the doctrine of 
 election ? The important thing is to induce sub- 
 mission to the will of God. That will is the will of
 
 HOME. 191 
 
 a holy, just, gracious God. His attributes give him 
 the right to control us, and fit him to do it. Hence 
 the duty of cordial submission to his government. 
 But to fight over the logical battle respecting the 
 relations of God's mind, will, and decisions to our 
 theoretical freedom, is of little avail to the mass of 
 minds. In logic, the masses will reject your truth. 
 Preach it with single reference to faith, submission 
 and humility, and they will love it. 
 
 So, what matters it that you have ten thousand 
 volumes of logical proof that Christ is God ? and 
 as many more that he is Man ? Both are true ; but 
 neither of them is the Bible doctrine of Christ It 
 is the God manifested ; the love, mercy, wisdom and 
 power of God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ, 
 that shall " draw all men unto him." I do not mean 
 to say that the facts are of no importance. But a 
 single fact will show my meaning clearly. I have 
 listened, perhaps, to 200 sermons on the Deity of 
 Christ. None of them, save one, was preached with 
 primary and direct reference to Christian experience ! 
 I care not, as a dying sinner, for the fact that my 
 Saviour is God ; unless you show me the glory of 
 God, shining in his face. Show me the attributes 
 of his character, and my heart leaps forth to em- 
 brace him. A few " Revival Preachers," so called, 
 such as Burchard and Finney, have understood this,
 
 192 HOME. 
 
 and their most effective sermons have often been, 
 what I term practical sermons on the Deity of Christ. 
 So of other gospel doctrines. Preach them as they 
 relate to the hopes, fears, struggles, doubts, tempta- 
 tions, trials, joys, triumphs of the Christian life on 
 earth and in heaven ; and they become the power 
 of God unto salvation. Alas, how many might be 
 obliged to lay aside their preaching of Christian 
 experience, because that to do justice to such a 
 theme, one must know more of it ! Prove by texts 
 and logic, the doctrine of total depravity ; and I hate 
 it ! But point out the daily proofs of pride, selfish- 
 ness, vanity, unbelief, in the heart and life, and I 
 " abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." For 
 my own common sense teaches me that such cor- 
 rupt fruit cannot spring from a good tree. 
 
 In the sands of the desert, sweet wild flowers 
 sometimes bloom in beauty. There was one exam- 
 ple of early piety in Home, after the awakening 
 commenced in individual minds, that was never ac- 
 counted for by any reference to external teaching. 
 There was no adult member of the family, or its 
 connections, that professed, in theory or practice, to 
 be born of the Spirit ; none who believed such a 
 doctrine. They were rigidly moral, kind, social. 
 In one respect, the family was a model. Without 
 much resort to the rod, the children, from infancy,
 
 HOME. 193 
 
 were trained to instant obedience to their parents. 
 I never knew more prompt and cheerful obedience. 
 This made the family circle an affectionate one. 
 But it was worldly. Prayer was never heard 
 there. It was the youngest son. He was a lovely 
 boy ; he was beautiful ! His soft flaxen hair curled 
 in ringlets on his neck. His slight form was round- 
 ed, and elastic. Every motion was graceful. His 
 blue eye was full of mirth. I am not aware that he 
 was intelligent, beyond his years ; but his gentle- 
 ness, modesty, wit and affectionate temper, made 
 him loved by all. I never loved a companion of my 
 youth as I loved him. Before he was eight years 
 old, he was cut down, as the tender grass. In the 
 intervals of suffering, he told his weeping friends 
 what delight he had taken in prayer, and in the 
 Word of God, for months before. He was sure he 
 should go to that Saviour he loved ; and whose glo- 
 ry as a Saviour from sin, had been revealed to his 
 heart. He bade them shed no tears for him, but 
 prepare to follow him up to the throne of the Lamb. 
 It was strange, some said, to hear such a mere 
 child talk so ! So it was, in Home. He had been 
 taught by the Holy Spirit, while none knew the 
 emotions of his young heart, and fitted to be thus 
 early transplanted to the garden of God. 
 Another instance, at a later period, was more 
 17
 
 194 HOME. 
 
 readily accounted for. A bright boy, not much 
 older, was often loitering around the doors at the 
 meetings in the hut of old George. His parents 
 would not suffer him to enter. Now and then he 
 crept into a corner at an evening lecture. He was 
 a passionate boy, full of pride, yet with a warm 
 heart None ever spoke to him of Christ, in the 
 fraternal dwelling. But he learned enough of the 
 way of Life, while loitering around the hut, to be led 
 by the Spirit to walk in it. In a few months his 
 young mind seemed to grasp the great truths of 
 the gospel with a man's vigor. What joy he found 
 in communion with his Saviour ! He, too, was cut 
 down in an hour. The faithful reproofs of sin and 
 error, given on his dying pillow, roused more than 
 one slumbering conscience from a long night of sin. 
 But God took him up to his home. 
 
 The spectacle of youthful piety is not now rare 
 in Home. And men see, in these early conversions 
 to Christ, a lesson on the depravity of their own 
 hearts, that no logic, no sophistry can shake. When 
 infancy praises God, the aged sinner has no shelter, 
 no excuse for his life of sin. 
 
 I shall never forget a scene in which one of these 
 little ones that believed in Christ, was an actor. 
 
 There was an old man, more than sixty years of 
 age, gray-headed, his body bent down with the
 
 195 
 
 weakness that s'm had caused. For he had lived a 
 guilty, a criminal life. Trained in the knowledge 
 of the gospel, he had thrown away his early faith, 
 sold his Bible for rum, and avowed himself an un- 
 believer, an atheist. His bad heart was seared as 
 with a hot iron, by his long career of iniquity. He 
 wandered away from his home to a distant place, 
 that he might be far away from any that knew him. 
 He wanted to sin without reproof; and that was diffi- 
 cult, in the Christian village where he was born 
 and nurtured. His own pious partner reproved 
 him by her prayers and tears, if not by words. So 
 he left his home and became a wanderer, and a com- 
 panion of the vile. 
 
 One Sabbath day he stood at the door of a grog- 
 shop. He had no money, and the liquor-seller re- 
 fused to supply his demands for the poison. He 
 burst into a torrent of oaths. 
 
 The little one, on his way to the Sabbath school, 
 passed by, and heard the blasphemer. Quietly 
 walking up to him, he put his soft hand in that of 
 the aged sinner, and said, with tears, " Please, Sir, 
 do not sin so, against my Saviour !" The sinner 
 was melted in a moment " What," said he, " shall 
 my gray hairs be reproved by this babe ?" That 
 day found him in the house of God ; that night 
 found him rejoicing in the forgiving mercy of his
 
 19O HOME. 
 
 Saviour. Another day, he was far on his way to 
 his deserted home, to cheer his family with the 
 news that " out of the mouth of a babe, God had 
 perfected praise." The secret of the power of 
 youthful piety is, that no one can doubt its entire 
 sincerity its singleness of aim. To assume feel- 
 ings men do not possess, and act in character with 
 such hypocrisy, requires more steadiness of pur- 
 pose than children often possess. So that the im- 
 pression that it is God's work, can hardly be resisted. 
 And what heart can resist the simple pleadings of 
 a child's love ! 
 
 I hardly need to add, that in proportion as spirit- 
 ual faith revived in Home, the spirit of benevolence 
 towards all the perishing was shown also. Even in 
 their days of poverty, the disciples learned never to 
 send away empty those who called for a benefit, 
 whether for the souls or bodies of men. Cove- 
 tousness departs before the presence of the Sa- 
 viour. And when the Lord of the Sabbath is hon- 
 ored, the day of rest is saved ; the house of His 
 praise is holy, and his worship fills the spirit with 
 peace. 
 
 One other illustration of the mode, in which God 
 reached the lost, I must not ornit. Those who are 
 not under the influences of the gospel cannot be 
 expected to prize them. And when, in addition to
 
 HOME. 197 
 
 their lives of sin, there is a profound ignorance of 
 the nature of the Christian faith, it is not strange 
 that men are reluctant to pay, to support its minis- 
 ters. There were multitudes in Home who felt 
 thus. No wonder ; of what benefit had been the 
 salaries paid to educated ministers ? They had 
 been neglected, despised, forgotten. If they attend- 
 ed on their preaching, it did not address itself to 
 their conscious want as sinners. The parson mar- 
 ried them and buried them, and that was all. The 
 magistrate could do the first, just as well. And it 
 was not to the parson's credit that he spoke a few 
 words of consolation in the hour of woe, but cared 
 nothing for their souls at other times. There was 
 one district, in the heart of Home, where the entire 
 population seemed to be given over to sin. Hard 
 drinking, brawls, profaneness, Sabbath breaking, 
 lewdness were fearfully rife. There was not one 
 Christian within a mile, except an infirm, paralytic 
 old woman, too far gone towards mental imbecility 
 for usefulness. One or two, occasionally wandered 
 to church, on a very pleasant Sabbath, to show a 
 new bonnet, or to meet some one there for business 
 purposes. Their hatred of an educated ministry 
 was only equalled by their aversion to supporting 
 one. When our spiritual pastors preached in the 
 neighborhood, very few would come near, and no 
 17*
 
 198 HOME. 
 
 access to their hearts seemed possible. The case 
 was well nigh hopeless. 
 
 There was dissension in one of the spiritual 
 churches. It referred to matters of order and form, 
 not essential to a living faith. Two or three with- 
 drew and obtained the stated labors of one who 
 accorded with them, to supply their spiritual wants. 
 But they could not support him. They were poor ; 
 he was poor. But he had an enlightened under- 
 standing and a warm heart. The condition of this 
 desolate neighborhood deeply impressed him. But 
 what could he do ? They would not hear him. 
 Like Paul, in a similar case, he determined to 
 "catch them by guile." Accustomed to the labors 
 of the farm, he hired a tenement, and a few acres 
 of land, and became a farmer in the neighborhood. 
 He "changed works" with them, suffered them to 
 take the lead in conversation, listened patiently to 
 their follies, avoided any attack on their ignorant 
 prejudices ; but gently and humbly reproved their 
 sins. The plain man who worked in their fields, 
 as an hired laborer, and who asked no pay for 
 preaching, they were willing to hear on the Sab- 
 bath. Familiar with their daily habits and feelings, 
 he wisely adapted his preaching to their wants. 
 He won their attention, their respect, their love. 
 In several instances the Holy Spirit sealed his
 
 HOME. 199 
 
 work by their conversion to Christ. Vice disap- 
 peared, the grog-shop was closed, the Sabbath re- 
 spected, the people flocked to the house of prayer. 
 Those who cared little for the word spoken, often 
 loved the music of warm hearts and cheerful voi- 
 ces. The familiar talking over the lessons of truth, 
 which he called the Bible class, giving them an 
 equal chance to express their crude and often erro- 
 neous ideas, won others still. Before a year passed 
 away, people in other parts of Home began to won- 
 der what had so changed this desolate spot. And 
 some of our proudest opposers of the gospel be- 
 gan to frequent the meetings. God was there ! 
 
 When the gospel found a place in their hearts, 
 gratitude for spiritual and social benefits received, 
 led them to try to supply the temporal wants of 
 their teacher. They began to see that all the time 
 of one who had proved himself so true a friend to 
 their souls, might profitably be spent in the same 
 labors. So it was no longer a selfish " hireling" 
 that they saw in the pastor, but one who laid them 
 under weightier obligations than money could re- 
 pay, by the good conferred on them. Then, if he 
 was to be able to meet their growing thirst for 
 knowledge, he must have time for thought and 
 study, or he would cease to be their fit guide. So 
 the reign of grace and common sense began to- 
 gether.
 
 200 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 A century passed Twilight Logic of the heart Spirit- 
 ual discernment The " set time to favor Zion" come 
 The revival The wise need teaching. 
 
 ONE HUNDRED years had passed by ; three gene- 
 rations of men had lived and died and gone to the 
 judgment since the last general effusion of the 
 Spirit of God to gather numbers at once into the 
 kingdom of his Son. In that time, vital godliness 
 had declined, and error usurped the place of truth, 
 till the gospel had scarcely a name to live. Then, 
 gradually the grace of God had brought salvation 
 to one house after another, till hundreds once more 
 loved the faith of the fathers, and worshipped their 
 fathers' God. The gospel in its purity was again 
 preached ; the long night of stupor broken up, and 
 few, very few, remained so entirely unacquainted 
 with the leading doctrines of the cross, that they 
 could sin in ignorance of them. Among those who 
 persisted in rejecting the gospel, there were very 
 few who had not, often without being aware of it, 
 imbibed some of its ideas. Religious knowledge 
 had increased, all admitted.
 
 The teachers of error no longer avoided the use 
 of the words that expressed sound doctrine. They 
 even talked and prayed for a " revival of religion," 
 and began to mark more carefully a distinction be- 
 tween the worldly moral man and the true disciple. 
 No matter if the difference was not clearly defined ; 
 still it was a great advance to admit that there was 
 one ; and to have even teachers urge men to be- 
 come Christians, and live holy lives, who had long 
 been satisfied with a mere formal profession of faith 
 and outward morality ; nay, had long been taught 
 to believe that no change of heart was needed by 
 any but the vicious. 
 
 Their zeal for every form of social reformation 
 became marked. Their labors to make men be- 
 nevolent in life, if not very successful, still did some 
 good. For the warm sympathies elicited, and the 
 habits of right action formed, brought some minds 
 under the control of the principles of holy living. 
 The struggle to be less selfish, shows men that 
 there is deeper depravity within them than they had 
 been conscious of. They are led to pray for help, 
 first, and then for mercy. The consciousness of 
 guilt, the feeling that they do not deserve the good 
 they receive, or the mercy they ask, leads them to 
 ask in the name of Jesus. Their sense of depen- 
 dence on him for peace of conscience gradually
 
 makes him the object of worship, of adoring love. 
 Then the glories of his divine character, as the 
 revealed and revealing Deity are seen, and they be- 
 come spiritual worshippers of " Him that sitteth 
 upon the throne, and of the Lamb." The ideas of 
 the reasoning intellect may or may not keep pace 
 with this logic of the heart. But some progress is 
 secured always. The need of prayers becomes an 
 admitted fact. The teaching of the Holy Spirit is 
 sought, is found. So holy affections correct the 
 faith, and correct, ideal faith purifies and gives pow- 
 er to holy affections towards God and man. 
 
 Another result of this twilight state is, that 
 numbers are led to unite, with the churches. The 
 pastors become solemn in their preaching, arouse 
 many consciences, and excite emotion in many 
 hearts. Their intellectual views of truth are not 
 clear or correct enough to lead most of these 
 awakened persons, at once, to the Saviour. They 
 have a sense of sin, more or less strong ; a feeling 
 of their obligation to holy living, in the same pro- 
 portion ; and they pray for mercy ; they become 
 active in such forms of doing good to men as are 
 set before them as duty. This secures some degree 
 of peace of mind. It is peace derived from reli- 
 gious sources. It is new to them. The pastor bids 
 them hope, believe, rejoice, and openly profess their
 
 HOME. 203 
 
 Christian faith. United with the church, they some- 
 times continue to make progress, sometimes be- 
 come dead. If the work of grace, or renewed and 
 holy affections is really begun, there is progress in 
 experience and in ideal views of divine truth. If 
 there are no gracious affections ; if it has been 
 merely the awakened conscience, checking, for a 
 moment, the power of a selfish heart, the result is 
 blindness and what is called by a strange misno- 
 mer spiritual pride ! It is a satisfaction with our- 
 selves, and a feeling of security, based on supposed 
 attainments in divine life which have no reality. 
 The pride of the heart is not subdued ; sin may be 
 refined, but it reigns, still, in undiminished power. 
 I know such " spiritual pride" may exist, at times, 
 when the heart has really felt the power of divine 
 grace ; but it is the habitual state of mind in the 
 unconverted professor of religion, so long as he 
 remains unconscious of his want of true piety. 
 Would God, that none hut the teachers of error 
 were found in this state of twilight ! Do not many, 
 who intellectually receive the truth, equally fail to 
 mark the difference between the awakened and 
 the converted ? Between the work of the con- 
 science, and the effects of holy love ? The alarms 
 and remorse of a guilty conscience may cease, and 
 calm and peace follow, without the existence of any
 
 204 HOME. 
 
 holy affections. How many, in that state, are en- 
 couraged to hope they are Christians ! How many 
 mistake the hopes and peace that they thus obtain, 
 for those which arise in the pardoned man's bosom ! 
 The rule of duty is this : encourage no man to 
 hope he is converted and forgiven, till the existence 
 of holy affections appears to be morally certain. 
 Men are ready enough to hope, to build on a false 
 foundation, without prompting. But the more 
 thoroughly they are tested, in the outset, the better 
 for their stability, if they are Christians ; the better 
 for them and for the church, if they are not, 
 
 Without such skill to "discern between the 
 righteous and the wicked," no soundness of creed 
 or forms of worship will prevent the church from 
 being filled up with worldly persons. The pastor 
 should be, not merely converted, but a matured 
 Christian. " Not a novice," because he is unfit for 
 the duties of the calling. Zeal may abound, he 
 may desire to do good, his heart may be right, but 
 still he be very unfit for the work. I suppose none 
 will doubt that our Saviour \vasjitted to preach the 
 gospel at ten years of age. He waited till he was 
 thirty, before he began. It was not for want of ho- 
 liness or knowledge, or power to read men's hearts. 
 The example is worth the attention of those who 
 think and say that " half of life is wasted if a man
 
 HOME. 205 
 
 does not begin to preach till thirty." The example 
 may not be binding, but is safe. 
 
 " The set time to favor Zion," had come. 
 Why ? Because the way of the Lord had been 
 thoroughly prepared. The truth was known. Its 
 power over the conscience was generally establish- 
 ed. Its general obligations were no longer dispu- 
 ted. The power of sympathy could now act on a 
 multitude, at once. So that, when the Holy Spirit 
 began to awaken a man, every external influence 
 was no longer arrayed against his conversion. It 
 was no more an effort to make flowers bloom in the 
 desert ; it was to cultivate fruit in a garden. Holy 
 living had settled the question, in all minds, of the 
 power of the gospel to transform the human char- 
 acter, and make it lovely, in every condition of life. 
 The conflict was now, chiefly, the direct issue be- 
 tween the admitted claims of Christ, and the love 
 of sin in the heart 
 
 Now the God of our fathers remembered his 
 gracious covenant ; and the prayers of many gen- 
 , erations came up before him, as sweet incense ; 
 and he sent down his Holy Spirit in genial showers. 
 There is sometimes a marked incident to desig- 
 nate the visible commencement of such displays of 
 grace. It may be a sudden death ; a new preach- 
 er tir.! (Conversion of an old man, or a child, or the 
 18
 
 206 HOME. 
 
 death of a sinner. Here it was not so. The faith- 
 ful pastors diligently pursued the round of labor, 
 teaching the young, warning the old, comforting the 
 afflicted, succoring the tempted. One day, with- 
 out the least previous indication of change, as a 
 pastor was at work in his garden, a" young man ap- 
 proached and desired to converse with him alone. 
 He was intelligent, moral, acquainted with the truth, 
 but full of high hopes of worldly honor. 
 
 " Have you anything very particular to say ? 
 you see I am freeing my garden from its weeds." 
 There had been no conversion for some time. The 
 pastor expected an invitation to attend a wedding. 
 But as he spoke, he glanced a second time at the 
 young man's face, and saw his lips quiver, and his 
 eyes red with weeping. Trembling himself with 
 new emotions he said, " come into my study ;" and 
 led the way. The young man's heart was full. 
 He wanted only to know how he should find salva- 
 tion from sin. They talked, they wept, they knelt, 
 they prayed ; and the young man arose, and went 
 down to his house justified ; for the Saviour was 
 revealed to him. 
 
 The pastor returned to his garden ; but in vain 
 he tried to pluck the weeds ; his heart was too full, 
 " Is God, in very deed, in our midst, and I knew it 
 not?"
 
 HOME. X>07 
 
 That night tliere was a meeting for prayer in a 
 remote corner of the town. The pastor attended, 
 and found every seat filled, eveiy eye attentive, 
 every face expressive of some unwonted emotion. 
 His words of exhortation were answered by silent 
 tears, from more than one who never before wept 
 for sin. An old man, not a disciple, when the meet- 
 ing was over, rose and asked that Christians would 
 pray for him. He had long lived in sin, but now, 
 he said, he knew not why, he felt a deep anxiety 
 to learn if there was a way for him to be saved. 
 Perhaps the pastor would be willing to preach there 
 the next evening, if he would come down for him, 
 in his waggon ? The pastor joyfully assented. 
 Some others sought to speak to him, and an hour 
 was passed in imparting counsel to those who were 
 more or less awakened. 
 
 The pastor returned home, deeply humbled. It 
 was not that he was conscious of any want of fidel- 
 ity to his duties. But he bad labored without much 
 fruit. Others, too, had labored there before him, 
 and called it a hard field, because so little visible 
 fruit followed their toils. But now God had come. 
 Others sowed, he was to shout the harvest home ! 
 
 As he entered his dwelling, his wife remarked, 
 " Who do you think has been here ? It is Doctor 
 , and he is deeply convinced of his sins. I
 
 208 HOME. 
 
 told him you would see him before you slept, if you 
 were not too much exhausted. I hope you will go ; 
 it is only nine. 
 
 The house was a mile distant in another course. 
 So here, in a single day, were proofs of the pres- 
 ence of the Holy Spirit in these distant sec- 
 tions of the town. A few days more showed that 
 it was so everywhere. As God had scattered the 
 earlier fruits of faith in all parts of the place, that 
 the word of life might be held forth before all eyes ; 
 so now, in every part, the blessing followed. The 
 greater number, however, were found in those dis- 
 tricts where pastoral neglect, in other days, had left 
 whole neighborhoods to perish without the gospel. 
 
 In every place where the truth was preached, the 
 following Sabbaths witnessed the presence of the 
 Holy One. The means of instruction were multi- 
 plied, to meet the wants of the people, but not so as 
 to interfere with the discharge of the ordinary du- 
 ties of life. Such a course is almost always wise. 
 The object of the pastor is to make men something 
 more and better than meeting-goers. They are to 
 be every-day Christians. And a religious life begun 
 with an attendance on meetings every day or night 
 for three months, is not the most likely to prove a 
 life of holy usefulness. Besides, such a course is 
 quite as likely to rouse more feeling than thought,
 
 HOME. 209 
 
 and to result in the substitution of love for meetings, 
 for the love of Christ. There is no universal rule, 
 in such cases ; but the safest general one is, not to 
 hinder the discharge of men's daily duties, any fur- 
 ther than a regard to the state of individual minds 
 makes it needful. And much observation has con- 
 vinced me, that, with very few exceptions indeed, 
 there is no gain in having awakened persons lay 
 aside their ordinary avocations, any further than 
 their own, irrepressible anguish may, at times, com- 
 pel it. The storm is more impressive ; but, as a 
 matter of taste, I prefer the gentle rain. It is quite 
 as efficient in covering the fields with rich harvests. 
 It is important, too, to avoid one frequent tenden- 
 cy noticed in revivals : viz., a tendency to make re- 
 ligion consist in emotions only. Thus many are 
 filled with hopes and joys, without changing, in 
 any material respect, the principles of their daily 
 life. Their religion is for Sundays and holidays ; 
 for special occasions, for sickness, for death. But 
 their business, their commerce with mankind, their 
 social life, are conducted on the same principles of 
 worldly prudence and propriety as before, with lit- 
 tle or no infusion of benevolence or self-denial. 
 They pray according to Scripture, and " sell lum- 
 ber," as they did before. The severing of religion 
 from life, Jills up our churches urith unconverted per- 
 18*
 
 210 HOME. 
 
 sons, just as surely, and even more rapidly, than those 
 errors that wrought such evil in the days of our fathers. 
 > The work of grace in Home went on, not with- 
 out some excitement, but with little opposition, for 
 many months. A few were converted who had be- 
 fore this, had little knowledge of the truth. But the 
 most of the converts were those who were already 
 ripe for the harvest Such of the Sabbath scholars 
 as had not been already acquainted with Christ, 
 were among the earliest to receive him. Then the 
 steady attendants on worship, and then others, less 
 constantly under the influences of grace, though 
 still enough so, to show them their hearts were 
 brought nigh to the blood that cleansed them from 
 sin. There were more young men, than persons 
 of any other class ; but every age supplied some 
 who had become children of God. Lisping infancy 
 sung God's praises, and gray hairs bowed before the 
 Son of God. So, too, persons of every grade of in- 
 tellect and every degree of knowledge, were united 
 to the common Saviour by the same bonds of faith 
 and love. Brotherly love, humility, charity abounded. 
 Such scenes had long been unknown in Home. 
 How did the hearts of a few rejoice; a few of those 
 who thirty years before had lived in the darkness 
 that might be felt, without sympathy, without social 
 prayer, without a faithful ministry, or any means of
 
 HOME. '-'I 
 
 jrnico, save such as the solitude of a worldly church 
 may supply ! They read, they prayed, they wept 
 alone ! And now God had given a great company 
 the saving faith of the gospel ; and living churches 
 walked in gospel order and purity. 
 
 It is yet too soon to speak of the matured results 
 of such a work. Its subjects are all living. The 
 instruction of the young, the family altar, works of 
 benevolence and charity, all the common duties of 
 religion and life are faithfully performed. The first 
 fruit is holy. The ripened fruit will be so. Still it 
 is better to praise the dead than the living. Their 
 account is sealed up ; their sins and trials are end- 
 ed ; their reward is begun ; and their works follow 
 them. Of these we can judge. The living may be 
 even more holy ; but they may also be the " sound- 
 ing brass, or the tinkling symbal," a glittering show, 
 or a pleasant sound. We should judge ourselves, 
 rather than each other. Then shall we not be con- 
 demned with the wicked. 
 
 The work of grace had reached the limits of the 
 circle of prepared minds. Then it ceased to draw 
 new persons into its wave. Here were an hundred 
 new and tender plants to be nurtured and matured 
 for life and glory. Every individual mind needs 
 watching, care, instruction adapted wisely to its 
 wants. It is a work of infinite moment. Their use- 
 fulness depends on it. If they are trained to holy
 
 212 HOME; 
 
 living, and the fruits of grace abound in them, very 
 soon another, and perhaps a larger class of minds 
 will be brought within the control of sympathy, and 
 the laws of the mind and the grace of the Spirit, 
 will unite in bringing many more sons and daugh- 
 ters unto glory. In due season the laborers shall 
 reap, if they faint not. 
 
 One thing was worthy of remark. All men, 
 when awakened, are like children, needing instruc- 
 tion. No matter how well acquainted they may be 
 with the truths of religion, they need sympathy and 
 guidance as much as if they had never heard the 
 way of life. They are to learn over again all the 
 circle of divine truths, with reference to the emo- 
 tions of the heart. Their precious familiarity with 
 truth, makes it easy to learn, easy to guide them ; 
 but a guide they need, and they are conscious of it 
 
 It was remarkable to see how men of strong in- 
 tellect and high standing, showed the honor they 
 had secretly paid to eminent piety, when far from 
 it themselves. When they were awakened, they 
 did not always seek the counsel of the educated, or 
 of the pastors. But they sent for the holy and 
 humble, those whose life was evidently a life of 
 faith. Their counsel, not always clothed in classic 
 language, they received with the simplicity of little 
 children. They wanted, not the logic of the strong
 
 HOME. 1213 
 
 mind, or the poetry and philosophy of religion, but 
 its simple elements, such as an humble heart must 
 know, and which, most surely, resulted from the 
 teaching of the Spirit. This was especially noticed 
 in some literary persons who had been willing vo- 
 taries of error. They seemed more anxious to avoid 
 a second deception, than even to be saved! Fer- 
 vent piety, a heart that had known sin and the 
 Saviour, and a mind honest to utter its convictions, 
 were what they sought. Their choice of a coun- 
 sellor showed how well they had marked the pow- 
 er of the gospel, at a time when they denied its 
 truths. Convinced of sin, their intellectual errors 
 had no power over them. " Don't argue with me," 
 said one, " about the atonement. I can out argue 
 you. But I find I am a lost sinner, and need par- 
 don. How shall I obtain it?" When the mind is 
 in such a state, it is an easy task to point to the 
 Lamb of God that takes away sin. 
 
 The work of grace had employed the hands and 
 hearts of all who loved Christ, in the different sects 
 of true Christians. Love had broken down all bar- 
 riers of their diversities of creed. To win souls to 
 the cross of Christ was their joy. And it was plea- 
 sant to see, that there was no strife for the converts. 
 Quietly they were allowed to profess their faith 
 wherever their tastes or views might lead them. A
 
 214 HOME. 
 
 few united with the old churches, thus increasing 
 the amount of spiritual life in them, and hastening 
 the day of their return to the faith of our fathers. 
 Surrounded by living Christians, whose pure faith 
 and holy life were everywhere known, there was 
 less danger that these should be injured by ming- 
 ling with the worldly church. The degree of life 
 within and the holy influence from without, would 
 keep their feet from the paths of sin. Their growth 
 in grace might be less rapid, but it was not likely 
 to cease. Some, too, of the sons of Home remem- 
 ber and rejoice, that the old churches still stand, 
 even in the view of the civil law, on the basis of the 
 old, evangelical covenants. They have been laid 
 aside, forgotten ; but no creed of error has ever 
 been adopted ; no formal rejectioa of the truth ever 
 occurred. One day the old foundations will again 
 be built upon, with living stones, polished after the 
 similitude of a palace.
 
 HOME. 215 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 "THE EAKLY LOVED, THE EAELY 
 LOST." 
 
 I. The Cousins. 
 
 " Wait for me, cousin ! You are not going home 
 alone, through the woods." 
 
 " Oh, never fear for me ! Woods ? Why here 
 is only a glorious bower, for more than a quarter of 
 a mile ! These old button-wood trees, and the oaks 
 and walnuts beyond, what a perfect arch of liv- 
 ing green they make, as far as the eye can reach ! 
 And then, the rest of the way is through the open 
 pasture, and fields, till I get close to the back gate 
 of our garden. So I don't need you, at all. And 
 then, the stars shine so bright, through every open- 
 ing of this green canopy, that there will be no 
 need of lamps to light me. I shall run, too, like a 
 deer. I " Something very much like a kiss stop- 
 ped all further utterance. 
 
 I am not going to write a love story, not a word 
 of it, though it begins with a kiss ! The young pair 
 were cousins, and orphans. They had been play-
 
 216 HOME. 
 
 mates from infancy. From the time when they 
 braided their hair together so that the scissors had 
 to be used to separate them, till now, they had 
 shared every joy, hope, every little grief, every 
 present. I don't believe they had many thoughts 
 that were not common property. A secret neither 
 could keep without each other's help ! From the 
 day when her tongue first could lisp, " tosen, tiss 
 me," till the sad day when death silenced that 
 sweet voice, they never met or parted without the 
 kiss of affection. As for loving each other; why 
 they never did anything else! But it never oc- 
 curred to either of them to take time to say so. 
 They were both orphans, from early infancy. As 
 they grew up, that linked them together more 
 closely. They were cousins, friends, brother and 
 sister, everything to each other, but lovers. 
 
 Their first letters were written to each other . 
 and in every little absence they had been faithful 
 correspondents. Not a movement of the lip of 
 each, but was told to the other. So they were a 
 model of cousinly love ! 
 
 He had been absent a few months, and had 
 found the Saviour. Just now they had been attend- 
 ing a social meeting in the dear old house where 
 so many happy hours of childhood were passed to- 
 gether. He had been telling his youthful associates
 
 HOME. 217 
 
 of the love of Christ, and exhorting them to flee to 
 the same refuge for the guilty. Her eyes had been 
 filled with tears more than once. Indeed, tho' he 
 spoke to others, every word was meant for her, as 
 much as if no other had been there. It was a 
 matter of course, that he should walk home with 
 her. And it was quite plain that all her talking 
 about this " glorious grove," the " stars," and " run- 
 ning like a deer," was only to hide her emotion. It 
 was the first feeling she had ever wished to hide 
 from her cousin ! 
 
 They walked down the lane, arched over with 
 the noble shade trees, and the thick grove beyond. 
 He was trying to persuade her to become a Chris- 
 tian that very night. He hardly doubted of his 
 success ; it was so easy to love Christ ! Besides, 
 when had they ever bad one separate joy ! 
 
 And what was the feeling she wished to hide ? 
 It was a sorrow that her cousin had become a 
 Christian ! Not that the fact grieved her ; oh no ! 
 For the world she Would not have had it otherwise. 
 But, now, he had feelings, hopes, joys in which she 
 did not share ! He had been imbibing the truths 
 of the gospel, and received them in love; while she 
 had learned to mingle much error with the same 
 tiuths, and the truths had not power over her heart. 
 19
 
 218 HOME. 
 
 It seemed to cut asunder the love that had grown 
 up with them from infancy. 
 
 IL Christ the best friend. 
 
 A few sentences of their conversation will show 
 its import. Their frankness was not lost. 
 
 " Oh cousin, how many times I have read every 
 one of your letters over! It was just like coming 
 home again, and sitting or walking with you in 
 these old woods." 
 
 " And I have read yours, too. And I always took 
 delight in them till " 
 
 " Till what, dear cousin ?" 
 
 " Why, till that letter about loving Christ more 
 than all earthly friends. It seemed as though re- 
 ligion was making you unnatural !" 
 
 " Oh no ! But let us sit down on the rock under 
 this nut-tree, and talk about it Stop till I spread 
 my handkerchief. There ! So you think it unnat- 
 ural ?" 
 
 a Yes ! I do admire and reverence God for his 
 greatness, wisdom and power ; and I feel some- 
 times very grateful love for his goodness to me and 
 to all his creatures. But he is so great, and so 
 out of sight, that I can't feel such warm, hearty love 
 as" 
 
 " As we feel for each other, cousin ! Well, look
 
 HOME. 
 
 at it Did you feel the same affection for me, hun- 
 dreds of miles off, as you do now, as we sit un- 
 der this dear old tree, where we have passed so 
 many happy hours ?" 
 
 " Oh yes, and more too ! It will make you vain 
 to tell you how much I loved you !" 
 
 " Dear cousin, thank you ! But how much less 
 we used to think of God, than of each other ! Be- 
 cause God was invisible, we allowed Him to pass 
 from our thoughts, except occasionally ; though 
 every flower we plucked, every blade of grass, 
 every leaf in these old woods has marks of his con- 
 stant presence. ' In him we live and move, and 
 have our being.' And then his character is cer- 
 tainly far more worthy of love than earthly objects 
 can be ; is it not ?" 
 
 " Yes, but it is so exalted ; so majestic. I feel 
 lost, or else terrified, when I think of Him in all his 
 wisdom and holiness. Besides, most of His choicest 
 blessings come to me through his creatures. And 
 it seems as though, in loving them, I was grateful 
 to Him." 
 
 " Ah, cousin, so I felt once. God was afar off. 
 I believe we agreed perfectly, the last time we talk- 
 ed this over, at least in our feelings. But look at 
 the command ; ' thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
 with all thy heart.' Does not this mean warm af-
 
 220 HOME. 
 
 fection, like ours for our friends, only stronger and 
 purer ?" " It seems so ; but I can't fed it." " Does 
 not that very thing show you the need of the Me- 
 diator ? When this great, invisible, perfect God, 
 whom no man, or angel hath seen or can see, puts 
 on our nature, and reveals himself in Jesus Christ, 
 our friend, who loved and died for us ; can we not 
 love him with perfect love ? Is not personal affec- 
 tion for God in Christ easy ? Or at least, it is pos- 
 sible to love perfectly one who has all the sympa- 
 thies of our nature, and still in them all, shows 
 every attribute of God. ' In him,' our loving, suf- 
 fering, dying Saviour, ' dwelleth all the fulness of 
 the Godhead, bodily.' True, he has passed into the 
 heavens, and sits on his throne of infinite power 
 and glory. But our own nature is enthroned there. 
 I know personal affection for the invisible God is 
 impossible. But not for ' God manifest in the 
 flesh.' Him we may love, with all the passionate 
 ardor of our natures. We are just as sure of his 
 sympathy, as you are of mine ; and yet we repose 
 on him as the great I Am." " I see that it is so. 
 Is that what you meant by the ' Deity of Christ,' 
 in your letter? I read all your arguments, and 
 thought I could answer most of them. But this 
 is so reasonable ! Why it is just what we need 
 to bring God to us ; or rather to bring us to Him, 
 as you would say."
 
 H O M . 321 
 
 "Now is not such a friend, one who teaches us 
 truth, opens life to us, even dies for our sins, offers 
 to secure our pardon, to help us overcome our sin- 
 ful hearts, and to share with us his glory which he 
 had with the Father before the world (kosmion- 
 creation) was ; is he not to be lovedyar more ivarm- 
 ly than any earthly friend ? And is it not very sin- 
 ful in us not to love him so ? Oh, cousin, give him 
 your whole heart ! If we are true to the higher 
 laws of our nature, it must be anything but ' un- 
 natural' so to love God in Christ." 
 
 " I will try, nay, it seems as if I could, without 
 trying much ! Good night, cousin." 
 
 III. The. enmity of the heart. 
 
 The next evening they met around the old fire- 
 side. The evening passed away in cheerful talk, 
 intermingled with such religious discussion as was 
 likely to rise, where nearly all were indifferent to, 
 or did not believe the gospel. The cousins, with 
 another sister, were left alone. She began with, 
 
 " I find it is not so easy to love Christ, so warmly, 
 after all. I see he is glorious, but my heart seems 
 dead. Why don't I feel towards him as towards 
 you and Helen ?" 
 
 " Do you remember my letter about the enmity 
 of the natural heart against God ?" She replied 
 19*
 
 222 fe o M E . 
 
 with some tears, " yes, cousin ; it was the only un- 
 kind thing I ever received from you ! To tell me 
 I hated God ! It made me shudder. I never had 
 such a feeling in my heart in my life. Helen and 
 I both cried about it ; and mother was so angry, 
 she said I shouldn't answer it." 
 
 " You did, cousin ! I hope you did not disobey 
 your mother, in doing so." 
 
 " Oh, no ; but mother thought it was just like 
 calling me a heathen, or a great criminal. What 
 did you mean by it ?" 
 
 " You said last night it seemed very easy to love 
 God in Christ. Did you pray to him, when you 
 came home ?" 
 
 " Yes, and at first, it seemed delightful ; but then, 
 in a few moments he seemed to be just as far off 
 as the Invisible God ; and my heart would not feel 
 love. I cannot understand myself." 
 
 " Perhaps I can help you. Have you not been 
 my companion from infancy, sharing all our joys 
 and sorrows together ? Now if you had such want 
 of right feeling in your heart towards me, as you 
 complain of towards God, what would be true of 
 you ? Could you be said to love me ? or would it 
 be ' she hates him ?' " ' : It would not be love, cer- 
 tainly." 
 
 " Has not God been present with you in every mo-
 
 HOME. 223 
 
 ment, from your birth, in all the good of your life, 
 in every breath ? Has he not even revealed his 
 glory, his self-denying love, in his dying Son, on 
 purpose to draw your heart to him ? Does he not 
 offer you infinite blessings, through the Saviour's 
 blood and intercession ? Now if you do not feel the 
 warmest love for him, what sort of a heart have 
 you?" 
 
 She wept freely, but still urged, " I see my heart 
 must be very wicked ; still I never was conscious of 
 hating God, I was always grateful to him, rever- 
 enced him, and admired his character, tho' I could 
 not feel personal affection for him." 
 
 " Do you hate the emperor of China ?" 
 
 " What a question ! You are making sport of 
 me, instead of arguing or explaining the matter." 
 
 "I never was farther from mirth in my life, dear 
 cousin. My whole heart is full of desire to save 
 your soul from sin. But why do you not hate the 
 Chinese monarch ? He has done neither good nor 
 evil to you ! He never crossed your wishes. God 
 has never crossed them. He loads you with bless- 
 ings. Your cultivated mind sees his excellence ; 
 but your heart does not respond with warm affec- 
 tion. This is a bad beginning. But look further. 
 Does John Sanders love his mother ?" 
 
 " You are very queer to-night, cousin ! Why you
 
 224 HOME . 
 
 know he kicked her out of the house in a drunken 
 fit, only three nights ago." 
 
 " Yet he owes that mother uniform and constant 
 obedience, as her son. Is not his unfilial conduct 
 a proof of enmity ?" " It proves a bad heart, at 
 least." " How much greater are your obligations 
 to obey our heavenly Father ? Yet, his very first 
 commandment, to love him, with all your heart, 
 which is the basis of every other, you admit you 
 have not obeyed. Besides ; have you ever tried to 
 obey him ? I do not mean to avoid open wicked- 
 ness ; but have you tried, day by day, to please 
 God, in all your thoughts, words and feelings? 
 Have you not studied far more to please your earth- 
 ly friends ?" There was no answer but tears. 
 " Well, cousin, you have made your friends your 
 God, instead of Jehovah ! It was so once with me ! 
 The human affections have been nurtured to a sin- 
 ful, and idolatrous extent. We have made our hap- 
 piness consist in what, therefore, was displeasing to 
 God. We have pleased ourselves, instead of obey- 
 ing him. Is not this enmity ? What proof of en- 
 mity can be greater than constant disobedience, 
 where perfect love and duty are required ?" 
 
 "But why don't I feel conscious of enmity, such 
 as I feel towards men, sometimes ? I see, it must 
 be because 1 do not see God ; he is far off, and
 
 HOME. 225 
 
 is not the immediate agent in ray hopes or disap- 
 pointments. Is that the reason ?" 
 
 " Partly. But have you not been really insensi- 
 ble to the fact that you were living in such sinful 
 disobedience ? And have you, kind and gentle as 
 you are to all have you really disinterested love 
 for one human being ? Are you willing to make 
 sacrifices to benefit a stranger who does not deserve 
 anything but censure and contempt ? Your look of 
 surprise at the question answers for you. I know 
 you will deny yourself for us, whom you love. But 
 Christ died for his enemies, for those who deserved 
 no pity, no mercy. Is not your spirit therefore 
 really selfish ?" 
 
 " My heart does not say yes, cousin, though I can- 
 not answer you. It seems to rise in strong opposi- 
 tion, I feel, I confess, now, something as mother 
 said she did, when your letter came." 
 
 " That only proves that it is so, my dear cousin. 
 Your sinful heart does not love to come to the light, 
 because it is sinful. When the light shines on the 
 real nature of your affections, the enmity begins to 
 come into distinct consciousness. But let us pray 
 together, cousin. It is time to retire, and you know 
 I have a long walk through the woods." So they 
 parted for some months. 
 
 She wept and prayed, and, as she said, tried to
 
 love God. But only became more deeply sensible 
 of her guilt, and full of unhappiness on account 
 of it 
 
 IV. The Mother. 
 
 The mother did not love the gospel. She was 
 very kind-hearted. Agreeable in her manners and 
 conversation, she had deep-rooted enmity to the 
 gospel. When a child died, who gave no evidence 
 of a renewed heart, she was asked if the child 
 who was an adult became a Christian before 
 death ? The answer was, " I wish not to enter any 
 heaven where my child is not." Maternal love was 
 very strong ; too strong for a sound judgment, even 
 had there been right intellectual views of the truth. 
 Her love was warmly returned by her children. 
 In everything that respected their health, comfort, 
 manners, education and social feelings, her sound 
 judgment was as manifest as her maternal love. 
 But what could even a mother teach, without the 
 love of Christ in her own heart ? In the daugh- 
 ter's heart, the strongest influence that withheld her 
 from Christ, was love to her mother. That mother 
 would be grieved to the heart ; nay, deeply offend- 
 ed ; perhaps less kind. And so the event proved. 
 But the daughter had a thought still more bitter. 
 To become a Christian might separate her from that
 
 HOME. 227 
 
 mother forever. She could not look steadily at the 
 idea that the mother, so loved, might die in sin and 
 perish. 
 
 She had almost wished to perish with her moth- 
 er ! Experience had shown her the error of our 
 maternal lesson. The daughter could not be- 
 lieve in the natural purity of her own heart. She 
 felt that siuful affections reigned there. 
 
 And, truly, what more striking proof of the 
 heart's alienation from God, is there, than to see 
 thus, the best and purest of our natural affections 
 becoming the means of hindering the salvation of 
 those whom we best love. 
 
 The mother could not be blind to the change in 
 the character of one child ; but because another 
 died without it, she would not believe it was neces- 
 sary to fit the soul for heaven. To allow this, was 
 to admit that one beloved, idolized child had per- 
 ished, and might charge the loss of a soul to a mo- 
 ther's neglect For the mother, while she strove to 
 make her children amiable, had not taught them 
 their need of a holy heart, or of faith in a crucified 
 Saviour to obtain the pardon of their sins. 
 
 One child cherished the mother's hostility to pure 
 religion ; the other, embraced the Saviour. The 
 last, she knew was safe ; her heart determined to 
 believe the other was so. The truth that saved the
 
 228 H OME. 
 
 one, condemned the other ; therefore she hated it. 
 Perhaps her daughter, if not withdrawn from that 
 destroying circle of an impenitent mother's love, 
 would have wept for sin, but chosen to perish in it 
 Like an old school-mate, who told me once, he 
 would rather go to hell with his father, than be 
 saved without him. If anything was needed to 
 show that the merely human affections do not con- 
 stitute piety, such examples would be enough. 
 The mere excess of right emotions does not change 
 their nature ; nor would it embitter the heart 
 against the gospel. 
 
 These natural affections are amiable with or with- 
 out religion. When purified by the controlling 
 power of holy love, they become far more winning 
 than they were before. But they do not enter into 
 the essence of holiness. 
 
 There was a mother, once, so tried as never mo- 
 ther was before,'' or will be again. The holiest, 
 wisest, most gifted, most affectionate son a mother 
 ever loved, hung bleeding, and filled with the an- 
 guish of the cross, before her eyes. She wept ; but 
 she worshipped. She had " hid in her heart " the 
 words that taught the meaning of his sufferings. 
 She wept, but with all a mother's intense love in 
 her heart, she would not take him from the cross ! 
 He was a world's Redeemer. Loving him, as he
 
 HOME. 229 
 
 was worthy to be loved, she subdued her anguish, 
 because he bade her. He was her son, no more ; 
 but he was her Saviour. They do not seem to have 
 met after the resurrection. So should a mother's 
 love ever be controlled by the love of Christ ; by 
 the higher principles of duty to God and man. 
 Then its beauty shines forth in perfect lustre. 
 
 V. The Holy Family. 
 
 There are households which one can hardly en- 
 ter without feeling the presence of God. It is not 
 so much on account of what is said, or even what 
 is done ; but because everything is habitually said 
 and done with a reference to the will of God. In 
 one such family, once among the children of Home, 
 but now residing in another place, every person who 
 has been a member of it for any considerable peri- 
 od, for twenty years past, has become a child of 
 God ; and the number has been large. 
 
 The cousins next met in that family circle. She 
 had been invited there, to pass a season, not with- 
 out some reference to her spiritual benefit. But 
 her health was impaired by "toil and study, and the 
 labors of a school. The seeds of consumption were 
 sown, though no one then thought of it. 
 
 The first hour was spent in comparing views of 
 what was passing around her. 
 20
 
 " Here is wealth," he said, " riches in abundance, 
 and wealth without covetousness." 
 
 " Yes ; and it seems to be used as if it all be- 
 longed, not to them, but to God ; and as if all they 
 had to do with it was to see it spent to please him, 
 and benefit their fellow-men. I never knew any- 
 thing like it before." 
 
 " Here is refinement, too, in social life." 
 
 " It is so ; and yet there is something more about 
 it that I can hardly describe. Every one seems to 
 be so gentle ; yet they are as firm as a rock, in 
 what is right. Their refinement seems to me to re- 
 sult from the feelings of their hearts ; or, I should 
 say, from trying to imitate Christ." 
 
 " They are certainly very amiable." 
 
 " Some of them, they tell me, cousin, were not 
 so, naturally. And there is J., as amiable a person 
 as I ever saw ; but she does not seem to be govern- 
 ed by the same feelings as the rest. Somehow, her 
 amiability seems to be of a lower grade than theirs. 
 It has no principle in it Her manners are pleas- 
 ing, because she wishes to please. With the oth- 
 ers, it is because they seek to do good, and to win 
 others to Christ. Her temper was naturally gentle 
 and social ; but not more so than P's. Yet he seems 
 to be far purer in heart. He seems to have God 
 always before him."
 
 " Is he always serious and sedate ?" 
 
 " Oh no ; sometimes he is very merry, and full of 
 wit and humor. But he makes it his rule never to 
 allow himself to get into a state of mind that unfits 
 him for prayer ; that is, for the immediate presence 
 of God." 
 
 * Is the family a reading and intelligent one ?" 
 
 ^None more so. Elegant literature is not for- 
 gotten. Look around you, at those piles of books, 
 charts, pictures, music they all love music you 
 see here proofs of both intelligence and social en- 
 joyment. 
 
 M Then, too, there is the same cheerfulness both 
 in sickness and health ; though I never saw a more 
 tenderly attached circle. They pray, when others 
 would weep. That seems to make them happy in 
 the sorest trial." 
 
 " Are they fond of society ?" 
 
 ".Very. Some of them are the ornaments of the 
 social circle. But then Christ seems never absent 
 from their minds. It is not because they are al- 
 ways talking of religion. Far from it. But all they 
 do say of it seems to flow naturally out of the heart, 
 as if it was both perfectly familiar and habitually 
 loved. There are no set speeches about it. It is all 
 natural. No one of them has ever took me aside to 
 talk, in form, respecting my soul. Yet they all
 
 232 HOME. 
 
 seemed to know just what I wanted, and when 1 
 needed a word in season. Oh, 'tis such a heaven 
 to live in such a family !" 
 
 " And does your own heart fully respond to the 
 lessons of such a life ?" 
 
 " Yes, my Saviour has revealed his love to me ; 
 and I trust is formed in me, the hope of glory. If I 
 could always live, it seems to me I should grow 
 fast in knowledge and holiness. But I must return 
 home the next month." 
 
 The holy living had been a teacher that dispersed 
 all the clouds of sin and error. 
 
 Here was a piety that manifestly was something 
 more than the best display of the natural sympa- 
 thies of the human heart. These were seen seen 
 exalted, purified, and controlled by holy love. It 
 was the aim of each to be like Christ. That se- 
 cured excellence in everything. All knowledge, 
 every wish, every thought was controlled with ha- 
 bitual reference to the mind of Christ. Trained 
 awhile in such a school, she returned again to the 
 paternal roof; returned, alas, to die. 
 
 VI. She sleeps. 
 
 Yet two years passed away, before the Lord call- 
 ed her. Two years of pain of constant suffering. 
 Two years of gentleness, like that of a dove ; of
 
 HOME. 233 
 
 meekness, like that of Moses; of patience that 
 seemed drawn from the very fountain of divine 
 love. There was no eager display of zeal. It was 
 clothed with humility. It patiently waited the fit 
 occasion to warn the sinner. But who, of all that 
 knew the sweet sufferer, was not faithfully warned, 
 and pointed to the Lamb of God ? There were bit- 
 ter foes of the gospel about her ; they were some- 
 times unkind. But, like her Lord, she opened not 
 her mouth in reproaches. Her voice was, " Father, 
 forgive them !" If there was one thought of pain, 
 as to her future, it was, not of dying, but of having 
 lived uselessly. Fear not, blessed saint ! There is 
 not one of all that saw thy holy dying, but feels the 
 need vfhoty living, to be prepared for a place so 
 holy as that where thou now dwellest ! 
 
 Bed of death ? It was the couch of state, the 
 scene of glorious triumph. It was only one of 
 Heaven's opened doors, to let in a spirit already 
 washed, and made white in the blood of the Lamb. 
 
 Shall we weep, because the beloved companion 
 from infancy was glorified with the glory Christ 
 had prepared for her, and so well prepared her to 
 receive ? 
 
 Awhile she seemed to sleep ; her eyelids closed ; 
 there was no motion ; but now and then a smile of 
 20*
 
 234 HOME. 
 
 more than earthly beauty passed over the features 
 as she left this sorrowing world. 
 
 We cannot always, or often, form any correct 
 judgment of the character by the scenes of the sick 
 bed, or the death struggle. Medicine often gives a 
 quiet that is mistaken for the peace of God. Of- 
 tener still the feebleness of disease makes the mind 
 calm, because it is not capable of thought or emo- 
 tion. And this is called resignation ! But some- 
 times heaven is so clearly opened to the vision of 
 the living, that it brings the celestial city very near 
 indeed. 
 
 I care little how I die, if I may have the love of 
 Christ in my heart, while living and capable of se- 
 curing him. A death.ven of joy is no proof of the 
 salvation of the soul, on which we can rely, unless 
 the holy life has shown the dying one's hopes to be 
 founded on the Rock of Ages. Nay, I believe God 
 so orders it, in his Providence, that most of those 
 who perish, shall die with little suffering. He does 
 it in pity to the survivors, that the anguish of their 
 spirits may not be too great to bear. Who could 
 endure, every time a sinner dies in his sins, to see 
 hell as visibly opened, as heaven sometimes is 
 when the souls of God's holy ones are called to his 
 presence ? To hear the first wail of anguish, as we 
 hear the first note of the songs of heaven ? So we
 
 HOME. 335 
 
 are bidden to " live unto the Lord," and then we 
 know we shall die unto him, and be glorified to- 
 gether with him. But if we live unto ourselves, 
 our death will not open heaven to us, though it may 
 seem to be peaceful, or. even joyful. 'Be not de- 
 ceived ! God is not mocked. What a'man soweth, 
 that shall he also reap." 

 
 23G HOME. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Diversities of character Causes Natural gifts differ 
 Feelings vary Education Preaching The metaphy- 
 sicians Course of Providence ; Facts Diversities of be- 
 lief. Illustrations Sources of error All truths saving 
 " The same Spirit" Oar Home above. 
 
 THOSE who wish to excuse their own departure 
 from, or indifference to the truths of the gospel, of- 
 ten say: "That "we can no more expect men to 
 think and feel alike, than we can expect them to 
 look alike." There is both truth and error in the 
 remark ; a great error, and a most important truth. 
 
 Except in a few cases of unnatural deformity, the 
 essential features of every man are the same. The 
 essential elements of a holy character must be the 
 same, in all who have holy hearts. The facts, or 
 truths respecting God, man, redemption and eterni- 
 ty, cannot possibly vary with all men's various and 
 ever changing views respecting them. 
 
 Still, there is a most wonderful diversity of cha- 
 racter and experience, among those who are real 
 Christians, who do show that they are governed by 
 holy love to God and man. And to trace the causes
 
 HOME. 237 
 
 and results of this diversity, is one of the most im- 
 portant and useful of all studies, to the practical 
 Christian. It requires volumes, instead of a chapter. 
 But the lessons of life in Home would be incom- 
 plete, without some hints on the subject 
 
 A large number of Christians are very ill quali- 
 fied to analyze, or describe the emotions of their 
 own hearts at the time of their conversion. They 
 are too excited, too confused. There is a rush of 
 new and strange emotions, no one of which is dis- 
 tinct enough for description. They are not used to 
 observing such things in themselves or others. And 
 very few men can easily tell even what they do 
 know, with entire accuracy. With such persons, 
 everything they can recall, connected in any way 
 with their experience, becomes a part of it. One 
 dream is given by the Holy Spirit ; the trance 'which 
 can as easily be produced by other means, as by 
 religious influences, becomes an opening of heaven 
 to their view. So they think ; and it is in vain to 
 argue them out of it This is the source of many 
 an error, many a fond delusion. Men will not part 
 with that which seems to be so inwrought into their 
 experiences, and so connected with their hopes of 
 heaven. Hence the immense value of minute state- 
 ments of all the varied experiences of the Christian, 
 evil as well as good. It would be found that most
 
 338 HOME. 
 
 of the controversies among true Christians, respect- 
 ing the elements of a holy life and character, grow 
 out of this variety in their several experiences. 
 
 I listened once to a very minute narrative of the 
 conversion of more than one hundred educated 
 men, given in successive weeks, for the very pur- 
 pose of mutual instruction. The variety was won- 
 derful. There were only six, whose experience 
 was much alike, either in respect to the causes or 
 the details of the change God had wrought in them. 
 Minute acquaintance with many more cases, has 
 only increased my knowledge of these diversities. 
 
 The causes of them were many. 
 
 (1) Differences of intellectual powers. The rea- 
 soning intellect, delighting to trace effects to causes, 
 and follow the cause in its results, generally con- 
 nected its experience with some of the higher prin- 
 ciples of the divine government. It would be in 
 vain to reason against the sovereignty of God, with 
 a mind of this class, into whose every thought and 
 feeling, the truths designated by that term had be- 
 come incorporated, not only by an intellectual per- 
 ception of their divine harmony, but by their power 
 in purifying the soul from sin. Equally vain the 
 efforts to make such doctrines valuable to minds 
 not so constituted will generally prove. 
 
 The class of minds that reasoned most from effects
 
 HOME. 239 
 
 to causes, habitually traced all events in life and na- 
 ture, to God. His will, his hand, was seen in every- 
 thing, good and evil, and devoutly recognized with 
 an humble, submissive spirit 
 
 Minds that commonly reasoned from causes to 
 effects, were more employed in tracing the harmo- 
 ny of the principles of God's government, especially 
 if their powers of analysis were connected with the 
 power of comparing with accuracy, the results of 
 their researches. With them, the reception of the 
 truth did not result from submission to divine teach- 
 ing, so much as from a perception that that teach- 
 ing was reasonable, and in keeping with all known 
 truths. 
 
 The poetic mind almost always was most im- 
 pressed with the atonement; the glory of the re- 
 vealed Godhead ; with the majesty of the cross ; 
 the resurrection and mediation and reign of the 
 Redeemer glorified ; and with other themes that ap- 
 pealed to the mind's perception of sublimity, beau- 
 ty and perfection. 
 
 (2) There were still more diversities from natural 
 feelings and sentiments. 
 
 A naturally conscientious mind was impressed 
 with the obligations of the Law of God. Justice, 
 right and duty, as violated by a life of disobedience, 
 humbled the soul.
 
 240 HOME. 
 
 A proud mind, or one, more correctly speaking, 
 naturally respecting itself highly, was most impress- 
 ed with the meanness, and loathsome turpitude of 
 sin. 
 
 One in whom the love of the favor of others was 
 the ruling element, was most solicitous to please 
 God, and to be the object of his smile of favor. 
 That feeling drew him from the paths of sin. 
 
 The naturally generous and self-sacrificing were 
 won sometimes by the benevolence of the gospel. 
 It was so noble to give up all for Christ, that they 
 could not refrain from doing it. The naturally tim- 
 id, shrinking from pain and suffering, were often 
 awakened by simple fear of divine wrath against 
 sin. The judgments of God led them to learn righ- 
 teousness. 
 
 A mind to which mathematics seemed to be the 
 very aliment of life, was awakened by the effects of 
 the investigations of La Place on his mind, in de- 
 monstrating the wisdom of God, and his universal 
 agency. 
 
 Others, whose affections were very strong, were 
 awakened by the influence of love for a mother, wife, 
 or other beloved friends. To please them, they first 
 sought to please God, by doing his will. In short, 
 there was hardly any one power of the mental, so- 
 cial and moral constitution of man, that did not be-
 
 HOME. 241 
 
 come the agent in the conversion of the soul to 
 God ; and so distinctly, that the convert could not 
 relate his history, without showing it to all. 
 
 (3) The various education persons receive, gives 
 still other varieties. This, however, tends greatly 
 to make the diversities that result from natural cha- 
 racter less striking, though not always. Sometimes 
 the bent of the mind in one direction is so strong, 
 that it has the power of assimilation ; it converts to 
 its own uses all the efforts made to impart know- 
 ledge, or to elicit other mental powers and re- 
 sources. It was seen, however, that the well edu- 
 cated mind, generally, had a higher regard for the 
 truths of religion ; the uneducated, for the feelings 
 it inspires. With the first, to be right was the prime 
 object ; with the last, it was to feel deeply whatever 
 was believed. 
 
 (4) The character of the preaching to which they 
 had been accustomed, had a marked effect. If it 
 was didactic reasoning, their minds had the same 
 tendency. If it was poetic, the beauty of religion 
 inflamed them. If it dealt more with the various 
 emotions of the sinful or holy heart, so their re- 
 ligion became more decidedly that of experience, 
 rather than thought or action. When the character 
 of the preaching corresponded with the natural ten- 
 dencies of the individual mind, the result was very
 
 marked and beneficial though not always. One 
 very acute metaphysical mind, trained by a pastor 
 of the same mental chai'acter, had become a sort of 
 metaphysical monomaniac! It analyzed its emo- 
 tions and principles, till they lost half their legiti- 
 mate power over the soul. I believe the lessons of 
 affliction have since corrected that tendency ; for he 
 is now a veiy practical man. In another instance, 
 the same cause, acting on a mind so constituted, 
 appears to have kept the sinner from God. His 
 whole mental energy was absorbed in the philoso- 
 phy of truth, till it lost all power to subdue the 
 heart! I never knew so accurate a judge of what 
 was exactly true, as that sinner ! But a long life of 
 sin, under the constant, nay, eager attendance on all 
 the means of grace, proved that the truth failed to 
 reach his heart. 
 
 (5) The course of Providence with individuals, 
 was equally marked in their conversion. 
 
 Gratitude for prosperity subdued one. The loss 
 of a tenderly loved relative broke the heart of an- 
 other, and he sought consolation in ChVist. Yet 
 the conversions that resulted from sanctified afflic- 
 tion, or fear, were very few. 
 
 There were striking instances of this. One, on 
 a bed of sickness, when friends and physicians had 
 bid him prepare for a speedy exchange of worlds,
 
 HOME. 243 
 
 vowed to God that he would serve him, if life 
 should be spared. Life was granted ; and for a 
 brief space the vow was redeemed, in form ; while 
 the impulse of gratitude lasted. But the heart was 
 not subdued ; and long years of folly and sin were 
 passed before some other influence brought the sin- 
 ner to the cross. 
 
 Another, when the cholera raged around, was 
 filled with fears of death. For a year or two, 
 there was prayer, devotion, and all the outward 
 marks of a religious life. But years of worldly and 
 selfish living followed, when the pestilence ceased 
 to walk in darkness, or waste the powers of life at 
 noon-day. 
 
 A BOH, carefully trained to believe and reverence 
 the truths and precepts of the Bible, came to me 
 once to ask guidance to the cross. Thrown into 
 the whirl of the city, surrounded by those who 
 neither loved nor respected the truth, the effects of 
 their mockeries on his own mind, in lessening his 
 own reverence for sacred things, alarmed him. He 
 said he felt he must become a child of God, or he 
 should lose all respect for what his education and 
 his judgment both led him to regard as the truth of 
 God. So he wisely decided to make Christ his 
 friend. 
 
 Another had long been engaged in the rum traf-
 
 244 HOME. 
 
 fie. His shop bad been a perfect curse to a whole 
 neighborhood of Home. Sickness came ; and 
 while on his bed some facts occurred that illustrated 
 the horrible results of his own business in such a 
 way that he could not close his eyes to it. Remorse 
 seized upon him ; and a desire to repair the evils 
 he had done in his selfish pursuit of gain, led him 
 to consecrate himself and all his to the Lord. 
 
 (6) Diversities of religious belief had the same 
 marked effect. There seemed to be no one idea of 
 the whole circle of truth which was not employed 
 to convert the soul ; no idea, the intellectual rejection 
 of which prevented the agency of the Holy Spirit 
 in using what truth was embraced, for the salvation 
 of the soul. A Deist, who utterly rejected Divine 
 revelation, was awakened by reflections on the 
 goodness of God. He often meditated on the sub- 
 ject, and supposed he loved the God of nature. 
 One day the contrast between the Divine benevo- 
 lence, as shown in hundreds of instances, where 
 the mere wish to confer happiness must have been 
 the sole motive for providing for it, and his own 
 selfish character, struck him with such power, that 
 he fell on his knees and cried aloud for mercy. 
 Trained up to despise a Bible he had never cared 
 to examine, it was only when many struggles with his 
 sinful heart taught him the need of a guide, that he
 
 HOME. 245 
 
 sought ibr a Testament, and lor the first time, learn- 
 ed more of the character and mission of Christ, 
 than could be learned from profane curses. 
 
 In another, clear views of the Divine Gov- 
 ernment, led to cordial, joyful submission and hum- 
 ble obedience, without the least mental reference to 
 a Saviour, or even much thought whether pardon 
 was received or needed at all. The sense of guilt 
 had been very acute ; the submission to justice was 
 cordial ; and the spirit of filial love and obedience 
 rilled the heart, for weeks before the Saviour was 
 revealed in his glory. These cases settled in my 
 mind the practicability of a heathen's conversion, 
 by the principles of natural religion, without the 
 gospel, " so that they are without excuse." In all 
 the after life of this able man, in his preaching he 
 perpetually enforced submission as the first duty, 
 and as the mode of entering on the life of faith. 
 It was a serious hindrance to the usefulness of one 
 of the best men I ever knew. For twenty years he 
 had preached with great ability, and lived a life of 
 prayer. At the end of that time, he told me, that 
 while his preaching had comforted and edified 
 many in the church of God, he knew not that he 
 had ever directly won one soul to Christ ! His at- 
 tention was pointed to this leading practical error 
 in his preaching, and to the vast diversities in the 
 21*
 
 246 
 
 HOME. 
 
 mode of commencing a religious life. His meth- 
 ods of instruction were varied, while the same 
 clearness in enforcing the truths of the gospel re- 
 mained. His harvests of souls have since that time 
 been constant and great. 
 
 One who intellectually rejected the Deity and 
 atonement of Christ, was led by the Spirit to see 
 her sins, and her need of mercy. It was only in 
 the progress of holy affections that Christ became 
 her " Lord and her God." 
 
 He who had been trained to view the doctrine of 
 election an election not based on the foreseen con- 
 version of the man as abhorrent to every princi- 
 ple of equity, was won to Christ, by the perception 
 of the grace that sought him, and brought him to 
 Christ, while he had chosen the path of death. He 
 wondered why he was taken, and not another ! So 
 the very principle he rejected, brought forth its 
 appropriate fruits of humility and gratitude in his 
 heart, through the grace of the Spirit So with all 
 truths. Each has sanctifying power ; and is a sword 
 of the Spirit to slay those forms of sin that rule the 
 heart So that the little child whose tender mind 
 can grasp but one truth, in its simplest form, may 
 be saved by it. The feeble minded who lack the 
 capacity to discern many truths, may be purified by 
 what their vision sees. The worldly lover of gold,
 
 HOME. 247 
 
 who made it his god, dreamed that he was stagger- 
 ing along, almost crushed by the weight of his 
 heaped coffers. The Saviour just as his mind, 
 ruled by the outward senses, had seen him painted 
 in the Cathedral of Baltimore seemed to pass by, 
 and in pity relieve him of the burden that was 
 crushing out his life ; and he woke to give his gold, 
 himself and his all to that Saviour. Baptized with 
 his Spirit, his gold is no longer a curse, but the 
 means of a blessing to many. It was the idea of 
 the vanity of worldly treasures to confer happiness, 
 that broke up the selfish slumbers of his frozen 
 heart. It is in vain to say that no one can become 
 a Christian who has been educated, or otherwise 
 led, intellectually to reject any particular truth, how- 
 ever important that may be. It is not so. If that 
 rejection be toilful, after the mind clearly sees that the 
 doctrine is true, the rejection of it will, no doubt, de- 
 stroy the soul. So it would if the doctrine or pre- 
 cept were, relatively, of less importance. The de- 
 liberate rejection of any truth or duty, is a rejection 
 of the rightful authority of the Divine teacher and 
 Law-giver. But such wilful sin is probably not 
 very common. It is most frequently committed, 
 not where errors in doctrine are taught, but where 
 men enjoy the clear light of the gospel. Then we 
 often see a bitter rejection of some single truth or
 
 248 HOME. 
 
 duty, followed by blindness of mind, hardness of 
 heart, and a death of shame. 
 
 The source of error, and of much inefficient 
 preaching may be seen by an anecdote. A young 
 man, just from a Seminary, wrote out, in a little 
 different form, all the lectures of his theological 
 instructors, and preached them to his people, in the 
 first years of his ministry. It is hardly necessary 
 to say, not a soul was converted. Did he not 
 preach the truth ? Yes. The whole truth ? Al- 
 most! Was it not philosophically arranged, so 
 that the harmony of every part of the system 
 could be seen ? No doubt. Even the " order of 
 nature in the affections of the heart" was demon- 
 strated with admirable logic and precision. But 
 the mode of instruction in which the great intellect 
 taught him the harmony and theory of truth, was 
 not that which fitted it to reach the consciences, 
 wants, feelings and sympathies of men. People 
 said he was a ' great preacher,' but many of his 
 most important doctrines were rejected, in spite of 
 the irrefutable logic that sustained them. Probably, 
 
 few rninds, in some churches, might have been 
 savingly benefited by just such preaching. But, 
 as a Christian, the preacher did not believe his own 
 doctrines, in the forms in which he had been 
 preaching them. Those forms had relation to the
 
 249 
 
 logical intellect ; none to the emotions of the heart. 
 When he philosophized, correctly enough, on the 
 fact that love was the element of all right affections, 
 and therefore, in the order of nature the first holy 
 emotion produced by the Spirit, he could not help 
 remembering that he had been first conscious of 
 penitence for sin, of submission, of hopes of mercy. 
 When he told the fact that no man could be justi- 
 fied, or forgiven, without an atonement, and that 
 pardon was granted to believers alone, he forgot 
 that he had found peace and joy in God, while, in- 
 tellectually, he had rejected the idea of an atoning 
 Saviour. So, led by chances, beyond his control, 
 he began to preach the same truths as they lay in 
 his own heart, connected with his and other men's 
 experience as saints and sinners. Now the power 
 of the Spirit was revealed, and the truth made 
 many wise unto salvation. 
 
 What is the error ? It is this. Men mistake 
 a logical necessity for an actual need. In logic, every 
 truth is harmonized with, and flows certainly from 
 every other truth. All reasonings of truth are rea- 
 sonings in a circle. For every truth may be as- 
 sumed, in turn, as a postulate, and every other 
 drawn from it by a logic nothing can shake. But 
 few men are logicians ! You logically infer that 
 a man cannot reject one truth of the circle, without
 
 250 
 
 rejecting other, and essential ideas, with which, in 
 express terms, the Bible connects salvation from 
 ein and woe. But many a man is conscious of holy 
 affections, who does not believe some portions of 
 this great circle of truth. His heart is pained. He 
 deems you a bigot. Brotherly love ceases. Sects 
 are formed, among those who really love the same 
 holiness. Worse still. The true disciple becomes 
 embitterred against some valuable truths in the 
 divine circle of light, and he loses its sanctifying 
 power, which was intended to complete the harmo- 
 ny of his own Christian character. Besides; a 
 large class of divine truths seldom have any direct 
 relation to the first experience of the awakened 
 sinner, and the convert They, too, by such preach- 
 ing, become hostile to truths needful to them in 
 some other stage of their progress. 
 
 It makes no great difference what particular truth 
 is first impressed on a sinner's mind. If his carnal 
 heart is roused, he will quarrel with one as readily 
 as with another. The doctrine he quarrels with 
 must be pressed upon his heart till he feels its sub- 
 duing power. Some think that this or that doctrine 
 is peculiarly offensive to the corrupt heart Not 
 so ! The doctrine that happens to disturb a man 
 in his sins, or that, which by the habits of his mind 
 or education, is best fitted to teach him the real
 
 HOME. 251 
 
 nature of his sinful affections, that becomes the 
 cross to him. To receive that, be it what it may, 
 involves a heart of submission to the divine au- 
 thority. If the Spirit of holy love once enters the 
 heart, its reign, if not prevented, will in time con- 
 trol the whole intellect, as well as eveiy feeling. 
 " There are diversities of operations, but the same 
 Spirit." 
 
 The diversities of religious character formed are 
 as great as the causes that enter into their forma- 
 tion are numerous. 
 
 One knows more truth than another. His holy 
 character is more matured. The mental peculiari- 
 ties of another are seen in the fullest development 
 of some graces of the Spirit, while others, though 
 not wholly wanting, are seldom seen. One is more 
 humble and submissive ; another more zealous and 
 joyous in hope. Meekness shines in one, holy 
 boldness in his brother. The reception of some 
 truths gives greater stability of character than most 
 who reject them possess. In one, deep and joyous 
 emotions are deemed the evidences of sanctification. 
 In another, the habitual conformity of the thoughts 
 and wishes to the commandments of God is deemed 
 the sure proof of holiness. Both are so, sometimes. 
 Some characters unite both ; more separate them 
 or give to one more preeminence, than is given to
 
 252 HOME. 
 
 it by others equally the followers of God as dear 
 children. 
 
 Thus, the causes that diversify the religious 
 character at its commencement, continue to act 
 throughout the entire life of the Christian. The 
 love of God is in his heart. He will be saved. If 
 his mind was equally fitted to be benefited by every 
 revealed truth, he would be a more perfect man. a 
 more perfect Christian. If he believed and loved 
 the entire circle of divine truths, it would make his 
 character complete, perfect. And, with all the 
 hindrances he finds wjthin and without, if he is 
 truly taught of God, he will, in the end, reach such 
 perfection. Where there is filial love in the heart ; 
 a sense of guilt, and of the need of free grace ; and 
 a teachable temper, let us never despair of seeing 
 the child become a man. The Spirit is his teacher. 
 " He giveth to every man, severally, as He will," 
 just as may be needed, by the nature of the indi- 
 vidual man, to fit him for life here, and a more 
 glorious life when we put on the immortal body. 
 
 How careful should we be not to cause one of 
 the little ones that believe in Christ to offend! 
 With what tenderness should we watch the feeblest 
 manifestations of real holiness ! If the flax smoke 
 ever so little, there is fire enough to kindle it And 
 if we reason with the heart, aiding the experience
 
 HOME. 253 
 
 of the weak or ignorant with the truths best adapt- 
 ed to their wants, they will grow in grace rapidly. 
 Every truth of the gospel is truth ; important truth ; 
 invaluable in its place, and fitting time. But all 
 truths are not alike important at all times, or for 
 all men. The wise master builder does not use a 
 shingle where a beam is needed, or hold up a 
 rafter with a board nail. The storm that invigor- 
 ates the oak will destroy the tender wheat. " There 
 are diversities of gifts, by the same Spirit." 
 
 Use logic with the reasoner ; the " deep things 
 of God" with those who have strength to receive 
 them ; milk for babes. But with all, preach and 
 teach from the experience of the heart, to the hearts 
 of others. The man who tells me how he proves 
 a doctrine to be true, does me little good. But he 
 who tells me the relation of that doctrine or idea to 
 the corresponding affections of the soul, enables 
 me to feed upon it, to grow in holiness, to obtain 
 new peace and joy, and so, the better to glorify our 
 Father who is in heaven. 
 
 Thus, in the progress of the individual mind we 
 see the same variety of causes and results that we 
 notice in the revival of pure religion in a whole 
 town. In all, God, our fathers' God, is at work by 
 his Spirit to bring many sons and daughters to 
 glory. Pray, Christian, pray on, pray ever ! Pray 
 22
 
 254 HOME. 
 
 for the fulfilment of the promise, " they shall all be 
 taught of God." Pray that the Holy Spirit may 
 constantly dwell in every mind, imparting his va- 
 rious gifts of grace, knowledge and love, to each 
 one, according to his will, and their needs. Pray 
 that you in no hour of your life, may be without 
 the presence of that Spirit, till Christ be perfectly 
 formed in you the hope of glory. Pray that He 
 may so dwell in your children, in remembrance of 
 His covenant, to the end of time. 
 
 A parting word. Reader, Is this world your 
 Home ? Our Lord Jesus Christ, will one day come 
 with ten thousands of his saints; are you so form- 
 ing a character like His, that he " will be admired 
 in you, in that day ? 
 
 I love to think of a beautiful comparison of Stil- 
 lingfleet, in the opening of his Origines Sacrae. In 
 the ancient houses the offices for daily and servile 
 toil occupied the first floor. The rooms for family 
 use, to live in, were above. Heaven, he says, is 
 only the upper room, the upper room of our dwel- 
 ling-place, where our life is to be passed. Here, 
 we have servile toils, the drudgery of toil. It is 
 only the preparation for our real life. It is no 
 Home till we enter the permanent dwelling-place. 
 When every power of the individual mind is fully 
 developed, and every power, every feeling, every
 
 HOME. 255 
 
 thought entirely governed hy holy love to God and 
 our fellows, then we are fitted for our permanent 
 Home. There will be diversities of gifts, there. 
 One will excel in strength, another in wisdom. 
 One will harp with the harpers, another will 
 sing the new song. One will ever devoutly wor- 
 ship, another will teach the mystery of God to those 
 who need a guide. But all shall serve him, with 
 perfect hearts. That makes heaven the Home of 
 the soul. Are you ready, fitted to enter our HOME ?
 
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