ALFRED COOKMAN.
THE LIFE OF
THE
REV. ALFRED COOKMAN,
fey ROBr*
THE
REV. ALFRED COOKMAN;
WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF HIS FATHER,
THE REV. GEORGE GRIMSTON COOKMAN.
BY
HENRY B. RIDGAWAY, D.D.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THE REV. R. S. FOSTER, LL.D.,
Bishop of the M. E. Church,
NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
FRANKLIN SQUARE.
I8 73 .
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, ty
HARPER & BROTHERS,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
TO
MRS. MARY COOKMAN,
MOTHER OF ALFRED COOKMAN,
THE DEVOUT CHRISTIAN LADY WHO, THROUGH A LONG LIFE, HAS SO
BEAUTIFULLY EXEMPLIFIED THE DOCTRINES
TAUGHT BY HER SON,
2Tf)fs Volume fs Sffectfonatelj? Enscrfbcto
BY
THE AUTHOR.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
THE COOKMAN FAMILY. GEORGE GRIMSTON COOKMAN . . 19
CHAPTER II.
THE REV. GEORGE G. COOKMAN IN AMERICA. THE BIRTH
OF ALFRED 34
CHAPTER III.
THE GROWING FAME OF REV. GEORGE G. COOKMAN. THE
CHILDHOOD OF ALFRED 49
CHAPTER IV.
REV. GEORGE G. COOKMAN IN THE CAPITAL OF THE NA-
TION. THE YOUTH OF ALFRED 63
CHAPTER V.
REV. GEORGE G. COOKMAN LOST AT SEA. ALFRED'S RAPID
PROGRESS 8l
CHAPTER VI.
ALFRED, THE CHRISTIAN WORKER. ESSAYS AT PREACHING 95
CHAPTER VII.
THE YOUTHFUL PASTOR. HIS FIRST CIRCUIT.. Ill
Vlll CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VIII.
FROM COUNTRY TO CITY. TRIP TO ENGLAND 125
CHAPTER IX.
THE FOREIGN TOUR. ENGLISH SCENERY AND FRIENDS.. 138
CHAPTER X.
HOME AGAIN. MARRIAGE. MINISTRY AT WEST CHESTER
AND HARRISBURG, PA 152
CHAPTER XL
MINISTRY AT CHRIST CHURCH, PITTSBURGH, PA. INCREAS-
ING FAME AND USEFULNESS 169
CHAPTER XII.
MINISTRY AT GREEN STREET CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA.
REMARKABLE REVIVAL 19 1
CHAPTER XllL
THE UNION 'CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. SLAVERY AGITA-
TION. CHRISTIAN UNION 212
CHAPTER XIV.
REMOVAL TO NEW YORK. MINISTRY AT THE CENTRAL
CHURCH. PATRIOTISM AND THE CIVIL WAR 229
CHAPTER XV.
TRINITY METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. THE ARMY OF
THE POTOMAC AND THE CHRISTIAN COMMISSION 258
CHAPTER XVI.
RETURN TO PHILADELPHIA. PASTORATE OF THE SPRING
GARDEN STREET CHURCH. AMONG THE CHILDREN . , 281
CONTENTS. ix
CHAPTER XVII. PAGE
SPRING GARDEN STREET CHURCH. CIVIL RIGHTS OF THE
COLORED RACE. VACATION AT CAMP-MEETINGS 297
CHAPTER XVIII.
SPRING GARDEN STREET CHURCH. THE NATIONAL CAMP-
MEETING MOVEMENT 314
CHAPTER XIX.
SPRING GARDEN STREET CHURCH. DEATH OF GEORGE
COOKMAN AND OF ALFRED BRUNER COOKMAN 328
CHAPTER XX.
GRACE CHURCH, WILMINGTON, DELAWARE. THE NATIONAL
AND OTHER CAMP-MEETINGS. MISSIONARY JUBILEE. . . 345
CHAPTER XXI.
GRACE CHURCH. SKILL IN 'THE PASTORATE. NATIONAL
CAMP-MEETINGS AT HAMILTON, OAKINGTON, AND DES-
PLAINES 369
CHAPTER XXII.
GRACE CHURCH. THE PENINSULA CONVENTION 384
CHAPTER XXIII.
CENTRAL CHURCH, NEWARK, N. J. OCEAN GROVE CAMP-
GROUND. NATIONAL CAMP-MEETINGS AT ROUND LAKE
AND URBANA 402
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE LAST CAMP-MEETINGS. FAILING HEALTH. THE LAST
SERMON 425
A 2
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXV.
THE LAST HOURS. SWEEPING THROUGH THE GATES.... 442
CHAPTER XXVI.
ESTIMATES OF THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALFRED
COOKMAN 457
INTRODUCTION.
THE lives of the good and great are the heritage of the ages.
While they are with us they enrich us with our choicest treas-
ures. When they depart from us they bequeath the still richer
legacy of the memory of their noble deeds and exalted virtues
richer, because what was little and ignoble in them perishes
with their dust ; while only what was good and pure remains,
taking on greater lustre after their translation. From their
thrones in the heavens they shed down upon us a more potent
influence than that which they excited when they were journey-
ing the vale of our earthly suffering with us. They do not
more really live in their far-off homes than in our memories
and fond affections. We do not see them or touch them
much as we long to but we feel their presence and power.
We persuade ourselves that invisibly they linger in our homes
as ministering angels if not sharing our sorrows, at least
watching in loving vigils over us.
As when they were alive we wanted every one to know and
love them, so, being dead, we desire to transmit to unborn ages
the knowledge of them. The desire, I take it, is not more
natural than beautiful not more honoring to the dead than
ennobling to the living.
Xll INTRODUCTION.
There is that in a true biography which charms us with a
strange spell. We find in it, however it may differ from our
own history and experiences, an image of our deepest self;
which, under all varieties, is in substance the same in every
humanity. We witness the same struggles of the better with
the more ignoble qualities the same alternations of doubt
and trust, of fear and hope the same sorrows and joys and
loves the same earthly and heavenly longings the same tug-
gings at the heart the same successes and defeats the same
all things that enter into this strange earthly life we are living
the same coming and going of the bright and dark days over
the mottled landscape of our being. So we are rebuked and
comforted, chided and encouraged on the same page. The
communion, when the life we contemplate is on the whole
beautiful and good, is healthful. Unconsciously we enter into
its confluence, make it our own, and, with greater clearness
than if it were actually ours, discern and appreciate its good
and evil.
What a wonderful thing a human life is ! Who considers
it rightly ? I do not now mean some human life, but any
human life not the life of the great more than the little.
On some day and it matters not when or where the
good God, Father of us all, lays a little babe on a wom-
an's breast. It is a wee thing, just breathing a soft, sweet
breath, the faintest ripple of an unconscious life the merest
germ. It is the dawn of an immortal history of strange, I was
about to write divine, consciousnesses. Earthquakes rend the
globe, great forces convulse, it may be, the sidereal universe,
INTRODUCTION. xiii
but in that fragile bosom are stored potencies mightier than
all material agencies not so obvious, but infinitely greater.
Helpless it lies there on the pillow of maternal love. The
fountain springing at its lips nourishes it. It drinks and sleeps
and grows. A little while and its dull eye grows bright. In-
quisitive wonder looks out between .the lids. The days and
weeks and months swell into years. The baby is a boy the
boy a youth the youth a man. Mustering up the years to
the drum-beat of each pulse, come joys and sorrows, hopes and
loves. Young manhood, with its witching ardors and exciting
but too delusive hopes, stands, flushed with pride and ambi-
tion, before us. Real life is in the offing. As yet it opens
with brightness and beauty. The gathering clouds show only
the silver linings it is morning, with the sweet breath of spring.
But on behind these come other years. The dun level of
middle manhood and mature age crowds quick upon the
vanishing hold of youth. Now life is real and earnest. Sor-
rows and cares and labors flood all the moments to their
brim and heartaches and weariness come with the morn-
ing and thicken to the evening. The great, hard world, with
its manifold evils, and the stormy eternity, with its terrors,
open upon the gaze of the immortal spirit. The struggle is
brief. Death strikes : one part of a life has been lived the
greater part remains. Such is the outline of each human histo-
ry. To one there is more of evil, to another more of good ;
but the story is the same. Among these lives comes occa-
sionally one of more than ordinary beauty, and men love to
gaze on it and linger over it. It is the charm of the genera-
Xiv INTRODUCTION.
tion of the ages. When it vanishes, the darkness shrouds
us all.
Such was the life delineated in these pages. It rarely hap-
pens that so noble a subject finds so worthy a biographer.
The book will be found crowded with beauty and entertain-
ment from beginning to end. The story it tells will not be in-
teresting to all ; but to every admirer of the delicate delineation
of pure and noble manhood it will be rich as a poem. It is
more than a biography. The distinguished father is scarcely
less the subject of the sketch than the gifted son. The writer
has brought the entire Christian commonwealth under obliga-
tion, by restoring the lustre of an almost perished name, which
was once the joy of all denominations in two hemispheres.
Especially American Methodism, in which the name of George
G. Cookman has been as sweet incense for two generations,
will gladly acknowledge the debt.
Alfred Cookman, the immediate subject, has but lately
passed away. His memory is yet fresh with us all the mem-
ory of the joy we had of his rare ministry, and of the sorrow
yet unassuaged that thrilled us all by his sudden death.
The work of delineating his character and reciting the story
of his life is done in the following pages. Dr. Ridgaway, the
life-long friend, not more qualified by close intimacies than by
the rare and peculiar qualities of his own mind, has left noth-
ing to be added or desired. It is a high commendation to his
work to say that he has done justice to his subject. Yet I
can not close this brief introduction without laying a small
tribute on the shrine of Alfred Cookman, and it shall relate to
INTRODUCTION. XV
a single aspect of his character, which profoundly impressed
me, as I think it did every one. I never thought him a genius.
He was not, in my judgment, transcendently gifted. He
was eloquent, and many times mighty in the pulpit. I am
certain that this was the verdict of thousands that hung with
delight and profit on his words. But it was not his great intel-
lectual power, nor yet his persuasive eloquence, that impressed
me chiefly. The one quality in which he seemed to me to rise
above not only the mass of men and the select best, but, I must
say it, above every man it has been my privilege to know,
was the sacredness of his entire life. Not in the pulpit
alone, not in the prayer-circle alone, nor in his pastoral walks
exclusively, but every where and at all times he seemed in-
vested not with simulated sanctity but a Christliness that
was as beautiful as it was impressive. His own life was the
ablest sermon he ever preached on the subject with which his
name is so intimately associated. He lived " the higher life,"
even more than he preached it. His sweet, gentle, and holy
walk was both more eloquent and convincing than his most
impassioned discourses. His dying words fitting culmina-
tion to his sacred life will echo in Christian song clown the
centuries : " Sweeping through the gates, washed in the blood
of the Lamb !"
R. S. FOSTER.
MADISON, N. J., July, 1873.
" Suffer me to imitate the passion of my God. My Love is crucified ;
there is no fire in me desiring earthly fuel ; that which lives and speaks
within me says ' Home to the Father.' "
St. Ignatius yearning for Martyrdom.
LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
CHAPTER I.
THE COOKMAN FAMILY. GEORGE GRIMSTON COOKMAN.
THE REV. ALFRED COOKMAN was descended from a worthy
ancestry. His father, the Rev. George Grimston Cookman, was
a man of such powers and fame ; his talents and reputation be-
came, by so remarkable a providence, the inheritance of his
son; his influence upon the son was so direct and continuous,
that I find, in the absence of any adequate account of the father,
it is quite impossible to do justice to either without dwelling
more fully on the career of the father than a biography of the
son would seem to allow. While it might be honor enough for
George G. Cookman to be remembered as the father of Alfred,
yet there was that in him in what he was and did which
makes it proper that no extended memoir be given of the son
without such a portraiture of the father as shall be in some de-
gree worthy of his distinguished character and services.
My apology for dwelling longer on the annals of the father
than is customary in such cases, is the simple desire to so pre-
sent the name of Cookman, made illustrious first in the father,
and maintained afterward in the son, as that it shall be trans-
mitted an unbroken name, suggestive of sanctity, eloquence,
and usefulness wherever known and pronounced.
George Grimston Cookman was born in the town of King-
ston -upon -Hull, Yorkshire, England, October 21, 1800. His
20 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
parents were George and Mary Cookman. Of these parents
George himself wrote in 1825 to Miss Mary Barton, who was
then his betrothed, and afterward became his wife : " My father
is the younger brother of an old English family who, as sturdy
yeomanry, had resided upon their family estates in the east end
of Holderness for five generations back. My father left home
early in life, and at eighteen years of age became serious, and
a member and local preacher in the Methodist Society. He is
constant in all his purposes, and unwavering in all his attach-
ments a judicious rather than a romantic husband, a kind
rather than a fond father. He is independent in his principles
even to the verge of republicanism ; what the world terms a
downright honest man. Yet there are perplexing paradoxes in
his character. Possessing genuine, active courage, he hides it
under a natural diffidence and modesty; with deep and strong
feeling, he will generally pass for what Alfred calls a phlegmat-
ic melancholic. Indeed, he has brought himself under so se-
vere mental discipline and such habitual caution, that he re-
presses all that gives a glow to feeling or a brilliance to thought
under the fear of committing himself. But when you can draw
him out of. his shell, you find he can conceive and feel and
speak with both brilliance and power. As a Christian,- he is
eminently consistent, liberal, and unwavering. I have some-
times thought that his habitual judgment has induced a want
of faith in temporal matters, but I have met with few men so
even and constant in their religious- walk. Now my mother is
almost the reverse of all this. She was the daughter of a re-
tired and wounded officer of the Royal Navy ; was left an orphan
in early life, and was educated in the same house with her cou-
sin, Mr. John Bell, of Portington. She became pious in early
life, and endured much persecution from her uncle with un-
flinching courage. She enjoyed the blessing of perfect love for
many years, and when in health was eminent for activity and
good works. She possesses a much higher range of talent
THE COOKMAN FAMILY. 21
than my father has more genius and less judgment romantic
in all her feelings, ardent in her attachments and resentments.
She has ten times as much faith as my father. She has a keen,
ready mind, but wants comparison and discrimination. She
has a vehemency of impulse, and a strength and decision of
will, and a power of faith which, if it had been united with a
strong frame in the other sex, would have made her an eminent
missionary. Now my father professes little, but feels a great
deal; my mother feels deeply, and tells you of it too." He had
a brother, Alfred, younger than himself by four years, and a sis-
ter, Mary Ann. Of them he also wrote, in order to complete the
picture of the family: "Alfred is the finest youth I have ever
met with high in all his notions, lofty and liberal in his prin-
ciples. Pride and ambition are his ruling passions. Of lion-
like spirit, headstrong self-will, and a most vehement and over-
bearing temper, the world will see in him a second Brougham.
And yet I know no one to whom you might commit yourself
for candid judgment with greater confidence than our Alfred.
Mary Ann, my beloved Mary Ann, is a most affectionate and
amiable girl. I thought two years ago she would be a tame, pass-
ive character, but she is developing striking and spirited traits.
She has more perseverance and judgment for her years than
either I or Alfred. I think she will not be behind either in
intellect, and before both in prudence."
What is here said of his brother Alfred is not too strongly
put. From the testimony of friends, and the proofs given in his
letters, essays, and speeches, he must have been a youth of un-
usual promise. He early devoted himself to God, and became
one of the most exemplary Christians. His tastes and convic-
tions led him to choose the law. for his profession. When this
preference was expressed, the judicious father laid before him
all the difficulties which would lie in his path : The long and
expensive process of college and professional education ; the
still longer period which must elapse before he could reasonably
22 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
expect to get into practice ; the want of patronage ; the envy of
the aristocracy, ever manifested to aspirants at the bar spring-
ing from the middle classes of society; and concluded by say-
ing, "Remember, Alfred, if you insist on this course, the whole
of your patrimonial fortune will be expended on your education ;"
to which Alfred fearlessly and magnanimously replied, "I care
not when I enter the bar if I have not a shilling. I will make
my own fortune, you may depend upon it." His facility of
speech, readiness in debate, quickness of perception, wit his
striking person, and deep-toned and melodious voice made him
from boyhood "one of nature's orators." On one occasion, in
the debating society of which he was a member, a gentleman of
the bar from London chanced to hear him, and remarked aft-
erward, " I would give my library, and all I am worth in the
world, to have the amazing power of reply exhibited by that boy."
He passed successfully through the course at Glasgow Univer-
sity, where he had the most capable of instructors, and listened
on Sundays to such preachers as Chalmers and Wardlaw.
After his graduation from the University, he went up to
London and entered a law-office. While engaged in his studies
there, he became convinced of his duty to preach the Gospel.
He determined to enter the ministry ; and accordingly returned
home, and began to apply himself unremittingly to a course of
reading preparatory to admission into the Wesleyan Conference.
His application was too close, his vigils too protracted ; his
health failed, and he speedily fell into a pulmonary consump-
tion from which he died.
Mr. Cookman, the father, was one of the best representatives
of the English middle class. By success in trade he rose to
that degree of affluence which enabled him to live in a style of
great comfort and quiet dignity; by his reputation for sound
judgment and probity, he acquired the respect and confidence
of his fellow-citizens, and was elected mayor of Hull, a position
which he retained for many years; and by his earnest and con-
GEORGE GRIMSTON COOKMAN. 23
sistent devotion to the doctrines and usages of Wesleyan Meth-
odism, he enjoyed the loyal affection of both the preachers and
laymen of his denomination throughout his neighborhood. His
good sense, genial piety, and generous hospitality made his
house a centre of Methodist influence. In politics he sympa-
thized with the more advanced men and measures of his times.
It is evident, however, that the mother, from the brief descrip-
tion already given, was the inspiration of the Cookman home.
Her ardent temperament, vivid imagination, active faith, and
courage, imparted to the sons the living spark which kindled in
them a genius for speech and for the heroic in action. She
was one of the women of gentle birth who became a Methodist
when it was a reproach to be one ; and, persecuted for her faith
by her own family, she knew what it was to hold to convictions
when it required the keenest suffering to do so. At the shrine
of her self-denying piety was lighted the flame of the future
missionary's zeal a zeal which burned in him resistlessly till
quenched in death. Thus we see that the parent stock from
which the Cookmans of this and a former generation were de-
rived was one combining in the father and the mother that hap-
py union of qualities which usually gives rise in the offspring to
distinguished powers and successes.
George Grimston, as the eldest born of his parents, very nat-
urally received a large share of their attention. In an account
of himself written in 1826, before entering the regular ministry,
with a view to his own improvement, he records, " Never was a
child more carefully instructed, more carefully watched over, or
more earnestly exhorted by Christian parents to love and serve
God than myself. And perhaps up to my eighth year the in-
fluence of these gracious instructions so far operated as to pre-
serve me from the guilt of actual sin." At this time he was sent
away to school ; where, through evil associations, he was led
astray and fell into some sinful habits. He was, however, at
this early period the subject of keen convictions of conscience.
24 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
He lived with the fear that every night would be the end of the
world. While the other boys of the school were sleeping qui-
etly, he would be standing at the chamber window, " momenta-
rily expecting the Judge to descend and the trumpet to blow."
His views of sin and of personal guilt were not such as to lead
to repentance. He was soon after removed to another school
at a fashionable watering-place, where he began " a career of
more decided sin and folly." At fourteen he returned home a
different being, changed in principle and purpose far astray
from the simplicity with which at eight he had left the parental
roof. His father took him promptly under his care, and through
his guidance he imbibed a taste for books, and became a read-
er especially of history. He was put to business, kept dili-
gently at work, but was encouraged to read in all his leisure
hours. He became a member of a public library association,
and formed, with several other intelligent young men, a debating
club, thus finding in literary pursuits a wholesome diversion for
his active nature, and also a means of stimulating and train-
ing his intellect. In contact with Grecian and Roman charac-
ters and institutions, he acquired the v lofty notions of freedom
and the rights of man which marked his subsequent career.
Literature, though attractive, did not reform him ; business was
incapable of it : he gave the reins to passion, and plunged into
the stream of worldliness.
When about eighteen years old he became a teacher in a
Methodist Sunday-school. He was impelled by motives which
he could not regard as genuine : "I approved of the design the-
oretically ; besides, my parents being Methodists, I thought I
should assist in their Sabbath-school; but I had no more knowl-
edge or regard for the religious duty or responsibility of a teach-
er than the babe unborn." He was convicted of sin through
the questioning of his scholars as to the meaning of God's Word.
"I began seriously to think and reason about the matter in
. the following way : Why, I have come forward to instruct these
GEORGE G. COOKMAN'S RELIGIOUS AWAKENING. 25
children, and I am ignorant myself. I, who talk to them about
serving God, am serving the devil, and on the road to hell
yea, every boy in my class might turn round and say, ' Physi-
cian, heal thyself.' "
I can not give the story of his conversion more succinctly
than he has done it : " These goadings and lashings of a con-
demning conscience made me miserable, and compelled me to
a more close examination of my condition ; and soon I saw
that I was miserable and helpless, and blind and naked ; that I
stood obnoxious to God's holy law ; was under the Almighty's
curse, and each moment in danger of everlasting ruin. Still,
however, I was rather convicted in judgment than broken in
heart, and it is probable that these gracious impressions would
have been overwhelmed by the strong bias of my mind to evil
but the good Lord added one or two other circumstances to
aid and quicken the spiritual conviction. Just at that time I
was disappointed in a particular friendship, which sickened and
soured my mind to this world's enjoyments, and immediately
upon this, the dearest friend I had in the world, after an illness
of three days, died. This was the consummation of my mis-
ery ; it seemed the final blow. I was tired of life, yet afraid to
die ; I was indulging in the world, yet sick of its pleasures ;
amid society, I was solitary ; while within my own heart I car-
ried the alarm-bell of a guilty conscience in short, I hated
life, I hated myself, I was miserable; this misery was not re-
pentance ; it was misanthropy, not contrition. And, indeed, so
well convinced was I of this, that when the pious Methodists
kindly invited me to partake of the blessings of Christian com-
munion, I told them that I was totally unfit to be a member of
their society, as I had not a desire to flee from the wrath to
come. I had no soft compunctions on account of sin, no reali-
zation of guilt toward God ; but the obdurate misery and wretch-
edness of a disappointed votary of pleasure. Thus I contin-
ued as miserable as I could be. Yet I did reform my outward
B
26 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
conduct ; I did forsake my gay and frivolous companions ; nay,
more, I acted diligently as secretary in a large Sabbath-school,
and endeavored, amid a multiplicity of business, to bury all
knowledge and memory of myself. But this arose not from any
clear sense of duty, or any love to God or men, but simply be-
cause I was sick and tired of the world ; and, as I could not
enjoy it, I forsook it. At length, however, the day-spring arose
in my benighted soul; the light of grace showed me more per-
spicuously my real condition. I saw that I had lost the image
of God bore the image of the Evil One ; that I was ignorant
in understanding, corrupt and deceitful in heart, polluted in body,
and desperately wicked in conduct. I saw that in my present
state it was impossible I could be saved, for ' without holiness
no man can see the Lord.' I saw clearly that I must be eter-
nally lost; for already I was under sentence of death, and God
was bound by his immutable word to punish all transgression.
" Under these gracious convictions, having fully resolved to
seek salvation, to renounce the world, and to serye God, I joined
the Methodist Society in February, 1820, and soon I found the
blessings of Christian fellowship. Under the fatherly instruc-
tion and care of my excellent leader, light beamed brighter
into my soul ; I was called to see deeper into my own deprav-
ity, and finally I clearly apprehended that salvation was only to
be obtained by faith in a crucified Redeemer. Nine months
did I seek the blessing of justification earnestly and with many
tears. Often in secret places, in garrets, in the open fields, or
under hedges, I have poured forth my requests with strong cries,
but still the day of liberty seemed at a distance, until I had
well-nigh despaired. One Saturday night I had retired to rest
under considerable condemnation for having indulged in an ac-
rimonious spirit toward a near relative. I recollect, before I
fell asleep, this passage gave me considerable trouble, ' Let not
the sun go down upon thy wrath.' I awoke (I believe by the
providence of God) about two o'clock in the morning, and my
CONVERSION AND RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY. 27
misery and horror of mind were indescribable. All the weight
of my sins seemed now bearing down upon my wretched soul,
and ready to force me down to that bottomless pit which ap-
peared just yawning ; in this situation I cried mightily to God
for deliverance and pardon, but the heavens were as brass to
my prayers, and the storm of Almighty wrath increased apace.
My agony of mind was now wrought up to its highest pitch,
when suddenly I caught a glimpse of Christ on Calvary; then I
cried with the desperation of a drowning man, ' Lord, I believe ;
help Thou my unbelief!' ' Lord, save or I perish !' ' Though
Thou slay me, yet will I believe in Thee ! ' And suddenly there
was a great calm the storm was hushed the burden was gone
and I felt that God, for Christ's sake, had forgiven me all
my sins. Being justified by faith, I had peace with God through
my Lord Jesus Christ. It is true I had not that rapturous joy
which some testify ; but I had the peace which passeth all un-
derstanding. Oh ! yes ; the Spirit did bear witness with my
spirit that I wjj-s a child of God. I lay me down, and sweetly
fell asleep ; and in the morning, when I awoke, I asked, Is this
a dream ? And I felt it was indeed a truth that I was justified
freely through the blood of Christ."
The young believer now found a great difference in his ex-
perience, not only in the comfort which arose from a sense of
acceptance with God, but also in the easy victory over sin which
his spiritual renewal had bestowed. Nor was he content to
rest in the experience of divine favor; he at once gave himself
to religious work in various plans of benevolence, such as the
Young Men's Visiting Society and the Juvenile Branch Mis-
sionary Society. Yearning for the salvation of souls, he began
very soon to feel the desire " for a broader field of labor as a
preacher of righteousness." His views of a call to the ministry
were so positive as not to allow him to go forward hurriedly.
"Indeed, so jealous was I of my own heart, and so severe in
my notions upon this subject, that I was resolved, if this call
28 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
was not unanswerably given from God to my soul, I would for-
ever remain silent."
In keeping with this purpose, not to run before he was called,
Mr. Cookman kept steadily on his way, following closely the in-
dications of Providence and of the Spirit as he could discern
them. In 1821 he visited America on business for his father;
and returning, was as deeply engrossed as any other young
man of business, doing with diligence the duty which lay next
to him. After a lapse of over two years I find him breathing
the same devout and evangelical spirit, with a persuasion that
God, amid severe trials and with great opportunities, was
grounding him in the truth, and conforming his heart more and
more to His own will. January 22, 1823, he writes: "I have
been composing the skeleton of my first sermon from i Cor.
ii., 2. Sunday fortnight I am to preach at St. Paul.* When I
consider my unworthiness, I am ready to sink into the dust.
Lord, prepare me." A week before preaching he asks, " Have I
a clear call to preach the Gospel ?" and upon examining himself
by five tests, concludes "that a dispensation of grace is commit-
ted to me, and woe be to me if I preach not the Gospel." In
addition to the usual tests which occurred to him, was the im-
pression received while in America, and while on shipboard,
that he must preach the Gospel, "and that too in America."
He had gone to America for secular ends, but God had already
decreed his return to America on a higher errand. His first pul-
pit efforts were well received. He preached quite regularly,
and showed from the first the elements of power. The mission-
ary ardor was kindling in his soul. His father proposed to es-
tablish him in business ; but he wished to cut loose from all
such entanglements, and enter himself forthwith at an Ameri-
can college for a course of preparation for the ministry. He
yielded, however, to the dissuasions of his father and friends,
who thought him already in the best possible school of prepa-
* Hull.
GEORGE G. COOKMAN BEGINS TO PREACH. 29
ration and in the path of duty. Without abandoning his purpose
to preach, he waited upon God, resolving to do his duty, and
leave consequences with God.
After a sermon preached at the Scott Street Chapel, he was
greatly depressed. "I had entered the pulpit with a com-
fortable assurance of the divine favor, when, strange to tell, all
upon a sudden my mind was beclouded; and, although I was
perfectly master of the subject, I was yet bound in spirit."
" I expected no one could profit ; but, to my amazement, almost
all expressed themselves as being much edified." He could
not fail of a valuable lesson from this experience. Within a
short time he made his first platform address, and achieved, in
this maiden effort, that marked success which, so often repeated
in after years, constituted him a prince among platform speak-
ers. "When I ascended the platform my soul seemed weighed
down with a sense of my unfitness. ' Oh ! my God,' I could
not help crying, ' why am I here ? These poor heathen never
trifled away privileges as I have done.' When my name was
called from the chair, I was in this low state. I thought at first
(owing to a violent hoarseness) that I should have to sit down,
but just at this instant divine light broke in upon my soul, my
voice cleared, my heart filled with holy love and fire, and I was
enabled to speak with a force unknown before. The place
was filled with the heavenly influence, and the loud, silvery, and
hearty amens were affecting and cheering. Nothing afflicted
me so much as the compliments of my friends. It seemed dis-
honoring God ; because I am convinced He gave the power and
sent the influence. The Lord shall have all the glory." It is
not difficult for those who subsequently heard Mr. Cookman in
this peculiar realm, at the zenith of his popularity, to imagine
the utter wonder and pleasure which this beginning of surprises
must have occasioned to those who were present.
The purpose of God with his young servant was now fast show-
ing itself. The apple was well-nigh ripe, when it either would
30 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
fall of itself or could be easily plucked. Mr. Joshua Marsden
strongly recommended him to offer himself to the American
(Methodist) bishops, to take a circuit in the first instance ; aft-
erwards, if Providence opened the way, he could enter upon the
missionary work. But he had engaged in business with his fa-
ther for the term of three years, after which time he proposed
to turn his attention more decidedly to the ministry, with the
intention of going to America. His diary bears evidence at
this period of the closest heart searchings; of the deepest and
the most unaffected devotion to the service of Christ. The
prayer is constantly on his lips, "What wilt Thou have me
do?" There is no duty which he does not discharge, no self-
sacrifice from which he shrinks : he is ready to do any work, to
go, if need be, to the ends of the earth to preach the Gospel.
While his mind was particularly exercised in regard to an im-
mediate entrance upon the ministry, he was appointed to drive
Mr.Clough (one of the circuit preachers of Hull) to Partington.
Mr. Clough impressed upon him the duty of present action, if
he would not grieve the Holy Spirit ; another young friend, and
to his surprise the Rev. Mr. W. EntwiStle, on whom he shortly
after called, expressed the same view. Considerably agitated
by such a concurrence of opinions, he laid the whole matter be-
fore his father, fully anticipating his decided negative for the
present, when, to his great surprise, his father frankly told him
that he had long been of the opinion that he was called to the
ministry; and that, although his immediate departure might
cause inconvenience, yet he would not throw one stumbling-
block in his way, but rather further the ordinations of Providence
by ever)' prudent arrangement. As might have been anticipated,
his mother fully coincided with this judgment, and "was perfect-
ly willing to give him up to the Lord." Thus every obstacle to
his full devotion to the ministry, and to his going to America as
the field of its exercise, was removed, and his decision was ac-
cordingly made to emigrate at the earliest opportunity.
GEORGE G. COOKMAN SAILS FOR AMERICA. 31
Happy in the decision which freed him from suspense, and
introduced him into the definite course of his life, he was all
aflame with zeal for the work which lay before him. "My peace
flows as a river, and my heart exults to reflect that in a_few
months I may be permitted to preach Christ crucified to the
poor blacks of Maryland." He could find no figures so ade-
quate to express his ardor as that of the racer restless for the
course, or the soldier in the battle eager for the conflict. This
ardor, while it may not have been wholly void of the adventur-
ous element which springs from the prospect of strange and
hazardous enterprise, was nourished by the closest contact with
the great heart of the Redeemer, and in the one simple pur-
pose to save perishing men. He breathed constantly for en-
tire deadness to the world and the spirit of true holiness, evi-
dently regarding his mission as one of utter self-renunciation
in the pursuit of the divine glory. "Although privations and
persecutions or shipwreck may await me, I feel strong in the
Lord, determined to obey His will at all hazards." Such a young
man was fit to follow a Coke, an Asbury, and even a Paul, over
the sea in the sublime work of bringing continents to God.
" I must be a man of one work dead to the world, and alive
to Christ."
The 28th of March, 1825, was finally definitely fixed upon as
the day of departure for America. The last days and hours
were spent in preaching, visits, farewells, and preparations. The
little brig Orient weighed anchor at the time appointed, and
bore away westward with her devout and expectant passenger.
The long voyage was not idle or irksome ; the whole of its time
was diligently consumed in close study and multifarious read-
ing; in meditating and maturing plans of usefulness. He thor-
oughly digested such works as Bishop Watson's Apologies,
Mason on Self-Knowledge, Jenyn's Views of the Internal Evi-
dences of Christianity, Lord Lyttleton's Arguments for Chris-
tianity, Baxter's Gildas Salvianus and Saint's Rest, and Butler's
32 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
Analogy. He preached to the seamen as occasion offered, dis-
tributed tracts, and otherwise labored among them. What is
most striking, however, was the constancy of his devotions, and
the watchfulness he exercised over his own spirit. " I have
been reflecting upon Baxter's warning of settling any where
short of heaven, or reposing our souls to rest on any thing be-
low God. Ah ! how little do I think of this. This deceit-
ful heart would fain set up its rest not, indeed, in riches, hon-
ors, etc., but in creature love, a Gospel Church, gracious ordi-
nances. This will not do. They are the means, not the rest
itself. This is the ingenious device of Satan, by which we are
seduced into a species of spiritual idolatry. Strive, O my soul,
to consider thyself as a pilgrim in this wilderness, and rest in
naught but God !"
Just before landing, retarded by calms, he took advantage of
the smooth sea and quiet waiting to re-examine the motives
which led him to America. "This is no womanish employ;
this ministerial work is no fine theory of fancy. It requires all
the firmness, courage, perseverance, zeal, faith of the veteran
soldier. Therefore, I must fix my principles, and draw them
from the fountain of all wisdom. I bless God my soul can
calmly rejoice in the prospect, and yield all up to the will and
direction of God." " Now, then, in the strength of the Lord, I
will go forth to the Lord's work in this my adopted country."
Would that more young men entering upon the divine apostle-
ship could have an "Arabia" of three or more months, or even
years, on shipboard or elsewhere such as he had !
On Sunday, May 16, 1825, the Orient sailed up the Delaware
Bay and River. Mr. Cookman was sorry to fall short of reach-
ing Philadelphia in time for the services of the sanctuary; but
he had so drilled himself to make the best of circumstances,
that he found compensation in secret communion with God and
in thoughts of friends afar. He wrote to a friend : " This voy-
age has been profitable, both in an intellectual and spiritual
HIS ARRIVAL AT PHILADELPHIA. 33
point of view. I have been grounding myself in the grand
principles of the Gospel. * * * I have preached several times
to this most wicked crew, and I have been blessed to the
captain's good, who is resolved to turn over a new leaf. Pa-
tience has had its perfect work. * * * I have found it good
to lay my will at the Redeemer's feet. * * * I have had pain-
ful views of the depravity of this corrupt heart, and this has
stimulated me particularly to plead for the whole image and
purity of Christ, so that the fire of divine love might devour
all the grossness of sense and sin. * * * Here then we are
on the Delaware. I regret that I can not assemble the crew
and passengers for public worship, as the pilot keeps all the
former in working the vessel up the river. I felt melancholy
this morning in looking on shore and beholding nature in all
its bloom, the sun careering in the firmament, and then think-
ing, 'Ah ! the people of God are now repairing to His holy tem-
ple to worship at His feet.' Nevertheless, I retired to my little
cabin, and the Lord visited the temple of my heart, and spoke
graciously and comfortably to His poor servant. I have re-
newed my missionary covenant. I am the Lord's : the same
great principles which called me forth remain with augmented
force ; I go wherever He commands."
B 2
CHAPTER II.
THE REV. GEORGE G. COOKMAN IN AMERICA. THE BIRTH OF
ALFRED.
MR. COOKMAN was cordially received by the Methodists of
Philadelphia, among whom he lived and labored as a local
preacher, in connection with St. George's Church, until the fol-
lowing spring. He was incessant in labors, not only in preach-
ing as opportunity offered, but visiting the sick, the prisons, and
hospitals. He also organized a class of young persons, which
included among its members John McClintock, Charles Whit-
acre, and William and Leonard Gilder, all of whom subsequent-
ly became ministers of the Gospel. During a protracted sick-
ness of Mr. William Barnes, the preacher in charge, he supplied
the pulpit of St. George's.
At the session of the Philadelphia Conference of the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church in 1826, he was appointed to Kensing-
ton and St. John's churches, Philadelphia. Falling thus softly
into the regular ministry did not suit either the design or the
wishes of the young hero, whose soul was burning for its mis-
sion to the Africans. He had left England to convert the ne-
groes, and it was not to his mind to become a pastor amid the
ease and refinements of civilized life. He was patient, however,
and sought constantly, in the utmost self-denial, the guidance
of God's Spirit and of His Church. On his twenty-sixth birth-
day he expressed himself thus: "It was the voice of the Spirit
which first called my attention to Africa. I have from a child
commiserated the injured negro ; and for years prior to this
my missionary feelings sympathized with them in common with
the heathen world. Under the workings of the Spirit on this
MISSION TO AFRICA. 35
subject, I came to the conclusion to offer myself as a mission-
ary to the African colony at Mesurado. The conviction I
strove against for some time, until the conflict became over-
whelmingly painful and distressing. In this situation I called
upon Mr. Bacon, one of the first agents to the colony, who in-
formed me that there was a loud call for a Methodist mission-
ary, and that the field was white unto the harvest. After sol-
emn prayer to God, I believed, according to the light given, it
was my duty to go to Bishop George, and lay the matter before
him, state my convictions, views, and feelings. When this res-
olution was once formed, I felt instant inward peace. I went
to New York and had an interview with Bishop George, when
he stated that he had often wished we had an African mission-
ary, and approved of the design ; at the same time, he advised
me to take no definitive step until the close of the year. * * *
Upon a fair statement of the case, it appears my way is not
clearly opened to the African field. And as the practical de-
cision is connected with such deep responsibility, it would not
be advisable to move until the way be very clear. Bishop
George thinks it appears probable that in the ensuing Confer-
ence year a very extensive field of missionary labor may be
opened among the blacks on this side of the water, more so
than could possibly be obtained in Africa. The agent is clear-
ly of the opinion that a white missionary can benefit the gen-
eral cause most efficiently by his labors here at least for the
present. I feel my mind much at rest ; I have done all that
appeared to be my duty; I have endeavored to follow the lead-
ings of Providence, for I have good cause to watch over and
be jealous of my own spirit. If no other result flow from this
than bringing my views before the mind of the bishop, perhaps
a point of no inconsiderable importance is gained to the great
cause. The heart of the benevolent old man seems warmed
with love divine to the poor Africans." Immediately in this
connection, he adds, " I had a good day, particularly in bear-
36 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
ing a decided testimony for the glorious doctrine of Christian
perfection. Oh ! my God, hasten the period when sin shall ex-
pire and grace shall reign. In visiting the sick, I have found
assistance and power, but yet the habit of my mind is not suf-
ficiently spiritual. Let me plead and strive for a pure inten-
tion, a sanctified affection, and a holy walk. O Lord, help me
to remember that for myself, as a follower of Christ, as well
as a messenger of God, I must answer."
The persistence with which Mr. Cookman adhered to the
original purpose he had in coming to America is truly admira-
ble, as not only showing the depth of the conviction, but also
the integrity of his heart and the force of his will. His preach-
ing and speaking in Philadelphia had produced a strong im-
pression, and his fame as an orator began already to be ac-
knowledged. His ministrations were universally acceptable,
and very much sought. There was a demand in the churches
for eloquent preachers; and the brilliant career of Summer-
field had prepared the people to appreciate thoroughly a young
Englishman who promised in any degree to take the place of
that seraphic man. It must have required in Cookman just
such close heart searchings and earnest prayers as his memo-
randa reveal to keep him firm to Africa. It is not without sig-
nificance that he yearned for deadness to the world and for
increased spirituality. The record in regard to Christian per-
fection in this relation is truly valuable, as showing its vital re-
lation to missionary work, and equally so as exhibiting in the
father thus early in his ministry the fast hold he had taken of
that doctrine of Methodism which was subsequently to become
the distinguishing feature of the life and ministry of his son.
While actively devoting himself to regular ministerial duty,
Mr. Cookman's efforts in the direction of Africa were not relin-
quished. " Some time ago I made an offer of myself to the
Colonization Society to go out to Liberia as a Methodist mis-
sionary at my own expense. I am sorry to find that an extract
DEFEATED IN GOING TO AFRICA. 37
from my letter has been published in several of the papers, in-
asmuch as I could have wished to go about the matter without
noise and pomp of observation. * * * I feel resigned to do or
to suffer what the Lord may appoint if He say go, I am
ready ; if He say remain, I will remain and be submissive. I
feel the kindlings of God's love, and am looking for a deeper
and a holier baptism."
His cherished desire, however, was doomed to disappoint-
ment. God had other work for him to do. As the sequel
proved, instead of going as a missionary to convert the heathen
possibly to leave his bones after a few months on the sands
of Africa he was, by his advanced ideas and persuasive elo-
quence, to plant the seeds of missionary labors which were des-
tined to spring up in ever-widening harvests to the end of time.
Methodist missions were just then starting, and they needed
in their first feeble beginnings such a heroic, fiery advocate as
this brilliant and devout young man. He was not to be a
missionary, as he earnestly and sincerely intended, pure and
simple ; but he was to be a creator of missionaries, who, in un-
broken succession, should go from the American continent to
all parts of the world. He was here, too, to found a family
which was subsequently to be identified in all movements adapt-
ed to advance the salvation of the race ; and, in the apostolic
zeal of noble sons, was to project his influence into the far-
reaching future of his adopted country. The Almighty con-
cealed from His servant at the time His full design, as he had
done from many of His chosen ones before; but go to Africa he
could not. His way was blocked. As was natural, the defeat
of a purpose so long fixed upon, and which had wrought in
him as an all-absorbing and assimilating force, could not but
cause a painful disappointment. He did not hesitate to own it.
On November 6th he wrote: "Abraham went forth at the
command of Jehovah, ' not knowing whither he went,' and Lu-
ther, Wesley, Coke, Asbtiry, were first thrust out, and led along
38 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
by a path which they could not have imagined. Had it, for in-
stance, been told Wesley when he was in Oxford at my age, that
he should be the head of a large body of Christians ; that he
should approve and employ lay preachers, and stand up in the
market-places and preach the Gospel without book, he would
have thought the teller mad. And it has appeared to me, after
impartial investigation of Church history, that the real, extensive
revivals of vital godliness in every age have not been by pre-
concerted design on the part of the instruments, but by a se-
ries of causes unsuspected and uncontrolled by human agency,
but directed by Him who has ascended on high and received
gifts for men. It is a series of reflections like these which rec-
oncile me to my present situation and circumstances. I had
certainly resolved to go to Africa, so far as any volition of the
human will can decide upon any question ; and I confess with
shame that when, from the statement of the agent of the Col-
onization Society and the advice of Bishop George, my way
seemed blocked up, my heart rose in rebellion, as though the
great purpose of my soul was frustrated. But the great ques-
tion now" is, Was the purpose of the Lord frustrated ? Is it not
rather in progress of fulfillment ? For if one part of our pur-
pose be the preparation of instruments, then such a disappoint-
ment to my proud self-will may be the best preparation in con-
vincing me of my imperfect judgment and frailty of purpose."
With such reflections as these, Mr. Cookman reconciled him-
self to what was now evidently the final subversion of his early
plan, and his permanent settlement in America as an itiner-
ant Methodist preacher. With a jealous watchfulness over his
heart, he did not fail to see in the thwarting of his scheme the
deep need he had of thorough proving in his religious expe-
rience, and of much correction in his natural tendencies. He
knew himself too well not to know that impulsiveness was a de-
fect in his character. "The thought and the action are with
me nearly synonymous, and when a thing is designed, my bones
MR. COOKMAN'S MARRIAGE. 39
ache within me and my flesh cries out till it is done. I am
aware this is a defect, leading me to speak too fast and to act
too fast. It was this very thing which plunged Dr. Coke into
so many perplexities, and gave Wesley such an advantage over
him as a character. I always need a sober counselor at my
elbow to talk the matter twice over."
Thus did he carefully guard himself, seeing in his worst dis-
appointments the providential means of perfecting his graces,
and using the things which he suffered as the things he most
needed. Whether justly or not, it is common for God's most
conscientious servants to think they discern weakness where
often lies their greatest strength. It was the ardent tempera-
ment inherited from the mother which was the real spring of
Mr. Cookman's mental power ; nor would it have done too far
to restrain it. Ordinarily, the great instruments of Providence
have rough and sharp points, and are not toned down to ex-
ceeding smoothness.
In February, 1827, Mr. Cookman returned to England on a
brief visit. He was married to Miss Mary Barton, Doncaster,
Yorkshire, on the zd of April, 1827, and immediately left with
his bride for America. Miss Barton was a young lady of excel-
lent family, of superior personal endowments, and of exemplary
piety. In marrying Mr. Cookman, she not only wedded him as
her husband, but also as God's minister, and devoted herself,
with the utmost simplicity and in entire sympathy with him, to
the work which absorbed his soul and was to employ his life.
The comforts and luxuries of an affluent English home were
abandoned with the pure intent of becoming a true helpmeet to
the man of her heart, the accredited ambassador of Christ in
bringing the world a conquest to redeeming love. Mrs. Cook-
man still lives at an advanced age, a witness to the power of
the same self-sacrificing zeal with which she originally left her
father's house.
In the spring of 1827 Mr. Cookman was appointed to the
40 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
Lancaster Circuit. This charge embraced Lancaster, Columbia,
and Reading, three of the most important towns in Pennsylva-
nia. It was a large and laborious charge, being what was called
a six weeks' circuit, in the arrangement of which he preached at
each church in the circuit but once in six weeks. His resi-
dence was at Columbia, situated on the Susquehanna River.
Here Alfred was born, January 4, 1828. He was physically
a healthful and remarkably well-proportioned child. The moth-
er, as she clasped her first-born to her heart, felt mingling with
her maternal and wifely joy a sense of disappointment in the
probable curtailment of her active participation in the pastoral
work of her husband, and further postponing, if not entirely de-
feating, the missionary purpose which still possessed both hus-
band and wife. She had come to America with great designs
in her soul ; and now that the mission of a mother opened dis-
tinctly before her, the enthusiasm of her spirit was not a little
sobered. Tending a babe in the narrow confines of the nursery,
did not quite comport with that brilliant apostolic career which
she had marked out for herself as the companion of a Christian
missionary. But God gave her a happy thought. " Alfred was
to be her Solomon to build the temple which she in becoming
a mother could not rear." She was reconciled to her calling,
and henceforth gave herself to the training of this son as the
main work of her life. With the persuasion that he was given
to her of God, she consecrated him from birth to the sacred
ministry, to be a builder of God's Temple. All her thoughts,
feelings, and plans for the child grouped about this central idea,
and the idea in turn stamped its character and complexion on
all she did.
There were two classes of women whom the Romans loved
to honor the few virgins who devoted themselves in perpetual
virginity to keeping alive the vestal fires, and the mothers of
heroes. Mrs. Cookman accepted the traditional Anglo-Saxon
doctrine that there is, strictly speaking, no higher mission for
MR. COOKMAN'S POPULARITY. ALFRED. 41
woman than the function of a matron. She had talents and
graces which would have made her useful and famous in any
sphere; but she saw with womanly instinct and true maternal
feeling that her greatest usefulness and utmost fame as far as
she could consider fame would be found in losing herself in
her son, in spending her time and energies upon him, in fash-
ioning the man who was to- stand a man among men. Surely
to train men to offer to sons the care, instruction, and sympa-
thy which they need, and to maintain over them a controlling
influence through the successive periods of their development
is the worthiest ambition which can fill a woman's heart. Such
was Mrs. Cookman's ambition. The sequel confirms the wis-
dom of her choice. She was a true companion of her husband,
and as far as practicable aided him not only by her affectionate
sympathies and judicious counsels in his ministry, but also did
all she could privately and publicly, as a godly lady, to pro-
mote the work of religion ; but pre-eminently her realm was her
house, and her work rather to form preachers than to preach.
Mr. Cookman's duties on his circuit kept him much from home,
and threw the young wife and mother upon her own resources.
This could not be otherwise than a trial to her refined nature,
but she found comfort in the companionship of her child, and in
the constantly augmenting success and fame of her husband.
He was universally popular. At Reading, where there was
then no Methodist church, he preached in the court-house to
crowds, in which were to be regularly seen the foremost lawyers
and men of business in the town.
I give here an extract from a letter received about this time
from the father of Mr. Cookman, in which touching reference is
made to the two Alfreds:
"HULL, February 11, 1828.
"DEAR GEORGE AND MARY, Our last letters sent by vessel-from this
port would bring the mournful intelligence of the loss of our dearest Alfred,
with many particulars respecting his last moments and his tranquil exit.
These events, when brought back to our recollection, form new associations
42 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
and open afresh the wounds in our bleeding hearts. We trust, however, you
will be supported by the good hand of God under this irreparable loss, by
the full assurance that now he is released from all his suffering, and his
happy spirit is admitted into the presence of his Redeemer, and is associated
with the spirits of just men made perfect. This assurance should moderate
our sorrows ; and, though we can not but feel as his near relatives, our
Christian principles should check an excess of suffering, because we are as-
sured it was the good pleasure of God to take him from us, and he is much
happier, better provided for, and taken greater care of now by his Heavenly
Father than he possibly could have been by us. * * *
" On the receipt of your last, bearing date the 7th of January, our feelings
were deeply interested in receiving the pleasing intelligence of the birth of
your son, and we were delighted to find the name of Alfred should not become
extinct in our family. May he exhibit a large share of his uncle's intellectual
and moral character, and may his mental powers in due time become as
vigorous and his person as likely to be robust. * * * May you receive him
as the gift of God, and while you gratefully acknowledge His supporting and
sustaining hand, may you and the child be entirely consecrated to Him."
Was ever prayer more prediction ? The desire of the grand-
father for his second Alfred was entirely fulfilled, and in noth-
ing more than his entire consecration to God. Who can com-
pute the value to children of the faith of such parents and
grandparents a faith which connects them in their very in-
fancy with the covenant that engages God to bestow, special
blessings upon the children of His people?
In the spring of 1828, Mr. Cookman was stationed at New
Brunswick, N.J., which was then comprised, with all the State
of New Jersey, in the Philadelphia Conference. While station-
ed here he made one of his earliest platform addresses, which
immediately established his reputation with the community out-
side of his own denomination as a first-class orator. A corre-
spondent of the New York Observer, who was present on the oc-
casion, wrote of that speech subsequent to Mr. Cookman 's
death: "None who were present will forget the powerful im-
pression made by him at a meeting of the Young Men's Bible
Society, in New Brunswick, N. J., in the year 1828, when a
BIBLE SPEECH AT NEW BRUNSWICK. 43
Methodist preacher of small stature, almost unknown in the
community, having been invited for denomination's sake to
speak on the occasion, arose and electrified the audience with
an address that suddenly bore away the palm from all competi-
tors. It reminded one of the brilliant debut of Summerfield at
the anniversary of the American Bible Society in New York.
None could appreciate the force of that speech who was unac-
quainted with the charm of the speaker's manner. Besides the
simplicity, vivacity, and variety of the address, there was an ap-
propriateness, both in point of time and place, that secured the
undissembled admiration of his enlightened audience.
" His subject was Christian union combined with denomina-
tional action. His mind, rich in bold and natural metaphors,
drew a sketch more impressive than the most profound and
elaborate argumentation could be, especially when addressed to
a popular assembly of various creeds. He undertook to mar-
shal the spiritual army. He considered the Methodists as the
mounted volunteers, hovering on the frontiers ; the Presbyteri-
ans, 'who love an open field,' as the infantry, occupying the
centre in solid columns, and presenting to the enemy a series of
impregnable squares ; he stationed the Baptists along the rivers
and lakes, to win laurels in their peculiar warfare ; and Episco-
palians were to man the garrisons, inspect the magazines, and
direct the batteries. ' But who shall be our artillery men ? I
propose, sir,' said Mr. Cookman, ' that we commit this very im-
portant department to our brethren of the Dutch Reformed
Church ; and, sir, may they acquit themselves with a valor
worthy of their ancestors when the proud flag of De Witt swept
the sea and the thunder of Van Tromp shook the ocean !' He
then warned them of a spy in the camp, 'old and gray in iniq-
uity, toothless, crooked, and unsavory ;' and proceeded to draw a
most graphic picture of Bigotry. He hoped that if the Method-
ist cavalry caught sight of him they would ride him down ; that
the Presbyterians would bayonet him ; the Baptists drown him ;
44 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
the Episcopalians, if he approached their garrison, open a
double-flanked battery upon him, and the Dutch Reformed
greet him with a round of artillery. ' Let him,' said he, ' die
the death of a spy, without military honors, and, after he has
been gibbeted for a season, let his body be given to the
Quakers, and let them bury him deep and in silence. May
God grant his miserable ghost may never revisit this world of
trouble !' "
It is easy to imagine, as this brief sketch is read, the well-
nigh overwhelming effect which this speech from a comparative
stranger and a rather unpromising young man must have had
upon the audience. Such a picture was a creation worthy the
genius of a Bunyan. The ability to sustain a series of compari-
sons at such length, reaching the requirements of allegory, with
so much of genuine truthfulness and humor, showed in the
young preacher a high artistic power.
In 1829 Mr. Cookman was appointed to Talbot Circuit, Tal-
bot County, Maryland. He had dreamed over in England of
one day preaching the Gospel to the blacks of Maryland, and
now his opportunity had come. By Ibng brooding over the suf-
ferings of the poor negroes, he had transferred their chains
to himself, and he longed to be among them and to do what
he could to ameliorate their condition. His circuit extended
through the whole county, and included both the white and
colored population adhering to the Methodist Episcopal Church.
He was cordially received by the warm hearted Southerners,
among whom he found many English traits which did not fail
to make him feel at home, and did much to relieve the pain
which the presence of slavery caused him. Mr. Cookman never
found closer friends than among the devout people of this
section. Methodism had taken early and strong hold upon the
community, and embraced, with slight exceptions, the staple in-
telligence and enterprise of the whole region ; the people lived
in simple affluence, and were ever ready to lavish upon their
TESTIMONY OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS. 45
preacher all the choicest gifts of air, land, and water. They re-
ceived Mr. Cookman, his wife and children for by this time
Alfred had a brother with the warmest hospitality. One gen-
tleman, Mr. Samuel Harrison, who owned a large plantation
stretching in a narrow neck out into the Chesapeake Bay, took
them to his own house. The minister's coming to each suc-
cessive appointment every four weeks was an ovation the
whole country, whites and blacks alike, turned out to hear him.
And it was not because the people had not been used hitherto
to good preaching they had had it from the beginning of their
religious history ; they therefore knew how to appreciate it in
Mr. Cookman.
The celebrated colored orator, Frederick Douglass, in his
book entitled " My Bondage and my Freedom," p. 198, tells us
that the Rev. George Cookman took an interest in the tempo-
ral and spiritual welfare of the slaves. He writes: "Our souls
and our bodies were alike sacred in his sight ; and he really
had a good deal of genuine anti-slavery feeling mingled with
his colonization ideas. There was not a slave in our neighbor-
hood that did not love and venerate Mr. Cookman. It was
pretty generally believed that he had been chiefly instrumental
in bringing one of the largest slaveholders Mr. Samuel Har-
rison to emancipate all his slaves ; and, indeed, the general
impression was that Mr. Cookman had labored faithfully with
slaveholders, whenever he met them, to induce them to emanci-
pate their bondmen, and that he did this as a religious duty.
When this good man was at our house, we were all sure to be
called in to prayers in the morning; and he was not slow in
making inquiries as to the state of our minds, nor in giving us
a word of exhortation and encouragement. Great was the sor-
row of all the slaves when this faithful preacher of the Gospel
was removed from the circuit."
Mr. Cookman's custom was to hold special services apart for
the colored people, to which they flocked in great numbers.
46 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
He was regarded with increasing favor both by masters and
servants.
But what, meanwhile, is our little Alfred doing ? Playing oft-
en, no doubt as many others before and since who became
good and great have done with the little negroes near the
" quarters," or in front of the " big house," or on the sandy
beach, or chasing butterflies over the fields, or possibly at "hold-
ing meeting." His mother says of him at this very early age :
" The tone of his mind had always a religious tendency, and
before he was four years of age he imitated all the services of
the Church. He would sometimes collect a crowd of colored
children around him, and in his childish way preach to them
about the necessity of being good, and then they would go to
heaven and live with Jesus; but if they were bad boys and
girls they would go to hell, and be burnt in a great hot fire.
His father traveled a circuit on the eastern shore of Maryland
about this time, which brought Alfred in contact with number-
less opportunities to show the bias of his mind. He would ask
for a bowl of water, and request the servants of the family to
come and be baptized. Many of thm would come and .kneel
down as devoutly as though they felt the reality of the ordi-
nance ; and he, taking the water in his hand, would say, ' Bob
Trot, I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost. God bless you, and make you a good
man.' Then Bob and others who went through the same proc-
ess would rise up from their knees and go forth as though
they had performed a religious duty. So Alfred would go
through with all the services of the sanctuary in his boyish way
with as much gravity and decorum as though he were already
ordained, or set aside for this special work directing men and
women to be good and do good."
It is not uncommon for boys, who never become preachers
or much of any thing for children are busy little artists, paint-
ing with the brush of sympathy on the canvas of their souls
EARLY TRAITS AND NURTURE. 47
the real life which passes before them to do just what Alfred
did ; and yet there is that in the ways of every child which
shows the natural bent, and to some degree forecasts the after
life. Goethe's painful sensitiveness to the presence of ugliness
or deformity while quite a baby was indicative of that fine, del-
icate organization which is the constitutional basis of the poet.
His mother had the eye to see it, and with skillful hand she
guided the divine instinct by bringing to its nurture agreeable
objects, and gently inciting it with narratives of the wondrous
and beautiful ; otherwise Germany had not had her greatest
poet, nor the world one of its greatest educators. To every
mother her child has an individuality, and she can discern in it
the hidden germ which in the flower is to render its maturity
distinct and beautiful. The difference in mothers is the power
properly to direct this original faculty. Fewer children would
perish in the promise if there were more mothers who knew
how to cherish and train the natural and gracious endowment.
Mrs. Cookman had one desire for her boy, and she sedulously
watched every hint in his childhood which pointed in the di-
rection of its fulfillment. She hailed every such indication as
a precursor of his future, since it had been impressed on her
mind from his birth that he was to do the work that was in
her heart to do for the Lord. But she was a wise mother,
looking for results, however good and desirable, to follow only
upon the use of the proper means. She did not expect devout
wishes and devout prayers to mould the character of Alfred
without corresponding effort to rear him aright. Great and
good men do not grow, like the rank weeds, untended, but, like
the lovely and fragrant flowers, by culture. Here's a memo-
randum from the mother on this point: "Alfred was very cor-
rect in all his deportment, obedient to his parents, very truth-
ful, and conscientious. He was, of course, watched over with
more than ordinary care. Parental vigilance was ever on the
alert to detect and correct any thing that might mar the little
48 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
tender plant." Yet there was not excess of training, nor mor-
bid stimulating. "His father early impressed him with the idea,
'Play when you play, and work when you work.' "
It was hardly to be expected that the social scenes by which
this child was surrounded at that period could permanently af-
fect his disposition ; yet he ever after loved this country and
its people, and to this day there is no name fuller of sweet
odor in the whole region than that of Alfred Cookman. It is
well known, too, that he cherished throughout life a great love
for the black race. He had romped, wept, and laughed nay,
even prayed, with the colored boys ; and a common feeling, so
self-asserting in children, had taught him in the simple and in-
nocent sports of childhood the great truth of the oneness of
humanity. In the very lap of the warm, unselfish nursing of
which the 'negro woman is capable, associated with the strange
and weird stories, and the low, soft melodies, the earnest and
implicit trustfulness with which she mingles all her work, he re-
ceived impressions at this susceptible age which ever endeared
the colored people to him.
CHAPTER III.
THE GROWING FAME OF REV. GEORGE G. COOKMAN. THE
CHILDHOOD OF ALFRED.
How far Mr. Cookman felt himself successful in his mission
to the colored people does not appear. He found obstacles in
promoting their liberation. He was useful to them, as he was
also to the white population ; but his talents were soon in de-
mand in the great city, and he was accordingly at his next ap-
pointment assigned to St. George's, Philadelphia. It showed
the confidence of the bishop, and of the people of St. George's,
that he was sent so soon to the charge where on his first ar-
rival he had joined and labored as a local preacher. On the
removal of the family to the city, Alfred, with his brother
George, was placed at school under the care of Miss Ann
Thomas, a member of the Society of Friends, who was quite
celebrated for her skill in teaching. He remained two years
under her care, and made rapid progress in the elementary
branches of education. She took very special interest both
in him and his little brother, and expressed great sorrow when
they left her. In a note to the mother she wrote : " I give
my testimony respecting thy dear boys that I have enjoyed
great consolation in their company. While endeavoring to in-
form their little minds, and give them a knowledge of litera-
ture, they have been obedient and attentive, very innocent, and
strict to truth, and in almost every thing what my heart could
wish. Tell them to remember Miss Ann, who dearly loves
them, and wishes them everlasting happiness."
I presume Alfred, at the age of five to seven, did not get
very deep into what his loving teacher calls " literature." His
C
50 LIFE OF ALFRED CQOKMAN.
instruction in the rudiments of knowledge was probably thor-
ough, and imparted with the exactness and kindliness for which
the Friends are remarkable. This godly lady's spirit undoubt-
edly affected him as much as the lessons she taught, and may
in some measure account for the great favor in which he al-
ways held her people a favor which was as warmly recipro-
cated by them.
Subsequently to the two years at St. George's, Philadelphia,
Mr. Cookman spent one year at Newark, N. J. His reputation
had reached Baltimore, Md., then and now a stronghold of
Methodism in America. The intercourse of the citizens of the
eastern shore of Maryland with their commercial metropolis
could not fail to bring to the attention of the leading Method-
ists of the city the brilliant talents of the preacher. Mr. Cook-
man had himself visited Baltimore, and preached in its church-
es. There arose an urgent demand for his services, and he
was accordingly transferred to the Baltimore Conference in the
spring of 1834, and appointed to the city station, which then
included all the Methodist Episcopal churches of the city ex-
cept those on Fell's Point. Mr. Cookman was associated with
Reverends William Hamilton, James Sewell, Thomas Thorn-
ton, and James H. Brown, and preached in rotation with them
on the circuit plan. His ministrations excited the utmost en-
thusiasm, and crowds filled the churches to hear him. His elo-
quent preaching and platform addresses, faithful pastoral la-
bors, devotion to Sunday-schools, and magical social powers
baptized as all his faculties and exercises were by the Holy
Ghost gave him a position which has seldom been equaled
and never excelled by any pastor in that city. His influence
helped to sustain the position Methodism had already acquired ;
and greatly assisted to push it forward to the pre-eminence
which it has ever since held. The Methodists of that day who
still survive scattered among the several churches never weary
of talking of his power, and remember and narrate with dis-
EARLY IMPRESSIONS. 51
tinctness, special passages in his sermons and speeches which
thrilled the congregations.
On one Sabbath evening, Mr. Cookman was preaching to a
dense audience at Light Street, and, as sometimes happened
with him, and happens to all men, however able, if they are ex-
temporaneous speakers, he had no freedom in his sermon, and
evidently did not succeed as he wished ; but, with a fertility of
resource which seldom failed him, he began an exhortation as
he proceeded to the consciences of his hearers, which was so
effective for direct and fiery appeal as to subdue all hearts. A
prominent citizen, who had been attracted by his fame, but was
about to leave the house disappointed at his sermon, was so
wrought upon by the exhortation as to be awakened and con-
verted.
Among the vast multitudes who hung upon the eloquent lips
of Mr. Cookman at this time was a little boy of seven years of
age, not unknown to him. Alfred was no indifferent hearer to
such life-like expositions and delineations as the father gave
from Sunday to Sunday. The intelligence of the lad had suf-
ficiently dawned to appreciate a method of teaching which was
so well suited to awaken and chain the attention of the young.
His conscience was growing with his other faculties, and now
began to assert itself. The seeds of truth cast into the soil
of his heart were beginning to swell, though the full time for
them to burst into a definitive new life had not yet come. Re-
ferring to his early experience, he has himself recorded : " I
shall never cease to be grateful for the instruction and example
of a faithful father and an affectionate mother. At this mo-
ment I can not call up a period in my life, even in my earliest
childhood, when I had not the fear of God before my eyes.
When about seven years of age, I persuaded my parents to let
me attend a Watch-Night service. It was held in Old Exeter
Street Church, in the city of Baltimore. My father preached
on the second coming of Christ. Thinking that perhaps the
52 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
end of the world was just at hand, I realized for the first time
my unpreparedness for the trying scenes of ihe judgment, and
trembled in the prospect. I date my awakenings from that time."
With many of the families of his charge in Baltimore Mr.
Cookman formed close intimacies, and with none more so than
the family of the late Mr. Joshua Creamer. I extract the fol-
lowing incident, written by him in these happy days in the al-
bum of Mrs. Jane Creamer Taylor, then an unmarried daughter
at home. It is beautiful in itself, and indicative of the devout
and humble spirit which animated his ministry :
"It was on a fine Sabbath evening in the month of June, 1821, that three
youthful pilgrims visited the tomb of Wesley's father in Epworth church-
yard. They gathered from the overhanging beech-tree a little bark as a
memento of the past; and, while standing on that very tombstone from which
John Wesley had preached to listening thousands eighty years before, they
solemnly invoked a blessing from the God of the Church, and determined to
follow Wesley as he followed Christ. One of these youths is now a mission-
ary in Upper Canada, the second is a useful preacher of the Gospel in En-
gland, and the third the writer of this short article.
" ' Unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given,
that I should preach among the Gentiles the -unsearchable riches of Christ.'
" GEORGE G. COOKMAN.
"Baltimore, gth of February, 1835."
Another leaf from this album will appear in its place, illustra-
tive of the reverence and affection which was even then spring-
ing up in the son's heart for the father.
The time had now come when Alfred's academic training
was fairly to begin. Since leaving the charge of the gentle
Friend in Philadelphia, he had been mainly dependent upon
home instruction ; but now, in the providence of God, he was
to be placed in the most favorable circumstances for a boy's
education. Mr. Cookman, for reasons which were sufficient to
the authorities of the Church, was removed in 1836 from Bal-
timore City to the town of Carlisle, Pa. At first glance, such
an exercise of episcopal supervision might appear unaccounta-
REMOVAL TO CARLISLE. 53
ble certainly without justification. To remove a man so well
adapted to mould great masses from the centre of population
and power, when his usefulness was constantly augmenting, to
a quiet, rural town, where he could at most have only a limited
community to influence, might seem at once strange and un-
reasonable. But the highest wisdom teaches that influence is
not always to be measured by the number of minds which it
reaches, but by the quality of the minds, and the degree with
which it affects them. As in matter, so in mind, a given force
may effect greater results by being exerted on a small spot than
by being spread over a wide surface. It is one of the econo-
mies of Nature to gather up and concentrate her energies for
the production of her most remarkable works.
There was reason enough for Mr. Cookman's removal to Car-
lisle. The Methodists of the Baltimore and Philadelphia Confer-
ences had recently purchased from the Presbyterians Dickinson
College, located at that borough, and had made it their educa-
tional centre. Once more, from the despair which was engen-
dered by the ashes of Cokesbury and Light Lane, they had ris-
en in hope, with a determined effort to found for their region
an institution for the liberal training of young men. They had
looked abroad through the Church, and had concentrated upon
their new enterprise the best talents which Methodism could
then afford, and from the West, East, and their own borders,
had brought together Durbin, Caldwell, Emory, Allen, McClin-
tock, and Roszell, all young men, instinct with literary enthu-
siasm, with denominational and professional pride. The selec-
tion of Carlisle as a location for the school may have been a
mistake, but the choice of the Faculty was one of those rare suc-
cesses which can only be explained by a guiding spirit in the
Church. The Rev. J. P. Durbin had recently come from the
West, with a high reputation for pulpit ability and administra-
tive skill, and was put at the head of its management ; Pro-
fessor Merrit Caldwell, fresh from the walls of Bowdoin, brought
54 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
with him accurate scholarship and valued experience as a
teacher; Professor W. H. Allen, also from Bowdoin, united rare
physical and intellectual strength, which was disciplined and
enriched alike by manual and mental toil ; the youthful Pro-
fessor Robert Emory had carried off the prizes at Columbia,
New York City, and was probably one of the purest and most
thoroughly furnished young men of the land ; Professor John
McClintock graduated from the Pennsylvania University in his
teens, and was already regarded by all who knew him as a
prodigy for the grasp and versatility of his talents and the full-
ness of his attainments ; Mr. S. A. Roszell, from the halls of the
first Methodist College of the West, at Augusta, Ky., was of a
parent stock justly famed for its vigor, and possessed in his
own right a reputation for depth and finish of culture.
There was never a -happier combination in the grouping of
men, who were destined very speedily to crystallize into a har-
monious unity. They blended at once thinking, feeling, work-
ing freely, with the most implicit interchange of principle, plan,
and aim ; and their joint labors began to tell in the college
nnd at the remotest points of its patronizing territory. Meth-
odist youths from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and
Virginia, began to gather within its halls. These youths need-
ed not only literary instruction, but also the ablest moral and
spiritual care of which the Church was capable. The Confer-
ences and the Faculty pledged themselves to the parents that
the religion and morals of their sons should not- suffer while
under college oversight ; and hence it was deemed reasonable
that the ministry had no man whose powers were too great for
Carlisle, or whose eloquence and piety could be more usefully
employed than in inspiring and moulding young men for the
future of the Church and the nation.
Mr. Cookman was accordingly sent to take the charge of the
Church, composed of both town and college people. He was
still a young man, in all the glow of youthful zeal, in the full
SUCCESS IN CARLISLE. 55
force of rapidly culminating talents, and with all the earnest-
ness of an absorbing devotion to the single work of a Christian
pastor. His task as a preacher was a most difficult and deli-
cate one to stand before a congregation constituted as congre-
gations are in a college town. He must satisfy professors, en-
tertain students, and edify tradespeople. Could any position
require more genuine ability? There was Durbin before him
a natural Tecumseh in the pulpit, then in his prime, whose
words from the same desk were not seldom like alternate ice
and fire bolts crashing through the consciences of the hearers
there was Emory, exact, logical, and forcible and McClintock,
in the first flush of a round, graceful, and persuasive oratory.
There too were the fastidious, hypercritical collegians of all
classes, the hardest hearers ; and, not least, the matter-of-fact
outside business community ; but the pastor was master of the
situation, nothing appalled him ; his commission was from God,
and he faithfully fulfilled it. His influence over all classes was
unique and perfect. In the pulpit, the parlor, the prayer-meet-
ing, he was the acknowledged leader, and never was a ministry
under like circumstances more productive of good.' His tro-
phies for the Cross were gathered from all these circles ; young
men were then and there converted through his preaching who
have since become honored in all the walks of life.
But I must not forget our boy of nine summers, whose eyes
opened upon these scenes in which his worthy father was so
distinguished an actor. He also had come to college ; and he
equally, but in a different sense, was to be the companion of
these classic men and their surroundings. Under such circum-
stances, in this focus of knowledge and piety, an impulse was to
be imparted to him which was to determine his whole after-life.
I know of few spots upon which Alfred could have fallen at this
impressible age more suitable in all its adjuncts for his first
formal entrance into school. Of the people about him, to whose
constant association the office and personal worth of his father
56 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
would naturally introduce him, I have spoken ; but of the place
itself and its environs much can be said. Carlisle has but little
attractiveness in its immediate topography or in its artificial
structure a plain town, its only importance is as the civil and
natural centre of a thrifty agricultural county, without any ob-
jects of taste whatever ; the outlying country is very beautiful.
The Cumberland Valley, in which it lies, is broad and undula-
ting, abounding in springs and streams ; its soil rich and pro-
ductive, its whole bosom covered with fertile farms or luxuriant
forests ; while in the distance on either side the North and
South Mountains, spurs of the Alleghanies, rise into promi-
nence and sweep along in unbroken succession, save here and
there a gentle gap, and form, in their continuous, wavy outlines,
one of the most agreeable prospects which can be offered to the
eye. I doubt if old Carlisle, in England, after which it is named,
possesses a more charming situation.
It can not be supposed that this physical beauty was without
educational effect upon the ardent temperament of the boy, in-
clined as he was by his healthful nature to relish all sensuous
delights. Indeed, the assthetical sense born in him, and after-
ward so strongly marked in his intellectual development, and
the devout reverence for God in works of nature always so
prominent through his whole life, must have received from it an
exciting and durable effect. A lad so reflective as he is repre-
sented from the very dawn of thought could not have been
otherwise than most favorably influenced by habitual contact
with scenes so simple and pleasing.
" Not seldom from the uproar I retired
Into a silent bay, or sportively
Glanced sidcway, leaving the tumultuous throng,"
might doubtless be said of him at this as well as later periods
of his youth, and that not so much to elude his companions in
play, as to gain for himself the quiet communion for which his
thoughtful soul thirsted.
ALFRED'S FIRST LETTER. 57
But enough of my fancy and a little of fact from Alfred's own
hand. Fortunately one of his earliest letters has been pre-
served, and lies before me in his own handwriting. The com-
position must be regarded as creditable for a boy of ten years ;
not surprising, however, when the exercises he was then having
in school and the constant care his mother gave him are taken
into account. The penmanship already shows the indications
of the beautiful chirography for which his later manuscripts are
noted. It is to his grandfather, Cookman :
"CARLISLE, January 27, 1838.
"Mv DEAR GRANDFATHER, I have long been thinking that it was my
duty to write a letter to one for whom I desire to cherish the warmest affec-
tion, and to whom we are already under very great obligations. * * *
" First of all I must congratulate you on your very honorable election to
the high office of mayor to the important and flourishing town of Kingston-
upon-Hull. Although we boys are Americans and Republicans in our feel-
ings, yet we are not insensible to the honor attached to offices conferred by
the votes of the people. * * *
" I am very happy to say that dear mother's health continues very good.
Fortunately for her, the winter up to this time has been unusually mild ;
indeed, the last week has rather resembled the month of April than January,
so that she has been able to go out three or four times a week in the middle
of the day and see her friends. Indeed, ever since she was in Baltimore her
health has been gradually improving, and long may she live to be what she
has truly been, the best of mothers.
"About Christmas we had a slight fall of snow, which rendered the roads
for a few days in good condition for sleighing, which is the favorite winter
pastime in these parts. Almost every farmer has a good sleigh, and when
you have a couple of stout horses and a plentiful supply of thick buffalo skins
to keep out the frost, it is the finest riding in the world. Sometimes the
citizens will put a great Pennsylvania wagon on runners, and yoke four or
five good horses, and then thirty or forty ladies and gentlemen can enjoy
themselves right well. Even we boys have our little sleigh, and it would
amuse you to see myself and George going at full speed, with Frank on the
sleigh, holding little John on his knee.
" It becomes my duty to give some account of our progress at the Gram-
mar School. This is a large, elegant square building, three stories high,
opposite the front gate of the college. The basement floor is occupied by
C 2
58 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
the steward's apartments, the second by two spacious, lofty rooms, above
fifty feet square, and divided by two folding-doors into the English and Clas-
sical departments. Mr. Roszell has the superintendence, and is a very strict
man indeed. Mr. Hey is an Englishman, and is said to be one of the best
grammarians in the country. Mr. Gary and Mr. Bunting, under whose care
I am at present, are the assistants. Since I entered the school I have gone
four or five times through the English grammar, and twice through the
Latin, having committed all the rules to memory. George has gone twice
through his English grammar, and is now beginning Latin. I have been
twice through Tytler's Universal History ; I am nearly through my Latin
reader and geography, and have drawn a few maps. In arithmetic I am as
far as the last section of discount. Besides all this, I have constant exer-
cises in parsing, composition, and elocution. I have written four or five
original essays, and declaimed before the school three times, and frequently,
besides three or four other tasks, have to write out an entire Latin verb in
an evening. So you may believe we are not idle. Indeed, they work us
very hard. Mr. Roszell says it will keep us out of mischief, and father says
it is the very thing ; but, indeed, I really do not know how I should have got
along if it had not been for the help of my dear mother, who usually gives
her evenings to the purpose.
" In conclusion, allow me to say that we hope the deep interest and liber-
ality you have manifested for our education will be met by a corresponding
application and improvement on our part, so that you will not have cause
to be ashamed of us.
"Father, mother, George, Francis, William Wilberforce, and John Emory
all unite in great affection to yourself, uncles, aunts, and cousins Robinson
and Holmes, for whose welfare, present and eternal, we are taught daily to
pray to Almighty God. Your affectionate grandson,
"ALFRED COOKMAN."
To this the father adds a postscript :
" The subjoined is a Saturday afternoon exercise which Alfred, at my in-
stance, has written for your inspection, and at your request. You will re-
member he is only just ten years old, and has been subjected to the inter-
ruption of the children, which has given a hurried and careless air to his
writing. But the Right Worshipful, the Mayor of Hull and Admiral of the
I lumber, will treat the American boy magnanimously, especially as it is a
first effort at epistolary writing.
" Your Advertiser came safe to hand. Your ' inauguration speech ' is
going the rounds to Philadelphia and Baltimore to friends Suddards and Plas-
kitt. It was in the college reading-room for a few days, and was admired by
SCHOOL AND HOME TRAINING. 59
the Faculty and students for its moderation and propriety. Things look
squally here both North and South. Canada will not easily settle on the
New York frontier. I am solicited to go to Washington, Philadelphia, and
Charleston, but will leave it with the Episcopacy. The Lord will provide.
Accept our love."
Alfred's "first effort at epistolary writing" certainly needs
no apology. If it chances to fall under the eye of any "gram-
mar-school" student of that day, its references to the "fine, ele-
gant square building," and to Mr. Roszell as "a very strict man
indeed," will be duly appreciated. Mr. Roszell did not believe
in sparing the rod ; but whether he ever had cause to admin-
ister it to our boy or no, I have not learned. Alfred was stu-
dious and obedient ; but it must not be supposed he was a saint
from the cradle. The moral heroism of his character was not
without its physical and mental basis ; and possibly, but for the
timely training of judicious parents, the metal of his disposition
would have betrayed him into many of the rudenesses of other
boys. Twice in his life he was whipped when four years old,
for throwing a book at his mother, and, when seven or eight, for
fighting with his brother George. Was there ever a boy who
didn't enjoy once in a while the exercise of a little power over
his younger and weaker brother? How else can he show his
muscle ? And who so fair a subject for Alfred's muscle as little
George? It was a good thing in the mother that she flogged
the darling even at four and seven, otherwise "her Solomon"
would likely never have been, and her temple to God never
have been reared. Not the least lesson taught him while he
was learning "literature" from the fair friend, was this whip-
ping-lesson from his mother. But how like a sweet melody
breathes the testimony of the dear mother to the fidelity of her
boy, even thus young in years: " His boyhood was spent pretty
much like that of other boys, in the sports and occupations of
that period of his young life. Obedience to parental authority
was a prominent characteristic from his earliest years. Prompt-
60 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
ness in the performance of duty was another beautiful trait. In-
dustry, patience, and perseverance were very early brought into
requisition, and served a good purpose in laying a foundation
for the successive periods of after life." In this letter, too, is
seen already the dawn of his thorough Americanism, and of his
faculty for description. The sleighs and sleigh-rides of a Penn-
sylvania winter, the sled with himself and George in the har-
ness, "going at full speed, with Frank on the sleigh holding lit-
tle John on his knee" are not these to the life ? This first let-
ter also shows us Alfred among his brothers. Alas ! too soon
the buoyant lad, whose heart knew no thrill except of gladness
as he guided the sports of his gleeful brothers, was to stand
among them an elder brother and a thoughtful counselor. But
let the vail rest, for we are yet some way from the awful dark-
ness, and have many important and pleasant steps to take be-
fore we reach it.
In this winter of 1838 Alfred made another first effort, of
greater moment than his first essay at "epistolary writing."
The deep religious seriousness which he had felt in Baltimore
had not at any time wholly subsided, and now, under the power
of the Holy Spirit, was vividly renewed. " There (Carlisle) I
became," he has recorded, "the subject of powerful conviction.
Often I have risen from my meal and sought some lonely place
where I might weep on account of sin. Frequently I have lain
awake on my bed, fearing to sleep, lest I might wake up amid
the darkness and horrors of an eternal Hell. Sin became a
burden too intolerable to be borne." This is strong language
for a youth of ten years, and for one who had been uniformly
affectionate and obedient ; and yet such an experience even for
a youth in those days was hardly exceptional ; but though it
might have been, in his case it is not surprising in view of the
sharp and definite features his religious character always as-
sumed. Here, in the beginning of the spiritual life, is the same
positiveness which afterward characterized his maturity. " Sin
ALFRED'S CONVERSION. 61
is real, Hell is real ; I am a sinner ; I am in danger of its pun-
ishment." Such was the revelation the Holy Ghost made in
his conscience, and he felt and acted accordingly. It may
not be necessary that every youth should feel thus deeply in
order to become regenerate, but for Alfred Cookman it was the
very best preparation he could have had for that clear and
definite religious experience which subsequently distinguished
him. Fortunately he has left a narration of his conversion,
which I give entire :
"During the month of February, 1838, while a protracted
meeting was in progress in Carlisle, I concluded 'now is the
accepted time,' ' now is the day of salvation.' One night, when
a social meeting was held at the house of a friend, I struggled
with my feelings, and, although it was a fearful cross, I urged
my way to a bench which was specially appropriated for peni-
tents. My heart convulsed with penitential sorrow, tears stream-
ing down my cheeks, I said, 'Jesus, Jesus, I give myself away;
'tis all that I can do.' For some hours I sought, without, how-
ever, realizing the desire of my heart. The next evening I
renewed the effort. The evening after that the service was held
in the church; the altar was crowded with seeking souls, princi-
pally students of Dickinson College ; there seemed to be no
place for me, an agonized child. I remember I found my way
into one corner of the church. Kneeling all alone, I said, 'Pre-
cious Saviour, Thou art saving others, oh, wilt Thou not save me ?'
As I wept and prayed and struggled, a kind hand was laid on
my head. I opened my eyes and found it was a Mr. James
Hamilton, a prominent member and an elder in the Presby-
terian Church in Carlisle. He had observed my interest, and
obeying the promptings of a kind, sympathizing Christian heart,
he came to encourage and help me. I remember how sweetly
he unfolded the nature of faith and the plan of salvation. I
said, 'I will believe, I do believe; I now believe that Jesus is my
Saviour; that He saves me yes, even now;' and immediately,
62 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
" ' The opening heavens did round me shine
With beams of sacred bliss ;
And Jesus showed His mercy mine,
And whispered I am His.'
" I love to think of it now ; it fills my heart unutterably full
of gratitude, love, and joy. ' Happy day ; oh, happy day, when
Jesus washed my sins away !' "
It will thus be seen that the great change wrought in his
heart, as presented in his own language in mature life, was as
decided in the evidences of its thoroughness, as were his con-
victions for sin.
The altar was thronged with older persons, mostly students,
whose presence and importance very naturally engrossed atten-
tion ; he was only a little boy ; his feelings might be regarded
as the result of a sympathetic excitement, and not worthy of es-
pecial notice ; but he understood himself, and oppressed with
sin and bent upon relief, "he found himself in one corner of the
church, all alone." Ah! my little brother, God's Spirit was do-
ing a genuine work in your young heart. Your great Creator
had also put iron in your "make-up 1 ' when He formed you.
There were hours coming when again " all alone with your Sav-
iour" you must stand; hours so bitter in their loneliness that
only Jesus and self-reliance can keep you firm to duty and give
you victory. Although Alfred was off in the corner, God sent
him a kind friend who opened the kingdom of God to him.
There are always some great souls who can understand the
hearts of little children, and have faith enough to anticipate the
harvests which will come of tiny seeds. But Alfred. had good
companionship among the youths brought to God in this re-
vival. The great Head of the Church was electing others who,
like himself, were to be marked and useful men.
CHAPTER IV.
REV. GEORGE G. COOKMAN IN THE CAPITAL OF THE NATION.
THE YOUTH OF ALFRED.
THE time had come spring of 1838 when Mr. Cookman
must again remove, and go he knew not whither, at the appoint-
ment of the Episcopacy. As intimated in the letter already
quoted, Philadelphia, Charleston, and Washington wished his
services. To the latter city, the national capital, he was sent ;
and the cozy college town was exchanged for the political cen-
tre of the nation, and now upon a broader scene the eloquent
and devout preacher was to make his appearance. The two
years at Carlisle were invaluable to the man who henceforth
must stand before " kings." Two more years, and four or six
more, would have been valuable to Alfred. It was hard for him
to leave the " stately grammar school," with its " strict disci-
pline," and to give up the prospect of a speedy entrance into the
walls of the college, a prize so coveted by every true "'prep;"
but when the itinerant wheel rolls, the schools of boys must
stand out of the way, and so Alfred must go with father and
mother and brothers ; he was too young to be left behind, and
he must do the best he can in the pursuit of "literature" in
Washington City. Mr. Cookman was stationed at Wesley
Chapel, then a new charge, comprising in its membership many
of the most cultivated and progressive Methodists of the city.
The proximity of his church to the Capitol rendered it con-
venient of access to the members of Congress and to strangers
visiting Washington during the sessions. His ministry began
at once to excite attention ; soon the chapel was thronged with
hearers from all sections of the country, irrespective of denomi-
64 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
national connections, and his reputation was promptly estab-
lished as a first-class pulpit orator. It may be safely affirmed
that no minister ever entered Washington who maintained from
first to last a greater ascendency over the popular heart. Men
and women of every grade of society, of every station in the
government, were equally charmed by his forcible and beautiful
eloquence. Senators, heads of Departments and their clerks,
rich and poor, the litterateur and the illiterate man, the slave-
holder and the slave, all alike were captured by his magical
tongue, and he swayed their hearts as with the wand of a ma-
gician with "a warrior's eye beneath a philosopher's brow,"
his spell was irresistible.
Mr. Cookman had a reputation for eloquence before his ad-
vent in Washington. This undoubtedly helped him to an ex-
pectant hearing ; but, if he had not possessed genuine power,
his failure must have been proportionately great, as the pre-
vious expectations aroused had been high. To sustain a repu-
tation is proof of real ability. In most instances, however, his
power was attested by his signal influence over men who, out-
side of the Methodist Church, had never heard of him, or who
went first to listen to him with comparative indifference. Often-
times the casual listener, who had come to church to worship,
to hear any body, and who was not acquainted either with the
name or the personal appearance of Mr. Cookman, was so
strongly impressed as to wish to hear him constantly ever after-
ward. As an example illustrative of this, and also showing how
Mr. Cookman came to be elected Chaplain to Congress, I give
here part of a sketch from the Hon. O. H. Smith, then United
States Senator from Indiana, which appeared in the Indianapo-
lis Journal soon after Mr. Cookman's death :
" It was Sabbath morning. The last of the city church-bells was ringing
as I left my boarding-house on Capitol Hill, at Washington City, for Wesley
Chapel. It was quarterly meeting. The preacher had closed his sermon,
when there arose at the desk a slender, spare man, about five feet eight,
CHAPLAINCY OF THE U. S. SENATE. 65
dark complexion, black hair falling carelessly over his high forehead, lean,
bony face, wide mouth, round breasted black coat with velvet falling collar,
black vest and pantaloons. Addressing the congregation, he said: 'We de-
sire to take up a small collection for the relief of destitute, worn-out Meth-
odist preachers and their families. We appeal to-day to the hearts of the
congregation,' and took his seat. A large collection followed. I whispered
to Patrick G. Good, of Ohio, who sat by me, 'Who is that?' 'Don't you
know him ? It is George G. Cookman.' The next Sabbath I was at the
chapel again. Mr. Cookman preached. I returned satisfied that he was
no ordinary man. The election for Chaplain of the Senate came on a few
days after, and without the knowledge of Mr. Cookman, I privately suggest-
ed his name to the Senators around me. The most of them had heard him
preach. He was elected Chaplain by a decided vote over Rev. Henry Sli-
cer,* against whom there was not the least objection ; but we wanted to
bring Mr. Cookman more prominently before the public. The next Sab-
bath he preached his first sermon in the Hall of the House, to a very large
congregation, from the text, ' The sword of the Lord and of Gideon.' He
made a profound impression on his hearers that day, which seemed to in-
crease with every succeeding sermon."
Such a testimony was all the more creditable to Mr. Cook-
man, coming, as it did, from a Presbyterian gentleman. The
interest shown in promoting his election to the Chaplaincy of
the United States Senate was certainly magnanimous in Mr.
Smith, but is the more significant as showing the remarkable in-
fluence which Mr. Cookman gained over those who heard him.
It was in the winter of 1838-9 that his election to this honor-
able position occurred. Politics were running high. The coun-
try has never known a more excited political canvass, except
during the late civil war, than was then pending. The Whigs
and the Democrats were the two great parties which disputed
for victory. The first talents of the land were gathered in the
capital. Orators, whose names are forever identified with the
classic period of American eloquence ; statesmen, who were
probing and settling the principles of constitutional law for
* The Rev. Dr. Slicer was several times Chaplain of the Senate after this,
and always sustained a high reputation for fidelity in the position.
66 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
generations yet unborn ; sagacious men from all the pursuits of
life, elected to represent the diversified interests of widely differ-
ing sections, were experimenting in the problems of banking,
protection, free-trade, of slave and free labor, of colonization,
of internal improvements ; soldiers, whose laurels won in the
late war with England were scarcely yet withered, and who,
jealous of every possible encroachment of the mother-country,
were eagerly watching for the adjustment of all difficulties be-
tween the two nations on a satisfactory basis these all were in
the Congress of 1838-9. The illustrious triumvirs Clay,
Webster, and Calhoun and many others of hardly less fame,
such as Benton, Berrien, Preston, Wright, Buchanan, occupied
seats in the Senate. But Mr. Cookman was equally at home
here as he had been at Carlisle before the professors.
A man Of one work, his simple, devout piety was unchanged,
and here, as elsewhere, inspired his preaching and his conduct.
He so preached and so lived, with such an evident singleness
of purpose, with such unaffected humility of spirit, as to win
universal respect and confidence. His theme was Christ cru-
cified ; his object the salvation of men. Whether he preached
in the Hall of the House of Representatives or in his own
church, his sermons were not only eloquent in the popular
sense, but appropriate, forcible, and direct, and uniformly con-
veyed to those who heard him proof of his deep and thorough
religious earnestness. In these hours of responsibility, when
the wisest were ready to receive his instructions ; and of dan-
ger, when the incense of praise was perfuming his life, there
was need of all that close application to books, that profound
devotion to Christ, and that jealousy of self which he cultivated
in his earlier religious experience. There is such a thing as the
hiding of power in the present for the uses of the future. Young
men, whom the great Master leads through conflicts, through
long and tedious days of proving, through earnest and self-de-
nying wrestles for purity and knowledge, do not always realize
EX-PRESIDENT PIERCE. 67
that they are storing the strength which is afterward to be their
great resource. The highest proof of a great mind is its reserved
force. In this element Mr. Cookman was pre-eminent in his
sphere. His hold on God, his clear-sightedness, his firm con-
victions, his understanding of his own aims, his thorough self-
abnegation, enabled him to stand unawed before the wisdom of
the nation.
As might be expected, a ministry thus faithful was not with-
out its direct fruits. In an ordinary church immediate results
are looked for, and usually follow ; but too often the highest
ends of preaching, when to such congregations as then assem-
bled in the House of Representatives, are left to the remote fut-
ure. Some of the first men of the land were deeply moved by
the minister's searching and persuasive appeals. Among them
was ex-President Franklin Pierce, at that time one of the Sen-
ators from New Hampshire. Mr. Pierce never ceased to cher-
ish for the memory of Mr. Cookman the most reverent affection,
and although he did not at this time take a decided open stand
for Christ and unite with the Methodist Church, it will be re-
membered that in his later life he manifested the highest respect
for religion, and some years before his death, on profession of
faith, he was received into the communion of the Protestant
Episcopal Church. It will be no breach of confidence, now
that both of these men of God have passed away, if I make
public Mr. Cookman's own account of Mr. Pierce's awakening,
written at the time to Professor Caldwell, of Dickinson College.
Reference is also made to Senator Linn, of Missouri, who like-
wise manifested much religious feeling :
" WASHINGTON CITY, D. C., February 28th, 1839.
* * * * # * #*** * *
" This morning I had an interesting and memorably affecting interview
with a friend of yours, Senator Pierce, of New Hampshire, who is at pres-
ent the subject of deep, poignant convictions of the Spirit of God. He has
been attending my ministry regularly ever since I have been in the city, and
for the last three or four weeks his heart has been broken up indeed, and
68 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
a more sincere, humble, penitent sinner I have seldom seen. He opened
his mind, he said, for the first time to any human being on the overwhelm-
ing subject of his soul's salvation, and while tears coursed down his cheeks,
and he paced the room and then sat down and commenced anew the histo-
ry of his life and the convictions of God's Spirit upon his mind ; my own
mind was deeply affected, for he is a gentleman to whom I am very much
attached an amiable, frank, sincere character. He expresses his intention
of attending the ministry and class-meetings of the Methodists on his return
to Concord, and also here in this city, if spared to see another session of
Congress. He requested me to pray for him on the spot, in my parlor, and
appeared deeply affected and earnestly engaged for the salvation of his soul.
" Senator Linn, of Missouri, has also manifested great interest on the sub-
ject of religion. He is intimate with Senator Pierce may both be brought
into the favor and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you are acquainted
with the Rev. J. M. F., the stationed preacher at Concord, New Hampshire,
a few lines from you advising of Senator Pierce's peculiar religious state
might be expedient although I think it best in general to keep these cases
away from the bulk of our people, who talk too much when great sinners are
convicted, which often defeats the desired object. If you could write to the
Senator it might have a good effect."
Among Professor Caldwell's unpublished manuscripts is a
letter to the Senator, breathing a wisdom, purity, fidelity, and
affection which must have been not Only kindly received, but
have made an enduring impression upon his mind. One of its
closing sentences is, "Permit me, my dear sir, to express a
hope that your application to the fountain of all truth, and to
the source of all wisdom, may be so successful that you may
never have occasion to rest your hopes for this world or the
next on the doubts and uncertainties of skepticism the system
to which I believe all ultimately resort who are so unfortunate
as to find no better."
But I must not forget, in the work and fame which were thus
clustering so thickly about the father, the lovely youth who was
unobtrusively pursuing the even tenor of his way. It was Mr.
Cookman's habit to make a companion of Alfred. Frequently
he took him to the Senate Chamber, where he received the at-
tentions of Senators in the genial greetings which occurred.
ALFRED IN THE CAPITAL. 69
He was just then as handsome, well-formed, and as engaging a
boy of eleven years as could be found. He could appreciate,
if not the intrinsic worth, the manifest popularity of his father
as evinced in the position to which he was chosen, in the crowds
that thronged his ministry, and in the compliments bestowed
on his preaching ; and it is not to be supposed he was indiffer-
ent to it all. His young heart swelled, no doubt, with emotions
of pride for his father, and for himself as the son of such a fa-
ther, and the consequent partner in his fame. The outside
world of men and things into which Alfred was thus introduced,
differed vastly from the simple surroundings of Carlisle great
men, great buildings, great measures, great pageants ; these
now crowded the thoughts that so recently were taken up and
satisfied with books, play, and prayers.
I spoke of the disadvantage his education must suffer by his
removal from the grammar school at Carlisle just as he was
getting into thorough drill ; equally it should not surprise us if
his religious life, when removed from familiar and genial friend-
ships into new and strange associations, were to meet with a
chill which would abate its warmth, if not stop its growth. The
first few days and nights of a plant's transfer from the nursery
to the open air, are always days and nights of peril to its open-
ing buds. How many young Christians, who commence with
vigorous promise, fall away and perish because of a too sudden
change of place or of pastors! Alfred did not lose his religious
faith ; but, by his own acknowledgement, his experience de-
clined in vitality he was not the same joyous little Christian
for some months that he had been soon after being "all alone
with Jesus" in the corner of the church.
" Some time after this we removed to Washington City, in the
District of Columbia. Here I fell in with new associates who
felt no interest in the subject of religion, and declined a little
in my warmth and zeal, and partook a little too much of their
spirit." The subsidence of his piety was of short duration.
70 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
" The camp-meeting season rolled around ; I expressed a de-
sire to go ; my mother cheerfully consented, observing, ' My
son, I want you to seek at the meeting an entire restoration of
your former happy experience, and regain every step you have
lost by want of watchfulness.' Her counsel followed me to the
forest. I sought God again. I remember the night ; I remem-
ber the circumstances ; the struggle was long and painful, U
continued almost to the breaking of the day. Glory to God .'
however, He who said, 'Return unto Me, backsliding Israel,
and I will heal all thy backsliclings and love thee freely,' heard
and answered, and restored unto me the joy of His salvation.
Oh how beautiful the following morning appeared ! the sky
seemed bluer than before, the air sweeter, the trees greener, the
landscape lovelier^-all nature seemed to appear in a new dress.
I felt like saying, ' Come unto me all ye that fear God, and I
will tell you what He hath done for my soul.' My precious fa-
ther had gone off the ground to spend the night. I knew the
way he would most probably return. I hastened in that direc-
tion, saw him coming, sprung into his arms, fell on his neck,
and told him how happy I was. Since then I have had a place
in the Church of Jesus Christ. In the midst of great unfaith-
fulness and unworthiness God has borne with and preserved
me, and now I feel to say,
" ' Here I'll raise my Ebenezer,
Hither by Thy help I've come.'
" I attribute my conversion under God to the instruction, ex-
ample, and influence of pious parents."
Henceforth the camp-meeting was to be hallowed ground to
Alfred Cookman. The father was nowhere more effective than
when on "the stand" before a crowd at camp-meeting. The
ample platform, the absence of huge breastworks, the direct
contact with the worshiping throng, the presence of earnest
brethren, the natural and artificial accompaniments offered the
exact conditions of his happiest efforts ; but Alfred was to find
ALFRED UNITES WITH THE CHURCH. 71
in the camp-meeting all these aids, and more the memory of
this happy renewal of religious joy which he has so graphically
narrated. His attachment to the camp-meeting, the ardor and
constancy with which he used it as an agency of good, and the
gracious results accomplished by him through it, ought not to
surprise us. It is manifest from this account, our young friend
could not consent to be religious by halves he must be a
whole-hearted Christian, or not at all. Entireness becomes the
fundamental law of his spiritual life. If these pages shall dis-
close any thing in regard to him, it must be, "All for God"
"first, last, midst." He returned from the camp-meeting with
his heart all aglow with sacred joy, and from the impulse which
it awakened began at once to seek means of personal useful-
ness. He must communicate what he knew and felt to other
boys; and so, of his free motion, "he established a prayer-meet-
ing for boys of his own age, and worked in various ways to im-
press his own spirit upon all with whom he came in contact
Many were induced to take their first steps in a religious life
through his example and persuasion."
In the autumn (1838) he united with the Church. His fa-
ther had thought it best to keep him on "probation" until he
gave satisfactory proofs of a stable piety. Soon after his re-
moval to Washington he commenced to exercise himself on the
platform as a speaker, and at that early age received much
commendation and evinced great promise, so that "predictions
were freely made of what the future of this young speaker might
be-, to which the father readily assented." It was no little credit
to the youthful "Cicero" that his father readily assented, for,
whether for banter or not, Mr. Cookman used to rouse the
mother's jealousy for her little "Temple builder" by intimating,
" Your Solomon is a rather dull boy !" I doubt if he was even
then so noted for quickness of perception as for tenacity in
sticking to a lesson until he had mastered it, and then holding
it fast. What is of most interest at this particular point is he
72 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
appears before us at twelve years of age a decidedly religious
lad in experience and action, and a speaker, thus affording us a
clear view of the dawn of that personal career which was event-
ually to open into full-orbed day.
Mr. Cookman during the winters of 1839-40, 1840-41, was
at the zenith of his fame. The newspapers of the day not un-
frequently noticed his preaching in the most complimentary
terms. Numerous extracts could be given showing the high
estimate in which he was held, both as a man and a Christian
minister. A correspondent of the United States Gazette, then
the leading paper of Philadelphia, under date of January yth,
1839, wrote thus of one of his earlier efforts: "Yesterday the
Hall of the House of Representatives was crowded to over-
flowing for the purpose of hearing Mr. Cookman, the new Chap-
lain of the Senate. * * * All the elite of Washington City were
present. Thronged as we are with strangers during the sessions
of Congress, there is no place of worship to which they feel that
they have a sort of legitimate right of entree, except when the
House of the People of the United States is converted into the
House of God : thither they usually flock for their religious exer-
cises. All sects as well as all ranks join their devotions here,
and I have always observed that the ministry, with good taste
much to their credit, when addressing audiences of such pe-
culiar character, shun those points of doctrine which are pro-
ductive of controversy, and content themselves with inculcating
religion in its broad, simple, and incontrovertible sense. Mr.
Cookman is of the Methodist persuasion, and has won consider-
able celebrity for his oratorical power. Slightly made, of an
age scarcely exceeding thirty years (as far as I could form an
opinion at a distance), free from affectation of style and manner,
he held his large and enlightened auditory in the deepest atten-
tion for about an hour, while he expounded from the words of
St. Paul, ' I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is
the power of God unto salvation.' The descriptions of the
FUNERAL SERMON OF SENATOR BETTS. 73
apostle were given with a graphic power which was attested by
the deep silence and breathless attention of all present. In
that vast circle, so entirely were all absorbed, that the cracking
of a chair caused a visible sensation. From the death of Ste-
phen, the first martyr, he tracked him to the arraignment be-
fore Felix, marking every step with a precision which gave indi-
viduality to his posture ; and, judging from the countenances
of all around me, I was satisfied the preacher had established
himself on a high basis as a Christian orator."
An occasion which afforded an opportunity for the versatile
talents of Mr. Cookman, particularly for the expression of pa-
thos as an element of power, occurred at the funeral services of
the Hon. Thaddeus Betts, of Connecticut. Mr. Van Buren, the
President of the United States, Mr. Forsyth, Mr. Woodbury, Mr.
Poinsett, and Mr. Paulding, the heads of Departments, with a
great number of the foreign Ministers and members of both
Houses of Congress, were present. A correspondent of the Bal-
timore American wrote of the sermon by Mr. Cookman : " It was
one of the most eloquent and appropriate performances I have
ever heard, and, though continued through an unusual length of
time, it was listened to with almost breathless attention." The
Hon. Mr. Smith, of Indiana, before quoted, said of this occa-
sion : "I distinctly recollect one of his figures of speech 'As
the human family come upon the great stage of life, they find
at every fork of the road the finger-board distinctly pointing to
the grave to the grave ! There is no other road to travel from
infancy to old age and death, but the road that leads to the
grave.' There was not a dry eye in the Chamber when he closed
his sermon of one hour, and sang alone his voice was melody
itself the single verse of the hymn,
" ' And must this body die,
This well-wrought frame decay ?
And must these active limbs of mine
Lie mouldering in the clay ?' "
D
74 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
Nor was Mr. Cookman wanting in that delicate humor which
is so often allied with real pathos. He could use it too as cir-
cumstances required, so that, while it would cut and correct, it
rarely offended those at whom it was aimed, or the good taste
of the most refined hearers. A writer in the New York Amer-
ican said of a passage in one of his sermons : " He ventured
once to-day on delicate ground. After having stated what the
world is learning from the Church, he observed, in substance,
' that statesmen are imitating the apostles of Christianity, and
have become itinerating preachers of late, and that within a few
months there have been many convictions, many conversions,
and no want of songs and anthems (to the triumphs of Truth).'
The idea of this parenthesis, it is true, was not openly con-
veyed ; but it occasioned many smiles, and some red faces.*
However, the preacher escaped just in season to save himself.
It was a nice touch. The effect of all such things depends
upon the manner and the tact of the man, in connection with
the general respect he inspires. I do not think any body that
was present will scold about it, but it was a close rub." I can
not forbear quoting a little further from this writer. His de-
scription will recall Mr. Cookman to those who had the pleas-
ure of hearing him, and to those who had not, it will convey a
more adequate notion of the man and his preaching :
" I have already said that I think he is deservedly popular.
He is modest, unassuming, and dignified. Withal he appears
to be a good man in his appropriate calling. In the pulpit he
has much action. In person slender, long arms, thin face, dark
complexion, busby hair, and can display his person in orator-
ical action to great advantage. His voice is good, and suscep-
tible of great power. His language is well chosen and simple.
His elocution slow, deliberate, and effective imparting great
power occasionally to a single word, to a monosyllable, by his
voice and manner. But it is not manner alone. The thought
* The allusion was to the political canvass of 1840.
STYLE. CATHOLICITY. 75
is the soul, and is always worthy of attention. He has now and
then a theatric start or sudden flight, with branching arms and
stentorian voice or falsetto scream ; not, however, offensive to
those who are disposed to tolerate liberties of this sort. It is
the man enacting himself, or discoursing in his own way. He is
decidedly one of the most remarkable models of eloquence
there is in either House of Congress, and many of them might
take lessons of him with profit."
To explain fully the character of this eminent man, and the
wide-spread influence which he exerted, especially beyond his
own denomination, it is necessary to note the catholicity of his
spirit. I insert the following extract from a Washington paper
as illustrative of this trait, and also for its allusion to one of the
most intellectual and saintly ministers which American Presby-
terianism has produced : " On Sunday afternoon last the Rev.
Mr. Cookman, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, so justly
celebrated for his pulpit oratory and liberal sentiments, preach-
ed in the Rev. Mr. McLain's Church (First Presbyterian, on
Four-ajid-a-half Street). His text was ty/in xvii., 21: 'That
they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee,
that they also may be one in Us : that the world may believe
that Thou hast sent Me.' The reverend gentleman stated 'that
he had selected this text for the reason that, in conversation
with the late Rev. Dr. Nevins (of the First Presbyterian Church
in Baltimore, whose precious memory even the iron hand of
time can scarcely ever obliterate from the minds of the Chris-
tian Church) during his last illness, the Doctor observed that,
if he was again privileged to occupy his pulpit but once more,
he would endeavor to preach from that text. Before the suc-
ceeding Sabbath he was taken to his everlasting rest and re-
ward.' No two spirits were ever more congenial than those of
Nevins and Cookman, and during the delivery of his discourse
it seemed as if the mantle of the departed Elijah had fallen
upon the speaker ; and, with thoughts that breathe and words
76 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
that burn, he illustrated and enforced the subject, giving full ut-
terance to the sentiments of his departed friend."
In the spring of 1840 Mr. Cookman was appointed to the
charge of the Church in Alexandria City, D. C.* He still re-
tained his Chaplaincy, and regularly fulfilled its duties until the
expiration of the Congress of the fourth of March, 1841. His
pastorate in Alexandria was attended with all the marks of pub-
lic favor and of ministerial usefulness which had accompanied
him in other communities. There occurred nothing to the
father to which any special significance can be attached ; but
with Alfred it was quite different. He had seen but little of
slavery since he lived a child on the eastern shore of Maryland.
In Pennsylvania and New Jersey the colored race was free; in
Baltimore the free blacks were more numerous than the slaves,
and this was true also of Washington. He had seen few, if any,
of the more painful aspects of the institution ; and young as he
was, it had seemed to him only a form of domestic servitude, re-
lieved by the kind relationships often subsisting between mas-
ters and slaves. In Alexandria a free black was rather an ex-
ception. If, however, he had seen slavery even here only as he
had been accustomed to it, there is no likelihood that any im-
pression would have been made upon his mind of decided aver-
sion to it.
Near his father's residence was one of those painful features
of the domestic slave-trade a slave-pen or jail which the boy
used often to pass, and where he saw poor men, women, and
children confined behind iron grates, sometimes manacled, for
no other crime than that they were owned as property, and
could be sold hither and thither by their owners at pleasure.
Alexandria was a ddpot, to which the slaves purchased in Ma-
ryland and the District of Columbia were brought, and where
they were lodged before being sent to supply the cotton-grow-
ing states. Sometimes at the very doors of the jail would hap-
* Alexandria was afterward re-ceded to the State of Virginia.
PROPOSED VISIT TO ENGLAND. 77
pen those scenes which were well fitted to rend a stouter heart
than that of our sensitive young friend. The husband would be
rudely separated from the wife, and parents from their helpless
children ; and these poor creatures, with all the instincts of hu-
man nature, strengthened by tender associations, would vent
their sorrow in bitter cries, which gathered around them a sympa-
thizing crowd- how could Alfred look on without emotion, and
without forming a deep hatred to laws which sanctioned such
occurrences ? Such sights were enough to wound the heart of a
boy born in the midst of slavery ; how could they do otherwise
than curdle the blood of a youth born of English parents, on free
soil, and with such a soul as Alfred Cookman possessed? The
iron then went deep into his heart, and forever after he was the
enemy of slavery, and steadfastly did what he could consistently
to abate and destroy it. This is the only scrap of Alfred's edu-
cation or history in Alexandria of which I have any information.
The disaster which removed Mr. Cookman from the scene of
his usefulness and from the world was fast approaching. In the
spring of 1841 he determined to visit England, and all his plans
were accordingly made to sail from New York early in March.
He had been appointed by the American Bible Society a fra-
ternal delegate to represent it at the anniversary of the British
and Foreign Bible Society to be held at Exeter Hall, London,
and was to be made bearer of the first dispatches to the British
Government from the incoming Administration of General Har-
rison ; his main object, however, in going over, was to see again
his venerable father, and "to drop a tear on the grave of his
mother." It was fitting, in view of his position and popularity,
that his farewell sermon should be preached in the Capitol. He
was regarded as a pastor not only by the Alexandria Church,
but by the Senate of the United States and large numbers of
the floating and unchurched population. A well-nigh romantic
interest centred in him. The spell of his eloquence and the
aroma of his character had completely fascinated the people.
78 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
Never were there circumstances attending the delivery of
a sermon more fully adapted to awaken in the preacher all
his capacity of thought and emotion, or to render it more
thrilling and abiding in the minds of the hearers. Washington
was literally thronged with strangers from all parts of the coun-
try. General Harrison had been elected President by an over-
whelming majority, and his inauguration was about to take
place in the presence of crowds the like of which for numbers
and refinement the metropolis of the nation had never before
seen. Mr. Cookman's fame was now commensurate with the
American public ; though no politician, he was known to be in
quiet sympathy with the dominant party ; his piety was univer-
sally conceded ; his oratorical supremacy none disputed ; ex-
pectation was on tip-toe. It may be safely affirmed that never
had sacred orator more conditions in his favor. Added to all
this was his speedy departure for a foreign land, to encounter
the perils of a voyage from which he might never return which
consideration helped further to deepen in the popular heart the
sense of his value, and to intensify in his own heart the convic-
tion of his religious and ministerial responsibility. But he rose
with the occasion. The external excitement infected him ; the
grandeur of his spirit never before attained to such proportions,
nor shone with such effective light. The account given by eye-
witnesses can best convey some true notion of the man, the
hour, and the place :
" The session of Congress was about to close upon the administration of
Mr. Van Burcn. The inauguration of General Harrison was soon to take
place. Mr. Cookman had all his arrangements made to visit England on
the steamer President. The first dispatch from the new Administration was
to be confided to his charge. The next Sabbath he was to take leave of the
members of Congress in his farewell sermon. The day came. An hour
before the usual time the crowd was seen filling the pavement of the ave-
nue, and passing up the hill to Representative Hall, which was soon filled
to overflowing, and hundreds, unable to get scats, went away disappointed.
I obtained a seat early in front of the Clerk's desk. John Quincy Adams
LAST SERMON IN THE CAPITOL. 79
sat in the Speaker's chair, facing Mr. Cookman. The whole space on the
rostrum and steps was filled with Senators and Representatives. The mo-
ment had come. Mr. Cookman, evidently much affected, kneeled in a thrill-
ing prayer, and rose with his eyes blinded with tears. His voice faltered
with suppressed emotion as he gave out the hymn,
" ' When marshaled on the mighty plain,
The glittering hosts bestud the sky,
One star alone of all the train
Can fix the sinner's wandering eye.
" ' Hark ! hark ! to God the chorus breaks,
From every host, from every gem ;
But one alone the Saviour speaks,
It is the star of Bethlehem.
" ' Once on the raging seas I rode,
The storm was loud, the night was dark
The ocean yawned, and rudely blowed
The wind that tossed my foundering bark."
" The hymn was sung by Mr. Cookman alone. I can yet, in imagination,
hear his voice, as it filled the large hall, and the last sounds, with their ech-
oes, died away in the dome.
" 'And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face
the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them.
" ' And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books
were opened : and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and
the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books,
according to their works.'
" Mr. Cookman was more affected when he gave us the text than I had
ever seen him before. He several times passed his handkerchief over his eyes
before he began. The first sentences are fresh in my recollection : ' When
Massillon, one of the greatest divines that France ever knew, was called to
preach the funeral service of the departed king, in the Cathedral, at Paris,
before the reigning king, the royal family, the chambers, and the grandees
of France, he took with him to the sacred desk a little golden urn, contain-
ing a lock of hair of the late king. The immense congregation was seated,
and the silence of death reigned. Massillon arose, held the little urn in his
fingers, his hand resting upon the sacred cushion. All eyes were intently
fixed upon him. Moments, minutes passed Massillon stood motionless,
pale as a statue ; the feeling became intense ; many believed he was struck
dumb before the august assembly ; many sighed and groaned aloud ; many
80 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
eyes were suffused with tears, when the hand of Massillon was seen slowly
raising the little golden urn, his eyes fixed upon the king. As his hand re-
turned again to the cushion, the loud and solemn voice of Massillon was
heard in every part of the Cathedral, ' God alone is great !' So I say to you
to-day, my beloved hearers, there is no human greatness ' God alone is
great T
" The subject was on the day of judgment. I had heard it preached be-
fore many times, but never as I heard it then. The immense congregation
was held almost breathless with the most beautiful and powerful sermon I
ever heard. He spoke of the final separation on the great day of judgment,
and fancied the anger of the Lord locking the door that led to the bottom-
less pit, stepping upon the ramparts, letting fall the key into the abyss be-
low, and dropping the last tear over fallen and condemned man. He closed
' I go to the land of my birth, to press once more to my heart my aged
father and drop a tear on the grave of my sainted mother; farewell! fare-
well !' and he sank down overpowered to his seat, while the whole congre-
gation responded with sympathizing tears."
A correspondent of the National Intelligencer, describing the
same scene, after quoting Mr. Cookman's closing words, says :
" There was something prophetic, solemn, and deeply affecting
in the tones and manner of the preacher. * * * All who had
known him, or who had listened with wrapt attention to the elo-
quence which gushed from his lips, touched as with a living
coal from the altar, were moved to tears, and seemed to feel as
if they were taking in reality a last farewell of one who had
given a new ardor to their piety, and thrown an additional in-
terest into the sanctuary. The whole scene was in no ordinary
degree grand, imposing, and affecting. The magnificent hall,
a fit temple for the worship of the living God ; the crowd that
had assembled to hear the last sermon of the minister whose
eloquence they so much admired ; the attitude of the preacher,
and the solemn and prophetic farewell, all conspired to excite
feelings of the deepest solemnity and of the most intense inter-
est."
CHAPTER V.
REV. GEORGE G. COOKMAN LOST AT SEA. ALFRED'S RAPID
PROGRESS.
MR. COOKMAN spent a few weeks about Washington, com-
pleting his arrangements and taking leave of friends, and im-
mediately after the first dispatch of the new Administration was
prepared by Mr. Webster and committed to him, he left for New
York. His last words to the gentleman so freely quoted from
were, " May Heaven bless you, Mr. Smith ; if ever I return you
shall see me in the West." He spent Sunday, 7th of March, in
Philadelphia, worshiping with and taking the communion at
the hands of his friend, the Rev. Dr. Suddards, rector of Grace
Protestant Episcopal Church. On Monday he went to New
York, and on Tuesday evening preached his last sermon in the
Vestry Street Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he was to
become the pastor after his return from England. He had in-
tended to go to Boston and there take one of the Cunard steam-
ers, but at the solicitation of friends changed his mind, and
embarked on the steam-ship President at New York on the nth,
for Liverpool. He left amid the tears and congratulations of
friends. Neither the vessel nor any of her company was ever
after heard from.
Various conjectures were given at the time as to the ship's
probable fate, the most likely of which is that, as a violent
storm had been raging for days, she foundered soon after get-
ting to sea. Hopes were entertained for a long time that she
might be safe ; or, on the supposition that the vessel had found-
ered, or had been burned, or had been crushed by icebergs, it
was hoped that her crew and passengers had been rescued.
D 2
82 LIFE .OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
As the time arrived when tidings were due from the steamer,
and no word came, the suspense both in England and America
became intense and painful. The excitement prevailed among
all classes. Steam-ship navigation was then comparatively in
its infancy, and an accident to a steamer very naturally awak-
ened more attention than now when fleets of them are plowing
the ocean. The fact that Mr. Cookman was a passenger height-
ened the public interest. His name was on every lip ; his mer-
its as minister and orator, his worth as a citizen, his loss to the
Church and the nation, but above all to his young family, were
the theme of general conversation and newspaper comment.
At length all hope for the ship and her passengers died out of
the public mind ; but not so in the heart of the stricken and
devoted wife hope lived in her heart many days after it had
perished in the hearts of all others. She lived months and
years with the expectation of seeing him return. The house
was daily and nightly arranged his chair at the table ready to
b.e vacated, and all else adjusted with the expectation of his
coming at any hour.
Although not yet an accomplished fact with Mrs. Cookman, it
was an accomplished fact that her husband had perished in the
great waters. That " vasty deep" which he so loved, and from
which he so often drew for choice imagery in the illustration of
truth, and in the use of which he was almost without a peer, had
become his grave. " He has discouraged me," said a Senator,
distinguished for his eloquence, " in the use of my happiest fig-
ures. There is such a richness, beauty, and force in his illustra-
tions from the ocean, so far surpassing my reach, that I know not
that I shall ever again attempt to use them." That ocean which
he had several times crossed, where death had before stared him
in the face, all whose myriad ways in storm and calm had become
familiar to his mind, whose endless forms and colorings he had
studied with an artist's eye and transferred with an artist's skill
to the tables of memory, in solitary communion with which he
SORROW ON THE SEA AND ON THE LAND. 83
had had so many thoughts of God and human destiny, so many
seasons of prayer, praise, and aspiration, in whose awful silence
and restless life he had found such strange sympathy with his
own nature, from which he had in all these respects received
so much for his own enriching, had now at last received him.
His loss pierced thousands of loving souls with acutest sorrow.
But painful as was his death, the manner of it sudden in
the sea involved in mystery threw around his end a tragic
charm which well comported with the brilliancy of his reputa-
tion, and which served to deepen and extend his already wide-
spread influence. In the prime of his life, at the height of his
fame, in the fullness of his intellectual powers, and in the ma-
turity of grace, he was not, for God took him. A star of the
first order was suddenly quenched. But another star was to
arise in due time, if not of equal splendor, yet certainly of
equal clearness and steadiness in its shining.
I could fill pages with the public and private testimonials of
the grief which pervaded all classes of society, and all circles
of pursuit and profession, at the sad death of this eminent and
good man. It would be pleasant to linger over these tender
and discriminating tributes to his virtues, his services to the
cause of Christ, and the rare eloquence with which God had en-
dowed him, and which he had so successfully cultivated, but I
am admonished by the limits of space and purpose which con-
fine me, and the demand that I should hasten to bring forward
into greater prominence the youth whose name and fame so
quickly followed in the wake of his father's.
Mr. Cookman wished and intended to take Alfred with him
to England. He thought it would be gratifying to the grand-
father to see him ; and the son had attained an age at which
he could be a companion to his father, and also derive much
improvement from travel. I can imagine how strong the pa-
ternal instinct was in him, and how he must have yearned to
have his first-born accompany him in so long an absence from
84 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
home, and under circumstances so suited to render them both
entirely happy. There is nothing upon which a child can de-
pend for safety more than this same paternal instinct. Ulysses
was consistent in his feigned madness plowing the sea-shore
with a horse and bull yoked together, and sowing salt instead
of grain until his little son Telemachus was placed in the way,
when his deception was betrayed by his showing sufficient fore-
sight to turn away the plow from killing the child. Mr. Cook-
man could not but feel what a privation it would be to his wife
to have Alfred leave her for so long a time, and what an addi-
tional affliction it would be should neither the husband nor the
son be permitted to return. The lad, also, was of sufficient ma-
turity in years and character to be of great assistance to the
mother in her care of the younger children. And so, finally,
Mr. Cookman yielded his preference, and it was left to the boy
himself to elect to go with his father or to stay with his mother.
It is difficult to see how any thing could have been more at-
tractive to a youth of his age, tastes, and habits, than this trip
homeward to England with his devoted father. He had heard
the old country, grandfather, uncles, aunts, and cousins talked
of, till his boyish fancy reveled in the thought of seeing them
and their beautiful homes. But Alfred Cookman loved his
mother as few boys ever did, he loved his brothers and sister
as few elder brothers have ever done, his loyalty to duty had
already become a passion, and his decision was given accord-
ingly : " I will stay with mother, and help her take care of the
children." These words give the key-note of his character.
They not only preserved his life, but became the warp across
which the web and woof of that life were woven into a fabric so
strong and beautiful. He would do his duty first, and standing
by his duty brought him into responsibilities which, under the
divine blessing, made him what he was a prince among God's
spiritual Israel. The father then had to go alone. He went
off cheerfully. Among the last words he spoke as the family
THE DESOLATE FAMILY. 85
sat before the open fire, were these : " Now, boys, if your father
sinks in the ocean, his soul will go direct to God, and you must
meet him in heaven."
" There was sorrow on the sea." There was sorrow on the
land. In the homestead at Kingston-upon-Hull, an aged father
was bowed with grief; in many Christian houses, where the im-
age of the saintly pastor was hung, if not on the walls, yet in
the memories of grateful hearts, there was genuine mourning ;
but in the circle where the desolate widow gathered her father-
less children to a heart from which the warmth and light had
well-nigh gone out, striving in vain to impart to them a comfort
which she herself did not feel, who can depict the abyss of suf-
fering into which this lovely family was thus suddenly plunged !
Every body was kind to them. Friends vied with each other
in grateful offices. Warm hearts and cheerful homes were
opened to them. But the very universality of regret and affec-
tion which met them seemed for a time only to help their hearts
to compass the extent of their bereavement. What must be
their loss, in the loss of him whom every body else, even the
comparative stranger, so missed and lamented ! The bright-
ness of sympathy often casts our sorrows into a darker shadow.
How like an angel of light Alfred now came to the side of his
mother ! He restrained his own grief, and always appeared
before her calm and cheerful. With the utmost delicacy he
watched over her, anticipating all her wants with a foresight
beyond his years, and exhibiting for her most hidden feelings a
feminine tenderness of which she scarcely supposed him pos-
sessed. Mrs. Cookman, from reveling in the brilliance of her
husband's fame and usefulness, found herself all at once in such
utter darkness that her mind from the shock sank into the
deepest gloom. So overwhelmed was she, that for two years
she did not recover her cheerfulness. The name of her hus-
band could not be pronounced in her presence without unnerv-
ing her, and so the mention of the father was studiously avoid-
86 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
ed by the children. All the while Alfred was preserving such
a composed demeanor in the presence of his mother, he would
lie awake nights thinking of his father. It was some distance
from the quiet home in which the family were entertained to
the nearest post-office, and as he often went for the mail, his
heart would sink within him when no letter came from father, or
from. any one giving tidings of the ill-fated steamer. " How I
did dread," he said in after years, " to return home, and meet
my dear mother without a letter and see her disappointment !"
Thus at thirteen years of age, when the thought of play is
uppermost with most boys, was our young friend abruptly forced
by the providence of God into a trying and important relation
to the family. He must be a husband as well as son to his
mother ; he must be father as well as eldest brother to the chil-
dren. It is easy to conjecture, but impossible to know what
would have been the course of Alfred's life, what the influence
upon his character, what different impress he might have re-
ceived, had his father lived. His training thus far, under the
joint and harmonious direction of father and mother, was en-
tirely judicious; he was as promising as the parents could wish;
and, in all probability, had the father been spared to guide his
studies as he grew to manhood, he might, in some respects,
have been a more thoroughly cultured and intellectually a
stronger man. What God's purpose was for the lad it is not
for us even now to say ; yet, permitted as we are to know the
facts of his subsequent career, and to understand the distinct-
ive nature of his mission as it afterward unfolded, I must cer-
tainly regard the great bereavement he sustained in the loss of
his father as the crucial point of his history, in which the ele-
ments of character hitherto prominent were fixed, and also the
lines of action which afterward distinguished him took their
rise. Alfred Cookman was endowed from a child with a genius
for religion. His anointing was that of a spiritual seer to see
with the spirit into the innermost heart of spiritual Christianity,
A SPIRITUAL SEER. 87
and from such seeing to lead men's minds into depths of a
vital and blessed experience of the things of God, to which
mere reason and even ordinary piety has no access. As the
poet, by an endowment which transcends cold logic, pierces the
core of things and opens their realities to the untutored mind
makes the blind to see, the deaf to hear, and the dull to feel
beauties otherwise hidden so he, by a divine gift above the
processes of the understanding, was to know the truths of the
great Teacher, pejceive their highest religious relations, and then
to stand as interpreter of God's work in the soul, so that multi-
tudes, blinded by the dust and engrossed with the cares of the
world, might come to perceptions and attainments to which but
for such an interpreter they must forever have remained ignorant.
I look upon this great trial, therefore, as beginning at once
the special work of which he was to be a pre-eminent example
and instrument. He was to be an unworldly, sacred man,
and God commenced with the stroke which cut him away from
the strongest earthly support he had. Accustomed hitherto
to lean on his father now mother, brothers, sister, all lean on
him j and he, poor boy, has none to lean on but God ! Once
again he was "all alone with Jesus." He had been taught that
God is the only sure foundation of His children, and now he
must prove it for himself by experience or perish. He did
prove it; and at that early age began to show a ripeness of
wisdom, a steadiness of purpose, an unselfishness, a goodness,
faith, courage, which were far beyond his years. His mother
testifies beautifully to his conduct at this period :
" He was only thirteen years old when his dear father left us
on a visit to his native land, the sequel of which proved so dis-
astrous to a large, helpless family ; but which, notwithstanding,
brought out in all their force and power what had been until
now the germs of Alfred's character. He realized his position
as the oldest of six children, and faithfully tried to fill up the
chasm made by a wise, though inscrutable Providence. Eter-
88 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
nity alone will unfold all he was to his family as a son and as
a brother in the years of his minority."
There is an old story told of a runaway Indian slave in Peru,
who, in his escape, fleeing up the mountains from his pursuers,
grasped a young sapling, and, clinging to it, tore it from the
ground when lo ! he saw adhering to its roots the silver glob-
ules which revealed the precious metals of Potosi. That sap-
ling was never planted again. It might have become the great
tree, its branches a roost for the birds of the air, and its leaves
a shade for man and beast ; but in its destruction the untold
wealth of Peru had been discovered. The rude hand of disap-
pointment tore from Alfred Cookman's heart the support of a
father's love, and the tender leaves and flowers of hope which
clustered around it ; but in doing so discovered to him a wealth
of love far richer than silver and gold. His hold on the earthly
father was broken, but his hold on the heavenly Father was
made firm and indissoluble. In the wealth he gained, and the
world through him, who shall mourn if the flowers, which might
have been so fair, lie withered at the feet of his youth ?
Soon after her husband's departure fo,r England, Mrs. Cook-
man had gone, by invitation, with her children to the eastern
shore of Maryland, where they were all to remain the guests of
Mr. Samuel Harrison, until the husband's return in June, when
they were to remove to New York City. Her stay was pro-
longed till the month of August. Since up to this time no in-
formation was received as to the fate of Mr. Cookman, and the
prospect of his return was well-nigh abandoned, she began to
cast about for the best thing to be done for the immediate fut-
ure. From the grandfather and kindred in England the most
urgent requests were received that she should at once take her
children to England. Indeed, they wrote as though there could
be no other course open to her. They were well able to pro-
vide for them, and her pecuniary means were exceedingly limit-
ed. Nothing would have been more natural than for Mrs.
THE FAMILY SETTLES IN BALTIMORE. 89
Cookman to accept this offer alone as she was among com-
parative strangers, with no relatives near, and knowing, as she
did, that the resources at Hull were so ample ; but she decided
not to go. She had left home for life ; her children had been
born in America, and Americans they should be reared. " She
would take two small rooms, and keep them all together around
her, rather than all or any part of them should return to En-
gland." Such was the language this heroic lady held to her
friends across the water, and nothing could move her from her
purpose. Mr. John Plaskitt, an Englishman residing in Balti-
more City, and long known as the head of the firm of Plaskitt &
Armstrong, booksellers and stationers, a prominent Methodist,
and an intimate friend of the husband, with other gentlemen,
rented a small house on Mulberry Street, near the Eutaw Street
Methodist Church; and to it the family removed in the autumn.
Mrs. Cookman and Alfred united with the Eutaw Street
Church. The children who were old enough were entered at the
Eutaw Street Sunday-school, and also at day schools. Alfred, at
different times for the next few years, was under the instruction
of Messrs. Robert H. Pattison, Perley R. Lovejoy, and John H.
Dashiell all recently students of Dickinson College and of a
Mr. Burleigh. At Mr. Burleigh's school on one occasion he
took several prizes for elocution, an essay on simplicity, exer-
cises in Latin, etc. He began thus early to attract attention as
a speaker and writer. Mr. Robert Armstrong, then superin-
tendent of the Eutaw Street Sunday-school, noticed his apti-
tude for public speaking, and was accustomed to put him up to
address the boys' department of the school. His first original
declamation was on the American Indian, in which the richness
of his fancy and the force and gracefulness of his elocution were
already apparent.
The following letter from the grandfather shows the truly
parental solicitude with which he regarded the widow and the
children of his late son ; and the reply from Alfred affords us
QO LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
an example of his dutifulness, and some account of his doings
and progress.
From Mr. George Cookman, of Hull, to Alfred, his grandson :
" HULL, April 5, 1842.
" MY DEAR ALFRED, I received three days ago the letter of your dear
mother, sent off in February, and had a fearful presentiment of her recent
affliction, as her letter of the 27th of December never came to hand. I am,
however, very thankful that she is so much recovered ; and I trust, as the
spring advances, she will regain her wonted health. I am quite as well as I
can expect to be at my advanced age, and feel a most lively interest in the
comfort and happiness of your dear family. I look to you, my dear Alfred,
as an important coadjutor with your dear mother in forming the habits and
character of your family ; and it gives me inexpressible pleasure to learn,
from your dear mother's letter, that there is every reason to hope that my
expectations in this respect will be fully realized. Rest assured that you will
be looked up to by the younger branches of the family, and in setting them
a good example in cheerfully obliging your dear mother, in promptly and
affectionately obeying her commands, and in sympathizing with her under
"the pressure of family trials and bereavements you will greatly lighten her
burdens, alleviate her sufferings, and minister, in no inconsiderable degree,
to her peace, comfort, and happiness.
" I hope you pay unremitting attention to yqur education. Your dear
father, when about your age, was very attentive and diligent in the cultiva-
tion of his mind ; he read much, and kept a commonplace-book, into which
he copied from the authors which he read such passages as he thought the
most striking, either as to sentiment or language ; and by adopting this
plan he very much improved his style in composition and his taste. He also
began at the same time to write short essays on different subjects, as trials
of his intellectual strength ; and resolutely struggled with and overcame
those difficulties which, if not mastered, are often fatal to mental improve-
ment. It was by his unremitting perseverance in these pursuits that he
formed his graceful and chaste style of composition, and which in after-life
enabled him to write with such facility and dispatch.
"Allow me, my dear grandson, to urge you to follow the example of your
dear departed father in the cultivation of your mind at this period of your
life, for your future acquirements will very much depend upon an early de-
velopment of your mental faculties. It was by adopting this course that
your dear uncle Alfred became so distinguished, both at home among his
friends, as well as when he was a student at the University. I trust their
DUTIFUL SENTIMENTS. 91
mantle will fall upon you, my dear boy, and that you will emulate their tal-
ents and virtues and like them secure the respect and admiration of your
friends, and largely contribute to the happiness of mankind. I am glad to
find that the portrait of your dear father is, upon the whole, as good as could
be expected under all the circumstances in which we were placed ; we did
our best to get it as faithful and correct a likeness as we possibly could ; and
many of his friends here, judging of him by what he was when he left En-
gland, think it a striking likeness. We should, however, have been better
pleased if the portrait had been more perfect. The Rev. Mr. Suddards
dined with me on the 3ist of March, and has been most obligingly kind in
giving us every important information in his power, both with regard to your
dear father, and all the members of your dear family. I feel under great
obligations to him for the sympathy and affectionate regard which he has so
uniformly and generously manifested, both to the memory of my late dear
son and also to his family. I owe him a debt of gratitude which I can never
pay but our good Lord, I trust, will reward him a hundred-fold for his
work of faith and labor of love in behalf of our family.
" You will please to give my kind love to your dear mother, to George,
and all the younger branches of your family ; give dear little Mary a kiss for
her grandfather."
From Alfred to his grandfather :
" BALTIMORE, August 27, 1842.
"MY DEAR GRANDFATHER, Your letter has remained unanswered
longer than I had intended when it was first received. The reason why I
did not answer it sooner was because I was very much engaged with my
school duties, and during my vacation, when I might have written, I was in
Washington. I hope you will excuse me.
" Mother has been improving in her health since last March. She has
not been as well as usual for two weeks past. She is quite a miracle to her-
self and to all her friends, to be able to do what she does, considering how
feeble she was. The warm weather always agrees better with her than the
cold.
"I thank you for the kind advice which you give me in your letter.
Rest assured, my dear grandfather, that it shall always be my first aim to
comply with the wishes of dear mother, and in every way in my power to
make her happy, for I deeply appreciate the obligations I am under to her :
in sickness and health, she is always the same tender, kind, and affectionate
mother. I am very much pleased with the plan you gave me of my dear
father's method of improvement I shall try to pursue it, but with how
much success I know not. I have been in the habit of writing short essays
Q2 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
on different subjects, and have found it very improving. I have been spend-
ing my vacation in Washington, and had an opportunity of attending the de-
bates of Congress. I also attended a camp-meeting about sixteen miles
from Washington. There were about one hundred and thirty tents on the
ground, and about one hundred persons professed to be converted. We
had a delightful time. I enjoyed myself very much.
" The treaty with Lord Ashburton has been amicably settled, and the
people generally seem pleased. I got a sight of him one day in his carriage.
" I am connected here with the Sabbath-school. I have a class of eight
small boys, whom I take a great delight in teaching. I am also connected
with the McKendrean Juvenile Missionary Society, who have appointed me
secretary. I am also secretary of the Asbury Juvenile Temperance Society
of Baltimore. So you see I have plenty to do.
" The temperance cause is making rapid strides in this city and elsewhere.
The Hon. T. F. Marshall, who is a reformed drunkard, has become one of
its most powerful advocates. He is a man of fine talents, and excels as a
public speaker. My brothers are all well. I wish, my dear grandfather,
we could all see you and you could see us, and give us your valuable advice
in person. We often look at your likeness hanging on the wall, and try to
bring you before us. I hope you will continue your correspondence with me
occasionally, and suggest plans that I may profit by. I resume my school
duties to-morrow, for which I am very glad. I shall try to make the best
of my time now, for I suppose I shall soon have to turn my attention to
business. Mother says the next year will probably be my last for regular
study. * * *
Here also are letters of a year later from George, and Al-
fred to their grandfather. They were written on one sheet of
paper, and already exhibit the dawn of that loving brotherhood
which grew with their growth in maturer years. Pretty plucky
American boys, to write thus of Independence day to their En-
glish sire ! Like many others, our young orator began fairly
to fledge on the Fourth of July.
From George to his grandfather :
"BALTIMORE, July 27, 1843.
" Mv DEAR GRANDFATHER, I have for some time past been wondering
how I could make a letter interesting to you, and now I think I have suc-
ceeded in gaining my object In the first place, I wish to tell you how we
spent the 4th of July, the anniversary of our country's independence. The
THE FOURTH OF JULY ORATOR. 93
Sunday-school to which we belong assembled about 7 o'clock in the morn-
ing, and started from the school-house. We arrived at the place of desti-
nation about 8 o'clock. It was a beautiful grove, about a mile from the
city. Our exercises commenced with singing and prayer, after which the
children played for about an hour. We then again met at the stand, and,
after singing and prayer, the Declaration of Independence was read. Al-
fred, who was the orator of the day, rose and spoke an original oration.
There were several addresses and dialogues by the boys. We had a plen-
tiful repast, and about 4 o'clock returned to the city, highly delighted by the
exercises of the day. Alfred gave us some very good advice on patriotism,
temperance, and duty to parents, and various other subjects. He was highly
applauded for his youthful effort. At an exhibition of his school about a
week ago, six judges awarded him the first prize for declamation. Our school
broke up last Friday for the August holidays. I expect to start for the
country in a day or two, where I hope to have a fine time in the various
amusements of the country. I wish mother would move in the country
rather than live in a crowded city.
" Your affectionate grandson,
"GEORGE COOKMAN."
From Alfred to his grandfather :
"BALTIMORE, July 27, 1843.
" MY DEAR GRANDFATHER, At the request of dear mother, I purpose
writing you a short letter on matters and things in general. For the last
month I have had my time very much occupied in writing, committing, and
delivering speeches, which I do assure you is no very easy task. On the
4th of July last, at the request of the teachers of the Eutaw Sabbath-
school, I assembled with them in a most delightful grove, for the purpose
of addressing them on the very interesting theme of the emancipation of our
beloved America from the weight of British laws and British subjection of
the glorious 4th of July, 1776, when we declared ourselves a free and inde-
pendent people, and to which day every true American ought to recur with
feelings of veneration and patriotism. After numerous addresses and a
plentiful repast, the children repaired to their respective homes highly de-
lighted ; and their only complaint was that the 4th of July did not come
often enough for them. During the past year I have been going to a Mr.
Burleigh's school, and have devoted almost all my time to the study of the
ancient and modern languages. I think that the last year has added very-
much to my stock of information on various subjects. On the 2oth of July
Mr. Burleigh had an exhibition. About twenty-three of his scholars took
part in the exercises ; eight of that number had original speeches. I chose,
94 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
as the subject of my remarks, " Simplicity." I also delivered a short speech
in French. After the speaking was over, the premiums were awarded to
those deserving of them in the different classes. I received a handsome
silver goblet, a small but neat silver cup, and two most interesting books.
Our audience consisted of about fourteen hundred persons, who left the hall
extremely gratified with the exercises. About three months ago a number
of moral and intellectual youths formed themselves into a society for the
purpose of self-improvement. Myself and George have the honor to be of
the number. We meet every Friday evening. Our exercises consist of
composition, declamation, and debate. Already do I find the good that ac-
crues to me from being connected with this association ; the misty clouds
of ignorance which before gathered around me are beginning to disperse
before the genial rays of the sun of science, and I trust before long to walk
in the broad daylight of learning and intelligence. The influenza is raging
to a very great extent in the city. Scarcely can you enter a house but some
of the inmates are not suffering with it. * * * We are very anxious for
mother to move into the country a short distance, say one and a half or
two miles. We see every day more and more the demoralizing influence of
crowded cities in bringing up youth, and particularly so in Baltimore. I
have not been in any city or town, nor do I believe there is any, where the
youth are so depraved in their character and vicious in their habits as in
Baltimore. * * * But I am getting beyond my bounds. Tell cousin George
R. I should be glad to hear from him."
I have before me a copy of the Fourth of July oration. It is
creditable alike to the head and the heart of its youthful author.
It is well conceived and well expressed, showing the elevation
of thought and principle, the patriotic and religious fire which
thus early animated him. In the same composition-book, in
his neat handwriting, are translations from the Greek and Latin,
and original essays, which give evidence of a vigorous intellect
already well advanced in culture.
CHAPTER VI.
ALFRED, THE CHRISTIAN WORKER. ESSAYS AT PREACHING.
HARMONIOUSLY with his intellectual progress, Alfred's moral
and spiritual character was also growing. Mrs. Cookman, to
satisfy her own yearnings for usefulness, to gratify the inces-
sant demands for her counsel and society, and to obtain relief
for her mind by activity, was much from home. She literally
went about doing good visiting the sick, needy, and penitent,
attending social and religious meetings ; and thus her heart
was diverted, in a measure, from her great sorrow, and she was
able to maintain a degree of health and cheerfulness. All this
while Alfred was a keeper at home. He would urge her out,
and volunteer to remain and take care of the children. Of an
evening he could be seen, with his little brothers surrounding a
large table, superintending their studies, helping them forward
in their next day's tasks. Oftentimes the mother would return
home weary, and she would say, "Come, children, we must have
prayers before we go to bed ;" and the quick response would
be, " Mother, we have had prayers ; Alfred has held prayers
with us." At this age he showed habits of system and neat-
ness which always followed him. His little room was a pink
of tidiness ; his bed, his books, his table, his clothes, all were
kept in the nicest order, and he punctually observed the hours
of coming and going assigned him by his mother. Could a
better testimony be given to a son than the following from the
pen of his mother ?
"There are very few who could fully estimate the love and
sympathy of such a mere youth as Alfred was when I was left
96 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
without the strong arm I had been accustomed to lean upon.
He turned at once into the path of a wise and steady coun-
selor, both to myself as well as to his brothers. He tried to
share every burden and supply every loss which an apparent
adverse Providence had laid upon us. In the deep anguish of
a stricken heart, he would say, ' Dear mother, let the event be
as it may, it is all right, and will turn out for the best; our
heavenly Father disposes of all events, and He can not err in
any of His dealings with His children.' Alfred did almost ex-
clusively direct and control the studies of his brothers, unite
with them in their various pursuits, and guard them from influ-
ences that might have been prejudicial but for his timely warn-
ings ; and yet there was no austerity in his admonitions ; a
spirit of consideration and kindness ever marked his efforts.
He was remarkably constant in the path of obedience both to-
ward God and in his Church relations. His class-meeting was
never neglected. His attendance at the Sabbath-school, first as
a scholar and then as a teacher, was constant ; and so marked
was his conduct as to induce the superintendent to request him
to address his youthful companions on the importance of yield-
ing their hearts to the blessed Saviour, and this before he was
fifteen years of age."
Although he was naturally thoughtful, and the care prema-
turely devolved upon him tended to sadden his spirits, it must
not be inferred that he was at all gloomy or despondent. On
the contrary, he was one of the liveliest of boys, full of fun and
cheerful gayety; he was always ready for a gambol with his
brothers and his neighbors. He was a great favorite with his
young companions. Known to be a ready writer, nothing was
more common than for all the girls around to wish him to write
their valentines.
The first public religious exercise which Alfred conducted
was " to lead a class-meeting," when about sixteen years of age.
A Mr. Childs had requested him to lead his class. The class
CHARLES STREET METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 97
met in a private house. The mother, in her great desire to
hear him conduct it without embarrassing him by her presence,
concealed herself behind a side stair-way, and so listened to all
the exercises. His opening hymn, which he read and sang,
aS ' "Talk with us, Lord."
After a struggle of two years, Mrs. Cookman received the
blessing of the perfect love of God, which removed her de-
spondency and restored her former cheerfulness. While com-
muning at Eutaw Street Church, the Holy Spirit applied Christ's
words, " His blood was shed for thee," with such force and
sweetness as to fill her soul with peace, and to give her com-
plete victory over all her fears. Henceforth she walked in the
light of the Lord. This occurrence was very important, not
only for herself, but also for the active work she was doing in
the churches, and most of all for the duties which she owed to her
family. In 1844 the new and beautiful Charles Street Methodist
Episcopal Church was dedicated. The trustees cordially offered
Mrs. Cookman a pew, and the family found a warm welcome in
the bosom of this young Church, under the pastoral care of
the Rev. Edwin Dorsey, M.D. To be more convenient to the
church, they removed to a house on Lexington Street. In the
associations here Alfred's activity rapidly developed. His tal-
ents and piety were soon recognized, and he found every en-
couragement to their exercise.
Early in this year Alfred and George received a letter from
their grandfather. It is so good that I can not refrain from in-
serting it entire.
From the grandfather Cookman to Alfred and George :
" HULL, STEPNEY LODGE, January 27, 1844.
"Mv DEAR ALFRED AND GEORGE, I received with more than ordinary
pleasure your letters of the 27th of July, and in reading them I could scarce-
ly persuade myself but that time, by some mysterious revolution, had thrown
back my life for at least five-and-twenty years, and that I was again read-
E
98 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
ing the pleasing letters of dear Alfred and George, my beloved sons. But,
alas ! the spell was soon broken by the painful recollections of the past. I
am, however, delighted with your letters. The handwriting is very good ;
the composition, for your ages, is of a superior order ; and, if you continue
to prosecute your studies and exercises with unremitting perseverance, I
have no doubt but you will, in your day, be the fac-similes of those whose
endearing names you bear. * * * Let me entreat you, my dear grandchil-
dren, to minister in every way in your power to the tranquillity, comfort,
and happiness of a mother whose maternal care and solicitude for the wel-
fare of her family have been as unremitting as her love has been pure and
ardent. I was delighted to hear of your attainments as scholars, and of the
very handsome manner in which your exercises were received by the audi-
ence at your public exhibition. You have, by these successful efforts, se-
cured a prominent position in the estimation of the public; and if you should
conclude from this circumstance that you may now relax your efforts in the
prosecution of your studies, this elevation will be but the precursor of your
fall. It is not enough to be considered the first among boys : you must
look forward and aspire to be the first among your citizens. But this can
not be attained but by unremitting industry. Decision of character is there-
fore indispensable in all important undertakings, and I have no doubt of
your ultimate success if you are determined to excel. You are, I hope, pro-
ceeding with your learning in a systematic and methodical order, and mak-
ing yourselves thoroughly masters of one branch of science before you enter
upon another. This is indispensable, as this is the basis of all after-im-
provements in learning.
" I am glad to find that you have become members of a literary society,
and have no doubt but it will be of great service to you. Your dear father
and uncle had the same privilege, and they often surprised me by the papers
they produced and the speeches they delivered on the questions discussed
at their weekly meetings. Mixing with members of superior acquiremenfs,
they obtained a great increase of knowledge, and also obtained an easy and
graceful mode of public speaking. There is, however, some danger growing
out of these institutions, against which I would most urgently caution you.
The questions for discussion have seldom any connection with each other,
and this necessarily induces a desultory and careless course of reading and
of thought. Now the danger to be apprehended is this: that you will seek
applause in the forum rather than in the academy, and fall into a dislike of
the study of those dryer branches of learning which require greater mental
application and labor, and the mastery of which is essential to your becom-
ing proficients in sound learning. Above all things of this life, seek first
A POLITICAL CANVASS. <\ 99
the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and leave the rest to the good
pleasure of your Heavenly Father." * * *
From Alfred to his grandfather Cookman :
" BALTIMORE, March 22, 1845.
" MY DEAR GRANDFATHER, This day's mail has brought to hand a let-
ter from Aunt Mary Ann, which has been the first to break the long-con-
tinued silence which has reigned for some months. In the perusal of her
letter we were not a little gratified to learn that you still enjoy your accus-
tomed health, and are able to attend to all the concerns of domestic life.
Believing that it would afford you pleasure to hear from us, I have sat down
and will write a few lines on what we would call the leading topics of the
day.
" Well, in what condition are we as a country ? What have we done,
and what are we doing ? I think we may with propriety be compared to
the ocean : we have had the storm, and now the calm is beginning to suc-
ceed. For the last few months we have as a nation been torn with party
strife, for from the tiny school-boy as well as the gray-headed old man have
been heard sentiments, together with enthusiastic shouts, in honor of some
favorite partisan. Meetings have been held frequently at which vast con-
courses of people have assembled, and where the talent of the country have
been present to display their forensic powers. However, although I am fa-
vorable to party spirit where it can be kept within bounds, believing that it
tends to keep alive a spirit of inquiry in the minds of the people in regard
to those subjects connected with their country's welfare, yet when it reaches
the height which it has here, and is productive of the same direful results,
I, for one, would say, ' Subdue, and silence it.' It has been prostituted to
the worst purposes. Men who have stood in our council-chambers, ever
ready to second any effort that would conduce to the prosperity of the na-
tion, and who, in very many instances, have been the originators of noble
and useful measures, have had their characters defamed and their spotless
reputations sullied and disgraced. But the evils of party spirit have not
ended here. There has been the greatest amount of betting : thousands
have been swallowed up in this greedy vortex, and, among a certain class
of our citizens, that man who would bet the greatest amount has been con-
sidered a noble-hearted, generous fellow. At the large meetings of which
I have spoken liquor has been used, occasioning drunkenness and riot. All
these evils combined have presented to the virtuous and patriotic mind a
sad and mournful picture.
" But the contest is over ; the combatants have withdrawn from the field
of party strife, and the champion of the victorious party has been awarded
100 ' LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
the title of the President of the United States. All the various portions of
society are beginning to turn their attention again to their daily avocations,
and are bending all the energies of their minds toward amassing money or
something else.
" The main question which now agitates our country is the subject of
slavery. Not content with harassing us in our civil institutions, it has en-
tered the borders of our Zion, and will, in all probability, effect a division.
At our late session of Congress it was decreed to annex Texas to our Union.
This, lying to the south of our Republic, and being itself a slave country,
will be connected with Southern interests, who (the South) may insist on
measures which may prove detrimental to the North, who, in turn, retali-
ating, may bring on that most-to-be-dreaded of all evils civil war. Oh,
grandfather, I regard the measure of Congress, in this point of view, as high-
ly reprehensible. I believe that it will cast a dark stain on the fair escutch-
eon of our liberties, and that eventually it may prove the breaker on which
the proud ship of state may be wrecked.
" In the Church a difficulty has arisen whether it is in harmony with the
spirit of Methodism for a bishop, who is called to all parts of the Union, to
be the possessor of human property ; and at the late session of the General
Conference much time was spent on this question, which was finally decided
in the negative. This decision has so enraged the Southern portion of the
Church that they have declared that they will not submit to this (as they
would term it) arbitrary measure, and they have called a General Confer-
ence, to be held in May next, to take steps toward division. What it will
end in is for the future to develop. I trust that the Great Head of the
Church will rule all things well ; that He will adjust these difficulties, and
bring all things to a happy termination. I had intended when I commenced
my letter to be rather egotistic ; but ideas on the subjects which I have al-
luded to have multiplied, and I have just recorded them. My next shall be
more about myself and family. As we boys are accustomed to say, ' tempus
et spatium' 1 fail me, and I must close."
The reader of these pages will readily forgive our young
friend for his want of "egotism" in this letter, since more of
him, as an observer of his times, is seen than any merely per-
sonal narrative could have given. It is evident that he was
thoroughly alive to the stirring events of those days, in which
party strife, both in State and Church, had reached the pitch
that already foreboded the calamities into which the whole
country was soon precipitated.
PATRIOTISM. FIRST EVANGELISTIC EFFORTS. IOI
Thus at the age of seventeen he evinced a familiarity with
public movements, a close sympathy with the welfare of the na-
tion, and of the Church to which he belonged, which never for-
sook him. From this time onward he could be no indifferent
citizen of the State or member of the Church. It was not in
the nature of a soul so thoroughly human, and so richly imbued
with the Master's spirit, to be a passive cipher in the midst of
such active forces as those into which he was born and in which
he grew up. It has been conjectured, in a most graphic deline-
ation of his father, that the stirring, warlike spirit of Europe in
the beginning of the nineteenth century, at the period of the
father's birth, had much to do with his martial spirit as an
orator. A heart more responsive to the weal of the nation and
to the weal of the Church never throbbed than beat in the
breast of Alfred Cookman ; nor has there arisen among us a
public man, whether in the pulpit or out of it, whose character
was more affected by the reflected influence of these two ob-
jects. To those who knew so well the genuineness of his pa-
triotism, and the unselfish zeal of his Methodism in later years,
it is no unpleasant matter to get the peep at the early dawn of
these two great passions which is afforded us by this letter.
How like the temper of the perfected man, the sentiment, " I
trust that the Great Head of the Church will rule all things well ;
that He will adjust these difficulties, and bring all things to a
happy termination."
About this time, the year 1845, Alfred entered distinctively
upon his evangelistic career ; not, however, as a preacher, but
as an earnest worker in Sabbath-school and missionary effort.
A band of young men, most of whom were connected with the
Charles Street Church, formed a mission to the seamen and
poor children who frequented the upper docks of the harbor in
Baltimore. Their hearts were touched with pity as they saw the
large number of sailors, most of whom were confined to vessels
doing business wholly in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay, and
102 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
who were back and forth very often, entirely destitute of the
means of religious improvement. They first rented a small
room at the head of Frederick Street Dock. This proving too
limited, they removed to a more commodious and eligibly lo-
cated one on Pratt Street, at the head of the Upper Basin. It was
not the first time that Methodism began a good work in a " Sail
Loft." The old Sail Loft, christened " the City Bethel," was the
scene of the zealous labors of these devout young men on Sun-
days and week-day evenings. Alfred was the youngest among
them, but not least in graces and gifts. He was so powerfully
affected by the " Bethel Fraternity," then and always for the
shape and for the friendships it gave him, and those who con-
stituted this band of generous youths have since come to such
repute, and the immediate object for which they labored has
come to such stability, that I offer from the pen of the Rev. T.
H. Switzer, the first pastor of the City Bethel, a circumstantial
account of the matter :
" The Baltimore City Bethel was the second organization of
the kind in the city, its object was to reach sailors, watermen,
and neglected children, who loitered about the wharfs on the
Sabbath-day. It was called City Bethel to distinguish it from
the Sailors' Union Bethel, of Fell's Point, Baltimore.
" The first Seamens' Bethel had been organized many years
previous, chiefly by aged and experienced Christians of differ-
ent denominations. The City Bethel was the point of youthful
devotion to the cause of Christ. A number of young men,
aided by a few older brethren, with a commendable zeal and
desire to do good, began to inquire what could be done for Sab-
bath-breaking boatmen and neglected indigent children ; im-
pelled by the same influence that moved the primitive preach-
ers and reformers, they went out looking up the poor, neglect-
ed, and abandoned, and inviting them to a Sabbath-school and
place of worship. The first year the society conducted its own
meetings, assisted occasionally by a local or itinerant minister;
THE CITY BETHEL MISSION. 103
the Sabbath afternoons were devoted to experience meetings,
where many testified to the goodness of God in saving them
from the jaws of death and hell. At these meetings many were
convicted and led to seek the Saviour. The place of worship
was a room about twenty feet broad and forty or fifty feet deep,
situated at the head of and overlooking the City Basin.
"In less than a year it was entirely too small to accommodate
those who attended the Sabbath-schools and divine worship,
and the society purchased and fitted up the old time-honored
ship William Penn, capable of accommodating six hundred per-
sons. Rev. J. A. Collins, presiding elder of the Baltimore Dis-
trict, assisted by other ministers, dedicated this ship to the serv-
ice of God. The Bethel was safely moored in the Basin, its
flag waving from the mast-head, and service was held three
times on the Sabbath. The Bethel, though not a denomina-
tional institution, was chiefly managed by the young men of our
Church ; class-meetings were held regularly during the week, led
by the pastor; Sabbath morning and evening the pulpit was fill-
ed by the preacher in charge, in the afternoon his place was
supplied by ministers of different denominations Dr. J. Morris
(Lutheran), Dr. Johns (Episcopal), Dr. Kurtz (Lutheran), Dr.
E. Y. Reese (Protestant Methodist), and others, participating in
the services. Prayer-meetings were held on one or two evenings
of each week. From that old ship many a sailor carried a
flame of love for Jesus into distant lands, and many whose call-
ing was on land will bless God for what has been done for
them through the instrumentality of the young men of this Beth-
el. The members of the society held their membership in some
one of the city stations, but most of them belonged to the
Charles Street M. E. Church, then in charge of Dr. Dorsey.
" I distinctly remember the names of Samuel Kramer, Ger-
shom Broadbent, Robert Dryden, Thomas Dryden, William H.
Chapman, Adam Wallace, John Landstreet, William Prettyman,
Thomas Worthington, Brother Cristy, Brother Armstrong, C.
104 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
J. Thompson, and Alfred Cookman. Brother Samuel Kramer
deserves honorable mention in this connection ; he was the old-
est member of the association, and a local preacher; he devoted
much of his time and attention to the spiritual and financial
interests of the society, and this interest he kept up for many
years. Brother Alfred Cookman, although the youngest, was
one of the most active and efficient members of the society; at
our regular monthly meetings to devise ways and means of ad-
vancing the interests of the association, he was always present,
and took part in our deliberations and discussions. In the Sab-
bath-school, the experience meetings, and in the preaching of
the Word, he manifested a lively interest. Soon after my ap-
pointment to the charge, an incident occurred which brought
him particularly under my notice. Thomas Dryden, son of
Joshua Dryden, after a protracted illness, fell asleep in Jesus.
His death was deeply lamented by the society. His example
was bright while he lived, and his death was signally triumphant.
The friends of the deceased and members of the organization re-
quested Brother Cookman to prepare a funeral discourse, which
he did, and delivered in the lecture-room of the Charles Street
Church. This was Alfred's first sermon, then in his seven-
teenth year. The discourse made a strong impression on the
audience, and those present who are now living remember it to
the present day. His call to the ministry was undoubted by
those who heard him on that occasion.
"The sermon was delivered with much feeling, his enunciation
was distinct, his language chaste and impressive, his illustra-
tions forcible and appropriate; his pathetic allusions to the de-
ceased touched the tender chords of the hearts of many present.
Those who were familiar with his father's method, and the char-
acter of his preaching, could not fail to discover in the younger
Cookman traits that reminded them of that eminent minister
of Christ, George G. Cookman.
" Alfred Cookman was at that time modest and unobtrusive
FIRST SERMON. CALL TO PREACH. 105
in manner, ardent in his feelings. His judgment was in ad-
vance of his years, his imagination was vivid, and illustration
was successfully employed in his themes. In person he was
slender, and his genial countenance wore the cheerful glow of
sunshine.
" The Bethel ship was subsequently abandoned, but not until
a good, substantial church edifice was erected on shore, within
a few rods of the wharf where she had been moored. What-
ever changes time shall develop in the history of this Bethel
Church, its origin must be traced to the labors of these devoted
sons of the prophets ; numbers now living, both laymen and
ministers, remember with pleasure their connection with the
City Bethel. With gratitude to God we allude to a number of
these young men who became able ministers of the New Testa-
ment, among whom are Robert Pattison, C. J. Thompson, Adam
Wallace, John Landstreet, William Harden, William Chapman,
and Alfred Cookman."
The communication of Mr. Switzer has anticipated a little
the fact which was to give direction to Alfred's future calling.
From the incident of the funeral sermon, it is evident that an
impression was already prevailing among his associates that he
was " called to preach." His selection by those who knew him
most intimately for so important a service for their departed
associate, shows that they not only believed him called of God
to preach, but also the high estimation in which they held both
his talents and his piety. It was a great mark of respect to be
put upon a youth of seventeen years. His text on the occasion
was, " To die is gain." The general style and effect of the
treatment have been described. The mind of the Church now
distinctly pointed to him as a suitable person to preach the
Gospel of Christ. The call to preach, among the Methodists,
is regarded as a two-fold and simultaneous movement of the
Holy Ghost upon the heart of the individual and upon the heart
of the Church with which he is connected. However reserved
E2
106 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
the person thus moved may be in withholding his impressions,
the Church will be led, independently of any communication
from him, to feel that he ought to take upon himself the office
and work of the ministry. Many a young man who, in his
modesty, has tried like Saul to hide himself among the stuff, ig-
norant that any one suspected his struggles of soul, has been
drawn out of his hiding-place and thrust forth into the work.
Such, too, has not unfrequently stood head and shoulders above
his brethren.
The initial steps were taken in designating Alfred Cookman
for the ministry November ist, 1845, when he was licensed as
an exhorter in the Methodist Episcopal Church by the official
meeting of the Charles Street Station, Baltimore Conference,
Edwin Dorsey preacher in charge. In less than a year from
this time, on July yth, 1846, he received from the Quarterly
Conference of the same charge a license to preach, signed by
the Rev. John A. Collins, as presiding elder. The preparation
for the examination which he had to undergo before the Quar-
terly Conference was made wholly by himself. It was conduct-
ed very thoroughly by Mr. Collins, who, at its close, pronounced
Alfred more proficient in the subjects comprised in the exam-
ination than any young man who had ever come before him for
license. He was at this time an assistant teacher in a private
academy; his work was arduous and confining, his social and
religious engagements numerous, so that he must have studied
diligently to attain such a clear understanding of the Scriptural
proofs of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity.
George G. Cookman had thus early a successor in the minis-
try. Five years only had gone since the great light was quench-
ed in the sea, and now in the person and office of the eldest
born the work of illumination was to be continued. The deep
emotions of the mother may be better imagined than expressed,
as she saw her little Solomon recognized as God's chosen one,
and designated by the Church to the great building to which
THE REV. DR. ROBERTS. 107
she had so sincerely consecrated him in childhood. To such a
mother this hour for her first born was cause for richer joy and
juster pride than if she had seen him selected for an earthly
throne, or as the heir of the wealthiest man in the land. Of
Alfred's own feelings at this important period of his career, but
a limited statement is at command. In after years he made
this reference to it: "At he age of eighteen I took up the silver
trumpet which had fallen from the hand of my faithful father,
and began to preach, in a very humble way, the everlasting
Gospel." This allusion, and that found in the following letter
to his grandfather, are enough to show the humility and earnest-
ness with which he received the great commission. The letter
also lets us into his anxious questionings as to his immediate
future course. Its references to the late Rev. George C. M.
Roberts, M.D., D.D., can not fail of grateful interest to the
hosts of friends in Baltimore and elsewhere, who cherish with
such affection and reverence the memory of that able and de-
vout man. At once physician and local preacher, he ministered
to the bodies and souls of thousands, and for the space of a
quarter of a century wielded an influence in the community sec-
ond to no other citizen.
From Alfred to his grandfather Cookman :
"BALTIMORE, July 7, 1846.
" A favorable opportunity for transmitting you a few lines has presented
itself, inasmuch as Dr. Roberts, one of the most respected and esteemed
members of our community, is about to depart for England, with the design
of attending the World's Convention. This gentleman is a member of the
medical profession in our city ; in connection with this he is an official mem-
ber in the Methodist Church, and has always evinced great zeal and energy
in the promotion of every good and benevolent enterprise. I am sure that
Baltimore possesses no son more highly esteemed and more generally loved
than this brother, and it is on account of his noble and excellent qualities
that he was unhesitatingly selected to represent the interests of what is
termed " the city station " in this coming convention. He is a man of the
deepest and most devoted piety, and an earnest anxiety for the prosperity
108 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
of Zion has prompted him to establish a Saturday-evening prayer-meeting,
where Christians are accustomed to meet and pray, more especially for the
sanctifying influences of God's spirit. At these meetings I have frequently
been found, and have there eminently realized the presence of the King
of kings and Lord of lords. I am sure you will be pleased with him.
Possessed of a sweet, Christian-like spirit, affable and winning manners, and
no small share of intellect, he secures for himself the affection and good-will
of all with whom he is called to associate.
"As you are aware, I have been engaged in teaching for the last twelve
months. I have not realized those sanguine expectations that I indulged
when I entered upon this arduous employment ; for I confidently hoped to
do more in the improvement of my mind, while engaged in teaching, than I
could possibly if my entire time were devoted to literary pursuits. I thought
that, while instructing youths, I should effect a review of old studies, and
that between schools I could devote myself to mental labor or literary ac-
quisition ; but, alas ! alas ! my hopes have proved vain, and I have not
reached that point in the hill of science whither my aspirations would have
led me. The school in which I am engaged as assistant has been small,
and made up principally of boys who were in the very first rudiments of
science ; and day after day my duties have been to hear the little urchin re-
peat his task either in spelling, geography, arithmetic, or some other minor
branch, all of which it would be almost impossible to forget ; and thus I, of
course, have not realized my first expectation. Although these my scholars
had progressed but little, though their attainments were but limited, I felt
it to be my duty to devote myself with as much assiduity and energy to their
improvement as if I had heard them every day recite an ode of Horace or
a section of Homer. The consequence has been that, when after having
performed my duties I have returned home and retired to my own study, I
have experienced a general prostration of my entire system. My nerves
have been unstrung, my energies paralyzed, and I have had no spirit to pro-
ceed with study. I must not, I can not consistently say, that I have made
no additions to my stock during the year. Many theological works I have
carefully perused, and think that I am pretty well grounded in the funda-
mentals of divinity. During the year I felt it to be my duty to assume a
more responsible station, namely, that of a minister of the everlasting Gospel.
Frequently I have stood up in the sacred desk to expound the oracles of
God; and, in declaring the unsearchable riches of Christ, in dwelling upon
the amazing love and infinite condescension of the Saviour in redemption,
my own soul has been warmed, and I have realized that in dispensing the
Gospel I receive much of Heaven's comfort.
METHOD. HUMILITY. ACTIVITY. 109
" I have been seriously considering which would be the best course for
me to pursue in the future. My engagements with Mr. L. will terminate in
a few days, and I do not feel disposed to shackle myself for the coming year
as I certainly have during the past. I have sought the counsel of some of my
father's tried friends, as, for instance, Messrs. Hodgson, Durbin, Thompson,
and others, and they advise me to enter the itinerant field, assuring me that
I will not only have more time, but more disposition to study. I have calmly
and dispassionately weighed this advice, and think it is good; that per-
haps it would be to my advantage, in an intellectual point of view, as well as
the consideration that, in the hands of God, I might be made useful."
Alfred's mother, in referring to his habits at this date of his
life, says, " He very early threw in his efforts (with others) to
work among a class of degraded human beings, who were drunk-
ards, and were almost taken out of the gutters. His young voice
was often heard in denunciation and earnest entreaties for them
to turn from sin and become new men in Christ Jesus. With
what zeal and earnestness did he follow these poor outcasts !
Alfred was very exact in the distribution of his time. He had to
depend, in a great measure, on his own efforts. He felt himself
a fatherless youth, and had very ardent yearnings to acquire
knowledge, and to prepare himself to fill a useful and honorable
position in life. Thus he became a very diligent student in the
various departments constituting a thorough scholar. In Latin,
Greek, German, and French, he was very proficient, and his
knowledge in the arts and sciences was considerable. Even at
the age of twelve his father acknowledged he was farther ad-
vanced in those branches than he was himself at the age of
eighteen. Humility and timidity were two of his peculiar char-
acteristics, which kept him from any thing like display or as-
sumption."
Subsequently to his license to preach, and before leaving
Baltimore, he preached frequently. His friend, Mr. Samuel
Kramer, a local preacher, would take him to his country ap-
pointments contiguous to the city, and would have him supply
for him. All the opportunities he could desire, and more per-
110 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
haps than was prudent for so young a beginner, were opened
to him. His engagements were constantly up to the full meas-
ure of his strength and his time. In the best pulpits of the
city his services were accepted, and in the best society of
the city his company was eagerly sought. The name he bore
was hallowed to the people. They were prepared, for his fa-
ther's and mother's sake, to listen to his words and to love
his character. But he was every thing in himself that was at-
tractive one of the most engaging youths who ever stood in a
sacred desk or moved among a circle of friends. There was a
freshness and healthfulness of physique, an openness of physi-
ognomy, a spiritual beauty, a ripeness of culture, a manifest
piety, a gracefulness of movement, and a native eloquence which
won all hearts ; and from this early day until his death there
was no minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church who could
draw together a larger crowd of ardent, admiring hearers in the
city of Baltimore than Alfred Cookman. A halo invested him
from the beginning to the end of his career.
CHAPTER VII.
THE YOUTHFUL PASTOR. HIS FIRST CIRCUIT.
BUT the time had now come when plans for the more regular
and permanent exercise of his ministry began seriously to agi-
tate him. We have already seen from his last letter that thoughts
of a collegiate course had been entertained and discussed. It
appears that the counsels of his father's closest friends were
adverse to this, and favorable to an immediate entrance upon
the itinerant ministry.
The question may have come to others as to myself: Why
did not Mrs. Cookman settle in Carlisle after the death of her
husband, where she could have had for her sons the training
of Dickinson College ? She had lived there cherished many
pleasant memories of the town and its people had a scholar-
ship of five hundred dollars and it was proposed to her to go
there ; but her health was too feeble to allow it. When resid-
ing there she was nearly disabled by the climate, and she could
not venture to live in it again. Why, then, did she not send
Alfred ? Simply because her purpose was fixed not to separate
her children while they were in process of education. She
wished them all at home, and at that time she needed Alfred
as really as he needed her. She thought and acted for herself
in the matter. She was afraid to trust her boy at college away
from her, and since she could not accompany him, it was decided
he must do the best he could with such facilities as Baltimore
afforded. Mrs. Cookman honored learning much, but she rev-
erenced goodness more. She may have taken counsel of her
fears, but the wisdom of her decision none can presume to ques-
tion till the records of the son's life are unfolded in eternity.
112 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
Certainly the results of his ministry are not such as to leave
room for many regrets on the ground of greater possible useful-
ness. What he was we know ; what he might have been with
the influences of the broader culture which comes of the studies
and associations of the college we can not fully conjecture. A
more liberal education, prosecuted at greater length, would
probably have rendered him different, in some respects, from
what he was as a man and as a preacher, but it is extremely
doubtful if it could have rendered him more intense in his per-
sonal and ministerial influence. In the cry for scholars, we are
too apt to forget that it is not so much ideas as their applica-
tion ; not so much new truths as the practice of old truths ; not
so much thinkers as actors men of deeds that the great world
needs. A man to move and mould the people must be a man
of positive convictions, be the circle of his knowledge never so
small, rather than a critical investigator.
Alfred Cookman was capable of becoming a scholar of a high
order, but he chose to narrow the sphere of his studies to the
subjects which nourished his own soul satisfactorily, which he
felt would make him most useful as a pastor, and it was the thor-
oughness with which his intellect grasped these, and the hearti-
ness with which he believed them, that gave him in his domain
so marked an ascendency over the minds of the people. So that
I am frank to acknowledge that if a collegiate education (taking
education in its multiplex sense) would have made his ministry
different from what it was, I can scarcely see how it could have
made it more useful. I fear the contrary might have been the re-
sult. Upon the whole, it is quite safe to assume, where the sin-
cerest efforts are made by those who have the shaping of Christ's
chosen instruments, that their course is about such as God or-
ders, and in the outcome is the best for them and for His Church.
The point being settled that the young evangelist should at
once make full proof of his ministry by entering the regular pas-
torate, the next question for decision was, "What conference
REASONS FOR REMOVING TO PHILADELPHIA. 113
shall he join?" Some of his friends urged him strongly to
seek admission into the Baltimore Conference, while others as
strongly urged the advantages of the Philadelphia. It would
have been natural for him to remain where he was, but the rea-
sons for going to Philadelphia were controlling. His former
and much-beloved teacher, the Rev. Robert Pattison, had joined
that conference ; several of his young associates, such as Charles
J. Thompson and Adam Wallace, preferred it ; his father had
first united with it, and he wished, as far as possible, to follow
in his footsteps.
But, as usual, the mother's judgment turned the scales. There
were better schools and better opportunities of business in Phil-
adelphia, and Pennsylvania was a free state. Her repugnance to
slavery made her adverse to rearing her children in contact with
it. There was another consideration which weighed with her
possibly more than all others : she felt the time had come when
she must give herself more fully to the care of her children. So
numerous and pressing were her social and religious engage-
ments, that she found it quite impossible to impart the instruc-
tion and sympathy which their increasing years demanded. She
was expected to be prominent in every benevolent movement of
the ladies, to attend all their prayer-meetings, to be present at
their social entertainments indeed, to be foremost in every
good word and work, and with only very limited means at her
command ; to superintend personally a large family of children,
all of whom were boys but the youngest these must be para-
gons of neatness, propriety, and intelligence and she must be
universal mother and sister in the fellowship of joy and in the
fellowship of pain to all who needed her counsel or sought her
sympathy. It could not be : she must go back again to the old
position, when she elected to fashion men rather than to be a
missionary. While, therefore, her heart was deeply attached to
Baltimore and to its loving, noble Christians, she determined
that, for her family's sake, she must cut herself loose from their
114 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
companionship, and seek, in another city and amid new scenes,
to enter upon a course of more exclusive devotion to home
nurture.
Early in the autumn of 1846 the household goods were stored
in a canal-boat and shipped to Philadelphia. The family soon
followed, and within a few weeks were snugly at housekeeping
on Race Street, between Tenth and Eleventh Streets. Alfred
had already been requested by the Rev. James McFarland,
presiding elder of one of the Philadelphia districts, to supply
the place of Rev. D. D. Lore, who had been appointed mission-
ary to Buenos Ayres, on Attleboro Circuit, Bucks County, under
the charge of the Rev. James Hand. , He accepted the invita-
tion, and so soon as the family were settled, and he had pro-
cured the necessary outfit, he started for the " appointment."
His horse he named " Gery," in honor of his friend Gershom
Broadbent of Baltimore. Gery became a great pet with him
and with all the brothers and the little sister. Alfred and Gery
were much talked about at home, and their joint arrival on a
visit was henceforth hailed as the brightest day which could
dawn on Philadelphia. Many were the caresses which Gery got
from little Mary, and George, Frank, Will, 'and John were not
slow to test the mettle of their brother's faithful companion.
It was a proud hour when the young preacher, leaving his
mother's door, with her blessing on his head and her warm kiss
upon his lips, springing into his saddle, hied away over the hills
to his first pastoral charge. What a pang it must have cost him
to part with that loving parent, to leave brothers and sister,
who had cluqg to him as a father, and to go off among total
strangers ! But though young, and sensitive even to feminine
delicacy, he had the hopes of youth to cheer him. His heart
was full of zeal for the Master's glory, and the romantic inter-
est which belongs to an earnest nature in the first commence-
ment of a chosen and chivalrous career. On the mother's part,
his devotement to the work was one of pure self-sacrifice ; and
HIS MOTHER'S PARTING ADVICE. 115
as she saw him ride away, in the first act which was forever to
take him from her roof, the light went out of her eyes and the joy
from her heart. But she made the surrender cheerfully, thank-
ing God that He had " counted him worthy putting him into
the ministry." She could not, however, let him go without sal-
utary advice advice which he never forgot, and which became
a watch-cry in his ministry. Here is his reference to the occa-
sion : " Quitting about this time one of the happiest of homes
to enter the itinerant work, my excellent mother remarked just
upon the threshold of my departure, ' My son, if you would be
supremely happy or extremely useful in your work, you must be
an entirely sanctified servant of Jesus.' It was a cursory sug-
gestion, perhaps forgotten almost as soon as expressed; never-
theless, applied by the Spirit, it made the profoundest impres-
sion upon my mind and heart. Oh, the value of single sen-
tences which any one may utter in the ordinary intercourse of
life ! Sermons and exhortations are frequently forgotten, while
the wish or counsel simply and precisely expressed will abide,
to lead us into clearer light. Let this fact, which will find an
illustration in many experiences, serve to stimulate and encour-
age even the feeblest to speak for Jesus. My mother's passing
but pointed remark followed me like a good angel as I moved
to and fro in my first sphere of itinerant life."
To Alfred the parting advice of his mother seemed only like
a cursory remark, but it was cursory only in its natural and
unstudied utterance. Such counsel dropped from her lips as
the ripe fruit at a chance moment from the tree, or sweetness
exhales from the flower. " The best thoughts do not come to
us except gradually." This thought of Mrs. Cookman was the
condensed experience of years, and, packed in a single maxim,
it fell gently into the ear and heart of the son. In this seed-
truth was germinally the whole substance and form of what she
meant and wished his life to be the utmost usefulness and
happiness as branches, foliage, and fruits growing on the stock
Il6 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
of holiness. In the first sphere and in the last of his itinerant
life, that parting advice followed him. The Spartan matron
charged her sons, when going to battle, to come back with their
shields or to be brought back on them. Alfred Cookman
never parted with the shield his mother gave him ; he went into
and returned from many battles with it, and when at length he
fell, it is evident that on it he was borne to heaven.
Attleboro Circuit lay among the hills of Bucks County, Pa.,
and embraced in its territory a fine rural district. It obliged a
good deal of traveling and much hard work from the youthful
minister. The social status of Methodism was not so high as
he had been accustomed to in the cities, and, although he met
with great kindness from the people, he missed many comforts
which he had hitherto deemed quite necessary to his well-being.
But he shrunk from no duty, however hard, and no work which
lay in his way. Among the youths whom he had found on re-
moving to Philadelphia was Andrew Longacre, now the Rev.
Andrew Longacre, of the New York Conference. They soon
felt themselves to be kindred spirits, and very speedily there
sprang up between them a friendship which grew closer with
maturing years, and has constituted one of the most profitable
and lovely of human attachments. Andrew was younger by
three years, but Alfred gave him his whole heart. The following
letter is a proof of this affection, and also a fair exhibit of the
circuit life. It discloses to us the dutiful service he was ready
to render as a "junior preacher," the fidelity with which amid
bodily ailments he stood to his post, and also the zest with
which, though now a grave minister, he could enter into the
pleasantries of his young friend :
"NEW TOV/N, February 22, 1847.
"Mv DEAR FRIEND ANDREW, I had intended to reply to your in-
teresting and affectionate letter some days since, but circumstances have
been of a character to prevent me. Not only have I had the duties of a
protracted meeting devolving upon me, but within the last few days I have
ATTLEBORO CIRCUIT. SUCCESS. 117
necessarily been obliged to travel a good deal, in compliance with the wishes
of my colleague. On Friday last, in conjunction with his expressed desire,
I procured a covered wagon and a pair of horses, and, assisted by a teamster,
proceeded to bring a table that had been constructed in New Hope to this
village, the place of its destination. The distance is about twelve miles, and
the road being exceedingly bad, owing to the continued wet weather, we
were about three hours in accomplishing the journey. During the day I got
my feet very wet, and on my return was so thoroughly chilled that I appre-
hended a severe cold. My surmises proved but too true, for, after passing a
rather disagreeable night my slumbers being disturbed I rose in the morn-
ing threatened with my old complaint. I had promised the day previous
that I would return to New Town, and, if necessary, would endeavor to
preach on Saturday evening in Attleboro. Not willing to sacrifice my word,
I very imprudently again left New Hope in an open sulky, and with great dif-
ficulty reached New Town, when I was obliged to alight and lie down. I
found, from the state of my feelings, that it would be impracticable and im-
possible for me to proceed any farther. Debility and pain seemed to have
seized my entire system, and I was sicjc -eery sick. My colleague came in,
and very kindly consented to put away and take charge of my horse, and
thought, from my symptoms, that I should at once see a doctor. He soon
arrived, dosed me with laudanum and castor-oil, said he would call again,
and hoped that I would soon be better. In the unbounded mercy and un-
deserved goodness of my Heavenly Father, I have been almost entirely re-
stored ; and though I feel a little debilitated and suffer a little pain, yet still I
hope very soon again to plunge into the battle and fight valiantly for my God.
" But what am I doing ? Here I have filled up a page and a half with
an account of the state of my physical system : something that must be
as uninteresting as unprofitable to you. Since I left my Philadelphia
friends (friends that I regard with feelings of peculiar tenderness), I have
almost constantly been engaged in active service for my Master. Almost
every evening has found me upon the battle-plain, surrounded by a devoted
few, and arrayed against the armies of the aliens. My ear has been saluted
not by the clash of arms, the roar of cannon, the shrieks of the wounded and
dying, but, thank God, by something infinitely sweeter, nobler, and more de-
lightful. Night after night I have heard the sweet hymn of praise gushing
warm from the Christian's grateful heart ; the fervent and importunate prayer
from him hungering and thirsting after righteousness ; the hearty exclama-
tion, ' God be merciful to me, a sinner,' from him who regarded sin as a
burden too intolerable to be borne ; the transporting accent trembling upon
the lips of the newly regenerated creature, ' Glory ! Glory ! I do love Jesus,
Il8 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
for He has taken my feet from the mire and the clay, and He has planted
them on the rock of ages.' I praise the Lord for what I have enjoyed in
my own soul ; the flame of heaven's love has been burning brightly upon the
altar of my heart, and these circumstances to which I have made allusion,
viz., the conversion of my fellow-mortals, has been like fuel thrown upon
the fire to add to the power and brilliancy of the flame. I often look at my-
self, Andrew, and when I call to mind my manifold shortcomings and re-
peated backslidings, when I remember my constant wanderings, both to the
right hand and to the left, I am lost in wonder and astonishment that my
Saviour should be so kind and good as to lavish upon me such unnumbered
and undeserved blessings, that He should choose me as one of His creature
instruments to extend the honor of the Redeemer's name, I need and ear-
nestly desire to love Him more and serve Him better, to have every power
of my nature consecrated upon the altar of His cause ; in a word, to be sanc-
tified throughout, soul, body, and spirit ; for I verily believe that, if we would
be eminently useful as well as supremely happy, we must love God with all
our soul, mind, and strength. I certainly should feel very happy if I thought
I had so secured your confidence as 4 to prompt you feelingly and conscien-
tiously to array my poor unworthy self with so many noble and excellent
qualities. Perhaps that sentence was penned, like many of my own, from
impulse, for I am sure that were you to bestow upon me the least scrutiny,
my deformities, physical, mental, and moral, would induce you to start back
astonished. One thing, though, is perfectly certain. I love my friends, and
I covet their esteem and regard.
" You inquire with regard to the number of valentines transmitted and
received by myself if less than a hundred, you require the exact number ;
if more, a general estimate. Now, Andrew, take out your Arithmetic, and
refer to the numeration table. Are you ready ? If so, commence ; but take
care not to proceed with units, tens, and hundreds, but rather go the other
way, and when you reach the enormous and inconceivable quantity of 'none?
you shall be pronounced correct. Yes, Andrew, I received none. Had I
possessed all those peculiar characteristics which your friendly epistle would
seem to indicate, I am almost sure that some fair hand would have penned
a declaration of esteem and love. You inquire if I regard it as sinful.
Certainly not. I look upon it as perfectly innocent, an amusement that all
may indulge in without incurring a sense of condemnation, if the valentines
are only of the proper kind."
All who remember the expression of genuine modesty which
Alfred Cookman's face always wore, will appreciate the self-
BISHOP AND MRS. HAMLINE. 119
deprecating reference with which he meets his friend's tribute
to his personal qualities. I can almost see the girlish blush
which mantles his youthful brow at the mention of these excel-
lences. But the feature of this first letter in his ministerial life
which is most significant is the ardent breathings which it
manifests for entire consecration to God. The leaven of his
mother's advice was already working. Circumstances were close
at hand which were distinctly to impress his whole subsequent
career. In the providence of God he was thus early brought into
contact with influences which gave definitive shape to his views
and experiences on the great doctrine which was henceforth to
occupy so much of his thoughts, and to the maintenance and
propagation of which his talents and time were to be so signally
and so successfully devoted. He shall speak for himself:
" Frequently I felt to yield myself to God, and pray for the
grace of entire sanctification ; but then this experience would
lift itself in my view as a mountain of glory, and I would say
it is not for me, I could not possibly scale that shining summit ;
and if I could, my besetments and trials are such I could not
successfully maintain so lofty a position. While thus exercised
in mind Bishop Hamline, accompanied by his devoted wife,
came to New Town, one of the principal appointments on the
circuit, that he might dedicate a church which we had been
erecting for the worship of God. Remaining about a week, he
not only preached again and again, and always with the unction
of the Holy One, but took occasion to converse with me point-
edly respecting my religious experience. His gentle and yet
dignified bearing, devotional spirit, beautiful Christian example,
unctuous manner, divinely illuminated face, apostolic labor and
fatherly counsels, made the profoundest impression on my mind
and heart. I heard him as one sent from God, and certainly
he was ; his influence, so hallowed and blessed, has not only
remained with me ever since, but even seems to increase as I
pass along in my sublunary pilgrimage. Oh, how I bless and
120 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
praise God for the life and labors of the beloved Bishop Ham-
line!
" One week-day afternoon, after a most delightful discourse,
he urged us to seize the opportunity, and do what we had
often desired and resolved and promised to do, viz., 'as be-
lievers yield ourselves to God as those who were alive from
the dead, and from that hour trust in Jesus as our Saviour from
all sin.' Kneeling by myself, I brought an entire consecration
to the altar. But some one will say, 'Had you not done that at
the time of your conversion ?' I answer, Yes ! but with this dif-
ference then I brought powers dead in trespasses and sin,
now I would consecrate powers permeated with the new life of
regeneration, I would offer myself a living sacrifice ; then I gave
myself away, but now, with the increased illumination of the
Spirit, I felt that my surrender was more intelligent and spe-
cific and careful it was my hands, my feet, my senses, my at-
tributes of mind and heart, my hours, my energies, my reputa-
tion, rny worldly substance, my every thing, without reservation
or limitation. Then I was anxious for pardon, but now my de-
sire and faith compassed something more I wanted the con-
scious presence of the Sanctifier in my heart. Carefully conse-
crating every thing, I covenanted with my own heart and with
my heavenly Father that this entire but unworthy offering should
remain upon the altar, and henceforth I will please God by be-
lieving that the altar (Spirit) sanctifieth the gift. Do you ask
what was the immediate effect? I answer .peace a broad,
deep, full, satisfying, and sacred peace. This proceeded not
only from the testimony of a good conscience before God, but
likewise from the presence and operation of the Spirit in my
heart. Still I could not say that I was entirely sanctified, ex-
cept as I had sanctified myself to God.
" The following day, finding Bishop and Mrs. Hamline, I ven-
tured to tell them of my consecration and faith in Jesus, and in
the confession realized increasing light and strength. A little
EXPERIENCE OF ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION. 121
while after it was proposed by Mrs. Hamline that we spend a
season in prayer. Prostrated before God, one and another
prayed ; and while thus engaged, God for Christ's sake gave
me the Spirit as I had never received it before, so that I was
constrained to conclude and confess 'that the great work of
heart -purity that I have so often prayed and hoped for is
wrought in me even in me. Wonderful ! God does sanctify
my soul. I can not doubt it oh no !
" ' Thou dost this moment save,
With full salvation bless ;
Redemption through Thy blood I have,
And spotless love and peace.'
" The evidence in my case was as direct and indubitable as
the witness of sonship vouchsafed at the time of my adoption
into the family of heaven. Need I say that the experience of
sanctification inaugurated a new epoch in my religious life?
Some of the characteristics of this higher life were blessed rest
in Jesus, a clearer and more abiding experience of purity
through the blood of the Lamb. What a conscious union and
constant communion with God ! What increased power to do
and to suffer the will of my Father, a steadier growth in grace,
what delight in the Master's service, what fear to grieve the in-
finitely Holy Spirit, what love for and desire to be with those
who love holiness, what access and confidence in prayer, what
interest and comfort in religious conversation, what illumina-
tion and joy in the perusal of the blessed Word, what increased
unction and power in the pulpit."
Such is the account of his entire sanctification by the Holy
Spirit, given by this servant of Christ after more than a dozen
years had elapsed ; and when, if sober reflection could have
corrected the errors of youth, it might be supposed it would
have done so. Who can read a statement so simple and
straightforward, so evidently faithful to the exercises of the
soul, and so entirely consistent with the statements of conver-
F
122 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
sion and restoration he had previously made with so much can-
dor and explicitness, and for a moment question the fact of the
remarkable change which he here records? Shall we receive
the testimony to the change which occurred when "all alone
with Jesus" in the church at Carlisle ; shall we accept the tes-
timony to his ecstatic joy when, with a renewed sense of par-
don, he leaped into his father's arms at the camp-meeting near
Washington, and reject or doubt this testimony to the expe-
rience of " heart purity," the evidence of which he affirms was
as direct and indubitable as the witness of sonship at the time
of his adoption ? Certainly he was as capable of understanding
the correctness of the workings of his self-consciousness in the
one case as in the other, and also of interpreting these work-
ings in the light of Holy Scripture. Here we see the same
definiteness as there; now, as then, he seeks for a distinct
blessing, which he thinks is comprehended in the provisions
and promises of the Gospel, and in answer to his faith it is
given, accompanied with its appropriate evidence.
This blessing, the witness to which was immediate and direct,
did not pass away in a moment; it did net subside with the oc-
casion, as any casual emotion might do, but was abiding, and
constituted an "epoch" in his experience, attended with charac-
teristics which he had time to mark and prove. While I freely
allow that the consciousness of the believer can not be an orig-
inal source of doctrine, yet I must admit that when a doctrine
is taught by fair inference in the Word of God, whether by
command .or by promise, or as matter of history, the testimony
of consciousness in the living believer is authoritative, and must
be accepted in the case of that particular believer, and as an
index io all who claim a similar experience.
Mr. Wesley's attention to this great subject was first arrested,
when he was forty-one years of age, by the profession of those
who affirmed that they had experienced "salvation from all
sin." He examined them carefully, and, though he was slow to
MR. WESLEY'S VIEWS. 123
credit their testimony at first, he was finally constrained to ac-
cept it. Speaking of one such, he said, " If he can solemnly
and deliberately answer in the affirmative" (certain test-ques-
tions which he had asked), "why do I not rejoice and praise
God on his behalf? Perhaps because I have an exceeding
complex notion of sanctification or a sanctified man. And so,
for fear he should not have attained all I include in that idea,
I can not rejoice in what he has attained."* In reviewing the
same subject near the close of his life, Mr. Wesley wrote :
"In the years 1759 to 1762 their numbers" (those who pro-
fessed deliverance from sin) " multiplied exceedingly, not only
in London and Bristol, but in various parts of Ireland as well
as England. Not trusting to the testimony of others, I care-
fully examined most of these myself, and in London alone I
found 652 members of our Society who were exceeding clear in
their experience, and of whose testimony I could see no reason
to doubt. I believe no year has passed since that time, wherein
God has not wrought the same work in many others, and every
one of them (without a single exception) has declared that his
deliverance from sin was instantaneous; that the change was
wrought in a moment. Had half of these, or one third, or one
in twenty, declared it was gradually wrought in them, I should
have believed this, with regard to f/itm, and thought that some
were gradually sanctified and some instantaneously. But as I
have not found in so long a space of time a single person
speaking thus, I can not but believe that sanctification is com-
monly, if not always, an instantaneous work."t
Thus while Mr. Wesley believed and preached Christian per-
fection as a doctrine of the Bible and a duty of believers, he
was incredulous as to its actual attainment in any particular
instance until fully satisfied by the testimony of those whom he
* Tyerman's Life and Times of Wesley, vol. i., p. 462. Harper & Broth-
ers, New York.
t Wesley's Works, vol. vi., p. 464.
124 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
had every reason to credit. Such was the common-sense way
in which he dealt with all questions. To the long line of those
who in the history of Methodism have lived as witnesses to
this blessed experience, now was added a young herald of the
Cross, who was destined, by his clear and forcible teachings,
and by the eminent sanctity of his character, to do as much for
its illustration, revival, and spread in this land as any other
man of the last twenty-five years. It is not surprising that he
should have ever after cherished the highest respect and the
warmest affection for Bishop and Mrs. Hamline. As express-
ive of this feeling, and as bearing upon this period of his life,
I anticipate, by an extract, a letter written to Mrs. Hamline a
little more than a year before his death.
To Mrs. Bishop Hamline, of Evanston, Illinois :
"DESPLAINES, ILLINOIS, August 19, 1870.
" I am greatly disappointed in my failure to see you during this visit to
the Northwest. Indeed, one of my cherished hopes in coming to this re-
gion was an interview with yourself. Your influence in the past links itself
with my spiritual rest and Christian usefulness now, and will be an occasion
of praise forever and ever. The name of Hamline, next to the name of
Cookman, is the choicest jewel in the casket ~of my affectionate remem-
brance. Yourself and your dear husband were the instruments under God
of leading me out into the clear light of full salvation. How I delight and
dwell in my musings upon the memory of the beloved Bishop Hamline his
angelic face his apostolic bearing his unctuous words. It was after a ser-
mon that fell from his precious lips, preached in an afternoon, that I care-
fully and intelligently consecrated all I had and hoped for to God. The
entire consecration with faith in Jesus brought peace deep, full, sacred,
blessed peace ; but it was not until the following day, when you and I were
praying together (most probably you forget it), that the witness came clearly,
strongly, and satisfactorily that I was wholly sanctified through the power
of the Holy Ghost. With me now as at that epochal time in my history,
my heart turns toward you with an unutterable interest and loz>e. May our
kind Heavenly Father bless you with abounding consolations. You must
soon realize the joy of reunion with the glorified, and, more than this, the
beatific vision of Jesus. Oh may I not hope to be associated with you and
dear liishop Hamline in the many rnansioned home?"
CHAPTER VIII.
FROM COUNTRY TO CITY. TRIP TO ENGLAND.
THE annual session of the Philadelphia Conference was held
in the spring of 1847, at Wilmington, Delaware. Bishop Ham-
line presided. Alfred Cookman, having finished up his work,
repaired to the seat of the Conference. He was an applicant
for admission into the Conference, in company with a large
number of young men, most of whom were his personal friends.
The Conference was very full, it being found difficult to station
all the preachers, and so, at the advice of the presiding bishop,
it was voted to receive none " on trial." This was a sore dis-
appointment to our young friend, as it was to others applying.
He had preached at least a half-year under the presiding elder,
and now to be obliged to do so an additional year was some-
what grievous. The policy of such a procedure on the part of
a Conference is always of doubtful expediency, and sometimes
may be very unjust and injurious to the parties and to the work.
The young minister, however, had consecrated himself to the
Master's cause, according to the order of the Methodist Epis-
copal Church, the Church of his father ; and so, bowing grace-
fully to the decision of the Conference, he accepted again a po-
sition under the presiding elder, and entered cheerfully upon it.
He was appointed by the Rev. Daniel Lambdin to the Delaware
City Circuit, in the State of Delaware, with the Rev. Robert
McNarmee for his preacher in charge.
Before I follow him to his new circuit, an important fact in
his inward life must be stated. It will be remembered that his
early religious experience received a check upon the occasion
of his removal from Carlisle to Washington. His later expe-
126 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
rience received a similar but a more prolonged check during this
session of the Conference. The explanation is best given in his
own words. They are a continuation of the published narrative
before quoted from : " Oh that I could conclude just here these
allusions to personal experience with the simple addition that
my life to the present has answered to the description of end-
less progress regulated by endless peace ! Fidelity to truth,
however, with a solicitude that others may profit by my errors,
constrains me to add another paragraph of my personal testi-
mony. Have you ever known a sky full of sunshine the pow-
er of a beautiful day subsequently obscured by lowering clouds ?
Have you ever known a jewel of incalculable value to its owner
lost through culpable carelessness ? Alas ! that so bright a
morning in my spiritual history should not have shone more
and more unto the perfect day ; that I should, under any cir-
cumstances, have carelessly parted with this pearl of personal
experience. Eight weeks transpired weeks of light, strength,
love, and blessing ; Conference came on ; I found myself in
the midst of beloved brethren; forgetting how easily the in-
finitely Holy Spirit might be grieved, I allowed myself to drift
into the spirit of the hour ; and, after an indulgence in foolish
joking and story-telling, realized that I had suffered serious
loss. To my next field of labor I proceeded with consciously
diminished spiritual power."
His mind went under a cloud ; not only did he lose the evi-
dence of perfect love, but there followed its loss serious ques-
tionings as to the possibility of the experience which he had
professed. There is always a tendency to depress the stand-
ard of Truth to the personal experience. It is not surprising,
therefore, to find him using the following language : " Perhaps,
to satisfy my conscience, I began to favor the' argument of
those who insisted that sanctification, as a work of the Holy
Spirit, could not involve an experience distinct from regenera-
tion." Such was the candor and caution with which he referred
INFLUENCE OF THE HEART ON OPINIONS. 127
to a subject which was ever to him cause of sincere regret
The heart so imperceptibly colors the opinions of every man
that it is exceedingly difficult to have views which are wholly
freed from its influence. It is well-nigh impossible to look at
Truth with clear discrimination independently of its effects upon
the affections. Hence the Bible makes the inward experience
the interpreter of its meaning : " Whoso is born of God hath
the witness in himself." There may be a dogmatic acceptance
of the doctrine of regeneration, but there can be no adequate
conviction of its reality until the soul by the change wrought
in it receives the attest of its truth. Talk as we may of the
objective truth of God's Word contained in the Holy Script-
ures, that objective truth needs the accompanying witness of a
believing, living self-consciousness, as contained in the Church,
the Body of Christ, in order that it may be understood and felt
as the power of the Holy Ghost unto salvation. The key which
unlocks the secret wards of its spiritual treasury is the experi-
ence of the child of God. When the experience of the Church
is high, the meaning put upon Christian doctrine is positive ;
when the experience is low, the meaning is correspondingly
vague ; the decay of inward life is marked by a decay of ortho-
doxy, and its rise by a return to evangelical faith. Yet I can
not but admire the conscientious qualifying "perhaps" with
which our friend states his impression of the probable bias
which the lapse in his spiritual life may have imparted to his
judgment.
This revelation is the more painful, in that the session of
Conference, which should have been the means of establishing
him in the " faith," became the means of unsettling him. He
does not blame his brethren for it only he allowed himself to
be betrayed into undue levity. Methodist preachers, when
they come together at the Conference after a year's separation,
feel the buoyancy of spirit which instinctively arises from a sud-
den respite from pastoral cares ; the gratification which is in-
128 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
spired by the greeting of old friends. Their system of itineran-
cy, according to which no man has any particular Church, and
in the changes of which they regard themselves as candidates
for each other's fields of labor, binds them into a closer unity
of fellowship, and "a fellow-feeling makes them wondrous
kind ;" and so at their great festival they very naturally unbend
in each other's company. Their observation is over a broad
territory, they have mingled freely with all classes of people,
their wits have been sharpened by contact with the shrewdest
of mankind ; and, with an infinite fund of anecdote, it is not sur-
prising that their conversation should be flavored with incidents
both grave and gay.
It may be one of the provisions of divine benevolence that the
minds who see most clearly and feel most deeply the sins and
misfortunes of the race do also see and feel most keenly their
oddities ; so that nothing is more common than for the sense
of humor to be closely allied with the sense of devotion, and
thus the gravity which would be so weighty as to overwhelm is
lightened by an elastic gayety. That this gift may be abused
is unquestionable ; and that Methodistf ministers, like other
good people in an unwary hour, under the sway of exuberant
enjoyment, may forget themselves, is possible. Beyond doubt
there is too much trifling conversation at such times among
them ; and yet much depends upon the man himself, and upon
the schooling of his conscience. Whatever effect the conversa-
tions of these "beloved brethren" had upon themselves, upon
Alfred it was deleterious. His delicate conscience, all the
more susceptible because of his recent higher experience, and
for want of free intercourse with his brethren since he received
it, was wounded, his religious life in his own estimation was
harmed, and sank to a lower plane, on which it continued
through some years afterward.
The new circuit was found to be very congenial. From a
lady who knew him well, and between whom and himself there
THE HABITS OF CIRCUIT LIFE. 129
was a pleasant friendship, Mrs. L. A. Battershall, of New York,
I have received the following reference to his character and
work at this time:
" Numbered with the most pleasant memories of the by-gone
are my recollections of the Rev. Alfred Cookman. After his
appointment to Delaware City Circuit, he was a frequent guest
at the hospitable home of a relative, whom I was then visiting.
Domiciled beneath the same roof, ample opportunity was thus
afforded me of observing his habitual deportment in the daily
amenities of life. He was richly endowed by nature with a
genial spirit, and an ease and grace of manner which eminently
fitted him to shine as the centre of the social circle, and yet I
never knew him betrayed into a levity unbecoming a minister
of the Gospel of Christ.
" Delaware City Circuit at that time embraced quite a por-
tion of the wealthy agricultural district of New Castle County,
Delaware, and was populated by a people of more than ordina-
ry intelligence. To all classes of this population young Cook-
man came as the messenger of life. His young heart burned
with love for souls. He went from his closet to the pulpit, and,
thus panoplied with power, it is no marvel that the multitudes
which from Sabbath to Sabbath hung upon the earnest plead-
ings of his eloquent lips for their salvation, regarded him as a
royal ambassador from the Court of the Most High."
The year, according to this testimony, passed profitably and
pleasantly, as he glided about from village to village and home
to home among a devout and hospitable people. In those days
it was not customary for the young preacher to have any fixed
boarding-place on the circuit. No appropriation was made to
pay his board, but he was expected to " stay around " among the
families, remaining longest where it was most congenial, or
where, from the means and kindness of the families, he could
be rendered most comfortable, and found the greatest facilities
for reading and study. Sometimes the young preacher would
Fz
130 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
be so fortunate as to have one or more such homes at each of
the churches. Occasionally he could arrange to spend most
of his time at one central home, where his books and wardrobe
if he were rich beyond the contents of his saddle-bags could
remain, and where he was always made heartily welcome. Noth-
ing could exceed the cordiality with which the families at these
homes greeted and entertained their young minister. The best
room was at his disposal, the richest products of farm and gar-
den, the choicest poultry from the swarming broods, were put
before him. His appearance on horseback or in sulky at the
road-gate was the signal for a prompt and general raid on the
barn-yard. Lucky was the chicken which could discern the
enemy from afar, and, timely warned, could make tracks for
some hiding-place before the fury of urchin or dog fell upon its
hapless head. At the protracted and quarterly meetings these
homes became the gathering-points of the ministers and official
members of the circuit, occasions of happy reunions, and of
deep spiritual as well as social enjoyment.
At the session of the Conference in the spring of 1848, Al-
fred Cookman was again an applicant for admission, and was
received in company with William H. Brisbane, Charles J.
Thompson, Jacob Dickerson, George Maddux, Adam Wallace,
William Walton, William Major, John Hough, Curtis F. Tur-
ner, Samuel R. Gillingham, Jeremiah Pastorfield, David Price,
and William B. Mezick. His first appointment in the minutes
occurs this year, to Germantown Circuit, which included Ger-
mantown and Chestnut Hill. The Rev. James A. Massey was
his presiding elder. The circuit comprised a very beautiful sub-
urban region of Philadelphia. Germantown and Chestnut Hill
have grown into important stations. His labors were marked
by fidelity to duty, and all his exercises were indications of the
future successes which were destined to crown his ministry.
Large cities have a wondrous attractive power for all the
forces which can augment their greatness. It is not surprising
KENSINGTON AND PORT RICHMOND. 131
to find Philadelphia Methodism speedily demanding Alfred
Cookman for its service.; In the spring of 1849 he was ap-
pointed as junior preacher, under the Rev. David Dailey, to
Kensington and Port Richmond, with the Rev. John P. Durbin,
D.D., as the presiding elder. He was now following closely
in the footsteps of his father this having been the first appoint-
ment of that godly man and the brick church of Kensington,
that was so often vocal to the eloquence of the father in his
youth, was again vocal with the fervent and persuasive tones
of the son. The veneration of the young minister for his father
was an absorbing passion, consequently there could be no mo-
tive, next to his reverence for the divine Master and the sense
of responsibility to Him, so powerful as the consideration that
he was standing directly where his father had stood, and was
ministering to the very people who had listened to his burning
and instructive words. But little record remains to us of the ex-
ercises of his mind or of the character and effect of his preaching.
One of the best proofs of his success is that he was returned
a second year to the same station, with the privilege of sup-
plying his work for a part of the year and making a visit to
Europe. It was about this time that I first saw Alfred Cook-
man. Although he and I had lived as boys in Baltimore
through some of the same years, yet he was so far my senior,
and the charges to which we severally belonged were so wide
apart, that it happened we had never met. I had heard so
much of him that when I learned he was to preach at the
Charles Street Church, I hastened thither, and found myself a
curious hearer amid the crowd which thronged the building.
Many of those present had been his father's friends, they had
known him from boyhood, they comprised very many of the
most highly cultured Methodists of the city all facts not little
adapted to embarrass the young preacher. His theme was the
" Resurrection of Christ." His action is distinctly before me
now, as he described Peter and John in their eager race to
132 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
reach the tomb of Jesus after they had heard the announce-
ment of Mary that " He had risen from the dead." The preach-
er was then just past twenty-two years, of very handsome, pleas-
ing personal appearance slight, erect, with a most engaging
countenance, rendered doubly attractive by the massy black
hair which fell upon his neck and .shoulders.
A letter to his grandfather Cookman immediately preceding
the Conference of 1850 gives some insight to his feelings. It
breathes the tenderest pathos, and shows how well prepared he
was already to fill the highly important office of comforter to
the afflicted :
" PHILADELPHIA, March 16, 1850.
" I find by a reference to the newspaper that a steamer will leave New
York for Liverpool next Wednesday, and although the near approach of
Conference gives me an abundance to do, yet I have managed to economize
an hour, which I most joyfully devote to the delightful exercise of English
correspondence. Though old ocean's waters serve to separate us, yet fre-
quently thought and affection, hand in hand, defying space and distance, wing
their way to your sea-girt isle, and by the eye of fancy I can see you moving
from place to place or attending to your daily duties. How much I wish at
such times that flesh and blood could travel with the rapidity of thought.
Often would you find me lingering near, eager to pay you those attentions
which not only old age but your recent heavy afflictions so imperatively re-
quire. Believe me, dear grandfather, when I assure you that I think of and
deeply sympathize with you, and when I kneel down before Him who can be
touched with a feeling of our infirmities, I endeavor as best I can to bear
you up upon the wings of faith and prayer. The trials which in the mys-
terious providence of an all-wise God have come upon you are indeed dis-
tressing aye, almost overwhelming. To bid farewell to those as dear to
you as life itself, to gaze upon their countenances for the last time, not know-
ing that you will ever again meet with them in the flesh, to be left alone
with no relative to offer his tender sympathies or kind attentions all this
certainly must have been agonizing in the extreme. At such a period, when
the vanity of every thing sublunary must be seen and felt, how comforting
and encouraging to remember that in the blessed Saviour we have 'a Friend
that stickcth closer than a brother ;' One that will never leave nor forsake
us, who will stand by us in six trials, and not forsake us in the seventh. I
have no doubt but that you have personally experienced the preciousness of
CONFERENCE STUDIES. 133
these scriptural assurances. Under the shadow of His wing you have found
a covert from the stormy blast, and not only so, but perhaps with holy tri-
umph are able to affirm that ' tribulation worketh patience ; and patience, ex-
perience ; and experience, hope : and hope maketh not ashamed, because the
love of God is shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Ghost given unto me.'
These light afflictions, which are but for a moment, are intended to work out
for you a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. I would gladly,
if possible, pour the balm of Christian consolation into your bruised and
bleeding heart But I rejoice to remember that there is One who regards
you with more than a mother's love ; who behind a frowning providence is
hiding a smiling face ; who encouragingly whispers all things shall work to-
gether for good to those who put their trust in God. May his richest bless-
ing rest abundantly upon you, and although you are descending the hill of
life, yet with the everlasting arms beneath and around you, may you realize
that your path shineth brighter and brighter unto the perfect day.
" In a little more than a week the Philadelphia Conference will assemble in
our city. If all should be well, I expect during the session to be admitted to
the order of deacon in the Methodist Episcopal Church. I have been endeav-
oring to preach Christ and Him crucified for upward of three years, and re-
alize an increasing love for my work. Now that I am to be received into
full connection, I would dedicate myself more unreservedly to God, and in
the strength of grace resolve to spend and be spent more fully in the service
of my Heavenly Master. Oh ! that with the laying on of hands there may
be a special anointing of the Holy Spirit, that I may indeed become a
flaming herald of the King of kings and Lord of lords.
" My studies occupy much of my time and attention. Watson's Institutes
(with which you are quite familiar) is perhaps the most difficult work we
have to digest preparatory to examination. There is such a number of
points and multiplicity of theories to treasure up that I find it requires a
little extra attention. As a production I regard it as a masterpiece, an en-
during monument to the cherished memory of its distinguished author. Our
examiners have, by the direction of the bishops, put into our hands a vol-
ume entitled the Principles of Morality, by Jonathan Dymond, who, if I mis-
take not, is an English Quaker. The work, though embodying some excel-
lent truths, contains much that is unquestionably heterodox. The author
argues strongly in advocacy of the doctrines peculiar to the Society of
Friends, such as quiet worship, absence of all excitement, unpaid ministry,
etc., etc. I acknowledge that I have been considerably astonished during
its perusal that it should have received the sanction of our Episcopacy, and
Can only account for it on the ground of inadvertence. I had intended to
134 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
give you some account in this letter of the slavery excitement, which has
been shaking the temple of our liberties to its very foundations, but will be
obliged, from the want of time and space, to defer it until a more convenient
season. After the adjournment of Conference I shall be more disengaged,
and will embrace an early opportunity to pen with more care another, and,
I trust, more interesting letter than this. Mother, brother, and little sister
were all well when I saw them a day or two since, and join me, I am sure, in
the tenderest love to yourself and all other English friends."
Fortunately the student of Watson's Institutes in this in-
stance had had a training at school which qualified him to
grapple with its "number of points and multiplicity of theories."
The examinations of the second year all satisfactorily passed,
the probationer was admitted to the Conference and elected to
deacon's orders. Together with all the members of his class
(except one, whose place was supplied by the addition of Henry
Hurn), he was ordained deacon by Bishop Waugh. There sub-
sisted between Alfred Cookman and the members of his class
a close and loving devotion through his whole career.
To young Methodist ministers the companionship of the four
years' course in the Conference has much the same influence
on after-life as that of the college or theological seminary has
upon those.who are students in such institutions. This "course,"
with its associations and its drill, however imperfect, is a feature
of Methodism not understood by many who have wondered at
the slowness of the Methodists to adopt theological schools,
and their readiness to admit to the pastorate young men of
comparatively little learning. Young preachers can be con-
tinued indefinitely on trial, till voted to deacon's orders, or they
can be discontinued before this, if in the judgment of the Con-
ference they do not give proofs of original capacity and of pro-
ficiency in study. So that it is a fair inference that by the time
a licentiate is voted to orders he has become a well-informed
minister.
As I have already intimated, Mr. Cookman was returned this
year to Kensington and Port Richmond. There awaited him
VOYAGE TO EUROPE. i^e
now one of the most delightful episodes of his life. It was de-
termined that he should visit his aged grandfather in England.
The veteran himself strongly urged the visit, and it was thought
the visit would be not only a gratification to him in his ad-
vanced years, but also that at this period of the young minis-
ter's life it would be of incalculable advantage to his future ca-
reer. There is an education, a breadth and definiteness of view,
a knowledge of the world, which can be obtained in travel which
is possible in no other way. The preparations for the voyage
were rapidly hurried forward, and in the month of July Mr.
Cookman sailed in the steamer Europa from New York for Liv-
erpool. It was with no little trepidation that the good mother
risked her dearest treasure once more on the uncertain deep,
and that the son launched upon the waste of waters which had
engulfed his beloved father ; but it was deemed the order of
God, and so both took courage, as only thus a filial duty could
be discharged. It was hard to leave friends behind, but grand-
father, the best friend next to mother since the father's loss, and
old England, the " sea-girt isle," were beyond.
To his mother, Mrs. Mary Cookman :
"STEAMER EUROPA, Friday morn, July 19, 1850.
" Thinking that you will feel interested in hearing of my progress, I avail
myself of the present opportunity to pen a few lines, expecting to mail my
letter this afternoon in Halifax. Concerning my movements up to twelve
o'clock on Wednesday, George can give you all possible information. At
that hour I bade him farewell, and with my fellow-passengers started on
my voyage across the blue Atlantic. As we passed down New York Bay, I
was much interested in viewing different objects upon the shore. Here was
a magnificent edifice, with its solid and majestic columns, its symmetrical
and beautiful proportions ; there an angry-looking fort, with its gaping iron
mouths, ready to roar at the presumptuous invader of the land of the free
and the home of the brave. As we passed Sandy Hook, we parted with
our pilot (the last link that seemed to bind us to the shore), and put out
fairly to sea. By this time I had formed an acquaintance with one or two
of the passengers, and had already enjoyed much pleasant conversation.
The wind being pretty fresh, occasioned some roughness of the water, and
136 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
this, together with the combined influence of our sails and engine, caused
the boat to roll considerably.
"Now, then, for the tug of war. As the ship would rise, I would not suf-
fer the least inconvenience, but when, immediately after, she would make a
lurch, there seemed to be a strange nervousness of feeling in the region of
digestion. After a while a disagreeable dimness began to steal over my vis-
ion. I fought like a lion. At four o'clock the dinner-bell rang, and think-
ing that perhaps a little food would serve as a barricade on the field of bat-
tle, behind which I might ensconce myself from the attack of the foe, I ven-
tured to eat a little. A very few mouthfuls served to suffice, for, finding my-
self driven from my position, I resolved on retreat. Down I went to my
state-room, the enemy following me. First he got me on my back, then he
seemed to turn every thing round within me, then he commanded me to re-
store what I had so insultingly swallowed at dinner-time, and, will you be-
lieve me, I felt obliged to yield. Up it came, with a good deal more, and I
left the treasure at his feet. After so fierce a contest and so signal a defeat,
I thought I might lie down. As seven o'clock (supper-time), however, roll-
ed round, I inscribed on my banner, ' Often beaten, but still unconquered,'
and staggered up again to the charge. A little toast and tea was all I ven-
tured to take, and yet the enemy, as if maddened by my obstinate resistance,
laid upon me a heavier hand than ever, and down I went a second time.
What a trouncing I got ! I gave him back all aye, more than all. I shed
tears, I groaned, I rolled, and at last, with some difficulty, got to bed not
to sleep, however. During the night, with the motion of the boat, I pitched
from side to side, and as morning dawned rose and went forth to walk the
deck. During yesterday, although feeling somewhat squeamish, I con-
cluded myself decidedly better, and ventured to partake very moderately of
food. Last night I slept gloriously, and this morning began to feel like my-
self again. I can now just perceive the aforementioned foe in the distance,
almost out of sight, but now and then turning round to know whether it
would not be well to return. From suffering experience, I think I know
something respecting sea-sickness, and feel it in my heart to say that here-
after I will cheerfully relinquish my share to any other for a very trifling
consideration.
" Our boat is a splendid one. Her officers are gentlemanly and skillful,
her crew is orderly and obedient, the servants are attentive and obliging,
and our accommodations are all that could be desired. At half-past eight
we breakfast, at half-past twelve enjoy lunch, at four sit down to dinner, and
at seven drink our tea. The dinner service is certainly splendid, and the
food unexceptionable. We have every variety and any quantity. My state-
DEVOUT FEELINGS ON SHIPBOARD. 137
room is not quite as far forward as I should like, and yet its situation back
is not without advantage, since there is an absence from noise and a retire-
ment which is very desirable and delightful on shipboard ; besides, I have it
all to myself, and you know from experience that this is a desideratum.
Our passengers, though mostly foreigners, are very kind and gentlemanly.
Perhaps there is a little too much liquor drank, and last night I observed
some card-playing. With two or three I have formed rather an intimate
acquaintance, and find them to be gentlemanly, communicative, and affec-
tionate.
" Our noble steamer has been urging on her course steadily since our de-
parture from New York. Yesterday, notwithstanding rather unfavorable
weather, she accomplished about two hundred and fifty miles. After we
leave Halifax, and become a little lighter by the consumption of coal, I ap-
prehend her speed will be very considerably increased. Though sailing on
the vast ocean, with naught but sky above and sea around, I rejoice to say I
realize the presence of my Heavenly Father. Indeed, I think I feel, as I
never felt before, my dependence upon Him for life and every thing else.
I desire to remain momentarily beneath the shadow of His almighty wing,
for there I am sure nothing wrong can befall me. Thus far I have accom-
plished but little in the way of reading and writing ; indeed, my sea-sick-
ness would not allow of it. I hope, at least, to keep up a short diary, or,
as the sailors say, log. The weather in this latitude is foggy and cold.
Last night I wrapped myself in a blanket, and during the day find my over-
coat no encumbrance. I spend much of my time thinking of you ; you are
as dear to me as my own life. May God bless and mercifully preserve you
all. Pray for me. My sheet is full, and I must close my letter, written with
some difficulty, owing to the motion of the boat and the noise of the ma-
chinery. Give my best love to brothers, little sister, and all friends."
CHAPTER IX.
THE FOREIGN TOUR. ENGLISH SCENERY AND FRIENDS.
ON Sunday, July 29th, he arrived at Liverpool. His own
descriptions are so full and vivid as to supersede any efforts
of mine to describe the delight with which he set foot on
English soil. He had been educated all his life to believe ev-
ery thing was grand and beautiful in England, the home of his
ancestors ; he had been taught so to revere his kindred, had
been told so many noble things of them, that it was natural he
should expect much, and hence should be correspondingly
gratified if his ardent expectations were more than fulfilled.
Though accustomed to the thought of the genuine worth of his
kindred at Hull, the social and material elegance in which they
lived, yet reared, as he had been, in the modest surroundings
of a Methodist preacher's son, he was liardly prepared for all
the refinement which was to greet him. Nothing could be more
pleasing than the letters so artlessly detailing his observations
and impressions.
To the mother and family at home :
"STEPNEY LODGE, HULL, YORKSHIRE, )
Monday evening, July 29, 1850. )
" I am in a perfect ecstasy ! my joy is unbounded and uncontrollable ! my
only fear is that I will wake up and find it all a dream. I am in Hull ; nay,
more, I am at my dear grandfather's residence. Would you believe it? I
can scarce realize it myself. And now I shall endeavor to conquer emotion
a little, and, as calmly as I can, go back and detail my progress since my de-
parture from Halifax, for in that town I mailed a letter for you written upon
the ocean after we left New York. I will not advert to the routine of our
proceedings on shipboard ; if you should feel interested in any thing of that
nature, have recourse to my excellent friend and host, viz., Brother J. Baily,
SUNDAY IN LIVERPOOL. 139
and you can readily obtain the desired information in a letter which I shall
mail in the same steamer which will convey this. Suffice it to say that, after
a prosperous and most delightful voyage of not quite eleven days, no storm
having occurred and the wind having continued favorable nearly all the way,
we reached Liverpool on Sunday a little after two o'clock. I immediately
proceeded to the George Hotel, a magnificent establishment ; when, having
adjusted matters a little, I sallied forth, sighing most for religious privi-
leges, for Christian communion. As I passed up the street, I providentially
met with a gentleman whom I took to be a Wesleyan from his plain and
neat costume. Addressing him, I inquired if he could direct me in my search
for a Wesleyan chapel ? Immediately informing me that he was connected
with that excellent body, he kindly proposed to conduct me to the place of
my pursuit. Arm-in-arm we passed up the street, enjoying pleasant conver-
sation, and came to Mount Pleasant Chapel, one of the oldest churches in
Liverpool. The Sabbath-school was about to close, and, by request, I united
with them in prayer, and felt, indeed, access to our Father through our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ.
" Yielding to a most urgent and importunate invitation to accompany this
brother home to tea, at six I went with him to Stanhope Chapel, when a
brother Roebuck preached a most capital sermon. More of this anon.
The service charmed me, but about this we will have one of our old-fash-
ioned tffe-b-tetes upon my return. After the benediction I went to Dr. Raf-
fles's church, and after this to a Mr. Fallows's, a most evangelical and excel-
lent member of the Establishment. Having accomplished as much and en-
dured more than I anticipated in the way cf church-going, I returned to my
hotel, and about ten retired not, however, to sleep. The circumstances of
the evening as well as the prospects of the morrow drove slumber from my
eyes. However, not to linger by the way, morning dawned, and an early
hour found me at the custom-house, where the delay and tardiness of the
government officers greatly provoked me. Stating my situation, and mani-
festing much anxiety, I secured my trunks, and drove with all possible speed
for the railway - station, and got there just fourteen minutes past nine
o'clock, one minute too soon for the Hull train. Off we flew at the rate of
thirty miles an hour, through first a manufacturing and afterward an agri-
cultural district, through tunnels one of them four miles long under and
over noble bridges, until at about three o'clock we entered the station-house
at Hull.
" I ascertained by inquiry as well as by reference to the directory that
Mr. Holmes's residence was quite near. Taking my carpet-bag in my hand,
I went round and found a double mansion, elegantly furnished, with hand-
140 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
some park and garden, and immediately rung the bell. A servant appear-
ed. I inquired for Mrs. Holmes, ascertained she was in, was asked for my
name, I replied a 'stranger;' the maid disappearing, my own aunt made
her appearance. I observed, 'An unexpected visit from a stranger; look
at me, and tell me if you know me.' She looked, and immediately replied,
' Cookman !' I was then introduced into the drawing-room, and cousin af-
ter cousin came in among the rest two of aunt Smith's daughters : all fine,
noble-looking girls. Shall I say I spent a pleasant hour with them ? It
was more, infinitely more ; no adjective is strong enough to express the joy
I realized. We sat around the tea-table, and conversed about the past and
the present, and oh, it was glorious ! There are many little facts and cir-
cumstances I could detail, but I must forbear. After an early tea I ordered
a cab, and, after kissing one of my fair cousins who leaves in the morning for
boarding-school in London, I proceeded to Stepney Lodge, where dear
grandfather, I am most happy to say, still resides.
" As I approached the mansion my feelings were indescribable a thousand
reminiscences rushed irresistibly upon my mind and heart. I rung the bell,
and immediately the housekeeper made her appearance, and told me that
grandfather had gone to town to meet the property committee. I then re-
solved I would fill up the interim with the scrawl which I very much fear
you will be unable to read. I am now waiting for him. Stepney Lodge is a
lovely spot ; I glance out of the window and there is a small park, bounded
by a beautiful hedge ; to the left is an artificial pond, surrounded on my right
by a series of walks through noble trees and luxuriant shrubbery ; and be-
hind, a garden abounding with all kinds of fruit. I went out a little while
ago and tasted gooseberries the size of a walnut, ripe raspberries, the largest
strawberries I ever saw without exception, red and black currants, and saw
pears, apples, and any quantity of ripe grapes in his summer-house. It is a
paradise, glorious, enchanting. The house is old-fashioned and exceedingly
comfortable, containing every thing that heart could wish. Over the man-
tel-piece of the room in which I am writing hangs a likeness of dear father
excellent, decidedly the best I have seen. Before me is the portrait of uncle
Alfred, from which the picture we have is taken. * * *
" The Conference commences on Wednesday in London. Just think of it ;
how fortunate ! Thus I can attend its sessions, and at the same time visit
the lions of this world-renowned city. Thus far Providence has smiled upon
me, and every thing has turned out just as my wishes would dictate. Shall I
be ungrateful ? Rather let me, by a renewal of my spiritual covenant, prove
that I am not insensible to the thousand blessings which my Heavenly Fa-
ther so indulgently lavishes upon unworthy me. Oh, I feel I can not be
HULL. THE GRANDFATHER. 141
thankful enough ! My cup runneth over with mingled happiness and grati-
tude. John Holmes, the oldest son, is a fine fellow tall, with rather an in-
telligent face, and certainly very affectionate ; but, indeed, I can not talk
about my cousins now ; my feelings will not permit.
"Grandfather has not yet arrived. After an interview with him I will
close this sheet and immediately mail it for Liverpool, in order that it may
be in time for the Pacific's mail, which steamer sails on Wednesday. Let
me just now say I am delighted with England. My expectations were exalted,
and they certainly have been more than realized. Grandfather is coming ;
I see his tall, erect, and commanding figure. He has an umbrella under his
arm, and walks both firmly and fast. He enters, but does not know me.
Gradually I reveal the fact that his grandson stands before him. He mani-
fests the greatest delight. During the evening, until about half-past ten, we
sat together conversing about persons and things ; when, taking my candle
in my hand, I retired to my room, and received from him a most affectionate
good-night. He still dresses in the old English costume short clothes,
white cravat and is altogether the finest-looking old gentleman that I have
seen in England, or that I have ever met with. He is splendid ; oh, how
happy I am in his society ! This morning he goes to perform his duties
upon the bench. He has a charming residence. * * * I have entered into
particulars, because I know that they will interest you. Much more I have
to say, but I must close. I have seen Mr. Kenwood, a noble old gentleman,
so kind and affectionate. He sends his affectionate regards, as do all the
others."
The following letter from a niece of Mrs. Cookman will be
read with interest :
" HULL, August 2, 1850.
" Your son tells me that you are expecting a letter by the mail which
leaves this afternoon, and will be very much disappointed if you do not hear
from or of him, so he has deputed me to be his secretary. I wish his choice
had fallen on a more able person, for I am not much accustomed to or fond
of letter-writing ; but I doubt not any news of your son will be to you most
acceptable, so I will do my best to tell you his present whereabouts and future
course. He and my uncle Holmes went this morning to Sheffield, where
they will spend a few hours, thence going to Doncaster, will stay all night
there. Poor mamma will, I know, be very much dissatisfied that only one
night is allotted to her, but my cousin has promised to preach in Thornton
Street Chapel twice next Sunday, so he is obliged to return to Hull on Sat-
urday afternoon ; he leaves here again on Tuesday for London, visiting
142 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
Birmingham, Bristol, and Oxford on his way. He will, of course, stay a
night in Bristol to see my aunt Hannah and her family. From London he
is going to Paris, Brussels, and Antwerp, returning about next Saturday fort-
night to Hull, where he will preach on the following day in Waltham Street
and George Street Chapels. I do not think he has yet made up his mind
whether or not to visit Scotland. I wish you could see our family party
gathered around the table, endeavoring to fix his tour, with maps and railway
guides before us; you would be quite_amused to hear first one proposing
one plan, then a second another ; one says he ought to see this town ; anoth-
er, that is the best route ; while my cousin Alfred sits quietly looking on, and
listens to all in turn.
" Now I have told you what I know about my cousin's proceedings, I
must tell you how delighted we all are to have him among us ; our only
regret is that our eyes behold one and not all our cousins, with their dear
mother, but we are at present satisfied with what we have, and hope at a
future day to see some, if not all, of your family in England. As we can
not know them personally, we have endeavored to do so by report. Al-
fred yesterday morning brought their portraits from Mr. Cookman's, so we
all tried to judge their characters by their faces, and made Alfred tell us
their several characteristics, till I could almost fancy I know my hitherto
stranger cousins. As for John Holmes, he has taken such a fancy to little
Mary, that he proposes sending me his own sister Annie and exchanging
me for his cousin ; but that I suppose you will hardly agree to. I asked
Alfred yesterday if he had any message to send to you, and his answer was,
'Tell my mother that my cup of happiness is overflowing;' indeed, he re-
ceives so many attentions, and is so much thought of by his father's friends,
that it will be a wonder if he is not quite spoiled before he returns to
Philadelphia. Mr. Cookman and he dined with us last Wednesday ; the
old gentleman seems quite pleased with and proud of his grandson. He
went with us in the evening to hear him preach in Thornton Street Chapel,
and appeared quite delighted with his sermon. And now, my dear aunt, I
must draw my letter to a close ; in order to make it valuable, my aunt has
half promised to cross it, so on her return from the town, if she has time
before the post leaves, I shall request her to do so.
"My aunt Holmes has just come in from the town, but says it is impossi-
ble for her to find time to write even a few lines this afternoon, but I am to
tell you that she is quite charmed with her nephew."
It seems, then, that grandfather, aunts, and cousins were all
"charmed " with the American cousin. Such a picture of him
KINDRED. DONCASTER, ENGLAND. 143
and his surroundings from the pen of a maiden cousin must
have been very grateful to the mother's feelings. His visit was
not only busy with sight-seeing and social joys, but also with
engagements to preach. In the very chapels where his father,
when but a year or two older than he, first thrilled the hearts
of his neighbors, the son now preached to the delight of grand-
father and all. To the noble parent it must have been as
though his own son were alive from the dead.
To his mother :
" STEPNEY LODGE, HULL, August 5, 1850.
" I should have written to you the latter part of last week but for the mul-
tiplicity and urgency of my engagements. The Hull people have made quite
a lion of me, and hence I am expected to exhibit myself on all convenient
occasions, and occasionally interest them by my American roaring. My
cousin Ella Smith, however, very kindly consented to do what only the cir-
cumstances of the case prevented me from doing, and that was to transmit
a letter by last Saturday's steamer. I have now seen pretty much all my
relatives in this part of England, and I speak sincerely when I say that they
not only answer but far exceed my most sanguine expectations. On Friday
last I visited Doncaster, my mother's native town, taking Sheffield on my
route. Arriving at the station, I found aunt Smith, uncle John, and his
lady, in waiting for me. After a most cordial greeting we proceeded to Ar-
thur Smith's, at Sunny Bar, where I partook of some refreshments, and
then sallied forth with uncle John to see the place. We visited the old
church where you worshiped in childhood, saw the house in which you
were born, the residence of grandma from which you went when you were
married, aunt Elenor's former home, called upon her brother, Dr. Murray,
and had some conversation with him, continued our walk as far as the cele-
brated Doncaster race-course, looked at the deaf and dumb institution in
the immediate vicinity, and about six o'clock returned to Sunny Bar. For-
getting the copse of trees, or rather the name of the place which aunt men-
tioned, I plucked a few sprigs of grass from a plot in front of the old home,
and also secured a few leaves from some shrubbery immediately before the
house in which you were living at the time of your marriage.
" In the evening we had a family party at aunt Smith's. All the sons ex-
cept Theophilus were present, and until two o'clock the following morning
we remained together enjoying familiar conversation. They are a noble set,
treated me like a prince, and would only part with me on Saturday morn-
144 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
ing with the promise that I would endeavor to visit them again. I was
particularly pleased with uncle John : he is affable, gentlemanly, very intel-
ligent, consistently pious, and exceedingly affectionate. * * * I shall have
much to tell you about Doncaster upon my return, a town I have been
better pleased with than any I have seen in England yet ; indeed, the road
in the direction of the race-course, with its noble trees and splendid resi-
dences, is almost unsurpassed by any thing I have ever seen.
" On Saturday I returned to Hull, and yesterday preached in Great
Thornton Street to overflowing houses. In the evening I think there were
at least 3000 people in the chapel, and multitudes went away who could
not even obtain a foothold. They had me the day before placarded upon
the public corners and in the shop-windows, ' Rev. Alfred Cookman, of Phil-
adelphia, Sir,' etc., will preach at such a time. * * * In the morning they
wept all over the house. Some shouted. I was blessed, and indeed we
had a gracious waiting together. I am sure I never preached better than
at night ; much feeling was evinced, and I trust that the great day will re-
veal the result of my yesterday's labors. As I pass through the streets,
they point at me and say, 'There he goes; that is Mr. Cookman's Amer-
ican grandson.' Aunt Holmes, who you know is exceedingly prudent,
said to me that I ought to come to England, for at the present juncture they
needed some like me. You can have no idea of the respect which is paid
and the affection which is manifested toward me. Grandfather heard me
twice yesterday, and appeared highly delighted. The old gentleman is in
good spirits. His friends think that my visit at this time is a Godsend,
for it has had a most reviving influence upon him, who previously seemed
quite depressed. He is a noble man. Every hour serves to increase my
love and respect. This morning I visited the tomb of my grandma Cook-
man and uncle Alfred, under the Waltham Street Chapel. By-the-way, they
(the authorities) wish me to re-open the chapel for them next Sabbath
week. Do not know but I shall comply."
He was next to enjoy what, to every Anglo-American and to
every American Methodist, is one of the richest treats which can
possibly be afforded the sight of London, and the sight of the
British Wesleyan Conference. To a young man whose reading
has been chiefly in the English classics, in the history and po-
etry of Britain, until the names of her authors and of the places
of their resort, have become household words, it is a source of
inexpressible pleasure to look upon their very haunts the
T.IE WESLEYAN CONFERENCE. PARLIAMENT. 145
streets where they walked, the inns they frequented, the favor-
ite nooks where they loved to linger. And to one imbued with
the spirit and traditions of John Wesley, nothing could be more
inspiring than to touch the institutions, to see and hear the men
to whom he had transmitted his wisdom and power. All this
was the more enjoyable to Alfred Cookman because the teach-
ings of his father and the presence of his father's friends im-
parted a realness to every thing about him. These condi-
tions, added to his own enthusiastic nature, transferred him
into the very heart of all he saw and heard.
To his mother :
"LONDON, August 16, 1850.
" I leave this populous city in a few minutes for Hull, and yet I can not
consent to quit its precincts without penning you a short note, especially as
this will be the last opportunity of writing by to-morrow's steamer. I have
now been spending one entire week in London, the heart of the world. I
have seen and heard much which it will be vain for me to attempt to detail
at this time and under present circumstances. Grandfather met me here last
Monday evening, and we have been spending our time together very pleas-
antly. I have been honored with a seat on the platform of the British Con-
ference, have been treated with the utmost respect and affection by the dif-
ferent preachers, have heard many of them in debate, and last Sabbath
enjoyed the gratification of listening to Dr. Bunting in the morning and Dr.
Dixon in the evening. Yesterday I saw the royal procession for the pur-
pose of proroguing Parliament Her Majesty Queen Victoria, His High-
ness Prince Albert, dukes, duchesses, etc., etc. All the public institutions,
such as the British Museum, Bank of England, Tower of London, etc., I
have visited. Oh, it will take me a week to tell you about my sojourn in
this city of cities ! On my way here I spent about a day and a half with
aunt Townsend in Bristol. * * * She studied my happiness, and did all in
her power to render my visit pleasant.
" Next Sabbath I preach at Kingston Chapel, Hull, in the morning, ad-
dress the Sabbath-school in the afternoon, and preach for grandfather at his
church, viz., the Tabernacle, in the evening. You will say, 'Too bad too
bad ! gone for rest, and yet performing usual labor.' Well, I will be care-
ful, and spare myself as much as possible. You have no idea what a sensa-
tion I have produced in my father's native town.
G
146 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
" I shall not get to France. Grandfather seems anxious that I should be
with him, and, as I have only a short time longer in England, I suppose
I must forego the trip and gratify him. Perhaps at some future day I shall
enjoy the opportunity. I should like to write more, but have not the
time. We must now start for the cars. God bless you. I think of you all,
morning, noon, and night. Oh, how much I have to tell you all ! If you
were with me, my pleasure would be complete."
To his mother :
"STEPNEY LODGE, August 19, 1850.
* * * " On Friday morning last, in company with my grandfather, I left
great London, and set out for Hull. Early in the evening we reached our place
of destination, and as we passed through the streets found that handbills had
been printed and posted up, announcing that I would preach on the Sab-
bath. This is something so new to me, so different from our plan across the
water, that I acknowledge it does not strike me favorably. At Stepney we
found Cartwright, the housekeeper, quite well, and all things pretty much
the same as when we left. On Saturday I of course began to think about
my Sabbath duties and exercises. After determining on my subjects, I went
down to uncle Holmes's, and spent an hour or two most delightfully with
John, Annie, and aunt Smith, who is keeping house for them during the a!^
sence of her sister. I took with me your very beautiful and affectionate let-
ter, and ventured to read the greater part of it to them, as I did also to
grandfather. The reference to little John's success was most touching, and
served to draw tears from many eyes. Let me most sincerely congratulate
him on his triumphant admission into the high-school, and at the same time
express the hope that his future course will be marked by as much devotion
to study, as much honorable and rapid advancement, as has his past career
in connection with Zane Street. The allusion in your letter was the more
interesting from the fact that we sometimes tease Annie Holmes about John
Emory. She is a pretty, amiable, affectionate girl of thirteen, quite large
for her age, and I am sure that a sight of her would be attended with danger
to any of my susceptible brothers. From the daguerreotype she seems to
have taken quite a fancy to John ; hence the tormenting she suffers.
" Well, to continue my narrative, Saturday passed away, Sunday came.
Arm-in-arm my grandfather and I proceeded to Kingston Chape), a most
commodious, elegant, and comfortable place, capable of accommodating be-
tween three and four thousand people. We found it crowded, and I proceed-
ed in my old style (for any other suits me as well as Saul's armor did David)
to represent the Christian warrior, his enemies, duties, and triumphs. God
PREACHING AT HULL. 147
owned and blessed the word, and notes of joy were heard in our camp. In
the afternoon I addressed the Sabbath-school in the same church, and cer-
tainly I witnessed one of the most beautiful and gratifying spectacles that I
could possibly have looked upon. The immense gallery, fifteen or sixteen
pews deep, was filled all around with well-behaved children ; the lower floor
was crowded even in the aisles with their parents, as well as the friends of
the institution. Oh, it was a glorious, a memorable occasion ! I did myself
full justice, and the people seemed more than gratified. In the evening I
preached in the Tabernacle. * * * I have in my short life seen dense
crowds, but I am sure that I never saw any thing to equal the congrega-
tion last night. It was one unwieldy mass of human beings, almost piled
one on top of another, and hundreds, I am told, went away who could not
obtain even a foothold.
" I chose as my subject the Great Supper, and preached, I hope, in dem-
onstration of the spirit and with power. I felt that my arm was strong,
and that by the help of God a blow must be struck. At the close of the
service a number came forward to the altar as penitents, and I left with
the soldiers of Christ in possession of the field. Will you believe me if I
tell you that I could scarce walk home. I had let out every link of my
chain, and I had hardly strength left to stand. However, here I am this
morning, a little mondayish, it is true, but by nightfall I expect to be as
bright and vigorous as ever. Grandfather seems quite delighted with my
efforts, but tells me I will kill myself, and that I must not be so lavish of
my strength and voice.
"As I intimated ir my letter written in London, I fear I will not get to
Paris this time. Grandfather seems anxious to have me with him during
the remainder of my stay in England, and I suppose that, in view of his ad-
vanced age, he must be gratified in this. Perhaps in a very few years an-
other opportunity will offer, and then I can travel somewhat upon the
Continent. I have been making some inquiries about the Southampton
steamers, and I think that there is no one to start about the time I want
to go home. I have seen England, talked with my grandfather and other
relatives, and now I begin to feel as if it were my duty to get back to my
field of labor again. I know exactly how they are situated, and am sure
that the interests of both appointments would be subserved by my return.
Early in September, then, I expect to turn my face homeward. So look out
for me about the 2oth or 25th. At every step in Hull I meet with the
former friends and acquaintances of my beloved parents. Some of them
weep when they see me, others manifest great pleasure, and refer with en-
thusiasm to their former acquaintance with my father and mother. One
148 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
attended the same school with them, another went a-fishing, and a third was
a bosom friend. Dr. McClintock and myself stayed at the same place in
London, went to see the lions together, and enjoyed much pleasant inter-
course.
" I preach to-night (Tuesday) at Kingston ; next Sabbath at Waltham and
Thornton Streets."
To his mother :
"STEPNEY LODGE, HULL, August 23, 1850.
" Thus far, I believe, every steamer which has left England for America
since my arrival here has borne a letter to those at home. To-morrow is
the regular day for the departure of one of the Cunard line, and although I
have written once this week, yet I can not consent to let this opportunity
pass without dispatching you at least a few lines. My health since I have
been in England has continued quite good, and my enjoyment has exceeded
my most sanguine expectations. The comforts by which I have been sur-
rounded, the exceedingly affectionate attentions of different friends, as well
as the continual feast of vision with which I have been providentially fa-
vored, all have conspired to render the last six weeks the happiest period
of my life. The country presents the appearance of an extensive garden,
separated for convenience sake into small fields by beautiful green hedges.
Indeed, I know of no feature in the natural scenery of England which will
sooner strike the traveler's eye than the neat and well-trimmed hedges which
are every where to be seen. The foliage of the trees, too, as well as the verd-
ure of the fields, is much richer and more elegant than any thing we see in
America. This is owing to the humidity of the atmosphere, as well as to
the absence of that intense heat which so often with us exerts a blighting
influence on all natural objects. Some of the landscapes here are surpass-
ingly beautiful ; perhaps there is not that wildness in the scenery that we
have with us, but there is a cultivation and variety, together with a pict-
uresque appearance and classic interest, which never fails to please the eye
and captivate the heart.
" In the distance, for instance, upon the summit of a noble hill, you dis-
cover, surrounded by towering trees, some old castle which has stood for
centuries, and which, crumbling under the influence of time, occupied only
by the owl and the bat, remains as a monument of former times. Not
far off you perceive a comfortable -looking farm-house; a noble lawn in
front, and a highly cultivated garden in the rear. Around you see the dif-
ferent fields. In one, perhaps, the cattle are quietly grazing ; in another la-
borers are diligently engaged in securing the golden harvest ; while in a
ENGLISH SCENERY. FURTHER SUCCESS. 149
third the little lambs skip in every direction, as if almost intoxicated with joy.
Away in the horizon is a flourishing town (England abounds in towns),
which always has its church built in the Gothic style, and whose glittering
spire, like a golden finger, points toward heaven, as if it would direct the
minds of the people thitherward. While gazing upon the scene, diversified
with fields and forests, noblemen's mansions and laborers' cottages, gray and
gloomy castles, as well as chaste and cheerful village churches, you are sud-
denly startled by the whiz of a locomotive, which, with its train, like a rush-
ing comet, in the twinkling of an eye disappears in a damp and gloomy tun-
nel ; then emerging passes over the massy stone bridge of a quiet stream,
and, after darting about among the hills for a moment, is lost to view. I
did not know when I attempted this description that I should have covered
so large a portion of my sheet, and yet I am sure that, if I had done the pict-
ure justice, it would require more space and time than I at the present
could conveniently or possibly employ. Any thing further of the same nature
I will have to postpone until my return to your delightful society.
" On Tuesday evening, according to appointment, I preached in Kingston
Chapel to at least three thousand people. God was pleased to own and bless
His Word, delivered in an humble dependence upon the energizing influences
of the Holy Spirit, for at the close of the services, during a prayer-meeting
which was held, about forty individuals presented themselves at the altar,
desiring an interest in the prayers of God's people. Wednesday night I
blew my trumpet in old George Yard, where Wesley, Benson, and my be-
loved father have been heard, with pleasure and profit. Again our altar
was more than crowded with those inquiring their way to Zion. Last night
I preached in the Tabernacle to a congregation literally wedged together.
The crowd I think was even greater than on last Sunday evening. I never
saw a more attentive, solemn, and feeling auditory. We had seekers all
around our altar as well as in the vestry. Not unto me, O Lord, but unto
Thy name be all the glory. Who knows but that a kind Providence, who
thus far has most delightfully opened my way before me, has determined to
honor my visit by giving me souls for my hire and seals to my ministry. If
there should be only one who, in the great day of final retribution, shall as-
cribe to my instrumentality his or her salvation, I shall be more than com-
pensated for the time spent or the money expended in my visit to the
United Kingdom.
" On Sabbath I am to be at Waltham Street in the morning, and at
Thornton Street at night. Oh that the God of my father would be present
to wound and to heal ! I fear I shall not see aunt Holmes before my re-
turn. She continues at Swanage, and uncle doubts whether they will get
150 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
back before my departure. I have had many very, very pleasant interviews
with aunt Smith. Yesterday she took me to see Mr. and Mrs. Morley, who
now reside in Hull. They referred to you in the most affectionate manner."
From Mrs. Smith, of Hull, to Mrs. Mary Cookman :
" HULL, August 28, 1850.
" MY DEAREST MARY, Many of my correspondents complain, and not
without just cause, that I have degenerated in regular correspondence. * * *
And now, my beloved Mary, I congratulate you on being blessed with such a
son. If he is a specimen of the other members of your family, those relatives
who live to welcome them as they may come to visit England have a rich
treat in store. I say I expected to see a nice, intelligent young man, but I had
not raised my expectations to the reality. Not one of your family rejoices
more that he has come over than myself. I have such a delightful picture
in my mind of the union betwixt the families on this side and beyond the
Atlantic as I can not describe ; there was a break in the chain, but now we
seem firmly linked together. I feel we are all one, and bound together by
indissoluble ties. Oh ! we are sorry to let him leave us, and we are not
alone. How many in Hull will have to praise God for his visit ! They
have said, 'Can't you use influence for him to remain in Hull another
month ?' with much more. I could only silence them by assuring them it was
impossible ; we had received that morning a schedule of his berth, which
was taken in the steamer Asia. He leaves behind him a name, but, what
is of far more worth, many, many seals to his ministry. Any one but him-
self would be in danger from popularity ; when any thing is said in his praise
to his grandfather, he replies, ' Oh, he owes much to his mother ; I always
had a very high opinion of her judgment, attention, and piety.' It gladdens
my heart to hear him.
" I walked with Alfred one morning to introduce him to old Mr. Morley,
who desired he would pray with him ere he left the manse. I stayed a
littlfe time after his departure to his grandfather. Mr. Morley was obliged
to leave the room, and go into another to give vent to a flood of tears ere
he could converse with me, and on his return every other subject was ban-
ished except you and yours, and the pleasure he had in your society when
he lived in Fishcrgate. My dear sister Holmes mourns her absence from
home at this time. I reap the benefit, for I might have been in another
part of the country in ignorance of my loss. I do, indeed, praise God for
my present privileges ; and I feel no doubt but that Mrs. H. is in her prov-
idential path, for, to use her own words, ' However dear Alfred is, Thomas
is dearer, and has the first claim on my consideration.'
FRANKNESS. ORDER OF PREACHING. !$!
" As I have sat under Alfred's ministry, I have recalled the instrument in
God's hand ofleading me to Himself, and then was filled with praise that an
insignificant being like myself should be the first link in the glorious chain ;
and when I saw the altar rails crowded with penitents, my heart leaped with
joy, my heart burned within me, and I thought what glorious results might
arise from one of the least being savingly converted to God."
This letter very appropriately closes the correspondence
touching the visit to England. His letters, written with so
much frankness, the outpourings of a faithful son's heart to his
devoted mother, give ample incidental proof of the wide-spread,
popular, and useful influence of his pulpit exercises. The testi-
monies of his cousin and aunt abundantly confirm this inci-
dental revelation. The aunt acknowledges any one but himself
would have been in danger from such popularity. Such un-
bounded enthusiasm over so young a man was well calculated to
turn his head; but it does not seem to have affected him beyond
exciting a devout recognition of God's goodness, and pleasure
at the gratification he thought it would afford his loving mother.
Then as always there was, to all appearances at least, a sweet
absence of egotism, a simple unconsciousness of the incense of
praise which was ever rising in his presence. His absorbing
purpose. was to win souls to Christ. For his success in "slay-
ing sinners," in receiving the gratitude and applause of the
people, he ascribed all the glory to God.
Three features crop out in these letters. The character of his
preaching, already substantially formed, and which he calls "his
own " pictorial or dramatic representation is seen in the ac-
count of some of his sermons; the tireless zeal for work, unable
to rest without work, and uniting with his recreations ceaseless
preaching; and also we hear of him for the first time before an
audience of children, a direction in his ministry in which he
was afterward to acquire such remarkable facility and success.
CHAPTER X.
HOME AGAIN. MARRIAGE. MINISTRY AT WEST CHESTER AND
HARRISBURG, PA.
THE early autumn found him at his post in Kensington,
preaching to large congregations, and attending to all pastoral
work with fresh delight and diligence. Of course the little
family group on Race Street was frequently visited. He had
come back filled with beautiful thoughts and recollections,
which it was his joy to communicate to those who were as dear
to him as his own life. Much, however, as he enjoyed the
pastimes of home, he did not neglect the duties of his charge
his hours 'were full of useful occupation. Thus busily em-
ployed, the autumn and winter glided away, and the session of
the Conference approached.
A few extracts from his correspondence while stationed at
Kensington are sufficient to show the zealous spirit with which
he was animated :
"January 14, 1850.
" On Sabbath I preached both morning and evening to excellent congre-
gations. God was eminently with me on both occasions. At night I was
uncommonly assisted : an unusual seriousness pervaded the assembly, some
came forward to the altar, and I trust that eternity will alone reveal the ex-
tensive good done. Last evening I preached with much liberty; more
knelt at our altar than on the previous night, numbers in the congregation
wept freely, and we are encouraged to look for better times. I do most
earnestly desire to be a successful minister of the New Testament. While
I experience an unceasing love for my honorable and responsible work, at
the same time I would perceive a corresponding influence attending my la-
bors. Oh, that God would constitute me a chosen instrument of good to
those among whom I may toil from time to time !"
WORK AT HOME. MARRIAGE. 153
"January 6, 1851.
" Last Sabbath, the first Sunday of the new year, I preached in Kensing-
ton morning and evening on the subject of the Judgment. I have rarely ad-
dressed more attentive and solemn congregations. God was eminently with
me on both occasions. At the conclusion of the evening service we entered
heartily into a prayer-meeting. In exhortation I felt as if I was only the
speaking-trumpet of Jehovah. Almost immediately twelve approached our
altar, all very interesting cases ; a number professed to experience peace,
and before ten P. M. we had the shout of the King in our camp. To God
be all the glory."
"February, 1851.
" In Philadelphia a good feeling seems to prevail at almost every appoint-
ment. Trinity, the church where our family worship, has been catching
some of the descending drops. Little sister professes to have experienced
peace, and has joined the Church ; she seems to be as firm as an ocean rock.
There are only two now of our family who remain without the pale of the
Church, viz., George and Will, and we are praying and confidently hoping
that very soon they will become the subjects of saving grace. On Sunday I
preached three times, twice to immense congregations in Kensington, and
in the afternoon at Fifth Street to a very full house. This evening we re-
new the battle, and expect that our efforts will be more signally blessed in
the salvation of priceless souls. My heart is in the work. I glory in being
permitted to head the sacramental host in the assaults upon the strong-
holds of the wicked one."
"February, 1851.
" Certainly there is no enjoyment at all comparable with that experienced
by those who possess a divine testimony that they have been introduced
into the family of Heaven, and as the object of their Father's approba-
tion and love. Oh ! let us be ambitious to possess all the mind which
was in Christ Jesus our Lord, for every day only serves more to satisfy me
that decided and devout spirituality and supreme religious enjoyment are
twin sisters. God has joined them together, and it is impossible for man
to tear them asunder."
On the 6th of March, 1851, Mr. Cookman was united in mar-
riage to Miss Annie E., daughter of Mr. Abraham Bruner, of
Columbia, Pa., by the Rev. William Urie, of the Methodist Epis-
copal Church. Previously to the marriage he wrote to Miss
Bruner :
G 2
154 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
" From the commencement of my religious course I have felt anxious to
commit my all into God's gracious care and keeping, that I might be guided
and cared for by His infinite wisdom. In the matter of marriage, above all
others, I have been desirous that He should rule and overrule; indeed, I
have incorporated this in all my private addresses to a Throne of Grace.
In looking back upon the past I think I am prepared to say, ' He hath done
all things well,' and in all my associations with you can most distinctly per-
ceive the hand of an overruling Providence. I desire to be unfeignedly
grateful to my Heavenly Father for this and any other manifestation of His
tender care and watchful love, and in the strength of grace would solemnly
promise Him to be more devoted to His glorious cause in all future time."
As evidence of the happiness which crowned this union, and
also of the pleasant and delicate way in which he ever mani-
fested his affection for his wife, I anticipate by some years the
following effusion, written at the close of his pastoral term at
Union Church, Philadelphia, 1861 :
" This day completes the first decade of my married life. On the 6th of
March, 1851, 1 linked my fortunes with those of my dearly beloved wife, and
now on the tenth anniversary of our blessed union I would record my grati-
tude to Almighty God, whose kind providence gave and hath preserved to
me one so well deserving the name of ' help-meet.^
"Our life, made up of fidelity and love, has been like a deepening and
widening stream, upon which we have floated together in delightful harmo-
ny. Our home, with its five little buds of beauty and promise, has been an
Eden spot, where our Infinite Father, who dwelt with the first pair in Para-
dise, has vouchsafed us His constant presence. Oh, how much of pure love
and true joy have been compressed within these ten years the happiest ten
years of my life ! Accept, my precious Annie, this humble but sincere testi-
mony to your thoughtful care, constant kindness, unsullied goodness, untir-
ing fidelity, and uninterrupted, aye, increasing devotion.
" We have lived and loved together thus long and now on this anniversa-
ry day let us, in token of our gratitude to God and our affection for one anoth-
er, build a pillar of witness. It shall be composed of these ten stones, one for
each year of our married life : LOVE TRUTH PURITY KINDNESS FI-
DELITY SINCERITY CONSTANCY THANKFULNESS HOLINESS CHRIST
THE FOUNDATION STONE.
" This is the alfar upon which we will renew our vows ' to love, comfort,
honor, and keep one another so long as we both shall live.' "
HOUSEKEEPING. WEST CHESTER, PA. 155
Within a few weeks after the marriage Mr. Cookman was ap-
pointed to the charge of West Chester station. West Chester
is the county town of Chester County, about thirty miles from
Philadelphia, and beautifully situated in a rich farming district,
which was settled originally almost wholly by Quakers. The
town has long been noted for the thrift, intelligence, and sobri-
ety of its inhabitants. The Methodist Church there was not
strong either in wealth or numbers, but the members, feeling
themselves highly favored by Mr. Cookman's appointment, re-
solved to do the best they could to render him and his bride
comfortable and happy. On the evening of their arrival they
were welcomed to their new home the house having been put
in order, and tea being spread for their entertainment. The
young minister and his youthful wife were at once put at their
ease a cozy, genial feeling suffused their hearts ; they began
the first evening to love their new people, and continued to
love them to the end. A little kindness shown to a pastor upon
his first appearance in a new charge goes far to render all the
days spent in the charge pleasant and useful ; while the neg-
lect of it, though it may be from thoughtlessness, causes a chill
which it takes many days of kindness to overcome.
Mr. Cookman, accustomed hitherto to look up to a head
for direction and support, was now thrown wholly on his own
resources. He knew where was the source of power the
Throne of Grace and resorting to it, he obtained help of
God. His preaching from the opening Sunday attracted gen-
eral attention. His fame had preceded him, and very soon
his church was crowded, not only by the Methodists and their
immediate sympathizers, but also by the tlitc of the neigh-
borhood. The "Friends" were charmed by the spirituality of
his sermons and the godly simplicity of his manners. He be-
came the central figure of the religious community, and all
eyes and hearts were turned toward him ; his influence grew
day by day, and his ascendency over the minds of the people
156 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
became in a short time such as no other minister had attained
in years.
With a laudable ambition for success, and an earnest zeal for
the divine glory, he was a man full of work, spending the fore-
noons of the day in the study and the afternoons in pastoral
visitation, and mingling socially with all classes of the people
and with all denominations of Christians. The sociability and
catholicity which so distinguished his father, and which subse-
quently became so pre-eminent in him, began already to be seen
as traits of character. Effective and popular as he was in the
pulpit, he did not depend wholly upon the efforts of the Sabbath
to accomplish the work of God, but was incessant in his atten-
tions to the members of the congregation in the private walks
of life. There was no element of power which he did not seek
thus early to subordinate to the efficiency of his ministry. But
while absorbingly devoted to his own charge and to the work
which lay directly before him, it was not possible for one of such
gifts, whose family name was talismanic in all the churches, and
whose personal reputation was already wide-spread, to escape
constant appeals from far and near for special services in the
way of sermons and addresses.
The following letters to his young friend, Andrew Longacre,
give a faint idea of the intensity and extensiveness of his la-
bors. As will be seen, his summer vacation in 1851 was spent
in attendance upon various camp-meetings. He went rapidly
from one to another of these gatherings, and preached to the
delight and edification of the masses who frequented them. A
strange way to take vacation ! And yet the habit adopted thus
early in his career continued uniformly through life ; his month
for relaxation, instead of being spent in the recreations of inno-
cent pastimes or sports, in absolute desistance from his cus-
tomary home work and excitements, was usually absorbed in
the most active and taxing exercises. The change of scene, the
bodily movement, the forming of new acquaintances, the free,
ENCOURAGING WORDS. 157
joyous mingling with his ministerial brethren, the ever-fresh
inspirations which such associations evoked, but, above all, the
opportunity of working for the Master on a wide-spread scale
these were considerations which controlled and sustained his
choice.
To Mr. Andrew Longacre, of Philadelphia :
"WEST CHESTER, September 5,1851.
* * * " Believe me that my silence has not been occasioned by any dimi-
nution of kindly or affectionate feeling, but purely by the force of circum-
stances. As you are aware, I have been away from my charge for the last
few weeks, and during most of my absence have been so circumstanced as
to render letter-writing a matter of absolute impossibility. In the provi-
dence of God, I have been permitted to return to my field of labor, and very
gladly avail myself of a little leisure to communicate with one for whom I
have long entertained the sincerest regard. Your prosperity has always
greatly interested me. Believing that God had endued you with very con-
siderable talent, satisfied that you possessed in no small degree the grace
of the Holy Spirit, I thought that in a more public sphere you might better
promote the glory of God and subserve the interests of His Church ; hence
my strong desire and earnest entreaty that you should prayerfully consider
the important work of the Christian ministry. The subsequent develop-
ments of divine Providence have, I think, most clearly proved that the im-
pression which induced me to single you out for this sphere was directed
from heaven. Perhaps you may be disposed to think that I am writing too
plainly when I make allusion to your gifts and graces. Believe me, I am
perfectly sincere, and express myself in this undisguised way from a firm
conviction that many young men suffer more from depression than elation
of spirits. From a fear of adding fuel to the flame of vanity, encouragement
is often withheld, while the individual is writhing under the influence of de-
spondency and despair. I believe in my soul this is wrong, and, as a gen-
eral thing, I make it a rule to repeat to the person referred to any thing
commendatory which I may have heard. This is a privilege which becomes
a feast for my own soul, while at the same time it is intended to stimulate
and encourage the one addressed.
" Most sincerely do I rejoice in your success, and as earnestly do I pray
that God may bless you with that measure of health and strength which shall
fully fit you for the earnest and successful prosecution of your ministerial
labors. During the summer I attended five camp-meetings, preaching fre-
quently and laboring arduously. I greatly regretted my inability to reach
158 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
Red Lion, which ground I have not visited for two years. My valise was
packed and arrangements made to start, but at the last moment I concluded
that I would yield to the solicitations of Peninsula friends, who positively
insisted upon my tarrying longer in that region. God seemed to own and
bless my feeble endeavors, so that I would fain believe my course was over-
ruled for good. I trust that the meeting at Red Lion, like many which have
preceded it in that forest, proved both pleasant and profitable. I enjoyed
for a day or two its counterpart on the Shrewsbury Circuit, where there were
upward of three hundred tents and any number of Baltimoreans. At pres-
ent I am enjoying my happy and comfortable home a very little paradise.
When will you come and participate in its pleasures ? I can promise you a
cordial welcome and hospitable treatment. Next week I desire, if possible,
to spend a day or two with mother, whom I have not seen for many weeks.
Perhaps you may be in the city then, and I may enjoy a personal interview,
which, after all, is infinitely preferable to pen-and-ink communication."
To the Rev. Andrew Longacre :
"WEST CHESTER, January 10, 1852.
* * * " On Thursday evening we crossed our own threshold and sat down
again at home. Your letter was of course carefully read, and its urgent re-
quest duly considered. Will you believe me when I say that nothing at the
present would afford me more pleasure than to spend a week with old and
cherished friends on Chestnut Hill. Indeed, I wojild, if it were at all pos-
sible, strain a point and neglect something else that I might serve you. I
appreciate your situation, and would feel it a privilege to go to your help,
but I am under obligations to go to Wilmington next week, and as I have
been absent from my people for some time, and expect to leave them again
shortly, I fear that it will be out of my power to render you this desired serv-
ice. Indeed, I have almost concluded to commence a series of meetings
here about week after next, so that my way seems to be entirely blocked up.
, f " I would not have you think that I esteem Chestnut Hill so insignificant a
spot as not to merit my notice or efforts, for I speak truthfully when I say
that, as it towers above the neighboring hills, and indeed deserves the title
' Prince of Hills,' so among the many places I have been privileged to visit,
I know of few, if any, which stand as high in my affections. May God sig-
nally own and bless your proposed effort, and grant that, in a moral as well
as in a natural point of view, it may become one of the most desirable and
delightful spots on God's great footstool. You have my sympathies, prayers,
and should have my feeble efforts if I had not previously engaged to help
Dr. Hodgson early in the new year."
LITERARY ADDRESS AT WILLIAMSPORT. 159
It appears from this letter that his friend, to whom in the
former letter he had written such encouraging words, had him-
self begun preaching, and was making his first efforts at circuit
work. To the request for help, Mr. Cookman found it difficult
to say no, and nothing but previous engagements prevented his
yielding. The disposition to oblige every body, to answer to
every call for assistance, was strong in his nature ; and while it
may have interrupted his habits of self-culture and systematic
study, it yet extended his influence by constantly enlarging his
acquaintance among the churches. Among the excursions from
home was one on a literary errand probably the first of its kind
to Dickinson Seminary, located at Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
The following letter to his wife discloses a little of the anxiety
of the young orator, but more of the joy of the young father :
"WILLIAMSPORT, Monday noon.
" I have a leisure moment which shall be devoted to a family correspond-
ence. After bidding you farewell I returned to my lonely home, and pro-
ceeded to change and finish my address. This accomplished, I arranged
my matters, and, joining Professor Wentworth, returned to the depot. We
dined with your friend H , and started about one o'clock. A long, tedi-
ous ride in the canal-boat brought us to Williamsport about half-past twelve
on Saturday. General Packer met me at the boat, and is entertaining Broth-
er Myers and myself most elegantly. Our home is the head-quarters in the
town. Yesterday we had three services, Professor Wentworth preaching in
the morning and your humble servant in the evening. All went off satis-
factorily. The officers of the institution and the people of the town are
more than kind, offering me every attention. I deliver my address this even-
ing. Can not tell how it will take. The examinations are progressing, and
will not be concluded before Wednesday. I find that I will not be able to
get home before Friday. How is my precious Bruner ? Dear little duck,
I have him and his mother in my mind almost constantly. Kiss him over
and over and over again for his absent pa."
With all these engagements, the duties of his pastorate were
not neglected. The protracted meeting at which he hints was
soon begun, and resulted in a general and thorough revival of
religion, the fruits of which remain to this day.
l6o LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
At the ensuing session of the Conference spring of 1852
he was elected to elders' orders and ordained by Bishop Janes,
and re-appointed to West Chester. His work this year was but
a continuation of that of the preceding. The revival did not
spend itself, but progressed through all the months, marked
more by the universal quickening and growth of believers than
by the multiplication of converts. The probationers were in-
structed and thoroughly drilled in the methods of a godly
life. And yet a large number of persons professed conver-
sion during the last months of his ministry. In the families
of Judges L- and D , and many others, he was emi-
nently useful, and his name is revered as a household word.
Miss Annie Lewis, afterward the wife of the Rev. Dr. Erastus
Wentworth, whose beautiful life closed so early in China, was
one of those whose character he greatly assisted to fashion.
But I will allow the Rev. W. C. Best, of West Chester, to testify
of the permanent good accomplished during these years :
" Mr. Cookman and his wife were received with open arms
and warm hearts, for his reputation as a man of humble piety
and a minister of uncommon ability had preceded him. He at
once took a position in the community, and fully retained it
until his removal, such as none of his predecessors had enjoyed.
He found a church embarrassed with a debt of three thousand
dollars of ten years' standing, very much in need of repairs,
and with a small number of members, and they by no means
wealthy. During his term of service he not only put the church
in thorough repair, but paid off the entire debt. He found here
but one hundred and fifty-two members. At the end of his
first year he returned one hundred and seventy members, and
seventy-five probationers. At the end of his second year he
reported two hundred and twenty-five full members, and twen-
ty-six probationers. The church was always full when Brother
Cookman was to preach. He had larger regular congregations
than any of our ministers have preached to here, either before
STABLE RESULTS OF HIS EARLY MINISTRY. l6l
or since, with perhaps a single exception, and that was during
the war.
" He was as popular in other churches as in his own. Every
body loved him, and spoke of him as the lovely, eloquent Cook-
man. His popularity in the town may be judged of from the
number of marriages he was called upon to perform. Though
the town was small, and the society weak, he married almost as
many in the two years as were married in the past five years,
though the town and society have largely increased in numbers.
Of those converted under his ministry there was much of stable
material. One minister (Rev. Thomas Poulson), two of the
members of the present board of trustees, and several others
of the present efficient workers in our Church, were part of the
fruit of his labor. This fruit, remaining after the lapse of twen-
ty years, certainly speaks favorably of the character of the re-
vivals had under his ministry. It is but fair to state that Broth-
er Cookman gave an impulse and position to Methodism in
West Chester such as it never had, and we still enjoy the bene-
fits thereof. Though twenty years have rolled away since he
labored here, his name is still like 'precious ointment poured
forth,' and his memory is deeply revered by all who knew him.
He is still called the most popular preacher of any denomina-
tion that ever statedly ministered in West Chester. It is diffi-
cult to decide which was the stronger attraction for the people,
his unassuming piety and sweet, loving spirit, or his thrilling
eloquence that so enchained the multitudes."
The session of the Philadelphia Conference in 1853 was held
at Harrisburg, the capital of the State of Pennsylvania. Mr.
Cookman's term had expired at West Chester, and in the course
of the administration he must be sent to a new charge. He
was undoubtedly the most popular young minister in the Con-
ference. Several prominent churches within his Conference,
and some from beyond it, applied for his services ; among them
none pressed its claims with more persistence than the Locust
162 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
Street Church, Harrisburg, the seat of the Conference. The
members of this charge were on the spot ; they had generously
opened their homes for the entertainment of the preachers.
Their suit prevailed ; and when the appointments were an-
nounced, and Alfred Cookman was read out for Locust Street,
the crowded audience burst into a tumult of applause.
There could have been no situation better suited to promote
Mr. Cookman's self-development and to extend his influence
than this appointment. The borough of Harrisburg, contain-
ing about 8000 inhabitants, was beautifully located on the east
side of the Susquehanna River, and, as the capital of the state,
was a point where controlling business and political interests
concentrated. In the winter time the Legislature drew together
not only the members of the state government, but also lead-
ing men having ends to accomplish with the government. The
Locust Street Church was conveniently located, and very soon
his zeal and eloquence attracted general attention. He was
elected chaplain of the House of Delegates, was selected to
offer the prayer at the inauguration of Governor Bigler, and at
this early age obtained relatively as great an ascendency over
the prominent politicians and the community at Harrisburg as
his father had previously done over all classes at Washington.
The following notice of his preaching, from one of the Harris-
burg papers, shows the estimate in which he was held :
" ELOQUENT SERMON. Rev. Mr. Cookman preached another eloquent
sermon on Sunday evening. * * * The whole discourse was replete
with sublime thoughts and beautiful illustrations, and made a salutary and
we trust a lasting impression upon the minds of the large and attentive
auditory. One secret of Mr. Cookman's popularity and success as a
preacher is that his sermons are all good, and that whatever emergen-
cy calls him forth, he has a peculiar faculty of happily adapting his dis-
course to the occasion. We have observed this in several instances,
when Mr. Cookman has delivered impromptu addresses in response to
unexpected calls made upon him. We like his sermons on account of
their freshness and originality, and the thoroughness and earnestness
MINISTERIAL ACTIVITY. 163
with which they are delivered. For a young man he is a speaker of supe-
rior ability. He has been thoroughly educated, and has all the finish which
literary acquirements can bestow upon naturally fine powers of declamation.
Mr. Cookman bids fair to win for himself a reputation for pulpit eloquence
equal to that enjoyed by his eloquent and lamented father."
Toward the close of his first year Mr. Cookman was strongly
urged to go to Pittsburgh to take charge of a new Church en-
terprise in that city, but a sense of duty to the charge he already
occupied prevailed over the urgent invitation, and he remained
and completed the full term of two years. His ministry was
highly successful in adding members to the Church. The mul-
titudes who frequented the sanctuary and listened to his beau-
tiful imagery and forcible appeals, did not go away merely en-
chanted with the witchery of words and action ; they remained
to weep for their sins, and " to lay hold of the hope set before
them in the Gospel." If the preacher culled flowers with which
to please the fancy, he did not the less forge and hurl sharp
arrows which pierced the consciences of his hearers. At the
end of two years the Church had gained ninety members and
seventy probationers, and increased equally in its financial and
social standing.
Through these years the devoted pastor was also an active
itinerant, going hither and thither throughout the state and in
adjoining states, on all possible errands of evangelistic and liter-
ary labor. Traces of him appear among his Baltimore friends.
It will be recollected that his father, in 1835, na d written in a
young lady's album. During a visit there, on the opposite page,
he gave the subjoined exquisite expression of filial love :
"Nineteen years have elapsed since the hand of my beloved father pressed
this leaf; and I can not express the gratification I feel in reading the beau-
tiful incident which he here records, and in availing myself of the opportunity
of penning upon the back of the same leaf a slight tribute to his cherished
memory.
" Although a mere boy when he imprinted upon my cheek a burning kiss
and whispered in my ear a last farewell, yet to-day I have his image dis-
164 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
tinctly daguerreotyped upon my spirit, while his virtues shall ever be treas-
ured as the very choicest jewels in the casket of my remembrance.
" With a largely endowed intellect, he possessed a capacious heart, which
was literally filled with a wealth of affection. His lively interest in, and his
abiding love for the different members of his family, forms the sweetest rem-
iniscence of my life. Nor was his love confined to these. Breathing an at-
mosphere of kindness, he drew around him a large circle of dear and devoted
friends. * * *
" But alas ! the withering thought, like a scorching sirocco, sweeps over
the heart, that though he was, yet he is not. To use his own eloquent
language, long ere this ' the sea-weed may have become his winding-sheet,
and the coral rock his pillow ;' but, if indeed the ocean is his magnificent
mausoleum, the rolling, roaring surge his solemn requiem, and the floating
iceberg his only tombstone, we encourage our hearts with the revelation that
a day has been appointed when ' the sea shall give up its dead.' Then,
then we shall meet him again, and be reunited in a world where ' love shall
wreathe her chain around us forever.' Oh ! let us emulate his excellent ex-
ample, that in heaven we may renew and eternally perpetuate our affection-
ate intercourse, and blend our voices in the triumphant hallelujahs of the
skies. ALFRED COOKMAN.
" Harrisburg, March 7, 1854."
Mr. Cookman had entered the field as a lecturer, and, judg-
ing from the comments of the press, obtained no mean success :
"The first of a series of lectures in the Methodist Episcopal Church,
Fourth Street, of this city (Philadelphia), was delivered on Thursday evening
of last week by the Rev. Mr. Cookman, of Harrisburg. The subject was the
Bible. He is a very eloquent man. He delivered it without ' notes ;' and
on this account it was very impressive. There was a peculiarity in it which
we think worthy of remark, although it may have been noticed by few of the
audience. It was this : he availed himself of ' apt alliterations' artful aid,'
said that the Bible was the basis, the bond, the bulwark, and the boast of free
institutions. It was the basis, because we derive from the Bible the best
principles of government, and that from it alone we learn the lesson of self-
government. Other books take up the subject from the circumference, and
proceed thence to the centre ; this begins at the centre, and works out to the
circumference. In other words, those begin with society at large, and this
with the individual. * * *
"He showed that the Bible was the bond of our institutions, because it
taught the universal brotherhood of Man, and knew no North, no South, no
IN THE FIELD AS A LECTURER. 165
East, no West. He showed it to be the bulwark of our Republic by compari-
sons with other governments in other days, which have passed away, because
they had not the principles of the Bible to protect them from vice and its
destructive tendencies. And he concluded by showing that the Bible was
the boast of our free institutions, because it was designed for universal ac-
ceptance, and was universally circulated among us by Protestant Christianity,
and on this branch of his subject he was very eloquent. He compared the
different denominations, when met together to promote the distribution of
the Bible in our happy land, and from thence throughout the world, to a
rainbow all the colors in the bow being distinctly visible, and yet happily
harmonizing in one beautiful whole ! And then concluded by calling upon
us as American citizens to protect the Bible as the sheet-anchor of our liber-
ties, and to act out the pretty sentiment, ' We won't give up the Bible.' "
A year later he lectured again in Philadelphia, and received
from another paper the following appreciative notice :
" On Monday evening we had the pleasure of hearing the fifth lecture of
the course before the Young Men's Christian Association by the Rev. Al-
fred Cookman, of Pittsburgh. The Presbyterian Church, capacious as it is,
was well filled with a cultivated and intelligent audience. The lecturer's
theme was Concentrated Energy, and his remarks were mainly addressed to
the young, urging upon them, in language at once argumentative, forcible,
and eloquent, the necessity of a fixed purpose, pursued with untiring effort,
or, in a word, of concentrated energy, as a prerequisite to success and dis-
tinction in any pursuit, and in all the pursuits of life. Mr. Cookman's style
is clear and perspicuous, while it is at the same time brilliant and ornate.
His voice, which is perfectly under his control, is remarkably distinct, mu-
sical, and sonorous, and his manner of delivery is highly oratorical and ef-
fective. His lecture gave unbounded satisfaction, and placed him high in
the opinion of our people as a finished scholar and a popular speaker. Mr.
Cookman, although quite a young man, has already won for himself an en-
viable reputation, and, if his life and health are spared, he will undoubtedly
before many years stand in the very front rank of the ministry of the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church."
While stationed at Harrisburg, he was invited to deliver the
annual sermon before " The Society of Evangelical Inquiry of
Dickinson College." The sermon was well received, and es-
tablished for its author a high reputation with the students. In
the evening of the same day on which this sermon was deliver-
l66 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
ed, he preached at the Methodist Church in the town. It was
the first time he had been in the old church since he was a boy
in his father's household. Vivid and tender were the memories
which rushed upon his heart, and he could not do otherwise
than refer to his father and the occasion of his own conversion.
We are so fortunate as to have a description of the effects of
his preaching from an eye-witness, the Rev. J. Duey Moore, of
the Baltimore Conference, who was then a youth resident in Car-
lisle. Writing to the Rev. John E. Cookman, he says :
" I remember, when I was a boy, your brother was invited to
preach in Carlisle. In the morning he preached in the College
Chapel, and at night in the old church, Main Street, the same
church which your father had the charge of in other days. His
theme was 'the Vision of Dry Bones.' The church was crowd-
ed. In concluding his sermon, he referred to his sainted father
in a most touching manner ; the effect was beyond all human
description. I remember hearing an old minister of our church
who had sat under your father's ministry say, ' The form of
George Cookman came before me while his son was preaching,
to such an extent that I was carried back to the clays when the
crowds gathered to hear what I regarded the best pulpit orator
I ever listened to.'
" After concluding his sermon, he gave an account of his con-
version, which took place in that church when he was quite
young. Speaking of it he said, ' Kneeling there (pointing to a
bench at the right of the pulpit), a poor, distressed penitent, a
brother in Christ, a member of the Presbyterian Church, by the
name of Mr. Hamilton, came to me amid my sorrow, and, plac-
ing his hand upon my head, told me to " look fully to Christ,
and He would save me ;" and as I tried to do as he told me, the
darkness gave way, and, kneeling there with this dear brother
by the Cross, great light and peace rested upon me. I was for-
given.' As your brother had not heard from Mr. Hamilton* for
* Mr. Hamilton died in 1873, greatly honored and beloved by the people
of Carlisle.
SERMON AT CARLISLE. 167
years, he thought he had passed to his reward ; but he (Mr.
Hamilton) was in the church, and just as soo'n as the congre-
gation was dismissed he walked to the altar and introduced
himself to your brother. I will never forget their meeting. As
the people were retiring from their pews, their eyes caught the
venerable form of Mr. James Hamilton advancing toward the
pulpit, and, as all eyes followed him until he came before your
brother, they waited to see the result. Oh, how the people did
weep as they looked upon two who had not met since they met
amid the light of the Cross one as a penitent, then crying
' Save me !' the other saying, ' Christ can save !' As I write I
think I can see myself as I was then, holding my dear sainted
father's hand (he was an intimate friend of your father and
brother), and, looking up into his face, saw the tears flowing
down his cheeks while he looked upon this meeting."
These two letters to his wife give pleasant glimpses of do-
mestic love and pastoral fidelity.
To his wife, Mrs. Annie E. Cookman :
" HARRISBURG, Tuesday morning, , 1853.
" I confidently expected to hear from you yesterday morning, and felt con-
siderably disappointed when the postman reported No. 51 empty. The little
missive arrived, however, last night, and was read over and over again.
Your assurances of unwavering affection were very grateful to my feelings.
In this world of insincere profession and mere external manifestation, it is
delightful to know that there is one warm, true heart in which you may con-
fidingly repose. The genuineness of your love I have never questioned for
an instant ; and, next to the Pearl of great price, prize it as the most pre-
cious of my heart's jewels. Be assured that it is not foolishly expended. I
am glad that our dear boys continue so well. May God in His providence
spare their health and lives many, many years. They are two beautiful,
blessed children, for whom we ought to be profoundly thankful to the Giver
of every good and perfect gift. I am, of course, very anxious to have you
at home again. All is desolation in your absence. Still, if you are realizing
benefit in Columbia, I will not be so unwarrantably selfish as to urge your
return. I can manage to exist, and will willingly live in hope a little longer
if your welfare may be subserved. Make yourselves comfortable, get fat and
1 68 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
strong, and come home when you feel like it. Yesterday was another pretty
full day. In the morning two funerals a long walk in the hot sun and
through the dust from the cemetery in the afternoon running round, and at
night a class to lead. I breakfasted at D.'s, dined at C.'s, and supped at
Z.'s, with Miss Kate M and Mr. Alpheus W , who returned togeth-
er from P yesterday. This morning I breakfasted again at D.'s, shall
dine at D.'s, and sup at C.'s. My neighbors and all my friends are very
kind. Part of every afternoon I spend with poor J , who seems perfect-
ly resigned and composed in the prospect of death. Young McM.'s trial
comes on next week. I suppose I shall hear from sister D (who has
been out of town since last week) all the particulars respecting the contem-
plated camp-meeting. I believe I have given you all the news."
" HARRISBURG, Wednesday afternoon, 3 o'clock.
" I have just finished two letters, and before laying aside my pen will drop
you a line. Here I am at my study-table again, attending to correspond-
ence and other matters. Oh, that you were at my side ! Oh, that I could
look around and see the faces of my beautiful boys ! After leaving you this
morning I was hurried to Lancaster, where I spent my time very agreeably
with Mr. E , at Murray's book-store, and with Brother Bishop at his
parsonage. Arrived at home in a snow-storm. Thought that perhaps you
would accompany me. On my return found two letters, one from Heston,
in Reading, the other from Janes, in Chambersburg ; both asking me to
come to their help. During my absence, Mrs. Wm. C sent a large mar-
ket-basket full, piled up about four pounds of almonds, four pounds of
raisins, a peck of chestnuts and shell-barks, a large glass of calves'-foot
jelly, a large fruit-cake, and a number of toys for the children." * * *
CHAPTER XI.
MINISTRY AT CHRIST CHURCH, PITTSBURGH, PA. INCREASING
FAME AND USEFULNESS.
THE Methodists of Pittsburgh having completed their new
and beautiful Christ Church, renewed their invitation to Mr.
Cookman to consent to be transferred to take the charge
of it. Their solicitations were seconded by Bishop Simpson,
then a resident of Pittsburgh. Notwithstanding Mr. Cookman's
love for his Conference, in view of the advice of the bishops
and the noble enterprise at Pittsburgh, he accepted the invita-
tion, and was transferred by Bishop Morris in the spring of
1855. It was not without regret that the people of Harrisburg
parted with him. As evidence of the universal respect and af-
fection with which he was regarded, I quote from one of the
newspapers of the day :
" FAREWELL SERMON. Rev. Mr. Cookman preached his farewell sermon
on Sabbath evening. So great was the anxiety to hear it that the church
was crowded to its utmost capacity at an early hour, and a large number of
persons were unable to obtain seats at all. Mr. Cookman preached a dis-
course eminently appropriate to the occasion, and was more than ordinarily
eloquent and impressive. He spoke with much apparent sincerity and feel-
ing, and a large portion of the congregation were affected to tears. Mr.
Cookman has labored in this community for two years with great success,
and was respected and beloved not only by his own congregation, but by
the people of our town generally. He was popular with all classes and all
denominations, and his departure is universally regretted. lie left Harris-
burg yesterday afternoon for Pittsburgh, the scene of his future ministerial
labors, carrying with him the heart-warm blessings of hundreds of true
friends. May the largest prosperity attend him."
How Mr. Cookman was impressed with Pittsburgh before his
transfer.
H
170 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
To his wife :
" PITTSBURGH, Tuesday afternoon, June 14, 1854.
* * * "About three o'clock the train came thundering along. Finding
seats we hurried off, and until day-dawn dozed away the tedious moments.
Then the scenery, wild and majestic, opened upon us, which of course we
enjoyed richly and to the end of our journey. Some of the views in cross-
ing the mountain transcend any thing I have ever beheld. Without acci-
dent we reached Pittsburgh in good time, not near as much fatigued as I
frequently am after riding to Philadelphia. You will feel anxious to know
what I think of Pittsburgh. Well, I must say I rather like it. True, there
is a good deal of smoke and the houses generally look cloudy, but it is
not near as bad as I anticipated. The buildings are good, some of the
residences quite elegant, and every thing seems to exhibit the spirit of ener-
gy and enterprise. The place strongly reminds me of many English cities
which I have visited. It is not unlike New York, more like it certainly
.than Philadelphia. I fancy that like myself you would be agreeably disap-
pointed in Pittsburgh. I have already traversed the city pretty thoroughly ;
among other places I have visited the new Christ M. E. Church, and do not
think me enthusiastic or extravagant when I say that it is far, far ahead of
any thing in the form of a Methodist Church I have ever seen. They are
about finishing the basement, which is very handsomely frescoed and fitted
up in elegant style. The audience-room will be most magnificent. I wan-
dered through, as I desired, entirely incognito. If I can I will procure a litho-
graphic representation of the edifice, that you may have some idea. Well,
now, I hear you say, ' Just as I expected and prophesied. He had no busi-
ness to go to Pittsburgh ; a convert already.' No, dear, I would prefer to
remain in the Philadelphia Conference than to assume the responsibility
which would devolve upon the pastor of such a charge. Very much would
be expected, and I do not want to be obliged to meet such expectations.
Worse things, though, you may rest assured, might happen to us than being
sent to Pittsburgh. So far as I am concerned, with my beloved Annie and
charming boys, I could be perfectly happy in a cabin on the tallest peak
of the Alleghanies. It is your presence and enthusiastic love which covers
my path with sunshine and makes me a happy home any where. You need
not fear, I think, a transfer to Pittsburgh. I am staying at the City Ifofd,
kept by Messrs. Glass & Chase, gentlemen who have treated me already
with very marked attention and favor. I wonder how you all are this even-
ing. I think of you almost constantly, and am the happiest when I can bask
in the refreshing radiance of your sunny faces. Well, I believe I have writ-
ten all that I have to communicate just now. It is, I fear, an illegible
CHRIST CHURCH. ADMINISTRATIVE SKILL. 171
scrawl, penned in the midst of noise and confusion. Puzzle it out, however,
and when you have done kiss yourself over and over again for one who loves
you better than all the world beside. Then take up Bruner, and give him a
dozen for his papa ; then petty Kenney, and let her have an equal number.
Mr. Cookman was twenty-seven years of age when appointed
to Christ Church. The new edifice, of the Gothic order of
architecture, situated on Penn Street, was then the costliest
church building in American Methodism, and was about the
first decided advance in the new movement in architectural
beauty in Methodist houses of worship. The number of mem-
bers that brought this laudable undertaking to completion was
small. They were, however, men of means, courage, and
prayer. They felt that the right man in the pulpit would se-
cure success. No higher mark of confidence could have been
placed on Mr. Cookman than that he should be selected for so
important a position.
The sequel proved the wisdom of the choice. Under his
control, the enterprise moved off prosperously from the begin-
ning, and the most sanguine expectations of its originators were
fulfilled. Though young in years, he was a man of experience ;
courageous, and at the same time cautious, he showed both the
ardor which prepared him to enter fully into the advanced views
of his official men, and also the judgment to direct their ear-
nestness with the steadiness and tact which insured the best re-
sults. His power to attract the people by his preaching was
to be tested as never before. Heretofore his churches had
been " free," and this was " pewed ;" but his ability was at once
recognized, and his church was speedily filled. His faculty as
an organizer was to be promptly and fully proved, and that, too,
under circumstances peculiar arid trying but here, as in the
pulpit, he showed himself eminently capable. It is doubtful if
there be any surer test of the ability of a minister for adminis-
tration as well as preaching and pastoral work than the suc-
cessful guidance of a great and powerful Church, especially in
172 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
the forming periods of its existence. To balance all conflicting
claims, to keep all the forces in accord, to incorporate new ele-
ments with the old without violence, to evoke and start enter-
prises into safe and effective channels, to impress all the work-
ers and all the methods with a thoroughly spiritual stamp all
this requires talents of a high order, and talents well poised.
The native sense and the admirable discernment of Mr. Cook-
man were never more displayed, before or since, than in the
management of the affairs of Christ Church.
But while busy with his new charge in the first months of his
pastorate, he does not forget the fond mother from whom he
was so far separated. Could there be a more affectionate expres-
sion, alike creditable to him and to her, than this letter ? I give
it with its italicizing retained.
To his mother, Mrs. Mary Cookman :
" PITTSBURGH, May 25, 1855.
" Will's letter reached us this week, bringing the unwelcome intelligence
that you have been seriously ill. At such a time we feel it to be a duty and
a privilege to take up our pen and express our sympathy and undying love.
Your children may sometimes exhibit a censurable carelessness and indiffer-
ence, but believe me there underlies their conduct as enthusiastic affection
for their mother as ever found a place in a human heart. The effect of
your instructions, and the influence of your kind, gentle nature, have been to
win every noble feeling of which they are capable, and if they were to-day
severally interrogated who is the best and purest among human kind, they
would unhesitatingly answer, ''Our mother !' I have no greater happiness
than to sit down and, in connection with the eventful past, dwell upon those
virtues which you so beautifully developed in the midst of your family, and
think of that ceaseless and self-denying love which always shed sunshine on
our home. It was and is a happy home ! the remembrance of which shall
be dear to our hearts through the entire period of our earthly pilgrimage.
Thank you, dear mother, a thousand times over, for your gushing sympathy,
your faithful instructions, your consistent and beautiful example, your jealous
care and unremitting efforts for the happiness and welfare of your children.
You have been not only a good mother, but the best of mothers. Our appre-
ciation of your character and services increases with our age ; and when you
are safely housed in glory, we will often come together and wonder that one
INTRODUCTION TO THE PITTSBURGH CONFERENCE. 173
so pure and lovely was so long lent to us and the world. My burning tears
attest the sincerity of the feelings I express feelings which are largely shared
by every member of your beloved family. Even Will, whom you occasion-
ally deem a little headstrong and unmanageable, tells me in his letter that re-
quirements which once seemed irksome to his independent nature are now
regarded in an entirely different light. It is his highest delight to serve and
gratify her whom he feels to be his best and truest friend. The loss of his
mother, he states, would blot out every earthly joy, and make him almost
wish for the oblivion of the death-slumber. Shall I ask you to excuse this
spontaneous outburst of filial feeling ? This, I am sure, will not be neces-
sary, for while it has relieved my overflowing heart, it may, perhaps, kindle
a pleasurable feeling in the bosom of one whom I ivotdd be proud to make
happy. I hope by this time your sickness has been arrested, and you are
able to attend to your domestic duties. When you feel that you can con-
veniently and comfortably take up your pen, we shall be most happy to re-
ceive one of your thrice-welcome letters. In the mean while charge one of
the fraternity to act as your amanuensis, and let us at least know the state
of your health and the course of domestic affairs. The children exhibit ev-
ery day some new charm, some fresh attraction. Next week the Western
Virginia Conference meets in Wheeling. If nothing should prevent, I think
I will join a company of preachers and go down for a day or two. The
Pittsburgh Conference meets in Johnstown on the i3th of June."
Mr. Cookman had been transferred, and had entered upon
his work in advance of the session of the Pittsburgh Conference.
The transfer to a new Conference involved a trial to him, as it
would to any man of like refined nature, and it was with no little
misgiving that he looked forward to the session. A transfer
for the express purpose of being appointed to the grandest and
wealthiest Church of the Conference, would be likely to render
him an object of a somewhat careful and cool attention. His
fame had preceded him would he measure up to it? His
praise was in all the churches was he proud and reserved ?
These and such questions would occur to brethren and to him.
Methodist preachers are but men, and, like other men, they do
not relish being dispossessed by strangers of the fields which
their own hard toil has made to bud and bloom.
But it was impossible for a body of good men to have hard
174 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
feelings toward Alfred Cookman. He had only to show him-
self among his brethren, and all prejudice was disarmed. From
youth there was that in him which transfused the hearts of all
with love and confidence. The Pittsburgh preachers were won
by his first looks and words. He impressed them as a true
Methodist preacher, with a single aim, with all the instincts and
habits of his brethren, and that he had come to Pittsburgh not
for the sake of position, but for the good of souls and the weal
of Methodism. His honors seemed to sit so lightly upon him,
his whole demeanor in public and private was so savory of gen-
uine modesty and deep piety, that, with a quickness and gener-
osity so distinctive of their class, the ministers immediately ex-
tended to him the entente cordiale, which henceforth made him
happy among them. A letter from the seat of the Conference
shows as much.
To his wife, Mrs. Annie E. Cookman :
"JOHNSTOWN, PA., June 15, 1855.
" A pleasant fide in company with a number of preachers brought me to
this mountain town about eleven o'clock. We immediately proceeded to
the Methodist Church, where we found the Pittsburgh Conference transact-
ing business. It was the work of only a few minutes to introduce me form-
ally to the Conference, and for the Conference to receive my money for the
superannuated and supernumerary preachers. In presenting this collection,
I took occasion to make a few remarks complimentary to the Church which
I represent. The brethren generally have extended to me a cordial wel-
come, and I begin to feel more at home. Yesterday afternoon the Sunday-
school anniversary occurred. Addresses were delivered by a Brother Little,
of the Erie Conference, Brother Torrence, and Dr. Peck. In the evening
Brother Torrence preached in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Brother
Williams in the Presbyterian Church. I concluded to hear the latter, and
really was very much pleased. Indeed, I doubt if they have a better in the
Conference. Strange to tell, I have found some little difficulty in getting one
of the magnates to leave the seat of the Conference. Brother Torrence and
some member of the Conference will, I think, consent to preach at Christ
Church on the Sabbath. The missionary anniversary comes off on Saturday
evening, and the brethren, as with one accord, desire and request that I re-
main to speak and preach on Sabbath morning in the Presbyterian Church.
PUBLIC DEMANDS. AN EFFECTIVE SPEECH. 175
These services, with a Bible speech on Monday evening, will perhaps make
it proper for me to tarry in Johnstown, instead of returning on Saturday, as
I had originally intended. I have thought a great deal about you since my
departure. My wife and sons are the dearest idols of my affections, and I
am never so happy as when I have you by my side. My home in Johnstown
is at the house of a Mr. J , the superintendent of extensive iron-works in
this place. The family are recently from Tennessee, and exhibit all the
blandness and affection of Southern nature. Bishop Morris, Brothers Hop-
kins and Torrence, are colleagues in these comforts. The people do the
best they can, but, I apprehend, find themselves considerably crowded."
The demands on Mr. Cookman for outside work increased,
as from this prominent point the circle of his reputation con-
stantly widened. From all directions the calls for special
services flooded his table requests for dedicating churches,
for addresses, lectures, and all kinds of efforts in aid of old and
new causes.
An address delivered during this period in Philadelphia, at
Music Fund Hall, on behalf of the Bedford Street Mission of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, was probably one of the most
effective of his life. It was elaborately prepared, and was de-
livered in his happiest style. The impression was deep, imme-
diate, and abiding. His vehement oratory swept the vast audi-
ence whithersoever he listed. He and the cause he pleaded
were from that evening, if they had not been previously, thor-
oughly intrenched in the hearts of the hearers. Back again
among his early friends a visitor, he came freighted with the best
thoughts he could command, his soul in closest sympathy with
missions among the destitute, and his nature fired by old associ-
ations and glowing with the love of Jesus, he rose with the hour,
the place, the audience, and it was thought by many that they
had rarely, if ever, listened to a more powerful, popular address.
The letter which follows, written to his youngest brother,
John, now the Rev. John E. Cookman, a member of the New
York Conference, will be read with interest. His views on
Biblical schools may be regarded by some as behind the times.
176 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
Yet the ground of his objections were felt to be weighty by
many minds as recently as fifteen years ago. Even now there
are a few in other denominations besides the Methodist who
have grave questionings as to the positive benefit of the training
of theological schools. It is feared by them that it tends to
make machine men, to quench native fire ; to create genera-
tions of preachers who will carry from the seminary too much
the tone and manner of a " faculty ;" that, while it may produce
theologians, it will educate the students too far away from the
people to fit them as preachers for the masses, and so raise up
ministers for this and coming ages who will not be, in all re-
spects, as effective and successful as those hitherto known in
Methodism.
Although it is now conceded that theological schools have
become a necessity of the Church, yet I regard it as no discredit
to our friend that he cherished and expressed the feelings con-
tained in this letter. It is for those who have the charge of these
schools to see to it that his fears and the fears of thousands as
sincerely devoted to the Church are not realized. Said Robert
Hall of the learned Kippis, " He might be a very clever man
by nature, for aught I know, but he laid so many books upon
his head that his brains could not move." Vital force, springing
from the heart as the motor the one indispensable condition
of effective preaching was what our friend believed more and
more with each succeeding year of his ministry. Goethe says :
" What you don't feel, you'll never catch by hunting ;
It must gush out spontaneous from the soul ;
And with a fresh delight enchanting
The hearts of all that hear, control."
To his brother, Mr. John E. Cookman :
" PITTSBURGH, July 22, 1856.
" To say that your letter afforded me great pleasure, expresses but feebly
the real feelings of my heart. While I know that you had always associated
with your future the work of the ministry, still I began to fear that business
and the world were becoming so attractive and absorbing that you would
COUNSELS TO HIS YOUNGEST BROTHER. 177
be diverted from a nobler and more useful sphere. What was my joy, then,
to hear from yourself that your present employments failed to satisfy the de-
sires and ambition of your nature, and, in obedience to conscientious convic-
tions, you felt like preparing yourself to do the work of an evangelist.
" From personal experience I know the importance, aye, the necessity
of divine help and strength in a situation similar to that in which you are
placed. Therefore, while I will most cheerfully render you such advice and
assistance as may be in my power, at the same time I would impress you
with the propriety and advantage of fleeing to the strong for strength. Hide
yourself in God. Trust for providential direction, and you shall not stray
or stumble. The God of the fatherless, in so important a step as that which
you contemplate, will certainly and satisfactorily exhibit a superintending
agency, and in the future you will review the whole with gratitude and joy.
My first and most fervent counsel, therefore, would be that you yield your-
self up fully unto God. Let no idol, no secret sin, no unwillingness to toil
or sacrifice or suffer, debar you from the full realization of your privileges
in the Gospel of God's dear Son. However imperfect your mental and
physical developments may seem to yourself, there is no reason why, as a
Christian, you should not rival a Fletcher, a McCheyne, a Summerfield, in
their almost seraphic purity and zeal and devotion. Attend, then, to the
all-important subject of personal piety in the first instance, and I have no
fear for the rest. God will overrule all for your benefit and His glory.
" With respect to the importance or advantage of a college course, I am
not entirely clear or satisfied. Had you not spent four years in the Phila-
delphia High-School, I should not be in so much doubt. I remember, how-
ever, that you have acquired, to a considerable extent, habits of study; you
have obtained pretty general information on the different branches of sci-
ence, which will serve as a foundation on which to build in the future ; you
have received regularly and legitimately the degree of A.B., which of course
will be followed in due time with an A.M. In these respects you are very
far in advance of a large majority of those who are admitted to our Method-
ist itinerancy. Then, when I think of the associations and influences which
are found in most colleges, I tremble lest my cherished brother, for whose
success I am so deeply concerned, should be moved off the sure foundation.
A Biblical institute, as a substitute for a college, has been presented to my
mind, but here again I have my difficulties. I should fear that its influence
would be to subdue that enthusiasm which I believe will prove in the future
your charm and your power.
" The truth is, I am only about half-persuaded in my mind respecting the
advantages of such schools. I compare the genuine Methodist preacher,
H 2
1 78 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
whose soul is one blaze of holy zeal whose mind, self-disciplined, is filled
with practical and profitable truth whose aim is so single that his whole
life is a striking commentary upon the sentiment, ' This one thing I do '
who goes through the world like fire through the prairie ; I say I compare
such a one with a critical, metaphysical, Germanized student of divinity,
who, perhaps, looks as blue and feels as cold as if he had been shivering
in an ice-house, and who preaches as stiffly as if his lips and heart and
arms had all been literally frozen. There is no kind of doubt but I can find
self-made men in the Methodist Episcopal Church who are not only equal
but superior to others of our own and sister denominations who can boast
the advantages of literary and theological training. With respect, however,
to this matter, I would not determine for you. If you feel that college studies
would increase your mental discipline as no other exercise could, I would
not utter a word of discouragement, but rather a hearty ' God-speed? I am
rather inclined to the conclusion that Brush College, after all, will prove the
best school for the development of your physical and intellectual powers.
If you could spend the autumn and winter in reading, composing, and exer-
cising as opportunity might offer, and in the spring take an easy circuit, as
for instance Village Green or Springfield, I believe that you would accom-
plish as much for yourself and for the Church as you would by conjugating
Latin verbs and studying heathen mythology. If you feel inclined to this
latter course, my home and humble services are at your disposal. I appre-
ciate the peculiarity and perplexities of your situation, and, while I scarcely
feel prepared to advise, would earnestly counsel that you seek wisdom from
God, who giveth liberally and upbraideth not."
Mr. Cookman was able to go up to the session of the Pitts-
burgh Conference in 1856 with a good showing for the year.
The number of members had increased from ninety to one
hundred and thirty-two, and twenty-six probationers. He re-
ported $738 for the general missionary collection, and $300
for the Bible cause remarkable advances upon all former con-
tributions. At the seat of the Conference he was called upon
to speak, in connection with the Rev. Dr. Durbin and others,
on the occasion of the anniversary of the Conference Mission-
ary Society. A correspondent of the Pittsburgh Christian Ad-
vocate wrote of the speeches :
" The Rev. Alfred Cookman, of Penn Street Church, Pittsburgh, and Dr.
John P. Durbin electrified the audience with two of the most powerful
PREACHING AND SPEAKING AT THE CONFERENCE. 179
speeches to which it has been our privilege to listen. Cookman is a gifted
son of eloquence, and nature has given him a most exuberant fancy. His
speeches abound in the most gorgeous imagery, and in this respect he is
said to resemble his distinguished father. Of Durbin, as a great thinker
and a great orator, it is scarcely necessary to speak. He presented some
most striking thoughts on the subject of missions. Cookman's speech might
be said to abound with the lightning-flashes of genius, while Durbin followed
in one continued thunder-roll of ponderous thought"
The same correspondent noticed Mr. Cookman's sermon on
the Sabbath, in the Presbyterian Church, in these terms :
" We would as soon think of daguerreotyping the storm, or with our feeble
voice of imitating the roar of the thunder, as to undertake to convey to our
readers the impression made by Cookman's sermon. Certain we are that
of all who heard it, no one will forget it."
Writing, also, of a Bible speech he made at the same session,
he said it was " a speech such as no man but one of his pecul-
iar gifts could make."
These descriptions, while due allowance may be made for
the enthusiasm excited by the youth of Mr. Cookman, give
proof of the high appreciation in which his gifts were held by
one who was probably a member of the Conference. They
also show the tireless energy of the young minister in thus
standing forward on three important occasions to plead in
causes of the first magnitude. Neither then nor afterward did
the thought of saving himself or his capital z.\ox seem to enter
his mind. What he could do for the Master was done to the
best of his ability, and there the matter rested.
The following letters reveal the depth of his religious and
domestic affections.
To his wife, Mrs. Annie E. Cookman :
" PITTSBURGH, Saturday night, , 1856.
" How thankful I was for your letter, breathing so much of true devotion.
I assure you that it came to me in my desolation like an angel of light. I
need not say that your enthusiastic affection finds the very warmest recipro-
cation in my heart. To say that you are the dearest object of my heart and
l8o LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
life, is to tell the truth but feebly. How I thank God that I was ever per-
mitted to gaze upon your sunny face and claim you as my own. God bless
you, precious Annie, and spare your valuable life many, many years.
" Last evening I met all my young members. The room was quite filled
with those converted through my unworthy instrumentality. I think they
promise not a little to the Church. This afternoon I had the Sabbath-school
together. Our meeting was very pleasant and profitable. To my great joy,
quite a number of General Conference delegates arrived to-day.* The
prospect is that I will be relieved from preaching on the morrow. Dr.
Hodgson stayed with me last night, but went on this morning. Dr. McClin-
tock and Rev. A. A. Reese dined at Dr. W.'s to-day. I was one of the
invited. * * *
" I am still at Mr. S.'s. They do every thing in their power to render me
happy and comfortable. I suppose you are this evening at the Columbia
homestead. Two letters mailed during the week would probably await your
arrival. Have I not proven a faithful correspondent ? Well, I deserve
little credit, as it is really no ordinary happiness for me to sit down and
commune through even this unsatisfactory medium with her who is all the
world to me especially when I know my letters are adding to your pleasure.
" Kiss my boys for poor pa. Tell them that I intend to bring up their
carriage out of the cellar, and have it all ready for their occupancy and use.
' Billy ' keeps quiet and well, not objecting to see his little masters. He is
all ready for a ride."
To his wife, Mrs. Annie E. Cookman:
PITTSBURGH, Tuesday afternoon, April 29, 1856.
" Your letter written on Friday evening came to hand on Monday. I feel
glad and grateful that our Heavenly Father cares for your health and safety
and happiness. Young S informed me on Sabbath night that he had
seen you and the children on Saturday in Columbia. The very fact that he
had seen you so recently excited no little interest in my mind. I am man-
aging to exist in your absence. It is not living, and yet I bear it because I
think that you are happier in the East than you would be perhaps in Pitts-
burgh. You know that your comfort is my rule and constant object. The
smoky city, however, is not the worst place in the creation. The people are
very kind, and there is a great deal to render a residence here desirable and
delightful.
" My friends (the S.'s) are unremitting in their attentions. God forbid
that I should forget their friendly treatment.
* On their way to Indianapolis.
CONVERSION OF W. W. COOKMAN. l8l
" On Sabbath I was relieved from preaching. The Rev. Norval Wilson, of
Baltimore, occupied the pulpit in the morning, and the Rev. William Coop-
er, of Philadelphia, in the evening ; two very good sermons. Next Sabbath
we commence our afternoon service. Of course /deprecate the change.
" You must have had a very charming visit to Philadelphia. It will furnish
matter for delightful retrospect and conversation for months to come."
To his brother, Mr. William Wilberforce Cookman, on re-
ceiving the news of his conversion :
" PITTSBURGH, February 19, 1857.
" Tuesday's mail brought the most delightful letter I have received for a
very long time. It was a letter from dear mother, filled with the details of
your conversion. Like our precious parent, I have been specially concerned
for your religious welfare. Two or three times this winter I have been on
the point of addressing you a few lines. As my protracted meeting has pro-
gressed, I have not only thought of you, but in prayer have wrestled for your
salvation. How rejoiced, then, was I, to learn that you had resolutely es-
poused the cause of the Saviour, and were triumphing in a consciousness of
sins forgiven. Indeed, when I read mother's letter, the fountains of my nat-
ure broke open, and I poured forth copious tears of thankfulness and joy.
This morning your fraternal epistle came to hand, and, as I glanced over its
lines in returning from the post-office, I found that my cup was again run-
ning over. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless and
praise His holy name. I am delighted that your experience is of so definite
and satisfactory a character. This is desirable, not only because it adds to
the sum of our peace at the present, but because it constitutes our conver-
sion a great landmark in our life, to which, in future years, we can revert
with special pleasure and profit. You may expect in the future to suffer
through manifold and powerful temptations ; still, if in the midst of the trial
you will only maintain your integrity and Christian profession, the tempta-
tion or temptations shall really answer a good purpose in establishing your
faith and strengthening your godly virtues. It is in the storm or tempest
that the sailor learns what he never could have learned if all around had
continued calm and prosperous ; then, of all times, he is becoming the prac-
ticed and thorough seaman. When tempted or tried, remember the Rock
that is higher than thou. Go to God ; with the simplicity of a son or a child,
tell Him all your doubts and fears and desires ; plead the promises of His
Word ; and, as in thousands of instances, so in your case, He will surely
make a way for your escape. I need not represent the advantage and im-
portance of a daily reading of the Holy Scriptures. This is an exercise
182 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
which you appreciate and will observe. Neither need I dwell upon the ne-
cessity of frequent prayer. Morning, noon, and night you will be found be-
fore God, pouring your wants and requests into His ever-attentive ear.
Have you joined the Church ? Remember that this is not only a great privi-
lege, but a scriptural duty. You will find within the pale of the Christian
Church sympathy and assistance as they can not be found elsewhere. Unit- ,
ing yourself with a class, lay it down as a principle or rule of your life al-
ways to attend when it is possible to go. A man who regularly attends his
class-meeting can not very well backslide. Associate with your experience
and profession increasing religious activity. This sustains the same relation
to our spiritual life that stated physical exercise does to our natural life.
Enter every avenue of usefulness. Do all the good in your power. Resolve
that the world shall be better for your having lived in it. My precious
brother, my heart goes out after you in sincerest and strongest affection. You
were always dear to me because of the noble elements which constitute your
nature, but you are doubly dear since your regeneration. I feel now that
"'Our hopes and aims are one,
Our comforts and our cares !'
" We may warrantably indulge the delightful hope that our fraternal love,
overleaping the river of death, will be perpetuated coeval with the existence
of the soul.
" I still feel the deepest and liveliest interest in your secular affairs. With
the blessing of God, which you can now confidently implore and expect, all
will be well. Can we not persuade George to give God his heart ? If he
would yield, then we would be an undivided family in the Church of Jesus
Christ. Let us agree to pray for him."
A few brief extracts from Mr. Cookman's pocket-diary of 1856
afford further illustration of his piety and zeal at this period :
" January \. Attended a Sunday-school convention in the evening, and
made a speech. Have realized during the day much peace arising from a
sense of entire consecration to God.
" January 2. Preached in the evening from 'Choose ye,' etc. Two came
forward for prayers. Some prospect of a revival. My mind is kept in peace
while stayed upon God.
" January 3. Spent the morning in my study ; visited Mr. F ; ex-
horted in the evening ; two penitents ; one conversion. * * * Still realize
the comfort growing out of an entire consecration of self to God.
" January 4. Good meeting at night ; four at the altar. Still trusting in
Christ
HABITUAL DEVOTION TO GOD. 183
" Jamtary 6. Preached in the morning ; catechized Sunday-school chil-
dren in the afternoon ; heard Rev. B at night. A very precious Sabbath.
In the evening enjoyed an unusual baptism of the Spirit.
" January 7. At preachers' meeting realized an unspeakable trust and
joy in God. * * * The general class in the evening was a discouraging fail-
ure. My confidence in Christ is unabated.
" January 8. A glorious meeting at night ; the Church in earnest and
eight at the altar. To God be all the glory.
" Jamtary 9. My peace still flows as a river ; * * * meeting grows in
interest ; twelve at the altar ; two conversions. Oh, for an unprecedented
outpouring of the Spirit !
"January 10. Glory to God for the privilege of living in a state of entire
consecration ; * * * excellent meeting ; thirteen or fourteen at the altar.
" January 1 1. My heart is fixed trusting in the Lord ; glorious meeting
at night ; seventeen at the altar ; the members are rallying to the work.
"January 12. Realize great peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ ; twenty at the penitents' meeting to-day.
" Jamiary 15. Met Tract Committee occupied most of my morning;
visited ; excellent meeting in the evening ; Bishop Simpson with us ; four-
teen at the altar ; two converted. ' Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that
is within me bless His holy name !' "
At the close of Mr. Cookman's second year in Pittsburgh,
spring of 1857, his return to the Philadelphia Conference was
requested and granted. Before dismissing. this important term
of his ministry, I insert an estimate of his services at Christ
Church from the pen of Dr. Wright, a member of its official
board :
" For a young man of comparatively little experience as a
preacher in charge, to be called to the pastorate of an under-
taking from which so much was expected on the one hand, and
so much disaster to the cause of Methodism prophesied on the
other, gave rise to much discussion as to the propriety of the
appointment, many urging that a preacher of more experience
would be better.
" Under these somewhat embarrassing circumstances, which
were known to our young brother, he came doubting, \w&finnly
trusting. When I first met him one cold, dreary, Pittsburgh
184 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
March morning, he looked any thing but joyful. I introduced
him to my family as our expected young preacher of whom they
had heard me speak so often, and was disposed to be cheerful
over his coming; but the young preacher was not so disposed,
and looked sad, and with a grave expression said : ' I am here
to obey orders, but my opinion is that the officiary of your
Church have made a mistake in asking my transfer to this im-
portant charge. I hope it has been ordered through your pray-
ers, for I feel greatly the need of aid from on high to enter upon
the discharge of the duties.' He then spoke of the magnitude
of the enterprise, and his belief that the success of such efforts for
the future would be determined in a great measure by the first
years of their history. Thus believing, he said he felt the
weight of the responsibility all the more, that its organization
should be a success in every way, especially in the salvation of
sinners and the upbuilding of the Church for good.
" He entered upon his duties as the first pastor of Christ
Methodist Episcopal Church the following Sabbath, and preach-
ed to a crowded house from the 6th chapter and i4th verse
of Galatians, ' God forbid,' etc. The cros of Christ and the
atoning blood of the Lamb, ever beautiful and powerful to save,
was the burden of his theme on that day. The timid young
man of the day before was now as bold in the annunciation of
the truths that centre around the cross as Paul, whom he so
much loved, and upon whose character he loved to dwell. If
there had been any doubts about the propriety of calling the
young brother to the new charge, they were all dispelled by the
impression produced upon the minds and hearts of his first con-
gregation. A good, happy brother was asked, on coming out
of church, what he thought of the sermon : ' Ah !' he replied,
' there is no German silver about that it has the true ring of
the genuine metal.'
" In the organization of Christ Church membership from the
various Methodist congregations in Pittsburgh, Brother Alfred
THE ELEMENTS OF HIS SUCCESS. 185
Cookman performed a delicate task, in which he acted with the
good sense and judgment of more mature years and experience.
Under the inspiration of his consecration to the work of the
salvation of sinners, Alfred Cookman developed while at Christ
Church some of the noblest traits of his manhood, and show-
ed what was possible when the man is devoted to his Mas-
ter's work. The fervor of his longings for the conversion of
sinners was always marked by a deep and loving pathos, ex-
pressed with singular beauty and propriety of language, that
rarely failed in making a deep and lasting impression. The
congregations that waited upon his ministry while in Pittsburgh
were large often so crowded that persons had to leave for
want of room.
" One of the elements of his great success in Pittsburgh was
his love and devotion to the Sabbath -school interests of the
Church. He organized a large school, and never did he seem
more in his element than when working among the children ;
and never was there a body of children who seemed to be hap-
pier and gave more attention than when he was talking to
them either in examining them in their catechism, illustrating
their scriptural lesson, or in telling some story that pointed a
moral which was always fixed in their minds by some appro-
priate illustration.
" Many of the children of the school came early under the in-
fluence of religion, gave their names to the Church, and Brother
Alfred lived long enough to see several of the boys thus brought
to Christ preachers, two of whom are now in the Baltimore
Conference.
" In his devotion to the Sabbath-school interests of Christ
Church he was ably assisted by his excellent wife, who had
charge of the infant class-room. In all of his responsible du-
ties and relations to Christ Church he was ever faithful to the
great trust imposed upon him, and his Master abundantly bless-
ed and honored him with great success in bringing a large and
1 86 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
influential membership together, and establishing an objective
point for Methodism in Pittsburgh.
" He impressed the large and wealthy congregation with
the importance and duty of contributing generously of their
means. The after-history of this Church shows that they have
not forgotten his injunction, but have gone on increasing their
gifts, till now Christ Church stands among the first in the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church as a contributor to all the interests of
the Church."
Two letters written subsequently from Pittsburgh to his wife
present a very grateful proof of Mr. Cookman's attachment to
the Christ Church friends as well as of their affection for him.
They were written when he was on a visit to Pittsburgh :
" PITTSBURGH, Monday morning.
" I have time for a few lines. Despite the storm and gloomy prospect, I
started from Harrisburg on Saturday afternoon, and without detention
reached Pittsburgh about two A. M. on Sabbath morning. The Union Hotel
is a part of the Pennsylvania depot, and there I made myself comfortable
until church-time. Brother K called for me in his carriage about ten
o'clock, and we proceeded together to Christ Church. The snow-storm still
continuing, influenced the congregation, but notwithstanding we had the
house well filled. I had a blessed time in preaching. The friends flocked
enthusiastically around. We have no warmer friends than these large-
hearted Pittsburghers. The M.'s would take me in their splendid carriage
to their elegant home for dinner. In the afternoon I addressed the Sun-
day-school ; then supped at James B.'s, who has a beautiful home on Penn
Street, and in the evening preached again to a congregation larger than that
gathered in the morning. This evening I preach again, and leave in the ten
P. M. train for Harrisburg. Pittsburgh is sharing at this time wonderful re-
vival influences. The daily prayer-meetings are held in the largest churches,
and are crowded with interested persons. I observed Mrs. Simpson and
Miss Ella in my congregation yesterday. This morning I propose to step
in and pay them my respects. Mrs. II was in her pew clad in the deep-
est mourning. I of course will call on her during the day. The P fam-
ily were all in their places, and exceedingly kind. The K.'s have moved
farther out. They have a nicer home than before. Whether that will
come is doubtful, but this morning God gave me sweetly this Scripture
THE PITTSBURGH FRIENDS. 187
' Why take you thought for raiment,' etc. ' For your Heavenly Father
knoweth that ye have need of these things.' This was so delightful that I
can leave the whole matter. * * * My soul is full of love for and trust
in Jesus. In a spiritual sense all is well. My soul is clothed in a spotless
robe that never wears out. Glory to the Lamb ! The people here are very
anxious to see you. They speak of you with true, warm, deep love."
" PITTSBURGH, Friday morning, 12 o'clock, 1868.
" Here I am in smoky Pittsburgh, smoky enough never smokier. We
left Philadelphia last evening at eight o'clock. My berth was wide and clean
and comfortable. I lay down about ten P.M., rested delightfully, and rose
this morning about seven, as we were descending the mountain. At half-
past nine we alighted at the Pittsburgh depot, and proceeded to B.'s office ;
found him in his arm-chair, and received a brother's welcome. He secured
for me a pass to and from Chicago, so that my railroad expenses will not
bankrupt me. I have called this morning on a number of brethren, who ex-
press undiminished love for their former pastor. A little while ago I wan-
dered through the church, the place of my former ministrations ; saw the
house where Frank was born the stone steps where dear Brunie would
await me when I was returning from the East. The rush of memories nearly
overpowered me. More of Pittsburgh when we meet. The wedding yes-
terday was a grand affair. No expense was spared. The company was
not very large ; the entertainment superb. M looked and behaved
beautifully. Her husband impressed me most favorably. They went off in
the half-past six train to take possession of their new and elegant home in
Brooklyn. A beautiful wreath was presented for Mrs. Cookman, and a bas-
ket of flowers for her husband. Last, but not least, the fee was . I
have carefully placed it in my watch-pocket, and, if the temptation is not too
strong to spend it, I will let you pick my pocket on my return. I am very
well this morning, and expect to start for Chicago in the two o'clock train,
reaching my destination about eleven o'clock to-morrow morning. It is a
long journey, and I expect to get enough of it to last me a lifetime. Mr.
Punshon is in Chicago ; preaches there to-day. I hope, however, to hear him
on the Sabbath. Oh, if my darling wife was only with me, then I should be
entirely satisfied. Your joy is my joy, and I know you would be delighted
to travel with your itinerant husband. I am with you in spirit almost con-
stantly, and fervently ask our kind Heavenly Father to watch over you dur-
ing our absence one from another. Love to all the friends. Kiss my dear
children for their papa. Tell them to be kind and quiet and good."
The Rev. W. M. Paxton, D.D., now of New York, who was the
l88 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh when Mr.
Cookman was at Christ Church, has furnished a very pleasing
testimony to the excellence of his character and the usefulness
of his ministry. After referring to some of the difficulties which
Mr. Cookman had to meet, he says :
" He, however, proved himself fully equal to the emergency.
I now look back with admiration upon the masterly manner in
which he met all these difficulties, and turned hostility into
friendship. His humble, unpretending manner disarmed prej-
udice; his sincere, honest heart inspired confidence; his lov-
ing, gentle spirit won the affection of the people ; and his able
and eloquent preaching gave him a high place in the estima-
tion of the public. His success became apparent upon the first
day the church was opened, and before the close of the first
year he had dissipated all opposition, gathered around him a
large and influential congregation, and established himself in
the regard of the whole community. At the end of one year,
when his first term of service expired, such was the desire, not
only of his own congregation but of the whole community, to
retain his services, that the bishops were -constrained to renew
his appointment.
" His whole work in Pittsburgh was admirable in every way.
He organized his congregation well, preached well, and was in-
strumental in the conversion of many souls. But, beyond all
this, he had a large catholic spirit, which brought him into use-
ful fellowship with his brethren of other denominations, and en-
listed him in every good work. He was in every sense a Meth-
odist, but he was not a narrow denominationalist ; and, above
all, he had nothing in his heart to keep him from rejoicing in
the success of another's work.
" His residence in Pittsburgh being within two doors of my
own, an intimacy sprang up between us, which soon ripened into
a warm and lasting friendship. The more I knew of him the
more I loved him. He had an honest heart that inspired trust,
THE REV. DR. PAXTON'S TESTIMONY. 189
and made me feel that all his expressions, either of opinion or
friendship, could be relied upon. His religion was deep, ear-
nest, and controlling. He believed in heart religion because he
had an experience of it, and out of the abundance of his heart
his mouth spoke. With him religion was a pervading princi-
ple, controlling all thought and action. ' He walked with God.'
He realized more than most Christians the personal presence
of the Saviour, and had many blessed seasons of high and holy
communion as on the Mount. It was upon this rich treasury
of heart experience that he drew largely for his sermons. His
spontaneous conversation was upon religion ; it was in his
heart, and he delighted to talk of it. I have many precious
recollections of such conversations. He was in all his views
and convictions a Methodist, and yet in his experience he was
so much of a Calvinist that we had many ' good times to-
gether.' "
The subjoined characterization of Mr. Cookman and his work
appeared at the time of his leaving Pittsburgh in one of the
daily papers of the city :
" Rev. Alfred Cookman has been with us but two years, yet in that short
time he has indelibly impressed us with his sincerity as a Christian, his
worth as a gentleman, and his ability as a pulpit orator. To his value as a
Christian, his life and zeal in the cause he assumes testifies. Of his worth
as a gentleman, the many and warm attachments formed during his short
residence with us are the assurances. Of his ability as an orator, the large
and discriminating audiences which have attended him are the very best
evidences.
"Viewing the tenets of his Church in a spirit of liberality, austerity has
not characterized his teaching ; inspired with the social value of courtesy,
his etiquette has not been based upon an exclusive code. Carefully regard-
ing the end in view, he has not perverted the gifts of oratory to the gratifica-
tion of vanity. But subordinating every thing to the objects of his ministry,
he has worthily maintained the dignity of the Christian teacher. Ignoring
fanaticism in religion, he has not failed to discharge his duties as a citizen.
Marking the nice distinction between Christian morality and political ethics,
he has saved his congregation the scandal too many have suffered where the
IQO LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
sanctuary has been desecrated by the introduction of party issues. Yet,
with an ardent patriotism that finds a fitting response within the hearts of
all who love their country, and which rises too far above mere party to be
subjected to its criticism, he has pointed out the breakers which threaten
our noble Ship of State, and conjured us by his eloquence to cling to the
Bible as the only compass by which she may be safely directed.
" For all this we regret his loss. Succumbing to its necessity, we can only,
with the poet, bid him
" ' Go, speed the stars of thought
On to their shining goals ;
The sower scatters broad his seed,
The wheat thou strewest be souls.' "
He and his family took their final leave of Pittsburgh at
the midnight hour. So intense was the feeling at parting with
them, that large numbers of their friends formed a procession
and accompanied them to the depot, where they took the train
for Philadelphia.
CHAPTER XII.
MINISTRY AT GREEN STREET CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA.
REMARKABLE REVIVAL.
MR. COOKMAN'S return to Philadelphia was heartily received
by his brethren of the Conference and the laymen of the city.
The Green Street charge was especially favored in securing his
services as their pastor. His fame as a preacher and his effi-
ciency as a worker had greatly augmented since he had left
Kensington Station, and his advent to the city was adapted to
awaken much delight and expectation. The Green Street
Church was a new, tasteful, and commodious building, with free
seats, situated among a dense population, and offered every
advantage for the popular talents of the zealous pastor. He
was now perfectly in his element. With loving kindred and
genial friends about him, a comfortable, though not pretentious
home, a large and enthusiastic society of helpers, a crowded
and sympathizing congregation, he entered upon a career of
popularity and usefulness which may be regarded as an epoch
in his ministry.
It is doubtful if Philadelphia Methodism has known in its
whole history a pastoral term of two years more signally fraught
with proofs of the divine favor and the stable results of evangel-
ical ministrations than these of our friend at Green Street.
The scenes under his preaching the perpetual blaze of re-
vival, the marked cases of conversion and sanctification were
more like the occurrences of primitive Methodism, and showed
conclusively that the ancient glory had not departed from the
sons of the fathers. At the close of his second year he reported
seven hundred members and one hundred and fourteen proba-
IQ2 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
tioners a net gain of two hundred and thirty-five persons
with large advances in all the collections for benevolent objects,
especially in that for the missionary cause.
As an explanation in part of the eminent success of Mr.
Cookman at Green Street, it may be said that it took place
during the great religious revival of 1857 and 1858. An awak-
ening seldom paralleled pervaded all classes of society and
churches of every communion, extending from the cities to the
country districts, until there was not a hamlet, however remote,
which did not feel its power. Waves of divine blessing, in rapid
succession, rolled over the land ; religion was at the flood it
was the theme on every lip ; men turned aside from the busy
mart at the hour of noon, and thronged the places of prayer ;
the workshop, the drinking-saloon, the theatre, the highway,
became consecrated places, where the voice of singing and of
supplication from earnest penitents and exultant converts was
heard; the sanctuaries were crowded with men and women,
asking what they must do to be saved ; not alone the women
and children, but men strong, wicked men, who hitherto had
neither regarded man nor feared God mourned for their sins,
and rejoiced in the freedom of forgiveness ; ministers whose
popularity had declined were invested with new favor, and the
different denominations, that had been until recently either an-
tagonistic or indifferent, were suddenly fused into a thorough
union and co-operation.
Mr. Cookman knew enough to put himself abreast this divine
flood, and to move with it. Neither the general spirit of revival
nor his tact can wholly explain his success.
It is proper to call attention to an important fact of per-
sonal experience, which rendered his ministry at Green Street,
in his own opinion, the most pregnant period of his history.
It will be remembered that within a few months after ob-
taining the evidence of "perfect love," through inadvertency
he lost it. Through these years his position on this great
SPIRITUAL CONFLICTS. 193
subject had not been at all satisfactory to himself. It had been
hesitating. Doubts, questionings had disturbed his mind; and
though he was mainly in sympathy with the doctrine of " full
salvation," still there was neither a definite view nor a settled
experience. His ministry was acceptable and useful ; he was
truly devoted to God and His cause, but yet he was ill at ease,
and his soul, under a deep sense of unrealized power, was often
sorrowful. The war .of contending feelings marred his peace
and frittered his strength ; something he needed to lift him out
of this conflict, and to develop all the resources of his spiritual
nature into the utmost unity and force. The Spirit of God was
gently but surely leading him backward and forward at the same
time backward to the simple, child-like faith in which he stood
at Newtown, and forward to the same faith, re-enforced by an
experience which could more fully guard it, through a knowl-
edge of the errors that caused its forfeiture, and the memory of
the bitterness which that forfeiture had entailed.
Whatever had been lost during these ten years of compara-
tive failure, all was not lost. I do not mean that simply a saved,
justified condition had been maintained; this no one can ques-
tion ; but I mean that there had been progress in the deeper
knowledge of God's Word, in the more thorough insight to his
own heart, in the increased confidence in the agencies of the
Gospel, acquired by a longer and broader observation all of
which constituted preparations for that subsequent experience
which in its marks and results became so signal and abiding.
To one who has gained some great height by untrodden and
devious paths, there may seem a much straighter course when
he looks back over the broad sweep through which he has pass-
ed ; but he can not say that any step, much less which step,
has been useless in the successive steps that have brought him
to the eminence on which he stands.
There is a certain positiveness in a knowledge which is worked
out for one's self, to which the soul comes through its own prov-
I
194 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
ings amid doubts, fears, temptations, that imparts a conviction
of truthfulness, a tenacity of purpose, which is an indispensable
element in him who in any sense is to be a leader in God's
advanced hosts. The stand which Alfred Cookman was about
to take at Green Street for the doctrine of " perfect love " would
be quite a different stand from that which he took on Attleboro
Circuit in the first inexperienced months of his ministry ; not
different in the nature of the work accomplished, nor in the
evidences accompanying it, but in the increased capacity which
he would have to understand, to hold, and to propagate it.
Thenceforth neither the jokes of his brethren nor the arguments
of those who, either for cavil or conscience, saw fit to differ with
him, would be able to move him.
It was not a necessity that he should have lost the witness of
entire sanctification, much less that he should have continued
so long a time without its restoration, but it is a significant fact
in the history of many of those who have received this witness
that they seldom remain from the beginning uninterruptedly in
its possession and enjoyment. From want of a full perception
of the conditions of the higher order o( life, from a defect of
judgment which can be corrected only by experience, the soul
which has rejoiced in the evidence of love made perfect not
unfrequently comes under a darkness which is more or less
protracted. One of the most merciful provisions of Christian-
ity is that all believers, of whatever stage of attainment or de-
gree of faith, may so long as they live learn by the things
which they suffer, and be corrected by their very mistakes. It
is of God's infinite wisdom and goodness so to sanctify to the
good man even his errors, that by them he shall rise into a cor-
rected and purer life :
In the summer of 1856, while at Pittsburgh, Mr. Cookman
entered into a covenant with God, which began to give shape
to his subsequent experience :
" Restlessly anxious to enjoy an abiding witness of entire
COVENANT OF ENTIRE CONSECRATION. 195
sanctification to God, fully satisfied that this is not only a high
and holy privilege, but a solemn and peremptory obligation, 7,
Alfred Cookman, on this i6th day of July, 1856, do record the
following covenant, with a humble reliance on supernatural
help to assist me in fulfilling it :
" i. I will considerately, solemnly, cheerfully, fully devote my-
self to God, consecrating the various faculties of my mind and
body, together with the different talents which the providence
of God has blessed me with.
" 2. I will endeavor to remember that a strict and constant
self-denial is a principal element of the Christian character ;
hence, without reference to my own will or inclination, I will
consent to be governed by God's revealed truth and the inward
illumination of His Holy Spirit.
" To particularize some points of duty :
" Finding that I can not habitually use tobacco with a clear
conscience, I will resolve to abstain frcm it altogether.
" I will endeavor to be more prompt and energetic in the dis-
charge of all my duties.
" Teaching, as I do, the advantage and efficiency of prayer,
I will myself seek to commune more frequently and intimately
with God.
" In my intercourse with society, I will endeavor to be more
spiritual in my conversation, keeping in view constantly the
glory of God and the salvation of souls.
" I will study the spirit and character of my Saviour, and
labor to possess all the mind which was in Christ Jesus my
Lord.
" I will frequently give this covenant a prayerful perusal.
" Now, how can I conform to this standard unless assisted by
the blessed Spirit? Feebler than a bruised reed, I shall cer-
tainly fail unless helped from above. Oh, Eternal Father, for
the alone sake of the Saviour, give me the Holy Spirit to
strengthen me with might in my inner man, that I may be able
196 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
to glorify Thee in my body and spirit, which I this day conse-
crate to Thee."
As joints to stalks, condensing their substance and giving
firmness for the support of further growth ; as knots in the
threads, binding them into unity and strength as hither and
thither they cross each other in weaving the fisher's net, so the
covenants of good men gather up their otherwise scattered re-
sources, and compact them into the higher forms of spiritual
efficiency.
I give in his own words the account of his restoration to
this great scriptural blessing :*
" Oh, how many precious years I wasted in quibbling and
debating respecting the great differences, not seeing that I was
antagonizing a doctrine which must be spiritually discerned,
and the tendency of which is to bring people nearer God.
Meanwhile I had foolishly fallen into the habit of using tobac-
co, an indulgence which, while it afforded, palatably, gratifica-
tion, at the same time seemed to satisfy both my nervous and
social nature. Years elapsed. When I would confront the
obligation of entire consecration, the sacrifice of my foolish
habit would be presented as a test of obedience ; I would con-
sent. Light, strength, and blessing were the result. Afterward
temptation would be presented. I would listen to suggestions
like this : ' This is one of the good things of God ; your religion
does not require a course of asceticism ; this indulgence is not
specifically forbidden in the New Testament ; some good peo-
ple whom you know are addicted to this practice,' thus seeking
to quiet an uneasy conscience. I would draw back into the
old habit again. After a while I began to see that the indul-
gence at best was doubtful for me, and that I was giving my
carnality rather than my Christian experience the benefit of the
doubt. It could not harm me to give it up, while to persist in
the practice was costing me too much in my religious enjoyment.
* Substantially as published in "The Guide to Holiness," New York.
THE THREE STEPS TO HOLINESS. 197
"I found that after all my objections to sanctification as a
distinct work of grace, there was nevertheless a conscious lack
in my own religious experience it was not strong, round, full,
abiding. I frequently asked myself, 'What is that I need and
desire in comparison with what I have and profess ?' I looked
at the three steps insisted upon by the friends of holiness, name-
ly : ' First, entire consecration; second, acceptance of Jesus mo-
ment by moment as a perfect Saviour ; third, a meek and defi-
nite profession of the grace received,' and I said ' these are
scriptural and reasonable duties.'
" The remembrance of my experience in Newtown supplied
an overwhelming confirmation of all this, and at the same time
a powerful stimulant in the direction of duty. What then ? ' I
will cast aside all preconceived theories, doubtful indulgences,
and culpable unbelief, and retrace my steps.' Alas ! that I
should have wandered from the light at all, and afterward wasted
so many years in vacillating between self and God. Can I ever
forgive myself? Oh, what bitter, bitter memories ! The ac-
knowledgment I make is constrained by candor and a concern
for others. It is the greatest humiliation of my life. If I had
the ear of those who have entered into the clearer light of Chris-
tian purity, I would beseech and charge them with a brother's
interest and earnestness that they be warned by my folly. Oh,
let such consent to die, if it were possible, ten deaths before they
willfully depart from the path of holiness ; for, if they retrace
their steps, there will still be the remembrance of original purity
tarnished, and that will prove a drop of bitterness in the cup of
their sweetest comfort.
" Eternal praise to my long-suffering Lord, nearly ten years
have elapsed since, as the pastor of Green Street Church in the
city of Philadelphia, I again carefully and fully dedicated my all
to God, the consecration of course including the doubtful indul-
gence. I said, ' I will try to abstain for Christ's sake ; I trust
I would do any thing for His sake, and certainly I can consent
198 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
to this self-denial that Jesus may be glorified.' I again accept-
ed Christ as my Saviour from all sin, realized the witness of
the same Spirit, and since then have been walking in the light
as God is in the light, realizing that experimental doctrine of
the fellowship and communion with saints, and humbly and
gratefully testify that the blood of Jesus cleanseth me from all
sin. ' As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye
in him ;' that is, as I understand, ' Maintain the same attitude
before God you assumed when you accepted Christ as your all-
sufficient Saviour.' I received Him in a spirit of entire conse-
cration, implicit faith, and humble confession. The constant
repetition of these three steps, I find, enables me to walk in
Him. I can not afford for a single moment ever to remove my
offering, to fail in looking unto Jesus, or to part with the spirit
of confession.
"Thus I have honestly unfolded some personal experience
in connection with the higher life; the recital humbles me in
the dust, as it calls up the memory of years of vacillating and
unsatisfactory religious life, but it also fills me with the pro-
foundest gratitude for that abounding grace which not only
bore with me, but brought me to see again my privilege in the
Gospel, and now for ten years has been preserving me in the
experience and blessing, and in the profession of this great
grace. Precious reader, I now offer you the testimony; but
mark, before it meets your eye it has been carefully placed upon
the Altar that sanctifieth the gift, and an earnest prayer offered
that it may be blessed to your spiritual profit. As you lay
down this humble article, will you not, for your own sake and
for the Church's sake, resolve to be entirely and eternally the
Lord's? God help and bless you."
The candor, directness, and fervor which pervade this state-
ment must commend it to every one. The "Tobacco Test"
was for himself alone ; the use of tobacco was in his way, in
the full consecration which he sought to make to God ; he
COMPREHENSIVE VIEWS ON HOLINESS. 199
did not pretend to raise it as a question for any one else. With
him whatsoever is not of faith is sin ; what he could not do con-
scientiously, he could not do at all ; but he would have others
to think and act for themselves in doubtful matters, believing
that every man should be fully persuaded in his own mind.
Mr. Cookman, in the presentation of the Christian life, was the
farthest removed from a narrow and censorious spirit; he never
raised artificial conditions ; was not given to the specifying of
isolated acts either of self-denial or performance, but rather in-
culcated a broad, deep, thorough devotion, under whose enlight-
ened impulse he was sure the new-born, or the wholly sanctified
soul, would adjust itself to the divine requirements. It was of
little consequence to him whether a brother accepted literally
his methods or opinions on minor points of personal habit, so
he had the root of holiness, and showed in his life its essential
fruits. Here was a point which aided not a little to give him
influence over all classes of minds.
Nothing can possibly exceed the emphasis with which our
friend was henceforth committed to the doctrine of "perfect
love." "Heart purity" a favorite expression with him was
from this time to the close of his life the distinctive theme
of his ministry ; not, however, to the exclusion of other topics,
but as comprehending all phases of Christian truth, penetrating
and vivifying them with its light. It absorbed his best thoughts ;
it was the burden of his ablest sermons ; it was that which was
best in him as a man; his whole being was permeated with its
unction ; at home or abroad, in the pulpit or the social circle,
in the study or by the sea-shore, at the altar of prayer or by the
sick-bed, the instinct of his soul, the atmosphere of his life, was
" Holiness to the Lord."
In connection with his preaching talents, his skill as an ad-
ministrator of Church affairs, his aptitude with the Sunday-
school, and his engaging manners, this rebaptism with the Spirit
of power at Green Street was most opportune. It fully equip-
200 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
ped him as a good soldier of Christ for the arduous and event-
ful campaign which lay before him. What a pity it is that the
details of a pastorate so replete with incident and instruction
are almost wholly lost for the want of any proper record. The
words spoken, the deeds done, are bearing fruit in souls, and
their only transcript is the holy and happy lives they helped
to form.
The revival spoken of began during the first winter (1857-8)
of Mr. Cookman's ministry at Green Street. I extract a few
entries from his pocket-diary as indicative of the progress of
the work for January and February :
"January i, 1858. The first day of a new year. Oh, that it may prove
the best day of my life ! Our watch-night was solemn and profitable. De-
livered an address this afternoon at a Sabbath-school anniversary.
" January 3. Preached in the morning on ' Having a mind to work.'
Eight joined four probation, four certificate. Made a Sabbath-school ad-
dress in the afternoon. Preached at night on ' The loss of the soul.' A
solemn meeting ; fourteen at the altar ; two professed conversion. To
God be all the glory !
" January 4. Greatly exhausted to-day. Attended a funeral. Twenty at
the altar. Brother Coombe preached for me ' Work out,' etc. Two young
men converted. Praise the Lord, O my soul !
" January 5. Spent most of the day in the court-room, to which I had
been summoned as a witness. Brother Coombe preached a powerful sermon
from ' Pure and undefined religion.' Seventeen or eighteen at the altar,
twelve of whom professed conversion.
"January 6. Wasted a good part of the day at court. Led a large
class. Called on Mr. and Mrs. R . Preached at night from ' Behold,
I stand at the door and knock.' Sixteen at the altar ; three professed
conversion.
" January 7. Trial still pending. Led a large class. Brother Coombe
preached ' If only we have hope.' Twelve at the altar ; three converted.
"January 8. Wasted a good deal of time at the court-room. Brother
Milby preached at night ; only two forward. O Lord, revive Thy work !
" January 9. Visited court-room in the morning ; attended Old Folks'
concert in the afternoon ; spent the evening in my study not very well.
" Sunday, January 10. Preached, with unusual liberty, on the subject of
entire self-consecration. Administered the sacrament in the afternoon.
PROGRESS OF THE REVIVAL. 2OI
Fourteen joined the Church on probation, two by certificate. Brother
Coombe preached at night ; five at the altar ; one converted. A good
day.
" January 1 1. Attended preachers' meeting ; spent a good part of the
day in the court-room. Brother Dunham preached very acceptably at night
from ' One thing is needful,' etc. Five at the altar ; one blessed. Letter
from Trenton.
" January 13. Brother Coombe preached; seven or eight forward; two
converted.
" January 14. Brother R. Humphries preached ; eight or nine at the
altar ; two converted.
"January 15. Brother Jennings preached; ten at the altar; two con-
verted.
" January 1 6. God has given me my first daughter. Oh, how multiplied
are Heaven's mercies !
" January. 17. Preached with considerable liberty on the 'Horrible pit,'
etc. Heard Dr. Stockton in the afternoon. Preached again at night on the
solemn subject of 'Death.' Twelve at the altar;, one converted. Glory to
God!
" January 18. Dr. Cook preached for me at night ; fourteen at the altar;
four converted.
" January 19. Lectured in Trenton, N. J. ; a pleasant visit. Dr. Cook
preached for me ; twelve at the altar.
" January 20. Returned from Trenton ; wrote letters to ; love-feast
at night ; a precious season ; ten or twelve at the altar ; one or two con-
versions.
" January 21. Preparing material for a charity sermon. Led a large
class. Brother J. Thomson preached for me at night a capital discourse.
Twelve or eighteen at the altar ; one converted.
"January 22. Wrote to B. F. J., L. W. K., E. M. H. Called on Helen P.,
W. G. S., and Captain S. Dr. Alday preached an excellent sermon from
' God be merciful,' etc. Twelve or thirteen at the altar.
"January 21. Received a letter from Washington.
" January 24. Preached in the morning on the duty of systematic benefi-
cence ; collection $200. In the evening on ' Ho ! every one that thirsteth;'
twenty at the altar a number of young men ; one converted. To God be
all the glory.
" January 26. Went to market. Accomplished little in my study. Vis-
ited. Brother Curtis preached from ' Come unto me,' etc. ; sixteen at the
altar ; four converted. Glory be to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
I 2
2O2 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
" "January 27. Preached at night from ' I have a message,' etc. One of
the best meetings we have had ; fifteen or eighteen forward for prayers ; four
or five blessed.
" January 28. Very sick, one of my bilious attacks, with cold under the
care of the physician. Brother J. Thomson preached ; two or three con-
verted.
"January 29. Considerably better to-day, but greatly prostrated.
Brother Fernly preached.
" January 30. Nothing special. Far from being well.
" January 31. Preached in the morning from 'Ye call me Lord and
Master,' etc. John preached for me at night. A most solemn and interest-
ing occasion ; eight or ten forward ; one blessed."
I give a few extracts for the month of February :
" February 6. Started for Washington ; spent an hour or two in Balti-
more ; reached our place of destination about five in the afternoon ; cordially
received.
" February 7. Preached the dedication sermon of Waugh Chapel ; con-
siderable liberty. John preached in the afternoon ; Brother Dashiell in the
evening ; upward of $1500 raised. A good day.
" February 8. Visited the Capitol, Smithsonian, etc. Heard a most ex-
citing discussion in the Senate, and saw many friends. Lectured at night in
the Foundry Church.
" February 9. Returned home ; all well. Heard of Bishop Waugh's
death. Patterson preached at night ; four blessed,
" February 12. Eighteen at the altar.
"February 14. Preached a missionary sermon in the morning 'What
think ye of Christ ?' A good day.
"February 15. Preachers' meeting; general class; twenty-five at the
altar ; four or five converted.
"February 16. Lectured in the Kensington Church in behalf of the Soup
Society. Brother Seys preached at night ; three or four blessed.
" February 1 7. Fifteen at the altar ; seven converted.
" February 21. A triumphant day. Brother Hagany and Bishop Janes
both preached admirably. $1500 will probably be our missionary contribu-
tion.
" February 22. Preachers' meeting ; dined at mother's ; good meeting at
night ; eight at the altar ; one or two converted.
"February 23. Wrote to S.Thomas; attended Helen P.'s funeral; was
present at a meeting of the Board of Managers of the Tract Society."
AN EXAMPLE OF HIS PREACHING. 203
Here this fragmentary diary closes. I present it as showing
not only the progress of the revival, but also the busy life of
the young city pastor. Religious services night after night,
with all the taxing cares of a great awakening ; special services
in the city and abroad, in lectures for feeble societies and dedi-
catory sermons for new churches. Elastic as was his physical
frame, he is seen sometimes almost sinking under sickness, yet
he scarcely stops his arduous labors, but gets well " in the
harness." In the midst of these engrossing parochial cares
he was touching the religious community at all points, was well-
nigh ubiquitous in all city evangelical movements. Alfred
Cookman was then, as always, a man of sheer hard work and
of all work. He shunned no task however severe or forbidding.
I have at hand a report of one of his sermons preached dur-
ing this great revival. Its insertion is in point, as tending to
illustrate the style of his extemporaneous discourses, and the
character of those thrilling home-thrust appeals by which he
roused the consciences of his hearers :
" ' Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee?
" These words, contained in St. Luke's Gospel, twelfth chapter and twen-
tieth verse, constitute the subject of a sermon preached last Sabbath even-
ing in the Methodist Church, Green Street, below Eleventh, by the pastor,
Rev. Alfred Cookman.
" Mr. Cookman is among the youngest members of the ministry of Phila-
delphia, and so too among the most promising of their number. His genius
seems to be eagle-winged, soaring aloof from either notes or manuscript,
and pouring itself out in an easy-flowing stream of eloquence, as sublime in
its flights as it is forcible in argument
" The popular appreciation of this promising young preacher is well ex-
pressed in the immense audiences which usually throng the church in which
he is stationed. On the present occasion the house was literally crowded.
In attempt : rig a synopsis of his able discourse, however, we shall endeavor
rather to preserve the chain of his argument than to give a faithful transcript
on paper of his style of oratory. * * *
" The speaker here announced that the special point of inquiry to which
he desired to call the attention of his hearers was,
2O4 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
'IN WHAT DID THIS MAN'S FOLLY CONSIST.'
'"The most degrading epithet to be found in the vocabulary of language
had been applied to the subject referred to in the parable.
" ' Such an expression (" thou fool "), coming from the source it did, must
have had sufficient reason to sustain it. But here arose the difficulty. The
great principle intended to be taught by this parable the reasoning of the
world was not prepared to receive. Here, indeed, was the issue. The judg-
ment of God was arrayed against the judgment of unconverted man.
" ' To proceed, however, with the investigation into the folly of this rich
owner of certain lands, we should probably be told, first in vindication of
his course that he had been a rich man ; and it was an undisputable fact
that riches covered a multitiide of sins ! He knew, from the fact that rich
men were almost universally lauded for their wisdom, that the process of
fastening the charge of folly upon so distinguished a one of their number
was no idle undertaking. Again, it would be plead in his behalf that he
had been industrious and persevering, and had, as a consequence, reaped an
abundant harvest as his reward ; but the question here arose, " Do enter-
prise and wisdom, in all cases, constitute synonymous terms ?" He thought
not. Moreover, he would probably be accounted a wise man because he
had taken thought, within himself, as to " what he should do."
" ' Yes, he had taken thought, and the conclusion of his thoughts had
been that he would build new barns, and on announcing this resolution he
did not doubt but that he had been regarded as the very wisest man in all
that region. But, again, the world would give him credit for acting wisely,
in that he had resolved to enjoy himself with the good things he had accu-
mulated all the rest of his days for having taken a resolution, probably, of
associating with him in his enjoyments a few select boon companions, who
should revel with him in the delight he was then picturing to his soul.'
" Here the speaker saw pictured before his imagination the phantom of
this prince reclining upon his silken couch at the dead hour of night, revolv-
ing in his mind the glorious future that awaited him. This delineation was at
once artistic, eloquent, and thrilling. ' It was at the dead hour of night : the
laborers of his fields were soundly slumbering in other apartments of his
splendid dwelling ; but sleep on her airy pinions came not to woo his wake-
ful soul to regions of repose. No, no his mind was too much engaged in
counting over the vastness of his wealth ; picturing before his excited vision
the full-grown proportions of his newly conceived barns ; devising the mag-
nificent entertainments with which he meant to regale his admiring friends.
So his soul was wandering into the treacherous regions of the undiscovered
future, counting up the years of pleasure yet to come, when lo ! suddenly as
A SERMON. THE RICH FOOL. 205
the lightning's flash, a voice aroused him a voice from a quarter least ex-
pected and most dreaded thundered in his ear the terrible doom "THIS
NIGHT ! thy soul shall be required of thee /"
" ' Never had Belshazzar been more terrified when the miraculous hand
had written his doom upon the wall of his banqueting-chamber than had
this rich man been at this midnight announcement. Never had Saul of
Tarsus been more awe-struck when at the gates of Damascus he had been
stricken sightless from his horse by a light from heaven, than had this man
been on hearing his unlooked-for doom at this silent hour of the night.
And well it might be so. His transition from the regions of his vision into
the vestibule of eternity, in a single instant, and the certainty that before the
rosy dawn of morn he should appear in the presence of a sin-judging Jeho-
vah, were enough to have wrung from his lips the burning confession " 'Tis
true, I am a FOOL indeed !"
" ' But he would ask again, Wherein did his folly most particularly ap-
pear ?
" ' His answer to this would be, first, "Because he had forgotten the claims
of God!" He had undertaken to arrange for himself a train of future happi-
ness had begun thework of hewing out for himself " broken cisterns that
could hold no water" had lost sight of the living pleasures of the future
was indeed basking in pleasures to some extent of which God does not wish
to deprive his children ; but the matter which pre-eminently stamped him as
a fool was that he had forgotten the Author of all his mercies.
" ' When he had retired at night, good angels had long watched around
his couch, but they heard no voice of thankfulness offered to their Father in
Heaven. Others had mourned in penitence over their transgressions, but
he had no tears to shed over his sins ; others had plead for favors from the
Divine Hand, but he had no prayer to offer ; others had prayed for light to
see the truth, but he had no such desire, for " he loved darkness rather than
light, because his deeds were evil ;" and from all this it was that the appella-
tion of "fool" had been justly applied to him.
" ' But his folly was apparent, in the second place, because he had forgotten
the claims of his soul.
" ' He had said, " Soul, take thine ease," and herein had been committed
his capital mistake. What an insult to the soul was this ! to undertake to
satisfy the future longings of the soul by offering it a species of gratification
that would be equally tempting to a brute !
" c " A fool !" exclaims the objector, with perfect astonishment, "and did he
not assiduously employ his thinking faculties ? did he not ask within himself
what he should do ?" Yes, he admitted that he had asked this question ;
206 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
and had it been in his (the speaker's) province to reply, he should have an-
swered him, " feed the hungry and clothe the naked ;" but his inquiry had
not been what he should do to be saved, but what he should do for his
body. All his inquiries had been concerning matters confined to this world,
entirely forgetting the capacities and duration of the soul.' Here the speaker
inserted an emphatic pause, and then continued, that he ' hoped all his hearers
would duly consider the value of an immortal soul and withal consider
well the uncertain character of its earthly pilgrimage. Poised, as it were,
upon a little point of time, with heaven above, hell beneath, and eternity be-
yond, requiring but the slightest vibration of Jehovah's breath to blow it
away forever !
" ' To neglect this, no matter what might be our earthly achievements, we
should gain nothing. " For what shall it profit a man (he prayed to God
that this inquiry might sink deep into our hearts) if he gain the whole world
and lose his own soul ?"
" ' But again : He had not only forgotten the claims of the soul, but also
the claims of death. "Soul, thou hast laid up for many years" had been
his declaration. And what a declaration this for a being whose breath was
in his nostrils ! It was well to bear in mind that of all known uncertainties,
life was the most uncertain. Wealth, by means of strong walls and iron
chests, might be safely secured ; reputation, by preserving a strict correct-
ness in all our walks and actions, might be retained ; but see ! how is it with
human life ? Mark yonder railroad train flying along the iron way with
lightning speed there is a sudden crash ! It was the work of an instant ; and
now we may pass around among the dead, the dying, and the wounded of
that mass of living, happy beings but a moment before ! Yes, even to-day
the realization of a scene like this had been echoed through our streets, and
his hearers had doubtless' heard of it
" ' Die we must, be our circumstances whatever they may. We could not
tell what would become of us, yet heaven or hell must be our destiny.
" ' Death had come to the rich man in the text, and at the dead hour of
night laid his skeleton hand upon him, and thundered into his ears, " This
night thy soul shall be required !" Then probably the first prayer had been
wrung from those ungrateful lips, as he implored the fell messenger to spare
him but till morning, that he might take leave of his family, or that he might
execute his will, or, above all, that he might have if it were but an hour to
make his peace with God. But no ! the decree of the avenger had gone
forth, and was inexorable in its demands. Now was the time now he must
die!
"'Oh! how great had been the folly of this man and yet there, were
DEDICATION IN WASHINGTON, D. C. 207
many of us quite as foolish as he : -like fools we were living, and, like the
arch infidel Voltaire, when we come to die it would be to " take a leap in
the dark."
"'But lastly: He had not only forgotten the claims of God, of his soul,
and of death, but he had forgotten the claims of judgment. The evidences
of Scripture were most explicit that " what a man soweth, that shall he also
reap." Another rule was, that in proportion as we had received it would
be required of us in the end. And in view of this, he would ask of the soul
that had never been washed in the laver of regeneration that had never
responded to the noble impulses of a god-like charity, but whose whole ex-
istence had been devoted to the circumscribed limits of self-aggrandizement
of what value was it all ? for in the hour of death all would have to be
given up. And then that awful future ! where, instead of drinking of the
pure, delightful waters that flow from beneath the Father's throne, the lost
soul must drink the bitter cup of the Father's wrath, even to its dregs ; and,
instead of basking amid the melodies of heavenly anthems, must forever
dwell amid the desponding echoes of the groans of the tormented.'
" The above sermon was an extemporaneous effort entirely, and elicited
the most marked attention throughout its delivery."
The services of Mr. Cookman, at the dedication of Waugh
Chapel, referred to in his diary, produced at Washington the
impression which the advent of a " Cookman " was adapted to
make in the national capital. A correspondent of one of our
Advocates wrote of the occasion :
" I will allude to but one more point, and that is the dedica-
tion of Waugh Chapel last Sabbath. The services were ex-
tremely interesting. The sermons in the morning and afternoon
were preached by the Revs. Alfred Cookman and John Emory
Cookman, both sons of the late lamented George Cookman,
who was lost on the ill-fated President. Both of these young
men partake in a remarkable degree of the spirit and eloquence
which characterized their father, especially as seen in his little
volume of published speeches and sermons. The sermon in the
morning was a beautiful exposition of the reasons why the apos-
tle ' gloried in the Cross,' in which the youthful speaker held
an overflowing audience, among whom were many members of
2O8 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
Congress and judges of the Supreme Court, in almost breathless
attention for more than an hour. In the afternoon there was
another great crowd to hear John Emory Cookman, who is, I
learn, only nineteen years of age, and who has been a member
of the Church but one year. Both of these young men are des-
tined ere long, if their lives are spared, to rank among the most
popular pulpit orators in our country."
Among the conversions with which God honored the minis-
try of Mr. Cookman during this period was that of his brother
George, who, though next oldest to himself, had never before
professed saving faith in Christ. On the first Sabbath evening
of January, 1859, Mr. Cookman preached a most solemn and
earnest sermon on the word "Now" to an immense congrega-
tion, and at its close invited penitents to the altar. He was
feeling that night an especial solicitude for the conversion of
his brother. The brother was seated in the rear of the choir
(front) gallery, and, though the obstacles were apparently great,
he deliberately arose, descended to the lower floor, and came
forward to the altar and was converted. Nothing could exceed
the joy of the pastor at this result, in which the brother who
had been the companion of his boyhood was given to him in
the fellowship of Jesus. The two became inseparable workers
for the Master George rivaling in the ranks of the laity the
zeal and usefulness of Alfred in the ranks of the ministry. If
Alfred's ministry at Green Street had done nothing more than
to give to Methodism and to Christianity at large in Philadel-
phia, George Cookman, as an example of piety and earnest
work, it would have been enough. His career was destined to
be short, but full of good fruits, and such as only few young lay-
men in America have lived.
As evincing the manifold character of Mr. Cookman's minis-
try at this time, his adaptation to all classes, the attractiveness
of his singularly pure and persuasive influence, there was a
young Friend taken into the Church by him who has since filled
MISS ANNIE E. DICKINSON. 2OQ
no small place in the public estimation. This thoughtful, ar-
dent young woman found in Mr. Cookman's spirit and instruc-
tions what her nature needed. She came out from the Society
of Friends, and united with the Methodist Episcopal Church.
She showed a genuine piety, an inquiring temper, and promise
of marked usefulness. What her precise relations to the Chris-
tian Church may be at present, I do not know; but there is
not a loyal heart in all America that has not beaten respon-
sively to the truthful, brave, and eloquent words which she
afterward uttered in the nation's darkest trials. Her scathing
rebukes of treason and her searching exposures of wrong, her
animated, cheerful eulogies of liberty, heroism, and the flag,
have roused to hatred of violence and to love of right even
where the arguments of men had failed. I refer to Miss Annie
E. Dickinson. The tribute which she has kindly written to
the memory of him who was for so brief a time her pastor
abundantly attests the depth of her attachment for him, and
proves that her heart must be in sympathy with the great truths
which it was his single joy to advance.
To the Rev. John E. Cookman :
" It is not an easy task you mark me. * * * Years have gone by since I
sat down by your brother, looked into a face that warmed like the sun, and
listened to a voice that called me away from all things poor and mean and
earthly, as a strain of celestial music might call.
" Long years full of strife and care and toil yet face and voice seem and
sound as clear as though they shone and spoke but yesterday.
" A love of humanity wide as humanity, a charity inexhaustible, an ear-
nestness that stirred the most careless, a hungering and thirsting after right-
eousness not for its rewards a tireless effort in season and out of season,
with tender, yet powerful touch to mould and fashion others into the like-
ness of the Master ; a longing so boundless to be like his Master, as to wear
through flesh and blood full early, and carry the sanctified soul to know
Him ' face to face.'
" This was Alfred Cookman.
" Sad hearts out of count has he left behind ; eyes will grow dim and
voices choked for years to come, when they think of or speak his name.
210 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
For he was one of those rare souls so exalted as to breathe the atmosphere
of heaven, yet so gently human as to draw love and tenderness from whoso
approached him. ,
" So his life seems to me, and, so seeming, I would that my pen were
gifted with some of his subtle power to show it forth to others.
"As it is, I speak from my heart."
Only one letter of Mr. Cookman of this particular period has
come into my possession. It was written on his birthday to
his wife at her parental home in Columbia, and breathes the
child-like, playful spirit, the earnest, constant zeal which so uni-
formly and beautifully blended in his daily life. I can imagine
the air of conscious dignity with which the presents of the little
brothers were accepted, as though they had conferred upon
their papa a real benefaction.
To his wife, Mrs. Annie E. Cookman :
" PHILADELPHIA, Tuesday afternoon, January 4, 1859.
" Certainly you will expect me to act the correspondent on my birthday.
Thirty-one years ago I struck Columbia in my descent to this sorrow-smit-
ten planet From that starting-point I have prosecuted an eventful and, in
most respects, a delightful pilgrimage. To-day I erect my Ebenezer again,
and gratefully acknowledge ' hitherto hath the Lord helped me.' Our meet-
ing is progressing with considerable interest and success. Last night, des-
pite the snow-storm, the body of the church was quite well filled. Brother
E. J. Way preached an excellent sermon. Ten presented themselves for
prayers, and four were happily converted. George is proceeding most pros-
perously in his Christian course ; he says he is perfectly satisfied. Saidie
tells us that last night he went to bed, joyously singing, ' I will believe, I
now believe, that Jesus died for me.' Nothing, she estimates, could exceed
his tenderness and kindness to her. He was always faithful and affection-
ate, but now, she states, there is an expression and exhibition of this feeling
she has never seen before. It will inaugurate a new epoch in their domestic
history. Saidie is resolved that George shall not go to heaven without
her. Her mind, I think, is made up to walk with him in the narrow way.
She talks about nothing else, and weeps almost constantly. Oh, that her
night may soon end in joyous clay ! The children are both well. Just now
they came into my study and placed on my table their porte-monnaies, saying,
' Pa, this is your birthday present from us.' Dear little fellows, they did it
THE SECRET OF HIS USEFULNESS. 211
of their own accord, and in perfect good faith. I put their present in my
pocket, and thanked them very sincerely. They will not be separated.
George asks a great many questions about his sister Annie ; wants to know
if she will live after the doctor cuts her with his lancet. When I speak of
ma's return, their little eyes dance with delight."
I close the Green Street pastorate with a brief testimony
from J. F. Bird, M.D., a member of the charge :
" He got behind the 'Cross' on the occasion of his first sermon, and there
remained until his term, which continued for two years, was ended. The
young people crowded to hear him, and very many became earnest members
of the Church through his instrumentality, and are now doing good service
in ' every good word and work.' Among them was his brother George.
At one of the most interesting services ever held in this or any other church,
this dearly beloved brother presented himself at the altar, and very soon was
happily converted. In writing to an absent friend, giving an account of this
conversion, he said, ' I shout with my pen and with my soul over the auspi-
cious event.' He had labored for it and prayed for it incessantly by night
and by day, and therefore could not but ' shout ' when his desire was real-
ized.
" Mr. Cookman always regarded this appointment as one of the happiest,
as it was one of the most successful, of his ministerial career. He labored
for the good of the people. He lost sight of self. This was the secret of his
success. An intelligent member of the Church was asked by a member of
the Conference what was ' the secret of Cookman's success.' The answer
was, ' His evident desire to do the people good.' "
CHAPTER XIII.
THE UNION CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. SLAVERY AGITATION.
CHRISTIAN UNION.
THE next turn of the itinerant wheel did not take Mr. Cook-
man far. He was appointed by Bishop Scott to the Union
Church on Fourth Street, in March, 1859. The Union charge
is the next oldest to St. George's in the city, and is surrounded
by business houses, which have from year to year pressed out
the resident population to remoter sections. It is still a strong
station ; but at the time Mr. Cookman was sent to it, before
other charges had been created, either wholly or partially from
its membership, it. was a powerful organization, including some
of the most influential families of Methodism. Many of these
families came from a distance, preferring to continue in con-
nection with a Church with which theyjiad been so long in
close fellowship to joining those which were nearer their resi-
dences. The Union was consequently not so favorably located
for a large congregation ; but its proximity to the hotels and
its free seats were advantageous conditions, and Mr. Cookman's
popularity began immediately to produce an increased attend-
ance upon the public services.
As indicative of the high estimate in which Mr. Cookman's
ministry was held, I make a brief extract from a letter of Mr.
Thomas L. Mason, a well-known member of Union Church.
Writing to the Rev. John E. Cookman, he says :
" When Alfred was in Pittsburgh he promised me that, if the appointing
power would agree to it, he would be pleased to be pastor of Union. When
Conference met, Green Street (being heavily in debt) insisted upon having
him, and to accommodate our Green Street friends we gave in, with the un-
CONGENIAL AND HELPFUL FRIENDS. 213
derstanding that at the expiration of two years he would be sent to Union
and so he was. Our parsonage was in Eighth Street, above Race, but, to
accommodate his little children, we removed it to 224 North Fifth Street,
and partially refurnished it. He was received at Union with open arms and
open hearts. Our congregations were good, our finances much improved.
He was particularly successful with the young."
Mr. Cookman had the happiness of having many choice
friends in the congregation. There were those under his min-
istry who had long held him in the highest personal esteem.
His whole nature found scope for its gratification. Around
genial hearth-stones his sanctified affections enjoyed agreeable
companionship, while in the Church his hands were strength-
ened by judicious counsels and tender sympathies. The Rev.
Andrew Longacre, laid aside by feeble health from the active
work of the ministry, was a member of the congregation, and
ministered, by his calm and gentle friendship, to his comfort
and usefulness. His brother George, in the first flush of spirit-
ual grace, with uncommon endowments of speech and song,
was at his elbow. His own mother, also, was one of his flock.
She who had so often fed him with the Word of life, must now
be fed by him. But now, as before and since, she gave, if pos-
sible, more than she received. To lean on the support of a
wisdom which, in his opinion, had become almost oracular, a
faith which knew no abatement, a zeal which no waters could
quench, was to him no slight privilege, a rich blessing in so ar-
duous a position. There, too, was the sanctuary in the private
house of Mr. J. B. Longacre, on Spring Garden Street, which
the pastor could regard as very much his own, and to which, as
to a quiet haven, he habitually resorted. The eldest daughter
of Mr. Longacre, Mrs. John Keen, upon the decease of her de-
vout mother, still maintained the meetings for "holiness" which
her mother had founded. These meetings had been from their
commencement a gathering-point for the friends of the higher
Christian life in Philadelphia. Here Mr. Cookman's heart was
214 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
often refreshed; and issuing thence with deeper, calmer thoughts
of God, he entered upon the recurring duties of his large and
laborious pastorate with perceptibly increased vigor and suc-
cess.
More than ever before, the earnest pastor, thus beloved at
home, was in demand abroad. Whether announced in his own
city or in any other place, on special occasions, he was sure to
be greeted by a throng of people. His preaching at times was
with overwhelming effect. The Rev. Mr. Longacre gives an
account of the popular influence of a sermon preached about
this time at Penn's Grove camp-meeting in New Jersey :
" I recall a sermon he preached at a camp-meeting in New Jersey, on the
text 'Thy will be done.' The collection preceded the sermon, and it left
the congregation a good deal unsettled. But at the first sound of his voice
all was hushed into attention. As he preached and passed on into the ap-
peal of his discourse, the whole vast throng was bowed in tears. People
wept aloud, the preachers crowding the stand, and the passers-by on the
edge of the circle. Near me was seated a traveling preacher of the Hicksite
Friends. He had been restless at first, but gradually seemed subdued by
the power of the preacher, until at the conclusion he stood up and cried
with a loud voice, as if yielding to the constraining influence of the Spirit,
' We have heard the Gospel preached in the demonstration of the Spirit and
with power.' We went to the tables right after the service, but for many
minutes those at our table could not eat. We sat looking at each other,
and weeping tears that could not be controlled."
During the autumn of 1859, Mr. Cookman was invited to
Baltimore to preach at Monument Street Church. This was
one of the churches comprised in the Baltimore City Station
when his father was one of the pastors. His coming was a
signal for an outpouring of his devoted friends and the public
generally. He wrote to his wife :
" I seize a moment to drop you a line. These Baltimore friends are so
incessant in their attentions and so abundant in their kindness that I have
scarce opportunity to think of any thing but what is passing around me.
" Yesterday I preached to overflowing congregations. Although the
North Baltimore friends had concluded not to advertise the service, fearing
VISIT TO BALTIMORE. 215
an unmanageable crowd, yet both morning and evening hundreds went away
who could not be accommodated with standing-room.
" I preached ' Power ' in the morning, and the ' New Birth ' at night ; in
the afternoon made three addresses ; spent a sleepless night. To-day am
hardly able to stagger about. This morning at ten we had a most precious
meeting for an hour and a half. My soul is kept in perfect peace. Oh, the
strong consolation there is in Christ How delightful to labor when we re-
alize the presence of the Master.
" Invitations for dinner and tea are more numerous than I can possibly
accept. The friends vie with each other in their kind attentions. Look out
for me on Wednesday. Love to all friends. Many kisses for the children.
Tell them to be very good."
To his wife, Mrs. Annie E. Cookman :
" I am sure you will not object to receiving a few lines from a lonely hus-
band. An exceedingly pleasant ride on the cars brought us to Philadelphia
about five P.M. On my way to the parsonage I, of course, dropped in at
the Race Street homestead. Mother and Mary were making their arrange-
ments to sup with Mrs. W. W. Cookman. All were very well, and full of
inquiries respecting yourself and the children.
" Arriving at the ' Fifth Street house,' I was welcomed by Lizzie P ,
who had every thing very clean and comfortable. Taking up my letters
and papers, I felt such a sense of loneliness as can not be described. I re-
membered this would not do, and as I bowed my knee in prayer sweetly re-
alized that I was in the best of company. My compassionate Saviour came
quickly to my relief, and the room was transformed into the audience-cham-
ber of Deity. Oh, how unutterably sweet how indescribably valuable is the
religion of the Lord Jesus. My appreciation and enjoyment of its sacred
influences are increasing day by day.
" My letters were from Rev. H. Slicer, inclosing an invitation and a free
pass to the Shrewsbury camp-meeting; and another from the Rev.Mr.Thom-
as, urging me to serve him on the occasion of .a church dedication. The
former I will avail myself of; the latter I must decline."
The Shrewsbury camp-meeting was a favorite resort of Mr.
Cookman. He loved to meet the Baltimore Methodists when-
ever he could, and nowhere were his labors more acceptable
and useful than among them at their camp meetings. He will
be heard of again at Shrewsbury.
2l6 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
To his wife, Mrs. Annie E. Cookman :
" PHILADELPHIA, Saturday morning.
" Home again ! In view of my general class, and for the sake of a good
night's rest, I left the camp-ground* yesterday afternoon. It has been a
memorable week. The recollection just now fills my soul with gratitude
and joy. Our company was select and entirely congenial. Brother Y
was sweeter than ever. It seems to me that, as he approaches his rest, he
is becoming increasingly heavenly.
" Mother and Mary were with me in our little tent, which was arranged
tastefully. No pains were spared in contributing to our comfort. The
preaching was capital ; the success unusual. I occupied the stand yester-
day morning, and held forth the Word of life before an immense multitude.
The meetings held at the Union tent were powerful and precious beyond all
description. On Thursday morning we had a season which some of us will
think and talk about when we stand on Canaan's happy shore. Oh, how
often and how much I longed for my darling wife. The fullness for which
you pant would, I think, have been realized amid those scenes. However,
Christ is an omnipresent Saviour, and just as gracious at Columbia as at
Penn's Grove. More particulars respecting the meeting I will furnish when
we meet.
" I will try to be with you next week. My Sabbath work will oblige me,
I fear, to return the latter part of the week, as I have arranged to exchange
with N. Heston on the fourth Sabbath of August, and to be out of my pul-
pit two Sabbaths successively would hardly do. If, however, I return to the
city, it will be to leave for Columbia the following Monday again, en route
for Shrewsbury. I am very well soul and body. My heart is full of love,
and my future full of light. God is with me, and proves himself a sufficient
portion. I have three services to-morrow."
Mr. Cookman's pastoral term at Union, happy as it was in
most of its aspects, was not wholly without trials. It covered
a period which was one of great anxiety and perplexity both in
the State and the Church. The " irrepressible conflict " between
slavery and freedom was fast approaching a crisis. The ele-
ments of dissatisfaction and discord, which had been rising
and gathering, had- assumed such intensity as to forebode the
most violent and destructive storm. The whole nation trem-
* Penn's Grove, New Jersey.
THE ANTI-SLAVERY AGITATION. 2 17
bled with uncontrollable agitation ; every ecclesiastical organi-
zation, and more especially the Methodist Episcopal Church,
was shaking to its centre with a controversy, the sharpness of
which had precipitated the most equable men into bitter hos-
tility. Hatred was fast taking the place of love; distrust of
confidence; lifetime friends were becoming alienated; section
was arraying itself against section ; Northern opinion was di-
vided ; men stood side by side on 'Change, or sat side by side
in the pew, or ate together, members of the same family, who
differed almost wholly in their judgment of the causes and the
cure of national and ecclesiastical troubles.
It was one of those times of decision in which Almighty God
brings nations and individuals to the bar of judgment, and to
which destiny holds them with an inexorable grasp. The wisest
men stood bewildered in counsel; Conservatives were wringing
their hands in despair or clinching their fists in fury; and even
Radicals, while not doubting the correctness of their principles,
were alarmed at the consequences which their success threat-
ened to entail. " Conscience," exclaimed Mr. Hunter, of Vir-
ginia, in the United States Senate, "has done this. Sir, there
is no hope of reconciliation or of the Union ; the conscience of the
North is against us." It was so ; the enlightened conscience
of the free states had reached a point when it could no longer
tolerate the extension of slavery.
This conscience, however, was not yet prepared to demand
its abolition in the slave states. Very few of the most pro-
nounced anti-slavery men felt themselves to be a party to the
wrong where it was protected by municipal law, and was be-
yond any possible constitutional process except by the concur-
rence of those who framed these municipal laws. Yet there
were men in the Church whose conscience compelled them to
exert themselves to abate slavery in the Church by requiring
all slaveholding members to emancipate their slaves. They
wished thus to leaven the State through the Church ; to assist
K
2l8 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
in creating, by a clear testimony and by such ecclesiastic press-
ure as they could command, a public sentiment in favor of
" abolition." There were differences of opinion as to the power
of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church
to expel members for slaveholding, and also as to the expedi-
ency of exercising this power if it existed. The differences of
opinion were not confined to any locality of the Church, though
those who held an opinion adverse to such a power were massed
mostly along the " Border Conferences," embracing the Balti-
more, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, and Missouri
Conferences, with contiguous Conferences lying north.
The whole question has since been consigned by the " logic
of events " to a dead past, and is of interest chiefly as one of
the teachings of history. No issues which have since trans-
pired can throw the shadow of a suspicion on the honesty of
the men who, in so great a debate, stood and acted apart.
Time has healed no, victory, in the happiest fruits of right-
eousness and peace, has healed the breaches of the angry strife.
But it was an ordeal for many souls which can not soon be for-
gotten a fiery trial and though it only consumed the straw,
that the gold might shine with the richer splendor, it was not
the less painful in its endurance.
Mr. Cookman was among those who believed that a law
should be enacted excluding slaveholders from the Church.
When measures were introduced to effect this change, through
what was deemed the proper constitutional process, he gave
them his prompt and uniform support by voting for. them. He
stood almost alone in his Conference. There was a small knot
of six or seven men out of about three hundred, and these were
most of them men of advanced years. He was young, bright,
popular, the idol of his brethren and of the people ; his early
education had been in the South ; his principal friends were
either slaveholders or their sympathizers ; his opinions seemed
to impugn the piety of people who nourished him in infancy and
A COURAGEOUS VOTE. 219
youth ; his vote seemed to fasten sin on those who were re-
garded as above reproach ; the measure he supported must
exclude many from the Church whom he hoped to meet in
heaven, and even apparently blot with a stain the memory of
many who had died in the faith. But Alfred Cookman felt that
he must do his duty. He would not follow his principles to all
their logical results ; he could only see principles, and to them
he must stand.
He did not question the piety and virtue of thousands hith-
erto and then involved in slaveholding ; but of two evils he must
accept the least. The opportunity had come for him to act,
and it was for him to say whether he should spare the feelings
of friends, or do what he could to liberate five millions of slaves ;
whether he should pander to a spirit of oppression, even though
softened by religion, or strike a blow for universal freedom.
He rose to the crisis of the hour. Cutting away from all social
and personal entanglements, the man stood forth in an act of
moral heroism seldom surpassed in the history of Methodism.
When the resolutions initiating the change were pending before
his Conference, he got down on his knees in the pew, and,
bathed in tears, poured out his soul to God for light and strength,
and arose and voted "Aye!" Here was the iron in his nature.
Let those who think Alfred Cookman was not a man of the
truest and highest courage mark this. His forbearance for the
weaknesses of men, his indisposition to insist upon points in
which men differed with him, his great charity, which folded in
its arms earnest souls and dropped out of sight their accidental
disagreements, has been construed into a want of courage.
Mr. Cookman never wasted his force on men of straw, but when
real giants were to be crushed, he had the power to do it.
In keeping with the vote thus given was the sermon he
preached in his own church about the same period, called by
one his "grand, grand anti-slavery sermon," from Isaiah viii.,
12, 13. As might be expected, some of his nearest friends and
220 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
principal supporters were wounded, and did not hesitate to ex-
press their displeasure. His only answer to all such was, " I
can afford to forgive them." Under an oppressive sense of the
responsibility which a declaration of his views would involve, he
had made the sermon on his knees. He delivered it with the
greatest fearlessness, and at the same time with an evident sin-
cerity and tenderness, which convinced all who heard him that
nothing short of the most thorough loyalty to the great Master
animated his soul. At the close of the service his face shone
with a spiritual light that showed how closely he had communed
with the Holy Spirit, and how triumphantly the Spirit had vin-
dicated him in the discharge of a most painful duty.
The session of the General Conference at Buffalo, New York,
in May, 1860, was looked forward to with great anxiety by all
the friends of the Church. It proved the most perilous since
that of 1844. Mr. Cookman, in common with hundreds of min-
isters and laymen, felt he must see the body and witness its
proceedings. Two letters afford a glimpse into his feelings.
To his wife :
" BUFFALO, Thursday evening.
" A long, long ride brought us to this western city about noon to-day.
Although tedious and tiresome, still I greatly enjoyed it. Wonderful nat-
ural scenery, congenial company, with an unusual degree of divine com-
munion, made it one of the most delightful journeys of my life. The details
I must reserve until my return home. We are quartered at the Western
Hotel, a neat, quiet, and comfortable house.
"After dinner and making our toilet, we concluded to take the half-past
two o'clock train for Niagara Falls. Thither we proceeded, to find the dig-
nitaries of the Church reveling amid those world-renowned scenes. I met
with hosts of friends from the North and South, and East and West, who
were really lavish in their expressions of pleasure at meeting me. Our
company were perfectly charmed. My only regret and sincerely it marred
my happiness was that my precious Annie could not unite in this extraor-
dinary treat. My soul ought to have been filled with Niagara, but your
absence would not permit this. At seven o'clock we returned to Buffalo.
" Great excitement obtains among all concerned in General Conference
proceedings. To-morrow it is expected the great battle will commence.
CONFLICT OF FEELING. BROTHERLY SYMPATHY. 221
The anti-slavery column stands strong and united. May God rule and over-
rule !"
To his wife :
" BUFFALO, May 23, 1860.
* * * " Sabbath was a glorious day. Bishop Ames in the morning, Bishop
Simpson in the afternoon, and Dr. Porter at night ; altogether a day of days.
Monday it was gloomy and rainy. Yesterday we spent at Niagara. Oh,
what a glorious visit it was ! Part of the time I was with Mr. Guinness, which
contributed not a little to the enjoyment of the day. Particulars must be
reserved until we meet. To-day the slavery battle began. The excitement
is intense. Coombe led off, followed by Moody and Norval Wilson. The
Baltimoreans were here in large numbers. They are intensely excited.
The general rule will not be changed, but there will be a secession on the
border. I judge we are on perilous times, but the Lord reigneth. If I
were not conscientious before God, the pressure of friends might move me
from my position, but, while I would not grieve them, I must and will cling
to truth and right. My spiritual enjoyment in Buffalo has been unusual.
Love fills my heart ; love for God and for all around. Oh, I feel during
every succeeding hour that I am at peace with Heaven, and prepared, if it
should be the Master's will, to quit these stormy scenes and rest with angels
and the glorified."
We have before seen the fatherly interest Mr. Cookman man-
ifested when his youngest brother was first jneditating the min-
istry, now that this brother was fairly engaged in the direct and
indirect duties which it brought, he could not do otherwise than
afford him all possible counsel and sympathy. His brother
John had only recently become a pastor at New Brunswick,
New Jersey, and was to visit Philadelphia, to address the Young
Men's Christian Association.
To the Rev. John E. Cookman :
"PHILADELPHIA, November 16, 1860.
" Perhaps you are ready to chide my delay in replying to your letter.
The reason of my procrastination was that the information you desired had
to be sought, and could not be had until after a meeting of the managers of
the Young Men's Christian Association. That meeting was held on
Wednesday evening, when it was resolved to postpone the anniversary until
the evening of the 3d of December, when it will come off at Concert Hall.
222 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
Had it been held before, some one of the churches must have been the
place selected. A very general and earnest wish was expressed that you
might be one of the speakers. Dr. Tyng has declined. Mr. Crowell and
Dr. Newton are spoken of as your colleagues. Respecting a theme, I
scarcely know what to say. The relation of Christian young men to the
times, or the responsibility and duties in the present crisis of our national
and world's history, would, I think, be suitable.
" The value of a powerful illustration can scarcely be estimated. I say
this as an offset to the claim you set up, ' Pay -what thou muest.' I could do
this in a fortnight of sermons, and, retaining ' the figure? be decidedly the
gainer. You know, however, that I love to act generously. No one is
more interested for your success than myself. It is my triumph to see you
triumph. 'Cookman' is the name which, with the blessing of God, I desire
to float aloft, commanding the respect, confidence, and affection of the world.
Family pride (I trust -it is sanctified) has a wonderful development in my
experience. My beloved brother, never do any thing or say any thing that
would lower that name one iota in public estimation. If we desire our name
to remain unimpeached and be increasingly honored, then, struggling up
above the infected atmosphere of this lower world, let us stand in the clear,
broad, beautiful sunlight of God's immediate presence. Men will recognize
us as Christ's ; honor our principles ; respect our character, and yield to
our influence. John, take my advice, and be satisfied with nothing less than
a heart constantly filled with God. It is a grand idea and a grander expe-
rience to be co-workers with God ; infinite wisdom and illimitable power
enlisted in our behalf. It helps us to think, to study, to pray, to preach,
and to labor ; it becomes the guarantee of inevitable and glorious success.
I mean all I write, and hope that you will immediately put this matter to
an experimental test.
" But to the illustration. I have been turning it over in my thoughts, and
can not call up any thing that I think could be rendered more effective
than Tennyson's 'Charge of the Light Brigade' at Balaklava. I inclose a
copy, which you will please preserve, and return when you have done with it.
Its application to this light brigade of young soldiers for Jesus, charging
upon the flanked batteries of hell, would, I think, be very thrilling. Forward
the light brigade ; ring the changes just here.
" How are dear mother and Mary ? We have many inquiries respecting
their welfare. Will you not all come to spend the Christmas holidays in
Philadelphia ? I think you might excuse Mary at once, and allow her Phila-
delphia friends a chance. The festival at Sansom Street Hall passed off
splendidly. Among the rest, Mr. Reese Alsop was present. He scanned
SPEECHES IN NEW YORK. 223
our crowd as if he would find a cherished one. Dr. Kennaday is preaching
this week at Trinity. No special interest is reported. The services are
held in the lecture-room. The Tuesday-afternoon meeting is largely at-
tended, and I think increasingly interesting. The children's class is getting
on nicely under the auspices of M W . She is vindicating the wis-
dom of our selection. Take good care of yourself, or rather commit your-
self, body, soul, and all, to Christ, and let Him take care of you."
It could hardly be otherwise than that Mr. Cookman's repu-
tation should attract attention in New York City. We accord-
ingly find him invited thither on different occasions to speak
at public meetings, and to represent the Philadelphia churches.
In the autumn of 1860 he spoke at the anniversary of " Five
Points' Mission/' under the care of the ladies of the Methodist
Episcopal Church. The anniversary was held at the Academy
of Music. The audience was very large and enthusiastic. "His
address," said a gentleman recently, " I can never forget. The
three principal figures the child and the Bible, the woman
and her diamond ring, the sinking ship are as vivid as if I had
heard them only yesterday." A visit to New York, in company
with Mr. George H. Stuart and other prominent Philadelphia
gentlemen, to wait on a delegation of Irish Christians, was no-
ticed by him in the following pleasant way to his wife :
" METROPOLITAN HOTEL, NEW YORK, Friday morning.
" How very gladly do I seize a moment this morning to add to your pleas-
ure, for I am sure you will be delighted to hear from your itinerant hus-
band. In company with Revs. Westbrook, Taylor, Wylie, and other gentle-
men, I enjoyed exceedingly the journey from Philadelphia to New York.
Mr. Taylor and I, seated side by side, engaged in a decidedly religious con-
versation which proved a very feast to my soul. Indeed, ever since my de-
parture, my blessed Father has kept my mind in perfect peace. I very
sweetly realize that He is around and within and all about me. Oh, the
unutterable joy of uninterrupted communion with God ! Mr. Stuart was at
the hotel to give us one of his warm-hearted welcomes. After some ablu-
tions, etc., we proceeded to the Cooper Institute. Owing to the storm, there
was no crowd, but a very respectable attendance certainly one thousand
people. The exercises throughout were unusually spirited and interesting.
224 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
" The honored representatives of Ireland acquitted themselves very cred-
itably. Your unworthy husband was called out. I said what was in my
heart at the moment, and was kindly received. I feel it such a privilege to
plead, under such circumstances, the promise, ' Lo, I am with you alway,'
and find the presence of my Master on the platform as in the pulpit. About
midnight we went to Mr. Stuart's room, and enjoyed together a season of
prayer ; after which, at peace with God and men, I placed my head on the
pillow, and was soon lost in the oblivion of sweet sleep. This morning I
am very well, and feel my heart overflowing with love to God. . At noon I
must be present in the Fulton Street prayer-meeting. My friends around
are very polite and affectionate. How much I love, and how grateful I feel
for Christian companions. How are my darling wife and precious children
this morning ? I need not tell you how dear you all are to me. Many kisses
for the boys and little sister. Tell them that pa hopes they will be very
obedient to ma, and very kind to each other."
This letter suggests a marked feature in the character and
ministry of Mr. Cookman during these four years, which has
not yet been as distinctly noticed as its importance and the full
representation of his career require. I refer to his position as
a representative man before the evangelical churches of Phila-
delphia. While there never was a more pronounced Methodist
than he, I doubt if there ever was one freer from bigotry. He
dwelt in a high serene atmosphere of love, whence he could
look down and see all the bounds and fences of sectarianism dis-
solve in the unbroken sweep of Christian unity. He loved all
Christ's followers, and was ready at all times to act with them
in those undenominational movements which contemplate the
glory of His kingdom in the salvation of men. The churches
were not slow to perceive his mind and to feel the kindle of his
spirit ; and hence both for his piety and his talents he became
by common consent the leading man of his Methodist brethren
as a mover in those stirring days of revival to which allusion
has already been made. He was closely identified with such
men as the Rev. Messrs. Newton, Brainard, Taylor, Dudley
Tyng, Reuben Jeffrey, and Mr. George H. Stuart, in promoting
the general work of religion. A young man, he was in full
MR. GEORGE H. STUART OF PHILADELPHIA. 22$
sympathy with the Young Men's Christian Association, as an in-
stitution providentially raised up to afford not only a beautiful
expression of Christian union, but also a common ground for the
most effective labors of all believers for the temporal and spir-
t itual welfare of young men. He and other pastors were glad
to labor under the leadership of the layman whose name is a
synonym for pure philanthropy throughout our country. The
work accomplished in those early days of the Association of
Philadelphia can hardly be too highly estimated, and has only
been paralleled by that of the Christian Commission during
the late civil war.
Mr. Stuart has not ceased to value the services and to cherish
the memory of his friend Mr. Cookman. He has kindly fur-
nished to the Rev. John E. Cookman a brief estimate of his
character and work as they impressed him at this time :
"I have been privileged to know many faithful and gifted servants of
Christ, and to know them a second time in the perusal of their biographies
Dr. Murray, of Elizabeth ; Drs. Edgar and Cooke, of Ireland ; and Dr.
Hamilton, of London, among them but I can say that a more fervent and
devoted minister of the Cross than Alfred Cookman I never knew. In him
the old fire that burned in the hearts of Whitefield and Summerfield glowed
with all the fervor of the first and Pentecostal days of Methodism ; and no
one could come within the sphere of his influence without feeling that he
was one for whom to live was Christ, and to die was gain.
" Mr. Cookman's coming to this city was not long previous to the begin-
ning of the great revival of 1857 and 1858. Through its precious scenes of
awakening, of conversion, he labored with all the fervor of his nature and
of grace. When I recall him in connection with that time of revival, his
name seems voluntarily to associate itself with that of the eloquent and
devoted young servant of Christ, the sorely lamented Dudley Tyng. Mr.
Cookman preached several times with great unction and power in the Union
Tabernacle, which was moved about the city during that time. A single
sermon' of his on the prophet's vision of the valley of dry bones was blessed
to the conversion of several persons, one of whom heard him as she stood
without the tent.
" Never shall I forget a ' noonday prayer-meeting ' held during the revival,
at which your brother presided. With deep feeling he asked for special
K 2
226 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
prayer for the only son of his .father who remained still without an interest
in the great salvation. You may judge with what fervor that request was
responded to. A few days later word came that the prayer had been heard
and answered, and that George Cookman was rejoicing in the hope of the
glory of God. He too has gone to the upper sanctuary ; but permit me to
recall the fact that when, by age, I was called to lay down the office of Pres-
ident of our Young Men's Christian Association, its duties devolved upon
this beloved brother, who was chosen as my successor. Very precious still
to me is the memory of George Cookman, the second President of the
Young Men's Christian Association.
"Alfred Cookman was one of those who represented to the^mind of the
Christian public the brotherly tmity of the whole Church of Christ His
large-hearted catholicity, and his unqualified love for all who held by the
Head, were what gave him his place among us. On any public occasion
when the churches of Christ were called on to unite in utterance or in action,
he was always expected, and never in vain.
" How faithful he was to all the interests committed to him inside his own
denomination, you can testify of. I can say that he was one of those who
made us feel that all these divisions were but regiments and brigades of the
one great army, the hosts of the living God.
" My own personal relation to him was one of pleasure and of profit al-
ways. He was a brother in sympathy, a friend in help.
" When a sentence,* at which our Christian world has not ceased to won-
der, cut me off from my place in the Reformed Presbyterian General Synod,
he was among the first to give utterance to his Christian cenfidence and
sympathy, in a letter which I highly prize as a memento of our Christian
friendship."
Here also are words of the same import to Mr. John E.
Cookman, from the distinguished and venerated Rev. Richard
Newton, D.D., rector of the Church of the Epiphany, Philadel-
phia :
" No argument in support of the reality and truth of the religion of the
Gospel is worth half so much as that which is furnished by the example of
one so blameless, so consistent, so holy as was your loved and lamented
brother.
* Mr. Stuart was suspended by the General Synod of the Reformed Pres-
byterian Church for singing such hymns as " Rock of Ages," and communing
with Christians like Alfred Cookman.
TESTIMONY OF REV. DR. RICHARD NEWTON. 227
" I had not the pleasure of an intimate personal acquaintance with him. But
during the years of his ministry in Philadelphia we often met together in va-
rious union services. On different platforms, where those who love the cause
of Jesus take sweet fellowship together, we often stood side by side in striv-
ing to promote the honor of our Master's name and the welfare of His blood-
bought Church. And now that he is gone, the recollection of those seasons
is very dear and precious to me. His large-hearted love for the friends of
Jesus ; the singleness of his aims ; the earnestness of his zeal ; the fervency
of his spirit ; the untiring devotion, the unction and power that appeared in
all he did and said, were the points about him that always most strikingly
impressed those who came in contact with him. These were the broad seals
upon his character that stamped him as one of God's own anointed minis-
ters, and won for him a warm place in the hearts of all to whom the living
image of Jesus is dearer than every thing else. I feel that it was a privilege
to have known him here on earth, and I look forward with kindling hope to
the higher privilege of meeting him in that bright world to which he has
gone, and where the union of Christ's people, whom he so loved to cultivate
here, will be perfected forever.
" May God graciously send down on all the ministers of Jesus still on
earth a double portion of that sweet spirit of purity, humility, zeal, and char-
ity, which shone so brightly and so beautifully in all the life and character
of your lamented brother."
Mr. Cookman completed his term at Union Church in the
spring of 1861. His pastorate here, though not marked by a
general and continuous revival, was nevertheless eminently
useful. Mr. Mason, before quoted from, says :
" His Saturday-afternoon meetings were a grand success. All the Sun-
day-school children loved him very much. We had constant accessions to
the Church in small numbers. We held two protracted meetings in the
body of the church. There was no great excitement, but many were con-
verted and added to the Church, and some remain to this day. During one
of these meetings a lady boarding at the Union Hotel said to some friends,
' Let's go over to the Methodist meeting and have some fun.' They occu-
pied the fourth pew on the south middle aisle. Before the fun commenced,
Alfred asked all that felt they were sinners to stand up, and, to the great
amazement of her friends, Mrs. C. stood up. She was converted, was a
useful member of Union Church many years, and removing to Camden, New
Jersey, took a card and joined the Church there, where she lets her light
shine still.
228 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
"Alfred's life, his character, and influence in the city was all for good.
He was one of the purest ministers we ever had the true minister in the
market, the home, and in the house of God. One of his most effective ser-
mons was preached on the steps of my house to my son, Thomas T. Ma-
son, Jr., who was just leaving for the army of the Cumberland. Taking him
by the hand, he said, ' Tom, take God with you, and all will be well.' After
the terrible battle of Stone River, in Tennessee, my son was taken down with
typhoid fever, and just before he died he turned to his comrade, Thomas C.
Moore, and said, ' Tom, I am taking God with me.' "
CHAPTER XIV.
REMOVAL TO NEW YORK. MINISTRY AT THE CENTRAL CHURCH.
PATRIOTISM AND THE CIVIL WAR.
SUCH was the influence which Mr. Cookman had gained at
Philadelphia, both in and out of the Methodist Church, that it
would have seemed wise to retain him in that city. There came
now a demand for his removal to New York. His fame as a
preacher had become so wide-spread as to cause his services to
be in request in many places, both for special occasions and
for the pastorate. There is an ever-working law by which the
grand centre of finance, trade, population, lays its claims to the
intellectual and religious power of the whole country, and makes
it tributary to its importance. The Methodist Church is no ex-
ception to the rule ; and it could not be expected that Mr.
Cookman would be an exception among ministers. The fre-
quent changes of the itinerant system offer facilities of transfer
from one city to another such as no other Church possesses.
He had been four years in Philadelphia, and he must make a
change " Why not go to New York ?" The application of the
Central Church in New York was successful, and Mr. Cookman
was accordingly transferred to the New York Conference in
May, 1861, and stationed at that Church. The same society,
which had originally worshiped on Vestry Street, had secured
the services of the father, and he was to have entered upon his
duties with them immediately upon his return from Europe ;
they were now equally fortunate to be able to command the
son in their new and more commanding position on Seventh
Avenue.
Some letters, written while he was in process of transfer and
230 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
settlement, are indicative of the mingled sense of responsibility
and pleasure with which he contemplated the change.
To his wife :
" NEW YORK, Wednesday morning, May 8, 1861.
" I am just now in receipt of your affectionate and truly welcome letter.
Your allusions to the precious children occasioned a feeling of homesickness.
If I had only the ' wishing-cap,' oh, how soon I would sit down in the midst
of my little family group ! I trust, however, that I am in a providential
path, for I try in all my ways to acknowledge God, and I think He is di-
recting my steps. You ask how I like New York. My answer is ' Very
much. Every thing here is alive and in motion.' The people are much
more demonstrative than they are in Philadelphia. They feel, and do not
hesitate to express or manifest their emotion. Yesterday afternoon John
and I enjoyed a most charming ride in a carriage belonging to Brother S .
He kindly proffered it, and we drove about for two or three hours. It af-
forded us the opportunity of visiting a number of localities we have been
anxious to see. I spent part of yesterday in the celebrated Dusseldorf gal-
lery of paintings. I have never seen any that would compare with these.
" Last evening the stewards of Central called at Brother S.'s. They were
very affectionate, expressed great pleasure in the prospect of my appoint-
ment, and an anxiety to have me settled at the earliest moment. They rep-
resent their parsonage as in very fine order, still they want to make some
improvements. I will fill my pulpit (May iglh) Sabbath week, and after
that turn my face toward Lancaster County, so that we may get here, say
Friday of that week. I do not know how I can endure absence from my
loved ones so long, but I live a day at a time, and try to keep the future out
of my thoughts. This afternoon I proceed to Poughkeepsie, will remain
there until Saturday, then return to New York, and, Providence permitting,
preach to the soldiers in Union Square Sabbath afternoon at three o'clock.
This is a very honorable and important appointment. You must not fail to
pray for me. I had hoped to enjoy the meeting at Sister Lankford's yester-
day, but was prevented from getting there."
To his wife :
" NEW YORK, Thursday, May, 1861.
" In view of some interesting anniversaries, I did not proceed to Pough-
keepsie yesterday, as I originally proposed. This afternoon, however, the
Lord willing, I shall turn my face toward the seat of the Conference. Noth-
ing new has transpired in connection with my appointment. Yesterday I
spent a half hour in the church itself. I was all alone no, not alone, for
THE NEW YORK CONFERENCE. 231
God was with me. Kneeling down, I asked my kind Heavenly Father to
come with me to my new field of labor, and make the ensuing two years the
best years of my life. The property is very tasteful and comfortable in all
its arrangements and appliances. Last night I walked the streets of New
York in company with Jesus. Do not be surprised. This was a precious
realization, and my heart burned within me as I communed with my kind
and sympathizing Redeemer. It was one of the evenings of my life. This
morning I attend the anniversary of the American Bible Society. H. B.
Ridgaway is one of the speakers. * * * How are you all this bright May
morning ? Oh, that I could look in upon your sweet familiar faces."
To his wife :
"NEWARK, N. J., May 14, 1861.
" You must not think for a moment that you are forgotten. Never were
you dearer to my heart than now ; indeed, I am sick to see my wife and
children. The days drag their weary length along until I sit down in my
domestic circle again. Last Thursday afternoon, in company with my friend
Ridgaway, I started for Poughkeepsie, the seat of the New York Conference.
The sail up the Hudson (seventy-five miles) was magnificent. The half had
not been told me. It must be seen and enjoyed to be understood. Oh,
how much I longed for your presence to make my joy complete ! It will be
a delightful trip for us some day during the approaching summer. Pough-
keepsie is a beautiful city. My home was with a family by the name of Van
K , members of the Dutch Reformed Church. They live in elegant style,
and did every thing possible to promote our comfort. On Friday morning I
was introduced to the New York Conference, a body of nearly three hundred
members, fine-looking and intelligent. They were very cordial came for-
ward and assured me of a most hearty welcome. John is on the spot, solicit-
ous respecting his reception into the Conference, of which there is some little
doubt. The doubt grows out of the fact that the Conference is already
crowded with men, and, as at Philadelphia, they talk of postponing the re-
ception of young men until next spring. Ridgaway preached on Friday
night * * *
" Saturday afternoon I returned to New York ; preached at Eighteenth
Street on Sabbath morning, and in Union Square at three o'clock P. M.
Had large audiences and great freedom. In the evening I crossed the East
River and worshiped in Henry Ward Beecher's Church. It was a great
treat ; a wonderful congregation, splendid singing, superior prayers, and a
timely, pointed, practical, and popular sermon on camp-life. There is but
one such man in this world. Instead of returning to Poughkeepsie yester-
day I rambled about with Ridgaway, visiting the Book-room and office of
232 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
The Methodist, and gazing at the Great Eastern, which arrived on Satur-
day last. In the afternoon I accompanied him to Newark, and am spend-
ing a few hours at the palatial residence of my friend W . It is only a
stern sense of duty which detains me in this region, for, as I intimated before,
I am restless to see my dearly beloved family. To-day I will write to James
W to ship my goods. Probably they will reach New York by Saturday.
I will have them stored at the parsonage ; will preach on Sabbath, and, if at
all possible, start for Columbia either Monday or Tuesday. I have met
quite a number of the Seventh Avenue friends. They are extremely cordial,
expressing the greatest pleasure in the prospect of my appointment. They
strike me as a sincere, warm-hearted congregation, with whom I can labor
pleasantly and profitably. The S.'s are very kind."
These letters recall very vividly to my mind the interview to
which Mr. Cookman refers. I had been invited to make one
of the addresses at the anniversary of the American Bible So-
ciety, and I remember that no one greeted me more cordially at
the close of the exercises than our friend. We planned as I
wished to visit the New York Conference then in session at
Poughkeepsie to go up the Hudson by steam-boat the same
afternoon. Neither of us had seen the famous river, and so we
anticipated much. It was our good luck to have a charming
afternoon, and also to meet on board the Rev. A. K. Sanford, a
member of the Conference, whose familiarity with the route
greatly heightened our pleasure. It was one of those delightful
occasions when all the senses were open. The first buds of
green were tinting the landscape, lending great freshness to
scenes which otherwise would have been remarkable only for
fidelity and boldness of outline. Mr. Cookman, with that keen
perception of the beautiful for which he was so remarkable,
seemed quite ravished with the ever-shifting views, which in
their rapid succession kept alive a perpetual feeling of surprise
and admiration. At the Conference he was, as a transferred
man, the object of interest, and a desire was generally expressed
to hear him preach ; but, with instinctive modesty, he waived the
request, and sent the committee for his unsuspecting companion.
CHARACTER OF THE CENTRAL CHURCH, NEW YORK. 233
Just so soon as Mr. Cookman got settled in his new home,
which had been put in order for his family, he began to unfold
those methods of usefulness in the observance of which he had
been every where successful. He now found himself placed in
a comparatively untried field. He was but one of hundreds
of pastors of first-rate ability brought to the great centre from
all parts of the country. The congregations of the Central
Church were devout, refined, and intelligent, but not large and
overflowing, such as he had been accustomed to. They thus
lacked an important element of effective oratory in a popular
preacher, and also the conditions so necessary to the extensive
revivals which had so often attended his ministrations.
Mr. Cookman speedily adapted himself to the altered circum-
stances, went quietly to work, and, in the absence of all parade,
addressed himself to the proper vocation of a faithful pastor.
His diligence, zest, and wisdom soon began to be manifest in
the growth of the congregation, in the deepening piety of the
members, and in the general and harmonious advancement of
all the institutions of the charge. The Sunday-school instantly
felt his magical touch, and the young men came around him as
if drawn by an irresistible spell ; the whole people were warm-
ed into an intenser glow by his benignant spirit.
The following letter to his wife, touching the prospective re-
moval into the new home, will be appreciated by all Methodist
ministers and their families. One must go and another come ;
the parsonage must be refitted for the incoming family. It is
a hard time for sick children and invalid wives ; but the wheels
roll on, and around must go wives and children with the wheels.
The Methodist Church is a militant Church, and not only the
ministers, but their families, must be regarded as part of the
army, and must feel it no hardship to be always ready at the
appointed signal to break camp and march. The reference in
this letter to the preacher's class suggests one of Mr. Cook-
man's strongest points. No man ever possessed greater facility
234 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
in the difficult and useful exercise of class-leading. The class
of six soon grew to be a room full, and became a rallying
ground in the work of the station.
To his wife :
" NEW YORK, Friday morning, May, 1861.
" I am in the midst of a vast population, and surrounded by many kind
friends ; nevertheless, I suffer a sense of isolation. My precious family are
absent, and none can serve as their substitutes. Were it not for the pres-
ence of my blessed Saviour, which has been a delightful and continued real-
ization, I could scarcely have borne the deprivation I have been suffering.
My Heavenly Father has been specially gracious to me within the last week
or two ; accompanying me in my walks, visiting me in my night seasons,
strengthening and blessing me in the society of friends, keeping my mind in
perfect peace. Yesterday afternoon I entered on the duties of my pastorate
by leading the preacher's class. It was very small, only six being present ;
among the rest my hostess, Mrs. Skidmore. I cast myself on Christ, and
enjoyed the service very much. After the class, I visited in company with
Mrs. S. the parsonage. Rev. Mr. Hare kindly conducted me through the
house. It is a very comfortable establishment. I think you will like it
quite as well as any of your former homes. A detailed description I will
reserve until we meet. The former pastor, Brother Hare, will not get out
till next Monday. Then the trustees will commence vigorously the work
of repair and improvement. They will paper some of the rooms, and paint
the house throughout. This can not be finished next week. Hence I pro-
pose to get my pulpit supplied for the following Sabbath (the 26th of May),
and bring on my family the latter part of the next week. I am so thorough-
ly homesick that I can not readily consent to remain here another week.
My goods will probably arrive to-morrow ; but, as Brother Hare will not
take up his bed and walk before next Monday, I may have to remain until
Tuesday, that I may superintend the transfer of my boxes to our new home.
In that case I will not see you before Tuesday evening or Wednesday next.
" John left this morning for Lennox, his appointment. He is in good spir-
its, and thinks he will be pleased. We shall hear more on his return next
week. This evening is the occasion of our regular weekly prayer-meeting.
I am looking forward to it with considerable interest. On Sabbath I expect
to preach morning and evening. This is a prospective trial, but I shall look
to and depend upon Him who has said, ' I will never leave thee no ! I will
never forsake thee.' Pray for me. If I should complete my arrangements
we will spend the following Sabbath together quietly in Columbia. This will
be for me a great treat after the excitement of the last fortnight."
OUTBREAK OF THE REBELLION. 235
The first year of the pastorate at Central passed usefully and
pleasantly, affording every indication that the new minister had
taken a strong hold upon the affections of his people. It was
the year of the outbreak of the rebellion ; and, perhaps, one of
the most trying periods for all the ordinary methods of minis-
terial work which the American Church has known. It was a
time when the pruning-hook was beaten into the spear, and the
plowshare into the sword. The war spirit had possessed the
populations ; the great masses had risen as one man for the
vindication and safety of the Union ; and from one end of the
land to the other the strange noise of drum and fife called the
young men to arms, and the highways and streets were thronged
with troops marching southward for battle. New York was in
a ferment of excitement her streets were drill-grounds, her
public squares barracks, her Sabbaths fallen under the stern
exigency of preparation for instant conflict.
Amid such scenes it was no wonder if the congregations of
the churches were decimated, and the spirit of religious revival
repressed. After the first blaze of patriotic fire had spent it-
self, and the people had become used to matter-of-fact war
found themselves humbled with disappointment, and settled
down to the hard tug of persistent efforts there came a reac-
tion in the religious feeling, and an increased attendance of the
multitudes upon public worship. Through this season of dis-
couragement Mr. Cookman, like other faithful ministers, stood
his ground, worked how, where, and when he could. We have
seen that even before his settlement in New York he preached
to the soldiers at Union Square. It was a stirring sermon, full
of patriotism, but, if possible, fuller of Christ. That service was
but the first of many that followed sermons and speeches
which helped to keep alive in the country both faith in God and
faith in the Republic.
In New York as in Philadelphia we hear of him at the Union
prayer-meetings. He who had borne such an active part in
236 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
the one city could not remain idle in the other. At the anni-
versary of the Fulton Street prayer-meeting he was heard to
utter these clear and ringing words :
" It may not be uninteresting or inappropriate for me to state
that while I lived in the city of Philadelphia I had the honor
to be the pastor of the Church which stands upon the site of
the ' Old Academy,' as it was designated, the favorite preach-
ing-place of the illustrious Whitefield.
"In the lecture-room of that Church was organized the first
noonday prayer-meeting for the city of Philadelphia. It was
commenced by a young man who had resided in the city of
New York, and who had frequently availed himself of the priv-
ileges of this Fulton Street noonday service. After his re-
moval to Philadelphia, he felt that a similar meeting would be
profitable in his own experience and for the community at large,
and was resolved to assume the responsibilky of its establish-
ment. It is but proper to say that, in the first instance, the
effort was feeble and unpromising ; and many times have I
passed by the door of that lecture-room, and, glancing in when
I ought to have gone in, observed three or four prostrate be-
fore God, importuning an outpouring of divine influence upon
themselves and upon others. Those prayers, however, were ef-
fectual ; they reached the ear, and they influenced the heart of
an almighty Saviour; and before long the number attending the
service in that lecture-room was very considerably increased.
It was then resolved to remove to Jayne's Hall, of which doubt-
less you have all heard quite frequently; and after the removal
to Jayne's Hall the interest so rapidly extended that before the
lapse of a week four thousand persons might have been seen
associated together for the purpose of public prayer.
" If these humble efforts were followed by such special re-
sults in that case, what may we not hope for after the patient and
the persistent prayers that have been going up from this Fulton
Street meeting, and from similar services, during a succession
THE FULTON STREET PRAYER-MEETING. 237
of years ? I have the impression that when these terrible prov-
idences which are associated with our present war shall have
mellowed the great national heart, the results of these prayers
will appear in a mighty and unprecedented Pentecostal baptism,
when there shall not be four thousand or forty thousand only,
but millions prostrate beneath the mighty power of God. And
oh ! in the prospect of such an outpouring, may we not to day
linger in the midst of our great country, desolated not only by
civil but spiritual rebellion, covered all over with moral death,
and may we not imitate the example of the prophet, as with the
voice of one man, and pray, ' Come, come from the four winds,
breath ! and breathe upon these souls that they may live ?'
" As an encouragement to prayer for individuals, will you
excuse me if I introduce a passage from personal experience ?
1 was the eldest of six children, five sons and one daughter.
The mysterious hand of God's providence buried my precious
father while I was still young in yon broad, deep ocean. My
widowed mother for whom I will even in this public way praise
the Father of the fatherless was greatly concerned, of course,
for the salvation of all her children. Her prayers, which were
importunate and constant, were heard in heaven, and soon they
began to be answered, as one after the other of her sons was
brought into the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Four years
ago we were, as I trust, a united family in Christ, with one ex-
ception, and that exception was a beloved brother, a noble, af-
fectionate young man, twenty-seven years of age. He had been
my associate during life ; we had played together as boys ; we
had slept in the same bed; we had attended the academy to-
gether ; we had bowed at the same maternal knee, and had
joined in repeating the petition, 'Our Father which art in
heaven.'
" I can not tell this audience how I agonized for the salvation
of that brother, and how anxious I was that we might be a
united family in the Saviour in time, and then an undivided
238 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
household in paradise. Morning, noon, and night I brought
this interest to a throne of heavenly grace ; and one day I rose
in the Philadelphia noon prayer-meeting and asked them to
pray for that brother. Oh, how they prayed ! I shall never
forget their interest and earnestness, and if I am so happy as to
reach the glory-land, I think I shall find out some of those
Christians, and will thank them for their united and importu-
nate prayers upon the occasion of that noonday service. Only
a short time elapsed when that brother, who was unaware that
united prayer had been offered in his behalf, was found prostrate
penitently before God, and became a subject of regenerating
grace. He joined the Church, and has subsequently come to be
one of the most earnest, consistent young Christians I ever knew.
" Before I sit down, allow me to speak of a circumstance
which transpired in the neighborhood of Boston. A few years
since two gentlemen entered a car in that city en route for the
interior, and, seated side by side, they very naturally fell into
conversation, when it transpired that they were both traveling to
the same place, and soon, to their mutual surprise, they discov-
ered that they bore the same name. Then they ascertained that
they were both going to see an elder brother, one whom they had
not met for many, many years ; and then the almost overpower-
ing truth burst upon them that they were literal, natural broth-
ers, who in the providence of God had met in this most extraor-
dinary way. They had been separated from early childhood,
and now, after the lapse of thirty long years, they had been
most surprisingly brought together. As I have been sitting
here and listening to allusions about heaven, I have said in my
heart, 'That is my place of destination, and I hope, through
grace, to stand triumphantly upon Caanan's shining shore.'
And then, as you have used the term Christian, I have said in-
wardly, 'That is pre-eminently my name.' I am a Methodist
Christian. I do not attach a very great deal of importance to
the Methodist, but I would place very strong emphasis upon
SING-SING CAMP-MEETING. 239
the designation Christian. Just as my name is Alfred Cookman.
I care not for the Alfred ; I would just as soon it was George
or Joseph or John, but I cling tenaciously to my family name.
As you have made very touching and beautiful reference to
Jesus, I can say he is my elder brother, and I hope after a
while to be associated with him in heaven. It is a delightful
truth that we are associated to-day, brothers and sisters in Christ
Jesus, hastening onward as rapidly as time can bear us,
" ' To the house of our Father above,
The palace of angels and God.' "
It could not have been otherwise than that Mr. Cookman
would early make the acquaintance of the famous Sing-Sing
camp-ground. To a beautiful grove, lying back of the village,
many of the Methodists of New York and vicinity had long
been accustomed to resort for their annual religious festival.
Before the days of railroads, by sailing-vessel and steam-boat,
thither the city folks made their way, and the farmers drove in
from the adjacent country, that on this time-honored spot they
might worship God. Whether this zealous friend of camp-meet-
ings reported himself the first year of his residence in New York
does not appear, but the second year he was there, mingling
amid its devotions, enjoying its Christian fellowship, and preach-
ing with his usual power and acceptability. Mrs. Cookman
had gone with the children to spend the hot weather at the
family retreat, her father's home in Columbia, Pennsylvania.
To his wife :
"NEW YORK, Saturday, August 30, 1862.
" Home from camp-meeting, tired enough. Went to bed this morning
at one o'clock ; at two disturbed by singing in the adjoining tent ; at five,
or even before, dressed myself and prepared for the homeward march. We
have had a glorious week. Oh ! I can never, never forget it. The camp
has been only outside of heaven itself. Weather favorable. Friends atten-
tive and affectionate. Meetings powerful and blessed. Arriving on the
ground in time for afternoon preaching, heard a sermon from a Brother Lit-
tlewood on 'Enduring hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ;' in the
240 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
evening, a Brother Bates on the 'Conversion of St. Paul.' On Wednesday
morning Dr. True preached about Moses. In the afternoon an old veteran
of the Troy Cfpference discoursed on the subject of ' Holiness ; ' in the
evening Brother D. Buck on ' Mercy and righteousness have met together,'
etc. Thursday, Dr. Wentworth preached in his usual effective camp-meet-
ing style on 'Christ crucified;' in the afternoon Brother Newman on ' Holi-
ness' an excellent sermon. In the evening Rev. H. Cox, of St Louis,
occupied the time in presenting his cause and taking a collection. Fri-
day, Brother Pegg preached in the morning on 'This treasure in earthen
vessels ;' in the afternoon Brother Fox, of Forty-third Street, on ' I have a
baptism to be baptized with, and I am straitened until it is accomplished ;'
and in the evening your poor unworthy husband on ' Redeeming the time.'
" Oh, how much oppressed I felt in view of my fearful responsibility ! But,
glory to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, divine strength was made perfect
in my great weakness, and I think that never have I preached so much in
demonstration of the Spirit. Sinners were smitten on the right hand and
on the left. The altar and tents were occupied with penitents and praying
Christians ; many souls were converted. One gentleman of forty years of
age was awakened and converted while I preached. Not unto me, not unto
me, but unto my blessed, blessed Saviour shall be all the praise and glory,
now and forever more.
" My own soul has been greatly refreshed and strengthened through the
rich privileges I have been enjoying. I trust that I am more powerful to
do for Christ than I have been. Glory to the Lamb !
" Mrs. S and Mrs. D occupied the same tent. They had one of
the sweetest camp-meeting homes you ever saw. They were more than
kind to me. There was nothing I needed that they did not immediately
and cheerfully provide for me. How strange that I, one of* the least of
God's servants, should be the recipient of so many Christian attentions
and kindnesses. As Mrs. S suggested in the cars this morning, we
shall have something to talk about all the autumn approaching. She is
better, I think, in health ; and in her experience is bright and happy be-
yond precedent. Would you believe it, she almost avows herself now an
abolitionist. When prayer was offered for the emancipation of the slaves,
she would ring out her hearty ' Amen !' Glory to God ! So much for the
power of holiness.
"Arriving home this morning, I found your sweet, wife-like letters, which,
you may be sure, I seized upon and devoured immediately. How glad I
am that the well ones continue as usual, and the sick ones are no worse.
The tidings respecting Bruner are decidedly encouraging. May God have
LETTERS TO HIS CHILDREN. 241
you all in His care and keeping ! I feel so much confidence in my Heav-
enly Father as to be persuaded that he will do exactly right."
The delight which Mr. Cookman found in his family is man-
ifest in all his letters. Those who knew him most intimately
will recall that he never seemed so perfectly happy as when in
the bosom of his home. The letters which he wrote his chil-
dren when absent on their summer vacations were full of sweet-
ness. They did not lack good advice ; but were rather char-
acterized for parental tenderness and familiarity. He could be
a child among his children. Up to this time there had been
no alloy in his domestic bliss the children, his wife, and him-
self had been favored with uninterrupted health ; but now it
pleased God to allow sickness to enter the circle. His eldest
son and first-born, Bruner, was affected with a painful disease,
which finally, after some years of suspense, terminated his life.
A few letters of this date happily illustrate the feelings which
animated his soul under the checkered dispensations of Provi-
dence. Happy in the sunshine, he was not despondent in the
shade. The first touches of sorrow were borne with resigna-
tion, and served but to mellow his rapidly growing experience.
To his children :
"NEW YORK, June 21, 1862.
" This is Saturday night, when pa, you know, usually studies his sermons.
Bruner is asleep, Will is asleep, little Beck Evans is asleep, ma is getting
ready for bed, and I am writing a letter to my dear George and precious
Frank and sweet little sister Puss. Well, how have you been getting along
this week ? I hope you have been very good, making as little noise as pos-
sible ; obeying all that aunt B or grandma has said, remembering your
prayers every night and morning, asking your blessing, and behaving well
at the table, and acting like little New York gentlemen. On Tuesday I
watched you waving your hats and handkerchiefs and flags until I could see
you no longer ; then I sat down until I reached Lancaster. There I waited
an hour, and took another train of cars, and got to Philadelphia in time for
tea, stayed at uncle George's all night, and the next day started for New York.
" When I got home little Prince danced for joy, he was so glad to see
me. Then I started for Nyack, where I found ma and Brune and Will and
little baby sister. They were almost as much delighted as Prince, and
L
242 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
asked me a hundred questions about George and Frank and sister. I told
ma you were magnificerit boys ; that Frank did not cry ; that sister was
growing to be a large and lovely girl. We talk about you every day, and
want the weeks to go by right fast until we shall all sit down together in Co-
lumbia. Thursday afternoon we returned from Mr. T.'s. Yesterday ma
and Brune had a long, pleasant ride in Mr. R.'s carriage. Brune drove
nearly all the way. To-day ma and Brune and Will and Betty and the
baby went with Mr. P to the Central Park, and heard the music. It
was splendid !
" Now I must close my letter. On Monday we have our Sabbath-school
excursion. Next week, perhaps, I will write and tell you all about it. Be
very good boys. We send kisses. George must kiss Frank and Sis for
me ; Frank must kiss George and Sis for ma ; Sis must kiss George and
Frank for Brune. Do not forget. Good-night."
To his daughter Annie, when a young child :
"Mv DEAR, DARLING LITTLE Puss, This is yoiir letter, written by your
precious papa. Every day he thinks about you, and wants the time to come
when he may take you in his arms again. If you were here to-night he
would not be satisfied with one less than a dozen kisses. Your dear broth-
er Bruner has been very sick. He often talks about his little pet sister in
Columbia. You ought to see his dog. The dog's name is Prince a hap-
py little fellow that barks at Willie, and plays with Frank, and jumps up on
George, and follows Brune wherever he goes. I know he would love you
dearly; he could not help it. Every body loves my little darling Puss, but
nobody better than her devoted pa. Be a very good girl ; learn to jump
rope ; help grandma to water the flowers ; mind every thing aunt B
says to you ; kiss Mozie and little Alfred for me ; don't eat all the currants
and gooseberries before I come, but keep ever so many for your dear
pa. Would you not like me to send you a pretty picture-book ? Keep a
look-out, and some of these days Kate will find one in the post-office for
Miss Annie Cookman, Won't that be nice ? Now give me a good-bye
kiss."
To his children :
" NEW YORK, June 24, 1862.
"Mv DEAR GEORGE AND FRANK AND LITTLE SISTER, We received
George's letter this afternoon, and were glad to know that you are all well
and enjoying yourselves. Be very good children, and in a few weeks you
will sec your dear ma and Bruner and Willie and the baby. Did I not
promise to tell you about the Sunday-school excursion ? Well, yesterday
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL PICNIC. 243
morning we rose early, got ready, and went down to the wharf, where we
found a large number of the boys and girls, with their parents and teachers.
At about eight o'clock we started, and sailed down the bay. It was a beau-
tiful morning, the sun was shining brightly, the air was cool, the boat was
large and comfortable. Bruney, Willie, baby, Betty, Julia, and mamma,
with the little carriage, were all on board. Brune ate cakes and drank min-
eral water. About eleven o'clock we got to Biddle's Grove, on Staten Isl-
and. This was a beautiful place, with swings and tables and a great many
nice things. We had an excellent dinner, some charming walks, a game of
ball, and then we started for home, where we arrived in the evening about
seven o'clock. It was one of the happiest days I ever spent Now I have
bad news to tell you. Little Prince is dead. He died to-day. Instead of
getting better, as we hoped, he got worse, until he could not walk or stand,
and then the poor little fellow died. Bruner sat down and took a good cry.
Some persons think he was so pretty that he ought to be stuffed, like those
animals you saw at Barnum's Museum. But this is not worth while. He
will either be buried or thrown into the river. Your little brother Willie
told me this afternoon he was going to take ' me da da in the 'team-boat.'
When he takes me, I reckon we will go to Columbia. Now remember to
be very good ; say no bad words ; go with no bad boys ; be kind to grand-
ma and grandpa ; obey all aunt B says, and do not get sick or hurt
yourselves.
" Now I must give you a good-night kiss one for George, one for Frank,
and one for dear little sister Puss. Ma says I must send ever so many for
her, and Bruney for him, and Willie for him."
To his wife :
" HOME, Tuesday night, Seventh Avenue.
" I have just returned from meeting. The rain of course influenced our
numbers, and yet I was gratified to see so many present There were four
at the altar. One or two of those who presented themselves as penitents
last evening have since then experienced peace. With a single exception,
we had every unconverted person in our congregation to-night forward for
prayers. Personally, I have had a rather desolate day. When you are
here it is home ; when you are away it is a house. After bidding you good-
bye, I returned through the fog to our noisy city, drew some funds, paid
for my last barrel of potatoes, bought sister a locket, which I afterward
filled with likenesses of ' Ma and Pa,' purchased Brune and Frank books,
and returned home. The children were in the best of spirits, and delighted
with their presents. After dinner a letter came from Columbia, acquainting
us with the improving condition of mother. Had this letter reached the
244 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
parsonage before nine o'clock this morning, you would at least have been
tempted to postpone your visit. About three o'clock the children had their
anticipated party. I honored them with my presence. It was a gala time.
After taking a glass of lemonade and enjoying a little chat, I went over to
the Tuesday-afternoon meeting. It was not very large, but exceedingly
profitable. Returned home, and had tea and prayer with the children.
Mary devotes herself to them ; she is very successful in interesting and en-
tertaining them. Pa is unusually tender and affectionate. All his sympa-
thies seem drawn out for the little darlings, usually so dependent upon their
mother. The fact is, I am almost entirely at their mercy just now. They
can do with me almost as they please, sister especially."
To his wife :
" SEVENTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, Thursday eve, 1862.
"Another day is waning. With us it has been decidedly wintry. The
ground is covered with snow, though the prospect now is that rain will soon
dissolve this, leaving us a delightful condition of things in our streets. Nine
faithful ones braved the storm, that they might enjoy together the afternoon
meeting. It was a time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. Your
dear little pets have been behaving themselves beautifully all day. This
morning they turned their attention to the art of photographing. The magic
lantern was the camera, Bruner the operator, and every body about the house
patrons. I, of course, had my likeness taken. It was not flattering. They
are all pretty well. George complains of headache this morning, and of
course was permitted to remain at home. This suited Frank perfectly.
Sister is very affectionate and good. Will steadily increases in sweetness.
If you could have seen him this afternoon after he was dressed, you would
have covered his fat little cheeks with kisses. They are very, very dear
children. I have returned from our evening meeting. Owing to the storm,
which is very violent to-night, the number present was small. The service,
however, was decidedly profitable. We have your telegram, but no letter
as yet ; perhaps to-morrow will bring this coveted treasure. We talk a
great deal about you, and think more. Twelve years of married life have
made you a part of myself, which must be near, or I feel bereft and incom-
plete. I think I love God more for the gift of my faithful and devoted wife.
Next to Mis Son, the blessed Christ, this is my greatest mercy. This is
such letter-writing as used to characterize our honey-moon but is it not hon-
ey-moon still, only the moon has been steadily increasing in magnitude and
glory. The children are most probably kissing you in their dreams. Give
Becky Evans (the babe) an extra kiss."
SICKNESS OF HIS SON BRUNER. 245
To his brother, Mr. George Cookman, of Philadelphia :
" NEW YORK, Tuesday afternoon.
" In accordance with your suggestion, I have just written the long-prom-
ised letter to J C . I trust that it may comfort and profit him in
the midst of his protracted affliction. The illness of our precious Brunei-
has so engrossed my time and thoughts and feelings, that friendly corre-
spondence has been almost entirely out of the question. Since our return
to New York he has been steadily declining. He is now confined to his
room, and spends a good part of his time in a reclining posture, propped up
with pillows. The action of his heart evidently gets worse and worse. This
produces a violent cough, which is terribly racking to his system, and an
exceedingly delicate stomach, which refuses almost every thing. Most of
the time he is the victim of nausea. All this, with a swollen state of his
system and frequent spells of oppression, will give you some idea of the
sufferings of this precious boy. Oh ! it is hard thus to see him suffer. Al-
though my dearly beloved son, our first-born, and the object of cherished
hopes in connection with the future, yet I could consent to close his eyes in
death, if he might escape all that suffocation and weakness and pain which
now seem to make his life a burden to himself. Our sympathies are terribly
tasked. \Ve want to do something, and suffer under a sense of our inability.
It is the trial of my life. Still, my dear George, I will not murmur. My
kind Heavenly Father can not err or be unkind. If He slay me or mine,
still I will trust in Him. You will be rejoiced to know that the grace of
God is so supporting during the season of sorrow. To lose Bruner is like
taking away a part of my heart, but, oh ! Christ has had, does have, and
shall have all all for time and eternity. My precious wife bears up better
than you could expect. Like myself, she is in the furnace, but sweetly re-
alizes the presence of the faithful Jesus."
To his sister-in-law, Miss Rebecca Bruner :
" NEW YORK, September 17, 1862.
" Annie is so much engrossed with the duties of a sick-room that I have
consented to undertake the department of correspondence. You will regret
to learn that Bruner is manifestly declining. Ever since his return to New
York he has been steadily running down. Arriving on Friday afternoon,
the following Sabbath found him considerably swollen, which is regarded as
a most discouraging symptom of his disease. This swelling not only con-
tinues, but seems gradually to increase. This is occasioned by the feeble
circulation, as we judge from the fact that his extremities have to be fre-
quently and violently rubbed. The action of his heart is evidently worse.
246 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
A little distance from his body you can hear an audible sound. His heart
pressing upon his lungs, he suffers with a racking and distressing cough
pressing also upon his stomach, he is the subject of almost constant nausea.
All medicine and even the plainest food seem to disagree with him. As-
sociate all these symptoms with frequent spells of oppression, when he re-
ally lives with great effort, and you have some idea of the condition and suf-
ferings of this precious boy. The doctor said to me yesterday afternoon
that he thought we would have to make up our minds to lose our cherished
son. It is a trial a terrible trial the trial of our life, for Bruner is not only
our first-born, the object of cherished hopes in connection with the future,
but, as you know, a boy of principle and integrity ; his influence with his lit-
tle brothers has been most wholesome. I feel as if Providence was about
to transfer a part of my heart to heaven, and yet I must not murmur. It is
my Heavenly Father ; let Him do as seemeth Him good. Annie, of course,
is carrying a heavy burden. She was proud of Bruner, and you are aware
of his special love for her. At the present he can scarcely bear her out of
his sight. The prospect and probability of losing him stirs all the depths
of her sensitive and affectionate heart. God is gracious to her. I think she
is leaning more heavily than ever before on the Almighty arm.
" Little Rebecca Evans changes very much from time to time now better
and then not so well but on the whole is, I think, gradually improving. The
other children are very well and exceedingly good. George and Frank go
regularly to school. Sister and Will play very nicely together. George is very
tender and affectionate with Bruner. He sits at his side, and seems to be
full of interest and sympathy. Your little pet talks often about aunt Beckie.
You are a queen in her heart. How long Bruner will last we can not tell.
If he runs down as rapidly in the future as he has during the last ten days,
he will soon be at rest. Pray for us, and write as often as you can."
The following letter to Mr. Thomas W. Price, of Philadelphia,
on the loss of an infant child, named for Mrs. Cookman, evinces
the facility and heartiness with which Mr. Cookman could enter
into the feelings of his friends. No wonder such a nature
should have touched depths and drawn to it affections which
lie quite unmoved by ordinary men :
" COLUMBIA, August 5, 1862.
"Glancing through the columns of yesterday's Inquirer, my eye fell on a
notice of the death of your dear little Annie Cookman. It shocked us not
a little, for when we last saw her she was the very picture of health. How
EARTH STRANGE HEAVEN HOME-LIKE. 247
often is it the case that our cherished ones, whose promise for long life is
the most flattering, are the first to be smitten by death's relentless hand !
" You will believe me when I assure you that this bereavement has awak-
ened in our hearts the liveliest sympathy and sorrow.
" We recognized in this little namesake a living and breathing bond, to
bind even more closely that special affection which subsists between our
families. We remember the interest and love with which you regarded this
last-born, we are reminded of the unusual sweetness and loveliness of the
babe herself, and then feel that you have sustained a sad loss. Another
breach is occasioned in your affections.
" In circumstances like these, how consolatory are the truths of our holy
religion. The unseen hand of God's providence has taken from your family
nest this little immortal, and, lifting her up, constituted her an angel in the
paradise above. Thus the attractiveness of heaven is increased. As we
pass on in life, meeting such afflictions, earth becomes more and more a
strange land, while heaven wears more and more of a home-like aspect.
Associated with the little brother who some years since was wrested from
your parental embrace, the two now, as I doubt not, stand on ' the shining
shore' to welcome the family into everlasting habitations.
" When you sing in the future that line of the long-metre doxology, viz.,
' Praise Him above, ye heavenly host,' it will possess a deeper meaning,
awaken more tender feelings, and enkindle more heavenly aspirations.
" So far as I am aware, this is the first Annie Cookman that has entered
those realms of light; and if spirits can know one another, then I am sure
her name in that world will immediately introduce her to the fellowship of
some dearly beloved ones who have gone before.
" God bless you abundantly, my cherished brother and sister. My heart
has always been full of love for you both, and now in your affliction I want
to say something or do something that may lighten the burden which this
bereavement has laid upon your tender and deeply affectionate hearts. May
I not pray that our covenant-keeping God will sanctify this dispensation to
your good, vouchsafe you special consolation and grace, and make you event-
ually an undivided family in the skies ? I would have been at the funeral
but for the illness of our babe. For about ten days she has been hovering
between life and death. Her condition is still very critical. I shall not be
astonished if these precious children (little Annie and Rebecca), of about the
same age, should both be in a better world about the same time."
One of Mr. Cookman's first steps on coming to New York
was to find his way to the meetings for the promotion of holi-
ness held at the house of Dr. Palmer, on Rivington Street.
248 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
He was in close sympathy with their specific aim, and became
during his ministry in New York not only a receiver of great
good through their agency, but also a contributor to their use-
fulness. His presence was regarded with great respect and joy
by the large class of thoughtful, earnest, and devout persons
who frequented the place. His words were uniformly discrimi-
nating and weighty directly to the point and full of unction ;
and were perhaps as efficacious in nourishing the life of holi-
ness as the words of many who were more advanced in years.
The following remarks, made at these meetings some time in
the year 1862, and taken from his lips at the time by a friend,
are valuable as examples of his brief testimonies :
" Brother Elliott said last Tuesday that while we were not
bowed in prayer, yet prayers all the time were going up ! Do
we pray without ceasing ? Do we talk with Jesus ? I have been
thinking so much of that exceeding great privilege to walk and
talk with Jesus. As I pass along the noisy thoroughfares of
this busy city, I feel that Jesus is near. I remember to have
spent a few hours with Dr. Olin, whose portrait hangs yonder,
having been his companion when I was a youth in a little
journey he made in the vicinity of Washington City. I wanted
to be silent, and drink in every word he uttered. I remember
now that I have intercourse and association with a greater than
Dr. Olin. I am so glad to be a friend of Christ's : ' Ye are my
friends if ye do whatsoever I command you,' comes to my mind
very sweetly. Within the last few weeks a sentiment of Luther's
has been very present, in which he speaks of the first great step,
the second, and the third, in a life of piety, being humility. I
have been able to say for years, I am saved through the BLOOD
<T/"JESUS CHRIST. I have no doubt of my personal purity, but
I want to be filled with the Spirit. I am hungering and thirst-
ing after righteousness, and God is filling me. I have been too
anxious for all the fullness at once; now I am willing to be filled
by little and little, as God may determine. I am climbing up.
THE RIVINGTON STREET MEETING. 249
I don't leave my present stand-point, but I am climbing up, and
wish to do so forever and ever.
" I do realize that the blood of Jesus Christ does cleanse me
from all sin. There are two little sentiments which have been
the subjects of frequent and delightful thought. One is 'WHITER
THAN SNOW.' Wonderful that I, so low and so unworthy, should
have this present personal experience that CHRIST'S BLOOD
should MAKE ME whiter 'than snow.' The other sentiment is
' LIFE HID WITH CHRIST.' Christ takes me into His bosom
Jesus wraps me up, envelops me in Himself. I want my words,
actions, and all to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I want to
avoid any action or word which may not be in harmony with
the will of God. My self-examination leads me, in the midst
of infirmities and deficiencies, to declare that I have the sense
and witness of heart-purity. How can this be ? It is all through
Christ. I am made pure through the infinite atonement of the
Lamb of God. Pray for me ; it is the especial desire of my
heart that I may be filled with God be faithful, devoted, and
ready for every good work."
The spirit breathed in these expressions was the spirit in
which the devout pastor lived all the while. His conversation
was in heaven. Meeting him one day on the street, near his
own house, he said, " I want to go to heaven ; I would like to
be off if it were God's will ; not that I am tired of life, or do
not feel I have much to live for, but, oh, to be with Jesus is
much more desirable !" Again, walking Broadway with him on
one occasion, he put his arm around me and drew me affec-
tionately to him, and said, "Oh, brother Henry, I wish you
could see your way clear to come out decidedly on this great
subject of perfect love, not only to enter into it, but to profess it
remember your sermon on 'spiritual discernment:' as in re-
generation, so in entire sanctification, it is only when we have
experienced the blessing that we can discern its nature."
One cold afternoon in November we left the old Book Con-
L 2
250 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
cern, Mulberry Street, together, and, reaching Broadway, we in-
tended to get into omnibuses, as it was snowing violently
he into one which turned off toward Seventh Avenue, and I
into one which ran up Fourth Avenue. The omnibuses were
crowded. He suggested that we walk on. We did so, and soon
we became so absorbed in conversation as to forget the stages
and the snow. When we arrived at the parting-point we both ex-
pressed surprise. The delight of conversation had subdued the
cold and the distance. "Thus it is," he quickly said, "when we
walk and talk with Jesus. It smoothes all the severities of life."
Before following Mr. Cookman to his next charge, I must
present an example of the patriotic speeches which he deliv-
ered, and also of the firm and advanced opinions which he ex-
pressed on national affairs, in the great crisis of the country.
In the summer of 1862, while on a visit with his family at Co-
lumbia, an immense war meeting was held at Lancaster, and he
was one of the speakers. I quote from a report of it which
appeared in one of the daily papers :
" FELLOW-CITIZENS : This is to me a somewhat unexpected call, but I
should feel myself recreant to every great principle of patriotism and of truth
if I refused or even hesitated in this my native county, for it may not be
known to many of you that I first opened my eyes upon God's world within
the limits of old Lancaster ; it gave me a being, and it gave me one of the
best of wives, so that I feel under immense obligations to it. [Cheers.] I
say that I should feel myself recreant to every principle of truth and right
if I hesitated to seize this opportunity to say, in the language of old John
Adams, ' Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my heart and
my hand ' to these Union measures. It is my living sentiment, and with
the blessing of God it will be my dying sentiment liberty and the Union
now, liberty and the Union forever. [Great applause.]
" It is useless for any of us to disguise the fact the stern and startling fact
that this Union, which is so unutterably dear to our hearts, is at the pres-
ent time in imminent peril. Thousands, yea, hundreds of thousands of our
fellow-citizens, organized and armed, are intent upon the overthrow of this,
I dare to say, the very best Government that yonder sun ever looked down
upon ; a Government which ought to be just as dear to them as to our-
WAR SPEECH AT LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA. 251
selves ; a Government with which our own hopes and the hopes of our chil-
dren and children's children are intimately bound up to the very latest gen-
eration ; a Government closely connected, as we think, with the cause of
liberty throughout the world, for if our experiment of self-government should
prove a failure, we are satisfied that it must put back the hand of freedom
on the dial-plate of time at least fifty or one hundred years ; a Government
which, so far as we may judge, is one of Jehovah's right hands of power for
the overthrow of despotism, error, ignorance, and every thing which could
hinder the coming of His kingdom. Thousands and hundreds of thousands
of our fellow-citizens, with worse than vandal-like violence, are rushing for-
ward to destroy the superstructure of that Government. Now the practical
inquiry occurs, What is to be done ? The answer, it appears to me, is an
easy one.
" My fellow-citizens, what would you do if to-night at twelve o'clock you
were to find an assassin in your bed-chamber, fully resolved upon your life ?
I make no question but that you would spring from your slumbers and
grapple with him, and not even hesitate to put him to death in order to save
your own life. Parent, what would you do if a rebellion were to arise in
your domestic circle ? Would you not stretch forward the hand of author-
ity and quickly quell it ? Citizens of Lancaster, what would you do if an
infamous mob should rise up in these streets to destroy valuable property
and imperil precious life ? I make no doubt that you would take down the
muskets and rifles still remaining among you, and with the point of the bay-
onet or with the use of ammunition drive back and put down such a mob.
And you would do right. Self-protection would demand such a course.
And in this case it is a stern duty. As Luther remarked on one occasion,
' May God help us, we can not do otherwise.' That flag yonder must float ;
our Government must be maintained. [Cheers.] Our Union must be pre-
served and perpetuated in all its purity and integrity. [Cheers.] Millions
may be spent, hundreds of thousands of lives may be sacrificed, a whole
generation may be blotted out, and still we insist that it is of the very first
consequence that our nationality be vindicated. ['Good,' and cheers.]
Now I apprehend that it is with this great principle in view we are assem-
bled and associated this afternoon.
" A remark of Colonel Forney's brought to my mind a circumstance which
transpired many years ago. It is said that in a military engagement which
occurred somewhere near the boundary-line which separates England and
Scotland, a young chieftain fell just at the moment when, at the head of his
troop, he was furiously and successfully charging the foe. His comrades in
arms, seeing him fall, were immediately seized with consternation, and be-
252 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
gan to retire in confusion. Witnessing this, his soul immediately filled with
sorrow, and, although he was feeble, he managed with some effort to raise
himself upon his elbow, and while the life-blood was fast gushing from the
gaping wound, while eternity was opening before him, he seized his sword,
and, waving it over his head, shouted at the top of his voice, ' My boys, I
am not dead ! I am not dead, but I am looking to see that every man docs
his duty.' [Cheers.] So I am here this afternoon to say that our Union
is not dead. She has been wounded, foully and fearfully wounded ; and,
observe, too, in the house of her friends. Still she is not dead. Hear it,
you daughters and sons of Lancaster, she is not dead never dead ; but,
sword in hand, she is looking to see that every citizen does his duty. [Great
applause.] She is looking to ascertain whether, in this time of exigency, we
will rally to the rescue ; whether in this, the darkest hour of the Republic,
we will come up united to the help of freedom and the help of God. For,
remember, this is the cause of truth ; this is the cause of justice ; this is the
cause of freedom ; this is the cause of the Union ; this is the cause of God.
[Cheers.] I insist that God is always on the side of truth and justice and
freedom. Will you not, then will you not will not all these young men
and citizens, esteem it at once an obligation and a privilege and a joy to
consecrate their energies, their substance, their time, their lives, and their
all upon the altar of our country's cause ? [Cheers.]
"Allusion has been made to the patriot daughters of Lancaster. God
bless them ! I see them in these windows and assembled in the vicinity of
this stand. God bless them ! Mothers, wives, daughters, sisters collected
here, we have some faint idea of the sacrifices you are called upon to make,
and of the sufferings which you, in the providence of God, must still under-
go. Still I trust that at least an overwhelming majority of you have the
spirit of that mother in the city of Philadelphia, who said the other day,
' What are sons worth without a country ?' [Cheers.] I trust you have the
spirit of .1 friend and former parishioner of mine in the borough of Harris-
burg, who has sent six stalwart sons to the scene of strife. Just before they
left home and their mother's presence they assembled in a photographic
gallery and had their pictures taken, the eldest son standing in the midst of
his other brothers, and grasping the flag of the stars and stripes, and that
picture left with the mother is an evidence of undying affection. I think,
too, in this connection of a mother in the State of New York, whose son
the other day proceeded to the seat of war. He was connected with the
Shcppard Rifles, Colonel Farcira commanding. It so occurred that the
young man's position was at the end of the platoon, near the curb-stone, and
the mother, anxious to be with him as long as he remained in New York,
HEROISM OF THE WAR. 253
took her place at his side. As the regiment moved along Fourteenth Street
and down Broadway, that heroic old American mother walked with her boy,
keeping step with him. To relieve him while she could, she took his mus-
ket from his hand, and stuck it over her old shoulder, and so she marched
with him, side by side, carrying his musket ; and the boy was so much
moved by her devotion that the tears literally ran down his cheeks. ' Don't
cry don't cry, my boy,' she said ; ' be brave, and then, with God's blessing,
all must and will be well.' [Cheers.] So, mothers and wives and sisters
and daughters of Lancaster, say to your cherished ones, ' Go, go !' It is like
tearing the heart out of our living and breathing bodies ; it is like enshroud-
ing our present and future with a gloom that must all the time be felt ; nev-
ertheless, go and fight these battles of truth and justice and liberty, and
God's blessing must be upon you and yours. [Applause.]
" As the last speaker remarked, it is a gloomy hour in our country's his-
tory ; but I apprehend, my fellow-citizens, that if we look over the events
of the last fifteen months we will still find reason for thankfulness. Is it
nothing that that effeminacy which was beginning to curse our citizens has
met so powerful and sufficient an antidote ? Is it nothing that that spirit of
insubordination which has been so painfully rife in our happy land, and which
is, perhaps, one .of the very causes of our present troubles, is receiving so ef-
fectual a check ? Is it nothing that our patriotism, which seemed almost
cold, is to-day burning with a brilliant flame ? That that sentiment, which
had almost died out, has become a principal passion in the nation's heart ?
I take it upon myself to say that there have been more acts of moral hero-
ism in this land within the last fifteen months than in all our history previ-
ously. [Cheers.] And is all this nothing ? Is it nothing that success from
time to time has crowned our arms ? Is it nothing that Nashville is ours ?
Is it nothing that Memphis is ours ? and New Orleans is ours, and Norfolk
is ours, and Winchester is ours, and the Shenandoah Valley is ours, and that
Richmond is, we trust and think, soon to be ours ? [Cheers.] Is it noth-
ing that that flag which we all love so much and, by the way, I am just
here reminded of a sentiment of a rebel prisoner, who said to a friend of
mine, that when they came within sight of the old flag they were very likely
to feel weak in the knees. [Laughter and applause.] I say, is it nothing
that that grand old flag on the last Fourth of July floated in every one of
the thirty-four states ? [Cheers.] Is all that nothing ? [Great applause.]
" Some of you, perhaps, have heard of a very remarkable iron egg, said
to be still preserved in the city of Dresden. There is a legend connected
with this egg, which runs somewhat to this effect : On a certain occasion, a
prince sent the iron egg to his betrothed. When she received the gift she
254 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
looked at it, and, becoming entirely disgusted with so rude a present, she
flung it in disgust upon the ground. As it struck the earth, a secret spring
was touched, and lo ! a silver yolk rolled forth from the egg. As she gath-
ered up the yolk, she touched another secret spring, and lo ! a golden chick-
en was evolved. She took the chicken in both hands, and in doing so she
touched a secret spring, and lo ! a ruby crown appeared. She touched a
secret spring in the ruby crown, and lo ! her eyes were blessed with the sight
of a magnificent marriage diamond ring. So let me remind you that this
nation from the hand of God's providence seemed to have received an iron
egg an egg all crusted with tears and clotted with blood ; but lo ! with the
dismantling of Sumter a secret spring was touched, and a silver yolk ap-
peared, which, like a shield of patriotism, spread over all the Northern States
of this great and glorious Union. A secret spring in this silver yolk of pa-
triotism was touched, and instead of one golden chicken we have a brood
McClellan [cheers], Halleck, Banks, Burnside, Hunter, Foote, Farragut,
Grant, and Buell, and many others whom I might, and perhaps ought to
name. [Cheers!] Now these golden chickens are each one bringing a ruby
crown of victory. McClellan, Yorktown ; Halleck, Corinth ; Banks, Win-
chester ; Burnside, Roanoke and Newbern ; Grant, Forts Henry and Donel-
son ; Buell, Shiloh ; Foote, Island No. 10 ; and Farragut not a very pretty
name, but certainly a very pretty deed has given us New Orleans. Each
one has contributed his ruby to make up a great crown of victory, and when
the secret spring in that crown shall be touched the ring of the Union will
appear still unbroken, and rendered more beautiful and valuable than ever
before by the addition of the sparkling diamond of universal liberty. [Tre-
mendous applause.]
" 'The cloud is vanishing from the day;
Lo ! the right is about to conquer
Clear the way !'
" Men of thought, men of action, clear the way clear the way ! Our army
at Harrison's Landing, our country dismembered and bleeding, the cause of
freedom throughout the world, and God sitting upon the circle of yonder fir-
mament, are making powerful and resistless calls upon us to do our duty,
and our whole duty, to our country. [Cheers.]"
The session of the New York Conference held in the Wash-
ington Square Church, New York City, was one of marked in-
terest and solemnity, especially on account of the Report which
was adopted on the state of the country. One of the members
of the Conference, Captain Pelatiah Ward, who had volunteered
LOYALTY OF THE NEW YORK CONFERENCE. 255
early in the war, had been killed in battle during the past sum-
mer. He was a generous, valiant man, and much loved by his
brethren. The President of the United States had issued the
proclamation of emancipation, the justice and policy of which
were yet much debated, and the unanimity which at the outbreak
of the rebellion universally prevailed had become much disturb-
ed by factious opposition. Mr. Cookman felt it was no time for
Methodist preachers to mince words, to stickle over questions
of constitutional nicety, but that the trumpet from them, as lead-
ers of public opinion, must give a certain sound. He'drew up
the report. Its reading excited the deepest emotion ; thrilling
speeches were made by leading members of the Conference,
and with but slight opposition it was adopted amid great ap-
plause. I give the resolutions :
" Resolved i. That as members and ministers of the Methodist Episco-
pal Church within the bounds of the New York Annual Conference, we
cheerfully renew our vows of uncompromising and unconditional loyalty to
the United States of America a nationality we are proud to acknowledge,
and resolved, with the blessing of Heaven, to maintain.
"2. That it is our duty, enforced alike by the Word of God and our Book
of Discipline, to submit to and to co-operate with the regularly constituted
civil authorities, and to enjoin the same upon our people.
" 3. That while we do not deny, but rather recognize and defend, the right
of our people to discuss the measures and policy of the Government, at the
sairife time we would counsel that, in the present critical condition of public
affairs, this right is to be exercised with great forbearance, caution, and pru-
dence.
"4. That the conduct of those who, influenced by political affinities or
Southern sympathies, and under the pretext of discriminating between the
Administration and the Government, throw themselves in the path of almost
every warlike measure, is in our view covert treason, which has the malig-
nity without the manliness of those who have arrayed themselves in open
hostility to our liberties, and is deserving of our sternest denunciation and
our most determined opposition.
" 5. That slavery is an evil, incompatible in its spirit and practice with
the principles of Christianity, with republican institutions, with the peace
and prosperity of our country, and with the traditions, doctrines, and disci-
256 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
pline of our Church ; and that our long and anxious inquiry, ' What shall
be done for its extirpation ?' has been singularly answered by divine Provi-
dence, which has given to Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States,
the power and the disposition to issue a proclamation guaranteeing the boon
of freedom to millions of Southern bondmen.
" 6. That we heartily concur in this proclamation as indicating the right-
eousness of our cause, securing the sympathies of the liberty-loving the
world over, and, above all, insuring the approbation of the universal Father,
who is invariably on the side of justice and freedom.
" 7. That we find abundant reason for gratitude and encouragement in
the recent revival of the nation's patriotism ; in the maintenance of our pub-
lic credit ; in the change of public opinion -abroad, especially in England ;
and in the gradual but, we trust, sure progress of our arms.
" 8. That we cordially accept the President's recommendation to observe
the thirtieth day of the present month as a season of solemn fasting and
prayer ; and that, assembling in our various places of worship, we will hum-
ble ourselves, and earnestly supplicate the great Ruler of nations to forgive
our national offenses ; to guide, sustain, and bless our public rulers ; to look
upon our army and navy mercifully, ^giving success to our arms, so that this
infamous rebellion may be speedily crushed, and peace, at once righteous
and permanent, may return to and smile upon our American heritage.
"9. That our interest in and sympathy for those who represent us in the
field continues unabated, and that to all those who are suffering in conse-
quence of the havoc or desolations of this terrible war, we offer our sincer-
est sympathies and Christian condolence.
" 10. That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted to the President of
the United States, and that they be published in the Christian Advocate and
Journal"
It was such action as this on the part of the Methodist min-
isters, sustained by the laymen for whom and to whom they
spoke, both at the ballot-box and on the battle-field, that led
Mr. Lincoln to say that no Church had done so much to sup-
port the Government in its efforts to maintain the Union as the
Methodist ministers and people. It was not a little due to Mr.
Cookman that the declaration of the New York Conference,
representing a large popular sentiment in the commercial heart
of the nation, assumed a shape so positive and incisive. It was
but the emanation of his own convictions.
THE CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 257
The pastorate of Mr. Cookman closed at the Central Church
with the universal regret of its members. The young people
had become ardently attached to him. He had taken especial
pains to draw together and render efficient the young men of
the congregation, and for this purpose had organized among
them a society called the " Christian Brotherhood," which held
regular meetings for business, religious, social, and literary ex-
ercises, and also took general supervision of the young men
who attended the Church services. This society was pleased
to express their appreciation of their retiring pastor by passing
resolutions which are valuable as a tribute to him and as a
hint to other ministers :
"Whereas, Rev. Alfred Cookman, our late pastor, has, in the economy
of our Church, been transferred to another field of labor
" Resolved, That we remember with great pleasure our relations during
the term of his pastorate, and that we deem his unusual interest in our As-
sociation, and continued efforts to promote its prosperity, as worthy of par-
ticular mention and record.
" Resolved, That to his regular attendance upon our meetings, his court-
eous yet earnest participation in our discussions, his evident anxiety that
our organization should prove of the highest benefit to the Church, and his
constant endeavor for this result, is due much of its prosperity and useful-
ness.
"Resolved, That upon retrospect of the term of Brother Cookman's serv-
ice, we are led to believe that the pastors of our churches would add greatly
to the effectiveness of their labors by more fully interesting themselves in
the established meetings and organizations of their charges ; as an active
sympathy in concerns already enlisting the sympathies of their people must
afford opportunity not otherwise enjoyed of learning their dispositions and
peculiarities, of securing a place in their affections, and of gaining confi-
dence, respect, and influence, as also, by counsel and co-operation, of pro-
moting wiser action and developing wider results.
" Resolved, That the name of Rev. Alfred Cookman be placed upon the
list of honorary members of this Brotherhood."
CHAPTER XV.
TRINITY METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, NEW YORK. THE ARMY
OF THE POTOMAC AND THE CHRISTIAN COMMISSION.
MR. COOKMAN was next appointed, in the spring of 1863, to
the Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church on West Thirty-fourth
Street. Here his ministry proved highly acceptable and use-
ful. The congregations were never larger than while he was
pastor, and there were many valuable accessions to the Church.
There are some persons still connected with Trinity, and some
belonging to other churches in the city, who were the fruits of
his fidelity at this time, and who are among the most useful
and active Christians in New York. The savor of his piety
diffused itself rapidly through all the departments of the sta-
tion. He established a service on Friday afternoons, under
his personal control, for the advancement of Christian purity,
and succeeded in gathering to it many of the earnest lovers of
holiness within his own charge, and some beyond it. These
meetings were very helpful to the piety of the Church, and
were instrumental in bringing not a few into the clearer light
of perfect love. In their use his personal religious experience
was also greatly enriched, and his ministry correspondingly
nourished.
The most marked event of this pastoral term was Mr. Cook-
man's visit to the Army of the Potomac on special service un-
der the direction of the Christian Commission. He showed
himself ready not only to talk sacrifice, but to go to the front,
that he might cheer, in the capacity of minister and brother,
the hearts of the valiant and exposed soldiers. The best epit-
SERVICE OF THE CHRISTIAN COMMISSION. 259
ome of his thoughts and doings while thus engaged is fur-
nished in his letters written to friends at home. The Sanitary
and Christian Commissions, organized for the relief of the sol-
diers of the United States, in addition to what was done for
them directly by the Government, were sustained wholly by the
voluntary offerings of the people, and constituted in their work
one of the brightest features of the war. Never before was
stern suffering so alleviated by the tenderer aspects of Chris-
tian and humane sentiment. The benevolence of the country
rose in a majesty and beauty which signally contrasted with the
dark clouds of fratricidal conflict. The Christian Commission
aimed not only to extend to the fainting warrior the delica-
cies which the body and mind so much needed, but also, and
chiefly, the Word of Life in the shape of Bibles, good books,
tracts, preaching, and pastoral visitation. It drafted for its oc-
casional services ministers and laymen of the first talents ; and
the good it accomplished, while abundantly attested in the
records of its history, can not be fully known until all earthly
accounts are written up.
To his wife :
" WASHINGTON, Saturday night, 1864.
* * * " Not for a single moment have I faltered in my faith that this path
in which I am walking has been appointed by my faithful Heavenly Father.
Oh ! how unspeakably precious He has been since we parted yesterday
morning. I am leaning on His almighty arm, and feel assured that all will
be well. Every thing is transpiring just as I could desire. In the New
York train I found Dr. Stryker, my neighbor ; Mr. McAllister, Sr., of Har-
risburg ; and Mr. Chidlaw, who has been in the employ of the Christian
Commission. The time passed quickly.
" Reaching Philadelphia, I dined with Mr. George H. Stuart, who was en-
thusiastically affectionate and attentive ; purchased many needful articles, etc.
Proceeding to George's, I rather surprised them with my visit and mission,
and spent a most delightful evening in their society. This morning left
Philadelphia at eight o'clock ; found friends in the car ; traveled without in-
terruption ; had about two hours in Baltimore, but owing to a chafed foot,
which was quite painful, could not visit friends. Left about half-past three ;
260 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
found some friends in the car again (Pittsburgh friends) ; arrived in Wash-
ington about half-past five. To-night I am with my old friend Scott. We
supped and will sleep together. To-morrow I preach for the Fourteenth
New Hampshire Regiment, and on Monday morning, with my friends Hat-
field and Watkins, start for the front. The Christian Commission show us
every attention. They are evidently anxious to make a good impression on
our minds, that, like the spies, we may take back a ' good report.'
" Do not give yourself any anxiety about me. I will try to be careful for
your sake. Whenever I can I will drop you a line. As I suggested when
with you, if necessary, telegraph to Ebenezer Scott, No. 393 Pennsylvania
Avenue, who can communicate immediately, through the Commission, with
the army. If you write before you hear from me again, direct to the care
of E. Scott, Box 285 (a new number). My friend is waiting for me, and I
must close. Tired as I am, I feel as if I could thus communicate with my
darling wife for an hour longer. Pray for me. Oh ! I do so much want to
be useful in the work to which I am going. My soul to-night is sweetly
reposing in God. ' He is my song and my shield.' "
To his wife :
"WASHINGTON, Saturday night, 10 o'clock.
" You will not object to a short note, I am sure. I am finishing my first
Sabbath in the service of the Christian Commission. This morning I pro-
ceeded, according to arrangement, to the camp or barracks of the First New
Hampshire. To our surprise and disappointment, we found that they had
suddenly left the night before. Part of another regiment, however, had come
in, and the proposition was for us to preach to them in the afternoon. There-
upon I hastened to Wesley Chapel, and heard a masterly sermon on the
subject of the Transfiguration from my friend B. Peyton Brown ; met any
number of old friends ; yielded to the pressing invitation of Mrs. T , and
accompanied her home to dinner.
" After dinner Brother Scott called, and we proceeded again to the camp
of the First Maine. The men were drawn up in a hollow square. It was
a magnificent spectacle. They appeared in full dress uniform and under
arms, accompanied by a brass band. Surrounded by a large company of
Washingtonians, I held forth the Word of Life. It was an open-air service,
and consequently very exhausting. Nevertheless I got through comfort-
ably. The men were solemn and attentive, and I trust good was done.
After the service I distributed some papers and hymn-books, and seized the
opportunity to converse religiously with a number of the soldiers. With
Brother Charles Lane, my first class-leader, I then went home to tea. Oh,
how very, very cordial he was. I praise my Heavenly Father for his friendship
ARMY EXPERIENCES. 261
and love. At seven I went to the Armory Square Hospital, and preached
to a chapel full of soldiers. Never have I addressed a more attentive or ap-
parently interested company of men. They hung on every syllable. At
the close about twenty rose for prayers. The power of the Highest rested
upon the assemblage. We sung 'Going home,' 'Marching along,' 'Rest
for the weary ;' oh, how the noble boys poured out the tide of song ! I
thought while I was preaching to them, many a faithful mother and sister
are pouring out their souls in earnest prayer for their absent sons and
brothers. God gave me their hearts, and the chaplain is clamorous for me
to remain and labor among them during the present week. I leave the de-
termination of this to that faithful God whose I am and whom I serve.
" This ends my first day of labor. Glory to God to-night for his mercy
shown the very feeblest of all his messengers. Oh, how my soul trusts and
rejoices in the God and rock of my salvation ! To-morrow I move, as a good
soldier of Jesus, just where my Captain directs. My foot has been very sore,
obliging me to limp in walking; still I have not been hindered in any de-
partment of work. Remember me to all friends. Ask my people to pray
for their absent pastor, that God will own and bless his humble labors in
behalf of our brave soldiers. Kiss my children for papa. Tell dear moth-
er and sister Mary, and John and sister M , to remember me specially
before God, and believe me yours devotedly."
To his wife :
"BRANDY STATION, AT THE FRONT, February 29, 1864.
" Here I am at the front, within a few miles of General Lee's army, and
yet as calm as a summer's eve. We left Washington this morning about
ten o'clock, and, after a most interesting ride of seventy miles, reached our
place of destination at half-past two this afternoon. The country through
which we passed wears an air of desolation, which was dismal to contem-
plate ; no fences, no houses, no cultivation whatever, only the debris of de-
stroyed property and continuous camps of soldiers. By my side in the car
sat a Captain C , of Camden, New Jersey, who has been connected with
the army since the commencement of the war. He was very kind and com-
municative, pointing out the scenes of several battles, and calling attention
to various points of interest
" My companions in the service of the Commission, Brothers Hatfield and
Watkins, were very fraternal and pleasant. Arriving at Brandy Station, we
found our head-quarters quite near, an ordinary camp-meeting tent, with a
front and rear apartment. Here we have our bunks for sleeping, rather
rough, but better almost than I had expected. Our commissary prepared
262 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
our dinner. When we sat down we could not restrain immoderate laugh-
ter. It was primitive truly. Tin cups for chocolate, tin plates, the brown-
est sugar, and no butter. However, we got along gloriously. My pre-
cious little George would have enjoyed it, for there was plenty of good
molasses to eat with our bread. The meal dispatched we sallied forth, and
spent an hour very pleasantly in the contraband camp, which is quite near.
As the Commission can not give us work until to-morrow, we arranged for
a meeting to-night among the colored people. There is an Uncle Ben and
an Uncle Dick who are represented as most interesting characters. We
have just dispatched our supper tin cups and plates, of course, but some
butter and beef-steak a right good meal. I have made up my mind to my
circumstances, and hope to enjoy and profit by them.
" My friend Scott was very kind in completing my outfit. I think I have
every thing needful for one in my circumstances. My only trial now is my
absence from my family. I think of you very frequently, and ask my Heav-
enly Father to watch over and preserve you all. My mind is still kept in
perfect peace. God opens my way, and strengthens and comforts me as I
walk in that way. Blessed be His name. The brethren are hurrying me to
accompany them to the negro meeting. Tell the Friday-afternoon meeting
to pray for me specially."
To his wife :
" CAMP SIXTH N. Y. HEAVY ARTILLERY, March 2, 1864.
" Will you not confess that I am a faithful army correspondent ? I be-
lieve that I have written every day since we parted. Yesterday we were
confined at Brandy Station by the storm. It was one of the most dismal
days I ever witnessed. Shut up in our tent, letter-writing was an agreeable
pastime. This morning I rose after a good night's rest to look forth upon
a cloudless sky ; but the mud oh, the mud ! I now better understand the
difficulty of army movements. The passage of army wagons (of which there
is no end) and heavy artillery is almost entirely interrupted by the condition
of the soil.
" This morning I visited head-quarters, and had a most agreeable interview
with General Meade. He received us very politely, invited us into his tent,
bade us be seated, and chatted very familiarly and kindly. His photographs
are very good ; perhaps they give the impression of a larger and more rug-
ged man than the original. His recent illness has left him thin, but he pro-
fesses to be enjoying excellent health at the present. A care-worn expres-
sion lingers round his face ; but is this wonderful when we consider the bur-
den of care which rests upon his patriotic heart ? He impressed me with
RELIGIOUS WORK IN THE ARMY. 263
his gentlemanly bearing and kind spirit, rather than with his superior sol-
dierly appearance. We called at the same time on General Patrick, who is
one of the notabilities here, occupying the position of Provost Marshal of
this division of the army. He is an intelligent, affable, and interesting man.
I have reached my field of labor. The N. Y. Sixth Heavy Artillery num-
bers about 1300 men. Besides these there are New York, Connecticut, and
Massachusetts batteries, and the ammunition trains, all around us, number-
ing together 3000 or 4000 men. Here, then, I am to toil for their advantage.
It is not exactly the place I would have chosen for myself, nevertheless it
may be the right place. When it was mentioned to me, I did not dare to
murmur or remonstrate, for I have put myself in God's hands, and, without
any agency of my own, want to see what He proposes to do with me during
my sojourn at the front
" The soldiers are in winter-quarters log huts covered with canvas. The
officers' quarters are exceedingly tasty and comfortable : little homes that
would not disfigure Central Park. Many of them have their wives here,
and seem disposed to enjoy life while it lasts. To visit the men in their
tents, converse with them, etc., eta, will occupy most of my time. A little
while ago I walked over to look at the battery of the N. Y. Fifth Heavy Ar-
tillery. A young lieutenant whom I providentially met was singularly po-
lite and kind escorting me to various points of interest, showing me all the
appurtenances of their heavy Parrot guns, etc. I was careful to introduce
the subject of religion, and was delighted to find him respectful and tender.
How is my dear wife this afternoon ? I have not as yet heard a word from
home. I suppose that my correspondence will almost necessarily be a good
deal interrupted. Our quarters here are considerably rougher than they
were at Brandy Station ; but never mind, they are better than I deserve."
To his wife :
" HEAD-QUARTERS OF RESERVE ARTILLERY, March 3, 1864.
" I am sitting in our chapel tent, which is used by the soldiers during the
day as a kind of reading-room. They find here books, papers, with all the
necessary articles for penning letters, etc. It is very thoughtful and kind
in the Christian Commission to furnish them with these conveniences.
" Last night I commenced operations in this vicinity, preaching to a com-
pany of soldiers who crowded our chapel tent. They were very attentive,
and thirteen rose for prayers. I have appointed an inquiry and experience
meeting for this afternoon, and expect to preach again to-night I say
' expect,' for every thing in an army is very uncertain. Owing to the soft
condition of the soil, the corps of heavy artillery, especially, will hardly be
264 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
able to move for a number of weeks, and yet as I write the roar of cannon
fills my ears. It may be only target-practice, or it may be the commence-
ment of an engagement ; most probably the former. Do not at any time be
alarmed about me. I am led by infinite wisdom, defended by infinite pow-
er, comforted by infinite love. I do not allow myself to live in the future,
for three weeks would seem long, but a day at a time I try to do my work,
looking unto Jesus.
" Our accommodations are not even what we had at Brandy Station.
Our tent is about ten feet square. In that little space we do our cooking
and sleeping. The former is supervised by a superannuated soldier, who
does the best he can. The sleeping was decidedly cold last night. I had
t j withdraw my nose from the air, which was full of frost, and roll myself
up in a coil or bundle, to make all the animal heat available. Even then I
spent some sleepless hours through chilliness. I do not repeat these things
by way of complaint nay, I am too good a soldier for that. This is only a
reference to the seasoning process I am undergoing. I feel very well to-
day, and hope, with the blessing of God, to endure hardness, and then re-
turn to you in the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of peace. Give my
love to my dear people. Tell them to pray for me very specially."
To his wife :
" RESERVE ARTILLERY, March 4, 1864.
" A few moments before dinner will afford me an opportunity to pen you
a short letter. This, I am sure, will not be unwelcome. It is now one
week since I left you. I am not sorry the week is gone, for, Providence
favoring, I am that much nearer my loved home. To-day it is blustering,
raw, disagreeable ; most probably the herald of another storm. Last even-
ing we had even a larger crowd of soldiers than the night previous. They
were deeply serious. Six or seven rose for prayers. I trust that good in-
fluences are at work. We followed the sermon with a prayer-meeting.
Four prayers were offered ; two of them by lieutenants of the regiment no-
ble fellows. Tattoo sounds at eight o'clock, at which time the roll is called,
and the soldiers are required to go to their tents. This, of course, limits
our service^. If we had another hour, say till nine, I have no doubt it
would be for the advantage of all concerned.
" Another disadvantage is the godlessness of the officers ; that is, most of
them, for there are a few honorable exceptions. Last night they had a reg-
ular ball in the camp, which was attended by their wives and sisters. The
festivities were protracted until a late hour, for one of my last remembrances
was the strains of music. I slept very comfortably last night, piled on the
TESTIMONY OF CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS. 265
coats and shawls, made myself warm, and got through the night in a refresh-
ing way. This afternoon I propose to ride on horseback over to Brandy
Station and find my correspondence, for up to this hour I have not heard
a word from home.
" Tell sister M that I am waiting upon God ; sitting with a teachable
spirit at the feet of Him who has said, ' Learn of me.' I want to be instruct-
ed in the deep things of God, and furnished unto every good word and every
good work. I surrender myself into the care of my infinitely wise and pow-
erful Father, trusting that He will lead me into usefulness and truth, plenty
and peace. I am sure He will ; but it is sometimes a trial to walk blindly,
not knowing the how or the wherefore. Bless His holy name, there is noth-
ing, so far as I am aware, between Him and myself, and I trust momentarily
and sweetly in the merit of Jesus Christ my Lord. Kiss my children for
their absent papa. I shall be delighted to clasp them in my arms again.
Love to all. They are calling me for dinner."
To his wife :
" HEAD-QUARTERS RESERVE ARTILLERY, March 5, 1864.
" After writing to you yesterday, I borrowed the horse of one of the cap-
tains, and had a delightful ride over to Brandy Station. I thought of my
boys, and wished that they might be here for a little while to enjoy the priv-
ilege of galloping over the Virginia fields. At Brandy Station I found a let-
ter in waiting, the one you sent by the hand of sister M to Philadelphia,
and while I tarried the cars arrived, bringing another written on Tuesday
evening. Thank you kindly for these affectionate epistles. They come like
angel visitants. I need not say that they were read and re-read. I was sorry
to hear of the continued illness of the children ; perhaps by this time they
are all better. Leaving them in the care of our faithful Heavenly Father, I
feel assured that He will order all things well. Remember that if their ill-
ness is serious or dangerous, you must at once telegraph for me. Parting
with sister and little ' Streak of Sunshine ' must have been another trial for
you. That boy Will would be the life and light of any home.
"Last night I preached again to a company of soldiers that entirely
crowded the tent. I trust that seed was sown in their hearts which will
speedily appear in the form of fruit. After the service was over, and all
were gone, I sat in my tent reading ; while thus engaged the curtain was
drawn aside, and a soldier entering, glided to my side. ' Chaplain,' said he,
' I can not rest can not sleep I must have relief. Won't you pray for me ?'
' Oh yes, soldier,' said I, ' most gladly ;' and after preaching unto him Jesus,
we kneeled down together, and I poured out my soul in prayer for his speedy
M
266 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
salvation. These facts are my inspiration and encouragement during this
time of exile from home.
" Last night I rested rather comfortably ; my shawl makes a good pillow,
and my overcoat, thrown over my blanket, contributes to the warmth of my
bed. To-day it is raining again ; most probably this will prove a repetition
of last Tuesday's storm. Softening this Virginia soil, these rains will oblige
the army to remain where it is. In my experience I am panting for more of
God, more of His truth, more of His holiness, more of His power ; ' hunger-
ing and thirsting' expresses my feelings at this time. Oh ! I want to return
home in the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of peace."
To his wife :
"ARTILLERY RESERVE, March 7, 1864.
" My last letter was written on Saturday. In the evening of that day we
had an experience-meeting ; I would have given almost any thing to have
had you present The testimonies of Christian soldiers melted my heart to
tenderness, and my head was literally a fountain of tears. One and another
spoke affectionately of pious and praying mothers. A noble Ohio soldier
said, 'When I left my home, a dear, kind sister gave me that little Testament'
(drawing the book from his side-pocket and holding it up). ' I had not been
a member of the army long, before I realized I must have a friend. Who
should be my friend ? I opened my little Testament and read of JESUS.
Oh ! what a friend He has been to me. This book has been a great comfort
to me in my absence from home. It is full of sweet promises. One is, " In
my Father's house are many mansions," etc. If I fall on the battle-field, I
believe I shall go to occupy my mansion in the everlasting kingdom of God.'
" But I can not begin to tell you all. It was one of the hours of my life.
Twelve or fifteen rose for prayers, and all testified ' It is good to be here.'
Yesterday I preached in the afternoon, and again in the evening. The in-
terest is constantly on the increase. Last night the tent was packed, and
numbers went away unable to get in. Men rose in every direction asking
our prayers. Some came to me after the meeting, and with unrestrained
tears said, ' Chaplain, pray for me.' The Christian men of the regiment
and batteries are in the best of spirits, while the outsiders are evidently in-
terested and impressed. Some are insisting that I shall accept the chap-
laincy of the regiment, and march with them during the approaching sum-
mer ; but this is not practicable. I am sitting at the Master's feet, anxious
to know His will concerning me. Lord ! teach me and lead me, is my con-
stant prayer. I enjoy the divine presence more in preaching than at any
other time. I am waiting for revelations of God beyond any thing I have
ever experienced.
ARMY DISCOMFORTS. GRAND REVIEW. 267
" The discomforts of my present situation will make me appreciate and
enjoy the advantages of my home when I return. For the last two days we
have been smoked out. The wind has driven the smoke down the pipe of
our little stove, making it almost impossible to breathe. When I would rest
upon the bed, I have been obliged to cover my face with my handkerchief, and
breathe through the linen. This morning the wind has shifted again, and we
get along better. My foot is still pretty sore, preventing me from walking
far ; but I do not suffer much, and get along very well. To-day we are to
have a grand review of this division of the army. The weather is pleasant,
and I suppose it will be a grand affair. I wish my boys could witness it."
To his wife :
"SIXTH NEW YORK HEAVY ARTILLERY, March 8, 1864.
" Yesterday was a great day. It brought me three letters from my darling
wife no, two from yourself and one from George that was it. Didn't I
devour them roll them over and over as a sweet morsel, extract the mean-
ing and sweetness of every sentence. They were a rich feast for my hungry
heart. I am thankful that you continue well, though I was sorry to hear
of any neuralgia twinges. If my wishes could govern, you should not have
an ache or a pain. Yesterday we had a grand review of the Artillery Re-
serve. It was very fine. The appearance and evolutions of the troops
equal any thing I have ever seen. The soldiers in their costume do not
present that shabby appearance I had anticipated. The colonel is one of
the most tasteful of men, and one of the strictest of officers. Consequently
every thing shines, even to boots. The regiment yesterday might have
marched up Broadway alongside of your famous Seventh.
" In the evening I preached to another crowd. Large numbers rose again
for prayer. I trust that God's spirit is actively at work in the minds and
hearts of the soldiers. If we had the co-operation of the officers, I think we
would have a sweeping and blessed revival ; but they hold themselves aloof
from the men, and are altogether too great to stoop to the consideration of
any thing so insignificant as personal religion. I am myself waiting on God,
not making that rapid headway in personal experience that I had antici-
pated not losing, but concerned to learn those lessons it is so important for
me to know. Respecting the Bible money, you will take that, as I wished
you to take the six dollars for Mrs. , out of the benevolent drawer the
drawer underneath, that draws out. How lonely you must feel without sister
and Will. Do you wish me to call for them on my return ? I would be
glad if you would send me the Advocate, Methodist, and Independent. We
do not get them here until they are about ten days or two weeks old."
268 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
To his wife :
" SIXTH NEW YORK HEAVY ARTILLERY, March 9, 1864.
" Yesterday, I believe, is the first week-day that I have failed to write to
you since our separation. The reason was a jaunt to Culpepper Court-
house, distant about ten or twelve miles. I started in the morning about
ten o'clock, called at Brandy Station (but found no letters), pushed on to
Culpepper, which I reached a little after twelve. This has been quite an
important Virginia town. Some of the houses are respectable, but, like all
Southern villages, and especially those that have been ravaged by war, it has
an untasteful and dilapidated look. The soldiers have been very rude.
Only one of a number of churches is fit for occupancy. I met with some
friends and enjoyed my visit. About half-past two I started back, making
a little detour from the road, and calling at the house of Hon. John Minor
Botts. He is faithful among the faithless. A member of Congress when
father was chaplain, he remembered father, and this fact secured me a warm
welcome. Leaving his comfortable mansion (the only one I have seen in
the Old Dominion), I reached my present quarters about half-past four.
" The horseback ride of twenty-two miles left me wretchedly stiff and
sore. Nevertheless I preached in the evening. The Spirit of the Lord
seemed to rest upon the soldiers. Upward of twelve rose for prayers, and
the meeting which followed was spirited and profitable. The night before
we had an experience-meeting. It was glorious. One old soldier said, 'I
was converted in 1843 ; ran well until I joined the army. Then I began to
lose ground. Like Peter, I denied my Lord, and, soldiers, I do not know
but in some instances, like Peter, I blasphemed. I said bad words. I came
to this meeting. In this tent God found me as he found Adam in the gar-
den. He said, " Soldier, where art thou ?" Like Adam, I thought to hide
myself. I tried to get away. No use. Now I stand up, make this humble
confession, and ask you to pray for me.' A number profess to have expe-
rienced religion within the last few days, and still the work goes on. The
Christian Commission is the Church in the army. And though it may be
attended with sacrifice, all patriotic parties ought to be willing to take their
turn in serving the Church."
To his wife :
"SIXTH NEW YORK HEAVY ARTILLERY, )
Friday morning, March n, 1864. )
" I have been writing this morning a letter to a wife who resides at Gar-
rison Station, on the line of the Hudson River Railroad. Last night her
husband was powerfully converted. The case is a thrillingly interesting
SOLDIERS AWAKENED AND CONVERTED. 269
one. Two weeks since he tore himself from a dear, pious, and faithful wife
and three beloved children. His companion remonstrated with tears in her
eyes. Still he enlisted.
"After great hardship he reached this camp on Wednesday morning. In
the evening he came to the tent. The preached Word affected his heart,
and he rose for prayer. All day yesterday he was a subject of powerful
awakening. Last evening, during our experience-meeting, he rose up (a
noble-looking man), and, with tears raining down his cheeks, said, ' Oh, fel-
low-soldiers, how much I want to be saved. All day I have been wrestling
with conviction. Now I yield I yield, I can hold out no more. I am re-
solved to seek and serve God. Oh, won't you please to pray for me.' I
dropped on my knees, and poured out my soul in importunate pleading.
All the soldiers were wonderfully interested and engaged. Prayer finished,
the soldier rose again and said, ' Fellow-soldiers, I must tell you ; I believe
God has heard and answered prayer. The love of Jesus is shed abroad in
my heart. I am happy in God. I came to be a soldier of the nation now
I am in addition a soldier of Jesus. When we were coming here, very many
of our company were sorry that they had enlisted ; but oh ! if you will enlist
in the service of Jesus you will never be sorry.' Thereupon another soldier
sprang upon his feet and said, ' I will enlist to-night. Two of my children
are in heaven. I want to meet them there, and I intend to march with that
dear man. Hear, fellow-soldiers, I enlist to-night.' I can give you no idea
of the meeting. It was wonderful glorious surpassed any thing I ever
witnessed. My own soul was richly baptized. I lay down on my bed with
a heart melting in gratitude before God.
" Yesterday was one of the stormiest I ever saw. It rained violently
and blew fearfully. I thought again and again our tent must be prostrated.
God, however, watched over us, and at the close of the day we were liv-
ing to praise Him. This morning it is foggy and misty. The wind still lin-
gers in the northeast. I am sustained by the conviction that I am in the line
of duty, and God strengthens and blesses me. When the time comes to
return home, I will feel great joy in turning my face and directing my steps
to the dearest spot on earth to me. How are you this morning, my darling
Annie ? and how are my beloved children? If I had the 'wishing cap' or
the ' seven-league boots,' I would know all about you in a little while. Our
omnipresent and omnipotent Father watches between us while we are ab-
sent one from another. Blessed be His name. Give the children three
kisses apiece for papa. Remember me affectionately to all relatives and
friends. Tell sister M to pray on. God hears and is answering her
prayers. Ask all my friends to remember me at a throne of grace."
270 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
To his wife :
" SIXTH N. Y. HEAVY ARTILLERY, Saturday, March 12, 1864.
" We have had a long, dismal rain-storm. Yesterday we had in the morn-
ing a regular northeast drizzle ; in the afternoon and evening most violent
thunder-showers. This weather has shut us up in our tents, and left the
country around in a most terrible condition. The streams are swollen to
twice or thrice their original size, while the soil is stirred in its depths. I
think there is a good deal of solicitude at Washington respecting an ad-
vance of the army ; but while the roads are in their present condition the
troops must almost necessarily continue stationary. This will harmonize
with the views of the soldiers, who, from previous experience, seem to dread
exposure, especially lying out, at this uncertain season of the year. If they
remain in winter-quarters ten days longer, it will include my term of service,
and leave me free to return home without the necessity of accompanying
them in their proposed marches. I think, however, any movement of the
army now would be a sufficient reason why I, with only a few days of fur-
lough* remaining, should retire from the front.
" This morning the sun shines brightly, and the air is as balmy as the
breath of May. I am quite well, barring a little rheumatism in my shoulders,
which makes it difficult to get my coat off and on. My foot has been giving
me a good deal of trouble. For two weeks it has been discharging more or
less. I consulted the surgeon of the regiment ; he gave me some lint and
plaster, which I think did not do it much good. Some salve I am using
now seems to be healing it up.
" Our meetings yesterday were delightful. In the afternoon it was a prayer
and experience meeting ; at night I preached on the subject of forgiveness
of sins. The attendance was large and the interest unabated. Large num-
bers rose for prayers. One new convert got up last night and exhorted his
fellow-soldiers powerfully. After this he prayed with great tenderness and
unction. I realize in my own experience great nearness to the Saviour.
Oh, what would I do without the love and fellowship of Jesus ! Just now an
old soldier brings into our little tent a box he has received from home. Open-
ing it for pa apples, chickens, preserves, eggs, cakes, etc. Noble fellow ! he
is insisting that we shall help ourselves. He would be glad if we would
take half that he has. Perfectly delighted, he says, ' Ain't it nice !' ' How
thoughtful and kind arc my family at home.' Oh ! what a glorious thing it is
to be kind and generous and noble. So I have filled up my daily epistle.
To-morrow is the Sabbath of the Lord. Oh, that it may prove the best day
of my life !"
* From his Church.
PHYSICAL CONDITION AND MINISTERIAL SUCCESS. 271
To the Rev. John E. Cookman :
"ARTILLERY RESERVE, ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, March 17, 1864.
" The blessed Bible resting on my knee constitutes my desk or table, and,
in the absence of pen and ink, you will be satisfied with pencilmanship. I
am getting along right well in my spring campaign. Excepting these sick-
ening rheumatic aches I sometimes have in my arms and shoulders, keeping
me awake all night, I have been blessed with uninterrupted health. Occa-
sionally I get a horse and have a glorious ride. If you could see me dart-
ing over these Virginia hills, you would think of an aid-de-camp of General
Meade, or perhaps one of Kilpatrick's cavalry in citizen's dress. I did not
know I could ride so well.
" My letters come irregularly. More than a week has elapsed since I heard
from home. But for Mary's sweet, affectionate letter yesterday, I should be
tempted to believe some one is ill. I have written enough to you for the
present, as I must take a little space for my sister. Thank you a thousand
times for your affectionate letter."
To his sister, Miss Mary Cookman :
"March 17,1864.
" I do not know what I should have done yesterday but for your tender
and more than welcome letter. Not having heard from home for some
days, I procured a horse and rode like a courier to Brandy Station, confident
of a budget. But for your kind consideration, I should have suffered a great
disappointment. Your gentle words and sisterly assurances satisfied the
want, and I cantered back more leisurely to my temporary home in this Vir-
ginia wilderness.
" In my letter to John I have written of my physical welfare. Let me tell
you of my spiritual condition and ministerial success. God keeps my soul
in peace. When I walk these hills alone, I feel I am not alone. My Heav-
enly Father vouchsafes me His presence, and I am allowed precious com-
munion with Himself. Oh, what would I do in my exile and loneliness if I
had not the love of Jesus and the fellowship of the Spirit. Our meetings
are still largely attended and decidedly interesting. Every night there are
some new cases of awakening and conversion. On Tuesday evening, be-
sides a number who rose for prayers, four noble soldiers stood upon their
feet, confessed their sinfulness, expressed their purpose to do better, and
asked the prayers of all present ; two of them professed to find Jesus before
the close of the meeting. Oh, how much I wish you could enjoy one of our
experience-meetings. Last night an old regular in the United States service
272 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
rose, and with a face illumined with celestial sunshine, he told of his love
for Jesus and his hope of heaven.
" My labors in the field are nearly concluded. Next Monday, God will-
ing, I shall start for Washington, then home again. My home and its rela-
tions never seemed more attractive or lovely than now. How much I praise
God that the lines have fallen unto me in such pleasant places. May I say
that your sweet love and sisterly devotion are highly appreciated and fully
reciprocated by your unworthy brother. I feel that I do not deserve the
confidence and affection with which my kindred and friends seem to regard
me. This, with all my other blessings, is of the Lord, and to Him shall be
the praise and glory. Now I must close. Receive the assurance of the un-
dying love of your brother."
To his mother, Mrs. Mary Cookman :
"March 17,1864.
" Last, but not least, my long letter would not be complete if you were
overlooked, but that is farthest from my thoughts. You have been with the
Army of the Potomac for nearly three weeks not in person, but in the af-
fectionate remembrance, aye, enshrined in the heart of your eldest child. I
am delighted to know that you are maternally watching over my precious
ones at home. Take good care of them, and, with the blessing of God, we
will soon resume our pleasant associations in New York. Believe me your
devotedly attached son."
To his sons, Bruner, George, and Frank :
"ARTILLERY RESERVE, March 19, 1864.
" This is your letter from your papa. A little rough stool is my table,
but it does almost as well as my study desks. How very often I think
about you, my dear boys. When I see the soldiers drawn up in their even-
ing parade and hear the drums beat, then I think about you and wish you
were here to look upon these stirring scenes. When I get astride of a nice
horse I think about you, and wish you were here to have a ride. When I
lie upon my blanket at night I think about you, and pray our kind Heavenly
Father to take good care of you during my absence.
" Yesterday afternoon we had a great ' scare.'' Word came that the reb-
els were advancing upon us. Sure enough, they were crossing the Rapidan
River, the dividing line between the two armies. Orders came from head-
quarters to be ready to march at a moment's notice. Accordingly the sol-
diers packed their knapsacks, filled their haversacks with three days' rations,
and for a while all was excitement. Pa thought he was in for it, but in God
RETURNS FROM THE ARMY. 273
was his trust. About seven o'clock the order to march was recalled. This
morning the regiment is all ready. While I write fighting is going on. We
can distinctly hear the cannons roar in the distance. Pa had almost made
up his mind to leave this morning for Washington, but he thought, ' No, Mon-
day is my time, and I will wait and trust in my Heavenly Father, who has
always taken such good care of me.' How blessed it is, my boys, to love
God and feel that He loves us. Then we are safe any where. I want you all
to be good, and then all will be well.
" How sorry I was to hear of the accident which befell your little friend
M S . Almost killed ! How near he went to heaven or to hell !
I hope the former, for I trust he is trying, and now will try more than ever
to be good. I want my boys to give God their hearts, so that if they sud-
denly die we may be able to say that they have certainly gone to heaven.
Tell your precious mamma that I received a letter from her yesterday after-
noon. Oh, how glad I was to get it ! Tell your dear grandma, too, how
.much obliged I am for her sweet letter. Will you be glad to see me again ?
Pa feels as if he would give all of this State of Virginia to be with his family
again. If all is well, I hope this time next Saturday to sit down in No. 263
West Thirty -fourth Street. But if the Rebels should get me, it will only be
a little longer. Let us pray our Heavenly Father, if He wills, to prevent this.
Now, after you read this letter, go every one of you and give mamma one of
your sweetest kisses, and tell her that it is straight from pa. Then go to lit-
tle Beck and little Mamy, and give them each a nice kiss ; then kiss one
another, then kiss sister M , then grandma, aunt Mary, and uncle John.
That's all."
To his wife :
"COLUMBIA, Wednesday, March 23, 1864.
"I am thus far on my way home. Yesterday I left Washington in the
seven A.M. train, passed through Baltimore, and reached Philadelphia at two
o'clock. Had only time to hurry from one depot to the other, and at half-
past two P.M. started for Columbia. Arrived at the old homestead about
seven o'clock. Found the family in the sitting-room, gathered around the
little table. There was our lovely little daughter, with her calm blue eyes
and gentle, quiet face, and alongside little ' Streak of Sunshine,' with cheeks
like roses in full bloom. I was an unexpected but most welcome visitor.
The children clambered up on my knees, and I was one of the happiest men
in the State of Pennsylvania. Sis and Will are very well and very happy.
This morning the first thing my door was pushed open, and a sweet little
voice said, ' Papa, it is time to get up.' I had had the best night's rest since
M 2
274 LIFE OF ALFRED CCOKMAN.
I left home. Looking out from the bed-clothes I saw a perfect little face.
Will never looked prettier. He kept faithful watch while I dressed, and
then acted as my escort down stairs. Sister is full of love, but not any more
than her dear papa. With the exception of Davis, the family are very well.
The children seem anxious to return with papa to New York. The grand-
parents and the aunt evidently would like to keep them longer in Columbia.
It is in my heart to gratify the little folks and the old folks both, and I must
wait for to-morrow to decide what is best.
"On Monday evening I received a Washington letter from yourself, Mary,
G. S. Hare, and Southerland. Brother E. Scott was very fraternal. I pre-
ferred to stay with him rather than go by urgent invitation to the hospitable
home of my old friend and class-leader, Charles Lane. On my arrival in
Columbia, I received another letter from yourself. Tharks for these little
messengers from home. I hope to see you on Friday. To-morrow morn-
ing I propose to start for Philadelphia, spend the afternoon in that city, and
on Friday turn my face New-York-ward. Concerning appointments on the.
Sabbath, I would very gladly hear rather than be heard but whether my
people would acquiesce, I am not so sure. This I must leave until my re-
turn."
It was always a great trial to Mr. Cookman to be separated
from his family. He had scarcely got settled upon his return
from the army, when the physical condition of his children re-
quired that some of them, at least, should be taken to the home-
stead on the banks of the Susquehanna, and the others with the
.mother soon followed. We are indebted, however, to these
separations for those familiar and tender letters to his wife
and children which reveal so charmingly the family side of his
character.
To his sons George and Frank :
" NEW YORK, June 24, 1864.
" You must not think that pa has forgotten you because he has neglected
to write you a letter. Every day he thinks about his little George and
Frank, and wonders how they are getting along. I hope that you are very
obedient and kind to aunt Beckic and grandma, and all the rest. I trust
that you never quarrel with one another. Remember, little brothers should
be always full of love. You must not forget your prayers morning and even-
ing. Never say bad words or associate with bad boys. If you hear a boy
swear, turn your back upon him, and say he can not be my playmate or
LOVING WORDS TO HIS CHILDREN. 275
companion any longer. Always go to Sunday-school, and remember to be-
have well in church. People around are looking at you, and expect good
conduct from the sons of a minister. I am pleased to know that you go to
school every day, and go so cheerfully. Give attention to your lessons, and
learn as much and as fast as you can. Be very attentive and kind to uncle
Cyrus. Do not climb up on him as you used to do, for that might give him
pain in his wound. Run his errands. Do every thing you can to make him
happy, for you know he is your noble, brave soldier uncle. When you are
large boys or big men you will refer with pride to your patriot uncle, who
was wounded in the service of his country.
" Yesterday -we that is, ma, Brune, Sis, Will, and myself accompanied the
Seventh Avenue Sabbath-school on their excursion to Staten Island. The
day was warm, but we had a real nice time. Swings, football, Copenhagen,
and other sports interested the little folks. No accident occurred, and we
returned to the city about seven o'clock in the evening. I suppose you would
like to know about your little brothers and sisters. Well, Brune is still very
pale and thin, but I think a little better than he was. He is very anxious
for the time to come when we shall go to Columbia, for he wants very much
to see his little brothers again. Sister has been sick, but is better again. She
has had her large doll fixed up, and is quite proud of it. She is a dear little
girl. Will is still a little 'streak of sunshine' is as fond of papa's study as
ever. Both he and Sis have new porte-monnaies. \Vill has about twelve
cents, and Sis six He is perfectly delighted with his treasure. Beck Evans
has taken a deep cold, which has fallen in her eyes. Poor dear little girl, she
has all kinds of ailments and afflictions, but notwithstanding is very ' weenty.'
Little Mary is a honey-drop. Kisses sweeter than ever. Now, Frank, don't
your mouth water for a kiss ? On the second Sabbath of July (loth) I
expect to be in Harrisburg. Perhaps some time the week before I will
bring ma and the rest to Columbia ? Will you be glad to see us ? Now
my letter is full. Good-bye. Give our love to all. Be good boys."
To his son Willie :
"NEW YORK, July 19, 1864.
" Did you ever receive a letter before ? Now remember that this is all
yours, so that when mamma has read it to you, you can fold it up and put
it in the envelop again, and carry it about in your pocket, and say ' This is
papa's letter to " Little Sunshine." ' Won't that be splendid ? How papa
misses his little boy. The study is so quiet now ; the chairs keep in their
places ; the old valise stays in the cupboard ; no ivhoop to tell that the loco-
motive is coming ; no invitation to go in the cars to Columbia ; nobody
276 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
asks for my lead-pencil now ; or for a sheet of -white paper now ; or for a
book -with pictures in now. When papa sits down at the table he is all
alone. No little darling Will to sit close alongside and wait for his buttered
bread, or perhaps for a little sip of papa's coffee, which you know is par-
ticularly nice. Don't you pity poor papa ? Never mind. It won't be long.
Two or three weeks, and then pa will get in the steam-cars again. The
old ' locomoshs' 1 will go 'chu! chu ! chu!' and after a while he will come
to Columbia. Then he will look out of the car window, and there will be
bright-eyed little Willie on the fence waving his white handkerchief, shout-
ing, ' Hurrah, boys ! hurrah ! here comes my precious papa !' Won't that
be splendid? But I hear my little boy say, 'What will you bring me?'
Kisses ever so many sugar-candy kisses. Don't you love my kisses ? I
am sure I love yours. I wish you were here to give me one of those real,
ripe, sweet, juicy kisses that grow on your little red lips. Tell mamma that
papa is right well. He has just been writing letters to uncle Frank and
Edmund Y . This afternoon he expects to attend Dr. Palmer's meet-
ing, and perhaps afterward ride out to Harlem and see grandma. Now, if
little ' Streak of Sunshine ' was along, we would go on board the Tiger Lily,
and sail as far as High Bridge. Wouldn't that be splendid ? I hope that
while I am away you will be a first-rate boy. Never strike your dear little
sister no, indeed ! Never quarrel with your little brothers, or pout or be
disobedient to your precious mamma. At the table do you eat with your
fingers ? no, indeed, but with your fork. Did you know it ? William Wil-
berforce Cookman is a perfect little gentleman. When I get back to Co-
lumbia, I will ask mamma and aunt Beckie and grandma, and if they say
you have been a good boy, then you shall have one of those nice, new, beau-
tiful two-cent pieces. Now don't you laugh it is so. I will put it in that
fat little hand, and you shall feel ' it is mine." 1 Now I must close Willie's
letter. When mamma gets through reading it, then give her a splendid
kiss, and tell her that is from papa ; and then go all around and give every
one one of your best, and tell them all it is from your dear pa. Good-bye,
my little darling."
To his wife :
"NEW YORK, 10 o'clock, Thursday night, 1864.
" I have just returned from Dr. Stryker's church. The national fast-day
is over. It has for me been eminently profitable. With considerable sac-
rifice and self-denial, I remained to supervise these services, and I have
been richly recompensed in my own experience. In the morning we had
Dr. Strykcr, who preached an excellent sermon to a large congregation. I
BRIGHT LOOKS FROM A SICK-ROOM. 277
prayed and read the Scriptures. It was a delightful service. In the after-
noon, at four o'clock, I had the large Bible-class room entirely filled (Mrs.
D among the rest), and a precious hour it proved. In the evening I
held forth in an address in Mr. Stryker's church. The audience-room was
comfortably filled, and I enjoyed rather more than ordinary freedom in un-
folding our duties and hopes as citizens in the present important and fearful
crisis. To-morrow morning early I expect to start for Poughkeepsie, where
I will probably spend the day. Then Saturday, then Sunday, then Mon-
day, and, if the Lord will, my darling wife and beloved children. In patience
I must possess my soul."
The following brief note affords evidence of the scrupulous
fidelity with which Mr. Cookman always regarded the expecta-
tions of the children under his pastoral care.
To Mrs. W. B. Skidmore :
"December 27, 1864.
" We exceedingly regret that our Sabbath-school festival, which occurs
this evening, will oblige us to ask a postponement of your visit until Thurs-
day. The little ones, and larger ones too, expect to find us in the midst of
our flock. We hope, however, Providence permitting, to enjoy your society
on Thursday evening. Will you be kind enough to advise Sister B of
this change ? We hope it is not too late to wish you a -very happy Christ-
mas happy in its memories, in its present experiences, and in its sweet
hopes of seeing for ourselves that ' blessed Jesus ' whose birth we so joy-
ously commemorate."
To the Friday-afternoon meeting :
"TRINITY PARSONAGE, January 27, 1865.
" I should exceedingly delight to share with you the privileges of the
Friday-afternoon meeting. As this is deemed impracticable, may I speak to
you from the furnace of affliction not a seven times heated furnace, never-
theless a furnace signalized by the presence of the Fourth, nay, the First,
the fairest among ten thousand, and the One altogether lovely.
" Since the last Sabbath I have been realizing very specially the precious-
ness of perfect love. In the midst of pain and physical prostration, I have
found beneath and around me the Everlasting Arms, while, as I have glanced
into the future, I have not been startled or stirred by a single doubt or fear.
Oh, how sweet has been the conviction ! I have nothing to do now all
has been done by my blessed Saviour. I stand complete in Him. My heart
278 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
overflows with gratitude to the blessed Holy Spirit that has inducted me
into the belief and experience of the doctrine of Christian holiness a doc-
trine that is so sweet and satisfying both in sickness and in health. From
this time I feel as if I should hold it more firmly, preach it more faithfully,
love it more fully, labor for it more zealously.
" Dear friends, be assured of my Christian love. Divinity, as I feel, is the
bond which unites our hearts together. We are one in Christ Jesus. Let
us be faithful, that our precious spiritual privileges may be reduplicated on
the other side of Jordan, where, with all the sanctified, we will eternally
sing ' Glory to the Lamb !' Will you not sing it this afternoon ? Sing it
for me. I will join your chorus in my sick-room. You will not hear me,
but Jesus will. Let us fill his ear with our songs, and his heart with our joy."
To the Friday-afternoon meeting :
"April 7,1865.
" I very much regret my inability to be with you this afternoon. It is for
me a serious disappointment. I must, however, yield to the wishes of a
dear friend, and accompany the remains of his only child to their last rest-
ing-place. Suffer just one word of testimony My mercies abound. My
chief, my overshadowing mercy is Jesus, my sanctification. He has been un-
speakably precious during the present week. Oh, how delighted I should
be to sit in the midst of you this afternoon, and hear you again sing His
praise, and speak of His love, and implore His presence and blessing ! This
can not be; nevertheless we will praise Him for all that is past, and trust
Him for all that is to come. God bless you all with an unprecedented
blessing. In haste."
Before leaving Trinity, Mr. and Mrs. Cookman suffered a
deep affliction in the death of little Rebecca, a child three
years and six months old. She was absent from home when
she died. This was the first time the Destroyer had invaded
their family circle. The father thus touchingly alludes to their
bereavement.
To Mrs. Skidmore :
" Monday evening, April 10, 1865.
" We have this afternoon received a telegram acquainting us with the
death of our dear little daughter Rebecca. She breathed her last to-day
about half-past twelve. We were exceedingly shocked at the announce-
ment, for, although we had heard of her sickness, we had no idea that she was
DEATH OF LITTLE REBECCA. 279
seriously or dangerously ill. To-morrow morning we leave for Columbia.
The little representative of Central Church is the first taken from our do-
mestic circle. God has constituted her a glorified link to unite Central
Church in our thoughts to Heaven. OhTTiow real and blessed the eternal
home seems this evening ! My dear wife is overwhelmed with sorrow, nev-
ertheless she submits uncomplainingly to this providence of our faithful
God.
" We need not solicit your sympathies and prayers, for four years of inti-
mate Christian friendship assures us that your large, noble, and affectionate
heart will be afflicted in our affliction. God bless you forever for your kind-
ness to and love for two of His umvorthiest servants. Of course we can
not enjoy the congenial circle that will be associated at your hospitable
home on Wednesday evening."
To his sister, Miss Mary Cookman :
" We have just been placing in the cold grave another beautiful gem, to
develop and re-appear in the promised resurrection. Our sweet little Re-
becca is now in the special keeping of Him who looks down and watches
all her dust till He shall bid it rise. I have many times sought to comfort
bereaved parents. God, by this providence, has been better preparing me
for this part of my ministerial duty. Our precious darling was incompara-
bly more beautiful in death than during life. Losing all her baby-like look,
she presented the appearance of a lovely little girl her features regular and
perfect, her face little wasted, and indescribably sweet in its expression ;
indeed, her exceeding beauty in death was a matter of universal remark. I
felt to-day what a trial it is to bury one who is ' bone of your bone and flesh
of your flesh.'
" Returning from the grave, the heart-stricken mother could not restrain
the audible ' Farewell, my precious darling !' I thought, ' Yes, until we
meet again in a tearless and deathless realm.' Oh, how precious the word
4 Comforter ' is to me this afternoon ! The blessed Third Person comes un-
usually near, and comforts me with the comfort of God. I have no doubt
that this experience is in answer to the prayers of those who are very dear
to me."
Thus closed the pastorate at Trinity, and with it Mr. Cook-
man's ministry in New York. The General Conference, at its
session of 1864, in Philadelphia, had extended the time that a
minister could be appointed to any one charge from two to
three successive years ; but, for reasons which seemed sufficient
280 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
to all concerned, he declined a re-appointment for the third
year, and accepted a pressing invitation to return to Philadel-
phia. He and the Trinity people parted on the most agreeable
terms, and among them to this day no name is more revered
for the fragrant memories which cluster about it than his.
CHAPTER XVI.
RETURN TO PHILADELPHIA. PASTORATE OF THE SPRING GAR-
DEN STREET CHURCH. AMONG THE CHILDREN.
THE immediate cause of the transfer of Mr. Cookman again
(1865) to tne Philadelphia Conference so soon after leaving it
for New York, was that his services were earnestly sought for
the new church which had been erected in Philadelphia on
Spring Garden Street. Several of his former parishioners at
Green Street were active men in erecting the new church, and
they felt that no one was so well qualified to build up the new
charge, to give it consistency and stability, as their former be-
loved pastor.
As explanatory of his views and feelings upon this and like
occasions, I give the correspondence between the committee
of the Spring Garden Street Church and himself in relation to
the matter.
Messrs. A. W. Rand, George Milliken, Thomas P.Campbell,
John W. Clark, and Charles B. Barrett, Committee, to the Rev.
Alfred Cookman :
" SPRING GARDEN STREET CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA, )
September 13, 1864. )
" Inasmuch as the time is rapidly approaching when it must be deter-
mined who shall be our next pastor, we all naturally feel very solicitous that
he who shall be sent to us shall be one who will not only be acceptable to the
people, but who will, by the blessing of God, be the means of advancing
and building up the spiritual and temporal interests of our Church.
" We believe that^w* possess all the qualifications to make you thus em-
inently useful among us ; and at a meeting of the Board of Trustees, held
last evening, we were appointed a committee to confer with you and solicit
your advice.
282 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
" Are you aware of any obstacles which would be likely to prevent our
consummating an arrangement with you ? Have you any personal objections
to serving us in the capacity of pastor ?
" We take leave to add that we believe there is but one wish and opinion
in the Church and congregation upon this subject, and shall await your an-
swer with very great interest."
The Rev. Alfred Cookman to Messrs. Charles B. Barrett, A.
W. Rand, and others :
" NEW YORK, September 30, 1864.
"I am in receipt of your official communication. It came perhaps a fort-
night since, and should have been answered sooner, but indeed I felt as if I
wanted a little time for careful thought and special prayer respecting a step
of this kind. The changes of a Methodist itinerant are so frequent and nec-
essary that we are apt to think he need not have much difficulty in deciding
such matters but in my own case (and I suppose this is a general experi-
ence) I am so painfully anxious to keep in my providential path that I often
hesitate, wanting to be fully persuaded in my own mind. You ask for a full
expression of my views and feelings respecting the pastorate of your Church
for the next Conference year.
" I reply frankly and sincerely, there is no unwillingness in my own mind
to return to Philadelphia, and serve you in the relation referred to. Many,
perhaps most of your members, are dear friends, with whom I have been
pleasantly situated in past years. They know that I am only a simple, plain,
and, I hope, faithful minister of Jesus Christ; and if they could be satisfied
with me, a very ordinary servant of the Church, I certainly ought to be
more than satisfied with them so true and liberal, sympathizing and affec-
tionate. These are my feelings.
" Now for my circumstances. Next spring I shall have been at Trinity,
my present charge, two years. A number of the friends have expressed the
desire and expectation that I remain with them the third year. My presid-
ing elder has conversed with me on the subject, saying that while he will
not throw a difficulty in my way if I conclude to return to Philadelphia, still
he very much hopes that I will remain in the New York Conference.
Thinking that the old two-years' law might be the rule in the matter of ap-
pointments next spring, the friends at Poughkeepsie have approached me
on the subject of their next pastorate. Seventh Street, New York, and
Hanson Place, Brooklyn, have also spoken to me for next year. I refer to
these matters not, of course, to show that my humble labors are in demand,
but to explain my perplexity in deciding what is my providential path, and
WELCOME AT THE PHILADELPHIA CONFERENCE. 283
also to illustrate what kind feelings I must break through in leaving this
part of the work.
" Now what shall I do ? I wish to do right. Your city is a desirable
place of residence for me. Your Conference is my cradle Conference.
Your Church will be one of the most pleasant appointments in the connec-
tion a thousand times better than I deserve. These are interesting, and
yet to me minor matters. I think my greatest concern is respecting my
usefulness. Can I accomplish most for Christ and the Church in the Phil-
adelphia or New York Conference ? I place rnyself in your hands and with
the authorities of the Church. Bishop Simpson is among you, and, while
he is concerned for the success of your enterprise, I believe he is interested
for me. He has always allowed me to regard him with the love and ap-
proach him with the confidence of a son ; and I shall respect and be satis-
fied with his decision.
" When any definite conclusion is reached let me know, for it will be but
just to advise my Trinity friends, who will thus have time to make their ar-
rangements for the next Conference year.
" I have written very freely and frankly. And now, thanking you for this
most emphatic and practical expression of your kindness and confidence, al-
low me to subscribe myself as ever your brother in the blessed Jesus."
The authorities having determined upon Mr. Cookman's
transfer to Philadelphia, he hastened to the session of his old
Conference at Harrisburg. Thence he wrote to his wife :
" HARRISBURG, March, 1865.
" I would have written yesterday, but duties multiplied, engrossing all my
time ; among the rest the responsibility and trial of preaching last night.
Oh ! it was a heavy burden, but I took it up in the name of my Master, and
was helped. I feel very humble and quiet and grateful this morning. We
have commenced an eight o'clock prayer-meeting this morning ; the season
was very blessed. You will be interested in every step of my progress, and
so I will go back. On Tuesday night I left Philadelphia with quite a num-
ber of ministerial brethren. Comfortably ensconced in a berth of the sleep-
ing-car, I dozed until Harrisburg was announced ; proceeding to our friend
C.'s, I met a most affectionate reception. The brethren at Conference
were very cordial ; business was rapidly dispatched, and a place assigned
me on one or two committees, and at the close of the morning session my
appointment for evening was announced. During the day I met friends in
every direction ; they were as cordial as though I had been their pastor last
year. God has given us a strong hold upon the hearts of this people.
284 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
" The duty of preaching last night involved a terrible trial. I would rather
have taken severe lashings ; but I dared not refuse it seemed to me that it
might be in the order of God ; and what is my will in comparison with the
Divine will. My Heavenly Father knows how simple and pure was my mo-
tive. I had a good time the brethren say great good was accomplished ;
but this morning I feel like a whipped child, indisposed to look any body in
the face. My soul, however, is full of tender love for Jesus ; I cling to Him
with increasing affection and devotion. ' Happy, if Thou, my Lord, approve.'
Pray for me : I want that this Conference time may be a Pentecostal season
for us all."
Mr. Cookman's welcome was, if possible, even heartier than
on the occasion of his return from Pittsburgh. It is doubtful
if any friends are like the heart's first friends. His early asso-
ciates were now more deeply attached to him than ever before.
His re-entrance into their ranks was hailed with delight ; and
he, as was natural, felt again the tranquilizing sense of home,
which gave him a new spring for his chosen work. The recep-
tion which the people would give him could not be questioned
in view of his popularity when stationed in the city, and the
enthusiastic greetings which always met him on his occasional
visits. His brother George wrote in the winter of 1863 to his
mother after one of these brief sojourns :
" We enjoyed Alfred's visit hugely. He is a prime fellow,
and his trip over here was productive of great good. I never
saw such a sight as the Monday evening he preached at Green
Street altar crowded, and some thirty or forty in the congre-
gation rose for prayers. We are going to have him back to
Philadelphia some of these days."
The Spring Garden charge presented the most favorable con-
ditions for Mr. Cookman's resumption of the Christian ministry
as a pastor in the great city of the Keystone State. The new,
capacious, and elegant church, with every modern facility for
effective Church work, was admirably located to accommodate
the growing population in the north-west section of the city.
It was thoroughly manned by official boards full of energy, zeal,
AMONG THE CHILDREN. 285
and liberality. Its success was assured from the beginning.
The new pastor's name was a tower of strength. The pews
immediately after the dedication were rapidly taken, and it en-
tered promptly upon a career of usefulness such as has been
hardly surpassed by any charge in any of our great centres.
Among the features of the Church was its large and well-con-
ducted Sunday-school. No minister ever more highly appre-
ciated the Sunday-school as an arm of pastoral success than
Mr. Cookman. He was in the truest sense in all places a part
of his school, regarding himself as responsible for a close con-
tact with it and a most intimate knowledge of its workings.
He felt that the same heart must send its pulsations through the
whole congregation, composed alike of adults and children.
His habit was to know and to be known to teachers and schol-
ars, to meet them on the most familiar terms, and so to inspire
them with affection as to be able to utilize them as instruments
and as materials for the incessant supply of workers in the
Church and additions to its members. The secret of his great
power with children was his love for them. This the children
could always see and feel, and hence he invariably enlisted
their sympathies. He was one of the most successful talkers
to youth America has known. His tact in awakening and
keeping attention, by presenting truth under the drapery of de-
scription, or in the form of illustration, or by some apt question,
or by the flash of gentle humor, or by a tone of solemn appeal,
was really consummate. Who ever knew an audience of chil-
dren to tire under him ? Who has not seen congregations of
them, wearied by some prosy homilist who had preceded him,
suddenly electrified as he rose before them, and his look of
familiar sweetness and voice of melody caught eye and ear!
He was never happier than when before the upturned faces of
his " little brothers and sisters," as he loved to call his youthful
auditory, or when, surrounded by a throng of them, they plucked
familiarly at his coat to catch his notice, or when, seated at the
286 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
fireside of his own or some other Christian home, the boys and
girls drew about him to listen to his nai've and simple stories.
It is said of the celebrated John Charlier Gerson, who was
Chancellor of the University of Paris, and the theological leader
of the reformatory councils of Pisa (1409) and Constance (1415),
that, after taking a prominent part in all the great questions of
his age, he retired to a convent at Lyons, and found his chief
delight in the instruction of children.* Alfred Cookman was
never greater than when in his humility he stooped to be the
companion and friend of Christ's little ones. Talking one day
with a lad of one of his charges, he said, " Willie, do you pray ?"
" Yes, Mr. Cookman," was the reply. " When you pray, what
do you pray for? You know we must have an object when
we pray." " Why, sir, I have a very bad temper, and I pray to
God to help me to overcome it." " And does He help you ?"
" Yes, sir, I think He does." Such was the affection, the direct-
ness, with which he approached the children and youth of his
parishes.
It may not be amiss here to present at some length in his
own words his views of the relation of "the pastor and the Sun-
day-school." The report, though not full, is very suggestive :
" A practical talk on the relation of the pastor to the Sunday-school was
made by the Rev. Alfred Cookman.
" He did not design discussing the theory of this relation, but to give his
views of what it should be, illustrating by his own experience in trying to
carry out his convictions on this subject.
" i. A pastor ought to spend a part of every Sabbath in the midst of his
school ; be intimately interested and identified with it. He should, if pos-
sible, know the name, secure the confidence, and engage the affections of
every child in his charge. To further this, he may pass around the school
from time to time quietly, unostentatiously, taking the hand of the teacher,
smiling upon or speaking to the class, or to members of it, by name, as,
'Brother Charley, I hope that you are very well to-day;' or, 'Harry, my
little brother, I trust that you are enjoying your lesson do you find it diffi-
* Langc's Couim. on Matt., p. 323.
THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 287
cult ?' or, ' Mary, my little sister, you must not fail to give God your heart;'
or, ' Lizzie, I am hoping that, after a while, I shall have the pleasure of
meeting you in heaven, as I now have the pleasure of meeting you in Sab-
bath-school.' Thus the presence of the pastor will be greeted as a living,
moving blessing, and as he crosses the threshold of the room little eyes will
brighten, and hearts overflow with loving gladness.
" The pastor should also recognize his scholars in the street and at their
homes, as well as in the school-room. The speaker had charged his chil-
dren to run up to him and take him by the hand in the street, and to make
themselves known whenever and wherever they should meet him.
" 2. A second suggestion is that the pastor should preach steadily or reg-
ularly to the children of his Church, members of his Sabbath-school. This
is not to say that he should monopolize the superintendent's time by re-
marks, but have fixed periods when, after due preparation, he shall speak a
word of loving counsel, warning, or encouragement. ' After due prepara-
tion,' mark, for there can hardly be a greater mistake than to suppose that
this exercise requires little or no preparation. Dr. Newton, that prince of
children's preachers, had told him that he devoted as much time and labor
to his ' children's sermons ' as to those which he prepared for the great con-
gregation. The reason why it has come to be a received truth that so few
are adapted to talk to children, is because so few take the time and thought
necessary to prepare themselves for the work. Then, after thorough prep-
aration, they must put themselves in sympathy with their youthful hearers,
and should aim rather to talk to them than 'address' them.
" In connection with the service called ' Children's Sermon,' Mr. Cook-
man has found it advantageous to encourage the older scholars to submit to
him, the Sabbath after they have heard it, a report of his sermon, which
may be longer or shorter as they may please. He receives it, takes it home,
carefully examines and corrects it, marks it ' very good,' ' excellent,' ' good,'
according to its merits, and signs it carefully, ' Your affectionate pastor,' ap-
pending his name. The report is then returned to the scholar. The idea
has proved useful in several very obvious ways.
"3. As a third suggestion, a pastor would find it helpful to him and his
school to have a week-day meeting of a children's class, over which he could
have supervision in the matter of Christian duty and walk. In most of his
charges, Mr. Cookman had held such a class on Saturday afternoon at three
o'clock. Punctuality is insisted upon, the roll called, and absentees marked.
If a scholar is absent two or three weeks consecutively, without an excuse,
his name is stricken from the roll. After singing and prayer, and singing
again, the pastor asks a few questions bearing on practical religion, as,
288 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
whether they have remembered to read their Bibles daily, and pray to God
morning and night since they last met, the answers being given by rais-
ing the hand. In such an exercise the speaker had been impressed with
the fact that so few of his scholars were accustomed to pray twice a day.
They are then encouraged to stand up in their place and recite a passage
of Scripture on a topic announced the week before, or one having the name
of Jesus in it, or one beginning with A, B, C, D, etc., going regularly through
the alphabet. An opportunity is then given to the pastor to reply person-
ally to the scholars, giving a short word to each on the text they have re-
cited perhaps, and then general remarks to the class for fifteen or twenty
minutes, with the aid of the blackboard, concluded with singing. These ex-
ercises last three quarters of an hour, never exceed an hour. Tracts and
children's papers and reward cards are then distributed, and the class sep-
arates. Each child is taken by the hand on parting, and some such senti-
ment expressed as, ' I hope you will be found obedient at home, kind to
little brothers and sisters during the week,' etc.
"4. As a last suggestion, the pastor should be concerned to organize a
Lible-class, composed of his teachers and members of the larger classes who
might choose to join it. This class may meet during the week to study
their next Sunday's lesson. They had organized one in the speaker's
charge, which promised most important results. It meets on Saturday even-
ing. The first hour is devoted to the lesson in asking and answering ques-
tions, using the question-book as a guide, but not confining themselves to it.
This exercise is made a free, familiar interchange of thought and inquiry.
The next half-hour of one week is devoted to teachers' experiences, the re-
lation of encouragements and discouragements, or to prayer over the work.
On the next week this half-hour is given to reading by the pastor of short
biographical or other sketches of religious interest, making it eminently
practical. On the third meeting two or three short essays, written by schol-
ars, are read. On the fourth, after the regular exercises, committees ap-
pointed by the pastor on various subjects, such as sick and delinquent mem-
bers; on new members; the prayer-meetings (which the young men and
young women conduct separately); on sick and afflicted Church members;
on tract distribution, etc., all make their reports. Thus an interest is taken
in all the work of the Church, and the pastor is training helpers all around
him. The whole secret of his success lies in some such efforts, by which
his flock, young and old, shall be kept employed in the Master's vineyard.
" For a pastor to neglect the command, ' Feed my lambs,' and thus to
turn aside from a field 'white to the harvest,' is to indicate a strange unfit-
ness for the very work to which he ought to believe himself divinely called
beyond any question."
FAMILIAR LETTERS TO HIS BOYS. 289
Several letters of Mr. Cookman to his children have already
been given. I insert others here, written about this date, as il-
lustrative of his manner of dealing with his own children, and
as pertinent to the above remarks. His children were sum-
mering at or near Columbia.
To his eldest son, Bruner :
" You will be glad to receive a letter from pa. He thinks a great deal
about his little boy, and hopes you will not get sick again. I suppose you
v.-ould like to have your velocipede and little carriage in Columbia. As,
however, we could not very well send them so far, they will have to remain,
and you can enjoy them when you return to the city. Grandma Cookman
often talks about you. She will be glad to see you again. You must be a
good boy, obey ma, love your brothers, take care of sister Puss, read your
Bible every day, pray to your Heavenly Father, and then you will grow to
be a first-rate man."
.To his son George :
" This letter is for ' Posse kin,' as ma sometimes calls you. I expect you
are having an elegant time at grandpa's rolling your hoop, flying your kite,
playing with Rollo, and helping grandma to make garden. You must not
eat up all the gooseberries and cherries and currants before pa comes to
Columbia ; if you do, pa will lay you down on the floor, and he will tickle
you oh, how he will tickle you ! I hope that you are a very good boy, that
you obey every thing that aunt Beckie tells you, that you say your prayers ev-
ery morning and evening, that you never quarrel with little Bruner, and that
you keep away from the railroad and river. Would you not like to see the
little sister ? She is a bouncing, beautiful girl, and begins to crow like a
chicken. Frank Simpson talks a great deal about Bruner and George ; he
says, ' Boys gone in the cars gone to Columbia.' When pa and ma come
they will bring Frank and the little sister. Then you will take Frank in the
garden and show him the flowers, won't you ? and you will put little Annie
in a carriage, and take her riding. Then pa will get a big carriage and a
live horse, and with his little boys he will drive out in the country. Won't
we have a good time ? Now remember to be a good, obedient boy, and pa
will bring you a pretty present. Give a kiss to grandma, grandpa, and aunt
Rebecca, and all the rest. When they will let you see that new baby at
uncle Aby's, you must ask him to let you give it a kiss for pa, and let it
N
2QO LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
be one of your very best kisses. Pa and ma send you a locomotive full of
love."
To his boys :
" You will be glad I know to hear from us. After leaving you on Mon-
day I proceeded in the direction of Philadelphia, reaching home about six
o'clock in the evening. I found all well. The next day we started in the
noon train, and arrived in Columbia early in the afternoon. The children
were very much surprised and delighted to see us. Will is stout and healthy.
Sis is sunburnt and thin. Mary is fat and saucy. We took to Sis, Maze,
and Mame wax-dolls and paper-dolls, and to Will, Alfred, and Harry we
gave knives, arrows, and blow-guns. Yesterday I rode out to see the new
camp-ground, which is about twelve miles from Columbia. The grove is
very beautiful. Aunt Beckie will have a tent. The friends are expecting
about one hundred and twenty tents. I shall take Sis and Will some day
and let them see a camp-meeting. Uncle Abe's stable is nearly finished,
and both his horses are here. Their names are Frank and Mike. They
are strong, noble bays. In a few days he expects to have his carriage, and
then look out for splendid rides. I hope you continue very good boys.
Remember to do as uncle John or cousin Emmy require. Be polite at the
table; make as little noise as possible; do not go in the way of danger;
keep away from the machines and from the horses' feet; keep your clothing
tidy; be sure not to quarrel; read your Bible; say your prayers; resolve to
be just as good in the absence as in the presence of your parents. We de-
sire to hear from you, so that you must remember to write every week. I
suppose you are having a grand time hunting eggs, picking blackberries,
digging calamus, riding horses, and helping cousin Davy in the harvest-field.
Get all the enjoyment you can, and then be ready to go back to school and
study like nailers."
To his daughter Mary :
" DEAR LITTLE HONEY SISTER, How I would like to have you in my
arms just now. I would give you a splendid squeeze, and then I would kiss
those dear little cheeks. Pa often looks into your crib and then thinks of
his precious daughter. Won't you come to Philadelphia some of these days,
and sleep alongside of your darling pa ? To-day I was looking at your bas-
ket-cradle, in which you rock your dolls. When you come back to the city
pa will get you a new doll for your cradle ; but you must be a very good lit-
tle girl. Do not eat any green grapes. You may jump rope, and sew with
your ' iiccda? and play with your 'yabbil,' 1 but you must not get sick. Now
give me one of your best kisses and bid me good-night."
GOOD ADVICE. 2QI
To his older sons :
" Bruner's letter came to hand this morning. We were glad to learn that
you were quite well and enjoying yourselves. You must be very good boys
during your stay in Columbia. Make as little noise and trouble as possible.
Grandma and grandpa are both old, and therefore can not bear as much
as they once could. You must try and remember this, and when you
are in the house talk in subdued tones and sit quietly in your chairs. I
think you ought to take a part of every day for reading. If all study and no
play makes Jack a dull boy, then all play and no study makes Jack a very
good-for-nothing boy. Select some interesting book, read more or less ev-
ery day, and when I come to Columbia you can each one report the number
of pages you have read, for I shall certainly ask the question. Do not quar-
rel with one another ; such conduct is disgraceful, and especially between
brothers. This spirit often leads to blows, and blows to serious injuries,
and even death. Nothing could grieve me so much as to know that my boys
did not feel kindly or affectionately toward each other. Always be gentle and
patient and affectionate in your conversation and sports and intercourse.
"Another thing never forget that you are young Christians, members of the
Church. The eyes of others are upon you. I do not suppose that you would
tell falsehoods or say bad words, or take what did not belong to you. But re-
member that angry tempers and angry words are inconsistent with the Chris-
tian character. You have not left your religion in Philadelphia, but taken
it with you. Let it influence you to read your Bible every day, to pray three
times a day, and to go to class-meeting every week. Ask aunt Beckie if she
will not take you with her ; and though it may be a trial a great trial yet
for the sake of your dear Saviour consent to the trial, and resolve to attend
a class-meeting every week. In this matter take your father's advice. lie
knows what is best, for he has been through all your experiences. Read
this letter over and over again, think of and remember the advice we have
given. Be quid as possible, read a little every day, doift quarrel, act like lit-
tle Christians, go to class-meeting. About going down the country, we will
see when I go to Columbia. This morning we are all pretty well. The
baby, who was quite sick all day yesterday, seems better. This is probably
owing to the agreeable change in the weather. Mamma says that when it
suddenly becomes cool you must not forget to put on thicker clothing. Will
scalded his foot this morning, and for a while was a lame and crying little
soldier. But petroleum and flour have cured him so far that he is now out
of doors playing. How is little sister Puss ? Let every brother give her
two kisses for me. I am glad she was pleased with her book. Of course she
will read it all through, and be able to tell us all about it when we meet."
2Q2 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
To his son George :
" How are you getting along ? I hope, as Frank would say, ' berry well.'
I thought when I saw you that there was not enough flesh on that little body
of yours. See if you can not get right fat by the time I go to Columbia.
Look here, George, do you know who can speak,
" ' From Greenland's icy mountains,
From India's coral strand ?'
Yes, you do. It is a little fellow just about your size, and that looks just as
you do. Now the boy that can speak as well as you do, ought not to be
noisy or rude or disobedient. Do you think he ought ? I want you to be
one of the best boys in all the world. You know you are named after
grandpa Cookman, and he was one of the best men that could be found."
A meeting for the promotion of holiness was promptly estab-
lished at Spring Garden ; but for sufficient reasons Mr. Cook-
man allowed it to be removed to the Methodist Book-rooms,
on Arch Street. He by general consent was continued the
leader of the meeting while he remained in the city. This
" Friday-afternoon meeting " has become an institution, and is
resorted to by persons of all denominations from far and near.
Mr. Cookman also frequented, as when previously in Philadel-
phia, the meetings under the conduct of Mrs. Keen.
A letter written about midsummer of this year makes pleas-
ing reference to this and kindred meetings, to the success of the
new Church enterprise, and withal breathes the saintly devo-
tion and genuine friendship so characteristic of the man.
To Mrs. Skidmore, of New York :
" PHILADELPHIA, July n, 1865.
" How much obliged I was for your kind and very welcome letter. When
the pen can contribute so much to the happiness of our friends, especially
ministerial friends, who need the inspiration of affectionate words ; when it
so consciously builds us up in our purposes and faith and holiness, are we
not responsible for its use ? You will feel, I trust, the force of this sincere
appeal, and by your continuance in well-doing earn the valuable commen-
dation, 'She hath done what she could. 1 Our pleasant fellowship in the
X-'ciitral Church pastorate, and subsequently at Trinity, furnishes even now
SANCTIFIED FRIENDSHIPS. 293
a feast of memory. As the iron wheel in its revolutions has interfered with
this communion, the next best thing is friendly correspondence. If \ve can
not enjoy together one of our old-time talks, thank God, we have the ability
and disposition to make a less satisfactory medium tributary to our Chris-
tian friendship. Meanwhile, aye, and all the while, we are one in Christ our
Head. It is with me a most inspiring thought that, although separated in
person from many of my cherished friends, yet our spirits constantly com-
mingle in God. We are every day in the same presence, talking to the
same Father, sharing the same precious influences. Truly mountains rise
and oceans roll to sunder such in vain.
" With yourself I place an increasing appreciation on those friends whose
hearts have been constituted the abode of the sanctifying Spirit. Their
words instruct me, their example stimulates me, their influence lingers with
me. They not only contribute to my purest joys in this world, but are en-
riching me for all eternity. Next to Jesus in my own heart, I am unuttera-
bly grateful for Jesus in my friends. The circle that were associated in the
Friday-afternoon meeting ! oh, how vividly they live in my remembrance
how they still seem to strengthen and comfort me with their testimonies
and prayers ! Around that room and around those friends there gathers an
unearthly glory. As I review those rich privileges, I sometimes find myself
singing,
" ' And if our fellowship below
In Jesus was so sweet,
What heights of rapture shall we know
W T hen round His throne we meet.'
" I enjoy our Philadelphia means of grace, but as yet it seems to me that
we have not struggled as near the eternal throne as we were accustomed
to get in those memorable meetings.
" You will regret to learn that our beloved friend Andrew is unusually fee-
ble. About two weeks since he broke down utterly in the midst of his Sab-
bath-morning sermon. The friends at Trinity are very kind in their concern
for his welfare. It is to be hoped that his annual rest and recreation will
entirely restore him. Mrs. Keen is enjoying the society of Sister Lankford,
who has been here about two weeks. Unfortunately for myself, I have been
absent from the Tuesday meeting both times when she has been present.
Thus I have missed her kind, sweet face, her gentle words, her precious
spirit. I am hoping, however, this afternoon to meet her under those pleas-
ant circumstances, and be refreshed as aforetime by her clear, simple, and
unctuous testimony.
" You have doubtless been informed respecting the great success of our
294 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
Church enterprise. The day of dedication was marked by the most decided
interest and the most satisfactory success. Bishop Simpson and Dr. Dur-
bin both preached with very much more than their ordinary power. Gen-
eral Grant,* without invitation, gave us his presence. The collections
amounted to $15,000, which leaves a very small indebtedness. All the pews
on the lower floor, except two, have been rented, and some in the gallery.
The income from rentals and premiums this year will approach $10,000.
Not unto us, not unto us, but unto our kind Heavenly Father we give all
the glory. Will you not remember us with the sincerest love to all our
dear friends in New York that you may meet ? If we are dear to any of
them, I am sure they are all unspeakably dear to us. Tell any of them who
may be interested to know that I still joyously accept Jesus as my perfect
Saviour."
The first year of the pastorate at Spring Garden was one
of solid and abiding usefulness. There is no record which
acquaints us with the details of the devoted pastor's labors, but
the minutes of the Conference show increase in all depart-
ments.
As evidence of the high esteem in which the pastor and his
wife were held, the congregation, on the 6th of March, 1866, the
fifteenth anniversary of their marriage, gave them a " crystal
wedding." Their home on Wallace Street was crowded with the
members of the congregation, who brought with them many taste-
ful articles as mementoes of the occasion. A presentation speech
was made to the happy pair by Mr. Alexander Irwin, to which
Mr. Cookman replied in his usually felicitous style. He was
much moved while he spoke, and at the close called upon the
company to sing, " Praise God, from whom all blessings flow,"
and then offered prayer.
Mr. Cookman never appeared to greater advantage than
amid those scenes, when he was surrounded by the company of
his friends, drawn together in honor of himself, or of some
friend, or for the advancement of the social culture of the
* It was then expected that General Grant would settle in Philadelphia,
and the Trustees of the Church had offered him a pew.
BEFORE THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION. 295
Church. He was commonly the central attraction of all such
gatherings, not so much by his official station as by the charm
of his person and character handsome, dignified, and affable,
he moved among the circles which he frequented with a modest
grace, an instinctive recognition of the claims of others, a
kindly salutation for every one, an evident appreciation of all
that is best in his fellow-beings, which, while it showed him to
be a man of
" Cheerful yesterdays, and confident to-morrows,"
also made it manifest to all that the source of his cheerfulness
and of his friendship was deep in the springs of a pure nature.
Mr. Cookman's close sympathy with the Young Men's Chris-
tian Association during his former residence in Philadelphia
will be remembered. He shows himself again on their plat-
form, and speaks in the following timely and earnest words :
"Ecclesiastical history tells us of one of the ancient Christians who, when
summoned before the tribunal where he was to receive his sentence of death,
was asked, ' What is thy name ?' He immediately responded, ' I am a
Christian ?' ' What is thy occupation ?' He answered, ' I am a Christian.'
' What is thy native country ?' He answered, ' I am a Christian.' ' Who
were thy ancestors ?' He answered, ' I am a Christian.' And to all the
inquiries he responded consistently in the words, ' I am a Christian.' Sir,
it is with a feeling akin to this that I appear upon your platform to-night
not as an American, not as a Methodist, not as a sectarian, Mr. President I
am a Christian. I glory in this worthy distinction ; and in the presence of
men and angels I announce the fact, ' I am a Christian ' a humble mem-
ber, an unworthy representative of the Young Men's Christian Association
of the City of Philadelphia.
" Allow me, sir, to congratulate you and the friends of this worthy enter-
prise upon the brilliant and truly inspiring scene which greets our vision
and crowns our anniversary. Certainly these Christian laborers are encom-
passed about with a great cloud of witnesses. Look at them sitting in these
boxes, occupying this lower floor and yonder gallery filling the entire house,
making it appear almost like an ancient amphitheatre, which, during the
progress of the Olympic games, would be crowded in every part, causing the
place to look like a living, breathing structure. It shows how dear to the
heart of every Christian is the cause of Christianity, and the welfare of every
296 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
instrumentality intended to promote the interests of religion. These young
men shall rise up like a race of young giants, showing themselves mighty in
pulling down the strongholds of the wicked one. Now we have in the midst
of us the Ark of the Covenant. Upon our banners are inscribed the words,
' Christ and Him crucified.' This is the motto under which we successfully
battle. It is true, we still want the baptism of fire that fire which shall con-
stantly burn in our hearts, that shall glow in our countenances, kindle upon
our tongues, and shine in our lives.
" Mr. President, I was greatly excited by the cordial welcome you extended
to these delegates, hailing as they do from the North, South, East, and West.
Only a week since I was in the city of Pittsburgh, and spent there one of
the happiest evenings of my life. That such may be the case with you all
to-night is my earnest wish. But a few years have elapsed since the veterans
of 1812, hailing from almost every state in the Union, assembled in yonder
hall on Chestnut Street, where more than eighty-three years ago there was
prepared for publication to the world the memorable Declaration of Amer-
ican Independence. Finding the room too small for the number present,
they adjourned to the Chinese Museum, which afforded them more spacious
accommodations. At the second organization it was ascertained that some
of the delegates were absent. The New York delegation was every moment
expected. Soon the stentorian voice of the door-keeper was heard, r.nd the
shout of the ' New York Delegation ' resounded throughout the building.
That vast audience sprang upon their feet, and made the edifice literally
vocal with their shouts of enthusiastic welcome. The Baltimore veterans,
coming in immediately after, were received with the wildest shouts of en-
thusiastic joy. And now, when the good soldiers of Jesus Christ are com-
ing from the battles of our world to sit down in a convention that shall never
adjourn sine die, an angel at one door, with shouts of joy, will announce the
names of the Young Men's Christian Association of New York; another
angel, at another door, will announce the Young Men's Christian Associa-
tion of Troy ; another the names of the associations of Baltimore, German-
town, and a thousand other places, all coming to mingle together in the Par-
adise of God. May God grant such may be the case, and that we may all
be united in a bond of union that shall never know dissolution,"
CHAPTER XVII.
SPRING GARDEN STREET CHURCH. CIVIL RIGHTS OF THE COL-
ORED RACE. VACATION AT CAMP-MEETINGS.
THE session of this Conference of 1866 over, Mr. Cookman
hastened to the help of his brother John, who was stationed in
Poughkeepsie, New York. He found him in the midst of an
extensive revival, but greatly prostrated in health ; and although
he was himself just out of an arduous winter's work, he could
not refrain from entering earnestly into the work on his broth-
er's hands.
To his wife :
" POUGHKEEPSIE, Monday, March 26.
* * * " We found John in bed, a victim of diphtheria and great nervous
prostration. Last Wednesday the doctor was very much alarmed. Yester-
day morning early, and again in the afternoon, he had very bad spells. This
morning, however, he seems better, and we hope will recover rapidly. His
people are earnest and united in the prayers for the preservation of his life,
which seems to them exceedingly valuable. His labors have been singularly
blessed. It is estimated that nearly three hundred have professed to ex-
perience religion, among whom are a large number of heads of families and
strong, stalwart young men. The end is not yet.
" I preached yesterday morning on the cloud of witnesses. After the
sermon the altar was surrounded by gentlemen and ladies, who proposed to
join the Church on probation. In the afternoon we had a prayer-meeting,
with an altar full of penitents. In the evening I preached on ' Ye will not
come,' etc. The altar was again filled with mourners, and some occupied the
front seats. This morning, and every morning at nine o'clock, a meeting,
largely attended, is held in the lecture-room. I preach to-night, to-morrow
night, and perhaps on Wednesday night John has not been out of his bed
since last Tuesday, so that he is entirely laid aside. The friends interpret
my presence as a providential interposition. If you need me before Thurs-
day, telegraph, and I will be forthcoming at the earliest moment, but, unless
there should be some emergency demanding my presence, I reckon I will
N2
298 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
stay till Thursday. I have the prospect of incessant labor while I remain
here, but this work shall make my heart rejoice, and ' spend the remnant of
my days.' "
The successful close of the late civil war, it will be remem-
bered, entailed upon the nation problems of reconstruction sec-
ond only in importance and difficulty to that of maintaining the
unbroken authority of the general Government. The chief prob-
lem was the settlement of the relations of the freed colored race
to the new order of things. The negro was free he could not
be again reduced to slavery. Should he advance in the essen-
tial conditions of freedom to the possession of those civil rights
without the exercise of which liberty is but a name ? Such was
the question which in 1866 forced itself upon the true lovers of
the country and of humanity for a speedy and practical solution.
It can not be denied that the first stage of transition from
bondage to freedom was to the colored people of the South a
period of fearful trial and suffering. " The reaction which fol-
lowed at the waters of strife, upon the exultation of the passage
of the Red Sea, has been fitly described as the likeness of the
reaction which, from the days of Moses downward, has followed
on every great national emancipation on every just and be-
neficent revolution when the 'evils it caused are felt, and the
evils which it removed are felt no longer.'"* Many of the
worst results of emancipation, which the enemies of the slaves
had predicted and their friends had feared, fell upon them.
They wandered about in multitudes, without food, clothing,
or shelter. Their irresponsible and defenseless condition ex-
posed them to sickness and immorality. They were tempted
to drunkenness, theft, and murder. It is not surprising that
they, like the Israelites, longed at the "bitter waters" for the
"flesh-pots of Egypt." When in bondage, they felt only the
evils of their sad state, and anticipated in freedom naught but
the sweets of liberty. In their recollections they dreamed of
* Stanley's History of the Jewish Church.
JUSTICE TO THE NEGRO. 299
their snug quarters, their hoe-cakes, their merry evening songs
and dances, but forgot the chains, the whip, the extinction of
manhood and all its ties and thus, as they saw in the present
only privation and peril, no wonder their hearts failed them and
hope well-nigh died out.
Many of the advocates of freedom were also alarmed. The
old, oft-repeated sophistry, that the negro is incapable of self-
government, seemed too well supported by the abuses and shift-
lessness which could not but follow upon the heels of a people
suddenly liberated, without the least education in the habits of
self-help. It again required the faith and nerve to insist upon
the rights of citizenship for the black man that it had origi-
nally required to demand his liberation. Mr. Cookman was
among the number who stood forward quite early in the recon-
struction agitation for the bestowal of these rights in all their
fullness.
To his sister, Miss Mary Cookman :
" PHILADELPHIA, June 6, 1866.
" Last night I made a speech in the largest colored church in Philadel-
phia. Two bishops, a book agent, a missionary, an editor, etc. (all black),
on the platform. Justice to the negro and justice to the traitor was my po-
litical creed announced. Duty to their brethren in the South, the exhorta-
tion urged. We had a glorious time. I thought of our honored father,
how he would have reveled and kindled and flamed on such an occasion or
under such circumstances.
"This suggests your inquiry respecting colonization. My impression is
that colonization belongs to some future providential development. God is
using the African race just now to teach us a lesson of justice and human
brotherhood. We are not sufficiently instructed or disciplined yet, and can
not dispense with the lesson-book. When we are disposed to do justly in
every particular, then I rather expect that Providence will open some gold
mines or oil wells, or something else in the African coast, or in some other
locality where black people can best live, and so we shall work out the prob-
lem of colonization. At the present time they are not only important for
testing our integrity, but also for cultivating our soil. As laborers they are
indispensable to our wealth and prosperity. I think colonization must be
left to Providence and the colored people themselves. We can not force
300 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
them away ; it would be unwise, unkind, unchristian ; and to colonize as we
have been doing is like emptying a river by taking out a bucketful now
and then. Let us live for the present, faithfully discharging the duty of the
passing hour, which is to educate and elevate a people whose unrequited la-
bors, multiplied wrongs, tedious bondage, and deep degradation give them a
special claim upon us. Give them the spelling-book, the Bible, equal rights
before the law, and the elective franchise as their weapon of defense, and
then leave all the rest to God. In such a case I would implicitly trust the
providence of One who is Himself infinitely just and holy and good.
" We were very grateful to learn of the improvement in dear mother's
health. She does not know how unspeakably precious she is in the ap-
preciation of her children. As time leaves its mark upon face and form,
our love seems to be gentler, tenderer, and more sacred. We feel to say,
' Handle her carefully, speak to her lovingly ; pour all the sunshine pos-
sible over the remaining years of her earthly sojourn.' Oh, we enjoyed
beyond expression her presence in Philadelphia. She never before seemed
so beautiful in my eyes. I felt as if I wanted to see her every day. My
visits were always too short for myself. God bless her with the best of His
blessings and He does, for He gives her Himself, and next to this He gives
her the enthusiastic love of her devoted children. We give her her vindi-
cation before she is taken from us, that she has always been true, tender,
sympathizing, loving, faithful yes, the best of mothers.
" I have written you a long letter, and yet I have not said nearly all that is
in my heart. My soul still trusts and triumphs in God. Oh, for a gust of
praise to spread abroad the preciousness and power of full salvation !"
The summer of 1866 found Mr. Cookman, as usual, turned
" evangelist." Instead of spending the vacation month as a
holiday, he went from camp-meeting to camp-meeting, a herald
of salvation. "What is the use of giving you vacation?" said
one of his official brethren ; " you don't rest, you go to all the
camp-meetings and preach more than if you were at home. I
can not favor it unless you will rest." He replied, " I can not
accept on such condition. I must preach. The Gospel is free."
He was then in perfect health, and seemed never to need the
recreations which are taken apart from the constant exercise of
preaching and laboring for the salvation of the people. His
movements and the exercises of his mind may best be seen in
PENN'S GROVE. 301
his own letters. The prominence given to the subject of holi-
ness will strike every one. It must also be apparent how rap-
idly he was growing in grace how increasingly spiritual and
heavenly his experience was becoming. He was literally losing
himself in Christ, and in that doctrine the experience of which
he regarded as wholly putting on the Lord Jesus.
To his wife :
" CAMP GROUND, Thursday, 1866.
" I am just outside of Heaven. Penn's Grove is, as usual, the very vesti-
bule of Paradise. The meeting, always good, was never more glorious than
this year. An unusual number of tents are on the ground, crowds of preach-
ers, and very many of those who are so dear to the heart of Jesus, Brother
Belden, Brother Inskip and wife, etc., etc. This morning we have been en-
joying a meeting, and if Heaven supplies such pleasures I certainly will
have no reason for complaint.
" ' My glad soul mounted higher,
In a chariot of fire,
And the moon it was under my feet.'
Oh, how glad I am that I came ! Father, Son, and Holy Ghost meet, over-
shadow me, and make the hours memorable. I feel as if I could almost
give a little fortune if you were here. Perhaps we made a mistake in not
coming down last Saturday, but our motive was pure. It had rained, and
every thing was very damp, but my Father covered me with His feathers,
and under His wing did I sleep. Yesterday I was sick, but camp-meeting
has cured me, and this morning I feel decidedly better. There are constant
inquiries respecting yourself, and great regret expressed that you are not
here. I do not expect to preach. There are so many ministerial brethren
this year that I can be excused. The trumpet has sounded for morning
preaching. I have lingered a moment to scribble these few lines. To-mor-
row I expect to leave for Baltimore. Oh, that you could breathe this hal-
lowed atmosphere ! oh, that you could share these celestial influences !
God will bless you in Columbia. I want this summer an unprecedented
baptism of the Holy Ghost."
To his wife :
" PHILADELPHIA, SPRING GARDEN, )
Monday morning, 5 o'clock, 1866. )
" Yesterday I preached at St. George's morning and evening, and also
administered the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Working both ways,
302 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
this made a full and laborious day. My sermons, however, released Dr.
Bartine, and thus Ennall's Springs camp-meeting was saved from disappoint-
ment At eight o'clock I listened to Rev. Mr. Matlack. His subject was ' the
Times,' and he preached the most political sermon I ever heard. Some of
his expressions were terrible, but on the whole I liked it because of its truth
and bravery. The Penn's Grove camp wound up gloriously. The last after-
noon and evening one hundred souls were converted. They say that alto-
gether it was the best meeting held in that forest for twelve years. This
morning at nine o'clock I expect to start for the Eastern Shore. Manship
goes with me. Robert Thompson's carriage will probably meet us at Bridge-
ville. I had another letter from him on Saturday. I think he would really
suffer if I failed to get to the camp. The P family are as kind as they
can be God bless them ! I have not heard from you since last Wednes-
day that is, since I left. When I reach my destination this evening I shall
expect to find letters. May our kind Heavenly Father take good care of the
family of one who is anxious to do His will. My soul still trusts and tri-
umphs in the Rock of my salvation."
To his sister, Miss Mary Cookman :
"August 17, 1866.
"This week, after Penn's Grove, I went down to Ennall's Springs, in
Dorchester County. Oh, how my good Heavenly Father used me there !
Eternal praises to His glorious name. I should want pages to tell you all.
One night the power and glory of God came down in the preachers' tent
after we had all retired. For myself, I was ' filled with the Spirit.' Such
a season of rejoicing and praise I never witnessed. It was an inner sanctu-
ary filled with the ' Shekinah.' About one o'clock at night we went around
the ground shouting the praises of our conquering King.
" On Wednesday of this week I went up to Halifax camp-meeting, above
Harrisburg. It was the last night of the meeting, but oh, what a night !
Old Methodists, who had been going to camp-meeting for nearly half a
century, say they never saw any thing like it. Brother George Lybrand
preached very forcibly at half-past seven o'clock, and invited penitents.
The bench was filled. At eleven o'clock I preached to the Church on the
subject of ' Holiness.' Oh, what an appetite the people exhibited ! We
knelt in consecration before God, then followed the Sacrament at the mid-
night hour. It brought us to Jesus; He saved us from our fears and
doubts, and salvation flowed down in floods. The preachers and people
were of one mind and heart touching the great subject of Christian purity.
I could not tell you how many entered into the rest of perfect love. The
VICTORIES OF HOLINESS. . 303
preachers' tent, as at Ennall's Springs, was submerged with the incoming
tide. Yesterday morning we gathered at the stand, listened to many wit-
nesses of perfect love, expressed some parting counsels, received the blessing
of that venerable man, Father Boehm, marched around the ground, and then,
amid songs and shoutings, took the parting hand, rejoicing in the conviction
that Christians never part for the last time.
" Have I not had a glorious summer ? Hallelujah to the Lamb ! My
soul overflows with love, joy, and praise. I never felt so strong in the Lord
and in the power of His might. And then the victories for holiness ! Op-
position is giving way, and in the centenary year of American Methodism the
spotless banner of Christian purity floats triumphantly in the breeze. As
Mr. Fletcher was wont to say, ' Oh, for a gust of praise to go around the
world, and then to go up to God !'
" How I could enjoy Sing-Sing camp-meeting again ! The scene and the
showers of blessing last year constitute one of the sweetest memories of
my life. I scarcely know how to deny myself the privilege of seeing those
friends whom I love so much in Jesus, visiting the spot where last year I
seemed to be almost visibly covered with the blood of Jesus, and enjoy the
influence which I am sure will be abundantly poured out. I think, howev-
er, that during this week I must try to be at Shrewsbury. It seems to me
that the great Head of the Church will perhaps use me among my dear
Baltimore friends. I think I have their love and confidence, and, with the
help of the Spirit, I can assist them to step into the Bethesda of perfect love.
Will you not ask some of my precious friends at Sing-Sing to pray for me ?
I have no special claim upon them, except that I belong to the little band
who profess and advocate holiness. I am theirs in the service and for the
glory of the conquering Christ. Oh, let them pray that God will give me
great success in spreading abroad the knowledge of full salvation. Only a
week or two of my rest-time remains. It has been glorious rest at camp-
meetings glory to Jesus !
" The family are all well. Your little pets, Will and Mary, are de-
veloping more and more the characteristics which have drawn you to
them. Will is full of affection, and Mary is the most independent, saucy
little miss of my acquaintance. Her name is very precious in our home.
I should like our gentle mother to have her in her training for a time,
and give her strong will a goo^l profitable direction. God bless you, my
dearest sister. His counsel is guiding you, His grace will satisfy your
every need. A universe of love to dear mother. Oh, how much I would
like to see her ! Tell John to take very good care of himself his life
is very dear to us and to the Church. I hope he stands strong and
304 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
triumphant in that wonderful and blessed liberty wherewith I know he
has been set free."
For The Christian Advocate of New York :
"A MINISTER'S VACATION.
" My happy holiday was spent amid rural scenes, at the sea-shore, and in
the enjoyment of camp-meeting privileges. The sea-shore is, of course, for
me a privileged place, a locality to which I regularly resort, with as much
of tender interest and blessed recollection as others would go to the grave-
side of a dear parent. The beautiful country, with its diversified and mag-
nificent scenery, never seemed more charming, and principally because I saw
and found God every where. For is it not true that as the human face
is more attractive when it becomes the window of a noble soul, so the face
of nature seems the more glorious when through the green of the fields, and
the^deeper green of the forests, and the ten thousand hues of the variegated
flowers, we behold the glory of that Divinity who is Himself the soul of the
great universe.
" CAMP-MEETINGS.
" But it is of my camp-meeting experiences and observations that I wish
principally to write. In the kind providence of God I was permitted to be
present at four of these forest services, namely, Penn's Grove, New Jersey ;
Ennall's Springs, Dorchester County, Maryland ; Halifax, Dauphin County,
Pennsylvania ; and Shrewsbury, where most of the Baltimore friends annu-
ally associate themselves in this feast of tabernacles.
" Two leading facts met my observation at all these meetings. First, the
interest in the mind of the Church respecting the experience of personal
holiness. Every where ministers and people were groaning for full redemp-
tion in the blood of the Lamb. I have seen hundreds at the same moment
prostrated before God in the spirit of entire consecration, arid concerned to
appropriate Jesus as their full and perfect Saviour.
"A MEMORABLE SERVICE.
" Let me refer to a truly memorable service in connection with the Shrews-
bury meeting. At half-past nine o'clock on Tuesday night the preachers,
by arrangement, assembled in their own tent for an interchange of views
respecting this great doctrine. There were about twenty-five brethren pres-
ent. The expression of sentiment was frank and full. Questions were asked.
Difficulties were stated. Experience was referred to. About half-past eleven,
while some of us, greatly concerned and earnestly prayerful, were wondering
SHREWSBURY CAMP-MEETING. 305
what might be the effect of the interview, it was proposed that we have
a season of devotion before we separated. Kneeling together, the pre-
siding elder of the Carlisle District led in prayer. While yielding him-
self afresh and more fully to God, and accepting Jesus as his Redeemer
from all sin, salvation came in its fullness to his soul, and he was over-
whelmed with emotion. In a few moments he gratefully and definitely testi-
fied,' ' Brothers, Jesus saves me now, saves me so fully that I am assured if
I should die at this moment I would certainly go to join the blood-washed
around the throne in heaven.' A hymn of praise was sung. Then another
presiding elder stepped into the Bethesda of perfect love. Directly a third
presiding elder arose and said, ' Brethren, I will honestly state that, theoriz-
ing on this subject of sanctification for the last eleven years, I had well-nigh
theorized my heart out of all belief of the doctrine. To-night, however, I
give my theories to the winds, and I want to testify that God is giving me
light not heat, not a special experience, but simply light.' A little while
after this same brother rose again, and, with a face all aglow, said, ' Breth-
ren, glory to God ! I have both now, the light and the heat. Oh, I know
for myself that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth me from all sin.' So the
meeting proceeded, one after another stepping into the full liberty of the
sons of God. Young ministers were rejoicing in Christ as their perfect
Saviour. Superannuated brethren were coming out more clearly into the
blessed light of full salvation. Thus for six hours this wonderful and glo-
rious meeting continued. During that time nineteen brethren, including the
three presiding elders, took the three steps suggested full consecration,
implicit faith, and definite confession. At half-past three in the morning
this band of brothers, full of glory and of God, sallied forth from the preach-
ers' tent, and marched around the ground singing,
" ' I will sprinkle you with water,
I will cleanse you from all sin,
Sanctify and make you holy ;
I will come and dwell within.'
Subsequently they became apostles of holiness, and at every opportunity
exhorted the Church to come up to the measure of their privileges in the
Gospel of Jesus. Nor in vain, for all over the Shrewsbury camp-ground
hundreds were seeking and large numbers entering into this rest of faith
and love.
" MARYLAND METHODISM.
" O how glorious is old Maryland Methodism, standing up so bravely just
now in the midst of civil and ecclesiastical disloyalty. For their encourage-
306 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
ment we took occasion to say that the Church of God has nothing whatever
to fear from without. Earth and hell may combine to accomplish her over-
throw, but all in vain. Their united efforts shall only be overruled for our
advantage. The danger of the Church is entirely from -within. Losing
her purity, she loses her power, and in that case becomes the prey of her
enemies. If, however, I reminded them, they would be faithful to duty
and alive to privilege, all filled with the Spirit, then God would be 1 on
their side, and with Omnipotence for them they would surely and gloriously
triumph.
" This revival of the doctrine and experience of holiness is in our view
the most encouraging fact which our centenary year has as yet developed.
" Let the friends of this great grace rejoice, for the spotless banner of
Christian purity begins again to float in triumph upon the battlements of
American Methodism.
" SANCTIFICATION AND SUCCESS.
" The second thing which profoundly impressed me in my camp-meeting
observations was, that whenever and wherever the work of sanctification
revived among professing Christians, the work of God revived in the con-
version of sinners.
" At Penn's Grove the divine influence seemed almost irresistible. As the
result of the last two services it was estimated that there were at least one
hundred conversions. The successes at the other meetings were signal and
glorious. At Shrewsbury they counted up one hundred and twenty-five
converts. The intimate and indissoluble connection between the sanctifica-
tion of the Church and the salvation of the world was most strikingly vindi-
cated. And is it not always so ? Does not God usually communicate his
Spirit to perishing sinners through the hearts of his people ? Hence the
necessity of being ' pure in heart ' and ' filled with the Spirit' We have
taken down our banners from the forests and are setting them up in our sev-
eral churches. Our Methodist hosts are girding themselves for the fall cam-
paign. Next month will be the most interesting October of our denomina-
tional history we have ever seen. Shall it be signalized by unprecedented
success ? Shall a shout of victory roll up from Canada to the Rio Grande,
and from the Atlantic to the Pacific ? Shall American Methodism, rebap-
tized and all glorious with the divine presence, prepare to march down her
second century conquering and to conquer ? We believe that the answer to
this question rests with the Church itself. If our people will hold fast in
theory, realize in personal experience, testify in definite confession, and ex-
emplify in daily deportment this vital doctrine of Christian holiness, then
nothing shall stand before our spiritual power. We shall show ourselves
ADVICE TO BELIEVERS. 307
increasingly mighty through God in the pulling down of the strongholds of
sin and hell, until Christ shall every where reign victorious, and the whole
earth shall be full of the glory of God. Oh, brother Methodists every where,
remembering our responsibilities, let us be holy /"
A letter to a prominent citizen of Baltimore, and an active
layman of the Methodist Episcopal Church in that city, indicates
the extent to which his services were useful at the Shrewsbury
meeting, and to which his advice was subsequently sought.
To Mr. Samuel Hinds, of Baltimore :
" PHILADELPHIA, September 3, 1866.
" I thank you for your fraternal letter. Any tidings from Shrewsbury,
blessed Shrewsbury, would be welcome, but such tidings were specially grate-
ful and encouraging.
" Restoration to perfect health, or the reception of an ample fortune in
the case of a dear friend, ought not to be as cheering intelligence as the fact
that one we love has by faith appropriated a perfect Saviour, and is living
in the enjoyment of sanctifying grace.
" ' Glory to the Lamb,' 1 that the young men of North Baltimore are putting
on the whole panoply of God ! Full of the Divinity, and valiant for the
truth, may they prove themselves mighty in pulling down the strongholds
of sin and hell. If I had their ear, I would say, with a brother's love and
earnestness, ' Hold fast to that -whereunto ye have attained.'' Do not allow
any temptations or influences to lure you from the experience and profes-
sion of Christian holiness. For Christ's sake, for the ChurcKs sake, for the
world's sake, for the sake of this precious doctrine, for the sake of that vir-
gin purity which is now upon your souls for all these reasons do, I be-
seech you, do continue steadfast and immovable, testifying humbly but defi-
nitely that 'the blood of Jesus cleanseth from all sin.'
" Let no one think for a moment that because God has answered his
prayer, and granted him a deeper work of grace, that therefore he may hope
for an exemption from trials, temptations, and difficulties. These will come,
but if we are ' looking unto Jesus they -will not move us off the Rock, and that
is the important matter. In the time of conflict or darkness, be concerned
about two things. First, Is my consecration entire ? Yes. Second, Do I
this moment accept and trust in Jesus as my perfect Saviour ? Yes. Then
'all is well' I am on the Rock. The Rock may be in the valley or on the
hill-top, in the cloud or in the sunshine it matters not; if we are on that
sure foundation, all is well. It is not darkness or temptation or trial that
308 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
separates the soul from God it is only sin. Let, then, our trusting souls
adopt as their motto, ' ANY THING BUT SIN.'
"The days I spent at the camp-meeting were among the happiest and
best of my life. Can I ever forget some of those blessed scenes and sea-
sons ? Sabbath morning Sabbath evening ; Tuesday morning Tuesday
night in the preachers' tent ; Wednesday morning, when I so reluctantly
withdrew myself from those hallowed privileges. Oh ! I remember it all.. It
supplies a rich feast of memory. It constrains at this moment a heartfelt
glory to the Lamb. I shall never cease to praise God for the Shrewsbury
camp-meeting of 1866. My Baltimore friends, always precious, never seemed
so dear before. Oh ! I want to walk with them upon the king's highway
of holiness, and after a while spend an eternity with them in the sweet
groves of bliss. Convey to any whom you may meet assurances of my
Christian affection, and believe me, beloved brother, yours for full salva-
tion: 1
Another honored layman* of Baltimore, alluding to Mr.
Cookman's labors at the same camp -meeting, wrote subse-
quently :
" I owe more, under God, to Brother Cookman than to any
other being for the experience which I now enjoy. His sweet
voice, ringing out so clearly, l Beyc holy] was the first to awaken
in my mind an anxious inquiry on the subject of Christian holi-
ness. He led me into the higher life into the possession of
a brighter and deeper religious experience. Now that he has
fallen, I feel more than ever like being true to the doctrine,
which it seemed his special mission so forcibly to proclaim."
To his mother :
"PHILADELPHIA, September 10, 1866.
" We are comfortably ensconced in our parsonage home after the ram-
blings of our summer vacation a vacation which we all exceedingly enjoyed,
especially myself. Indeed, it was the most delightful holiday of my life. I
was able to commingle physical, social, intellectual, and especially religious
pleasures, so that, while it was sweet in realization, it is also blessed in re-
membrance. Toward its close I found myself at the famed Shrewsbury
camp-meeting, arriving on a Saturday evening, and remaining till the fol-
lowing Wednesday. Shall I say that these were the three greatest and
* Mr. John Hurst.
AN APOSTLE OF HOLINESS. 309
most glorious days of my life ? Yes, not even excepting the blessed season
we enjoyed at Sing-Sing last year. Indeed, I did not understand or appre-
ciate before how our Almighty Father could use a worm or a ram's horn for
the accomplishment of His own most wonderful purposes. I did not com-
prehend how the possibilities of my feeble being, energized by His power
and accompanied with His unction, could bring about such glorious results.
He made me an apostle of holiness.
" Dr. Roberts, detained at home by the serious illness of a patient, the
responsibility of cherishing, teaching, and seeking to spread this vital doc-
trine devolved upon your first-born. Oh, how my blessed Heavenly Father
helped me ! I was a marvel to myself. The interest was such that the
largest meeting-tents would not suffice to accommodate those hungering and
thirsting for full salvation through the blood of the Lamb, and such services
had to be held at the stand. All over the ground (and there were nearly
four hundred tents) the dear friends were interested on this subject of heart
purity. On Tuesday morning I preached a sermon on entire sanctification.
The illumination and unction vouchsafed were, I think, unprecedented in
my history. Oh, what power I had in appealing to the preachers ! Hun-
dreds of interested people bowed in consecration. Then followed the Sacra-
ment of the Lord's Supper. This seemed to help the faith of the multi-
tude, and we had a day of days a day that some will remember long as
eternal ages roll. That night we held a meeting on the subject in ihepreach-
crs' tent, especially for the benefit of the brethren in the ministry. About
twenty-five were present. \Ve commenced at half-past nine o'clock, and
continued till past three in the morning nearly six hours. During this
time nineteen preachers, including three presiding elders, stepped into the
Bethesda of perfect love. Did you ever hear of any thing so wonderful or
glorious ? The old preachers, of fifty years' standing, some of whom expe-
rienced that night for the first time the broad and blessed rest of full salva-
tion, declared that they had never seen it in that wise before.
" There were constant inquiries respecting yourself, with the strongest ex-
pressions of tender love for you and yours. Bless God for our Baltimore
friends. During the last ten days I have been receiving by almost every
mail letters from that city asking for my humble services, or expressing
thanks in view of my labors at the camp-meeting. Labors in my home
sphere, where the tendency is to worldliness, seem by contrast painfully
tame and ineffectual.
" Last week we had the Convention of Southern Unionists in our city
a body of brave and noble men. Philadelphia enthusiasm was in a blaze.
Altogether it was a most memorable occasion."
310 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
A letter written to his sister, February i5th, 1867, will be read
with interest because of its references to the deaths of cherish-
ed friends, especially that of the Rev. Dr. Munroe, Secretary
of the Church Extension Society of the Methodist Episcopal
Church. It is not too much to say that the whole Church
shared in the feeling of sorrow here expressed by Mr. Cook-
man. The letter, which was written soon after from the seat
of the Conference at Harrisburg, will recall to those who were
present the tender fidelity which he showed as chairman of the
committee on memorial services for deceased brethren. The
beautiful service for rendering the occasion impressive was due
to his thoughtfulness. The Rev. Dr. Nadal, who was then a
member of the Philadelphia Conference, made a pleasant al-
lusion at the time to the occasion in a letter to Mrs. Nadal.*
The letter which quickly followed to Mrs. Skidmore will be
chiefly valued as expressing Mr. Cookman's views of a contro-
versy which was then quite active in the New York Preachers'
Meeting.
To Miss Mary Cookman :
" February 15, 1867.
" We have had an unusually solemn week. The tribe of Levi, with its
immediate adherents, seem, in the providence of God, to have^been placed
in the front of the battle. The arrows of death are flying around us thick
and fast. First the self-sacrificing Bcckwith, of the Bedford Street Mission,
fell, with this sentiment upon his lips, ' I am safe in Jesus all is well.'
Last Saturday a daughter of the Rev. William Barnes went to Heaven; her
last words were, ' I have fought a good fight.' Tuesday I made the address
at the funeral of Helen Batcheldor.t and accompanied the corttge to Trenton.
Her dying testimony was, ' I see Jesus.' On Wednesday we had the fune-
ral obsequies of the lamented Munroe, one of the most useful and efficient
ministers of American Methodism. It was one of the most impressive occa-
sions of the kind I ever witnessed. Hundreds of ministers, great multitudes
of people, the deepest bereavement, and the most undisguised affection, the
* "The New Life Dawning." Nelson & Phillips, New York.
t Widow of the late Rev. Mr. Batcheldor, of the New Jersey Conference,
and daughter of the Rev. Dr. Bartinc.
MEMORIAL SERVICES FOR DECEASED MINISTERS. 311
most tender and touching eulogies. Munroe died gloriously. It was virtu-
ally a translation, while the character of the man and the circumstances of
his death make the event a sermon addressed to a continent. Personally I
am greatly bereaved. Dr. Munroe was a great favorite of mine one of my
model ministers. My estimate of him is expressed in the resolutions of the
Philadelphia Preachers' Meeting. Dr. Mattison's address on the occasion
of the funeral was especially beautiful. I wish you could have heard it. In
the midst of ' deaths oft' I cling to that perfect love that casteth out all fear,
sweetly realizing that with my life hid with Christ in God, nothing shall be
able to separate the bond. All is well all is well."
To his wife :
"HARRISBURG, March 15, 1867.
* * * " This morning we had our memorial service. As one of the com-
mittee of arrangements, I had, of course, the heavy end of the burden.
Among other arrangements, I secured from the city some beautiful wreaths
of immortelles, which encircled the name of the deceased minister, with a
record of the time of his birth and death. Three ladies, one in each aisle,
brought them forward at the right time, and they were suspended on the
wall in the rear of the pulpit. The conception was highly appreciated, and its
execution was most successfully carried out. This afternoon, with about two
hundred members of the Conference, I proceeded to Carlisle, where the col-
lege faculty and students gave us a most enthusiastic reception. I can not
go into all the particulars now, but it was a splendid time a literal ovation.
We returned about half-past six, and now I am writing in the parlor, sur-
rounded by friends, and obliged every few moments to lay down my pencil
and respond to affectionate inquiries. To-morrow afternoon, God willing,
I expect to go to Pittsburgh. This morning's mail brought letters from
K and Robert S , who are very importunate in their solicitations for
my presence and services. There is considerable interest, they say, in the
Christ Church congregation. I am enjoying the Conference exceedingly.
Our morning prayer-meeting is delightful full salvation is the theme.
Glory to the Lamb."
To Mrs. Skidmore, of New York :
" PHILADELPHIA, April 2, 1867.
" When I said farewell to you, I did not intend that three weeks should
elapse before the transmission of the promised letter. I saw you with my
mind's eye, a patient invalid confined to the house, and I said if my poor
words may prove a ray of sunshine to that warm, loving heart, how cheer-
fully and even joyfully shall they be penned. Conference, however, came
312 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
on, and, as you will understand (for you know you are about half-preacher),
its scenes and services were entirely absorbing. Our session was one of
unusual interest and harmony. The pastor of the Harrisburg Methodist
Episcopal Church, echoing the desire of a great many dear friends (many
of them my former parishioners), insisted that I should preach on the first
evening of the Conference. It was a great trial, and yet, thinking it might
be in the order of God, I did not dare to refuse. Selecting my favorite
theme, viz., entire devotion to Jesus, I was blessed with unusual illumina-
tion and unction. Each morning we held a prayer and experience meet-
ing. These services, though not very largely attended, were seasons of
great interest and blessing. The friends of holiness rallied (as they always
do in devotional services), and the testimonies respecting the power and
preciousness of full salvation were decided and delightful.
" I spent the Sabbath of Conference with my Pittsburgh friends. Dr. Mor-
gan had not reached, and would not enter upon his new field of labor before
the first of April. This was a little to be regretted, as an extraordinary relig-
ious awakening seemed to pervade the entire community something akin to
the revival scenes and successes of 1857 and 1858. The other denomina-
tions, and some of the Methodist churches, were reaping blessed harvests. I
preached Sabbath morning and evening, and again on Monday night, leav-
ing for Harrisburg on the ten P.M. train. A letter received last Saturday
supplies the grateful intelligence that at least two young men were influenced
by my feeble words. Oh, how I joy to be instrumental in the great work of
saving souls ! The authorities (as we expected) have returned me to Spring
Garden Street the third year. I am delightfully situated and most happy in
my work. God is using me, as I trust, for the promotion of His kingdom
and glory. Our Friday meeting is unabated in its interest and power. The
Tuesday meeting, too, is overflowingly full. Both these services last week
were unusually precious and profitable. Miss S touched beautifully
on the importance of bringing this precious grace to the attention of our
children, relating the experience of a little girl fourteen years of age,
one of her scholars. Oh, how I wish you could have sat with us in our
4 banquet! ng-house !'
" By-the-way, what think you of the articles of Drs. Curry and Mattison on
the subject of sanctification, published more recently in the columns of The
Christian Advocate ? It seems to me their tendency is to destroy definite aims
and discourage distinctive efforts. How grateful we should be that, instead
of expressing opinions, we can testify to facts that arc matters of personal
consciousness instead of saying ' We believe,' we can humbly declare ' We
know.' This expression of different views raises in my mind this practical
THE MEMORY OF NEW YORK FRIENDS. 313
inquiry, ' What right have men to be restrained by views concerning spirit-
ual doctrine, when that doctrine illustrates and vindicates itself in personal
experience ?' One thing is clear : those who are walking in this light and
liberty are not perplexed with antagonizing views, but understand one anoth-
er and enjoy rest. But see ! here I am at the end of my fourth page, and
just beginning my letter.
" We had hoped this week to have seen you face to face, and in an old-
fashioned tte-a-t$te traversed a much larger space than could be covered
even in a lengthy epistle. This, however, seems impracticable. I can not
very well absent myself next Sabbath. We are hoping that about the time
of the May anniversaries we can steal away for a few days, and look again on
cherished faces and familiar scenes that are forever embalmed in our affec-
tionate remembrance. Our failure to spend Conference week in New York
involves a disappointment, but it seems unavoidable. Will you not re-
member us tenderly to any of our friends whom you may see ? In closing
my letter, allow me to recur to your recent sojourn in our city, and say that
we enjoyed it more than language can express. To hear your voice in song
and prayer and testimony called up vividly the blessed past, and, with our
eyes closed, we could almost imagine ourselves in New York, surrounded
by as superior a circle of Christian friends as perhaps was ever associated
together. Oh, if I could I would reach up to-day and every day, and, taking
a great armful of the heavenly glory, I would fling it on your person and
path !"
o
CHAPTER XVIII.
SPRING GARDEN STREET CHURCH. THE NATIONAL CAMP-
MEETING MOVEMENT.
QUITE early in the Conference year of 1867, the thought oc-
curred to some of the friends of holiness that it would be wise
to use the "camp-meeting" as a distinctive means of promoting
the doctrine. The suggestion met with favor, and a call was
accordingly issued to those who were inclined to co-operate in
such a movement to meet in Philadelphia.
A convention was held in pursuance of this call, and it was
resolved to hold a camp-meeting at Vineland, New Jersey, with
the avowed object of advancing the doctrine and experience
of entire sanctification. Mr. Cookman was one of those who
signed the call ; he took an active part in the deliberations of
the Convention ; he sustained by voice and act the conclusions
at which it arrived, and, when the time for the cajnp-meeting
came, no one entered more heartily into its spirit, purpose, and
methods than he did. His feelings immediately before the camp-
meeting were freely expressed to his friends and to the Church.
To Mrs. Skidmore, of New York :
" PHILADELPHIA, July 2, 1867.
" We thought to spend Conference week in New York then our visit
was postponed till Anniversary week then a trip to Montreal on the oc-
casion of the International Convention of the Young Men's Christian Asso-
ciations was seriously meditated. All these plans, however, were frustrated,
and, instead of the face-to-face interview, I must satisfy myself in a mere ar-
tificial and unsatisfactory way. In your severe and protracted ailment we
have deeply sympathized our interest, a reflection of the tender love that
overflows the heart of our faithful Lord. To every body bearing the im-
print or coming from the direction of New York, the first question has been,
VINELAND CAMP-MEETING. 315
' Have you seen or heard from Sister S ?' ' Is she better ?' So you will
understand that Philadelphia still answers to its name, ' The city of brotherly
love. 1 You have doubtless been advised of our Vineland camp-meeting. It
is rather a bold movement for the friends of holiness, but I believe it is in
the order of God, and will be accompanied and followed by blessed results.
Associated with the originators pf this enterprise, I can bear a most em-
phatic testimony to the purity of their motives, and the thoughtfulness,
care, and earnest supplication to God that characterized all their delibera-
tions. Indeed, the day we spent together in this city making arrangements
was one of the blessed days in my life. When we meet I will give you all
the particulars.
"Vineland is on the line of the Cape May Railroad, about thirty miles from
Philadelphia. The grove in which the meeting will be held covers an area
of forty acres, is just in the suburbs of the town, and is known as the Public
Park. Used for picnics, temperance gatherings, etc., the undergrowth has
been cleared away, so that the ground is all ready for our accommodation.
A population of ten thousand are associated in the settlement, temperate and
thrifty people, so that there will be no lack of immortal material to reach
and benefit. The prospects of the meeting are continually brightening.
Oh, that the great revival of holiness that signalized 1760 might be redu-
plicated in 1867 ! Oh, that influences might be vouchsafed at and go forth
from our Vineland meeting that, spreading from society to society, may
wrap the nation and the world in a great flame of spiritual revival !
" Our present purpose is to secure a tent, take a part of the family, and do-
mesticate in the forest for ten days. Will you not accompany us ? We will
do all in our power to make you comfortable and happy. If sleeping in the
woods shall be deemed imprudent in your present condition of health, you
can have a room at one of the hotels that are in the town adjoining. But I
think you will agree with me that, unless -we work too much, physical recu-
peration is as probable at camp-meeting as at Saratoga or Cape May.
Charles Street Church, of Baltimore, will go almost en masse, and their pastor
is most hopeful of results.
" By-the-way, writing of Baltimore reminds me of The Episcopal Method-
ist. Did you see the criticism upon the views and experience of one of your
former pastors, written by Dr. T. E. Bond, my old friend and former patron ?
for the Doctor helped to make me a preacher, and was one of my first and
wisest counselors. His interest in the subject of personal sanctification at
that time, often expressed at our home where he led his class, helped to in-
crease my desire for what I then began to see dimly and distantly. One of
his sententious sayings I have carried as an axiom for many years, viz.,
316 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
' Spiritual doctrine like sanctification can not be tatcght, it must be acquired." 1
Acting upon this practical suggestion, I trust that with his blessed sister I
have reached a point where, instead of theorizing or speculating or doubt-
ing or criticising, I may humbly say that by the grace of God ' I know.'
The article in The Episcopal did not disturb my spiritual rest for a moment,
nor did it distantly affect my respect or love for Dr. Bond. My criticism upon
his criticism is, that I never knew him (one of my favorite writers) to write
less clearly and satisfactorily."
To the Rev. J. S. Inskip, of New York :
" PHILADELPHIA, July 2, 1867.
" ' Grace, mercy, and peace be multiplied to you and your faithful help-
meet, our beloved sjster in the Lord.' We love you both in Jesus Christ.
Our affection sanctified has a sacredness in it ; and then, unlimited by our
present life, it is to continue and increase forever. I always liked you, for we
had common sympathies in the fight for freedom, but now that the perfect
love of Jesus fills your soul, our hearts are kindred drops. Do you remem-
ber the holy baptism we received together in Sing-Sing forest, when, through
the cloudless firmament, the glory of God descending, made the hour forever
memorable in our history ? Oh, that at Vineland we may realize still more
sensibly a closer proximity to the true life, and from this blessed source re-
ceive an unusual supply of life and purity and power !
" Our contemplated meeting provokes much less critical comment than I
had anticipated at least I have not heard of any unkind animadversions.
A good deal of interest has been excited in many minds. The Kensington
friends have organized a company, and will take their large tent. Quite a
number connected with my congregation are making their arrangements to
attend. Some members of other denominations will go from our city. Old
Baltimore will be represented by fifty or sixty of the Lord's chosen ones. I
think the interest is developing gloriously, and because the Divine is in it.
Meanwhile I accept your proposition to employ all our powers with God for
his special blessing upon this unusual effort to promote His glory. Oh,
that it may be a time of times ! Oh, that, as in 1760, a revival of the work of
holiness may begin, that, spreading North, South, East, and West, may wrap
the nation, the continent, and the world in a great flame of devotion to Jesus !
Mighty faith in an Almighty Saviour ! Let this be our key-note, and let all
the people say, Amen ! Brother Osborne has, of course, furnished you with
all the particulars respecting the location, tent arrangements, etc., etc. Now,
farewell ! God be with you, and abundantly bless you. After a while we
arc going to live together forever."
SUCCESS OF VINELAND CAMP-MEETING. 317
The Vineland camp-meeting began on July lyth, and con-
tinued for ten days. The supporters of the movement were well
satisfied with the experiment. Many ministers and laymen
from all parts of the country attended its services, and the re-
sults were so marked by the utter absence of all extravagance,
and the positive fruits of regeneration and sanctification, that
not only were the originators of the movement confirmed in
their opinions as to the utility of the method, but many, who at
the commencement entertained doubts, became thoroughly con-
vinced. Among those who attended the meeting and partici-
pated in its exercises were Bishop Simpson and his family.
The bishop's eldest son was converted there, and the March
following died in peace.
In no respect have the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal
Church shown more wisdom than in their promptness to coun-
tenance all movements in the Church looking to the advance-
ment either of its moral purity or the more thorough and ef-
ficient working of its ecclesiastical polity. Bishop Simpson, in
this instance as in others, did not stand aloof because of the
possible clangers which might be suggested to calm criticism ;
but, seeing good and true men honestly engaged in an enter-
prise which in his opinion was at variance neither with the doc-
trines nor the usages of Methodism, he gave them his presence
and co-operation.
Mr. Cookman was present with his family from the first to
the last of the meeting, and worked incessantly for its success
preaching, praying, exhorting with unusual unction and power.
His sermon on the occasion, from i Thess. iv., 3, "This is the
will of God, even your sanctification," made a strong impression
for the clearness and force with which it set forth the definitive
experience in the interest of which the meeting had been called.
Such was the success of this meeting in the judgment of the
friends present, that the question of holding one of like charac-
ter at some time during the ensuing year thrust itself upon
318 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
them. It appeared that God might be pointing them to a
broad and permanent means of carrying forward a general re-
vival of "holiness" in the Church. They accordingly, before
leaving the ground, after a full and prayerful conference, de-
termined to hold another meeting the next year, and also form-
ed an "Association" for its control, and the control of all similar
meetings which it might be deemed expedient to hold.
I quote from an article of which the Rev. William McDonald
is the author :
" At a business-meeting of those who signed the call for the Vineland
meeting, met to consider, among other things, the question of holding an-
other meeting, the ensuing summer, Brother Cookman was present, giving
his heartiest support to the measure. In that memorable meeting the ' Na-
tional Camp -meeting Association' was formed. It was born of prayer.
The brethren knelt. Brother Cookman prayed with almost unexampled
fervency, as though a great battle was near, and that victory could only be
secured through the leadership of the Captain of our salvation the Lord
of Hosts. While yet on their knees, the Association was formed, and all the
business of that meeting was transacted. No one present on that occasion
will forget how mightily he prayed for God's blessing on the work to which
he was fully persuaded they had been called from above.
"Brother Cookman was appointed one of the committee to secure a suit-
able location for the coming year ; and, on account of his special interest in
the neighborhood, Manheim, Lancaster, Pa., was selected."*
Thus was organized a movement which may prove an epoch
in the history of American Methodism. It certainly marked a
period in Mr. Cookman's career. He was well and favorably
known by reputation throughout the Church before ; but his in-
timate connection with the work of this Association threw him
personally upon the whole Church, and in contact with many of
its best representatives, to such extent as to very greatly multi-
ply his influence. In it God seemed about to answer his prayer
from the lips of the holy Fletcher, " Oh, for a gust of praise to
go around the world and then go up to God!" Either by voice
* Advocate of Christian Holiness, vol. iii., No. I, p. 3, 4. July, 1872.
NATIONAL CAMP-MEETING ASSOCIATION. 319
or report his usefulness, hitherto confined to local limits, was
about to spread to well-nigh every section of our vast population.
He felt that for him the opportunity thus afforded was provi-
dential. God had been making him a light, and now had pro-
vided him with the stand whence the light could shine to all
who are in the nation. The National Association did not create
him. it simply revealed him to the people, and thus made the
circle of his influence commensurate with his endowments.
This is the way ordinarily in which God works circumstances
do not make men, He makes the men who can understand and
use the circumstances. As I have previously maintained, Al-
fred Cookman had a "faculty" for religion in this respect he
was as really great as other men who have a faculty for poetry
or science and this faculty, partly constitutional, but pre-emi-
nently supernatural, enabled him to see God's purposes as few
men could, and, seeing them, to follow whither they pointed.
Whatever may be said as to the merits of the issue involved
in the National Camp-meeting Association, it is certain, that
Mr. Cookman was fully committed to its support, and was in
strict accord with its purpose. The proper presentation of his
life has to do with the question only so far as his relation to it
is concerned ; and the advocacy of the movement is pertinent
only so far as the desire is felt to make it appear that he was
wise in upholding it. The originators of the movement antici-
pated that it would not meet with universal favor. This could
not be expected ; for while the whole Christian Church from
the beginning has never lost sight of the doctrine usually ex-
pressed by the terms "perfection" or "sanctification," yet it
has been always more or less divided in opinion as to whether
the state indicated is attainable in the present life ; or, if attain-
able, whether ever attained ; and, if both attainable and attained,
whether attained gradually or instantaneously.
It must be conceded that Wesleyan theology, as expounded
by Mr. Wesley, Mr. Fletcher, and their immediate successors,
320 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
Messrs. Clarke, Watson, and Bunting, and by the leading divines
of both British and American Methodism of this day, teaches
that the experience of entire sanctification may be attained both
gradually and instantaneously. The preponderance of opinion
is that, however gradual in any case the work may be, there is
an instant when the blessing is received, and from which the
consciousness of the believer may date his entrance into per-
fect love. The teaching and habit of Methodism have also
been from the commencement to insist upon this experience as
the privilege of all believers, and to urge them to its prompt at-
tainment as the fulfillment of the true ideal of the Christian
life. To the questions, " Do you expect to be made perfect in
love in this life ? Are you groaning after it?" Methodist preach-
ers who are candidates for admission into the ministry are ex-
pected to answer affirmatively ; and Methodism does not recog-
nize one law of the spiritual life for its ministers and another
for its laymen.
If, therefore, the doctrine of both a gradual and instantaneous
sanctification be Wesleyan, it certainly can not be regarded as
anti-Wesleyan to use special efforts to promote it. Methodism
itself in its rise was a specialty a revival of primitive Chris-
tianity and in its whole work was regarded as a rather irregular
movement, in that it sought to accomplish its purpose by meth-
ods apart from ordinary usages. Though demanding of its ad-
herents no doctrinal test, there never was a system more exact
in its definition of spiritual truth ; it has declared plainly what
is heart-religion ; it has invariably aimed at definitive results,
and has as invariably used definitive means to secure them.
If there be one foe of Truth and Piety which Methodism by
its very genius and traditions has fought, it is vagueness of faith
and practice ; the vagueness which allows spiritual doctrine to
dissolve into mysticism, sound morality into sentimentalism,
and decisive methods into a spiritless, aimless mechanism.
Any thing, Methodism has claimed, but the uniformity of death.
SPECIAL AIMS AND METHODS. 321
It always would have life j it believes there can be no life with-
out motion ; born itself in a blaze of fire, it must spread by cre-
ating excitement, if that be the only way it can arouse attention.
Indebted to men and means regarded as irregular for its un-
precedented growth, it can not cease to cherish those who still
feel that they may legitimately work for its advancement by and
even beyond its regular appliances ; comprehensive in its faith
and polity, it holds that where an object ought to be effected,
there is a way to effect it, and that this way is usually the one
which goes straight to the object and deals specifically with it;
like all true reforms, it first ascertains and points out the evil
to be removed, and then seeks the best and surest means of its
accomplishment.
All progress proves that general sentiment can not be de-
pended upon for appreciable results, only as it is concentrated
and directed to specific ends. Society is lifted up and impelled
forward by those men who see particular issues in advance of
their times, and precipitate the virtues of their fellows into con-
flict to gain them. The great masses of mankind are ever
prone to a dull level of fair and easy goodness, and would con-
stantly sink lower and lower, until goodness would lose all
Christian distinctiveness, all the pathos of devotion, and all the
vigor of spiritual heroism, were not God to send out now and
then his prophets, who, moving among them in their fiery zeal
and stern faith, call them up to a higher and sharper life.
The danger of creating a " class " will lie against all move-
ments in the direction of progress, whether in the Church or in
society. All forms of life spread by organization, and every
organization which seeks the propagation of any truth, by the
very fact may be supposed to assume a sort of superiority, and
thus constitute itself a class. What is the Church in any com-
munity but the assertion of a moral and spiritual superiority in
the persons who compose it to the unregenerate people around
them ? This is the point of offense in the Church with a criti-
02
322 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
cal outside world, and yet it is not regarded as a valid or avoid-
able one by those who hold to the belief that the " community
of the regenerated," or body of believers, are the divine leaven
which is to spread until it assimilates to itself the entire un-
believing mass. The law of the diffusion of Christ's king-
dom is through the intensified lives of the comparatively few.
Single individuals, or groups of individuals, in whom the Holy
Ghost has wrought a profounder faith, seem to be the appointed
reservoirs of a higher life. Christ deposited the mysteries of
the Kingdom with twelve disciples ; the first Reformers were a
small band in the Catholic world ; the Moravians a devout
brotherhood in the Protestantism of Germany; Methodism was
merely a revival society within the Church of England. Thus
we have disclosed a wondrous provision for the restoration,
maintenance, and growth of the doctrinal and spiritual purity
of the Church. The vindication from the charge of "class in-
terest " is the fruit produced.
The whole question with regard to the National Association
reduces itself simply to one of control. The spirit of Meth-
odism and its history justify their movement, and it only re-
mains for them to prosecute their work in accordance with this
spirit and history. Their separate meetings for conference have
support in Mr. Wesley's advice: "That consequently it behooves
us to speak in public almost continually of the state of justifi-
cation, but more rarely, at least in full and explicit terms, con-
cerning entire sanctification."* Meetings called especially for
the purpose give opportunity for carrying out this advice bet-
ter than promiscuous assemblies.
It will thus be seen that Mr. Cookman was fully committed to
the movement. He was far from denying to those who could
not see their way to espouse its principles and methods of ac-
tion equal sincerity with himself; but he was positivffin assum-
ing that it was of God, and that under the divine guidance
* Watson's Life of Wesley, p. 168. John Mason, London.
' CONTROVERSY ESCHEWED. 323
would render incalculable service to the cause of Christian
perfection. He could not, therefore, but regard violent oppo-
sition to it as an effort to hinder the spread of scriptural ho-
liness.
The National Camp-meeting Association has from its incep-
tion eschewed controversy. It has sought to do its work by as-
suming that the doctrine of entire sanctification is both scriptur-
al and Wesleyan, already the established theory of the Church,
and needed only to be explained, enforced, and realized and
so has striven in a quiet spirit to accomplish its end. In this
respect and in one other having originated without pre-con-
ceived plan it bears close resemblance to the rise of Meth-
odism itself. The Rev. George Hughes, secretary of the com-
mittee, in a "Special Request" to the adherents of the Associa-
tion, used these words :
" The ' National Association for the Promotion of Holiness,' having its or-
igin, as we believe, in Divine Providence, is a very simple organization. It
has no Constitution or By-Laws. Its members are bound together by
bonds of love and prayer. No organization, perhaps, ever transacted so
much business on their knees. It is composed of ministers of the Method-
ist Episcopal Church, but is by no means sectarian in its aims. Its primal
object was to awaken a deeper interest in the Methodist Church in regard
to this cardinal doctrine of Christianity, and expressly to be instrumental in
leading ministers and members to the experience of this rich grace ; and the
great Head of the Church has been pleased to give them abundant success
in both of these departments. But not for the Methodist Church alone do
they labor but for the universal Church, and Providence has opened 'great
and effectual doors' beyond our own limits. Other churches have been
feeling the influence of national camp-meetings, and the sacred fire is burn-
ing upon many altars."*
In closing this " Request," he urged united prayer, that on
the day of the Association's annual meeting "such a baptism
may fall upon every one assembled as will lead the members
of the Association to prove, as never before, the enduring power
of perfect love a love that endureth all things ; and that with
* Methodist Home Journal, Philadelphia, October 12, 1872.
324 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
*
meekness and quietness, under all circumstances, they may pur-
sue their way ; and, further, that they may be wisely directed in
their plans for 1873."
No society was ever more in accord with primitive Christian
custom as to its origin and organization, or could be more sim-
ple and exact in its aim, or more thoroughly Catholic in its ani-
mating spirit. While all the godly men, thus banded together,
harmonized upon these truly scriptural principles of action,
it may yet be clearly seen that Mr. Cookman had no small
share in their adoption and maintenance. Sufficient extracts
have been given from his letters, and many more might be given
from his unpublished manuscripts, to show that he deprecated
" controversy," as not suited to promote the work of sanctifi-
cation. He preferred to rest the doctrine, after an honest effort
to set it forth, upon the self-evidencing claim with which it ap-
peals to all earnest believers showing itself by its own light
as well suited to meet the sense of need which the Holy Spirit
awakens in all believing hearts. The Pauline method was his:
" By manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every
man's conscience in the sight of God." This course sound
judgment dictated to him ; but much more that broad, pure
charity in which he lived. Love evolved the light in which and
with which he saw all religious questions.
A quotation from the Rev. Mr. Inskip, President of the Asso-
ciation, is pertinent just here :
" I want to advert to his intimate relations with the National Camp-meet-
ing Association. He attended the first meeting, and he was on his knees
leading in prayer with his brethren when God's Spirit impressed them to
hold such a meeting. All the work of arranging for the services of that
meeting was done while kneeling, and then we took hold of hands and
promised, with God's -help, to carry on the work, and never answer any
thing that was said against us. That covenant has been unbroken, and re-
membered with more interest because he has gone who suggested such a
course."*
* Methodist Home Journal, September 7, 1872.
MOTIVES OF THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE. 325
The counsel of Mr. Wesley, with regard to the spirit of teach-
ing holiness, had evidently sunk deep into his heart, and un-
doubtedly had much to do with the sweet and kindly policy
which he recommended to the Association :
" Does not the harshly preaching perfection tend to bring be-
lievers into a kind of bondage or slavish fear?
" It does. Therefore we should always place it in the most
amiable light, so that it may excite only hope, joy, and desire."*
Eager as Mr. Cookman was to avail himself of the opportu-
nity of personal effort under the auspices of the Association,
and deeply as he felt his obligations to the delightful fellow-
ships into which it introduced him, and which were so signally
helpful to his growth in perfect love, he after all prized the
movement more for its general aspects, as a grand agency
raised up without respect to individuals for the spread of holi-
ness in America. It was originated for the furtherance of what
he regarded as the " pearl of doctrines," and he believed that
it would lead the Church up to a higher standard of faith and
living, and so fulfill God's will. As late as September, 1870, he
wrote in reference to his associates and himself in connection
with' the " committee :"
" Our motives are pure, our work providential, our success of
God. Still there are some who would hinder the spread of
scriptural holiness. Be it so. God is our judge, and in heaven
we shall have our reward. It would have been much easier to
spend my vacation of thirty days in resting at Cape May or
some other place than in hard ministerial toil."
Mr. Cookman's attendance upon the Vineland camp-meet-
ing, and identification with the National Association, did not
abate his zeal for the camp-meetings held under the ordinary
auspices of the Church. The summer of 1867 found him on
his customary rounds to these favorite resorts. His vacation,
as heretofore, was spent in incessant labor. A letter to his
* Watson's Life of Wesley, p. 171. John Mason, London.
326 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
wife from Ennall's Springs camp-ground, Dorchester County,
Md., is an index to the whole.
To his wife :
"ENNALL'S SPRINGS CAMP-GROUND, Monday morning.
"This morning's sermon has just now closed, and I will take this oppor-
tunity to redeem my promise of a letter. Interested in all that concerns
me, you will want to know respecting my progress since our farewell on the
Susquehanna. The train took me first to York. After the lapse of an
hour we started again, and reached Baltimore about six P.M. Dr. H
and son were waiting for me. Quartered at his home, I received every at-
tention and kindness. During the evening I called on a number of friends,
sat up till midnight, and the following morning was driven in the Doctor's
carriage to the steam-boat. There were a number of friends on board
Revs. Clemm, French, S. Evans, Tomkinson, and also a good many Balti-
more friends. The sail was delightful, the dinner excellent, and at half-past
two P.M. Sherman's Landing was reached. Brother Robert Thompson's
carriage was waiting. Taking our seats, we had a pleasant ride, and met
on the ground a most enthusiastic welcome. * * * The tents and arrange-
ments of the camp-ground are the neatest, coziest, and most comfortable I
have ever seen. Brother R. Thompson has his two-story home prettily
furnished with tasteful cornice and curtains and blinds. It is the most
perfect cottage I have ever seen. Yesterday there was a great multitude
of people assembled here. The weather having changed to a bright
and beautiful day, Brother Clemm preached in the morning on~' I am not
ashamed,' etc. I preached in the afternoon on ' From him that hath not
shall be taken away even that which he hath.' The large congregation was
quiet and singularly attentive. I trust good was accomplished. There are
not more than eight or ten preachers on the ground, but more will come to-
day and during the week. There is great deadness among the members,
and thus far comparatively little has been accomplished. I led the eight
o'clock prayer-meeting this morning. We had a profitable meeting. Vine-
land formed such a contrast that it makes every thing else seem tame. We '
are treated here like kings and queens. Yesterday at dinner, roast goose,
fried chickens, barbecued chickens, roast lamb, ham, potatoes, squashes, cu-
cumbers, beets, corn, jellies, pickles, etc., etc. On Thursday I want to re-
turn to Baltimore, look in on the Waters camp-ground, and on Monday eve
return to Columbia. When you write to our dear boys give them a father's
love. Remember me affectionately to all at home. Kiss the children for
me."
A HAPPY SUMMER. 327
A sister-in-law, writing to his mother, Mrs. Mary Cookman,
September 9, 1867, says: "Alfred looks remarkably well; he
weighs now one hundred and sixty-seven pounds. He says he
thinks this has been the happiest summer of his life, and that
he has been fully rewarded for what many persons would call
labor."
To his wife :
" PHILADELPHIA, Saturday morning.
" I do not know that this will reach you before Monday morning, when
you start for Philadelphia ; nevertheless it may, and I know it will be satis-
factory to hear from the 'Itinerant.'
" Last evening I returned from the Eastern Shore. To say that I had a
delightful or glorious time only feebly expresses the truth. I was received
and treated almost as if I had been an angel. It was one of the happiest
and best weeks in my life. There were about one hundred tents, beautiful
weather, fine congregations, good preaching, and great success. I preached
twice (Tuesday morning and Thursday evening), and worked hard all the
time. My soul was in heaven. Oh, what precious experiences God vouch-
safed me in that consecrated grove, and how wonderfully, how unusually he
used me ! This week I think surely I have been in the order of God. With
the religious there was great social enjoyment. Last night, wearied out,
having lost sleep and my voice, I reached home safely. C had been
very careful and faithful. After my Friday-evening meeting I went to bed,
and oh, what sleep ! I did not wake until eight o'clock this morning.
Now I am ready for another start. I regret that we can not get to Shrews-
bury for a day or two, but such a visit, under the circumstances, seems im-
practicable. The weather is cooler, and the friends are beginning to re-
turn to the city."
To Mrs. Skidmore, of New York :
" Grace, mercy, and peace be multiplied unto you. Separation and dis-
tance fail to affect the family relationship. In New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
or New York, on earth or in heaven, we are brother and sister still. I have
had a glorious summer campaign. Vineland was, as you know, quite in
the verge of heaven, and had only one disadvantage it made every other
service seem tame by comparison. At Ennall's we had a blessed victory
for God. At Waters', near Baltimore, the battle was progressing gloriously
when I left on Tuesday. Andrew and Mrs. K , fully girded, were win-
ning trophies for Jesus. I heard Andrew preach on Monday very delight-
fully from, 'And Enoch walked with God.' "
. CHAPTER XIX.
SPRING GARDEN STREET CHURCH. THE DEATH OF GEORGE
COOKMAN AND OF ALFRED BRUNER COOKMAN.
THE unremitting pastor had hardly rested from the evangel-
istic labors of the summer, when one of the heaviest calamities
of his life fell upon him in the sudden death of his brother
George, which occurred October i, 1867. From the time of
his conversion Mr. George Cookman had been one of the most
active Christian men in Philadelphia. Sympathizing with the
catholic spirit which prevailed at the time of his conversion, he
threw himself not only into the work of his own Church, but
also into the general religious work of the city. His talents
and piety were speedily recognized ; and by the suffrages of all
Christians he became an acknowledged leader among the young
men of the community. He was elected to succeed Mr. George
H. Stuart to the presidency of the Young Men's Christian As-
sociation, over which he presided with eminent success. On
the occasion of his inauguration he delivered an address which
showed him possessed of the native eloquence of the family
an eloquence which would have fitted him to shine in any pro-
fession which he might have chosen for a vocation. The ring-
ing call of his peroration doubtless still lingers in the memory
of many who were present :
" Pulaski, one of the brave Poles who espoused the American cause, and
to whom, as well as Kosciusko, our country owes almost an incalculable
debt, in one or two instances turned the fortunes of war against our enemies
by uttering his habitual cry of ' Forward, brethren, forward !' here and there
and every where, in the thickest of the fight. The failing strength of the
MR. GEORGE COOKMAN'S ACTIVITY. 329
American soldier was often revived, and his arm nerved with new vigor, as
he heard the inspiring voice of the undaunted general above the din of bat-
tle ' Forward, brethren, forward !'
" Young men of this association young men of Philadelphia brothers
beloved in the Son of God, to-night I re-echo that battle-cry, and shout, For-
ward, brethren, forward ! Forward, because God hath loved us. Forward,
because Christ hath died for us. Forward, because the world, perishing, ap-
peals to us. Forward, because the crown of life awaits us, and a seat at
God's right hand, where our pleasure is for evermore.
" Fonvard, brothers, forward !"
As a Methodist, Mr. George Cookman was highly esteemed.
He filled important trusts successively in the Green Street,
Union, and Arch Street Stations. He was one of the founders
of the powerful and prosperous Arch Street Church, having
been the first superintendent of its Sunday-school when origi-
nally held in a hall, not far from the present site of the church.
As showing his capabilities as a Christian worker, let the fol-
lowing extract speak :
" Connecting himself with the Church, he became at once an active and
faithful young Christian. His great regret, often expressed, was that he had
not started sooner, and, that he might redeem the time, he gave himself to
every good word and work.
" Literally wedded to the Arch Street Methodist Episcopal Church en-
terprise, he was superintendent of the Sunday-school, a trustee, a steward, a
class-leader, an exhorter, and leader of Church music. Besides this he was
an ex-president of the Young Men's Christian Association of Philadelphia,
a manager of the American Sunday-school Union, a manager of the Phila-
delphia Tract Society, treasurer of the Pennsylvania Sunday-school Asso-
ciation, and in all these departments of enterprise evinced the greatest in-
terest and activity."*
The root from which all this official responsibilty and honor
grew was one of deep, genuine, personal piety.
Writing to his mother as far back as 1863, he said :
" I believe, clear mother, that I am growing in grace and in the knowledge
and love of our Lord Jesus Christ. I find religion to be all that I expected
* Methodist Home Journal, October, 1867.
330 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
of it, and infinitely more. Christ grows increasingly precious to my poor
heart ; I find Him a satisfying portion, and realize a joy and comfort which
the world can neither give nor take away and I feel to exclaim, in the lan-
guage of the hymn we sometimes sing,
" 'Oh, that the world might taste and see
The riches of His grace ;
The arms of love that compass me,
Might all mankind embrace !' "
The death of this Christian man, though sudden, was not
without premonitions. His health had been precarious for some
time, but immediate danger was not apprehended. He lived,
however, in constant preparation for death, by living in constant
devotion to God and duty. He was almost literally translated
from the scenes of his earthly activity and joy.
" During the last few months of his life his experience has been deep-
ening. He stated in a social meeting held lately that he had more fully
consecrated himself to God, and had hud a new and charming view of the
cross.
" His death was sudden. This, indeed, seems to have been according to
his own desire ; for, in conversation with a Christian friend recently, he'ex-
pressed a preference for sudden rather than a lingering death. He also de-
sired to die peacefully in his bed, and that his wife should be near by to see
him breathe his last all which, by the will of a kind Providence, was liter-
ally fulfilled.
" About an hour before his death he was seated at the melodcon singing
a Sabbath-school melody found in Bradbury's 'Fresh Laurels.' He entered
with his whole soul into the spirit of the piece, and greatly admired the ex-
quisite music that accompanied the words. The hymn was so singularly
and touchingly appropriate to the scene that was so soon to follow that we
give it entire :
"'Oh, I see the shining angels
Gathering round my dying bed ;
With their harps and crowns of glory,
Thus a faithful mother said ;
While celestial songs were ringing
Through the heavenly courts above
Seraphs came from glory, bringing
Blessed words of peace and love.
SUDDEN AND VICTORIOUS DEATH. 331
"'Chorus. When I near death's stormy billow,
And earth's scenes no more can see ;
When I press my dying pillow,
Will the angels come to me ?
Will they come, will they come,
Will the angels come to me ?
*****
" ' Oh, how sweet to feel their presence
In the hushed and silent room ;
With their bright and shining faces
Gilding all the dusted gloom !
When from loved friends I have parted,
And their tears are flowing free ;
When from Jordan's banks I've started,
Will the angels come for me ?'
" After singing these beautiful words he went up to his chamber to realize
their sentiments in a dying experience. Like Enoch, 'he was not, for God
took him. 1 "*
Many were the private and public tributes to the worth of
one so singularly pure and useful. The Young Men's Christian
Association held a souvenir meeting in Horticultural Hall, Oc-
tober 1 3th, at which addresses were delivered by Revs. E. R.
Beadle, D.D., and T. M. Griffiths, and by Messrs. P. B. Simons,
George W. Mears, James White, George H. Stuart, and John
B. Gough. The " Commercial Exchange," of Philadelphia, of
which he was the secretary, called a special meeting, at which
appropriate speeches were made by the president, Mr. Howard
Hinchman, and others, and suitable resolutions were adopted,
highly commendatory of the virtues of the departed merchant
and friend.
Wide and deep as was the sorrow felt at the loss of a layman
uniting so many qualities of the Christian, the gentleman, and
the business man, it could do but little to conduct from the
heart of Alfred the ache which settled upon it. Rarely had two
brothers been so joined from boyhood ; and, subsequent to
* Methodist Home Journal \ 1867.
33 2 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
George's conversion, their fellowship had been of the most in-
timate and intense character. There was the most perfect nat-
ural and spiritual kinship they thought, felt, and acted togeth-
er ; and when the one fell it was like tearing from the survivor
his other half, the complement of himself.
His own letters will best describe his feelings.
To the Rev. A. Longacre, then pastor of Charles Street
Methodist Episcopal Church, Baltimore :
" PHILADELPHIA, October 15, 1867.
* * * " You have doubtless heard of our great sorrow. I mourn the loss
of one of the sweetest and best of brothers. The earthward side of this dis-
pensation is desolate beyond expression. I find my soul, however, singing,
" ' Jesus, brother of my soul,
Let me to Thy bosom fly.'
"There I hide with my crippled wing, and realize the comfort that the
Divinity supplieth. This is the tenth letter I have written this morning.
Wearied, I can not write more. Pray for me."
To Mrs. Skidmore, of New York :
" PHILADELPHIA, October 29, 1867.
"Your kind letter was most grateful to our afflicted hearts. Christian
sympathy, always beautiful in our view, never seemed so charming or valu-
able as during this eventful October indeed, I never understood or appre-
ciated its preciousness before. May our prayer-hearing Lord bless abun-
dantly and eternally every dear friend whose lips have breathed or whose
actions have evinced interest and love in this time of our family bereave-
ment. God sparing my life, I propose to prize more than ever before the
privilege of addressing gentle, loving words to those who are staggering un-
der heavy burdens of trial and sorrow. I need not say to you that I have
lost a precious brother. Very nearly of the same age, we were playmates
in childhood, companions in youth, confiding, affectionate, and devoted
brothers through life. Made instrumental in dear George's conversion
about nine years since, that fact seemed to give increased strength and sa-
credness to the tic that united us.
" During my present pastorate, I have not only had his frequent co-oper-
ation in many of our means of grace, but have enjoyed the privilege of
spending a part of every Monday at his home. After dining together, we
would sit for an hour, living over the past, referring to present interests and
THE EARTHWARD AND HEAVENWARD SIDE OF DEATH. 333
experiences, or unfolding our plans for the future. Now all this is over for
this world not forever ! Blessed be God, our life has a. future as well as a
past. We knelt at the same mother's knee aye, and we shall kneel with
that same mother and our glorified father in the presence of the enthroned
Jesus. We sported in our boyhood on the same lawn aye, and we shall,
in our immortal youth, roam together the
" ' Blest fields on the banks of life's river,
And sing of redemption forever and ever.'
Our present separation is only a parenthesis in our fraternal intercourse.
In a little while it shall be resumed, with no prospect or possibility of inter-
ruption. George died well ! Death found him at his post, faithfully dis-
charging his duties. He worked while it was day, and did his work with his
might. During the last few months of his life he was greatly interested re-
specting his full privilege as a Christian. Attending the International Con-
vention of the Young Men's Christian Associations, held in Montreal last
May or early in June, he seized the opportunity to make a fresh and an
entire consecration of himself to God, and was blessed (as he afterward
testified) with a new view of the cross. After this, and until the close of his
career, his life was beautiful and fragrant with the precious plants of the
Christian graces.
" The Wednesday evening before he died he stood up in an experience-
meeting, and remarked that he was physically feeble and could not say much,
but his experience might be expressed in that beautiful stanza,
" ' 'Tis Jesus, the First and the Last,
Whose Spirit shall guide me straight home ;
I'll praise Him for all that is past,
And trust Him for all that's to come.'
" I could thus fill pages with blessed reminiscences. Death has an earth-
ward side. I never understood that so well as now. Sometimes during the
last four weeks, when I have entered his former home or stood by his newly
made grave, and thought of my earthly deprivation, I have realized a sense
of desolation that has quite unmanned me. My relief and consolation is in
mounting to the heavenward side. In that direction the brightness and the
attraction increase. The line, ' Praise Him above, ye heavenly host,' never
meant so much or seemed so sweet as now. You know I have always been
your attached brother, but since this sudden bereavement I feel more closely
drawn to you than ever, for I am reminded that an almost identical experi-
ence in the loss of your beloved sister prepares you to understand the
greatest trial of my life. We sit together at the Master's feet, and realize a
334 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
new sympathy in the same difficult lesson which the providence of God has
appointed for our development and advantage. But perhaps I am presum-
ing upon your interest in our family sorrow. If so, you will understand and
generously excuse me."
To the Rev. A. Longacre, of Baltimore :
"PHILADELPHIA, November 1,1867.
" I thank you for your kind letter. May Heaven abundantly recompense
you for all your affectionate words. I know the deep love that subsists
among the members of your father's family, and in this matter recognize the
resemblance between our households to which you refer. May our gracious
Lord keep your happy circle unbroken for many years. Knowing your fam-
ily nearly all my life, and intimately associated with some of you for a num-
ber of years, I feel a more than ordinary nearness and interest and love.
" How gladly I would respond to your wishes, and spend a week in that
part of the vineyard you are appointed to cultivate ! Unfortunately, how-
ever, for such an arrangement, I have engaged to be in Poughkeepsie on the
loth of November, and to assist in dedicating Brother Thompson's new
church, Germantown, on the lyth. Thus my Sabbaths for the present
month are all filled up. I rejoice to hear of your continued prosperity.
May God send you a steady rain until, every plant refreshed, your interesting
charge shall be as a well-watered garden rich with the beauty and fragrance
of heaven.
" Dr. and Mrs. Palmer conclude to-day their labors at Central. I have at-
tended some of their morning services. The audiences have be"en small not
nearly so large as at their afternoon and evening meetings but the influ-
ences have been most gracious. On Friday last God vouchsafed us a sea-
son of great interest and power. Your beloved sister had wonderful access
in prayer indeed, it was the testimony of her friends present that they never
heard her as on that occasion."
To the Rev. A. Longacre, of Baltimore :
" PHILADELPHIA, November 15, 1867.
" Sincerely disposed to heed your Macedonian cry, I am nevertheless con-
siderably embarrassed respecting a decision. On the first Sabbath of this
month Dr. Wentworth preached for me during the day. Last Sabbath I
was in Poughkeepsie. Next Sabbath Dr. Kynett, or one of the bishops,
will take my Church Extension collection. Three Sabbath mornings out
of my pulpit. Then on the first Sabbath of December, the day of our Com-
WILLINGNESS TO HELP. 335
munion, Brother G. Hughes expects to preach and take the Freedmen's col-
lection. I do not see how I can very consistently absent myself before the
latter part of December, and that is so close on the holiday season that most
probably it would be an inopportune time for the object that you contem-
plate. These are just my circumstances, and I state them the more frankly
because I know that, as a pastor yourself, you can understand and appreciate
them.
" We had a most delightful visit to New York and Poughkeepsie saw
many cherished friends were refreshed at the Tuesday meeting praise the
Lord ! Rev. Newman Hall has been in our city, interesting and impressing
large congregations. If he visits Baltimore, you will do well to secure him
for one of your services. Last night we had the anniversary of the Young
Men's Christian Association a magnificent audience and a splendid time.
Dr. Hall, of New York, recently of Dublin, made the speech of the evening.
Revs. E. Clark, of New Haven, and Phillips Brooks were the other speakers.
The occasion was a grand success.
" Mrs. Simpson, I understand, is on her way home with Charles. The
Western tour has been of little service, and the dear fellow, as we judge, re-
turns to die. I refer to these items because I know they will interest you.
My soul, this morning, is sweetly resting in Jesus. Oh, is it possible that I,
so insignificant and unworthy, should be lifted above angels and archangels,
and be indulged with a resting-place in the bosom of Infinite Love ! I can
only wonder and adore. God bless you, my precious brother. How I could
enjoy a few days with you at Charles Street ! Perhaps our kind Heavenly
Father, the God of providence and grace, may open the way, and situate us
side by side on the battle-field."
To the Rev. A. Longacre, of Baltimore :
" PHILADELPHIA, November 19, 1867.
" I hasten to reply to your urgent request. Next week will bring our annual
Thanksgiving. The preparation of an appropriate discourse will take some
of the preceding days, so that absence from home will be impracticable. Re-
specting the first week in December, I can not write very certainly, for we
are holding ourselves in readiness for extra services at any moment. Most
of the charges around are engaged in protracted meetings, some with a good
measure of success. At Central the good seed sown is producing fruit.
Oh, how gladly would I gratify you in the wish you express ! I understand
and appreciate your importunity, and only regret that my circumstances
should make it necessary. God bless you, my darling brother. You do not
know how dear you are to my heart If my meeting does not begin, and I
336 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
can advantageously serve you for two or three evenings week after next, I
will cheerfully make the effort to be with you."
"PHILADELPHIA, November 29, 1867.
"DEAR BROTHER ANDREW, This has been a most trying week. The
preparation of a Thanksgiving sermon and a speech besides was enough to
fill up my mind. In addition to this we have had our home overflowing
with company, and an importunate committee from Brooklyn, begging me
to accept the pastorate of the new St. John's Methodist Episcopal Church.
A mind full of suspense and hands full of pressing work. This is my apol-
ogy for not replying more promptly to your letter. On Monday we have a
meeting of our Camp-meeting Committee in this city. I think I can not
come to Baltimore next week. If I see my way clear for the week after, I
will let you know. Oh, what would I not give for a face-to-face t$te-&-ttte
with you to-day ! I want so much your good judgment to help me decide
some questions connected with my next year's pastoral destination."
" PHILADELPHIA, December 4, 1867.
" DEAR ANDREW, Every morning of this week so far I have resigned
myself to the tender mercies of Dr. Kingsbury, the dentist ; nevertheless, I
have commenced an extra meeting, and am engaged every night in leading
or striving to lead the flock nearer the fountain of spiritual power and bless-
ing. How I will be situated next week I can not definitely say ; but if any
religious interest develops here, I can not, of course, leave the home work.
The Brooklyn transfer can not disturb you as it has perplexed and annoyed
me. I thought I was anchored in my mother Conference had no wish or
idea of leaving doors were opening my humble services were in some de-
mand, when, lo ! the new St. John's Church, through their committee, makes
a most unanimous and earnest request for my transfer and appointment. I
have virtually declined said every thing in opposition, every thing but an
emphatic 'No.' This I have hesitated to express, lest I might be taking my
lot too much in my own hands. Bishop Janes holds the whole matter under
advisement. Be very sure I do not want to leave Philadelphia. The Camp-
meeting Committee turn toward Lancaster County as perhaps the most cen-
tral and desirable location for next year's meeting."
If any one is tempted to regard the life of the popular city
pastor as one of delicious ease, free from care and perplexity,
running like a summer stream through a grassy meadow, let him
ponder the above letters, and this of the same season.
A CITY PASTOR'S CARES. 337
To his sister, Miss Mary Cookman :
" I fully intended writing last week, but my duties multiplied and became so
urgent that it was simply impossible. Really I have a great deal to do ; ev-
ery day brings me letters asking for different kinds of service, and these have
to be answered. Sermons must be prepared, various meetings attended, and
the interests of a large family supervised, besides a great deal of outside and
irregular work. All this burdens my brain, and sometimes terribly troubles
my soul. I do not know what I should do if I could not cast my burden on
the Lord, and plead His own precious promise, ' Lo, I am with you alway.'
" But I did not mean this personal experience when I commenced my let-
ter. I thank you for your sisterly epistle. All your sentiments of true, warm
love are fully reciprocated. I deeply appreciate and sincerely praise God
for your undisguised confidence and tender affection. Blessed with many
true, kind friends, I always feel that there are a few hearts on which I may
lean with the most implicit trust, and yours is one of that small number.
May our faithful and loving Heavenly Father continue to bless you with
every needful temporal and spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus.
" It was encouraging to hear that my humble efforts in Poughkeepsie
were appreciated by the people. Certainly we enjoyed beyond expression
the two days we were permitted to spend in John's parish. Aside from
every thing else, the society of our beloved mother furnished a feast for our
affectional nature. It is enough to sit in her presence and live over the
eventful years that have irrevocably passed. The privilege always makes
me feel the deprivation we suffer in our present separation. Never mind.
In a little while we will sit down together in the heavenly home, and enjoy
each other with no prospect or fear that our happy intercourse shall ever
again be interrupted. Heaven is coming nearer, and growing more attractive.
" Last week, with Saide and Annie, I visited dear George's grave. It is a
hallowed spot one of the most sacred to me in all the world. Oh, with
what thoughts and feelings did I linger near the lifeless remains of that
sweetest of brothers ! My sense of loss for a moment came upon me over-
whelmingly, for there was no one of my own sex that loved me so tenderly
as that dear man. We lived in one another's smile, and those smiles inter-
mingling, threw blessed sunshine on life's pathway. His spirit seems almost
constantly with me, but at his grave I felt that both body and spirit were
near, and I almost communed as in the former time. Laurel Hill ! blessed
hill ! My Pisgah now from whence I look over to the graveless land."
Laurel Hill was within the next few months to become even
more sacred and precious, by reason of others who should be
P
33 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
gathered to its silent bosom. In the spring following he was
called as the pastor of Bishop Simpson's family to stand by the
dying bed of their son, Mr. Charles Simpson, and to administer
to him and to them the consolations which now more than ever
experience had taught him to understand. He had seen its
embrace receive his ministerial friends Munroe, Heston, and
Brainard, his young friend Simpson, his child Rebecca, his broth-
er George ; but the grave was yet unsatisfied, and the demand
soon came for one even nearer and dearer than all the rest.
His eldest son, Bruner, who had so long struggled with disease,
and who at times had given signs of improvement with the hope
of ultimate recovery, at last succumbed to the destroyer. The
brave boy died March 2d, 1868. Thus the shadows thickened
around the devout pastor and his family. Yet in the deepest
darkness he retained his cheerfulness ; under all the suffering
his spirit as grapes when pressed give forth the invigorating
juice seemed to grow in saintliness both as to intrinsic depth
and visible influence.
" The darts of anguish fix not
Where the seat of suffering is thoroughly fortified
By acquiescence in the will supreme."
The following "BIOGRAPHY OF A GOOD BOY" was written by
Mr. Cookman, and afterward published by request in the Meth-
odist Home Journal, and is so creditable alike to father and son,
and so well adapted to benefit the youthful readers of this vol-
ume, that I insert it almost entire :
"BIOGRAPHY OF A GOOD BOY.
" Our precious son, Alfred Bruner Cookman, brought to our home great
joy, and for nearly sixteen years was a constant satisfaction and comfort.
If there is such a thing as natural goodness, he seemed to be its fortunate
possessor. His instincts were all in the direction of virtue and propriety.
Strictly conscientious, we never heard of his uttering either a profane or an
obscene word. No one ever suspected him of any thing like falsehood.
As our memory serves us now, we can not recall a single act of disobedience
ALFRED BRUNER COOKMAN. 339
to his parents. Jn the family circle he stood as a faithful little monitor, con-
stantly careful respecting the morals, habits, manners, and appearance of
his brothers and sisters. Naturally dignified and thoughtful, he impressed
all by his quiet movements, his perfect politeness, and his singular sense of
propriety.
" With these superior qualities of character he associated fine intellectual
characteristics. His feeble health, extending through a number of years,
had hindered somewhat his literary culture, nevertheless few boys of his age
had read so much. He was a voracious reader. Sometimes we would
chide him for his application to his book, and had literally to drive him into
other exercises.
" In the use of his pencil he evinced great taste and skill. An amateur
artist of Philadelphia, after looking at some of his productions, congratulated
us on his superior talent, suggesting that it furnished promise of future fame.
" In his recitations on the occasions of anniversaries and public-meetings
(exercises that he always enjoyed), he was graceful, impressive, and popular.
It is a significant fact in this connection that his last, and one of his happi-
est declamations, was ' The Burial of Sir John Moore.'
" His thoughtfulness revealed itself in his attention to and remembrance
of sermons, the numerous questions he would ask on scriptural, theological,
and general subjects, and his interest on the vital question of his personal
salvation.
" Five years since, when we expected him to die, he professed to expe-
rience on his bed of sickness the forgiveness of his sins. When he partially
recovered, one of his first wishes expressed was to unite himself with the
Church. Accordingly, on the first Sabbath of 1863, when he was ten years
of age, his dear mother led him to the altar, while his father had the exceed-
ing joy of welcoming him as a probationer in the Central Methodist Epis-
copal Church, in the city of New York.
" His Christian life was marked by consistency of conduct and strict at-
tention to religious duty. His prayers were never forgotten. His Bible
was read every day. His class-meeting was regularly attended. Fond of
his Sabbath-school he was always in his place, and for his teacher and class-
mates cherished a special love. Those classmates had the melancholy priv-
ilege of bearing his precious body carefully and lovingly to its last resting-
place.
" Since our dear boy's death we have found his diary, kept when he was
but twelve years of age. A few extracts will throw some light pn, his char-
acter and life.
"January 8, 1865, he writes: 'To-day I have experienced religion. In
340 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
the afternoon I went up to the altar, but did not find Christ. In the even-
ing I found him. Glory to God.' This was rather a restoration of the joys
of God's salvation.
"February 2 : 'To-day we had a surprise party at Mrs. T.'s.' Then he
records what he and his little brothers and companions gave this humble
and afflicted widow, and concludes the account thus : ' Then we sung hymns,
spoke pieces, Mrs. A prayed, and we went home.'
" About the same date he writes : ' Glory to God, the slaves are free.'
" April 3, he says : ' This afternoon we heard that Richmond and Peters-
burg arc taken by Grant and Sheridan; I had the house illuminated for
the victory. Praise God for victory.'
" April 15, he writes : ' This morning we had awful news ; President Lin-
coln is dead.' He then records all the particulars of the assassination, and
appends the sentiment, ' Thy will be done.'
" About the same time he records : ' My sister Beckie died April 10, 1865.
We miss her. Pa and ma say she looked more beautiful in death than in
life. She is an angel in heaven to-day. Sweet be her sleep.'
" Observe, these are extracts from the journal of our Christian boy when
he was but twelve years of age, and living in New York City.
" During our pleasant pastorate at Spring Garden Street, Philadelphia,
his health seemed better. He was able to go to school, and, as his teachers
testify, was obedient, studious, and ambitious to excel. In his boyish sports
he was hearty and very happy. Though some of his companions had more
of physical strength, yet none of them seemed to enter more deeply into the
spirit of the enjoyment than he did. His associates all said of. him, Alfred
.Eruncr Cookman is a good boy good at school, good on the street, good at
play, good in his words, good in his temper, good in his actions and so he
was.
" ' None knew him but to love him,
None named him but to praise.'
" Soon after he came to Philadelphia, three years since, he helped to es-
tablish a boy's Sabbath-evening prayer-meeting. At this service quite a
number of his young friends professed to experience the pardon of sin
among the rest the son of our beloved Bishop Simpson. Thus his life
flowed along beautifully and lovingly and usefully, until the latter part of
January last, when a deep cold fell upon his heart (his feeble organ), devel-
oping in the form of pericarditis. His illness was attended with great pain,
obstinate feve/, and frequent oppression, that soon robbed him of strength
and flesh. Sitting in an upright position, sometimes for days and nights
together, with his feet fearfully swollen, he nevertheless possessed his soul
BRUNER'S HAPPY DEATH. 341
in beautiful patience. No one heard from him one word of murmuring or
repining. Every day his Bible was carefully read, while in his devotions he
would insist on kneeling down, despite all his disability, and would spend
long seasons in communion with God.
" To his father he gave the assurance that his trust was in Christ, and
Jesus was precious. When asked if all was well in an eternal point of view,
he answered, ' Yes, sir.'
" The last day of his life, March 2, reason was trembling on her throne.
He seemed oblivious to the presence of relatives and friends, and was, to
all human appearance, the subject of intense suffering. This of course ter-
ribly taxed the sensibilities of his sympathizing parents and kindred. Con-
cerned that he should have relief, the family were called to prayer. They
knelt around Bruner's dying bed. They asked God, if in accordance with
His will, to save the dear boy from his apparent suffering, and to give him
a moment of consciousness before his death, that he might indulge us with
a look of recognition that would be a last precious legacy. God mercifully
heard and answered our prayer. Very soon the dear suffering boy sank into
a quiet slumber that continued until near midnight.
" About ten minutes to twelve, with respiration interrupted, he suddenly
opened his large blue eyes, never brighter or more beautiful, and looked
around lovingly on his parents and friends. At that moment a ray from the
more excellent glory darted upon and quite illumined his face and form.
This halo was perceived and enjoyed by every one in the room. His great-
ly afflicted mother, with his hand clasped in hers, said, ' I give you to Jesus,
Brunie, I couldn't give you to any other ; oh, say, don't you know me, my
angel boy ? don't you know your precious mamma ?' He gave her a sweet
smile of recognition the legacy desired, the prayer answered then closed
his eyes in death, and his beautiful spirit was with the angels.
" Our glorified boy ! We praise God for the temporary loan. It made
earth more beautiful, it makes heaven more attractive."
It is not often that extempore prayer is offered at the grave in
these days; it is even more seldom that a father is known to offer
audible prayer at the grave of a son. Some time after the fu-
neral the body of Bruner was privately interred in the presence
of the immediate family, on which occasion Mr.Cookman prayed
with great unction, tenderness, and faith. An aged gentleman,
of the Society of Friends, who was in the cemetery at the time,
* Mr. John Jay Smith, of Philadelphia.
I
342 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
attracted by the funeral, stood at a respectful distance from the
scene ; and as he listened in silent, subdued wonder at Mr.
Cookman's prayer, he said substantially to himself, " If the
grace of God can give such power to a bereaved father, then I
need it." He afterward sought for this power, and found it.
At the time, he and Mr. Cookman were utter strangers to each
other, but subsequently they became intimately acquainted, and
Mr. Cookman had the happiness of greeting him as a brother
in Christ. Subsequently Mr. Cookman wrote him :
* * * " I am so deeply thankful and sincerely joyful whenever I think
of you brought in in advanced life, when the chances all seemed to be
against such a result. And then that I should have had any share (as a
humble and unworthy instrument) in this blessed consummation ! My soul
sinks down in adoring love. You will realize great rest in committing the
keeping of your soul and little all into the hands of your Almighty Saviour.
Feel that He is carefully preserving what you have given into His hands,
and that until you deliberately or willfully withdraw your offering and your
trust He will keep, leaving you only to love and to enjoy ." * * *
Another letter to the same is appropriate here.
To Mr. John J. Smith, of Philadelphia :
" WILMINGTON, December 24, 1870.
" I desire to acknowledge the receipt of your most welcome letter, and at
the same time wish you a very happy Christmas. Will it not be the best
Christmas of your protracted life ? The best, because of the sweet con-
sciousness that your divine Friend is now affectionately remembered. HE
GIVES YOU HIMSELF for your Christmas present, and you in return give
Him yourself. Thus there is a beautiful, blessed exchange of gifts; only
we are infinitely the gainers by this merciful arrangement
" I am glad to know that your heart overflows with thankfulness and love
to that dear Saviour who, at the eleventh hour, has made you a miracle of
His wondrous grace. Praise Him continually, trust Him implicitly, love
Him with a childlike love, and in a little while you shall bow in His glorified
presence, and offer Him not gold, frankincense, and myrrh, but the more
acceptable tribute of a grateful and devoted heart. Eighteen hundred and
seventy closes well for you ; the last pages record that J. Jay Smith is a little
child sitting at the Saviour's feet. I trust I belong to the same blessed
SMITH. HESTON. BRAINARD. 343
class. We are brother scholars in the school of Jesus, and I indulge the
hope that our friendship, overleaping the River of Death, shall continue and
increase as long as eternal ages roll.
" The evening we spent at your beautiful home was one of the happiest
of my life. It will long be a very feast of memory.
" And now I must close my note. Give our tenderest love to your dear
wife and daughter, and son L , whose acquaintance I was glad to form.
Is there not a most cheering prospect that you will be a united family in
Christ in this world, and afterward an undivided household in heaven. God
bless you all."
Reference has already been made to the deaths of the Rev.
Newton Heston and the Rev. Dr. Brainard. Mr. Heston, pas-
tor of the State Street Congregational Church in Brooklyn, was
originally a Methodist preacher in the Philadelphia Conference,
and a close friend of Mr. Cookman's. When he withdrew from
the Methodist Episcopal Church, Mr. Cookman did not with-
draw his love from him, but continued to esteem him as a
brother ; and when Mr. Heston fell suddenly in his work, he very
sincerely mourned his loss. He preached a memorial sermon
in the Spring Garden Street Church. This sermon was after-
ward published by request of the trustees of State Street Church,
and remains a generous tribute of his brotherly affection.
Dr. Brainard was for many years one of the most active and
useful pastors in the Presbyterian pulpit of Philadelphia. Kin-
dred sympathies and labors brought him and Mr. Cookman
into frequent and genial intercourse. In a private letter to the
editor of The Evangelist, New York, Mr. Cookman referred to
Dr. Brainard in terms which the editor was pleased afterward
to apply as equally applicable to Mr. Cookman himself:
" Associated with him at anniversaries, union meetings, social gatherings,
and under various circumstances, I came to estimate him as a prince among
men. His disciplined and cultivated mind, ready and elegant utterances,
natural and beautiful manners, unselfish and catholic spirit, self-denying and
multiplied labors, and useful Christian life, made him a power and a bless-
ing wherever known and now, as we think of him, furnish a very feast of
remembrance. I thank God that I ever knew Dr. Brainard.
344 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
"Dr. Arnot, :n his life of James Hamilton, says: 'All is not lost to the
world when a good man dies ; his character remains behind to enrich the
community, as certainly as the rich man's wealth remains behind to enrich
the estate of his heirs.' Dr. Brainard's character lives lives in the charac-
ters of others that it is strengthening and building up. I cheerfully ac-
knowledge my indebtedness to Dr. Brainard for the inspiration of his pure
example, the glow of his living piety, and the cheer of his noble, generous,
loving soul. I am a better man because he lived. Dr. Brainard made earth
more beautiful, and makes heaven more attractive."
In the autumn of 1868 Mr. Cookman was called upon to
follow to the grave the remains of another cherished minister,
the Rev. Thomas H. Stockton, D.D., pastor of the Church of
the New Testament, Philadelphia, a man whose reputation for
piety, eloquence, learning, and patriotism was as broad as the
continent. Dr. Stockton and his father had been pulpit rivals
in their youth, while Alfred was a child ; afterward the devout
and seraphic Stockton and the son were brought into the clos-
est fellowship, and sustained to each other a relationship as
familiar and tender as that of father and son. Mr. Cookman
was accustomed through the last years of the Doctor's feeble
health to visit him frequently, and to sit at his feet with the ut-
most teachableness, and listen to conversations which, for far-
reaching wisdom and spiritual insight, have not been excelled
by the words of any divine of our times. The Rev. Alexander
Clark, editor of the Methodist Recorder, who rode with him at
Dr. Stockton's funeral, writes, " I shall never forget his tender,
brotherly words in the carriage as we rode together in the fu-
neral procession. * * * How those two consecrated souls loved
each other ! Now they share the great glory together !"
CHAPTER XX.
GRACE CHURCH, WILMINGTON, DELAWARE. THE NATIONAL AND
OTHER CAMP-MEETINGS. MISSIONARY JUBILEE.
WITH the spring of 1868 the pastorate of Spring Garden
charge closed three years of arduous labor and much suffer-
ing, but of as decided success and joy as any ministerial term
Mr. Cookman had yet spent. Long before the session of Con-
ference the question of his next appointment was agitated.
Committees from various churches, within and without his own
Conference, waited on him with urgent demands for his services
among them one from the new St. John's Church, Brooklyn,
New York. As we have seen from his correspondence, he did
not wish to leave the Philadelphia Conference, but desired to
regard it as home. He was, however, induced to consent to
go to Brooklyn if the bishops thought it advisable ; and for
some time his transfer to the St. John's charge was regarded
as a settled arrangement
Meanwhile another claim sprang up in a call from the new
Grace Church, Wilmington, Delaware. Both churches were as
substantial, capacious, and beautiful as any yet erected by the
Methodist Episcopal Church ; the claims seemed equally bal-
anced, and both invitations were to him certainly highly com-
plimentary. The opinions of the bishops decided for Grace
Church. As this Church was in his own Conference, no trans-
fer was necessary, and hence the appointment was the more
easily effected. Many of Mr. Cookman's friends in New York
and Brooklyn were sorely disappointed in the result, and no
one felt more sincerely grieved than himself that what ap-
peared to be the wisest judgment was against the removal to
P 2
346 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
Brooklyn. While the matter was pending he would often ex-
claim, " Oh, for a voice from heaven !"
Again was his lot cast with a people who had shown great
zeal for the cause of God in the erection of a superb and com-
modious structure for divine worship at a cost of $200,000. It
is doubtful if a more beautiful pile can be found, or one more
admirably adapted in all its appointments for the services of
religion. The exterior of the building, the tout ensemble, is very
imposing, while the interior arrangements are both tasteful
and convenient, with every possible facility for public worship,
for Sunday-school work, and the equally important social meet-
ings. Grace Church is really the ornament of Wilmington City.
In building such a house a heavy debt was incurred, and there
consequently devolved upon the newly appointed pastor a cor-
responding care ; but as was his custom, he went cheerfully to
work, seeking to affect the financial condition of the charge
through its spiritual life. Wilmington, with a population of
thirty thousand, and a Methodist population of twenty-four
hundred, offered a delightful field for the preaching and social
talents of the new pastor. His ministry began immediately to
impress the community, and very soon a large congregation
filled the Church. Persons of all classes and professions, of
every religious denomination, became either regular or occa-
sional attendants upon the preaching and the social services.
The Sunday-school, with its large rooms and efficient control,
grew to great proportions, and in all the elements of strength
and self-propagating power. It soon projected a mission-school,
known as the Epworth Chapel.
The customary meeting for the promotion of"holiness was es-
tablished. Such a meeting was now with him a necessity, not
only of his ministry, but of his personal religious life. He must
gather some of his flock and of the Christian community, how-
ever few, into the closest fellowship, for the distinct purpose of
conference and prayer upon the great object which he believed
GRACE M. E. CHURCH, WILMINGTON. 347
to lie at the very foundation of individual and Church growth.
When a little dissent from his opinions and plans was express-
ed though feeling sometimes that he was misunderstood he
would simply reply to the suggestion of friends that he should
explain himself, " Oh ! the Lord Jesus has my reputation in
his keeping ; I have committed it all to him, and he will take
care of it." There were those in the charge who were not pre-
pared to accept his teachings on Christian purity ; but who as
time wore on espoused them, and became the strongest sup-
porters of his ministry and his warmest personal friends. The
Wednesday-afternoon meeting was soon an institution of the
Church and of the city, and comprised among its habitual at-
tendants members of all the orthodox churches, of whom none
were more constant and prominent than many of the Society of
Friends.
Mr. Cookman's ministry had always had a charm for these god-
ly, thoughtful people probably on account of its exceeding sim-
plicity and spirituality but never before did he obtain among
them such marked influence as in Wilmington. They feasted
on his words with as much regularity and zest as his own mem-
bers. They took him to their hearts and homes a partaker
of their quiet, unostentatious hospitality, breathing the pure at-
mosphere of their simple piety, he returned their kindness and
confidence with the benefactions of a spiritual prince.
The pleasant impressions received by Mr. Cookman on his
first appearance in his new charge, as told in letters to his wife,
were more than confirmed by succeeding results.
To his wife :
"WILMINGTON, Saturday afternoon, 1868.
" Here I am, sitting in Mr. H.'s store, corner of Market and Third Streets,
using his desk and implements in redeeming my promise of a letter to-day.
A pleasant journey yesterday brought me to Philadelphia about one P.M., and
at four o'clock I started in the steam-boat for Wilmington. Brother R
was a fellow-passenger, with whom I had a great deal of pleasant conversa-
tion. At half-past six Brother S and lady gave me a cordial welcome.
348 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
The prayer-meeting in the evening was largely attended, and a most solemn
and profitable season. Rev. Brother Lightbourn was there. The friends
seemed to enjoy it wonderfully. The people are as kind as they can be, and
express great interest to see us comfortably established in our new home.
This morning I called at the parsonage. Every thing is very neat and com-
fortable. The carpets are all down, except the parlor carpet, which is on the
floor, and will be tacked on Monday. The furniture used in the parlor of
their previous parsonage, hair-cloth sofa and chairs, has been placed in the
sitting-room, and green velvet furniture purchased for the present parlor. I
think ypu will like and enjoy your new home. This morning I had a long
walk with Brother S . Wilmington, especially in its environs, is a beauti-
ful city. Providence permitting, we will have some delightful strolls together
along the far-famed Brandywine," etc.
To his wife :
"GRACE PARSONAGE, WILMINGTON, DEL., April 9, 1868.
" At my study table again ! in one of the nicest, coziest studies I have had
for many years. You will want a detail of proceedings, and, as I am a sys-
tematic man, it will be better to commence with Sunday. Preached twice ;
in the morning on ' Old paths,' in the evening on the ' One thing needful ;'
administered the Sacrament and made an address. It was a glorious day ;
congregation magnificent ; Sacrament the most blessed service of that kind
I have enjoyed for years. Friends seemed in highest spirits, and my soul
praised God. Monday our goods were delivered at the parsonage. I un-
wrapped the furniture, unpacked the piano, my pictures, and a part of my
books. Monday night and Tuesday it rained like a young deluge, and as
some of the goods were getting wet, and I was almost alone, I concluded it
was better for me to unpack a little more. The house began to look like
home when I started on Tuesday in the rain for Philadelphia.
"At half-past one or a quarter to two R and the children arrived.
I intended to have taken them in the steam-boat at four P.M., but they had
ordered their carriage to the depot, and so, after lunching in the city, we left
again in the half-past-three train. The friends had carriages, expecting us
by the steam-boat, but we anticipated them. Proceeding to the parsonage,
we took the ladies a little by surprise. It did not, however, make the slight-
est difference. The children are delighted with their new home. Frank
says it is delightful, and thinks his ma will enjoy it very much, and indeed,
every thing is very pretty and very comfortable. It suits me. The trustees
and their wives gave us a most affectionate welcome. Supper was provided
and served fried oysters, chicken salad, ham, rolls, Maryland biscuits,
GETTING SETTLED. SUNDAY AT MANHEIM. 349
sliced oranges, cakes, tea, coffee, etc. The evening was spent most delight-
fully. About half-past ten, when they would leave, I proposed some sing-
ing, and then knelt down and offered our new home to God. It was a sea-
son of interest and comfort.
" This morning I have been arranging my books, while Rebecca is here,
there, and every where the best sister-in-law that the Lord ever made.
The boys behaved beautifully last evening. I was proud of them. This
morning they have been helping me with my books, but now they are out in
the field enjoying a game of ball. This evening they are all invited to a
birthday-party at Brother B.'s. If the weather is favorable I think Rebecca
and the children will make a little excursion to Philadelphia to-morrow in
the steam-boat. Going at seven A.M., they can have nearly seven hours in
the city. Rebecca says I must tell you there are mattresses on every bed,
blankets on every bed, pillows for every bed, sheets for every bed, etc.
Providence permitting, I wish to start for Columbia on Monday, and bring
you to the city on Tuesday. Then you must decide where you will stay, for
all want you. Wednesday, after interring our dear boy, we will leave for
Columbia."
The summer of 1868 opened auspiciously, and Mr. Cookman
entered, about the middle of July, upon the customary religious
campaign. The first camp-meeting was that of the National
Association, held at Manheim, Lancaster County, Pa. The lo-
cation had been selected by himself. The attendance from
North, East, West, and South exceeded all expectations the
friends of the cause came together from the remotest parts of
the country. A correspondent of The Daily Spy, of Columbia,
in writing under date of July 2Oth, spoke of the Sunday and its
services as follows :
" MANHEIM, July 20, 1868.
" MR, EDITOR, We have been permitted to spend a Sabbath at camp-
meeting, and truly it was a day long to be remembered for the crowds of
people and clouds of dust. The atmosphere was like Egyptian darkness
an atmosphere ' that might be felt.' The streams of dusty humanity which
flowed along, from early morn till late in the evening, seemed to have
but one object in view to see what was to be seen, and raise, or keep up,
the already thick clouds of choking dust that pervaded tents, eyes, ears, hair,
and clothes of all. I would not, after all, have been absent for a valua-
350 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
ble consideration. To have the privilege of attending the experience-meet-
ing at the stand at eight o'clock in itself would compensate for all the
sweltering and crowding to which we were exposed. There were nearly,
if not quite, five hundred witnesses for Jesus, who gladly stood up and de-
clared, in the face of Heaven and the vast crowd by which they were sur-
rounded, that the blood of Jesus Christ had cleansed them from all sin.
This was the largest experience-meeting I ever saw, and such a holy feeling
pervaded the assembly that happiness, peace, and joy were portrayed on ev-
ery countenance. Again and again could be heard the loud cry of ' Glory
to God !' It required no stretch of imagination to liken them to the hosts
of the Most High while going up to possess the goodly land. Truly the
Lord of Hosts was among His people. These exercises were continued
nearly to the preaching hour ten o'clock. A few remarks of caution and
advice were made by Presiding Elder Gray, in his usual clear and decisive
manner, telling the people that Bishop Simpson, who was to preach, could
be heard by all, if perfect stillness was observed. At the appointed hour
the Bishop advanced to the stand, and, looking out over the sea of upturned
faces, gave out the hymn commencing with, ' When I survey the wondrous
cross,' etc. After prayer, he read for the first lesson the nineteenth Psalm,
and for the second the eighth of Romans. The text was Romans, eighth
chapter and fourteenth verse ' As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they
are the sons of God.' The sermon was all that expectation could hope for
or the heart could desire. The time occupied in delivery was one hour and
twenty minutes, and, although on many heads the sun poured down his fierce
and sickening rays, the attention was constant and the interest unflag-
ging. The good Bishop opened up a vista of happiness and glory to many
anxious souls, knowing that in heaven they have a ' more enduring inherit-
ance.'
" In the afternoon Rev. Mr. Inskip occupied the stand. This discourse I
did not hear ; but in the evening, at half-past seven o'clock, the Rev. Alfred
Cookman, with all that earnestness and Christian sympathy for which he is
distinguished, kept the assembly interested, while he showed the deep ne-
cessity of making a full surrender of all to God.
"The afternoon children's prayer-meeting in the Columbia tent was to the
' little ones ' a happy time. I felt for the children ; the warm day was quite
enough to bear, but to be inclosed by a wall of unthinking men and women
was quite too bad. The exercises were well worthy of attention, but a
thought for the comfort of the children should have been enough to scatter
the crowd that walled up both ends of the tent."
Mr. Cookman, as might be expected, was every where present
CAMP-MEETING AT MANHEIM. 351
and active throughout the meeting. He was selected to preach
the sermon on Sunday evening. The responsibility he felt to
be well-nigh insupportable, but after unusual time spent in
prayer and meditation, he chose his subject and went to the
pulpit, when to his surprise the conviction was forcibly made
upon his mind "You must abandon your sermon and tell
your experience." He yielded reluctantly to what seemed to
be the Spirit's guidance. As he proceeded to narrate the man-
ner in which God had led him, particularly into the blessing of
full salvation, the impression upon the congregation deepened
with every word, until the effect was overwhelming. The im-
mense audience was entirely subdued, notes of victory rang
over the whole ground, and throughout the night from every
tent might be heard the songs of spiritual joy.*
Such was the impulset given to the National Association by
the Manheim meeting that it was resolved to hold at least two
meetings during the coming year. Beyond this meeting there
is no distinct record of Mr. Cookman's movements among the
camp-meetings of the summer. It is likely that he took his ac-
customed tour.
The ensuing autumn and winter found him steadily devoted
* Correspondence of The Methodist, August i : " None who were privi-
leged to be present will ever forget the Sunday evening when Rev. Alfred
Cookman led the congregation to God, and pressed upon them, with master-
ly and persuasive eloquence, the question of true spiritual power as con-
nected with personal holiness, and in a most fervent prayer led the congre-
gation to the cross. Men fell under the mighty power of God in all parts
of the ground. This was only equaled by the wonderful Pentecostal season
of Monday evening."
t Ibid. : " The entire meeting was wonderfully well managed. I never saw
such excellent generalship as that displayed by them. This meeting must
tell on the entire Church of the present with power. Ministers and people
humbled themselves that God might exalt the Church with His wonder-
ful power, and clothe it with the glory of God that rested upon the ancient
altars."
352 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
to his pastoral work, with such occasional outside engagements
as claimed him throughout his career. Very soon a gracious
influence began to pervade the congregation. All the means
of grace increased in the numbers who frequented them. The
meeting for holiness grew not only in numbers but in unction,
and worked like leaven through the whole religious community.
The ordinary prayer-meetings were thronged, and awakenings
and conversions were of common occurrence. Before the win-
ter had passed a deep and thorough revival of religion took
place, and many accessions were made to the Church. The
revival thus began continued with more or less power during
the entire term, resulting from year to year in the salvation of
penitent sinners and in the purification of believers in view
of the results of which one has said, " I believe eternity alone
will reveal the good he accomplished at Grace." While the
congregation and Sunday-school generally shared in the blessed
fruits, the students of the Wesleyan Female College partici-
pated largely in them very many of the young ladies were con-
verted and established in the principles and habits of a Chris-
tian life.
Two letters of this period are valuable as expressions of pri-
vate friendship and personal piety, and as showing the growth
of religion in the Church.
To Mrs. Lewis, of Columbus, Ohio :
"WILMINGTON, February i, 1869.
* * " Our affection for you and Homer, ten years old, has attained to
quite a stature is strong and healthy, has a divinity in its life, and promises
to be not only a joy in this world, but a beautiful angel in the Paradise of
everlasting blessedness. * * * I am still asking for my New-year's gift, and
will accept it just as thankfully now as though it had been given coeval
with my first petition. My faithful Lord gave me with the beginning of the
year one of the most important men in Grace Church, to be a friend if not
a professor of holiness, and I felt that this was almost more than I could
have asked or thought, and called for songs of loudest praise. He is also
giving me light, strength, comfort, and unction. Freedom from myself
CHRISTIAN SYMPATHY. 353
and the fullest liberty of the sons of God, is what I am specially longing
for." * * *
To Mrs. Stevens, of Wilmington, while absent at the funeral
of her mother :
" WILMINGTON, June 10, 1869.
* * * " Best of all, in New York or in Delaware, you may confidently
ask for the special grace of Him whose promises are the brightest stars in
our firmament during the dark night of sorrow and affliction. The Infinite
Jehovah is your ' Husband,' your ' Father,' your ' Mother.' He takes the
place of all the loved and lost, and promises sympathy, watch-care, support,
and blessing in every affectionate relationship of life.
" I remember your venerable mother with a great deal of interest and
pleasure. Her native strength of character, good common-sense, sober in-
telligence, quiet but dignified manner, through which her gentle, sympathiz-
ing, and loving nature sent forth bright beams to illumine and gladden oth-
er lives all this strongly and happily impressed me with a sense of her
great worth. I have no doubt that you will feel an increased tenderness for
every body's mother now, and for all women who are beginning to grow old.
Do not think of your mother as having gone away. No love, no life, goes
ever from us it goes as He (Jesus) went, that it may come again, deeper
and closer and surer, and be with us always, even to the end of the world.
"But I will not prolong my letter. Every thing moves on in Wilmington
about as it did when you were here. Our Wednesday meeting yesterday
was unusually rich in testimony and unctuous in influence. We felt that we
were lifted up to sit as in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. The Friday-even-
ing meeting is well attended. On last Sabbath your name was called as one
of the list of probationers who, having stood out a satisfactory probation, were
entitled to the privileges of full membership in the Methodist Episcopal
Church. It was a beautiful sight to see the altar surrounded by those whom
I might entitle ' our joy and crown of rejoicing.' "
To Mr. Edward Moore, of Wilmington, who was sojourning
in Paris:
"June 10, 1869.
" Shall I say that Jesus continues unspeakably precious in my experience ?
He teaches me, leads me, helps me, and guards me ; but, best of all, saves
me docs not save me from human weakness or fallibility or infirmities,
but does save me from my sins. Oh, how I love to love Jesus ! We are
almost counting the weeks now until your return. The time will soon trans-
pire, and then we will again ' together sweetly live.' "
354 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
The Fiftieth Anniversary (Jubilee) of the Missionary Society
of the Methodist Episcopal Church was held in the city of
Washington, D. C., on Sabbath and Monday, the zoth and nth
of January, 1869, and Mr. Cookman was invited to take part.
He preached on Sunday morning at Wesley Chapel, spoke at
a platform meeting at the Foundry in the evening, and Mon-
day evening delivered one of the addresses at the continuance
of the anniversary proper. There had been four or five able
addresses in the morning, and three or four equally able had
been delivered in the evening before Mr. Cookman was intro-
duced to the audience. For two long days the people had
heard of nothing but "missions," and it seemed as though both
they and the subject had been exhausted that there was noth-
ing left for him to say, or, if he found any thing to say, that he
would have to say it to a worn-out and retreating audience.
With peculiar adroitness in his first sentences he conciliated
the congregation, and was heard to the last with unflagging at-
tention.
A correspondent of The Christian Advocate wrote : " The ad-
dress was pervaded with the blessed Spirit of the Master, and
at times in rapt delight the audience wept and rejoiced ; and
when the speaker closed his remarks, all present must have
felt that they had been with him at the feet of Jesus receiving
instruction and comfort for further effort."
Another correspondent said of it : " His theme was the true
missionary spirit. His melting pathos and indescribable sweet-
ness of tone won every heart to the missionary cause. It is
impossible to express the power of this address upon the au-
dience gathered on the occasion, and the limits of our paper
forbid any attempt to reproduce the words or thoughts pre-
sented."
It may not be amiss, as the missionary cause lay near Mr.
Cookman's heart, and enlisted as it had done with his father
his deepest sympathies and strongest efforts, to give extracts
A MISSIONARY SPEECH. 355
from this address as published in the Annual Report of the
Missionary Society.
After introducing himself in his hard-pressed position as a
gleaner, he said :
"And now, sir, looking round upon the field, I do not seem to see a
standing stalk of truth. These brethren, with their bright blades or their
keen sickles, have been gathering the harvest they have even carried it
to the mill. They have ground it out in their close, clear, vigorous think-
ing ; they have manufactured it into nourishing and delightful food, and it
has been dealt out among the people ; you have been enjoying it in the
morning and in the evening, and are now entirely satisfied. It seems to me
that it only remains to return thanks and go home. Or, sir, if I may change
the figure, I have thought during the evening, while occupying my seat,
that we have been engaged during the day in the inspection of our great
missionary ship, its keel, its timbers, its planking, its deck, its machinery a
most magnificent piece of machinery its pilotage, and its larder. Our
flags are flying, our officers are in their places, and all that we are needing,
as it would seem, is the missionary spirit, which might be entitled the mo-
tive power."
After showing that liberal contributions of money might be
made in the absence of the real power necessary to success, he
continued : .
" What is the missionary spirit ? Is it an ordinary interest in, or a kind
of general concern for, the heathen abroad and the heathen at home ? a
cold and calculating love for those millions that have so long, too long, lin-
gered in the shadow of sin and of death ? Nay, sir, such a spirit as that
would never convert the world has never illustrated itself as the secret
spring or motive power of self-sacrificing and successful endeavor in this
world. There must be love, it is true, but then let us remember it must be
love on fire ; it must be love in a paroxysm ; it must be love intensified, ab-
sorbing, all-controlling. Observe, if you please, the missionary quitting his
home, kindred, native land, and accustomed comforts. He is willing to
abide in the ends of the earth, encompassed by heart-sickening idolatrous
superstition and crime. Wherefore ? Is it because of a simple concern re-
specting the temporal, or even spiritual, welfare of those by whom he may
be encompassed ? Nay, I insist it is rather because of the Christ-given and
Christ-like love that burns in his heart and literally consumes his life. Oh,
sir ! it is the missionary spirit that crosses broad seas, that clambers cloud-
356 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
crowned mountains, that traverses far-distant regions, that sails around the
world if it may save but a single soul. It is the missionary spirit that
breathes miasmas, that bears heavy burdens, that challenges adversaries,
that imperils precious life, that laughs at impossibilities, and cries, ' This
must, and this shall be done.' It is the missionary spirit that gives and bears
sacrifices, and dies, if it were necessary, and if it were possible, a hundred
thousand deaths, if, like its divine Exemplar, it might be going about doing
good. Now, as I have said, there may be liberality, but there can not be the
missionary spirit where there is not a conscientious, Christ-like liberality."
Inquiring, then, how this missionary spirit shall be excited
and maintained, he replied " First, by the careful contempla-
tion of the spiritual necessities of the unregenerate around us."
With a few brief touches he illustrated the power of the eye to
report to and sensibly affect the heart, and proceeded further
to discuss a more vital condition :
" Again, it might be asked, ' Are there not many of our own community
who are familiar with temporal and spiritual wretchedness, who are ac-
quainted with the necessities of the heathen world, who hear of this subject
not only from year to year, but more frequently, and yet they have none of
those exercises or experiences of missionary zeal ?' That is true that is
undeniable ; and so we are constrained to the conclusion that something
more is indispensable than this simple consideration. What is that some-
thing ? I answer that it is a union and a living sympathy with the blessed
Lord Jesus Christ. And now, sir, at the close of these anniversary exer-
cises, this thought brings me where I joy to come, and where I would like to
lead this little company, that is, to Calvary. I throw the arms of my affec-
tion around the consecrated cross of Jesus ; I drink in, in constantly in-
creasing measure, his tender, sympathizing, self-sacrificing spirit. Now from
this stand-point of the cross from the measure of that feeling which influ-
ences the heart and life of the divine Redeemer I look out again upon the
world ; but now with what different feelings ! Now I hear with Christ's
cars, I feel with Christ's heart, I see with His eyes ; now I am ready to labor
with Christ's energies ; now I am disposed to give or go, or do or dare, or
sacrifice or die any thing and every thing if I may but help in lifting our
sin-cursed world up to God. This experience of which I am speaking is a
vitalizing principle ; it is a divine force. It is Jesus reigning, not (as my
brother would say) simply in the skies ; there is something better than that.
We can have heaven on the way to heaven. It is Jesus reigning in per-
THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT. 357
sonal consciousness in the individual heart ; it is Christ living, breathing,
dwelling, and triumphing in personal life. Philosophy is contemplative and
studious, fond and full of plans and of theories ; infidelity, as we all know,
is given to boasting and to detraction ; both of them laying special stress
upon the human rather than upon the divine.
" But, Mr. President and Christian friends, after all their proud vaunting,
pray tell me what heathen shores have they ever visited for purposes of
mercy ? What funeral pyre have they ever extinguished ? What dumb idol
have they ever cast down from its pedestal ? What nation have they ever
lifted up from its barbarism and degradation? What profligate have they
ever reclaimed ? What sorrowful heart have they ever cheered ? Where
to-night are their earnest, self-sacrificing missionaries ? Where are their
organizations for the amelioration of human suffering and the extension of
wholesome and blessed truth in the world ? Where are their Pauls, their
Barnabases, their Wesleys, Wilberforces, Thomas Cokes, Asburys, How-
ards, Phebes, Dorcases, Nightingales, and Elizabeth Frys ? I ask it with
confidence and with Christian exultation. In vain I wait for an answer
there cometh none. Sir, we must come to Christ ; we must drink in His
Spirit ; for it is there, and there only, we will find the source and the fount-
ain of this missionary spirit, which is so needful and so indispensable. The
theory and practice of missions, as I take it, can be expressed almost in a
single sentence. It is love to the blessed Lord Jesus Christ, who has bought
us with his blood, drawing forth the stream of human sympathy, human af-
fection, and human endeavor a stream which, by an invariable law of nat-
ure and of God, seeks the lowest place for, let me say to you, that Chris-
tian compassion, like Christ's compassion, always flows downward, and fix-
es upon those who need it the most. Was it not so with Paul ? The love
of Christ constrained him, and he counted not his life dear unto him so
that he might but glorify his Saviour, propagate His Gospel, save immortal
souls, and finish his course with joy.
" Mr. President, that great man had been to Calvary. * * * As we heard
remarked this morning, with him it was a master passion in death. I lin-
gered in the dungeon, I looked over the shoulder of that great servant of
Jesus Christ as he wrote his last epistle that he indicted to a faithful apos-
tle, and I read with the speaker of this morning these words : ' I am ready
to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a
good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the right-
eous Judge, shall give me at that day.' Here my brother stopped ; but I
read on a little farther, ' And not for me only.' There came out his mis-
35 8 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
sionary spirit. That would have been too narrow, circumscribed, and self-
ish for that great heart. 'Not for me only.' Oh ! Paul at that hour took
in the hundreds of millions of the world's population ' Not for me only,
but for all those that love His appearing.' * * *
" Mr. President, I am not by any means despondent or discouraged ; but,
on the contrary, I am full of cheerful hope and of Christian confidence. I be-
lieve the clouds above will vanish. I believe the right is about to conquer.
" ' Clear the way !
A brazen wrong is crumbling into clay.
With that right
Shall many more enter, smiling, at the door.
With that wrong
Shall follow many others, great and small,
That for ages long have held us as their prey.
Men of thought and men of action
Clear the way.'
I believe in the future. * * * I believe in the government of the future, and
in the Church of the future. I think there is a day not very far distant
when from the watch-towers of Asia, once the land of lords many, there
shall roll out the exultant chorus, ' One Lord !' when from the watch-tow-
ers of Europe, distracted by divisions in the faith, there shall roll up the
grateful chorus, 'One faith!' when from the watch-towers of our own
America, torn by controversies respecting the initiatory rite into the visible
Church of our Lord Jesus, there shall roll forth the inspiring chorus, ' One
baptism !' when from the watch-towers of Africa, as though the God of all
the race were not her God as if the Father of the entire human family
were not her Father when from the watch-towers of neglected and de-
spised Africa there shall roll forth the chorus, 'One God and Father of
all !' when the sacramental host, scattered all over the face of this lower
creation, shall spring upon their feet, and, seizing the harp of thanksgiving,
they shall join in the chorus that shall be responded to by the angels, ' One
Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all,
and through all, and in you all ;' ' to whom be glory, dominion, and majesty
and blessing forever !'
" Mr. President, these eyes of mine may not see that day of rapture ; but
if not, then I expect with the great cloud of witnesses to stand yonder upon
the glory-illumined battlements of immortality, and looking down, I will
surely enjoy the feast of vision. I may not be associated with those who
shall send up from the earth the shout that 'Jesus reigns;' if not, it seems
NATIONAL CAMP-MEETING AT ROUND LAKE. 359
to me I will crowd a little closer to the throne with all the glorified com-
pany, and I will join with them in singing that the kingdoms of yonder
world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. Oh, sir ! at
the close of this anniversary day, as the result of what I have seen and
heard and enjoyed, I resolve to be a better man, and to be a more devoted
friend to the missionary cause."
Ah ! how little it was thought as the noble, healthful-looking
orator took his seat amid shouts and tears, that these conclud-
ing references to himself were so painfully prophetic ! Three
brief years and yonder he is on the battlements, crying to
Christ's hosts still in the conflict, " Forward ! and I will be
looking down upon you."
By an act of the General Conference of 1868 the Philadel-
phia Conference had been divided. All that portion of its ter-
ritory in Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia lying between the
Delaware and Chesapeake bays, and known as the Peninsula,
had been set off to itself, and denominated the Wilmington
Conference. The new Conference held its first session in Wil-
mington. Mr. Cookman remained in the Conference, and was
re-appointed to Grace Church for the second year. He thus
found himself a leading member in a leading charge of a form-
ing Conference, and, with a loyalty to Methodism exceeded by
none, he addressed himself vigorously to the development and
conservation of the elements of progress within its bounds.
The National Committee had appointed their annual camp-
meeting for July 6th, at Round Lake, near Saratoga, New York.
The success of the two previous meetings at Vineland and
Manheim, the eligibleness of the location at Round Lake, the
increasing attention awakened in the subject of Christian holi-
ness, drew together a vast concourse of people. Representa-
tives were there from well-nigh all the states, the Canadas, and
even from England.
" The cosmopolitan character of the meeting is a very marked feature of
the occasion, and while the word ' National ' is sometimes criticised as
meaning too much, yet, in the sense that it is national, it does not express
360 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
enough, for here are representatives from many distant parts of the world.
Our first introduction on the ground was to Rev. N. Cyr, of Paris, who had
been attracted by the catholic design of the meeting, and is here to see and
share its blessed fruits. He compares it with the meetings held by the
Evangelical Society during the great Exposition in his own city. Here, too,
is a publisher from London, D. Morgan, Esq., who has come all the way
across the Atlantic to be present at the great American camp-meeting.
He is a most enthusiastic admirer of the simplicity of the scene, as also
of the vastness of the scale on which the camp is laid out. Another, who is
relating a blessed experience in the preachers' love-feast, is a Methodist
clergyman from Canada.
" Besides all these, there are our own adopted brethren of every land and
clime, some of whom know our common Christian character better than
they know our tongue.
" There are nearly one hundred and fifty clergymen from all portions of
our great work. The location is most admirably suited to secure the health
and comfort of the congregated thousands. The inclosure of forty acres is
beautifully situated almost on the margin of the lovely lake from which the
place derives its name, and is the most admirably arranged for its purpose
of any thing of the sort we have ever seen. The grove is charmingly shady
and free from stumps and undergrowth, while the fresh breezes from the
lake play with the fragrant odors of the hemlocks which perfume the grove
and fill the senses with purest invigoration.
"The Sabbath is over, the great day of the feast ! At a quarter to five
o'clock A.M. the bell of the tabernacle announced to the camp the hour of
early worship, and at once the pavilion was crowded with multitudes, an
earnest of the ' day of rest.'
" The love-feast, at eight, was an occasion as only can be enjoyed at such
a gathering as this. Four hundred persons in some way or other spoke of
their present faith in Jesus, and mostly testified to receiving during this
meeting the consciousness of sanctifying grace. The chief feature distin-
guishing it from ordinary camp-meeting love-feasts was the almost full re-
sponse given to the request, by the leader of the meeting, that each state
of the Union should be represented by at least two persons in their experi-
ences. Commencing with Maine, John Allen, of camp-meeting notoriety,
was at once on his feet, declaring that ' this was the one hundred and ninety-
ninth camp-meeting that he had attended, and he hoped to attend as many
more.' State by state with only, perhaps, the exception of Louisiana,
Texas, and Florida happy voices, praised God for the common salvation."*
* Correspondence of The Methodist, July 17, 1869.
ACTIVITY AT CAMP-MEETINGS. 361
Among the one hundred and fifty ministers, none was more
actively engaged in the work than Mr. Cookman. His preach-
ing, speaking, and private conversations were a feature of the
meeting.
On returning home from Round Lake, he barely took time
to brush from his feet the dust of one field before he was off to
another. He attended at least four camp-meetings on the Pe-
ninsula hastening from the Camden Union to Talbot Union,
near Easton, Maryland, and thence to EnnalPs Springs, and
thence homeward to Brandywine Summit. His labors at any
one of these meetings would have been enough to exhaust most
men, but he went through them all with an unflagging interest.
His zeal and strength seemed to know no abatement. Every
where his presence excited the utmost enthusiasm, and both
preachers and people rallied under his leadership with a unanim-
ity and intentness which rendered his services during this season
ever memorable for the marvelous victories achieved for the
cross of Christ. The like had not been known in this time-hon-
ored region for many years the old battle-grounds of Asbury,
Garrettson, Smith, Laurenson, Cooper, and others of the fathers,
resounded with songs of triumph, which carried the " oldest in-
habitants living " back to the former days, and made them feel
that modern Methodism was still instinct with apostolic fire.
To his wife, at Columbia, Pennsylvania :
" WILMINGTON, July 25, 1869.
" It is half-past ten o'clock, time for retiring, but before I give myself to
dreams I will pen a few lines for your pleasure. I am in the parsonage ;
have slept here every night since I left you. It is rather desolate ; never-
theless I am retired and more independent than I could be at the homes of
the dear friends. I have had a very blessed day. Preached morning and
evening to large congregations respecting the preciousness of Christ It
was manna for my own soul. Our Sabbath-evening prayer-meeting was very
tender and profitable. The Camden camp-meeting is in full blast. Presi-
dent Wilson went dovm yesterday. I am proposing to leave in the morn-
ing, and remain there till Wednesday morning, when I shall return in time
Q
362 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
to take the two P.M. train from Philadelphia for Long Branch. Many of
the families are absent, but their places are filled with the members of other
churches and strangers, so that we have had about our usual congrega-
tion. The friends now are all interested in the prospect of the Brandywine
camp. Their proposition is to provide a tent for us. They will not hear
to any thing else than our presence. We will have to curtail our time a lit-
tle at Ennall's, and give a week to our own people. I believe this is about
all the news I have to communicate. My heart is kept in great peace by
the presence and power of the indwelling Spirit Jesus is unspeakably
precious. This is the first letter that I have written you for a long time.
I know that I am a poor husband and father not nearly so attentive or
affectionate as I ought to be ; nevertheless there are none so dear to me as
my little home circle. I want to be a great deal more demonstrative of my
real feeling. Pray for me. You know what a good-for-nothing brother I
am in my own estimation. The love of my friends and of the blessed Jesus
amazes me."
To his wife :
" WILMINGTON, Saturday morning, July 31.
" Excuse the lead-pencil ; it is the best I can do at the present moment.
During this week I have been so situated that correspondence or letters
have been out of the question. President Wilson, however, was a living
epistle, who communicated at least that he had seen me, and that I was well.
The friends at Camden were very kind, and I had a pleasant time. The
meeting did not strike me as any thing special. On Tuesday Bishop James
preached a really powerful sermon. There were some conversions, but so-
ciability and fashion seemed to rule the hour. On Wednesday I proceeded
to Ocean Grove, reaching there in the evening about half-past seven. I
found a number of tents erected, and Brother H , of Troy, and wife and
daughter; Brother H , of Albany, and wife and daughter and son;
Brother T and wife ; Brother S and wife ; Brother O and
wife ; Brother F and wife ; Hughes, Stockton, Andrews and wife, etc.,
etc. a nice company, and a specially nice time boating, bathing, riding,
rambling, singing, praying, enjoying clambakes, hard and soft crabs, oysters,
and regular sea-side living. Oh, how much and how often we all longed
for you to share our enjoyments !
" The place is, of course, rather rough as yet, but it impresses me most
favorably. I believe it can be made one of the attractive spots of the con-
tinent. An extensive grove beautiful sites for cottages a splendid beach,
and then two lakes on either side, constituting the northern and southern
UNION CAMP-MEETING, EASTON, MD. 363
boundaries of the property lakes not deep, but full of fish, crabs, etc., and
where the children could swim, boat, etc.
" I left Long Branch, or Ocean Grove, yesterday morning, and arrived at
Wilmington again at one o'clock; found and eagerly read your letters, and
now propose to start to-day for Easton, Maryland, where the camp-meeting
is in progress. They are painfully anxious respecting my presence. Re-
turning the latter part of the week, I do not think that I can be absent from
Grace Church next Sabbath; but after the Sabbath will hope on Tuesday
or Wednesday to join you in Columbia, and on Friday start for EnnalPs
Springs. By this arrangement I will scarcely have a Sabbath for Columbia
this summer. The friends here are generally well. Now what say you to
W'illiamsport, Pennsylvania ? T writes me offering the Presidency of
Dickinson Seminary, talks about the education of my boys opportunity for
preaching all over, etc., etc., and asks for a decision ; but I believe I do not
see it as he does. The pastorate, I reckon, is my proper place. We will talk
it and other matters over when we meet. But my space is disappearing.
Give love and kisses to my dear children. Tell them to be good and gen-
tle and obedient and kind. If practicable, I will write from the Peninsula."
The Union camp-meeting, held near Easton, Maryland, under
the management of Rev. Dr. E. Kenney, was very successful.
" Rev. A. Cookman, of Wilmington, was present nearly the entire time,
and his devotion of spirit was participated in by the ministers on the ground.
The entire encampment was divided into sections, and the ministers were
appointed to daily duty in pastoral visitation to every tent in the section to
which they were assigned. Every tent was visited, and the inmates person-
ally talked with on the subject of religion, and prayer was had with all in
the tent. At one o'clock each day every tent on the ground was closed for
a short season of silent prayer. The voice of prayer could be heard from
different parts of the ground during the intervals of public service; and, as
a result, this meeting was a great success.
" On the last night of the Easton meeting, over one hundred and fifty pen-
itents knelt at the altar for prayers. At eight o'clock each morning meet-
ings were held for the distinct object of the sanctification of believers, and
at nearly every service many presented themselves as subjects of prayer
who were seeking heart purity or the forgiveness of sins. There was no dis-
cussion on controverted points of theology, but in perfect harmony all la-
bored together to promote Christ's work in the hearts of the people."*
\_
* Correspondence of The Methodist, 1869.
364 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
As evidence of Mr. Cookman's power in prayer, an incident
which occurred at this meeting is given by the Rev. John Field,
of Philadelphia, who was with him at the time: "Captain D
had presented himself repeatedly at the altar of prayer. One
day at the close of the morning service the Captain came out
of the woods, where he had been engaged in private prayer, and
bowed again at the altar. Brother Cookman noticed him, and
immediately called attention to him. ' Now,' said he, ' God has
promised to answer the united prayers of two or three, let us
put Him to the test.' Turning to Brother A , he inquired,
' Do you believe this ?' Brother A answered in the affirm-
ative. He asked Brother B the same question, and he
also answered in the affirmative. Brother Cookman said, ' I
also believe God's Word and His promise.' Amid profound si-
lence the company bowed in prayer. Brother A prayed,
then Brother B . Brother Cookman followed. He carried
the case of the poor penitent right to the Cross, and just as he
closed his earnest prayer,
" ' Heaven came down our souls to greet,
While glory crowned the mercy-seat.'
God's blessed Spirit witnessed with Captain D.'s that he was
born of God. The Captain put his hand into his side-pocket,
and, taking therefrom his pocket Bible, said, ' Now I understand
it' the passage still marked and pointing to it. ' I went out
alone, bowed beneath the shade of a friendly tree, and opened
my Bible ; my eye rested on this passage, " But thou, when thou
prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door,
pray to thy Father which is in secret ; and thy Father which
seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." I was to be reward-
ed openly, and I am, amid this vast assembly Glory be to the
Lamb!' Brother Cookman took the Bible, and wrote in it,
' McNeil's Woods, August, noon, A.D. 1869, the happiest day
of my life,' and the Captain signed it.
During the progress of the meeting he preached frequently
ENNALL'S SPRINGS CAMP-MEETING. 365
and with great power. On one occasion he remained up the
whole night, going from tent to tent, instructing penitents, and
praying with them."
Nowhere was Mr. Cookman more at home than at Ennall's
Springs, Dorchester County, Maryland. He had been accus-
tomed from his early ministry to resort to that beautiful spot,
honored of God in the conversion of so many people. This
year was the semi-centennial of its appropriation as a place for
camp-meetings. The most delightful memories thronged about
the place ; thousands on earth and thousands in heaven had
been brought to God there, and it was proposed to observe the
occasion by suitable services. The account of the meeting by
a correspondent of The Methodist will be read with pleasure by
all lovers of the sacred place, and all who prize genuine camp-
meetings :
" Rev. Mr. Prettyman, who was present at the first meeting held on the
ground, which was under the charge of Father Boehm, was present, and
spoke frequently and with thrilling pathos of scenes witnessed on the ground
half a century ago. President Wilson, of the Wesleyan Female College ;
Professor Bowman, of Dickinson College; Professor Fischer, of Philadel-
phia; Mr. Hurst, of Baltimore ; Rev. Alfred Cookman, of Wilmington, were
present, and, with Rev. N. M. Brown, preacher in charge, Messrs. Buoys,
Watson, Tompkinson, Burke, and others of our own locality, rendered effi-
cient service. This meeting has been specially favored for a number of
years with the earnest labors of the sweet-spirited Cookman, who seems,
when there, to be as one with his own kindred. Fondly cherished as he is
by the people, his services are signally successful. His name is identified
with the greatest triumphs of Christ in this locality of late years, and his an-
nual visitation is highly appreciated by the people, and his absence would
be greatly felt by them. We may express the hope here that, for the honor
and success of Methodism on the Eastern Shore, this meeting may be re-
membered by our ministerial brethren and friends in the laity in future years.
Its influence has been very great in concentrating the feeling and interest
of our people in the old Church, and it has contributed, perhaps, as much
as any other single influence, toward holding the people together, and keep-
ing them loyal to the Church in the trying times of the last nine years.
" The meeting this year has not fallen behind former occasions. Besides
366 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
the ordinary services, special meetings were held each day for ministers, con-
ducted by Rev. A. Cookman; for the children, in which occurred a number
of conversions ; and for the young ladies on the ground, the latter conduct-
ed by Mrs. Cookman, Mrs. President Wilson, and Miss Emily Stevenson.
"The most liberal arrangements were made for the entertainment of the
preachers in attendance. The lodging-rooms consisted of a well-arranged
frame house attached to the preaching-stand, where every home convenience
was found. The honor of this arrangement belongs to Mr. Robert Thomp-
son, who erected the building at his own expense. But these good people
are not satisfied with extending a week's hospitality to the preachers that
come to assist in the meetings, but they gladly welcome their wives and fam-
ilies as well, and the richest provision is made for their entertainment.
"The Sabbath was kept holy, and, although large crowds assembled to
listen to the preaching, there was nothing to complain of on the score of
show in dress, or time wasted in promenading, or any disorder. The serv-
ices were ushered in by a prayer-meeting of interest at five o'clock, followed
by an old-fashioned love-feast at eight. The latter was held in front of
the stand, and was conducted by Professor Bowman.
" The ground soon became densely thronged, and a score or more of min-
isters were on the stand, when, at ten o'clock, Rev. A. Cookman arose and
announced, as the text for the morning sermon, the words : ' Be filled with the
Spirit.' His sermon was listened to with undivided interest and attention."
At Brandy-wine Summit, a few days later, he was preaching
and working with equal power. It was not enough for him to
deliver one of the sermons on Sunday, but he must occupy the
pulpit the last evening of the meeting. He was found, too,
among the children, lifting, by his tender, Christ-like spirit, the
little ones to God.
" Rev. A. Cookman on the last night of the meeting preached a search-
ing sermon, calling upon the people to estimate the value of the soul, and
what is lost in losing it, and what profit it would be if all else in this life
was gained but the soul lost. At midnight, in the greatest solemnity, the
Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was administered to about thirteen hundred
persons.
"The children's meetings, held during the progress of the camp, and un-
der the management of Rev. Messrs. Cookman, Clymer, Gracey, and Pan-
coast, were of more than usual interest. They were not mere occasions of
amusement in story-telling and pleasure in singing, but the most searching
PLEASING INCIDENT AT SPRING GARDEN. 367
appeals were made to the children, and prayer-meeting followed, when scores
presented themselves at the altar for prayers, and many were converted.
Nothing during the meeting was more impressive than to see these little
ones of the household arise and tell of the love of Jesus as they felt it in
their hearts. In these meetings, little boys and girls, from ten to fourteen
years of age, led in earnest prayer. While a sacred stillness prevailed in
the immense tent in which the services were held, the voice of a boy or girl
arose in sweetest tones to the throne of heavenly mercy, aged veterans knelt
before God with faces bathed in tears, and vast crowds looked on, while a
little child should lead them. On the last day, the brethren above mention-
ed stood in the midst of this exceedingly large and interesting group of chil-
dren, and, while many tears were shed, shook hands with each, and invoked
on each the divine blessing. Mothers came leading their little ones forward
to be prayed for by Christian pastors."*
In connection with the children's meeting referred to, a pleas-
ing incident which occurred while Mr. Cookman was at Spring
Garden may be appropriately mentioned. A gentleman from
the far West, writing immediately after his death, said :
" I attended his ministry at Spring Garden, Philadelphia, during the win-
ter of 1866. I loved him then, but not as I have for the past five years.
* * * I shall never forget one incident that occurred at that church that
was when a dear little son of his, of only eight years, presented himself as
a candidate for probation. My heart melted then, as hundreds besides,
when I saw the strong man bowed like a child, and heard him ask the Church
if he should receive that lamb into the fold. I saw the loving father then
as never before also the Spirit of Christ, when he said, ' Suffer little chil-
dren to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of
Heaven.'
" When I saw Brother Cookman years afterward, I asked him if he re-
membered that incident, and if that little boy had remained faithful. ' Oh,
yes,' he said ; ' he is about twelve years old now, and is a sanctified boy.' "
While on this subject it will not be amiss to insert an extract
from a short speech which fell from his lips on one occasion at
a Sunday-school convention :
" The Rev. Alfred Cookman arose, and expressed his confidence in the
conversion of children, declaring that he did not believe ' the way to heaven
* Correspondence of The Methodist.
368 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
lay through the territory of sin,' but that children at an early age might be
brought to a saving knowledge of redeeming love; citing as an illustration
the case of a boy who was converted at the age of ten, who was a pupil in
the Sabbath-school, became a teacher, a librarian, an exhorter, afterward a
minister of the Gospel, and who then stood before them, to speak his faith
in the power of regenerating grace in the hearts of the young.
" Mr. Cookman of course referred to his own history ; and those who are
familiar with his love for children, and his rare power to interest them, can
not but feel grateful that he was so early called of God, since perhaps to this
may be attributed that sympathy which he entertains for them ; a sympathy
which has encouraged many youthful hearts to beat with holy aspirations
for the favor of that Saviour who said, ' Suffer little children to come unto
me.' "
After his return from these meetings, Mr. Cookman wrote to
the Rev. L. R. Dunn, of the Newark Conference :
" You will be glad to know that the banner of full salvation is flying glo-
riously in the forests of this time-honored section. The spirit of holiness
that made Abbott and Garrettson and our fathers great, is coming back to
the churches founded by their hands over all this historic region. The
breath of the Divinity is stirring. Hallelujah !"
CHAPTER XXL
GRACE CHURCH. SKILL IN THE PASTORATE. NATIONAL CAMP-
MEETINGS AT HAMILTON, OAKINGTON, AND DESPLAINES.
THE camp-meetings over, the devout pastor was once more
' quietly seated in the bosom of his family, and again engaged
in those regular pastoral duties which to him were more con-
genial than all besides. It was in vain that he was invited to
step aside from his chosen work into an educational institution
whatever might be the advantages of a settled home and
school facilities for his children, his mission, to himself at least,
was clear. The immediate care of souls was to him unspeaka-
bly precious ; to feed the flock of Christ, an employment be-
yond any other which the Church could offer him. The state
of his feelings and the state of his parish are reflected in a
letter to his friend, Rev. J. S. Inskip, President of the National
Camp-meeting Association :
"WILMINGTON, November 5, 1869.
" I thank you for your kind letter. Your debtor in correspondence, I was
thinking of discharging the obligation, and thus writing another missive,
when, lo ! my large-hearted brother heaps favor on favor. This is like the
Divine ; and I know you want to bear the image of the Heavenly.
" Before your last note arrived, I had received from Brother Gray the ar-
ticles of agreement respecting the Oakington meeting, which I read, signed,
and forwarded to the brethren at Havre de Grace. They seemed to cover
all the points that had occurred to my mind. Their desire to have the
counsel and co-operation of Brother Samuel Hindes is, I think, wise and
well. He will prove, I believe, a most valuable helper. I deeply sympa-
thize with all you write respecting the magnitude of our responsibilities,
and the great need of power physical, intellectual, and spiritual that we
may stand in our lot, and quit ourselves successfully as the servants of holi-
Q 2
37 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
ness. My encouragement, however, is that we are moving in the divine
order, and that in the path of God's appointment we may confidently hope
for His presence and help, which guarantee the right results. \Ve have put
our hands in the grasp of the Infinite, saying,
" ' Only Thou our leader be,
And we still will follow Thee.'
Where divine wisdom will lead us, or what our Father may have for us to do
in the future, remains to be known. When clubs of athletes are crossing
oceans and continents fora simple and useless test of physical skill and power,
who knows but bands of Christian brothers may be summoned to the shores
of the Pacific or the sea-girt isle to fling out the banner of Christian holi-
ness, and offer the sweetest privilege, the richest experience, that God has "
arranged for our wretched but redeemed race. I am very humble, quiet,
trustful, and peaceful in my spiritual state. My hope and help are in the
Lord Jehovah that made heaven and earth. He has never done otherwise
than honor and vindicate my confidence in Him, and I am encouraged to
lean harder on His truth and power and love.
" Our Wednesday meeting is still well attended, and proves a fountain of
blessing. We have Christians of all names, and they place an increasing
appreciation on the privilege. God has been pouring out His spirit in some
of the churches, especially on old Asbury the altar is crowded from even-
ing to evening with a most interesting class of penitents. Mercy drops with
the prospect of a glorious shower of grace, and is falling on Epworth, the
Mission Chapel of Grace. Oh, that Wilmington may be baptized in an un-
precedented manner and measure ! Mrs. C is well, and wishes to be
most affectionately remembered to Sister Inskip and yourself. Write soon.
I love you tenderly in the blessed Jesus."
He was invited to Philadelphia to speak at the anniversary of
the Young Men's Christian Association, held in the Academy of
Music, November 3oth. In the address which he delivered one
can not but be struck with the great theme which seemed more
and more to fill his mind, and which he deemed so important
to Christian workers as hardly to be omitted without recognition
upon all occasions dependence upon the Holy Ghost.
* * * "The people heard Seneca, excellent man as he was; they heard
Seneca and the excellent truths he spoke, and deteriorated in their morals
they got worse and worse. The world has been listening to the teachings
PROPAGANDISM. 371
of Jesus listening during all these centuries ; and, as these gentlemen will
bear me witness, the world has been getting better and better in consequence
of these truths.
" Mr. President, I know of no satisfactory answer that can be supplied
except that our Christianity has the Holy Ghost in it. It has the Word ;
it has the truth which gives light ; but it has the Holy Spirit of God that
gives life. And what we want is Life ; for the world is dead, terribly dead,
in trespasses and sins. In illustration of what I mean : I take it that there
is not an individual in any of these galleries or under the sound of my voice,
not one but is familiar with that fundamental truth, 'Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and mind and strength.' We all
hold that now ; but how many of this vast audience really do love God ' with
all their heart and soul and mind and strength ?' Perhaps, if appealed to
personally or privately, many would say we have not the disposition ; some
would confess that they were lacking in the ability. Now, mark, they have
the truth ; they have it all their lives long ; but yet they do not love God
with all their hearts. What then ? Let these come to God ; let them ask for
the ability ; let them ask in the name of Christ and Him crucified ; let them
plead with a humble reliance upon God's strength^ His strength ; this is
leading men in Christ Jesus. In answer to their prayer the Holy Ghost
shall be given, and then they will not only know to love God, as they have
during all these years, but they will love God with all their heart It will
not only be a fact in their minds, but it will be an experience in their hearts ;
it will be a power, a blessed saving power in their lives.
"This, sir, I feel is just what our associations and churches and com-
munities are now so much needing. We need this divine power, this super-
natural power ; it is necessary to accompany and apply the truth to the
minds and hearts of those with whom we have to do. * * *
" In trying to do good in the world, the Infinite One fills us, inspires us,
emboldens us, ennobles us, saves us, blesses us, makes us strong in nature
and in the power of His might. Oh ! does not this quiet, thoughtful, attent-
ive audience see the point I would make ? Entirely consecrated to the serv-
ice, and then filled with God ! A co-worker with Omnipotence ! I challenge
the world to supply a more sublime ideal of character, of experience, of
life !"
To Mr. W. W. Cookman, of Philadelphia :
" WILMINGTON, DEL., December 7, 1869.
" We have just received Mary's note, acquainting us with your indisposi-
tion. The first prompting was to cast aside every thing and hasten to your
372 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
home. This, however, is a busy day with me, and all the more busy because
I have just returned from Baltimore, where I have been rendering some
little service. Be assured, dear Will, of our deepest sympathy with you in
your affliction. We would be submissive to all the divine arrangements,
but, indeed, it gives us real pain to think that you are confined to your bed,
a subject "of suffering. You know we would do any thing in the world to
serve or help you for you are a very precious brother to me. I love you
with a deep, true love, that grows stronger day by day. In this trial you will
learn a lesson of patient endurance and quiet submission. Our Father, the
God of the fatherless, carries you in His arms, and most probably never
loved you so much as now ; for He has the tenderest sympathy and deepest
affection for His suffering children. We will not forget to commend you in
earnest and frequent prayer to His providential care and fatherly love. We
shall hope to see you on Friday. Keep up your spirits, trust implicitly in
God, and all will be well. Love for Mary, kisses for the children."
To Mr. W. W. Cookman :
" WILMINGTON, December 30, 1869.
" It was very neglectful in me to allow so many days to elapse before
acknowledging your brotherly generosity but for a week now we have been
a very excited family. The Sabbath with its duties followed Christmas very
closely. This over, the next thing was a golden wedding at Mr. Cause's, in
which, as the pastor of the family, I was expected to take a part. We received
first the barrel of flour, and afterward the children's presents, for all of
which we were deeply and tenderly thankful. May our Heavenly Father
reward you a thousand-fold for your considerate and most acceptable kind-
ness. The Christmas season has been full of joy in our domestic life. The
return of our children, their generally good health, their gratification with
their presents, their jubilant spirits, all have conspired to make it an unusu-
ally happy time. I have fared better than for many years. A couple of
gentlemen presented me with a suit of clothes, our young men with an over-
coat, the ladies with a nice cashmere wrapper, and another gentleman with
a new hat. All these articles were just what I really needed, and, of course,
were most acceptable. ' Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His
benefits.' We think a great deal about you during your affliction, and every
day very carefully commend you to God in earnest prayer. We trust that
the means used may be specially and speedily blessed, so that you may be
able to take your place again in life's busy arena. Meanwhile get out of this
dispensation all the spiritual wealth that may be extracted from it ; remem-
bering that, after all, the spiritual is as much better than the material as the
CHRISTMAS JOYS. A JUST TRIBUTE. 373
soul is of more consequence than its frail, fleshly home. God bless you and
yours."
The Christmas festival was a delight to Mr. Cookman, and
was always appropriately observed by suitable religious and so-
cial exercises. His house, with its interchange of gifts and sal-
utations, was a scene of cheerful gayety. With his own children
and the children of the Sunday-school he mingled freely, re-
minding them by his innocent mirthfulness th"at the religion
which Jesus was born to establish is fitted to make every body
happy. The enthusiastic and tasteful celebrations of the sea-
son on its annual returns while he was at Grace Church were
among the pleasantest occurrences of his pastorate, and can not
be soon blotted from the memories of his young parishioners.
In March, 1870, Mr. Cookman was re-appointed for the third
year to Grace Church.
His delicate tact and tender thoughtfulness as a pastor were
happily illustrated quite early in the year in connection with
the last illness of one of the devout ladies of his Church, Mrs.
Bates, the wife of Chancellor Bates. Mr. Bates's note, accom-
panying the letters written by Mr. Cookman to Mrs. Bates, af-
ford the best explanation of the case, and also offer a very just
tribute to the worth of the faithful pastor.
D. M. Bates, Esq., of Wilmington, Delaware, to the Rev. J. E.
Cookman :
"The letter, of which the inclosed is a copy, was written by Mr. Cookman
to Mrs. Bates during her last illness, at a period when a failure of voice pre-
cluded her from conversation with friends hence the occasion for his giv-
ing her pastoral advice and sympathy by letter. It was most gratefully ap-
preciated by her, and often read with expressions of great pleasure, and with
much consolation and help under her feebleness. She held him in affec-
tionate confidence and regard, and cordially received and rested upon his
counsels and this letter, together with a subsequent one written from New
England, of which also a copy is inclosed with this, did much toward inspiring
her with a more cheerful and resigned spirit under her declining strength. It
is a beautiful outflow of pastoral affection, breathing the very spirit of Christ
374 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
himself, and containing sentiments worthy to be written in letters of gold.
It is a memorial of both the departed far more precious than rubies."
To Mrs. D. M. Bates, of Wilmington :
" WILMINGTON, May 31, 1870.
" You must not think that we have forgotten you in your affliction. A
hundred times you have been in our thoughts, and very frequently, if it had
been deemed practicable or best, we would have offered you in person the
sympathy of a pastor's heart. It has occurred to me that a message of love
through this medium might not be unwelcome, and hence I take a moment
to communicate that there are some hearts outside of your happy home that
are concerned for your welfare, and that do not fail or forget to present you
in your feebleness to that Father who does not willingly afflict any of his
dear children. The dispensation that withdraws you from the active duties
of domestic life is profoundly mysterious. We will not presumptuously
venture an explanation of this providence. At the same time, you will be
comforted by the remembrance that our Father, if inscrutable, is never wrong.
Clouds frequently cover His ways, but there is light on the other side of the
cloud light to reveal the fact of mystery light with which we may meet
the obligations and trials of the passing hour. We must ' trust where we
can not trace,' and remember that while living the life of faith we are mov-
ing as safely as though we understood every thing. ' He that dwelleth in
the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Al-
mighty.'
" May I affectionately counsel that, with an implicit and steady reliance
upon Jesus for the help of the Almighty Spirit, you accept all the will of God
moment by moment aye, take that will into your heart, and love it better
than all beside ; for the difference between the unsaved and the fully saved
is that while the former find the will of God without them, and are obliged to
submit to what they can not change, the latter find that same will within
them, and very cheerfully submit to what they would not change.
" Let this season of affliction be an epochal time in your earthly history
constituted such not only by a fuller, but by the fullest submission of your-
self and family and all to the infinitely excellent will of your Father in
Heaven. You may safely trust that will, for it is never arbitrary, never
wrong. It is always the expression of divine wisdom and love.
" As you sometimes indulge in prospective vision, say that all the rest of
your life shall be, in the fullest and strictest sense, a consecrated life a life
hid with Christ in God a life blessed in its experiences and in its results,
concerning itself principally for the spiritual welfare of those around you,
A BREATH OF LOVE FOR THE SICK-ROOM. 375
and linking itself with the glory and triumph of the eternal future. Take
this opportunity that the providence of God gives to write on all you have
and are and hope for, ' Sacred to Jesus,' and spend the rest of your life in
steadily ' Looking only unto Jesus.' These two sentences may be profitable
mottoes for every useful and glorious life.
" Excuse the liberty I thus take in writing to you. My note may be a
word in season. In any case, it will furnish assurance that you are remem-
bered with sympathy and love and prayer by your tenderly attached pastor."
To Mrs. D. M. Bates :
" HAMILTON CAMP-GROUND, MASSACHUSETTS, June 29, 1870.
" You will be surprised perhaps to receive this letter, but it will at least
indicate that, although far away, still you are remembered by your affection-
ate pastor ; and not only have you a place in my thoughts, but also in my
prayers. Many times in this consecrated forest I have been reminded of
you in your feebleness, and lifted up my soul to God that He would be with
you and bless you, and make your sickness a signal and glorious passage in
your earthly history. We are having really a most wonderful time at our
Hamilton camp-m,eeting, the first service of the kind I have ever attended
in New England. The attendance is from all the surrounding states, and
the interest and divine power exceed, I think, any thing I have ever wit-
nessed. Hundreds of ministers and people are concerned to enjoy their full
privilege in the Gospel. The community in this section is generally more
intellectual and less demonstrative than that in the Middle and Southern
States. They can and do meet mind with mind, but that still leaves the
heart untouched. They want Holy Ghost power, and, asking, God is glori-
ously giving it to them. Unless I am greatly mistaken, the effects of this
extraordinary meeting will be far-reaching and most blessed. Oh ! my dear
sister, I do so much wish that your kind heart and whole being shall be en-
tirely filled with God, submitting to His will in every particular, and tasting
the joy of perfect love. Let us be altogether and eternally the Lord's.
" I thought that a breath of love from New England might bring a mo-
ment's refreshment to you in your sick-room. Give my tenderest love to
the Judge, and to your sons and daughters."
Mr. Cookman's judgment in dealing with the sick was proved
not alone in the feminine gentleness with which he could antic-
ipate the needs of the cultured pious lady, but also in the force
and skill with which -he would approach the hardened and im-
penitent man. When he was stationed at Trinity, New York,
376 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
a gentleman called upon him and requested him to visit a son,
who was ill. The young man had been very wayward, was
still obdurate, and refused all religious counsel and prayer.
Mr. Cookman went, but the young man declined conversation
wished to have nothing to do with him ; but instead of in-
sisting, he immediately withdrew, with the quiet, loving remark,
" Well, my friend, you may refuse to let me talk and pray with
you, but you can not prevent my praying far you." This kind
word had its desired effect. He called again very soon to in-
quire for the invalid, and, to the surprise of all, was welcomed
by him and invited to pray. The visits were repeated until the
young man professed to be converted, and died confessing his
faith in Christ.
From the last letter it will be seen that Mr. Cookman had
already, thus early in the summer, entered upon his yearly
camp-meeting tour.
The National Association had determined upon three camp-
meetings for the year 1870 the first at Hamilton, Massachu-
setts, June 2ist; the second at Oakington, Maryland, June
i2th; and the third at Desplaines, Illinois, August gth all of
which Mr. Cookman attended, preaching at them all, and labor-
ing with the untiring zeal which had heretofore characterized
him.
His impressions at the Hamilton meeting have been already
partially presented. At the meeting alluded to in this letter he
is reported to have said, "How I joy in that divine declaration,
' Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the
Father may be glorified in the Son.' This has been the very
best Sabbath-day of all my earthly Sabbaths. An isolation
from the world in the sense of non-conformity is the secret of
spiritual power. I am able and I am willing to be a witness
and if alone, I would hold up this banner." The Sunday-even-
ing service was assigned to him, but, instead of preaching, he
narrated his experience.
HAMILTON AND OAKINGTON CAMP-MEETINGS. 377
I give a letter from this place to his wife :
" HAMILTON CAMP-GROUND, Monday.
" On Saturday I dropped you a few lines, acquainting you with my unin-
terrupted journey to and safe arrival at this place. When I wrote the
weather was insufferably warm ; I scarcely ever experienced any thing equal
to it The same night, however, it stormed, the wind veering around to the
east, and giving us a rainy Sabbath. The services, consequently, were held in
our new tabernacle. It was a wonderful Sabbath, certainly the best of any we
have spent in the woods as a National Committee. Brother Wells preached
in the morning on consecration, Brother Boole in the afternoon on the spir-
itual life of the Church ; in the evening I had charge of the services, not
preaching, but exhorting and directing the prayer-meeting. The friends are
expecting a sermon from me to-morrow. From the love-feast in the morn-
ing until the closing service at night, it was extraordinary. This meeting, in
its interest and power, is a great success. The brethren feel that in its im-
pressiveness and holy influence it is equal to or ahead of Round Lake.
There are very few from the large cities of Philadelphia, New York, or
Boston. A large proportion of the people seem to be from Maine. Scores
and hundreds are coming into the liberty of full salvation. Mrs. Wright is
here, concerned to do her part. I am so interrupted in writing that it is
difficult to proceed tent full of brethren. I hold you constantly before
God."
The camp-meeting at Oakington, July i2th, near Havre de
Grace, Maryland, was very numerously attended. At one of
the earlier prayer-meetings Mr. Cookman, addressing the
friends, spoke in substance as follows :
" We desire for your own sake, for the sake of your comfort, usefulness,
but especially for Jesus' sake we desire for you a rich, round, full, abiding,
blessed religious experience and life. Oh, how gladly and thankfully we
would help you this morning if we could ! But we are reminded that there is
a better Leader, a better Teacher, even the Holy Ghost. He guides into
all truth. He takes of the things of Christ, the truth of Christ, the power
of Christ, the blood of Christ, the grace of Christ, and shows them unto
us. Let us put ourselves under His divine tuition. Blessed Spirit, Third
Person of the adorable Trinity, proceeding from the Father and the Son,
we acknowledge Thee, we worship Thee, we praise Thee, we love Thee, we
seek fellowship with Thee, we want to be filled this day, and every day,
and constantly, with all this fullness. Oh, hear our prayer in this morning
378 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
service ! Come and direct our thoughts ; come and quicken our desires ;
come and help our faith ; come and enable us in all the services this day to
sing
" ' Come, Holy Ghost, for Thee we call ;
Spirit of power and blessing, come.' "
The correspondent of The Methodist* writing from Oaking-
ton, evidently in the counsels of the National Committee, vin-
dicates their course in declining to invite ministers to preach
who differed with them on the doctrine of entire sanctification.
There is scarcely one point in the conduct of the committee
which had up to this time subjected them to so much criti-
cism. With the explanation given, their decision in the matter
seems sufficiently reasonable ; especially as it was not meant to
exclude ministers from preaching at their camp-meetings upon
grounds of merely technical, but of radical, differences of opin-
ion on the subject of holiness :
" The sermons were all of interest, and all bearing upon the one theme to
be kept prominently in view during this meeting. The rule adopted by the
committee in former meetings was duly observed here namely, to call to
the stand to preach only such ministers as are clear in their views and ex-
perience of the grace of Christian perfection ; they feel more than ever the
responsibility of abiding by this rule, since, as was stated in The Northern
Christian Advocate, they are singly and severely responsible to the world
and the Church that nothing that is presented at these meetings shall be
anti-Scriptural or anti-Methodistical. With this responsibility upon them,
they do well to retain entire supervision of every meeting held upon the
ground. With this watchful supervision, there is no danger to be appre-
hended that any new doctrine will be introduced or any schism occur.
Nothing here presented will have any tendency to divide the Church. The
key-note is harmony, love, and union. They set up no tests, but ask only
for purity of heart, and a confession of the saving power of the blood of
Jesus. There is no radicalism but the radicalism of love ; and no visions
or new revelations or prophecies ; but earnest, heart -searching, sin-subdu-
ing, soul-invigorating power. These men fight with the old guns of Meth-
odism, and seek only the baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire."
* July 30, 1870.
DESPLAINES. FULL OF WORK. 379
So general was the attendance at this meeting, that,
" When the roll of the states was called, representatives answered from
all the states and territories but three. An Indian from Northern Michi-
gan, and ministers recently from India, China, Australia, Canada, England,
Germany, Ireland, and our territories in the far West, testified of the tri-
umphs of religion in their localities."
To accommodate the numerous friends of the national move-
ment in the West, a camp-meeting was also held at Desplaines,
Illinois, near Chicago, on the glh of August. A correspondent
writing of it, said :
" Sunday was a great day. The prayer-meeting at five o'clock largely
attended was led by Rev. A. Cookman. At eight the love-feast was held ;
Rev. L. R. Dunn presided. Nearly three hundred gave in their testimonies.
The people represented not only the Eastern, Western, Middle, and South-
ern States of our own country, but England, Ireland, Germany, Wales, Rus-
sia, Africa, Canada, Sweden, and the Argentine Republic. Many of these
testimonies, though brief, were truly thrilling, both in word and spirit. As
an example : A colored man from Canada said, ' Forty years ago my soul
was set at liberty, even before my body was emancipated.' "
Amid all the duties and excitements of the meeting, Mr.
Cookman found time for correspondence.
To his wife :
" DESPLAINES CAMP-GROUND, Saturday morning, )
Summer of 1870. )
" It is really very difficult to find time for correspondence even with my
precious Annie. Meetings begin at five A.M. and continue until bed-time.
These, with meals and conversation, occupy almost every moment. Your
kind letter came to hand yesterday. It was most refreshing to hear from
home. God be praised for His goodness to my loved ones. Yesterday the
morning sermon fell to my lot. We had a cool hour, a large congregation,
and our kind Heavenly Father allowed me a most comfortable time. I
might write many kind things that were said of the discourse, but this you
know is not my taste or style. Just at the close of my sermon I invited
brethren of the ministry and laity to gather in the altar. Brother Matlack,
of New Orleans, preached in the afternoon a very tender sermon Brother
Welling in the evening, and Brother McDonald this mcrning. The meet-
ing is wonderful wonderful wonderful.
380 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
" Such unanimity, earnestness, and divine power have scarcely been par-
alleled at any of our previous meetings. Yesterday was one of the best
days I ever spent in a consecrated forest. An influence seemed to pervade
the encampment that got hold of every body the best men both of the min-
istry and laity. Last night it was very cold, cold enough for October ; dur-
ing the night it began to rain, and to-day the rain continues, driving us all
to the tabernacle. We are most pleasantly situated in our forest cottage,
and our boarding arrangements are most excellent first-rate table and most
attentive waiters. God is very good to me. He fills my soul and gracious-
ly helps me in my humble efforts to do His holy will. To-morrow, Sabbath,
Brother Inskip preaches in the morning and Brother Boole in the afternoon.
General meeting for night. God bless you, Annie, and my dear children.
Love to the boys and all friends."
To his wife :
"DESPLAINES, August 15, 1870.
" I have the opportunity of sending a letter direct to Philadelphia by the
hand of Brother Wallace. My last, I believe, was written on Saturday even-
ing. That was a damp, cold day. All the services were in the tabernacle.
Sabbath opened with a cool atmosphere but a cloudless sky. It devolved
upon me to lead the five o'clock prayer-meeting in the morning. It was
blessed indeed. At eight we had the love-feast, one of my very best. At half-
past ten Brother Inskip preached well unusually well. At half-past two
P.M. Dr. Reed, editor of The Northwestern Christian Advocate, preached.
At the close of the sermon believers were rallied, and a general charge made
on the unconverted. The altar was crowded with penitents, and some thirty-
five were converted in less than an hour. In the evening, as usual, Broth-
er Alfred had to head the column. God helped me as much, perhaps, as
ever in my life, and I trust great good was done. The whole ground seem-
ed to be a great altar, sinners and unbelievers both down before God. We
all think it was the best Sabbath of any of our National camp-meetings.
Glory to the Lamb ! The weather is very cool. My shawl is a decided
necessity. I begin to realize a sense of great weakness, and will have to be
careful lest I contract the chills and fever. Willing to work, and obliged
to remain till the last moment, still I will be glad to turn my face home-
ward, and sit down again amid the quiet comforts of No. 813 West Street.
" To-day there seems to be a little reaction from yesterday nevertheless,
the meetings have been very profitable. To-night God is present in great
power. The great West answers to the East, and shouts, Holiness to the
Lord. But I must close. The people are very kind some of them think
USEFULNESS AT DESPLAINES. 381
they must have me in the Northwest Give my love to the dear boys let
this take the form of a sweet kiss from their dear ma. The baby boy, of
course, will not be forgotten. I received to-day your second letter. It was
a hundred thousand times welcome. Take good care of yourself."
To Mrs. Bishop Hamline :
" DESPLAINES, August 19, 1870.
" We have been wonderfully favored at Desplaines the weather, the con-
gregations, the presence of a large number of ministers, the sustained and
increasing interest, the loving spirit of the people, and especially the pres-
ence and power of the Divinity all, all call for songs of loudest praise.
Your prayers have been signally answered. This is beyond all question
the best of our series of National camp-meetings. Your friends, of course,
will supply all the details. My own soul has been wonderfully strengthened
and helped.
" God bless you abundantly, my precious sister. I have written this in
the midst of camp-meeting duties and excitements. It is not a thousandth
part of what is in my heart to say. Pray for me, and believe me your de-
votedly attached son in the Gospel."
Some estimate of Mr. Cookman's ministrations at this meet-
ing may be formed from one or two facts communicated by
John Emory Voak, M.D., of Bloomington, 111., who was present
at the time :
" While attending the meeting, having known Brother Cookman, I took
particular pains to attend all his ministrations and every meeting that he
led, and oh, how my soul fed and feasted on the bread of life as dispensed
by him !
" I never shall forget his sermon on the theme, ' Entire sanctification.'
Surely the Holy Spirit spoke through him to many hearts, and won them to
Christ as a Saviour to the uttermost
" I wish I could describe one of the most glorious meetings I ever attend-
ed, led by him. After answering the objection often urged against laboring
for the promotion of holiness (instead of the conversion of sinners) most
beautifully, he gave a sketch of his experience. He said that ' on these
hands, these feet, these lips I have written, Sacred to yents.'' After his en-
larging on that beautiful motto, I am sure many in that meeting of preach-
ers saw entire sanctification as a more comprehensive and sacred work than
they had been wont to view it, and that they were then set apart as never
before.
382 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
" One other incident which can not be described occurred at the last
service of that meeting. The time had come when we must part ; all Chris-
tian hearts were solemn some were sad at the thought of leaving that
hallowed ground. The leader felt he could not dose without giving one
more opportunity for sinners to come to Jesus, and for Christians to plunge
anew into the fountain. To the surprise of perhaps every one, nearly two
hundred arose for prayers. That scene seemed to inspire Brother Cook-
man, and he offered a prayer such as I never expect to hear equaled. The
Holy Ghost made intercession in his soul with groanings that could not be
uttered. He was in audience with Deity aye, more, he had hold on God,
and it literally raised him from his knees. I never heard such a fervent,
effectual prayer, and it prevailed, as many will testify in the clay of judg-
ment."
This communication, together with Mr. Cookman's own ac-
count of the meeting, affords ample evidence that he never
sought the entire sanctification of believers to the neglect of
" calling sinners to repentance."
Besides attending the National camp-meetings, Mr. Cook-
man was present at the usual number of local camp-meetings
through the summer, and performed at every one the same al-
most superhuman work. He could allow himself no respite,
but flew like a herald of light from place to place. Ennall's
Springs, Talbot County, Brandywine Summit, Camden Union,
Ocean Grove, and possibly others, shared his ministrations.
He wrote from Ennall's Springs to Mrs. Cookman :
" ENNALL'S, Monday, 1870.
" Sabbath is over ; it was a bright, beautiful, blessed day the atmosphere
cool, pure, invigorating. We had good congregations. I preached both
morning and evening, superintended the love-feast and two prayer-meetings,
and at half-past ten went to bed pretty well worn out This is vacation !
Our services have all been very profitable, the prayer-meeting last night
and this morning especially. There are a good many hungry souls here,
and I have great joy in inviting and leading them to the blessed provisions
of the Gospel. There are many tender, loving inquiries respecting your
welfare. You would have met a most affectionate welcome at the hands of
these Dorchester County people. Annie T is rather sad, occasioned
by the change in her circumstances and the absence of her dear husband.
SUCCESS AT ENNALL'S SPRINGS AND MCNEILL'S WOODS. 383
Their tent, however, is just as attractive in its social circles and its bounti-
fully spread table as ever.
" This afternoon we leave for Easton. Willie* seems to be very happy.
The tables suit him. He has a wonderful weakness for the feathered crea-
tion wings, legs, breast, and side-bones quickly disappear before his vigorous
assaults. Thus far he behaves himself beautifully keeps his clothes clean,
and acts like a little gentleman. I feel proud of him. My own soul is
strong in the Lord. I feel that in leading up the Church I am doing God's
will, and am wonderfully blessed. The blessed Spirit shines upon my mind
and seems to give efficiency to my feeble words. Pray for me. I do not
forget you. Your unwavering love has not failed to make the deepest im-
pression on my heart. May God have you ever in His special care and
keeping."
To his wife :
"McNEiLL's WOODS.
" On another battle-field ! Arrived here last night about eight o'clock,
after a four hours' ride from Ennall's. Will enjoyed the journey, especially
the driving. This is a delightful spot a larger meeting decidedly than the
one in Dorchester. Our reception was most enthusiastic. This morning I
led the eight o'clock meeting. It was really one of the most precious and
powerful services that I ever enjoyed. Brother Quigg, the presiding elder,
preached this morning, and Brother John Field this afternoon. The meet-
ings are increasing in interest, and presage victory. President Wilson and
wife are here arrived last evening. Will finds pleasant companions, and
receives a great deal of attention. The friends here insist upon my staying
until Friday morning. They think that the interests of souls and the Church
are involved. I shall be better able to judge to-morrow."
* The fourth son, William Wilberforce.
CHAPTER XXII.
GRACE CHURCH. THE PENINSULA CONVENTION.
THE Wilmington Conference, at its last session (1870), had
adopted the following resolution :
"Resolved,* That a committee of eight four ministers and four laymen
be appointed by this Conference to arrange for a Peninsula Methodist
Convention, to consider and promote our denominational interests, said Con-
vention to be held at such time and place as the committee may deem ad-
visable."
Mr. Cookman was appointed chairman of this committee.
Indeed, " the conception of the Convention," in the language
of one, " was his. He was the presiding genius as well as the
moving spirit." At the call of the committee the Convention
assembled at Smyrna, Delaware, on November 15, 1870, and
continued for three days. " It was composed of the resident
Bishop, Levi Scott, D. D., the superannuated, supernumerary,
and traveling preachers of the Wilmington Annual Conference,
with two lay delegates from each circuit and station within the
limits of said Conference." Its object was " to consolidate, in-
struct, and inspire one Methodism on the Peninsula." Mr.
Cookman. called the Convention to order, and the Hon. D. M.
Bates, Chancellor of the State, was elected president, with eight
vice-presidents.
The topics discussed were : The Methodist Episcopal Church
its active and relative growth, and its present position on the
Peninsula ; Education its claims upon the Church ; Working
* Proceedings of the Peninsula Convention of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, held at Smyrna, Delaware, November 15, 1870. S. W. Thomas,
1018 Arch Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
WHITEFIELD ON THE EASTERN SHORE OF MARYLAND. 385
Forces of the Church local ministry, women's work, young
people's associations, etc. ; Relation of the Church to the Moral
Questions of the Day Bible, Christian Sabbath, and Temper-
ance cause ; Family Religion ; The Sabbath-school ; and The
Spiritual Life of the Church. These themes were severally
treated in one or more written papers and by open discussion.
The first topic elicited many valuable facts concerning the past
and present status of Methodism in one of its chosen fields.
The Rev. George A. Phoebus, in speaking of the Fallen He-
roes of Peninsula Methodism, said, in regard to its early origin :
" Whitefield, with a reputation in the New World that gathered thou-
sands around him wherever and whenever he preached, we have every
reason to believe, as early as 1756, perhaps earlier, had disseminated the
doctrines of the Oxford 'Holy Club' among the inhabitants of Bohemia
Manor, and had sowed the seeds of the Gospel Kingdom in the hearts of the
Bayards, and Bowchells, or perhaps Voschells. Here Wright, in 1771, found
' in a certain house a room where he slept, prayed, and studied, that is still
called Whitefield's room.'
" When we look, therefore, upon the class that encouraged the early Wes-
leyan Methodist itinerant as he went forth in the work of his Master, we
must feel that it is due to the memory of the eloquent, fiery, commanding
Whitefield, as the first hero that gathered a Methodist band on the Penin-
sula, to lay at his feet the honor of having first enkindled in the hearts of
our fathers the fires of that religious revolution that was awakening the fa-
therland to true Christianity. He was to us ' the voice of one crying in the
wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.'
" The interest awakened by Whitefield did not die out before the appear-
ance of the Wesleyan missionary. The first Wesleyan Evangelists not only
found the field white unto the harvest, but men and women ready to be em-
ployed. The long interval that elapsed often between the appointments of
the preachers, the range of their work, the transitory stay that they made in
any place, were not calculated to give permanence to their instructions unless
there were found some like those already mentioned who could lead the newly
converted in the way of life. The incidents in proof of this are rare but valua-
ble. In addition to those furnished, we give the following from the life of
Benjamin Abbott. In 1 780 he was at his appointment at J. Hersey's. After
the sermon, a dear old lady said to him, ' This is the Gospel trump ; I heard
it sounded by Mr. Whitefield twenty-five years ago.' We have also, in the
R
386 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
recollection of Rev. Joseph Everett, of Queen Anne County, Maryland, a
glimpse of the activity of the followers of Mr. Whitefield. As early as 1763,
under the instructions of the school of Whitefield, he was convinced of sin,
had joined their society, and in his chamber, on his knees, sought and ob-
tained redemption in the blood of Christ, even the forgiveness of sins. Thus
we see that in 1770, when the Gospel of the Kingdom was presented to the
people by Mr. Wesley's preachers, there were to be found some who had
knowledge of the way of salvation by faith. Thus it appears that while in
England the controversy was raging between the Calvinistic and Arminian
Methodists, the converts of Whitefield on this Peninsula were rising up to
bear witness to the truth of the Wesleyan teachers on the fundamental doc-
trines of justification by faith, the witness of the Spirit, and the sanctification
of believers."
Mr. Phoebus, after showing how Wesleyan Methodism was
kindled from these sparks by Webb, Strawbridge, King, and
others, referred to its organization by Asbury :
"Here he (Asbury) met Dr. Coke in 1784, bearing the instructions of
Wesley for organizing the societies into a systematic whole here wUfe as-
sembled around him, eighty-six years ago to-day (November 14), within
twenty-five miles of the place where the first Peninsula Convention of the
Methodist Episcopal Church is holding its session, the preachers who in
informal Convention gave birth to the Methodist Episcopal Church in these
United States of America. Here, at Barratt's Chapel, at the same time,
the Methodists in this country first partook of the Holy Sacrament, the
ordinance being administered by their own regularly ordained preachers.
Brethren, it was not the Peninsula, not time-honored Barratt's Chapel, not
the preachers assembled in quarterly meeting, not Dr. Coke, vested with
Episcopal authority, but that dear man of God, Francis Asbury, whose glory
has streamed forth from the radiance of that hour, and mantles us, his spir-
itual descendants."
The Rev. J. B. Quigg presented statistical tables showing the
gradual increase of the Methodist Episcopal Church through
successive decades, from i charge, i preacher, and 150 mem-
bers in 1774, to 89 charges, 114 preachers, and 24,734 members
in 1870. Adding to the number of white members the number
of colored members, for some time counted apart, the whole
number of members in 1870 was 34,530, which gave to the
GROWTH OF PENINSULA METHODISM. 387
Methodist Episcopal Church a ratio of i to every 8.6 of the
total population (300,000) of the entire Peninsula.
This Peninsula Mr. Asbury was accustomed to call his gar-
den for Methodist preachers. It still retains much of its orig-
inal Methodist simplicity. To no one in the Convention was
this statistical exhibit more gratifying than to Mr. Cookman.
On no field outside of his immediate parish work had he spent
so much energy as on this ; and as he contemplated the status
of the Church, its numerical, social, financial capabilities, his
mind was impressed with a sense of the great importance of
a rebaptism of all these forces by the Holy Spirit, for the
" consolidation, instruction, and inspiration of Peninsula Meth-
odism."
It was therefore just to his taste that "The Spiritual Life of
the Church" was assigned as his theme. I give the essay
which he read entire, as containing some of his best thoughts
on the relation of holiness to the Church :
"THE SPIRITUAL LIFE OF THE CHURCH.
" The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in which
the pure Word of God is preached and the sacraments duly administered.
" It stands above all other organizations ; the repository of the most val-
uable truth ; a fountain of light and life and love, a blessing to the world.
"The spiritual life of this Church, that is, the life of God developing in the
experience of its individual members, is its highest and best life aye, and
because of the important relations and the exalted position of the Church,
it is the best life of the world ; the highest to which the race at large can
possibly aspire. It links itself intimately and indissolubly with personal
character, social order, family comfort, national prosperity, and our world's
complete redemption.
" Now, will it not occur to any observant mind that this spiritual life, like
our natural life, may exist in various stages of development ?
" In a hospital, for illustration, may we not find a patient paralyzed, una-
ble to do any thing, and yet life flickering in its socket ? May we not find
other invalids, feeble, complaining, scarcely able to stand up, not willing
to communicate, knowing little of the joys of life, and yet not actually dy-
ing ? It may be they have brought this upon themselves as the consequence
388 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
of their own folly or neglect. There has been some temptation, compara-
tively harmless to others, but injurious to them, and they have balanced the
gratification it has afforded them against the fearful results that have devel-
oped, and so they have carnally and culpably clung to the doubtful indul-
gence until the effect is as we see. Ah, brethren, do we not know by obser-
vation, and some of us by experience, that this is a sad picture of too many
who profess to be the subjects of spiritual life ? Through neglect or failure
or folly, or doubtful indulgence or partial obedience, their religious life is
feeble and sickly some trust, but more of distressing doubt ; some hope,
but more of torturing fear ; some joy, but more of spiritual joylessness ; lit-
tle appetite for divine things ; little disposition to exercise themselves in
matters pertaining to godliness ; little interest in those means and measures
that are intimately related to the salvation of the race and the glory of God.
" Oh, how different from that spiritual life that hungers and thirsts after
righteousness ; that runs in the way of obedience ; that works, and rejoices
to work, in the vineyard ; that fights, aye, and endures hardness in the great
battle with sin and Satan. ' I am come,' said Christ, ' that they might have
life, and that they might have it more abundantly?
" Brethren, ought it not to be with us a matter of congratulation and
thanksgiving that the home of our spiritual nature is in a Church that has
always given so much attention to the development of the spiritual life ?
For, observe, while some of the other denominations have arrayed them-
selves around their citadels of doctrine, waging occasionally an offensive,
but more frequently a defensive warfare, Methodism, adventuring into
the field of the wide, wide world, has employed her time and talents and
energies in the culture and dissemination of spiritual life. Meanwhile her
fundamental doctrines have remained intact and unchanged, proving that
orthodoxy is much better conserved by the cultivation of the spiritual life,
than the spiritual life is promoted by an elaborate defense of orthodoxy.
But, more than this, gaining constant accessions of this best life, growing
stronger with the strength that the Divinity supplieth, our success, as a
Christian denomination, has been almost without parallel or precedent.
From a small class organized in the city of New York, with Philip Embury
as the leader, the Methodist societies have grown until within their folds
they enroll, upon this continent, more than two millions of members, and
directly influence some seven or eight millions of our American popula-
tion. * *
" Nearly a century since, Thomas Coke, Francis Asbury, Benjamin Ab-
bott, William Walters, Freeborn Garrettson, and others, whose names are
as ointment poured forth, heralds of grace, filled with apostolic love and
ORIGINAL SIMPLICITY OF PENINSULA METHODISM. 389
zeal and power, visited our Peninsula, unfurling the blood-stained banner,
and preaching a salvation, free, full, present, conscious, and glorious. Their
word was in demonstration of the Spirit opposition gave way prejudice
vanished hearts were opened spiritual life was accepted and now for
about a hundred years Methodism has had a home upon this Peninsula,
much of the time the dominant religious denomination of the region.
" As we overlook the field to-day, can we not find occasion for encourage-
ment and rejoicing in the fact that the spiritual life of Methodism all through
this section retains very much of its original simplicity ? We still hold fast
and hold up the old distinctive doctrines of salvation for all through the
mediation of Christ justification by faith a personal necessity and a present
privilege the distinct and direct witness of the Holy Spirit with our spirit
that we are children of God entire sanctification, through the blood of
Christ and by the power of the Holy Ghost, made available by an exercise
of present trust in Jesus. We still retain, appreciate, and enjoy the class-
meeting, the love-feast, the watch-night service, the quarterly-meeting, the
camp-meeting, the protracted-meeting means of grace that were originally
the gift of God's providence, and which our fathers found to be so valuable
and profitable. While in some other sections there is a disposition to lay
aside or treat carelessly some of the old weapons, conforming to the spirit
of an extravagant age and a fashionable world, Methodism on the Peninsula
still satisfies herself with plain, free-seated churches ; still experiences and
shouts the joy of God's salvation ; still goes, in for earnestness of expression
and of operations ; still agrees that the people of God while ' in, must not
be of the world, 1 but must stand separate from and exalted above the world's
littleness and vanities and falsities ; still clings to and would battle in de-
fense of the old and well-tried landmarks.
" But now, while we offer the language of congratulation and commenda-
tion, let us, still continuing our observation, ask, Is the spiritual life of our
Church, within the limits of the Wilmington Conference, up to the New
Testament standard ? Let us ' examine ourselves.' Instead of offering God
a perfect love, do we not yield Him a partial affection, allowing other objects
to dispute in our hearts the sovereignty of His most holy and excellent will ?
Instead of brotherly kindness, is there not in our intercourse with fellow-
Christians too frequently uncharitableness, backbiting, and even bitterness
of spirit ? Instead of self-denial and cross-bearing, conditions of Christian
discipleship, is there not an acknowledged avoidance of the cross, and an in-
veterate disposition to self-pleasing ? Instead of a liberal spirit and system-
atic beneficence, is there not an absence of settled principle that sometimes
expresses itself in the language, ' I will give little or nothing, just as I
39 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
please ?' Instead of simplicity in our attire and in our styles of living, so
that we may have more to give to Christ's blessed work, is there not an
aping of the world's fashions and follies, a conformity that we know is prej-
udicial to a deep and growing spirituality ? Instead of -words seasoned with
grace and tending to edification, are not too many of our words idle, gossipy,
unkind, and unprofitable ? Instead of a burning and abiding zeal prompting
to steady aggressions upon the kingdom of sin and hell, are we not fitful in
our efforts, soon wearying in well-doing ?
"These pointed inquiries suggest some of the delinquencies and short-
comings of too many of our Church members, and constrain the conclusion
that there is a higher spiritual life for the Church a life whose exercise will
reveal in personal consciousness to the believer, and present to the world
around more beautiful and valuable fruit. Now the question arises, What
is that higher and better life ? We have no hesitation in saying it is what
in Methodist parlance we entitle ' Entire sanctification,' implying the specific,
intelligent, complete, and everlasting consecration of all our regenerated
powers to God a consecration, of course, including the surrender of every
doubtful indulgence, and the willing acceptance of any and every test of
Christian obedience and, in addition, implying the constant resting in
Christ by faith as our full and perfect Saviour, trusting Him not only to save
us, but to keep us saved. Let the Church accept this privilege, so exceeding
great and precious let her perform this service, so reasonable and script-
ural, and her spiritual life will be more divine, more practical, and more
enduring.
" I. It will be more divine. Consecrating ourselves without any reserva-
tion or limitations to the service of God, and concerned to accept of Christ
in the fullest sense, we necessarily come nearer to God, and, in a broader
and deeper and fuller sense, become partakers of the divine nature par-
takers of the divine wisdom and purity and gentleness and patience
and loving kindness and power. But some one will ask, Is this different
from the grace received at conversion ? We answer, No ! it is only more
of that precious grace as we sometimes hear, it is a ' deeper -work of grace?
Christ comes in His spiritual presence to abide in our soul, and while we
trust in Him, He assumes the entire responsibility of our complete salva-
tion. Now, without wasting time on disputed theories or theological dis-
tinctions, let us ask, Is not this the great need of the spiritual life of the
Church ? is not this a conscious and confessed want in our experience as
professing Christians ?
" We have life, but we do not have it abundantly. We love God, but
we do not love Him with a perfect love for a perfect love is necessarily
MARKS OF THE HIGHER SPIRITUAL LIFE. 391
dependent upon a perfect consecration ; just at the point that our consecra-
tion is imperfect our love is imperfect, for it is then a divided, which is an
imperfect love. We walk in the path of obedience, but we do not always
stand up and go steadily forward in that path. We have peace with God
as the result of our justification and adoption, but we can not testify to per-
fect rest the rest of perfect order, perfect activity, perfect security, perfect
faith, perfect love, and perfect peace in the soul. The spiritual life of the
Church needs, beyond all cavil or controversy, the elevation, invigoration,
and inspiration that this grace of Christian holiness would give it
" 2. But again, the acceptance of our full Gospel privilege would make
the spiritual life of the Church not only more pure and divine, but more
practical.
" Need we say that one of the greatest desideratums of the Church, and
one of the most peremptory demands of the world around, is a more practical
piety. Men will judge of our religion, not so much by what it is, as by what
it does. Now you will be reminded that the higher Christian life for which
we plead involves an entire consecration of ourselves to God, and this con-
secration implies the use of all we have and are in harmony with the divine
will, and for the promotion of the divine glory. It writes on our hands, our
feet, our senses, our bodies, ' All sacred to Jesus.' It uses our understand-
ing, judgment, imagination, memory, conscience, will, and affections, all as
belonging to Jesus. It holds the gifts of God's providence, such as time,
health, energy, reputation, influence, home, kindred, friends, property, all as
subordinate to the will of Jesus. It takes the entire man for Jesus. In his
life it makes him temperate, gentle, careful, humble, earnest, honest, liberal,
and loving. In his political relations it makes him as conscientious and
pure as in the ordering of his private religious life. In his business it lifts
him up from the mere drudgery of a respectable but debasing selfishness,
and, filling him with Christian principles, and linking all his secular trans-
actions with the divine service, it makes him a co-worker with God in the
world's elevation and salvation. In his family it erects the altar of domestic
worship supplies the inspiration of a Christian example, diffuses around
the atmosphere of love, welcomes the presence of Jesus, and thus consti-
tutes the home as the house of God, and the very gate of Heaven.
"3. One other suggestion is, that the spiritual life of the Church needs
to be more enduring.
" Confined at present too much to sacred places and special seasons, the
tendency is to impulsive, spasmodic, irregular, and unreliable religious life.
It glows in the summer amid the hallowed privileges of the consecrated
forest It burns in the fall or winter when revival fires are blazing upon our
3Q2 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
Church altars. It emits fitful gleams on the Sabbath-day, or in the class-room,
or in the prayer-meeting, but a strong, round, full, regular, satisfying, stead-
ily increasing religious life a life that is as consistent at home as away from
home ; as faithful in little things as in great matters ; as careful in a trans-
action that the world will never hear of, as in one that shall be blazoned be-
fore the Church and the world ah ! this is the pure and abiding life that
the Church needs and must have. Let Christ in his spiritual presence abide
in the heart, the life of our life, the soul of our soul, bringing all our habits
and practices into harmony with the divine will, and the spiritual life of
the Church shall of necessity become more divine more practical more
enduring.
" Brothers, is not this our need ? Observe, we do not plead for changes
or improvements in our ecclesiastical machinery we hold that nearly all
the main features of our working economy are the gifts of God's providence,
and can not with advantage be substituted by different arrangements. Again,
we do not argue for or insist upon a higher standard of piety. The standard
as we conceive has been fixed by Christ himself, and is as old as the Apos-
tolic age. Not able to elevate it, and not willing to lower it one iota, we
simply say to those who are equally responsible and interested with ourselves,
Let us measure up to it. Let us be a holy people. Holiness is power. What
the Church needs, what the world around is looking and waiting for, is more
of power. We must have it for the fulfillment of our high and holy mission,
viz., the spiritual conquest of the world. Entire sanctification says Dr..
Abel Stevens, in his admirable history was the great potential idea of early
Methodism. It made our first preachers mighty, irresistible, a flame of fire.
It made our fathers and mothers an aggressive power and an almost unparal-
leled blessing in their day. It took hold upon the conscience and hearts of
the unsaved in great communities. ' Wherever,' said Mr. Wesley, ' the work
of sanctification revives, the work of God revives in its different branches.'
1 This,' he remarked, ' is the great depositum which God has given to the
people called Methodists. Their mission is to spread scriptural holiness
over these lands.' Observe, not that generic holiness which, promoting re-
pentance, faith, justification, regeneration, and holy living, claims that it is
spreading scriptural holiness. All the evangelical churches join with us to
do this. Our special mission, as we understand, is to hold up entire sanc-
tification as an experience to be obtained by faith, and, because by faith, to
be obtained now. This, secured in a specific sense, becomes our best prepara-
tion to spread it in both a specific and a generic sense.
" Oh, brothers ! successors to Coke and Asbury and Abbott and Garrett-
son, take up and carry forward the banner of holiness that they planted so
CHRISTIAN UNITY ILLUSTRATED. 393
faithfully in this region. Methodist people of the Peninsula, who in the
midst of fierce fires of opposition have demonstrated so undeniably your
civil and ecclesiastical loyalty, clinging with a heroic devotion to your
mother nation and your mother Church, covenant that this historic ground,
already glorious, shall be made more glorious still.
" Rekindle the old fi-res, rekindle them in every county, in every town-
ship, in every neighborhood, in every home, in every heart. Take the en-
tire region for God. Bring its warm hearts, its growing wealth, its multi-
plied comforts, its rich abundance, its acknowledged advantages, and lay all
upon the Christian altar. Ask, believe, and wait for the promised baptism
of the Holy Ghost, and, with an unprecedented endowment of spiritual life,
the Church and territory within the limits of the Wilmington Conference shall
vindicate the language of prophecy : ' Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in
the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. Thou
shalt no more be termed Forsaken, neither shall thy land be termed Deso-
late ; but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah ; for the
Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.' "
I quote from the published proceedings an account of the
concluding service of the Convention :
" The Communion service that followed formed a most beautiful, appro-
priate, and profitable finale of these days of privilege. Ministers and mem-
bers from all parts of the Wilmington Conference gathered around the same
hallowed altar. The pastors of the Presbyterian and Protestant Episcopal
Churches of Smyrna, with many of their communicants, participated in this
service. It was an hour never to be forgotten. Surely,
" ' Heaven came down our souls to greet,
And glory crowned the mercy-seat.' "
At the close of this memorable Communion, when the very
atmosphere around seemed sacred with the divine presence,
Rev. Alfred Cookman, called upon, said :
" Brethren, it is good for us to be here. As we look around and recog-
nize these ministers and people of sister churches uniting with us in com-
memorating the love of our common Lord, the sentiment instinctively leaps
to our lips, ' Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell
together in unity.' Over this scene I fancy I see stretching a rainbow com-
posed of the different evangelical churches ; for while, like the colors of
the natural rainbow, each Church retains its identity, yet at the same time
R 2
394 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
beautifully blending, sweetly harmonizing, we present altogether the ad-
vancing sign, the infallible pledge of our world's triumphant redemption.
During these hallowed moments I have been reminded of the broken alabas-
ter box of which mention is made on the New Testament page. It has oc-
curred to me that each of the denominations may be supposed to have their
fragment still redolent with the fragrance of truth. When we come together
on these delightful occasions, is it not to unite our fragments, and so recon-
struct the box ? and oh, say, does not the great Head of the Church vouch-
safe the unction of the Holy One ? does not the precious perfume arising
fill the house, aye, and does it not promise to fill earth and heaven too with
love and joy and praise ?
" Brethren, it is the moment of parting. We shall never all meet again
under similar circumstances. How blessed the truth that Christians never
part for the last time. We separate, but it is as the angels do, going forth
for the performance of the divine will, but with the assurance that our home
is before the throne, and that
" ' We shall meet again,
Meet ne'er to sever ;
Meet when love shall wreathe her chain
Round us forever.'
"Thank God, we belong to a sky-born, sky-guided, sky-returning race,
and sweetly the peace march beats, ' Home, brothers, home !'
Dr.Morsell, of the Protestant Episcopal Church, then stepped
forward, and, all aglow with blessed feeling, said :
"This is your feast in your own house ; and yet I have not been willing
that you should have it all to yourselves. Oh ! how I have enjoyed the
past three days ! We have felt the prayer of Jesus answered, ' that they
may all be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may
be one in Us.' And now, why are not the Christian world more completely
one ? Is it not because of their want of love to Jesus ? I declare to-night
my love for these brethren a love that has its source in my love for the
Saviour. While I have been feasting with you, I have looked around to
recognize some of my own people here. I would that the whole Church to-
night could feel as I feel. We have lived too much strangers to one an-
other. This is wrong. It is the same many-mansioned house. I am only,
so to speak, in another room of God's great house. Let us live and meet
around the throne."
The tide of feeling had now reached its highest point, and,
CLOSE OF THE PENINSULA CONVENTION. 395
overflowing, the entire congregation sprang to their feet, when
Mr. Cookman, grasping the hand of the Episcopal clergyman
on his left and the hand of the Presbyterian pastor on his right,
proposed that members of the Convention and all the Christian
people present should clasp hands and join to sing
" Say, brothers, will you meet me
On Canaan's happy shore ?"
It was a beautiful scene. Tears were flowing, praises resound-
ing all over the house, as, with thrilling tones, the large audi-
ence pledged themselves, singing again and again
" By the grace of God we'll meet you
Where parting is no more."
A member of the Convention, the Rev. J. H. Lightbourn, in
a letter, says, " Mr. Cookman's closing address, though im-
promptu, was one of the most beautiful and thrilling to which
I ever listened."
A rare and pleasing incident, in the autumn of this year, in
connection with the pastorate of Grace Church, was the cele-
bration of the birthday of a centenarian, Mr. Joseph Lynam.
I give a brief extract of an account which was published in Tfie
Methodist Home Journal, from the pen of Mr. Cookman :
" Last week the hundredth birthday of Mr. Joseph Lynam was celebrated
at the house of his son-in-law, Mr. Delaplaine McDaniel, near Wilmington.
" The company, composed almost entirely of family connections, began to
arrive about one o'clock P.M. It was beautiful and delightful to witness
the mingling of four generations great-grandchildren, grandchildren, chil-
dren, and the venerable parent. Father Lynam was of course the centre of
the group all vying in thoughtful attentions and loving services. This in-
teresting man, the eldest son of John and Ann Lynam, was born on the nth
of October, 1770, nearly six years before the Declaration of American Inde-
pendence."
On the 24th of December, 1870, Mr. Abraham Bruner, the
father of Mrs. Cookman, was struck with paralysis, after which
he gradually failed, until he died on the 3d of March following,
396 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
aged seventy-eight years. He had been a member of the Meth-
odist Church since his fifteenth year, and in the town where
he lived so long was universally esteemed for his religious and
social worth, his business probity and success. In his last
illness Mr. Cookman wrote him these tender and comforting
words :
" Your spiritual interests have been considered through a long succession
of years, and He who has been with you tenderly declares, ' I will not cast
you off in old age, neither will I forsake you when your strength faileth.'
Commit your destiny entirely into the hands of your covenant-keeping Lord.
Loosen your grasp on every thing but Jesus, and during the rest of your
earthly sojourn He will give you to abide in the land of Beulah, where the
birds sing, and the sun shines, and the flowers bloom, and.every thing is bright
and beautiful and blessed. Then, accompanied by the angels, you shall go
over the river, and on the shining shore meet the loved ones who are gath-
ering there, and, better than all besides, see the King in His beauty."
The letter of Mr. Cookman to his friends, Mr. and Mrs.
Thomas W. Price, of Philadelphia, consoling them in the death
of a child, will be recalled. It now became his pleasant duty
to congratulate them on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anni-
versary of their marriage. He could rejoice with the happy
and weep with the sorrowful. He addressed them in substance
as follows :
"OUR DEAR FRIENDS, Allow us to offer our most affectionate congratu-
lations. Twenty-five years of married life ! In memory a hand-breadth,
a beautiful dream when one awaketh, but crowded full of deeply interesting
incidents. During this period your children have been born ; of whom
those living, like good wine, seem to be constantly improving with age, and
the others, who have died, never to be forgotten, the glorified, are safely
housed far beyond the reach of temptation, sorrow, and sin.
" During these years there has been, oh, how much of toil and perplexity
in business life, but relieved by the steady increase, the encouraging success
with which Providence has favored you 1 A majority of those who started
out with you have been overwhelmed in failure, while your course has been
prosperously onward. During these years you have shared the palmy days
of old St. George's, and then Green Street, and now Spring Garden Street
CHRISTIAN CONGRATULATION. 397
churches. The first named especially will furnish memories that constitute
some of the brightest sunshine of the past. During these years you have
been a sturdy warrior in some of the leading moral reforms, and have lived
long enough to see the death of American Slavery, and to witness Lay Dele-
gation putting its foot proudly upon the threshold of the inner sanctuary of
American Methodism.
" There is certainly great occasion for congratulation, rejoicing, and ten-
der thankfulness as you retrospect the interesting fact, but especially should
your hearts overflow with gratitude as you think of one another.
"The Christmas season of 1845 g ave mv sister the present of a husband
honest, earnest, virtuous, industrious, faithful ; and if he has sometimes been
impulsive and blunt, she has at the same time known that the hasty manner
and strong style were his peculiarities, and were nothing \i\i&\ balanced against
his other sterling virtues ; and then that same 26th of December gave my old
friend a wife, that infinite wisdom and love arranged just for him a special
Providence for I know that he would not exchange her gentleness, quiet-
ness, prudence, neatness, and practicalness for all the attractions that the
woman of literature, or of fashion, or of worldly styles could possibly have
offered him. Now, own up, my truthful old friend, and say if, in arranging
you a comfortable home, and watching over your cherished children, and
diligently and ceaselessly studying your happiness during these twenty-five
blessed years, she has not bankrupted you to such an extent that it would
be impossible for you to pay the debt of love you owe ? But more than all
else, your home during these years has been a Christian home, honored and
sanctified by the presence of Jesus. Your family altar has not been per-
mitted to fall down, but every day you have invoked upon yourselves and
your dear children the blessing of Him whose blessing maketh rich and
addeth no sorrow. Let this quarter of a century heap on the fuel ! Clam-
ber up upon that Ebenezer you are building to-day, and as you look back
through your tears of gratitude, marking all the way that a kind Providence
has led you, sing, in your clear tenor tones
" ' When all Thy mercies, oh my God,
My rising soul surveys,
Transported with the bliss, I'm lost
In wonder, love, and praise.'
While upon the silver altar of your twenty-fifth anniversary you renew your
vows to love, honor, and cherish one another so long as ye both shall live,
at the same time turn your thoughts heavenward, and, influenced by the
mercies of God, covenant not to be more devoted, but to be entirely de-
voted to the service and glory of Jesus."
398 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
To Mr. Robert P. Smith, editor of Showers of Blessing:
"WILMINGTON, December 30, 1870.
" I am just now in receipt of your note. How gloriously God is working !
These instances of which you write are literal miracles of grace. Eternal
praise !
" I can hardly restrain myself this afternoon from hastening to the side of
dear Mr. , not that I could help or serve him, but I could at least witness
the grace of God in him, and be with him at the foot of the precious cross.
" I have, however, a special engagement this evening, and to-morrow will
be entirely filled with peremptory duties. Next week is the week of prayer.
We have arranged for special services every day, both afternoon and evening.
"While, therefore, I could enjoy association with you in any services or
under any circumstances, still I must regard home claims as primary, and
deny myself.
" I was delighted to hear the experience of our brother, P. P .
" That ' blessed evening ' at Ivy Lodge was certainly in God's order, and
seems to be developing more than we had asked or even thought. If Brother
P shall go over the world singing full salvation, it will be like the addi-
tion of a sweet-voiced angel to our ranks. We had your precious sister at
our Wednesday meeting, who encouraged us with blessed tidings concerning
your 'saved father.' Wishing you the best blessings of the Highest, who
giveth us Christmas, New - year's, and every good and perfect gift, I am
yours in the fellowship of the Spirit."
The time drew nigh when Mr. Cookman's pastoral relations
with Grace Church must be dissolved. He probably had never
been more useful for a single term. With a magnificent church
building, a large congregation of thoughtful, sympathizing per-
sons, in a city small enough to be easily compassed, and yet
large and active enough to afford variety, surrounded by a com-
munity of generous hospitality, and assured by the most marked
results of the usefulness of his ministry and his acceptability
with the people generally, his days had glided along most de-
lightfully. No great sorrow had entered his home or his im-
mediate family, except the death of the aged Mr. Burner, which
was in the course of nature, and really the term at Grace seemed
as a day in the lightness which love, joy, friendship, and success
had imparted to every burden. He loved the people, and they
IMPRESSIONS OF A CO-WORKER. 399
loved him. The services he rendered to the cause of vital
religion and good morals will not soon be forgotten by the citi-
zens of Wilmington.
The Rev. George H. Smyth, late pastor of the West Presbyte-
rian Church, Wilmington, Delaware, has kindly furnished some
of his impressions of Mr. Cookman while they were neighboring
ministers in that city :
" It was my privilege to labor in the city of Wilmington, Delaware, side
by side with Brother Cookman for more than two years. The last year of
his residence there we were often thrown together in devotional meetings,
and met at social gatherings.
"The same unbroken uniformity of a calm, genial temperament ever rested
upon him. Truly he looked like one that possessed a peace the world can
neither give nor take away. Nor was it an acquired, stoical indifference
that made him insensible to surrounding influences, for he had a most sus-
ceptible nature, that sympathized with every thing that was innocent around
him. He always appeared solemn and dignified in his bearing, and at the
same time easy and unaffected in his manners.
" He had a keen sense of the ludicrous, and would laugh till he shook
all over. I remember on one occasion we were in one of the Union prayer-
meetings, held the first week of the new year, when an amusing incident
occurred. * * * Mr. Cookman was seated on the platform, and, as a sup-
pressed smile passed all over the meeting, I shall never forget the efforts he
made to preserve his gravity, his hands over his face, and his whole body
shaking with laughter. ' Oh,' said he afterward, ' I did want to get off the
platform to some place where I could laugh !'
" And yet, with all his pleasantry and readiness to contribute to the enjoy-
ment of the social gathering, no man was freer from a spirit of levity or irrever-
ence for sacred things than was Brother Cookman. He was a very spiritual-
ly minded man, and seemed to breathe continually a devotional atmosphere.
" In no place did he seem more at home than in a prayer-meeting. He
was a fine singer, and in his selection of appropriate and beautiful hymns,
sung with his rich, mellow voice, and in his earnest pleadings with God, he
would diffuse the sweetest devotional spirit into all present, and often melt
the congregation to tears. While the people were kneeling sometimes at
the close of a prayer, he would start a hymn, which contained a petition just
as suited to the occasion as if it had been written for it, and all would sing
it through on their knees before God, and then one and another would burst
forth with earnest prayer.
400 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
" In this way, without calling on any one or urging any one to speak or
pray, he would kindle the flame of devotion until no one could keep silent.
" The Orthodox Friends than whom no more godly people are to be
found in that city were many of them attracted to his church, and asso-
ciated with him in Christian work.
" Perhaps no man ever exerted a wider or better influence in that com-
munity, in the same time, than did Alfred Cookman, and no man was more
highly esteemed or more tenderly loved. And why should he not ? To
very many his life and labors had proved, under God, an unspeakable
blessing.
" The moulding power of Brother Cookman's godly life over Grace Church
just at a most important period of its early history will continue, I doubt
not, to bless that Church to its latest day ; so it will many outside of that
Church who were brought in contact with his great, catholic, Christ-like
spirit.
" For, while a decided Methodist, Brother Cookman was a man of large
heart, expansive views, and a charity that cordially fellowshiped with all
true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Hence he was ever ready for co-
operation with any or all the other denominations in any movement for ad-
vancing the cause of Christ in the community or in the world. I have heard
it said by old men that never before had there been such a kind, fraternizing
spirit among all denominations of Christians as there was at that time in
Wilmington."
The following tribute, in harmony with Mr. Smyth's state-
ment, appeared just before Mr. Cookman's removal, in The Wil-
mington Commercial:
" The Rev. Mr. Cookman closes the last three years of his ministry in this
city on next Sabbath. They have been years of indefatigable labor, of great
acceptability, and distinguished success. Being the first pastor in the great
Grace Methodist Episcopal Church, the most beautiful church, we think, on
this continent, it was his to settle its spiritual foundations, and give tone
and evangelical views to its worshipers, and start the Church on in deeds of
great enterprise. He has borne up the ark of testimony by his own per-
sonal piety, by his faithful and eloquent preaching, his labors in Sabbath-
schools, in the temperance cause, missionary operations, and, in fact, in ev-
ery good word and work among the sister churches and other denomina-
tions. He truly possesses a union and fraternal spirit, and wherever he
goes he has a hand and heart for every body.
"It is with deep regret that his brethren of the Wilmington Conference
PARTING WITH GRACE CHURCH. 40 1
part with him, and many of the laity will follow him with tearful eyes, and
prayerful wishes that they may meet again on this side of the grave, and if
not, that they may meet in heaven. The young, to whom he has been pecul-
iarly useful, and who are sincerely attached to him, will be deeply affected.
May good angels go with him."
The parting interviews of the beloved pastor with his Church
in all its departments the general congregation, the Sunday-
school, the social meeting were deeply affecting, but with
none more so than with the chosen circle of persons who were
in the habit of attending the Wednesday-afternoon meeting.
Mr. W. S. Hillis, a minister of the Society of Friends, in opening
the Wednesday-afternoon meeting at which Mr. Cookman was
last present before leaving, felt impressed to select the account
of St. Paul's last charge to the elders of the Church of Ephesus,
Acts xx., 17, etc. ; and as he read the verses concluding, "And
they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck, and kissed him ;
sorrov:ing most of all for the words which he spake, that they
should see his face no more," he was overcome by his emotions.
Mr. Cookman and the whole audience wept, and for some time
the sorrow was so uncontrollable as to make it impossible to
proceed with the services. Alas ! how prophetic the selection
of those words !
CHAPTER XXIII.
CENTRAL CHURCH, NEWARK, N. J. OCEAN GROVE CAMP-GROUND.
NATIONAL GAMP-MEETINGS AT ROUND LAKE AND URBANA.
FOR months prior to March, 1871, Mr. Cookman's mind had
been agitated with the question of his next appointment. He
had been invited to Boston, Mass., Chicago, 111., Cincinnati,
Ohio, Washington, D. C., Philadelphia, Pa., and Newark, N. J.,
and pressed earnestly in all these cases to entertain the propo-
sition for a transfer. He undoubtedly meant, when he returned
to the Philadelphia Conference, to remain in it for life ; but the
division of the Conference in 1868 had unexpectedly thrown
him out of it into the Wilmington Conference, and now his Con-
ference relations were again unsettled. So imperative seemed
the demand for his services in certain important churches in
the controlling centres of population and influence, that he
finally yielded, though reluctantly, to higher convictions of duty
in regard to the freest interchange of ministers throughout the
whole Church and consented to be transferred to the Newark
Conference, and was stationed at the Central Church, Market
Street, Newark, N. J. This proved to be his last transfer and
his last appointment in the Church. At the next roll-call, at
the name of Alfred Cookman, instead of the round, full, silvery
"fart," there would be silence and tears.
In view of the frequency of Mr. Cookman's transfers from
one Conference to another, and of the class of churches which
he generally served, a communication from Mr. John Thomp-
son, of Philadelphia, will be found pertinent. A letter from
himself to a lady friend reveals the same earnest desire that
ever attended these changes, to know and follow the divine
CONCERNING HIS NEXT PASTORATE. 403
will. An incident also occurred before he left Grace, while his
mind was yet undetermined as to the course he should take.
There was a little prayer-meeting at which were present some
of his closest friends. He prayed earnestly to be directed to
go where God might will to suffer or to die for Him ; and re-
quested his friends to make special prayer. The next morning
they all said " Newark."
From Mr. John Thompson to Mrs. Annie E. Cookman :
" PHILADELPHIA, March 22, 1873.
" Some time before you left Grace Church, Wilmington, Del., I wrote to
Brother Cookman in reference to his future field of labor. You know that
our intimacy was such that we freely opened our hearts to each other on all
such subjects. I kept no copy of my letter, and do not recollect the precise
wording, but the substance which I recollect distinctly was that for some
time I had been strongly impressed with the conviction that his usefulness
would be greatly increased if he were allowed the privilege of filling a dif-
ferent class of appointments. I recollect I named such churches as Ken-
sington, Tabernacle, and Ebenezer, of this city. I urged that while he had
the ability to succeed in what are called first-class churches, such as he had
been filling, that the proposed charges, with the same untiring effort, deep
piety, and popular ability for which he was so remarkable, would yield a
much more glorious harvest. I closed with the solicitation that he would
give me his views and convictions in this connection.
" The promptness of his reply indicated his deep interest in the subject.
I regret that I did not preserve his letter. He said he was glad I proposed
the inquiry. It was a subject that had caused him the most intense solici-
tude. The great matter with him was to ascertain clearly what the Lord
would have him do (on this point he wjfc sometimes confused), but a clear
conviction of the will of God settled all other questions in his mind. First-
class churches were seemingly a necessity of the times. Somebody must
be appointed to the pastoral charge. Without any se'eking on his part some
of them asked for his services, and it was the opinion of the bishops that
this was his proper sphere of labor. He considered when he entered on
the itinerant work of the ministry that he surrendered the question of the
field of his labor to the godly judgment of the bishops, and if they should at
any time change their judgment and appoint him to such fields of labor as
I had suggested, it would give him great satisfaction. As far as he had any
choice in the matter, he thought this would be his preference.
404 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
" He claimed that it was generally understood that he preferred the free-
seat system that on this subject he had not sought to conceal his views,
but that he did not feel called on to disturb the peace of the Church on this
subject, as he had unbounded confidence in the piety of those who held op-
posite views. He supposed that Newark, N. J., would be his next field of
labor, but if it were not the will of God, he trusted that all arrangements in
this direction would be defeated. I do not pretend to give Brother Cook-
man's precise words, but I think I correctly give you his sentiments as ex-
pressed in the letter referred to."
To Mrs. Lewis, of Columbus, O. :
"WILMINGTON, September 20, 1870.
* * * " Last Friday I was disappointed in not dining with you and Ho-
mer, but some brethren, waylaying me, marched me off to the Continental,
and took nearly all my noon-time in pressing upon my attention the claims
and attractions of their pastorate. I am sure I could enjoy it and be useful
in that sphere, but what am I to do ? The calls begin to come in, and
among the rest a very special one from Cincinnati. The mention of Ohio
will make Homer's heart thrill. I love it for his sake, but have myself never
felt any wonderful drawing to the West dread the long journey for my
large family, the laborious house-keeping in that smoky atmosphere, the
separation from our mothers and life-long friends, etc., etc. Still I want to
move in God's order, and this may be His order. Oh, for a "voice from
Heaven ! It is too bad for so many people to put their cares on your kind
he,art, but you know that, apart from kindred, you are one of my very dearest
friends in the world. Homer will not upbraid me when I say that I love
you aye, and him, too, with a true, pure, and blessed love in the Lord
Jesus Christ. For nearly twelve years your friendship has been as true as
the needle to the pole, while the remembrance of your self-sacrificing serv-
ices in times of trial fills my hear* with unutterable gratitude to Almighty
God for your sisterly affection. Will you not, then, let me ask that you
will especially pray that I may be guided at this most important juncture ?
God can overrule my mistakes. I know that, but I do not want to make
any mistake. I desire to choose the right and the best way.
" Give my best love to Homer.
"Annie starts for Philadelphia to-morrow, taking the baby, of course.
He is intensely sweet a drop of Heaven" 1 ! honey laid on our hearts."
The Central Church, Newark, gave a cordial welcome to their
new pastor. He found a large and handsome church edifice,
SETTLED AGAIN. PERFECT PEACE. 405
well located, with a thrifty, active, and generous membership,
disposed in every way to promote his comfort and usefulness.
Within a few brief weeks he was ensconced with his family in
their pleasant home, and he was as deeply immersed in the
duties of the pastorate as if no change had taken place from
one charge to another. The facility with which pastors go
from Church to Church, and with which the churches accept
one pastor after another, is inexplicable to persons outside of
Methodism. The only explanation is, it is law and usage
ministers and people have become accustomed to the system,
and, content with its workings, they accept it as a matter of
course, and as the wisest arrangement for the whole Church.
The prompt and cheerful acquiescence in the plan does not,
however, preclude the sharp pangs caused by the severance of
pastoral relations many times the pastor's heart aches for the
absent flock, and the people's hearts yearn for the recent pastor
but soon the new pastor and the new people become so taken
up with each other as to prevent undue pain, while the strong
attachments of former relationships are silently cherished as the
pure and tender memories of a past which is ever present.
To Mr. W. S. Hillis, of Wilmington, Delaware :
"NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, April 25, 1871.
" You have not been an itinerant minister, and yet can form some idea of
the duties claiming attention upon the threshold of a new pastorate. Home
must be re-afranged, visits must be made, the new routine of service must
be found out and entered upon, etc., etc.*
"Comfortably situated domestically, we begin to, feel like living again.
Our new charge has made a very generous provision for our comfort.
Our home is commodious, centrally located, nicely furnished, and very com-
fortable.
" How is your Wednesday meeting prospering in Wilmington ?
" Steady persistence just now will do much toward establishing our pre-
cious friends in the truth and grace of God. How important and blessed it
is to be ' established in the faith? David testifies, ' he hath established my go-
ings? But we can not hope for this any where else than in the path of obe-
dience. Oh ! to have that settled principle that unswerving purpose
46 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
that steady faith that unremitting love that keeps our feet in the right
way, and prepares us to go strongly and triumphantly forward. Persever-
ing faithfulness during this year will obtain for the dear brothers and sisters,
through Jesus, this establishing grace, and thus from young recruits they will
grow to be veterans, who can be trusted in the great battle that is going on
between sin and holiness.
" My circumstances during the last few weeks have not been favorable to
quiet, steady Christian growth at least so the human would suggest and
yet, moving as I humbly believe in a providential path, I have not been for-
saken. In the life of faith I have been constantly associated with the Lord
Jesus, and He has been overruling all for my spiritual advantage. When
I left my Wilmington friends, whom I loved so tenderly, He gave me to re-
alize that I might not quit for a moment His blessed side. When I was
without a home, He sweetly reminded me of the permanent mansion that He
is arranging for my enjoyment. When I had the trial of meeting and preach-
ing to a strange people, he kindly whispered, ' Lo, I am with you alway,' and
then vindicated His own encouraging truth. When I sat down in our pres-
ent comfortable abode, I said, ' All this is of God.' I love the infinite Giver
more for His unmerited and multiplied gifts and thus my unsettlement,
and then my settlement again, have both been pressed into the service, and
redound to the advantage of my higher spiritual nature.
" Was it not Martin Luther who said that ' God dwells in Salem rather
than in Babylon.' Bless His holy name, He makes my heart ' Salem,' and
then He himself abides in the midst of this sacred, quiet, and satisfying
peace. His precious voice, still, small, and sweet, could not be heard amid
the confusion of Babylon ; but, oh ! in this Salem of peace we listen, and
hear Him inly speak.
"Will you give my warmest love to all my dear Christian friends in Wil-
mington. Tell them that my truant thoughts very often run away from
Newark, and in imagination I see them in their social circles, or associated
in their Wednesday afternoon or evening meeting. Cleansed from sin, let
us go on concerned to be without wrinkle or any such thing. After the
washing or purifying, there are other processes used by the Power or Spirit
of God in smoothing and adorning and perfecting our characters. We wan,t
to be presented faultless before the throne of God with exceeding great
joy. * * *
" Let us all sit down together in heaven."
It is evident from the closing sentences of this letter that Mr.
Cookman's mind was, if possible, more than ever absorbed in
SAINTLINESS. 407
the desire for personal holiness. He was increasingly intent
upon one object to be perfect in Christ Jesus. Those who
were most intimately associated with him testify that there was
a daily dying unto the world and living unto Christ, such as
exceeded his former habit his whole being appeared to be
constantly enveloped in an atmosphere of devotion, of heavenly
converse, of serene yet active love. He impressed all who came
in contact with him that he was so far separated from the world,
all its corruptions and even frailties, that no term could so ade-
quately sum up the assemblage of his graces, or so fitly charac-
terize him as saintliness. The "spots" and "wrinkles" had
so far faded from the beauteous face of his soul, that it was
manifest the hidden force of the Spirit was evolving from its
workings that effectual and final outgrowth which was to con-
stitute completeness in the spiritual man. "Other processes"
than this inward working of the Holy Ghost might be needed
ere this completeness is reached, ere the divine Artificer puts
the last touch of beauty on the sacred work which is to abide
forever. His eyes are held, however, that he can not see
what these processes may be perhaps wisely. There was
more work for him ta do the day still shone brightly myriad
voices called him to action and, though admonished by casual
bodily ailments, of sufferings heretofore never dreaded, because
never even partially known, yet, in happy ignorance of the ter-
rible ordeal which awaited him, he could only see the claims
of the day, in which alone his work could be done.
As in every previous charge, so at Central, Mr. Cookman be-
gan very soon to see the effects of an earnest ministry in a
quickened Church, an increasing congregation, and the general
signs of the esteem of the people. There seemed to be every
reasonable indication that in coming to Newark he was in the
path of duty. A little incident occurred not many weeks after
his entrance upon the pastorate which helped to confirm this
conviction. A devout lady of the Church, about two years
408 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
prior to his appointment, when greatly burdened on account of
the coldness of the people of Central, exclaimed in her closet,
" Oh, if the Lord would only send the Rev. Alfred Cookman to
us !" This prayer she felt constrained to make, believing as
she did that he would be the best one to lead them up to a
higher life. When he was sent she thought it was in answer to
prayer, and so told her new pastor. His reply was, " It is very
encouraging."
As evidence of the deep interest he at once felt in the indi-
viduals of the Church and the Christian work they were doing,
either singly or as organized bands, the same lady has narrated
the following :
" I was present one afternoon at the business-meeting of our ' Pastor's
Aid Society.' As we all knelt down at the opening prayer, I said to myself,
almost involuntarily, ' Oh, if he would only pray for me too.' As I turned
around to watch his lips, I caught the words, ' Bless the dear young sister
whose ears are closed to outward sounds.' It was heard and answered, as
my soul then and there received conscious strength.
" Did you ever hear that one afternoon, as Sister O and I were out
visiting among our sick and poor, we realized so unusually the presence and
smile of Jesus ? We both spoke of it, and praised our loving Heavenly Fa-
ther. We afterward learned that on that same afternoon Brother Cook-
man had called at Sister O.'s, and, on learning where we were, he knelt
down and asked Jesus to be with and bless us. How clearly that/r<yw of
faith was honored !"
Far reaching as was Mr. Cookman's ministerial influence, by
reason not only of his fame, but his actual pastoral and occa-
sional services in the Church, he never became too great for
the little duties of the parish. Outside engagements, however
numerous and clamorous, were not allowed to press aside the
work which was due his own people in their proper organiza-
tion, visitation and instruction. Here at Newark, as elsewhere,
the spring and early summer were devoted to regular pastoral
calls, to the formation of such helps as would facilitate his own
usefulness and develop the talents and graces of the mem-
AN INDICATION OF IMMORTALITY. 409
bers of the Church and congregation. The mention of " The
Pastor's Aid Society" affords evidence of his quickness to utilize
the female element of the Church wherever he went. He be-
lieved in woman's work for the Church and for humanity ; and
as a minister was always successful in winning the affections
and confidence of the ladies of the Church, and organizing
them for high and beneficent ends. Ere midsummer the Cen-
tral Church was alive with religious activity. The whole mem-
bership had caught a spark from the heart of the living, work-
ing pastor.
Before following the devoted pastor upon his last great sum-
mer tour of evangelistic labor, I give some letters which relate
more especially to his Church.
To Mrs. Stevens, of Wilmington, Delaware :
"NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, June i, 1871.
" What a good long letter you penned for our enjoyment ! We read and
re-read it, appreciating and thankful for your allusions to all the little mat-
ters that we are concerned to know. Thanks a thousand thanks ! We
sincerely hope that your dear friendship will arrange at an early day anoth-
er entertainment of the same sort ; nor need you fear to oppress or cloy us
with the variety and amount of the provisions. We have a wonderful ap-
petite and an amazing capacity in this direction. Is not our unwillingness
to be forgotten one of the indications of our immortality ? I will not, then,
conclude that my pleasure in learning that my friends still hold me in affec-
tionate remembrance was a proof of lingering selfishness, so developing de-
pravity, but rather the expression of that nobler nature with which the Di-
vinity has been pleased to invest me.
" Tell Jennie I thank God for her loving appreciation, and the very beau-
tiful but undeserved expression of that appreciation that you quote in your
letter. For yourself and your dear children I shall always entertain a more
than ordinary interest and affection. It was a common joy to welcome you
one after the other to the fellowship of Christ's Church ; to see you sitting
together a united and happy family at the Master's feet ; to observe your
development in Christian character and life; to share, as we so frequently
have, the communications of infinite love and blessing. Truly, I have tasted
your varied experiences, weeping with you when you have wept, rejoicing
with you when you have rejoiced.
s
410 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
" The past furnishes an easy explanation of our common sympathies and
deep, warm, Christian love. It was inspiring to learn that, led by the Spirit,
you are going on from strength to strength. This strength, as it is the in-
working of the divine, is so blessed, for it prepares us to comprehend, with
all saints, the height and depth, and length and breadth, and to know the
love of God that passeth knowledge, that we may be filled with all the full-
ness of God. You are a trusting child in the arms of the Infinite, and lie
proposes to carry you higher and higher forever and ever new treasures
of knowledge new realizations of joy new experiences of love more and
more and more of God as long as eternal ages roll.
" Oh, how we should adore that grace that has made its -willing in the day
of His power ! We meet with so many that seem entirely blind and deaf
and insensible respecting the possibilities of their spiritual being. They do
not see, do not want to see aye, it seems impossible to make them see
the things that belong to their peace, and link themselves with their char-
acter and destiny. Is it not an occasion of unutterable thankfulness that the
great Healer has said to us Ephphaiha, and our eyes are opened we see
Jesus ; and in and through Jesus a vista of privilege that invites and satis-
fies, and opens in constantly increasing expectation forever and ever ?
" You have learned through others that we are pleasantly situated in our
new field of labor. Our church, a Gothic structure, is about twenty years
old. The audience-room, beautifully proportioned, is perhaps a little dark.
It has an organ-gallery and side galleries. The light in the evening is fur-
nished by gas jets, that flame like a crown of glory around the capitals of
the several pillars that support the galleries and ceiling. The effect is fine.
Our congregations are good not crowded. The church never has been
popularized. The lower floor is generally well filled, and a fair sprinkling
through the galleries. The friends here arc delighted with the attendance
say it is double the number they have been accustomed to see. I preach
to more people in Newark than I did in Wilmington. God has been very
good to me in my pulpit ministrations. He has vouchsafed His own light
and love and power, and I think I have never had greater or more continu-
ous liberty in the proclamation of His truth. My people are very pleasant,
greatly attached to their Church, united among themselves no parties, no
rivalries, no bickerings, very little if any of aristocratic feeling. As a mem-
bership, they are not very spiritual. I am thankful, however, to report
marked progress already. Our general prayer-meeting, held on Tuesday
evening in the chapel, is largely attended, and richly enjoyed by all present.
The singing is spirited and general, and you may be sure that the ' precious
blood' is not left out. The prayers are growing in earnestness and faith,
VISIT TO WILMINGTON. 41!
and again and again there has been the descent of the refreshing cloud of
the divine presence and glory. There are a few earnest women who are
walking clearly in the light of full salvation. For my inspiration they are
more than all the rest of the membership. One of them, a Sister F , is
a strong, wise, established, and useful disciple. She holds a meeting at her
own home that has for many years been a fountain of blessing. We are
lacking in the young element not many young men. Perhaps, however, in
answer to prayer, God will turn the hearts of this class toward our Church.
If so, this great need will be met.
" Now they are calling me, and I must close my letter. It supplies a con-
trast to your epistle, that was so full of news and deeply interesting. You
will, however, accept it as the overflow of a fraternal heart. I have written
very little of what I intended to write."
To Mrs. Lewis, of Ohio :
"NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, July 3, 1871.
" Excuse my lead-pencil. For a week past I have been suffering from a
torpid liver, and, spending a good part of my time in a recumbent position,
can use my pencil much more conveniently than my pen.
" We received with special thankfulness and joy your most welcome let-
ter. We read it over and over, magnifying that grace which the Heavenly
Father causes to abound toward you. Truly you are one of His dear chil-
dren, to whom He makes special revelations of His truth and His love.
" Week before last Annie and I visited Wilmington. We remained two
days, Wednesday and Thursday, enjoying the society of our friends, and at-
tending the commencement exercises of the Female College.
" Our former parishioners, and indeed all we met, were affectionate be-
yond description.
"On Wednesday afternoon we were associated with the H.'s, II.'s, M.'s,
etc., in the meeting for the promotion of holiness. It was an occasion of
great interest and blessing. The service is held now in St. Paul's Method-
ist Church, and led by its pastor, a gentle and good man. I am sorry to
report that the attendance is not as good as formerly, but the little band are
holding on and growing up into Christ. We met this precious circle socially
again and again, and realized that we were antedating one of the blessed en-
joyments of Heaven. You were alluded to by one and another most affec-
tionately. For nearly two months our friend, William G , had been ab-
sent in the West, which is probably the reason why you did not see more of
them previous to your departure from Philadelphia.
" As I passed through Philadelphia on Friday, I seized the opportunity
412 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
to be present at the Friday-afternoon meeting, held that day in the Fifth
Street Church. The body of the house was filled ; there must have been
four hundred or five hundred persons present. Brothers Thomson, Gray,
Masden, Meredith, Pepper, Lawrence, Stockton, etc., were in their places.
There was not very much speaking, as friends were invited to the altar but
it was a meeting of blessed impression and wonderful influence.
" The friends are beginning to turn their faces toward Round Lake. On
Friday Mr. and Mrs. E. M , and Mrs. William G , Miss N , etc.,
passed through here en route. Mrs. Cookman thinks that she can not
leave her baby for so long a time but, Providence permitting, she will
follow us, and spend two or three days on the ground. I am scarcely in
condition to leave home, but am hoping that the change of air, with the use
of Saratoga, may tone up my enfeebled energies.
" Your baby boy is one of the sweetest objects outside of Heaven. We
constantly fear we love him too much. This time last year you were the
good Samaritan of our domestic life. Your loving services will feed the
flame of our thankfulness through life, and have endeared you to our hearts
as a specially beloved sister. May God continue to bless you, and make
you in the West, as in the East, an immense blessing to others. As I think
of yourself and Homer, I feel as if I would like to bring you nearer, and live
in your society forever ; but, thank God, this is our hope. Probationary life
is only a brief episode and will soon be over ; then we shall sit down to-
gether in the everlasting home. Excuse haste tender love to your dear
husband. Write whenever you can."
Reference has been already seen in Mr. Cookman's corre-
spondence to Ocean Grove camp-ground. He had become so
charmed with the spot as to buy a lot there, building a cottage
upon it for the accommodation of his family. He was particu-
larly fond of the sea-side. As with his father, so with him, the
ocean possessed a great attraction he could sit by the hour
and look out upon its restless life, and commune with its never-
ceasing music. His highest physical spirits were excited when
he was laved by its waves or walked amid its breezes. A plunge
in "old salt," a stroll by the sea-shore, was enough almost any
season to dissipate the ennui of overtasked nerves, or the weari-
ness induced by the exhausting heats of the crowded city. He
was only too glad to avail himself of the capital opportunity
THE CAMP-MEETING AS A SUMMER RESORT. 413
which the Ocean Grove Association afforded of uniting a sum-
mer residence with the facilities of religious culture upon the
sea-side, under conditions which would be free from the objec-
tions of ordinary fashionable watering-places. The modern in-
novation of combining the social element of the family life and
the devotional element of religious worship in the camp-meet-
ing was pleasing to him, as meeting not only his own want, but
also a want which he believed to be quite generally felt among
Christian people. Some such resorts had long been needed,
where healthful air and innocent pastimes could be had, with
cheapness, plainness, and sobriety, associated with such relig-
ious exercises as tend to keep alive the pious habits and senti-
ments of the home left behind; where the moral feelings of
those who prefer the stricter virtues will not be constantly
shocked with customs which are a violence to good taste, to
say nothing of sound morality and vital religion ; and where
people can be practically taught the union which should always
subsist between social and spiritual enjoyments.
The first notable example of this peculiar feature of the camp-
meeting was set by the company owning the Wesleyan Grove
Camp -ground, on Martha's Vineyard Island, Massachusetts.
From rude beginnings the Martha's Vineyard Camp -meeting
has grown until it has become a vast watering-place, with ad-
ditional grounds adjoining under different companies. Whole
villages of cottages have been erected, many of them at much
cost, with all the devices which necessity and taste can suggest.
It is not an uncommon thing for families from remote parts of
the country, and of all the different religious denominations, to
go thither early in the warm season, and to remain till autumn.
The success of Martha's Vineyard has caused similar efforts in
various sections, both on the sea-coast and inland, within the
past few years. Prominent among them is Ocean Grove, New
Jersey. Mr. Cookman was greatly pleased with its success ; he
prized highly the moments he was able to spend there in the
414 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
summer of 1871, and those persons who had the happiness to
be with him through those brief days will long cherish the
memory of his personal and ministerial influence as among the
most pleasant of their lives.
The first trumpet of the summer's campaign summoned Mr.
Cookman to the sixth National camp-meeting at Round Lake.
Thither the hosts of the higher life were moving ; the prospect
was for an immense meeting, and the responsibility of the Na-
tional Committee was correspondingly great; it was felt that
none of the active members could be spared, least of all the
man whose modest presence, wise counsels, persuasive speech,
and holy character constituted him to the cause a tower of
strength. He was not well ; to his rather enfeebled body and
worn mind it would have been delicious to go at once to the
sea-side but no ; among the promptest to start for and reach
Round Lake was Mr. Cookman. Though young in years he
was a veteran in service, and as the war-horse snuffeth the battle
afar, and in the first noise of the tumult forgets his stiffened
joints, so this our hero of a hundred victories, with the first step
upon the field of contest, with the first notes of God's Israel
preparing for the charge, forgot all his wounds and weariness,
and from beginning to end was in the thickest of the fight, him-
self farthest on to the front, where the battle raged the fiercest
here, there, every where personally contending, and by his
voice and example cheering on the soldiers of the cross. When
the conflict had closed, the smoke had rolled away, the field
was won, and the day pronounced glorious in the annals of
holiness, no heart was more serenely happy than Mr. Cook-
man's. His wounds, however, were seen to bleed afresh. His
natural force had abated the elastic spring, the gay, buoyant
carriage was perceptibly broken, and the beginning of the end
was at hand. But other battles were still to be fought, and
further victories to be won.
SIXTH NATIONAL CAMP-MEETING. 415
Some account of the Round Lake meeting, and Mr. Cook-
man's connection with it, is appropriate :
" This meeting opened in the beautiful grove of Round Lake, in Saratoga
County, New York, on the morning of the glorious Fourth. The National
Camp-meeting Committee, in full attendance, at once set about the usual
services of the occasion, a congregation of several thousands having already
arrived. After the experience of the former gathering in this place, two
years ago, the committee had provided still more abundantly for the large
demands probably to be made upon them. But they soon found that their
largest provisions were too small to meet the increased numbers that came
up. Over a hundred ministers were on the ground on the day of opening,
and every additional train of cars brings new arrivals.
*********
" It is observable that, while the meeting is held to the one idea of holi-
ness, that idea is not narrowed down to a technicality, but is made as broad
as God's promises, and as extensive as every sinner's need. So the awak-
ening and conversion of sinners is sought and witnessed simultaneously with
all the work of grace.
" Among the most efficient means of grace observed is silent prayer. The
effect of the awful stillness which sometimes prevails, when these seasons
are called for in the midst of an exciting meeting, can hardly be imagined.
The value of these soul-hushings is observable in the calm, still sense of
power which succeeds them.
" There is great catholicity of feeling prevailing Baptist and Methodist,
Quaker and Episcopalian, Congregationalist and Presbyterian, sitting to-
gether ' in heavenly places in Christ Jesus,' without any friction of sectari-
anism.
" The Sabbath has passed and such a Sabbath ! Earthly history can
not often repeat such days. Its dawn was beautiful, but ushered in with
gentle rain, which, however, only freshened the scene, and by no means
dampened the ardor of the worshipers.
" The morning prayer-meeting, at five o'clock, was crowded to overflow-
ing from the commencement, and for two hours the vast multitude maintain-
ed an unceasing strain of worship.
" The attendance on this day largely outnumbered that at the great meet-
ing in this place two years ago ; and although by five o'clock in the morning
the vehicles came in from every direction, and by nine o'clock covered many
acres of ground, there was no more confusion and disorder than on an ordi-
nary Sabbath at home. The love-feast in the big tent was one of those sea-
sons to be witnessed only occasionally, even in camp-meetings. During the
4l6 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
time of the meeting, nearly four hundred persons rose on their feet and tes-
tified tersely, but clearly, to the grace of God in them many of them cases
of recent renewals, and many more of recent conversion. The sermons of
the day were in harmony with the one idea of ' holiness,' but had little of the
technicality and dogmatic separateness which has sometimes been charged
upon these good brethren. The style of preaching throughout has been
purely expository and eminently practical. Rev. J. S. Inskip occupied the
pulpit in the tent in the morning, while at the stand, in spite of the rain, a
mass-meeting for prayer and praise was improvised. At the same hour, va-
rious services were conducted in the tents.
" Rev. Alfred Cookman preached in the afternoon to one of the largest
and most attentive audiences that a camp-meeting ever saw.
" But to speak of preaching gives but little idea of the great work of sal-
vation which spread like a sheet of flame through all the ground. In the
tents, at the street corners, by the wayside, every where, the great work of
personal labor for the conversion of sinners and the sanctification of believ-
ers went on. It seemed a verification of the promise, ' It shall come to pass
in the last days, saith the Lord, I will pour out my Spirit upon your sons
and upon your daughters, and they shall prophesy,' etc., might be met every
where.
" There a lady steps out of the door of her tent, and enchains the passers-
by with the story of the cross ; a moment later, and precious souls are
bowing near her, and asking her to pray for them. In that tent are a
group of ladies, whose song and fervent speech bring the prayerless and
careless to the feet of Jesus ; while for hours, at the fountain in the princi-
pal square, an improvised 'altar' is crowded with 'seeking souls.' The
meeting is led chiefly by the zealous missionary of the Water Street move-
ment and Pastor Hedstrom. Suffice it to say that God's great work of soul-
saving is mightily displayed ; and whatever ' one idea ' may be meant, it has
grown into a most comprehensive idea of becoming all things to all men,
that men may be saved."
The special correspondent of The Troy Daily Times, in a let-
ter of July 8th, claimed there were 10,000 people on the ground
on the Sabbath. Describing Mr. Cookman's sermon, he wrote :
"At two P.M. Rev. A. Cookman, of the Newark Conference, preached
from Philippians, third chapter, fourteenth verse ' I press toward the mark
of the prize of my high calling.' The speaker claimed that St. Paul was a
man of one idea, but that idea was complete in itself. If he made tents, that
was but a part of his religion. His preaching was tributary to his idea of
THE SUPREME CENTRE OF BLISS. 417
holy living. He defined the mark of the prize as the Bible standard of
Christian excellence, and spoke of the evil of a wrong standard. He spoke
beautifully of the prize itself in the final glorification of soul and body in the
likeness of Christ. It is hard to do justice to the discourse, which, with the
happy manner of its delivery, made a deep impression."
A person who was present at the love-feast referred to, noted
at the time the experience of Mr. Cookman on the occasion.
It was in substance as follows :
" When you were singing of the cross a few minutes since, I thought that
I had drawn a circle around the cross, and * * * Jesus has lifted me up
from the foot of the cross, and has given me a home in His heart. I am
dwelling in the supreme centre of bliss."
At the close of the meeting, in company with his sister, Miss
Mary Cookman, and a few friends, he visited Saratoga Springs.
Although extremely exhausted from the labors of the meeting,
and feeling almost disabled, yet nothing could exceed his cheer-
fulness on that day.. His spirits bubbled like the perpetual
health-giving springs, the waters of which they drank. His
companions had never known him more playful he seemed
literally carried away with the delights of nature and the loving
companionship of the hour. " With a home in the heart of
Jesus, dwelling in the supreme centre of bliss," happiness, nat-
ural and spiritual, was to him but the spontaneous effusion of
the soul, what the bird's song is to the bird.
Immediately upon his return from Round Lake he took his
family to Ocean Grove. It was evident to all that his health
was much impaired, but it was hoped that the invigorating sea
air and sea bathing, with the quiet of the place, would soon re-
store him to his usual strength. In all likelihood this would
have been the effect, had he remained during the season thus
in repose, desisting from the extreme labors and excitements
of successive camp-meetings. It was expected by his friends
that he would do so some of them urged its necessity upon
him but, despite all remonstrances, the earnest persuasions of
S 2
41 8 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
his wife and kindred, he could not be constrained to rest. The
fact is, he did not know how to rest ; it was a lesson he had
never needed to learn hitherto, and now it was exceedingly dif-
ficult for him to begin it. For ardent, healthful natures, accus-
tomed to action, nothing is harder than enforced passivity the
quiescence which is obliged by incapacity or indispensable to
recuperation. The mind, like any material body when under
strong headway, can not be suddenly stopped in its course with-
out a violent interruption of the laws of its being. The mind,
no more than the material body, will stop of itself. At least it
is not natural for it to do so ; and, if stopped, it is only in obe-
dience to outside force. If Mr. Cookman had foreseen the prob-
able consequences of unintermitted work through the summer,
it is doubtful if he would have persisted in his purpose as he
had never had cause before to take care of himself, he could
not now feel the necessity of it, nor fully appreciate the fears of
his friends. The habit of " campaigning " was strong upon him.
The second National camp-meeting for the season had begun
at Urbana, Ohio ; the brethren of the committee were there,
and how could he stay away in ease, while they were at work
and needed him ? " Oh, Alfred !" said his wife, in tears and
she knew better than any one else how sick he really was
"you will not go to Urbana?" "My dear," he replied, "it is
God's will." When he arrived at Urbana, the members of the
committee were surprised but extremely gratified to see him.
Their feelings are well expressed in an extract from a letter of
the Rev. L. R. Dunn, of the Newark Conference :
" At our last meeting on the Round Lake camp-ground he was ill, really
unable to do any work ; and yet such was his burning zeal for Christ that
he could not keep still, but preached, prayed, and labored very far beyond
the limit which prudence would have prescribed. Our next engagement
was at Urbana, and none of our committee imagined that he would venture
logo there. But greatly to our pleasure and our surprise he came on quite
early in the meeting, and preached twice during its continuance, with a pa-
NATIONAL CAMP-MEETING AT URBAN A. 419
thos and power which I imagine he had never exhibited before. Thousands
of deathless spirits will never have the impressions produced by those ser-
mons effaced."
The correspondent of The Methodist, writing from Urbana,
says :
" This meeting commenced on Tuesday, August 1st, in a beautiful grove
about two miles from Urbana, Ohio, under the direction of the National
Camp-meeting Association. * * *
" The venerable Bishop Morris is present, and receives many attentions,
unobtrusive and delicate, from all classes. The Bishop attends all the serv-
ices, even those held by Mrs. Inskip for the benefit of the children, quite a
number of whom have professed conversion. It is really affecting to see
this patriarch and honored bishop in the Church sitting in company with the
lambs of the flock, and to hear his voice mingling with theirs in Sunday-
school hymns and choruses.
" Besides the regular Sunday services, which were held in the quadrangle,
and at which the congregations were immense, it was found necessary to
have preaching at the tabernacle both morning and afternoon.
" The Sunday-morning National love-feast was conducted by Alfred Cook-
man, and was a season of tremendous power. In the course of two hours
four hundred and fifty persons spoke. To the roll-call of the states, re-
sponses were made from Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York,
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia,
Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Michigan, California,
Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Tennessee.
This may well be called a ' National ' camp-meeting. To the call of de-
nominations, answers were given by representatives of the Baptist, Presby-
terian, Quaker, African Zion, and other churches.
" At the close of every service those who desire to enter into full salva-
tion are urged and entreated to come to the fountain of cleansing. The
most genial feeling prevails all over the ground, and the members of the
committee are as social and brotherly toward all their fellow-ministers as
their arduous duties will permit them to be. There is no 'exclusiveness'
whatever no standing apart with them ; all the while rather a desire to
have their brethren ' come in and share the feast' This remark may be
the more valuable to many, because the writer of this paper is known to
be identified with the brethren no further nor more intimately than in the
common belief of the Wesleyan doctrine, and in a common Methodist
brotherhood."
420 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
Mr. Cookman's impressions were given in two letters to his
wife the last he ever wrote her.
To his wife :
" URBANA CAMP-GROUND, Friday afternoon, 1871.
" I hasten to redeem my promise, and acquaint you with our safe arrival
at our destination. We left Philadelphia yesterday in the 12.40 train, and
without accident or detention proceeded on our journey. It was a consid-
erable tax ; but the Lord strengthened me, for He knew that my motive to
do His will was very pure. I rested rather than slept in my berth ; enjoyed
my supper at Altoona and my breakfast at Columbus. Arriving here,
a most cordial welcome awaited me. The K.'s, H.'s, etc., are delighted
to see their Methodist preacher cousin. A number are here from Phila-
delphia. The committee are rather feeble-handed. Wells has gone home.
Inskip is better, but is obliged to use great care ; he really needs rest. Gray
is on the sick-list, so that it is well that I came with my superabundance of
physical power to supply deficiencies. The weather here has been very show-
ery, interrupting the services in the open air. Gray, Wells, Dunn, and Gil-
lett have preached. There is a great deal of indifference, not to say antag-
onism, in the minds of many of the preachers and people. The meeting is
not as large as many thought it would be something less than three hun-
dred tents. Our trust, however, is in the Lord who made heaven and earth,
and we feel confident of victory. I am meeting friends on every side, who
express great pleasure in seeing me under these circumstances. I am not
any worse for my long travel ; feel a little oppressed with the heat Re-
becca and her friend are nicely situated in a snug little tent, and will take
good care of me. Be careful of yourselves. Make that cottage before I re-
turn ' a thing of beauty and a joy forever.' Let me hear from you very often.
Kisses for my dear children ; love for my many friends."
To his wife :
"URBANA CAMP-GROUND, Saturday afternoon, August, 1871.
" Our meeting progresses with constantly developing interest. Every
service is a signal success, and it looks now like a sweeping victory. This
afternoon I preached to a large and most attentive congregation from the
text, ' Be ye holy.' God graciously strengthened and helped me, and my
friends say I never had a better time. Since the sermon I am a little pros-
trated, and my legs stiffen up ; but I am getting along gloriously. Sincerely,
I have not been as well for five weeks. Last night I slept on a lounge in
uncle John K.'s cottage, and put in a night of refreshing sleep. Our Ohio
relatives are as kind as they can be. Rebecca watches over and provides
PERSONAL INFLUENCE AT URBANA. 421
for me with the attention and love of a dear sister. The table at which we
board is luxurious never knew any thing at camp-meeting to approach it
in excellence tastefully spread, admirably served, and then such a variety
of food. To-day for dinner, roast chicken, chicken pot-pie, beef, lamb, ham,
every kind of vegetables, corn, tomatoes, cabbage, beans, etc., etc., and then
very nice pie and watermelon for dessert.
" To-morrow will be the Sabbath. I conduct the love-feast in the morn-
ing, Brother Inskip at ten, McDonald in the afternoon, and Dunn at night.
There will probably be twenty thousand people on the ground. My own
soul is being enriched. I want to bring home a double portion of the
Spirit, and so be furnished for a blessed and successful campaign this au-
tumn. There has been a good deal of rain here during the last few days.
This tempers the atmosphere and keeps down the dust. And now I must
close my note. The forces are gathering for a night battle. Oh, for salva-
tion in floods ! I will not probably get back home before Saturday night.
And now good-bye. The Lord bless and watch over you. Kisses for my
children, love for my friends, and believe me your devoted husband."
The indifference and antagonism in the minds of many of
the preachers, if it existed, fast disappeared. Long before the
meeting concluded it had been dissipated as mists before the
sun. No man's influence contributed more to this than that
of Alfred Cookman. While his associates in the committee
and in labor won good opinions on all sides, there seemed a
hallowed power about him which drew like a magnet all hearts
to him. Not only his sermons, but his most casual utterances
were listened to as from an oracle. He could have no time to
himself. His instructions were privately sought by the intel-
lectual and the wealthy as well as by the untutored and poor;
indeed, with many his very presence was coveted as imparting
a sanctity his least look of recognition was regarded a bene-
diction. The whole influence of the man was the expressed
sweetness of a nature which had long since been thoroughly
imbued with divine unction. The wisest counsels, the most
apt illustrations, the most sympathetic expressions, explaining
the way of holiness to the inquiring mind, or infusing courage
into those who were timid, fell from his lips as honey-dew from
422 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
the leaves of the trees. As the people, both ministers and lay-
men, gathered about him, eager to catch every word, and won-
dered at the strange wisdom and unwonted spell of his talk,
they little thought that he was talking not only from his heart,
but was talking away his heart. The last and best of Alfred
Cookman was condensing itself into sentences to live and grow
in men's minds forever.
A prominent minister tells us : "I afterward recalled with
great tenderness the conversations I had with Rev. Alfred
Cookman, and the precious soul-rest I realized when I vent-
ured my all on the solid rock of eternal truth. The idea that
I was saved, not for years or months or clays to come, but this
moment and the next, by trusting in and looking to Jesus, re-
lieved my mind from a load of apprehension about the future."
On the last evening of the meeting, as very many of the hun-
dreds on the ground were marching around the inclosure led
by some of the National Committee, a lady, who was prejudiced
against the custom, said she must join them, if it was but
to shake Mr. Cookman by the hand once more, and bid him
good-bye.
I quote again from the correspondence of The Methodist to
show how completely the indifference and antagonism of the
ministers gave way :
" It is impossible to tell how many have entered into ' the rest of faith.'
On one occasion I counted forty persons at the altar during the morning
(eight o'clock) meeting. This was soon after the invitation was given. Not
less than as many more were down before the meeting was closed. I no-
ticed doctors of divinity, professors in literary institutions, officers of the
General Conference, men of wealth, position, and power, at the altar, and in
deep earnest about this matter. * * * Not the least interesting meeting is
that held every day by Mr. Battcrshall, a layman of New York, for business
men. It is very largely attended. Meetings for the Ohio Conference and
the Cincinnati Conference preachers are daily held; also for class-leaders
and Sunday-school teachers; also for women this is conducted by Mrs.
Inskip. I learned that the preachers of the Cincinnati Conference, at one
POWERFUL SERMON ON HOLINESS. 423
of their meetings, unanimously resolved to bury all differences, and go home
and preach a full and present salvation. Some forty were at this meeting,
which comprised some of the ablest and best men in the Conference."
In addition to what has been already said of Mr. Cookman's
preaching at this meeting, I give an account of it which ap-
peared in one of the Cincinnati papers shortly afterward :
" At ten o'clock the clang of the bell called the congregation to Church
Square, where Rev. Alfred Cookman delivered another of those grand ser-
mons that are rapidly placing him in the front rank of the eloquent and
effective pulpit orators of the Methodist Church. His text was read from
Ephesians v., 18 ' Be ye rilled with the Spirit.' The preacher said, by
way of introducing his subject, that on an occasion like this it would be su-
perfluous to employ time to insist on the personality or individuality of the
Holy Ghost, the Third Person of the Trinity. Unanimous assent to that
doctrine may be taken for granted. He then referred briefly to the various
offices of the Spirit, as contradistinguished from those of other persons of
the Trinity, and quoted from various inspired writers to establish the fact
that the promise of the Spirit's presence was one of the understood guar-
antees given to man in the Scriptures. When the Holy Spirit comes to
man it is not to speak of Himself, but to take of the things of Christ and
show them unto us. The Spirit does not reveal Himself, but reveals the
personality and presence of Christ. This explains the prominence given to
Christ in all effective preaching of the Gospel. I detract not an iota from
the merits of Christ. I am not surprised to hear you sing, ' Oh, how I love
Jesus ;' but we must not fail to recognize that it is our glorious privilege
and duty to speak of, pray to, live in, have fellowship with, be filled by the
Holy Spirit.
" The effects of being filled with the Holy Spirit are developed in the
consciousness, character, and life of man. Its effects on man's conscious-
ness are : First, the soul will be hallowed in thought, feeling, and motive.
Second, the soul will have a deep, full, and abiding experience of love a
valuable and beautiful fount of the very nature of the Spirit himself. Third,
the soul will have the realization of real rest. Antagonisms will be allayed;
antagonists transformed into servitors. The soul where the Spirit makes
His home will be made a perfect home.
" In character, religion aims to produce perfection. Character in its high-
est form is not the product of merely human agencies, and a character devel-
oped by the Spirit's operation will involve : First, holiness; freedom from
littleness, lowness, or vileness. Second, gentleness; no agent is comparable
424 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
with the Spirit in this matter of gentleness, and gentleness makes man great.
Third, wisdom; this is pronounced in God's Word; God's children shall
be the happiest, best, and wisest on His footstool. In personal life : first,
a soul filled with the Spirit supplies the impulses of an earnest, useful, and
valuable life; second, it will supply not only the motive power, but the abil-
ity to accomplish; third, it associates with the words and labors of life the
unction of the Holy One.
" The speaker discussed at some length the question, What is unction ?
He said : ' It is that subtle, intangible, irresistible influence of the Holy
Spirit that seals instruction upon the hearts to which it is given. It is not
the eloquent men of this world, the orators of great occasions, whose words
linger longest in their influence upon the hearts of men. The unction may
oftentimes be rather in the utterances of a humble disciple than in the de-
livery of a powerful sermon. For this I am more concerned than for any
thing else.' * * *
" His clear, ringing voice penetrated to the remotest bounds of the great
square, and under the influence of his eloquence men stood motionless as
statues. The hour of twelve came, and the gongs and dinner-bells around
the inclosure began an interruptive clangor. But no person in that congre-
gation could have been tempted away by an epicurean feast. In that mo-
ment there was food for the moral and religious nature being dispensed
with all the liberality of eloquence, and the wants of physical nature were
unheeded in these appeals. An imperfect report would utterly mar the
beauty of the speaker's utterances, and a perfect report would fail to convey
any idea of the glowing eloquence of his style, and the telling effect of his
pathetic appeals to men and women to ' be filled with the Holy Spirit.'
Your types could print the mere words, but no pen-power that I know of
can clothe them with the garb of oratory in which they trooped forth from
the speaker's lips, to take by storm the stubborn citadels of men's hearts
and minds."
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE LAST CAMP-MEETINGS. FAILING HEALTH. THE LAST
SERMON.
WITH the camp-meeting at Urbana, Mr. Cookman's public
services with the National Committee ceased. Some of the
committee, during the same season, moved farther westward,
and held meetings in a large tent at Topeka, Kansas, Salt Lake
City, and in different parts of California ; but he was not able,
for want of time and strength, to accompany them.
The effective work of the committee at Salt Lake was thus
graphically described in The Methodist by the Rev. T. De Witt
Talmage :
"THE BIG TENT.
"We found the track of the Methodist tent all the way across the continent.
Mormonism never received such a shot as when, with Brigham Young and
his elders present in the tent, the party of wide-awake Methodist ministers
preached righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come in great Salt
Lake City. The effect of those few days of faithful talking will never be for-
gotten. Hardly a service is held in the Mormon Tabernacle that an effort is
not made to combat the sermons of the itinerants. On the two occasions
when we were present in the Tabernacle, all the speakers felt called upon
to answer the Big Tent. It was evident that the monster of sin had been
speared, and the wound rankled. We have never seen the brethren of that
religious storming-party, but we hail them through these columns for the
glorious work they have accomplished in Salt Lake City. It was the first
gleam of light that some of the bondmen of the great religious despotism
have seen for many a year. If the Methodists had stayed a few days longer,
and gone around the walls of that Jericho, blowing the ' rams' horns,' I do
not know but that the brazen superstition might have fallen in thunder
and wreck.
" Might not the Christian Church of all denominations learn a lesson from
this religious crusade ? Our great ammunition-wagons are so clumsy and
426 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
our big guns so unwieldy that the enemy often has us at disadvantage. I
think a squad of flying artillery perhaps might go forth and surround the foe.
We want more men in the religious world with the bold dash that Kilpatrick
and Stonewall Jackson had in the military. We glorify the policy of ' fight-
ing it out on one line, if it takes all summer,' but forget what a little Christian
stratagem did when Gideon's three hundred men flung the pitchers and
hoisted the lamps !"
Mr. Cookman sought the cottage at Ocean Grove but not to
rest. This seemed quite impossible; for the camp -meeting
there was in progress, and, being pressed to preach, he could
not say " No." He tried hard to obtain a substitute, even after
he had consented to preach. The burden of the service, already
great, was increased by the unexpected appearance of the Presi-
dent of the United States in the audience. The President had
come down from his cottage at Long Branch to participate in
the worship.
"Among the listeners, while Rev. A. Cookman was preaching this morn-
ing, was General Grant, President of the United States, and his lady-like and
pleasant-faced wife. They walked in and took their seats together on one
of the rough boards. The threatening aspect of the weather, and a pre-
monitory sprinkle of rain, admonished our distinguished friends to seek the
shelter of their carriage before the services were formally concluded. This
saved the President from such a hearty hand-shaking as he has rarely been
subject to. With many of the ministers and prominent laymen present he
is on terms of intimacy, and much regret was felt that he could not remain
all day in the atmosphere of prayer and praise. Brother Howland extend-
ed to him a cordial invitation to partake of a camp-meeting dinner at his
spacious tables, and, had he stayed longer, he should have been made to feel
perfectly at home among the tents, some of which did service in the armies
he once commanded on the James River.
" Brother Cookman held all hearts by the spell of his eloquence during
the presidential visit, and finished his discourse by a profoundly solemn sea-
son of prayer."*
It was the last day of the meeting that he preached. The
effort had greatly exhausted his strength, but far into the last
* Correspondence of The Methodist Home Journal.
MARTHAS VINEYARD. LAST CAMP-MEETING SERMON. 427
night he protracted his labors singing, praying, talking, ex-
horting until his wife, extremely anxious for his welfare, urged
him to desist and retire. " Oh, my dear," said he, " it is bless-
ed ! it is blessed !" Thus standing, shaking hands with all,
and singing, " Oh, bliss of the purified !" he remained while
one was ready to remain and rejoice with him.
This was not enough: whether possessed of a presentiment
or not that his camp-meeting career would be soon ended, a
restless longing seemed to fill him for still another effort on his
chosen field. The fire which had constrained the seraphic Isaiah
to cry, " For Zion's sake will I not rest, and for Jerusalem's sake
will I not hold my peace, until the righteousness thereof go
forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that
burneth," had touched his lips, and off he hastened to Martha's
Vineyard, and there we hear of him as preaching with over-
whelming effect to the vast and promiscuous assemblage which
had gathered at that favorite spot :
"The preaching was unusually spiritual. Rev. Drs. Woodruff, Pierce,
Tiffany, and Payne, the brothers Alfred and John Cookman, declared the
truth in much assurance, and with great success. The sermon of Rev. Al-
fred Cookman, on ' Be filled with the Spirit,' was mightily effective."*
Another correspondent wrote :
" Rev. A. Cookman, through God, did a mighty work for the cause of
holiness. My impression is, if we, as a people, will follow the lead of the
Holy Spirit, the Great Head of the Church will make our camp-meetings a
wonderful means ' for spreading scriptural holiness over these lands.' "t
The sermon here referred to, which was substantially the
same as that preached at Urbana, on the text, " Be filled with
the Spirit," was the last preached by Mr. Cookman at a camp-
meeting. He was much agitated as to what he should preach,
and, after earnest questioning and prayer, felt impressed to
take this subject. What could so appropriately have been his
last theme to the general Church, represented as it was in all
* The Methodist. \ The Methodist Home Journal.
428 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
its branches on that occasion, as this one great theme of his
life. Lifted up to what eye-witnesses have declared was an
illumination of person and mind there, on 'the remotest coast
of New England, he delivered a message to the Church, which
the winds of heaven have been wafting northward, westward,
and southward, till believers of every section must catch the
wondrous sound, " Be filled with the Spirit." There is no leg-
acy which a truly devoted minister of the Lord Jesus Christ
could so fittingly leave to all Christians, whom he loved as he
loved his life, as the exhortation and the prayer for them "to
be filled with the Spirit." In this sentiment he felt was "com-
pleted and compacted " the one great want of the Christian
Church.
Mr. Cookman returned from Martha's Vineyard, spent two
weeks at Ocean Grove, and then brought his family home, and
early in September was at the regular work of his charge. The
great spiritual preparation which he had earnestly desired for
his fall and winter work had evidently been granted ; his mind
began promptly to unfold plans of increasing usefulness, and
in all the public and social services there was an enlarged at-
tendance and a manifest deepening of religious fervor. The
special service for the promotion of holiness, not hitherto ap-
pointed, was now established, and from it the happiest results
were anticipated.*
There was, however, one drawback to the pastor's plans and
expectations a disturbing element had thrust itself forward
and demanded recognition a strange element, which hereto-
fore had never entered into his reckonings, beset him ; his
health, always before so firm and reliable, was now weak and
* A card, neatly printed, was issued and circulated with these words :
The " Higher Christian Life. A meeting for all interested, irrespective of
denominational connections, is held every Friday evening, in the Chapel
of Central M. E. Church, Market Street, near Mulberry. Tlease preserve
this card as a remembrancer."
EARTH NEEDS THE GOOD. 429
treacherous. His physical constitution had lost its elasticity;
accustomed hitherto to recover its vigor immediately with the
suspension of hard work, it now failed to show signs of recu-
peration. The bow, strung too long, had lost its spring, and, when
the string was loosed, there was no rebound. Alfred Cookman
had gone too far for his strength this last summer's campaign
had finished what former summers' work had begun and has-
tened the premature decay of his bodily powers.
It is impossible, as I now enter the shadows which begin to
gather about our friend, whom I have thus followed step by step
until this period of his life, to dismiss wholly from sight a ques-
tion which, despite the sanctity of his character, the usefulness
of his career, and the triumph of his death, obtrudes itself upon
me : Can his uniform course of attending and working at suc-
cessive camp-meetings during the summer seasons be wholly
commended ? The difficulty of seeing any mistake in a life so
full of good fruits is very great ; and yet, when the loss to the
Church and to the world which the death of such a man entails
is weighed, those who feel it most deeply may be forgiven if
they suggest conditions which, humanly considered, may have
prevented it.
" Oh, sir ! the good die first,
And they whose hearts are dry as summer dust
Burn to the socket,"
is an utterance which gratifies a sort of vengeful feeling when
we see the good stricken down in their prime and the wicked
living to old age ; but it is not such as Christianity warrants.
The earth needs the good. The cause of God needs the wis-
dom of age as well as the zeal of youth. Life is the order
of God, and, except where it can be clearly pointed out as a
duty, it is not to be unduly exposed. Times may come, calls
may arise which demand its jeopardy and even its sacrifice as
the price of conscience, liberty, humanity ; but ordinarily God
is most glorified when, by a due observance of the laws of
430 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
health, it is prolonged and preserved in cumulative perfection
to advanced years.
There is no reason why a holy man should not increase in
holiness and usefulness until old age, and present, though in a
different aspect, quite as beautiful an exemplification of the
force of religion in the aged as in the young. This is a view
of the subject quite necessary to be looked at, ^specially by
youth. There is something peculiarly fascinating to ardent
natures in the halo which invests a rapid, fiery course and an
early triumphant death ; but to other minds there is something
repellent, as implying a logical connection between a life of
the highest devotion and a premature death. A devout man
may conscientiously refuse incessant, overtasking labor, and
insist upon the hours and days of relaxation, for the preserva-
tion of his health, in order that he may thus offer to God a
larger and more effective service. St. Paul had a desire to de-
part and be with Christ, which he felt to be far better for him-
self, because he would thus sooner be free from suffering, and
be present with the Lord ; but he yielded to the motive of use-
fulness to the Church as a reason sufficiently strong to control
his personal preference, and consented to remain in the body.
The desire for the greatest usefulness may lead one man to
such intensity of action as to preclude intermission of labor,
under the impression that time thus spent is lost ; while the
same desire may lead another to the strict observance of vaca-
tion, as -more economical of time, because regarded as indis-
pensable to the maintenance of an equable and steady strength.
One man's motto is, " Labor here, rest hereafter ;" another's
motto is, " Some rest and more labor." Both may be equally
religious, be alike governed by the glory of God ; but certainly
if the human race, before its universal death and resurrection,
is to possess the earth, if in humanity as now constituted, only
saved from sin and immorality, God is to be glorified in what
is ordinarily expected as the millennium, then conservation of
WANT OF ENOUGH RELAXATION. 431
physical health and the prolongation of human life must be
considered one of the first duties of practical religion. God's
greatest glory will be revealed in the highest perfection of the
threefold man soul, body, and spirit.
A doubt can not be raised as to the thorough conscientious-
ness of Mr. Cookman, nor, with the notions of individual lib-
erty, which must be conceded in reference to personal con-
duct, especially in view of the good sense, and the extreme care
with which he canvassed all questions of religion and morals,
both for himself and others, is it easy to say that he should have
acted differently in the use of his time and energies than he
did. While he was in the fullness of his vigor, fame, and use-
fulness, his friends used to remonstrate with him against devot-
ing his vacations in the heats of summer to the same mental
and bodily work to which he was accustomed all the year round.
He thought the change of scene and place would be sufficient
to prevent damage to his health. But the trouble was that,
while change of scene did bring a degree of relaxation, the
mind continued, only in an intenser degree, to be excited in the
same direction as in the ordinary work of the pastoral charge.
If, after the exhaustion of the camp-meetings, he could have had
freedom from care for a month each year, his labors could have
been continued, in all likelihood, for many years, for his phys-
ical resources were truly remarkable; but it was not possible for
a man, even of his bodily powers, to go directly from the cares
of a charge to the herculean work of five or six camp-meetings
every season, and to return immediately to the exacting duties
of the pastorate, without detriment to his health, and probable
premature decay of his vital force. He did not realize his dan-
ger in the beginning, and with each additional year his zeal
became so absorbing as to consume him, so that I believe his
course was finally one of deliberate choice, taken with his eyes
fully open to the worst consequences.
I can not approve his election on general principles. I may
432 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
accept it as that which God's Spirit pointed out to him as his
proper path ; and, in accepting it, I must be carried away with
admiration for so sublime an embodiment of that ancient, he-
roic, self-sacrificing devotion which inspired the apostles and
confessors of the primitive ages, and which still in these mod-
ern times impels scores and hundreds of believers to brave the
pestilence, the savage, and the deep for the Cross of Christ.
Surely no one can turn away from the career of this saint
of God, after contemplating his self-sacrificing zeal for the
salvation of his fellow -men, and say "the age of heroes is
past."
After all, it may be that one lesson, in addition to many oth-
ers, which divine Providence meant to teach in the history of
His servant, is the greater moral beauty, the richer blessedness
of a zeal which consumes, in contradistinction to the dwarfed
religiousness which the thought of self and the love of ease en-
gender low principles which, alas ! are too prevalent in our
clay. Sometimes extremes can only be met by extremes ; a
low stoop is necessary to reach a deep depression so Alfred
Cookman may have been a sacrifice to an excessive zeal, whose
force, all the greater by its contrast, shall kindle the breasts of
others, and arouse them from a too utilitarian and cold policy
for the work of saving a selfish world.
But the day is passing the sun nears the west the shadows
are lengthening enough of my reflections. We will hear more
from him. Some one remarked to him during his last illness,
" Perhaps you have worked too hard, and have not been suf-
ficiently careful of your health." "Well," he replied, "I do
not know I have enjoyed my work; I have not been con-
scious of overtaxing myself. I had but one life to live here,
and it was for the glory of Jesus ; and He has abundantly
recompensed me."
The following letters make but little mention of his health,
and are full of gentle love and genuine goodness.
THE MEMORY OF URBANA CAMP-MEETING. 433
To Mrs. Lewis, of Columbus, Ohio :
"NEWARK, N. J., September 7, 1871.
" We received most thankfully and joyfully your welcome letter. There
are no epistolary missives that come to our home that are more affection-
ately hailed than your own. You would excuse us from the necessity of re-
plying ; but no ! my Christian lady, you must not just yet exclude us from
the joy of corresponding with one of our dearest earthly friends, for Mrs.
C. and I both feel that in our large circle there is no heart truer, kinder,
or more faithful than your own. Twelve years of blessed intimacy and
growing affection will not heed the suggestion of your modest and ap-
preciative kindness. Thoughts are not sufficient ; we must tell you in your
Western home that ' mountains rise to separate us in vain.' God gave you
to us one of His special gifts and you know that His blessings are not
only peculiarly satisfying, but they become richer and sweeter and better the
longer they are retained.
" I can not give you any idea how delighted I was to meet you at Urbana.
I thought constantly of Homer, and felt if he could have brightened our cir-
cle with his brotherly face, and then we could have gone all together into
the ocean of divine fullness, this would have completed our joy. The last
of our National camp-meetings was for me the most glorious. How good
the Heavenly Father was to me, His humble legate ! What access He
gave me to the hearts of the people ! What comfort in the proclamation of
His truth ! I am persuaded that God specially honored your faith on
Tuesday morning, and in response to your intercessions vouchsafed the send-
ing of the Holy One. It was one of the most hallowed and blessed services
with which I have ever been identified ; and, indeed, all through it was
the Divinity ! the Divinity ! ! Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the
Holy Ghost. I rejoice to hear of your Friday-afternoon meeting. This
will be a power and a blessing. The little flame kindled at the Capitol will
spread and meet other flames burning in different localities, until Ohio shall
blaze with the glory of full salvation. Our sojourn at the sea-side was both
delightful and profitable. The ocean breezes invigorated me physically.
Our dear Brother Benjamin Adams was tented just alongside of our cot-
tage, and in his society I spent some of my happiest moments. The chil-
dren think that Ocean Grove is next to heaven. Your splendid boy re-
turned home more splendid than ever. He is still the idol of our household.
His torment at present is the mosquitoes ! They will bite him, and I do not
wonder if I was one I should insist on a little piece myself. When night
comes, they seem to pass by our bed, and they concentrate on the crib illus-
trating that even mosquitoes know what is good.
T
434 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
" Now I have filled my pages, and said only a tithe of what I wanted to
write. Give love to your sister. Write soon and often to your Christian
brother."
To Mr. and Mrs. Moore, of Wilmington, Del. :
"NEWARK, N. J., September 9, 1871.
" I add a brief postscript to my wife's letter, to say that you are both very
dear to my heart, and your kind attentions, unremitted confidence, and ten-
der love have made the deepest impression upon my better nature, and I
think of you as among the most precious of my Heavenly Father's blessings.
Sister Emily has for so many years vindicated her faithful friendship, that
this is a settled matter ; and she takes her place, not among the volunteers,
but with the tried and trusted veterans. Brother M. I have not known quite
so long, but three years have done more for him than thirty for some others.
No one could have been truer or warmer or more faithful, and he has a place
just alongside of his devoted wife and that is a very special place.
" Now this note, instead of being a little budget of news, is a declaration
of love ; and, indeed, I joy to tell you both how, despite separation, my heart
clings to you as fondly as when I stood in the relation of a cherished pastor.
" Love is a blessed sunshine on life's way, and, thank God, we may make
sunshine for others while we bask in its invigorating beams ourselves.
" My health is very much better than it has been, so that I do my regular
work as formerly. Yesterday, Sabbath, I preached twice and delivered a
missionary address. Next Friday evening we begin a meeting for the pro-
motion of Christian holiness. How I could desire your co-operation in this
effort to exalt Jesus and help fellow-disciples. God bless you both. Come
and see us ! The warmest welcome awaits you at No. 21 Clinton Street."
To Mrs. Edward Moore, of Wilmington, Del. :
" NEWARK, N. J., October 23, 1871.
" You can not imagine how much pleasure your letter gave us. It was
read and rc-rcad, and then read over again. Any word from Wilmington
is specially welcome. We have many blessed memories of our last pastor-
ate ; indeed, I do not know of any place to which our feelings turn more
tenderly than your neat, quiet, orderly, and pleasant little city.
" Every thing is pleasant and promising in our Newark pastorate. Our
Friday-evening meeting for the promotion of holiness is already a blessed
success largely attended, and with the needed unction of the Holy One.
The friends seem to have a revival in their faith, and we are confidently
waiting for shcnvers of blessing. Our best love to all the dear friends of
Grace Church, especially to the little circle that associate themselves on
RIDING IN THE AMBULANCE. 435
Wednesday afternoon and evening. My word to them you will find in
First Thessalonians, third chapter, eighth to thirteenth verses. Write fre-
quently, if you can, and give us all the items of Wilmington life."
To Mr. W. W. Cookman, of Philadelphia :
"NEWARK, N. J., October u, 1871.
" I can not tell you how grateful and gratifying was your fraternal letter.
For some time past I have had it upon my mind to use my pen in re-opening
our correspondence. Affectionate brothers, alive to each other's interests,
there ought certainly to be a more frequent interchange of thoughts and feel-
ings. Greatly desiring and fully intending this, I have allowed bodily indis-
position, with the pressure of immediate duties, to influence me, and this
pleasant exercise has been postponed. You have anticipated me in this
matter. I thank you most tenderly for your brotherly consideration, and I
promise to be more thoughtful and faithful in the future.
" You refer to my recent indisposition. This has been a new chapter in
my experience. Blessed, as you know, with robust health scarcely ever in-
terrupted, it was a trial to feel or acknowledge myself an invalid. During
the summer campaign in the forests, to ride in the ambulance and hear the
noise of the battle or the shouts of the victors, when my accustomed place
was ' at the front,' was a new experience, and called for grace, special grace.
My covenant-keeping Lord, however, has been fulfilling his gracious prom-
ises. He has not left or forsaken me. He has supplied all my need, and
gives me occasion daily for thanksgiving and praise. My trouble was an in-
termittent fever, a torpid liver, some kidney difficulty, and a prostration of
my nervous system. Thanks to a gracious Providence, I am very much bet-
ter am able to preach twice every Sabbath, and supervise the general in-
terests of my charge. Weakness in my knees and ankles, making locomo-
tion sometimes a painful effort, is my chief ailment now. Frosty weather
will probably relieve this and invigorate my nervous energies. Dr. Nelson,
of New York, wants me to take a year's rest, and go to Europe and the
East. As I am situated, however, this seems to me to be impracticable.
You have, of course, heard of John's engagement. * * * This I regard as
the last and best installment of heaven's love for our younger brother. We
are usually well at our Newark home. Annie joins me in tenderest love to
yourself and Mary. Kisses for your boys from their uncle, aunt, and cous-
ins. Come and visit us when you can. A most cordial welcome awaits
you or any of yours."
The last article which came from Mr. Cookman's hand for
publication, was a preface, written at the request of Mr. W. S.
436 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
Hillis of Wilmington, Delaware, for a little tract containing the
account of Dr. Coan's labors in the island of Hilo. The tract
was afterward published. The article was conveyed in a letter
to Mr. Hillis :
"NEWARK, N.J., October 19, 1871.
" I ought perhaps to take a season of rest, but in my relations, both family
and ecclesiastical, this seems impracticable. I am the child of the best of
fathers, and He is pledged to the supervision of all my interests. What
may be His design in my present condition, I can not know. Lying quietly
and lovingly and confidently in His blessed embrace, I look up and say,
' Good is the will of the Lord.' I want to be entirely willing to do or not
to do."
Mr. Cookman continued to fulfill all his ministerial duties
during the weeks of September and October. But it was evi-
dent to his family and friends that his bodily strength was not
adequate to the tasks he was performing. It was the opinion
of medical men that his health was seriously impaired and
needed absolute rest, and he was advised to take a tour to
Europe. The way did not appear to be open, and so he toiled
on hoping, though not without alternations of fear, that with
the cool frosts of autumn his strength would return. He would at
this time, after being out through the clay making pastoral calls,
come home and throw himself on the sofa utterly exhausted,
and say, " Sometimes I think my work is nearly done, and when
I take my bed, it may be my last sickness." Then again he
would rally, and talk of his plans for the future. He still moved
quite freely among his ministerial brethren. As late as the first
of October he was over to New York in attendance upon the
Preachers' meeting, interchanging greetings and showing all his
wonted buoyancy of feeling. His hearty grasp and glowing ex-
pressions on that occasion can not soon be forgotten.
While instant in labor in his own charge, he was ever ready,
sick as he was, to render outside help to the ministers of neigh-
boring cities.
HEAVENLY LONGINGS. 437
The Rev. L. R. Dunn writes :
" After the summer campaign was over, he resumed his work with great
hopefulness. Having been a pastor for five years of the same Church,
and knowing intimately its official boards and its entire membership, I can
safely say that never before in all their history were they laboring with
greater unanimity, with loftier inspirations, and with more assured promise
and hope for their future enlargement and prosperity. Every movement he
made, every word he spoke, every meeting he held, and every sermon he
preached seemed to distill a fragrance not only in his own Church, but as far
as he was known through all the churches and all the community. * * *
" As an illustration of this, an intelligent young man, who had been brought
to Christ during my ministry in the Central Church, although afterward con-
nected with another of our churches in the city, was conversing with me
after his death about his goodness and purity. So impressed did he seem
to be that I asked him if he had often heard him preach ? ' No,' said he, ' I
have never heard him preach, but I have watched him as he was walking
along the street? So that his very shadow as he walked left its impress on
the mind and heart of that young man. * * * I had arranged to have a few
dayg of extra sen-ices in my charge, and he had promised to spend a day
with me. He came in during the afternoon meeting, and talked very sweetly
and impressively to all present of his experience of full salvation. After
service he went to my house with one of our clear mutual friends, and re-
mained until the evening service. When leaving the house he said to me,
' Let me take your arm ; since my sickness this last summer I have been a
little lame, and my limbs sometimes seem to give way.' Little did I think
then, as he walked and talked of Jesus and His love, that he was so near to
his heavenly home. * * * He preached with great power on ' Put ye on the
Lord Jesus,' and his sermon seemed to produce a deep impression."
Nothing could exceed the spiritual mindedness of Mr. Cook-
man through these weeks. He was full of plans for life, but a
deep under-current of feeling bore all his thoughts heavenward.
He almost literally lived and moved in God. His spirit was
becoming so filled with the atmosphere of the skies, that its
tendency was upward, and, imperceptibly to himself and his
friends, he was so ready for the ascent that it was with difficulty
he could be held to earth. Walking out one evening with his
wife, as he looked up to the heavens he said, " Those are my
43^ LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
Father's stars " " That is my Father's moon." A short time be-
fore he was taken sick they visited a house where they saw an
oil-painting of a saint just entering heaven ; lingering by it, he
said, " How I covet her she is almost within the gate ;" and
then requested his wife to sing
" Oh, the city ! oh, the glory !
Far beyond the rapturous story
Of the ages old and hoary
Oh ! 'tis heaven at last !"
He gazed in transport as he seemed to fancy her just entering
the heavenly city.
The month of October, with its keen, crisp breath, was fast
speeding away, without reviving the flagging steps of the weary
invalid. He grew perceptibly weaker. While in attendance
upon the National Committee in New York, about the middle
of the month, he made a call at his brother's house in West
Thirty-fourth Street. Though feeble, he was very bright and
cheerful. His whole conversation was about Jesus and his
cause. That visit proved the last. Two days before his final
illness he attended a love-feast at the Halsey Street Methodist
Episcopal Church, Newark. His ankles were then very weak,
but such was his devotion to the Master's work that he could not
refuse to go. At the close of the meeting he gave his experi-
ence from the commencement of his religious life, dwelling es-
pecially upon the holy influence and example of his mother.
Returning home, two of his warm friends walked on each side
of him to support his feeble steps. He said to them, " I know
it is not popular to hold up the doctrine of holiness, but I
thought I would do my whole duty then; I feel this may be
my last opportunity."
On Sunday, the 2 ad of October, he performed his last public
services. He had said many times when in health, " I would
like to die, if it is God's will, with my armor on, and preach by
my death as well as by my life." He often spoke of the Rev.
LAST SERMON : FADING AS A LEAF. 439
Dudley Tyng, with whom he was intimately associated in Phil-
adelphia, and said, " It was glorious to die as he did, for his
dying testimony was yet echoing through the world." He even
said he " would prefer to die in the pulpit." His wish, though
not literally, was about to be substantially gratified. His work
and his life were to end together. His death was to be the
most effective sermon of his whole career a fitting vindication
and illustration of the power of the doctrines he had preached
and lived a death which, for its singular spiritual glory, is des-
tined to be spoken of while the annals of Christian saints shall
be read, and which for its wondrous force will be quoted and
dwelt upon as a divine inspiration while there shall be a Church
to cherish the memory of the good, or a trembling believer
who shall need cheer amid the stern struggles of life and
death.
In the morning he preached from Mark iv., 25, "From him
that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath"
a very solemn and effective sermon. In the afternoon he visit-
ed the Sabbath-school, as was his custom, and shook hands
with every teacher and scholar. Toward evening he com-
plained of not feeling well, and Mrs. Cookman was very anx-
ious to get some one to fill his pulpit for the evening service.
But he would not consent, saying, " I think I have a message
from God for this people ; I shall preach from ' the faded leaf.' "
As he arose to announce his text, he held in his hand a faded
leaf, saying "this is my text, 'We all do fade as a leaf.'" Sev-
eral persons remarked afterward to his wife that " he looked
like one transfigured." A lady said to her husband, " She did
not think that Fletcher could have looked more seraphic." As
he finished his sermon his feet gave way, and passing from the
pulpit he handed the leaf to a friend, saying, " The leaf and the
preacher are very much alike -fading." He limped home, and
when his wife received him in the parlor he was almost dis-
tracted with pain. As he was assisted to his chamber he re-
44O LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
marked to her, " I have preached my own experience to-night,
'Fading as a leaf? "
The physician in attendance pronounced the disease Mial-
gia, or acute inflammatory rheumatism, the pain being confined
to the ankles and the soles of the feet. There was also a tor-
pid condition of the liver, which added very much to his dis-
comfort. The next few days were accompanied with intense
suffering ; but he was heard to say " that, while his whole lower
nature was quivering with agony, his higher nature triumphed
in God." At times he would be so filled with the Spirit as to
burst out in the midst of his anguish into expressions of praise
and love. I quote again from the Rev. Mr. Dunn : " In at-
tempting to describe his sufferings to me he used the following
language : ' If/ said he, ' the bones of my feet were all teeth,
and each one had what we call the jumping toothache, it would
give you some idea of what I suffer.' After conversation and
prayer, when I rose to leave, he grasped my hand, and, looking
up so lovingly in my eyes, he said, 'My precious brother, how I
love you ! I have always felt a special nearness to you ever
since I have known you.' But, great as his sufferings were, he
seemed then to have no idea he was so near his end, but talked
freely of his plans for the future, and his hope of a speedy re-
covery."
After about one week of almost constant pain, approaching
sometimes to convulsions, alleviated only by slight intervals of
ease, he became apparently convalescent. When a lull in his
sufferings took place he was very bright and cheerful, and he
manifested the keenest interest in every thing which occurred
around him both beyond and within the house. Every little in-
cident in the outer world was referred to with the liveliest ap-
preciation ; while the acts of kindness performed by those in
attendance upon him, even of the most trivial kind, were re-
ceived with the sweetest look of pleasure and gratitude. Al-
ways to the question, " How are you ?" he would reply, " I think
AFFECTION FOR HIS PEOPLE. 44!
I am a little better." After rallying from the first paroxysms
of suffering, he had his books and paper brought to him, and
employed his time as he was able in reading or being read to,
and in writing notes to his friends. His Bible was daily by his
side; when he was unable to read it, either the children or his
wife would read it to him, and he would respond, "There is
nothing like the Word of the Lord;" or, "Oh, how precious !"
At his request his daughter Annie read to him the sixteenth
chapter of the Gospel of St. John always a favorite chapter
with him. She said to him one day as he was suffering with
pain in the back of his neck, " Pa, are you not afraid that it will
go to your brain ?" " No, darling," he answered, " not unless
the Lord Jesus would have it." October 29th, one week from
the time of his prostration, a meeting being held by the mem-
bers of his Church to pray especially for his recovery, he dic-
tated for them the following note :
" Mr. Cookman wishes me to say that he appreciates more than he can
express the sympathy and love of his dear people. He loved you all very
tenderly before his present illness ; he feels that he will love you much more
in the future. This is a Sabbath of great physical suffering, and yet it is
proving, doubtless in answer to your prayers, the most precious of all his
life. He says he is Christ's suffering little child; and with every sharp,
keen, excruciating pain, he feels that Jesus presses him even more closely
to his great heart of love, and lets him realize the power of His divine sym-
pathy and tenderness. He says, ' God bless you all the kindest, dearest
people that any pastor ever served.' "
T 2
CHAPTER XXV.
THE LAST HOURS. SWEEPING THROUGH THE GATES.
IT was after reviving from one of the severe paroxysms to
which Mr. Cookman was subject, about one week from the first
attack, that he had what may be regarded as a remarkable vis-
ion. He found himself just inside of heaven. He was first
received by his grandfather Cookman, who said, " When you
were in England, I took great pleasure in showing you the dif-
ferent places of interest ; now I welcome you to heaven, my
grandson, washed in the blood of the Lamb !" He was next
received by his father whose features were as distinct as when
he saw him in his boyhood days he also said, " Welcome, my
son, washed in the blood of the Lamb !" Then his brother
George took him in his arms, and said, " Welcome, my brother,
washed in the blood of the Lamb !" And lastly his son Bru-
ner received him with the same salutation " Welcome, father,
washed in the blood of the Lamb !" Each one of these in turn
presented him to the Throne. When he told his wife of what
he had seen and heard, he remarked, " That was an abundant
entrance." She asked him if it was a dream. He replied,
" No, it was between sleeping and waking." Saint Stephen is
not the last of God's suffering, dying servants who have seen
heaven opened before their entrance into it.
He was often heard to repeat the simple words,
" I'm a poor sinner, and nothing at all,
Jesus Christ is my all in all."
He now seemed to understand as never before the expression,
" Perfect, or purified through suffering." " I have known for
MESSAGES FROM THE BORDER LAND. 443
many years what it is to be washed in the blood of the Lamb ;
now I understand the full meaning of that verse, 'These are they
which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.' I used to
maintain that the blood was sufficient, but I am coming to
know that tribulation brings us to the blood that cleanseth."
His mother, who visited him frequently, reminded him that the
Saviour suffered in his feet, to which he afterward often refer-
red. " You know the nails pierced His precious feet, and He
can sympathize with me in my sufferings. ' In all their afflic-
tions he was afflicted.' " To his son Frank he said, " The ef-
fect of this sickness is to draw me closer and closer to the heart
of Jesus."
The last letters he wrote will be read and cherished as well-
nigh messages from heaven.
To Miss Howland, of Wilmington, Del., now the wife of Rev.
John E. Cookman :
" MONDAY, November 6, 1871.
" Do I anticipate ? Nay ! your tender, loving spirit and my warm frater-
nal feeling constitute you already a sister beloved.
" Your sweet letter came into my sick-room like a love-bird, and its carol
of sympathy caused tears of thankfulness to flow down my cheeks.
" This is the third week of my sickness. My physician (a skillful and
faithful man) will not allow me to get out of bed, so that I am penning
this note (the first I have written) lying on my back, and using my pen-
cil as best I can. For eight or nine days I suffered beyond expression.
Sometimes the spasms of pain, affecting my entire nervous system, were al-
most more than I could bear (a new chapter in my experience), for hitherto
I have been wonderfully healthy and strong ; and yet, will you believe me,
these have been among the best weeks of my life. When the pain was
greatest, the precious Jesus would draw me closest to His great heart of
love, and whisper in my spiritual ear some of His soothing and inspiring
promises.
" I am loving more and more the will of my Father in heaven, for if it
brings suffering (which is but for a moment), it brings also an infinite com-
pensation, not only in the sympathy and loving kindness of Jesus, but also
in the persuasion that our present afflictions are intended to work in us the
444 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
peaceable fruits of righteousness, and to work out for us a far more exceed-
ing and eternal weight of glory.
" Of course I have had no painful solicitude respecting the future. To
the praise of the divine grace, I humbly testify this was taken away long ago.
' Perfect love casteth out fear.' My faith and hope have come back to chee'r
me with the assurance that 'all is well.'
" Oh ! I have so much to write but I must forbear.
" I am, thank God, on the upward grade. My feet are still so sore and
weak that I could not probably take two steps, and then my system is greatly
prostrated by reason of my protracted suffering.
" Tell your precious mother that her most welcome letter of sympathy
and sisterly love came to hand this morning. Its expressions of tender af-
fection quite subdued my heart, and made me praise God for such warm,
fast, Christian friends. If practicable, I will be glad to breathe for a day or
two the sanctified atmosphere of your beautiful home at Hilton.
" Give my truest and best love to your dear father and mother and your
venerated grandparents. God bless them, and grant that their golden-wed-
ding may ripen into the ^ry-wedding and, oh ! shall I not sit down with
them and you at the marriage-supper of the Lamb ? Now I can not write
any more. Good-bye, my sweet sister Meta. Continue to pray for me.
Yours forever."
To Mrs. Stevens, of Wilmington, Del. :
" NEWARK, N. J., November 6, 1871.
" I am still the prisoner of the Lord but oh, what an honor ! what a
privilege ! what a joy ! Infinite Love is my Keeper, and the Lord's prison-
houses are incomparably more desirable than the gorgeous palaces of wick-
edness.
" This is now the third week of my affliction. Lying on my back, I am
grateful -to be able to use my pencil in communing with the dear friends
whose tried affection is cherished among my heart's richest treasures, and
the expression of whose sympathy is so soothing and welcome. When our
Christian boy was wrested from us, no voice was more tender, no heart
more sympathizing than your own. We have not forgotten it and now
that it pleases the best of fathers to afflict your unworthy brother, it is most
encouraging and inspiring to know that that same true heart turns to the
human in love and to the divine in prayer.
" Precious sister, your prayers have reached the Throne, and the gracious
answers have been blessing me both in my body and my soul. Two weeks
since I was struck in my own pulpit, just at the clo.se of the evening sermon.
TRIUMPH IN THE FURNACE. 445
I felt my feet giving way ; I limped home, I scarcely know how. Lying
down on my bed, the pain rapidly developed, until it was almost more than I
could endure. Confined to the ankle and soles of the feet, it was as if that
part were full of teeth, and all were quivering at the same moment with vio-
lent, jumping toothache. This, of course, made the feet so sore that I could
not bear to have them touched. The pulsing pain in the sore feet, continu-
ing day after day, involved my whole nervous system, until in the paroxysms
I was almost like one the victim of convulsions. Oh, the long, weary nights !
the throbbing pain beating the seconds of hours that seemed like little ages.
" Since Tuesday last I have had measurable relief, though prostrated be-
yond expression in my general system. Owing to the soreness of my feet,
and the condition of my liver and other organs, the doctor insists on my re-
maining in bed a few days longer. I have thus entered into detail respect-
ing myself, because I thought it might be what your kind, warm heart would
desire to know.
" But now, turning from the sick and suffering man, let me humbly ac-
knowledge that the inward man, walking in the furnace, has been wonder-
fully sustained and enabled to triumph day after day. Oh, Sister Emily,
how precious is full salvation in our times of extremity ! When every nerve
was quivering with agony, the heart sent up its blessed testimony ' Washed
in the blood of the Lamb.' I realized, too, that I would have some little
claim to the other part of that blessed Scripture ' These are they that have
come up through great tribulation,' etc. I could, if I were physically able,
fill many pages with these experiences all of grace. Join me to sing, ' Glo-
ry to the Lamb.'
" All the rest are well, and send you and Brother Edward tenderest love.
Do please write soon again your letters are like so much light thrown into
my sick-room. God bless my Wilmington friends."
To Mrs. Stevens, of Wilmington, Del. :
"NEWARK, November 8, 1871.
" To-day they are allowing me to sit up for a little while. Thank God
for this indication of convalescence ; but I am still very much prostrated in
my physical nature. To rest my weight on my feet or to take a single step
would be quite out of the question. As yet, there is no developing appetite
whatever. I nibble a little, but it is a mere matter of form, or to make some
contribution to the reduced strength of my system. The great concern on
my mind has been to know exactly what is the will or design of my Heav-
enly Father in this dispensation. It has wonderfully increased my interest
in and sympathy for suffering humanity. Oh, it seems to me I would most
44^ LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
willingly rub or bathe the feet even of a suffering brute. It has realized to
me the power and preciousness of many parts of Scripture bearing upon
suffering passages that previously had their exposition principally in my
intellect. It has satisfied me of the independent action of the soul, for when
my whole lower nature seemed to be quivering and quailing through excru-
ciating pain, my higher being not only trusted, but triumphed in the God of
my salvation. The best hours of my illness were when the fierce fires of
suffering were kindling and scorching all around me. It has convinced me
that full salvation is the only preparation for the ten thousand contingencies
that belong to a mortal career. Oh, how soothing to feel, hour by hour,
that the soul has been washed in the blood of the Lamb, and to experience
the inspiration of that perfect love that casteth out all fear that hath torment.
These with other lessons have been most precious and profitable, and yet
I can not but think that my faithful Lord has some ulterior meaning in this
affliction that is not as yet fully or satisfactorily revealed. I want to sit like
little Samuel, and, with a humble and obedient heart, say, ' Speak, Lord,
for thy servant heareth.' God's will is so infinitely good, that without fear
I would follow where it leads. Your allusions to the grassy hillocks in the
Clyde Cemetery were most tender and touching. Truly, as you intimate,
those sacred mounds become our earthly Pisgahs. They lift us above the
world, and enable us to retrospect profitably the past and anticipate rapt-
urously
" 'Canaan, fair and happy land,
Where our possessions lie.'
" Let me thank you, my dear sister, for your gentle sympathy and strong
and valued affection. ' A world in purchase for such a friend would not be
too dear.' Your beautiful letter was read again and again in my sick-room,
and in every instance it lifted me up in my thoughts and feelings. Will you
not remember me most affectionately to your beloved daughters ? We shall
fitill indulge the hope of sharing with them the hospitality of our itinerant
home."
To Mrs. Abraham Bruner, his mother-in-law :
" Saturday, November n, 1871.
" I am writing this note in my bod, to which I have been confined for
three weeks. For some months past I have been far from well, but at the
close of my sermon on the evening of October 22 I felt my feet giving away.
I limped home, went to bed, and for about nine days was almost distracted
with what my physicians entitled mialgia an acute form of inflammatory
rheumatism. The pain was confined to my ankles and the soles of my feet.
FONDNESS FOR SINGING. 447
It was just as if the back part of the feet were filled with teeth, and all at
the same time affected with violent, jumping toothache. This, of course,
made my feet so sore that I could scarcely bear to have them touched.
Then the pulsing pain in the sore feet, continuing day after day, so involved
my whole nervous system that toward the last it was almost like convul-
sions. The only relief that I got was through morphine and chloroform.
For ten days I have been relieved of the pain, but still am very sick. Only
once have I sat up, and then returned to bed with a raging fever. Fever,
bloody expectorations, sore throat, torpid liver, disordered kidneys, absence
of all appetite, hemorrhoids, and great weakness, are my symptoms at pres-
ent. My physician, Dr. Nichols, a skillful and experienced practitioner of
the old school, is very faithful in coming to see me twice a day. Then my
precious wife (God bless her !) has been unremitting in her attentions. Day
and night, like a loving angel, she has hovered over my pillow, studying my
wants, anticipating my wishes. Oh, I can never repay her for her self-sac-
rificing and unwavering love ! I fancy she looks thin through her constant
nursing, but she would not permit any one to take her place, and I am sure
I do not want any one else.
" Above all, dear mother, I have had the precious Jesus with me during
every hour of my sickness. When my pains were most severe, He would
let down on my soul such a weight of glory that I was obliged to break
forth in strains of praise and joy. Oh, precious mother, how invaluable is
full salvation in suffering and in the prospect of eternity ! To feel that the
soul is washed in the blood of the Lamb, and to realize the perfect love that
casteth out all fear that hath torment. Oh, this is more than all the world
beside !
" But I am weary now. I can write no more."
Through all his sickness Mr. Cookman retained his fondness
for singing, and sometimes would have his wife and his little
Mary and Helen on his bed beside him, joining in such hymns
as " Rock of Ages," " Oh, how I love Jesus !" " I shall be sat-
isfied," " Jesus calls me." His voice never seemed fuller and
sweeter. One day he was so much better as to be able to be
out in the sitting-room. Lying on the sofa, or reclining in an
easy chair, his face wore a most heavenly expression, and his
remark upon every thing around him was, " Oh, it is beautiful 1"
Seeing a gentleman walking fast on the street, he said, " That
is the way I used to walk. I wonder if I ever shall walk that
448 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
way again ?" His wife remarked, " Certainly ;" but he seemed
to doubt it. On the last evening that he sat up, his sister Mary
being present, he asked them to sing,
" Oh, it was love, it was wondrous love !"
and other spiritual songs. He retired about nine o'clock, and
that was the last time the family sung together.
One day he said to his wife, " Do you know what I have been
doing? I have been counting my friends." When told that it
was impossible, he had so many, and that he could not have an
enemy, " No," he remarked, " I do not know that I have. God
has been very good to me, but you know there are some very
special friends."
Never was Mr. Cookman more devoted to his wife and chil-
dren than now. Having consecrated his children to God from
their birth, he confidently trusted them with the Heavenly Fa-
ther. Every day he wished them all brought to his bedside ;
especially the youngest, his baby boy, Alfred, whom he called
his sunshine, he would have on his bed and play with him by
the hour. His little Willie said to him one day, " Papa, do you
think you will ever bathe in the ocean again ?" " No, darling,
I reckon these feet will never touch that graveled walk again."
He even taught his boys to recite pieces, heard his daughter
Annie recite a hymn, was so cheerful that all thought him con-
valescent, and, indeed, no one thought him critically ill until
the day of his death.
On Saturday, the nth of November, Dr. J. M. Ward, a mem-
ber of the Presbyterian Church, visited and prayed with him.
The Doctor afterward gave an account of the visit in The Guide
to Holiness?
" I saw our dear Brother Alfred Cookman just two days before he left us.
Committing to me at that time the care of his weekly meeting for the pro-
motion of holiness, he added, ' I shall be out in a week or two, and will re-
sume the care of it myself.' So he doubtless thought ; but the dear Lord
* July, 1872.
THE SWEET WILL OF GOD. 449
had other service for him above. He was sitting in his chair by the bed-
side, his face glowing with heavenly brightness. To speak was painful to
him, from soreness of the throat ; and yet so full, even to overflowing, was
his heart with the love of Christ, that he could not refrain from talking.
As truly might it have been said of him, as of one of old, 'the love of Christ
constraineth me ;' for his utterances were such as the Holy Spirit only could
give.
" In answer to a question as to his sufferings during the week, he said,
' They have been excruciating, and yet so gloriously has Jesus manifested
Himself to me in them all that I have been immensely the gainer from them.
Such views of Christ's presence with me such views of His cleansing blood
have I had as never before. Oh, the precious blood !' he exclaimed. Then,
with an upward glancing of his eye, his head leaning backward upon the
chair, he repeated, ' Oh, the precious blood, the precious cleansing blood
of Jesus !'
"No marvel that he was getting clearer views of the precious blood under
clearer manifestations of Christ to him, for he was ripening most wonder-
fully, all unconscious to himself and us all, for his entrance upon his heav-
enly inheritance ; he was being ' made meet ' for the abundant entrance so
soon to be administered to him into the heavenly Jerusalem. * * *
" The prayer was ended, in a moment more the parting was said, while
hand was pressing hand, and the interview closed. But the glory filling the
chamber of the sainted one seemed still to encircle me all the way home-
ward, giving character to my first utterances to friends, as I said, ' Oh, what
a blessed interview with Brother Cookman this afternoon !' "
During the doctor's prayer he would frequently respond,
"The sweet will of God." To his sister he said the same day,
" If I could have life on earth by the lifting of my hand, I would
not. If Jesus should ask me, 'Would I live or die? 1 I would
answer, ' I refer it back to Thee.' " To the Rev. Mr. Dunn, in
his last interview, he said, " I wish that I could tell you how
precious Jesus has been to me during my sickness. I have had
such view r s of Him as I never had before. Right in the midst
of my intensest sufferings He has so manifested Himself to me
that I have been lifted above them all."
He remarked to his wife, " God means something by this
sickness ; He is either fitting me for greater usefulness here or
45 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
for heaven. I am lying passive in His hands, trying to learn
the lessons He would teach me. I am sitting in the hands of
the Heavenly Artist." To one of his official members he used
substantially these words : " My Church is very dear to me ;
my wife and children are very precious; my friends are dear
to me ; but the sweet will of God I love better than all else ; I
have no choice to live or die. God has some design in this
sickness Jesus is very precious." Often he would repeat, " Lo !
I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." The same
evening the Rev. William McDonald and two members of the
Church visited him ; he enjoyed seeing them, and during prayer
there was an extraordinary sense of the divine presence.
Sunday, his last Sabbath on earth, was a beautiful day. He
requested his wife to open the window and let the bright sun-
shine in the room, remarking, "The beams of the Sun of Right-
eousness are shining around me. Glory all around !" He re-
quested to be sung
" Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,
Weak and wounded, sick and sore ;"
and said, "That grand old hymn ! Yes, I am weak and wounded,
sick and sore." '
He was very earnest all day in praying for the ministers and
the preaching of the Word. In the afternoon Mr. McDonald
visited him again, and they conversed closely and fully on the
subject of holiness. He said among other things to this friend,
" I have tried to preach holiness. I have honestly declared it;
and oh ! what a comfort it is to me now. I have been true to
holiness ; and now Jesus saves me saves me fully. I am wash-
ed and made clean. Oh, I am so sweetly washed in the blood
of the Lamb !" That evening he became extremely weak, and
so sensitive to pain that he could not bear the least noise, and
yet he was tender and quiet without the slightest manifestation
of impatience, and so considerate that when he heard the voice
of one of the brethren in an adjoining room he asked to see
HEAVENLY VISITANTS. 451
him. The friend remarked, "Why, my pastor, you are all fixed
up collar on and wrapper on." "Ah," he replied, "your pastor
has not much strength ; the outward is failing, but all is right
within."
Quite early Monday morning he asked his wife the question,
" Where will you live, in Columbia or Philadelphia ?" Affected
to tears she replied, " Why do you ask me that question ? I
could not live any where without you." Seeing her feel thus, he
sweetly said, " I thought I would like to know." This was the
first morning he was unable to shave himself; he was very
weak, and he evidently was impressed that his end was ap-
proaching. He asked his wife again, " My dear, if the Lord
should take me away from you, could you say, ' The will of the
Lord be done !' " She, startled at the question, replied, " I feel
that you belong to the Lord, I have always felt so, but I do not
believe He is going to take you away from me." He responded,
" God's will is always right and best, dear." " But," she said,
"how can I live without you?" He replied, "Jesus can be
every thing to you; He has been with us in the past, and He
will never leave nor forsake you. You know the Bible is full
of promises for the widow and fatherless. Live a moment at a
time, ' looking unto Jesus ;' and then, if permitted, I will be with
you often ; I will be your guardian angel, and be the first to
meet you at the pearly gate."
His mother spent most of Monday with him. While she was
present he lost the use of his hand. He remarked, as he looked
at it, " This hand seems paralyzed, but it belongs to Jesus" He
then repeated part of the hymn
" God moves in a mysterious way."
His mother said, " I feel it a privilege, Alfred, to be in this
room, there is such a divine influence ; it seems like the gate
of heaven." He responded, " Yes, there are heavenly visit-
ants here." About five o'clock P.M. she left him to return
to her home in New York, not supposing him to be near death.
452 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
As she was kissing him good-bye, he held her hand, and,
gazing into her eyes, he said, " Next to Jesus, mother, I owe
every thing to you. Your holy influence, your godly example,
your wise counsels have made me the Christian and the minis-
ter that I am." To his brother John he said, "John, you have
been a mercy to me mercy is written on your brow. My friends
are all a mercy to me. I am not afraid to die. Death is the
gate to endless glory ; I am washed in the blood of the Lamb"
He desired to see his sister-in-law, Miss Rebecca Bruner, who
had just arrived from Columbia, Pennsylvania, and after inquir-
ing for the loved ones at home, he said to her, " This is the
sickest day of my life, but all is well ; I am so glad I have
preached full salvation ; what would I do without it now ? If
you forget every thing else, remember my testimony WASHED
IN THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB ! Jesus is drawing me closer and
closer to His great heart of infinite love." To his wife he said,
"I am Christ's little infant; just as you fold your little babe to
your bosom, so I am nestled close to the heart of Jesus."
Shortly afterward his oldest son, George, returning from New
York, came into the room ; looking up to him, he said, "My son,
your pa has been all day long sweeping dose by the gates of
death." At his request he was removed to the other side of the
bed, when he remarked, " How sweet and quiet every thing
seems; I feel like resting now." Very soon he became sick
at the stomach, and immediately an effusion of the brain took
place, when he became insensible to outward things, and within
about four hours, at eleven o'clock P.M., surrounded by his
family and the trustees of his Church, he died, sweeping through
the gates of Paradise, washed in the blood of the Lamb.*
Thus, on the i3th of November, 1871, passed to the bosom
* It docs not appear from the most accurate evidence that Mr. Cookman
said literally, " I am sweeping through the gates, washed in the blood of the
Lamb ;" yet his expressions, when put together, certainly justify the phrase
which has obtained popular currency as his dying testimony.
INTELLIGENCE OF HIS DEATH. 453
of God, in the prime of his life, one of the most saintly, earnest,
and useful men of modern times. His dying testimony carries
us back to the glowing record of St. Ignatius, when yearning for
martyrdom : " Suffer me to imitate the passion of my God.
My Love is crucified; there is no fire in me desiring earthly
fuel ; that which lives and speaks within me says ' Home to
the Father.' "
The intelligence of Mr. Cookman's death spread rapidly, and
was every where received with astonishment and pain. His
most intimate friends, even those who had seen him during his
illness, were shocked at its suddenness. The thought of death
had not been really associated with one who had moved so re-
cently among men with a vigor which promised a long and
healthful life. The shock at his sudden death was only ex-
ceeded by the universal grief which it caused. It was as though
"one were dead in every house" where he was known or the
odor of his sanctity had entered. It is a question if the mys-
terious loss of his father, though it may have gathered about it
more romantic interest, excited a more general and profound
grief. " When I heard of his death," writes a gentleman from
Philadelphia, "I spent a week silently in tears." Exclaimed
an old colored woman in Wilmington when told of his death,
"Dat man gone straight to glory." His family, his Church, the
churches which he had previously served, were overwhelmed
with sorrow. From private persons and public bodies, from
both the secular and religious press, there teemed the most ten-
der expressions of regret and condolence.
The funeral services took place in the Central Church, Mar-
ket Street, Newark, at three P.M., on Thursday, the i6th. The
following account appeared the next week in TJie New York
Christian Advocate :
" The parsonage was filled at the funeral with ministers, chiefly Method-
ist, but also of other denominations, who appeared subdued by the feeling
that a very afflictive and mysterious dispensation had fallen upon the Church
454 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
and the family in the unexpected removal of Brother Cookman. The plate
on the beautiful coffin told the age of the deceased to be forty-four; and
pure, sweet flowers rested on either end, at the foot in the shape of a cross,
at the head in that of a crown.
" At 2:30 P.M. the procession moved from the house, the family and bear-
ers in carriages, followed by the officers of the Church, and perhaps a hun-
dred clergymen from far and from near. One of the most affecting sights
of the occasion was the little children of our departed brother about the
coffin and in the procession, evidently not old enough to appreciate the full-
ness of their loss. The church pulpit, altar, gallery, choir was heavily
draped in mourning, and crowded in every part, including the aisles, out
into the street, by a deeply sympathizing congregation. In the pulpit were
Bishop Simpson, Rev. De Witt Talmage, Dr. Porter, Dr. Crane, Rev. Mr.
McDonald, and others; the altar also, and a considerable portion of the
centre of the church, were occupied by brother clergymen. The opening
anthem came soothingly, ' Cast thy burden on the Lord.'
" Rev. S. Van Benschoten read Psalm xc., and Mr. Talmage I Cor. xv.,
when the* venerable Dr. Porter led in a solemn and appropriate prayer.
Rev. Bishop Simpson then addressed the hushed audience.* Throughout
the bishop's manner was very subdued, as though struggling to repress the
rising of a great sorrow.
" Rev. Mr. McDonald then rose and spoke of Brother Cookman in his
relation to holiness and the National Camp-meeting Association.! The
choir sang ' White Robes,' and the deeply affected congregation took their
last loving look at their beloved pastor and friend."
After the services the remains were carried to Philadelphia,
accompanied by the family, members of the National Camp-
meeting Committee, and a large delegation from the Central
Church. They were deposited at the house of Mr. Frank Cook-
man, whence the next day they were escorted to the Union
Methodist Episcopal Church on Fourth Street, where additional
funeral services took place in presence of a densely crowded
congregation. As the clergy walked slowly into the church,
the strains of the " Dead March from Saul " helped to deepen
the solemnity of the scene. An anthem was then sung by the
choir, and the Rev. Dr. Nevin, of the Presbyterian Church, read
- See Chapter XXVI., p. 469. t Ibid., p. 474-
FUNERAL SERVICES, CONTINUED. 455
the Scriptures. Rev. J. Dickerson announced the hymn, " Serv-
ant of God, well done," which was sung by the congregation;
and the Rev. Dr. Pattison offered prayer. The Rev. Dr. Sud-
dards, of the Protestant Episcopal Church, after reading anoth-
er scriptural lesson, addressed the audience, in which he made
feeling allusion to his intimacy with the Rev. George G. Cook-
man, and paid a high tribute to the excellence and usefulness
of both father and son. The Rev. Andrew Longacre next fol-
lowed in an extended address, relating to the character, la-
bors, and death of the deceased.* The Rev. Mr. Alday, pas-
tor of Union Church, then spoke more particularly of the last
sickness of the departed. The closing address was by the Rev.
Dr. (now Bishop) Foster, of Drew Theological Seminary, New
Jersey, who spoke substantially as follows :
"Alfred Cookman belonged to a royalty. There are many royalties of
earth; there is the royalty of genius, but I should not class our brother with
these he was not a genius. There is the royalty of intellect; of scientific
research; of the power to unfold great doctrines and grasp great principles.
Though a man of a beautiful mind, a clear and strong intellect, the range
and sweep of his observation was not his most wonderful gift There is a
royalty of eloquence : our brother was not wanting in this; he seemed to be-
long to a race whose lips were strangely touched.
" But he belonged to a royalty rarer by far than any of these the seraphic
royalty of earth. He was not Pauline, but he was Johanine. He was the
brother of John, who leaned upon the Master's breast, from whom he drew
his inspiration. He belonged to the race of Fletcher and of Payson the
best and rarest royalty God has ever permitted to grace the earth.
" \Vhen the brother prayed that the mantle of Alfred Cookman might fall
on us, I said, ' Amen, Lord Jesus.' Not his mantle of eloquence or pulpit
power, so much as his great, magnanimous, holy, and sacred character.
" As my little boy brought the message of the death of Alfred Cookman
to my lecture-room, he knew how it would strike me; he knew he had min-
istered at the altar where his sainted mother and sister used to worship; so
he said in a whisper, ' Father, Brother Cookman is dead.' Oh, how it
shocked me ! I thought at once that the most sacred man I knew had gone
* See Chapter XXVI., p. 476.
456 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
away from us; and this is my testimony to-day. I have known the Church
for thirty years; I have known the men of the Church during that time
through all the episcopacy and ministry; and the most sacred man I have
known is he who is enshrined in that casket."
" The casket was then opened, and the large concourse pres-
ent were permitted, moving up the central aisles and retiring
by the rear doors, to see the face they shall look upon no more
till resurrection morning. Many as they passed bent over and
imprinted a kiss on the cold lips and marble brow, which wore
the natural expression and sweetest smile, remembered so well
by all who knew him in life. Tears fell freely as the scores
whom he had led to Jesus bade him a last farewell." The
preparations for burial followed ; and Rev. Messrs. Gillingham,
Turner, Dickerson, Major, and A. Wallace, surviving members
of the class of 1848, Philadelphia Conference, of which Mr.
Cookman was a member, carried the body of their classmate
to the hearse in waiting, and also to the grave in Laurel Hill
Cemetery, where the burial service was read by the Rev. W. L.
Gray, Dr. Pattison, and Dr. J. H. Alday. The hymn " Rock of
Ages" was sung he having expressed when in health a liking
for singing at Christians' graves and just before sunset his
body was committed to the earth. Laurel Hill, hitherto his
Pisgah, was now his last resting-place.
Memorial services were held in many of the churches of Phil-
adelphia ; in Grace Church, Wilmington ; in Central Church,
Newark; and also in Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, New
York. The trustees of the Central Church, Newark, have had
a Gothic tablet of Italian marble placed in the audience-room
of their church, in the wall at the right of the pulpit, with this
inscription :
" En tfSemora? of 2eb. SUfrefc (Eooftman.
BORN JANUARY 4, 1828.
DIED NOVEMBER 13, 1871.
'He walked with Cod and was not, for God took Aim.' "
CHAPTER XXVI.
ESTIMATES OF THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
WE have thus seen the earth close over all that was mortal of
Alfred Cookman. I have sought so to weave into the narrative
of his life the traits which distinguished him, as they appeared
not only to myself, but also to others, that now there seems
but little need from me for any special characterization of the
man or his work. Yet it may not be amiss, before dismiss-
ing a subject which I have studied with constantly increasing
interest, to briefly sum up my thoughts.
It has seldom fallen to any man to possess a nature in all
respects so admirably attempered as his was. He inherited
the physical and intellectual qualities of both his father and
mother, the distinctive type being possibly rather that of his
mother than his father having much of the father's fiery
creative energy, he yet partook more largely of his moth-
er's strong common-sense. In body he was more robust than
his father ; in intellect he was less bold and incisive, but prob-
ably equally sure, and even more tenacious. From a child
he was healthful. When grown, in person he stood about five
feet nine inches, and was well proportioned, with a full, round
chest, a head of medium size, not a prominent forehead, sur-
mounted and surrounded by rich, glossy black hair ; his eyes
were gray, large and full, with a gentle, lustrous, rather than a
piercing look.; his nose was straight, with sufficiently distend-
ed nostrils ; his mouth wide, lips moderately full, well set, but
not too tightly compressed, showing an expression of mingled
tenderness and firmness ; a chin round, smoothly shaven, and
massive enough for strength the whole face just such as to
tr
LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
make you say when you had the hastiest view of it, " There is
a marked and trustworthy man." With a ruddy complexion,
a sinewy form, a steady step, an erect carriage, he looked like
one born to command, and he did command.
Mr. Cookman's fine physical fibre had much to do with the
exquisite delicacy of his feelings. Truly natural, without the
least artificiality, he responded healthfully to all the works of
God about him, and was never more at home than when sur-
rounded by primitive scenes and primitive people. He was
very practical ; the farthest removed from an affectation of su-
periority to common matter-of-fact life, he ever manifested a
keen zest in all the ordinary occurrences of the family and the
world. " There was nothing human which was foreign to him,"
in the sense that whatever interested his fellow-men interest-
ed him. He never fell into the mistake of a morbid senti-
mentalism which shuts itself away from men and things under
the plea of contempt for mankind. He was truly modest,
shrinking whenever possible from observation, and " wondering
what the churches saw in him that they should desire his poor
services." The lowest seat suited him best, and was inva-
riably taken if the choice were left to him, and no man ever
more surely fulfilled the apostolic injunction, "In honor prefer-
ring one another."
Generosity was strongly marked in his character. While he
was incapable of retaining a grudge against an enemy, to his
friends he was unbounded in his devotion. He could not say
too much in their praise or do too much for their advantage.
This quality made him charming as a pastor no matter if the
circle of his friendship was constantly enlarging, he had ca-
pacity for its ever-widening increase because he riever seemed
to forget or overlook any one he had ever loved ; and into the
circumstances of all people, whether of joy or grief, he could
enter with an ease and directness which made all who were
the recipients of his sympathy feel its genuineness. During his
GENEROSITY. FILIAL AFFECTION. 459
last sickness a gentleman called to tell him of the death of his
boy. He entered promptly into the afflicted father's feelings,
and in comforting him said, " Dear brother, the heart will ache.
It is not wrong to weep. Jesus wept, and He does sympa-
thize with us ; but remember Jesus can dwell in an aching
heart." A day or two afterward the child was buried. It was
a stormy day, and as Mr. Cookman lay upon his bed he was
heard to pray that God would comfort the bereaved family,
" for, Lord, it is hard to put away the little darling on such a
stormy day."
This generosity of heart made him very kind to the poor. It
was not an uncommon thing for him either to send or to take
a basket of provisions to a destitute family, and oftener than
otherwise a substantial sum of money accompanied the basket.
Generosity, natural as it was, took shape under Christian prin-
ciples, and was not allowed to spend itself impulsively. The
one tenth of his income was dedicated to strictly religious uses.
The benevolent drawer as regularly received its tithe deposit
as his pocket received the stated dues on account of salary or
from other sources. Closely joined with this dedication of
himself and a stated proportion of his income to God, was a
firm faith in the care of divine Providence. There were times
when, with a large family, he was reduced to great straits ; but
he would always take his burden to the Lord Jesus, and some-
how, often in a way wholly unexpected, relief would come.
During these exigencies his liberality remained the same to
others. "Their need," he would say, "may be greater than
mine."
One of the most lovely features of Mr. Cookman's character
was his filial affection. He revered the memory of his father,
and loved his mother with a devotion which led him to sit at
her feet as a little child. The recollections he retained of his
father, which were sedulously cherished by the mother, invest-
ed the departed parent with a halo which, to the fervid imag-
460 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
ination of the son, lifted him to a region ideally apart and un-
approachable. The fame of the father was the son's natural
inheritance, and as such he sought to preserve and improve
upon it. And it is doubtful if Christian biography affords many
instances where a guardianship has been more faithfully ren-
dered, or an inheritance more legitimately and substantially en-
larged. Alfred Cookman will live in the Church of the future
as in all respects a worthy successor of his father, the Rev.
George G. Cookman. That the son owed much to the father
can not be denied ; but where has a son so well maintained
himself on heights upon which his father's reputation placed
him?
More, however, to the mother did he owe than to any other
human being. I may repeat the thought of another and say,
Mrs. Mary Cookman was mother of the body and soul of her
son. What Wordsworth so justly and gratefully said of his sis-
ter, Alfred could have said of his mother :
" She gave me eyes, she gave me ears;
And humble cares, delicate fears ;
A heart, the fountain of sweet tears,
And love, and thought, and joy."
Her native sense, delicate tact, moral ascendency, firmness of
discipline, religious fervor, feminine tenderness, and withal de-
votion to her son, which well-nigh inwardly consumed her with
zeal for his welfare, afforded the happy combination of qualities
which simultaneously and continuously stirred and guided the
natural powers of her first-born. She never allowed him to
outgrow her, and hence he never ceased to look up to her. In
his middle age he could as confidently rely upon her under-
standing as upon her heart ; and to the fact of this mother's
influence may be largely traced not only the womanly grace of
his mind and manner, but also the subtle force and reliable
judgment which distinguished his career.
In seeking for the ultimate cause of Mr. Cookman's power,
MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL FORCE. 461
I am obliged to find it in his moral nature. Religion, built
upon a sound, natural basis, was the real source of his influence.
It is impossible to estimate the man without considering the
joint and reciprocal effects of both his natural and spiritual con-
stitution, for their interaction was marked from the beginning.
This may be true of most men, but it was eminently so of him.
These pages have certainly shown him to be a singularly god-
ly person through his whole life ; the testimony of many who
knew him most intimately, and who were well qualified by their
good sense and opportunities of observation to judge, is to the
effect that he was one of the holiest of men, as free from moral
taint as any among whom he walked. A factor so important
in the make-up of his character can not be disregarded in the
determination of his intellectual calibre. That his religious
condition did affect his intellectual condition can not be ques-
tioned ; nor do I pretend to doubt, but claim it rather as a
glory, that the distinctive energy of Mr. Cookman was spiritual
rather than intellectual.
But I am not willing to concede that this energy was so ex-
clusively moral as some assert. He did not owe all he was to
religion no, not to that highest type of it, Christian holiness
in the sense that he could have been nothing, and would have
had no marked power without it. He possessed by nature a
very vigorous mind. Its structure was such that with the ordi-
nary opportunities of education it would have put him in the
foremost ranks in almost any profession he might have chosen.
He was endowed with all the essential elements of success a
discriminating judgment, a retentive memory, a vivid fancy, a
strong imagination, which saw things most clearly, a sympathiz-
ing heart, a power of application and adaptation ; these, united
to a handsome person and a voice of wondrous compass and
melody, must be accepted as the faculties which ordinarily war-
rant success. Genius, in the highest sense, seldom falls to
mortals ; but if in its usual and lower sense it consists in the
462 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
power which enables a man to see things as they are, and to
transfuse them with a glow which makes other men see and
feel them, then may we claim it for Mr. Cookman. What he
talked about people saw and felt.
It is true that he has given no proofs of profound scholar-
ship, and that he has left no evidence of fierce intellectual
struggles and doubts. But it will be remembered that his ca-
reer was thrust upon him, by a Providence he could not disre-
gard, to be a preacher rather than a theologian. The work of
the evangelist was definitively pointed out as his mission, and
not the work of the student. His vocation was consequently
to make history, not to write it. An actor in one of the most
important crises of the American Church and nation, he has
left to others, who may have the leisure and the taste, to record
what he and his compeers have so nobly done. Had he re-
sisted solicitations to so wide-spread a public service, and with-
drawn to the seclusion of the study, he might have been as
noted to-day for the depth and versatility of his attainments as
for his popular and effective eloquence.
He did, I allow, accept calmly the doctrines of the Church.
There is but little trace of dissent and disquiet in the history
of his religious thought. But must spasms of disbelief, crises
of fearful questioning, be regarded as the infallible signs of a
strong mind ? Shall it be regarded as an orthodox word among
those who scoff at orthodox Christianity, that no man can be
voted to the grade of able and original thinkers who has not
passed through the throes of mortal doubt touching all the
great fundamentals of truth which the wisdom of ages has sat
in judgment upon and approved ? If so, Mr. Cookman must be
rejected. But it is a fact that many of the greatest minds of
these and other times have never passed through any such
phases of unrest. "So far from this, some of the finest spirits
those whose vision is most intuitive and penetrating are the
most exempt from such anxious soul travails. Indeed, I believe
A SPIRIT ATTUNED TO TRUTH. 463
that there is no such safeguard against the worst consequences
of such perplexities as a heart that is pure, humble, and 'at leis-
ure from itself.' "*
Such was the state of Alfred Cookman. His judgments were
steadily, quietly reached ; not that his intellect was less capa-
ble, but that a sound heart did the main work of the intellect.
The medium of Mr. Cookman's power was the office and
work of the Christian pastor. By ruling, visiting, and preach-
ing, this power was exerted upon the minds and hearts of the
flock of Christ. For the threefold duty of his office he was fit-
ted by the gifts and graces just discussed. This fitness made
him ready and able to use, as circumstances required, all the
legitimate means of ministerial usefulness. He despised no
means, neglected none, which could give him greater access to
the hearts of the people. His invention was ever at work to
impart freshness to old means, or, if necessary, to devise new ex-
pedients of exciting attention. He was among the first Meth-
odist pastors to issue printed addresses to the congregation, or
cards such as his " League of Prayer," to promote revivals of
religion. He usually spent the forenoons of each day, except
Monday, in his study, and the afternoons in pastoral calls. To
the sick, the bereaved, and the penitent he was very attentive.
His visits were an effective instrument of his great success
as a revivalist. He would follow up closely those who in the
congregation manifested a desire for religion, and the result of
his careful attention to persons thus exercised was that they
seldom failed of obtaining comfort. Underlying his thoughtful-
ness and perseverance was his prayerfulness and faith. "I
knew him," writes his wife, "when in Wilmington and other
places, during a season of religious awakening, to stay up until
near day-break alone in his study, pleading with God for the
conversion of the people ; and when I have gone to him in the
night and entreated him to rest, he has said he 'could not, so
* " Culture and Religion," p. 106.
464 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
great was his burden for souls.' He believed in intercessory
prayer, and often remarked, 'Jesus spent whole nights in
prayer !' " The Rev. Mr. Inskip, speaking of him at the me-
morial service, Ocean Grove, said : " His great strength he got
from God at the mercy-seat. * * * Perhaps on no other occa-
sion was this more apparent than in that wonderful season of
prayer at Vineland. A halo of glory was around him. He rose
from his knees with his hands heavenward, his eyes closed, and
the influence that was felt all over the ground told of his inti-
mate relations with God." A gentleman of the Baptist Church
spoke also of the same occasion : " I shall never forget the pict-
ure I saw at Vineland ; it was under the arbor where Dr. and
Mrs. Palmer were holding a meeting, and Brother Cookman led
in prayer. He was on his knees, with his hands raised, asking
God for blessings. Instinctively I opened my eyes. He rose
from his knees, and reaching up as high as he could, seemed
to grasp the blessings asked for ; and then, falling on his knees
again, he thanked God for them. How much good it did me
to see such faith that would just reach up and get what God
was about to give."
Prayer and faith were never lost sight of in his preparations
for the pulpit. He sought direction of God in the selection and
elaboration of his topics, and then depended upon God for their
effectiveness. He was never happier than when preaching.
While always pertinent and instructive, he was at times borne
away by a tide of holy feeling, which swept both preacher and
audience upon its resistless strength. Mr. Cookman seldom
attempted great profundity or metaphysical niceties, but mostly
dealt in the plainer and more substantial facts of revelation
stating them usually in simple language, and enlivening them
with a natural imagery, a life-like or historical incident, so that
they were apprehended by all, even the most illiterate, and en-
joyed also by the cultured among his hearers. The late Rev.
Albert Barnes, of Philadelphia, was exceedingly fond of his
CHARACTER OF HIS PREACHING. 465
preaching, as affording to his mind one of the best examples
of pure Gospel sermonizing. A peculiarity of Mr. Cookman's
preaching was the frequent recognition of the three persons in
the Godhead. The cross of Christ, the blood of Jesus, was a
constantly recurring theme ; while he as repeatedly dwelt upon
the person, office, and work of the Holy Ghost.
It was by no mere novelties he drew the masses the com-
mon people heard him gladly, not as they rushed to see a show,
but expecting from his lips the words of life; and he gave them
bread, the vital truth of God, to feed them, and did not mock
them with a stone. His popularity in the pulpit was not due
to meretricious ornaments, or to the low buffoonery that caters
to a vicious taste, but to what he was as a holy man, and to
what he said as the ambassador of Jesus Christ.
If his themes were few, they were chosen conscientiously, be-
cause he believed it was impossible for a man who preached to
save men to stir from the cross of the Redeemer. He did,
however, present these themes with great freshness and unc-
tion. "To me," said an eloquent minister, who knew him well
and heard him often, "he was one of the freshest of speakers."
Whatever of light from nature, art, or passing events could be
shed on these topics for their more forcible illustration, he
sought and diligently applied. Nothing was more apparent
than that in the pulpit he was a thoughtful man in a thinking
and active age. But, above all, did he make the invariable im-
pression that his trust for the success of the Word was upon su-
pernatural help. The hearer who did not gather this failed of
the simplest teaching of the devout preacher. The whole effect
of the man was, that whoever, might be the instrument used, it
is God who giveth the increase. The effect of his evident reli-
ance upon divine aid was also heightened by his free, natural,
and forcible deliver}'. His voice and gestures were always
suited to his subjects now low, slow, and tender, and anon ris-
ing into vehemence of sound and action with the cumulation
U 2
466 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKiMAN.
of thought and feeling. Ample preparation having been made,
generally with the pen in hand, he entered the pulpit untram-
meled by manuscript, and in the delivery of the sermon looked
his audience directly in the eyes, and as he proceeded both gave
and received inspiration. It is doubtful if, as a preacher, take
him all in all, he had his superior for effective popular discourse
among the younger men of the land.
As to his capacity as a ruler, one phrase will express the
whole he ruled but little. He trusted his people, and they
trusted him. He was an ensample to the flock, a model of
purity in the minor as well as greater morals. His speech was
always seasoned with grace, though not indifferent to the flavor
of humor; he was the farthest removed from bitterness, coarse-
ness, and trifling. He was temperate in all things totally so
in things which might occasion offense moderate in dress and
in household expenditures. With as keen a relish for the re-
finements of life as any soul ever attuned to the harmony of
sweet sounds, he yet esteemed saving men preferable to all the
delights which art could afford. This thought is admirably
pointed by the substance of a conversation had with him by
Mrs. Battershall, of New York, while he was stationed at Spring
Garden Street, Philadelphia :
" Mr. Cookman, with that total absence of censoriousncss
which characterizes a perfect Christian charity, and yet with
that earnestness we should expect from a faithful Christian
watchman, when Zion's best interests are imperiled, remarked
to me on one occasion that 'the culture of the beautiful within
proper limits was all well and good, but he considered the glory
of God and the good of souls of infinitely more value than the
highest human culture.'"
Mr. Cookman's views of the ministerial vocation did not shut
him away from society or the nation. He retained fully his po-
sition as a citizen of the state. To him, as to one before him,
" politics was the body of religion ;" and he ever took the live-
HIS PLACE IN THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 467
liest interest in the great social and political questions of his
times,^s closely related to the welfare of Christ's kingdom and
the race. He was decided and active in the Temperance and
other humane reforms, giving to them not only his countenance,
but his cordial support. Much less did his calling as a Meth-
odist pastor exclude him from the most intimate fellowship with
all the people of God. He was incapable of narrowness. He
loved the image of Jesus wherever he saw it, and was happy to
count among his dearest friends and fellow-workers many min-
isters and laymen beyond the pale of his own denomination. In
no slight degree did his truly catholic spirit help forward the
deepening unity and spirituality which are now pervading the
several branches of Christ's holy Church. And it may be
safely affirmed that there is no name of American Methodism
of the present generation more ardently revered by Christians
of all denominations than the name of Alfred Cookman.
In assigning him his place in the modern Church, the distinc-
tion which I claim for him is that of a marked illustration of the
doctrine of Christian holiness. Whatever may have been origin-
ally in the mind of God concerning him, evidently the provi-
dential circumstances of his life tended to mould his character
and to shape his mission for this end. He was not disobedient
to the heavenly calling. He can in no sense be ranked with
original men such as found new systems of thought, new so-
cieties, or even new methods of activity ; his rank is with the
class who afford the material, furnish the facts out of which sys-
tems, societies, and methods are constructed. As a fact, Mr.
Cookman's life is of incalculable value to the student of the
great problem of Christian ethics. No mind, however critical,
can contemplate so striking an exhibition of moral purity, in its
direct relation to the Gospel as- its efficient cause, and ignore
the importance of the divine element in the great process of
elevating the human race. While to Christian inquirers with
an animus to know what is the utmost that the Gospel of Christ
468 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
can accomplish for a believer in Jesus, it is an instance which
must excite the highest wonder and delight, as affording an-
other example of the practicability and beauty of holiness in
their own times and among their own circles. The grace of
God purified the man while walking among his fellows, lifted
him up to shine as a clear, steady light by the very pathways
of busy people.
And this, to show what Christianity can actually do for men
as a purifying power, is what the world most needs to know.
One clearly defined proof of this, such as is given in the case
of our friend, is worth a thousand speculations. The danger of
our age lies in the direction of sinking out of sight as a reality
the agency of the Holy Ghost in the work of moral renovation.
The tendency is to reduce the great first cause of salvation to a
series of subordinate and incidental causes whereby man is
manipulated into a new life. The scientific spirit is reasoning
God out of the process of saving the world. An idolatrous
worship of intellect threatens to drown in an incense of
thought, culture, ideas, the stronger part of human nature, the
heart, out of which are the issues of life. It is sought in
some localities to politely bow out of society the Gospel of the
cleansing blood, of regenerating grace, for a new Gospel of
"culture." Mr. Cookman's life is an attestation of the abiding
strength and the spring-like freshness of the old Gospel. It is
an example of moral and spiritual purity, made such not by the
innovating process of the "schools," but by the power of the
Holy Ghost, through the blood shed on Calvary.
" It is the old, old story of Jesus and His love."
As such I have sought to present it to men. It may be that
greater men have died without any such extended record of
their lives ; but I doubt if any one has lived among us more
worthy of careful mention. He embodied in himself the attri-
butes of humanity most necessary to be known, loved, and imi-
AFTER DEATH. 469
tated. These attributes had their rise in the cross of Jesus
Christ, a source accessible alike to all persons. He lived and
died an example of the reality and power of Christian purity
one of the most beautiful specimens of a natural, simple, yet
divinely spiritual manhood which it has fallen to this or any
age to possess, and as such he takes his position among the
departed worthies of the Christian Church.
Mr. Cookman left seven children : George Grimston, Frank
Simpson, Annie Bruner, William Wilberforce, Mary, Helen
Kier, and Alfred ; Alfred Bruner and Rebecca Evans having
died before him. Mrs. Cookman, his widow, and the children,
have their permanent residence in Philadelphia, Pa.
BISHOP SIMPSON'S ADDRESS AT THE FUNERAL OF REV.
ALFRED COOKMAN.
How solemn this moment of sorrow ! With slow and measured steps we
have entered the church, as though unwilling to disturb what might seem
to be the slumbers of a dear one. We have come to drop a tear ; we have
come to take a last look ; we have come to gather around the form of a
loved brother and minister, and now a saint with Christ Jesus. The as-
sembling of such an audience is but a faint indication of the esteem and
affection which a departed brother had gained for himself in the Church of
Jesus Christ. Standing where we do at this time, as on the very verge of
the grave, and looking on the one hand to the fleeting years we have to stay,
and on the other to the eternity that stretches out to our view, how short
seems life ; how unimportant the transitory interests of life, and how grand
and sublime the realities of life just beyond ! Without the Bible, death
seems like a pause in a journey, a resting-place, a cessation of activity, a
moment of indifference to all things ; but with the light of the Bible it is but
the commencement of an eternal life, the renewal of exalted powers, the
preparation of a state of being higher and grander than that which has
closed ; and there are interests that gather around it that touch every heart
There is not in this assembly one but has buried a friend ; there is not
one who has not loved ones gone beyond the vale, and there is not one of
us who will not be called upon in the order of Providence, probably before
many years, to bury members of our families, or to be buried ourselves ;
470 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
and questions will arise as to what is this death, which smites down strong
ones this death that takes from our side the loveliest, that palsies the strong
arm on which we have leaned, that makes silent the tongue of eloquence,
the desire and glory of statesmen this death that seems the end of the
friendships of earth. I can not tell all that is in death, but one thing I know,
that, as I have intimated, it is not the end of being, it is not the cessation
of activity ; it is but a transfer from a conference on earth to a conference in
glory, it is but a passage from earth to sublimer scenes and employments in
the world above. We can not see those who have gone before us. We do
not know precisely what they are. We can not tell exactly where they are.
We do not know accurately the thoughts which burn within their being, nor
the great facts that have burst upon their minds. We know but in part, but we
know this, that they are very lovely, for they are like Jesus in all His love-
liness and in all His glory. " Beloved, now are we the sons of God; but it
doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall ap-
pear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is ;" and the loved ones
who sleep in Jesus, I know are like Jesus, though all that may be implied
in that I can not tell. They think the thoughts of Jesus ; they enter into
the great plans of Jesus ; they share in the great sympathies of the Son of
God, and they are being transformed into the fullness of his glorified image.
And what joy have they !
Often did our brother, who lies before us now sleeping this last sleep
often did he rejoice to look his congregations in the eye when standing on
the platform or in the desk. How often has he addressed many of us who
are here, and under the tones of his voice, his words, the message given him
from God, we were spell-bound. He loved to see the children of God gath-
ered around him, and especially was it a joy to assemble with those who
now behold him, and to point them on and up in the way of life.
But while this clay lies here in the midst of us, he has taken his place in
" the General Assembly and Church of the First-born, which are written in
heaven;" he has gone "to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just
men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant :" Him he
has seen, Him he has heard, and inconceivably grand visions have opened
before him. How much he knows that he never knew before of the riches of
heaven and of the great plans of God ! You and I have stood gazing through
a partially opened door, but he has swept through the gates into the city, and
the eyes which have closed on earth have opened in heaven, and in many
respects what we fail to comprehend here is understood there. The lips
which are silent are attuned to nobler strains. He sang sweetly here, and
I have listened to his strains, as he sang of Jesus with his melodious voice,
CONSISTENCY OF CHARACTER. 471
which is to be heard here no more ; but it is heard among the spirit voices in
glory. We do not know what are the employments of the glorified. There
are none of the unconverted to be preached to there, but there are the saints
of all ages with whom we may mingle ; there are wonders of redeeming love
to fathom ; there are new perceptions of the wisdom of God, and possibly
there are missions to our lower world. I know in his heart he yearned over
the Church of God, and in that heart he bent with the inquirer over the al-
tar, pleading for forgiving grace. He joined with the pardoned, and tri-
umphed in the love of God, and how often have I heard him sing the sweet
doxology when souls were just born into the kingdom of our Lord. Over
souls that are accepted from earth to their place in glory, over sinners
washed in the blood of the Lamb, does he no\y exult ? I think he does more
than ever. We sometimes think the Church will not triumph, and unbelief
haunts our spirits ; but yonder he sees Christ waiting until his enemies shaft
become His footstool, and he sees how He makes all things work together
for the triumph of His kingdom.
I have no words of eulogy to-day over our departed brother, but I do
know that in the record of his life, the mind which was in our Lord Jesus
Christ was made manifest, and he had qualities worthy of our examination
and imitation. I may say, without a thought of flattery, that our brother
possessed no ordinary talent. Blessed with a gifted father, who has often
thrilled the hearts of those who worshiped here, and whose voice was hushed
as he went down in the waves, and with a family all of them in the Church
of the living God, and he himself a bright example among them of personal
piety ; early consecrating himself to God, himself being the instrument in
the conversion of some of the members of the family, his was indeed a fa-
vored lot. Entering the ministry at an early period of life, he devoted him-
self unsparingly and constantly to the one work of bringing sinners home to
God.
As a minister he occupied no ordinary position. The churches which he has
been called to serve, and the multitudes that have listened to him, attest both
to his ability and fidelity. As a pastor he was kind, attentive, and faithful ;
and I can speak both of the success of his ministrations and of his faithful
pastoral labor from personal observation. Years ago he was the pastor of
my family in the city of Pittsburgh, and my children became attached to him
as their friend. And since we have been in the city of Philadelphia, he was
again our pastor, and I saw him go in and out. He stood by the dying bed
of one I loved, and his words and counsels were those of a Christian minis-
ter. I can say that during all the time I knew him I never heard one word
or saw the manifestation of any spirit inconsistent with the highest forms of
472 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
the Christian life. In the pulpit or out of it, at the fireside or wherever he
was, he was a faithful, pious leader of the people and follower of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Himself deeply devoted, he was very anxious to see a higher
type of religion prevailing in the Church, and very often his theme was
Christian holiness. I think, as he stands before the throne, he does not
regret that so often his theme was " Be ye holy, for I am holy." I rejoice
to say that he taught only the doctrine which a happy experience and godly
life verified. He was kind in all his ways, and brotherly in the expression
of all his views. Toward those who did not see as he did, he cultivated
the kindest spirit. He taught the truth as he saw it in Christ Jesus, but at
the same time he held out his hand to every one, and said, " If thy heart be
as my heart, give me thy hand." This spirit was shown toward all denom-
inations of Christians, and many of those of other persuasions loved to sit
tinder his ministrations. True to the interests of his own Church, and firm
in the utterance of her doctrines, he was far from having any thing of a spirit
of bigotry, but every where he saw the image of his Master he loved it.
Indeed, it is a mystery why he should be cut down so young, in middle
age, and even more youthful looking than he was. Why was he cut down ?
He stood by my bedside when life was trembling in the balance, and little
did I then think that I should be called to speak when his voice was hushed
in death. I seem to myself to be standing on the edge of the grave. I am
walking in the tombs, and the ground is breaking under my feet. There is
Thompson and Kingsley and McClintock and Nadal and Foss, and now
here is Brother Cookman. Why is this ? I can not tell. We know that
God can carry on His work. We know that He does all things well. Per-
haps He is teaching the Church that it must look more to Him than to the
instrumentality. He may be calling young men to take the places of those
who are falling from the citadel of Zion. There is a purpose, and there is
a voice in these dispensations of Providence.
Our brother was not called to pass through a very long period of illness,
though he was ill for some days. I had heard of his sickness, and after-
ward that he was mending, and seldom in my life have I been more shocked
than I was when a telegram reached me that Alfred Cookman was dead !
I could scarcely believe it. He stood before me so fresh and young, so
rounded in his character, so vigorous in his movements, that I could
scarcely believe he was gone. I would not be anxious about what he said
at the last, for knowing him in life, we know him in death ; and I could say
of him what I could say of very few, that I know, as far as I know any thing,
that he is with God, for he walked with God. Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God. So that I am not anxious about any last expressions.
THE VOICE OF PROVIDENCE. 473
Yet I am told he uttered just what I should expect of such a man, with his
chamber " quite on the verge of heaven." To his dear partner, upon whom
I trust the rich grace of God may rest abundantly, that as he was permitted
in life to be her guardian angel, so up yonder he should watch, and open the
pearly gates and welcome her in when she should come. He had a dream,
or a waking thought, that he had gone up to glory, and his dear brother met
him, and presented him as washed in the blood of the Lamb. His sainted
father met him, and presented him as washed in the blood of the Lamb.
His dear boy met him, and presented him in a similar way ; and he realized
that he was washed indeed in the blood of the Lamb. He was a good man,
full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and his life-work was manifestly done
when he came to die.
And now, Christian people, those of you who have sat under his ministry,
what would these lips say if they could speak? what would this voice utter
if it could be heard ? Would it not say, " Come to the cross ?" " Come to
Jesus now ?" Would he not speak of the fullness of salvation ? Would he
not tell of the love of Jesus Christ ? Would he not, if he could, unveil the
glories of heaven ? Would he not say to you and me, " Brethren and sis-
ters in Christ, ' Stand up for Jesus.' " And would it not be wisdom for us
to do so ? Would it not be, that we should seek for and enjoy full redemp-
tion in the blood of the Lamb ? Let us here consecrate ourselves more fully
to the glory of God. Let us, Christian ministers, my brothers in the king-
dom and patience of Jesus Christ, preach Jesus more fully, more powerfully,
until the world shall be converted. The ministers are falling, therefore we
who are spared should be more faithful, and pray to be made more success-
ful from year to year. I would invoke upon our dear sister, who feels to-day
that the light of her house and the joy of her heart has been taken from her,
the rich grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. To this mother, whose smitten
heart has been called so often to mourn, may I offer the rich consolations
of the Gospel of Christ. Oh, how many ties are up there in glory ! A hus-
band ; the second son ; this elder son all of them saved. In the midst of
years may the grace of the Lord Jesus be given unto her richly. And to
these brothers and sister I would say, Oh, that this dispensation may be
sanctified to their good. And on this brother, who is in the ministry of
Jesus Christ, oh, on him, in addition to all that has been given him, may the
mantle of his father and brother rest. And to these brothers, who are, hand
in hand, taking hold upon the business of earth, and yet preparing for the
state hereafter, may God strengthen them for their journey. And to these
boys and girls, who will never more hear their father's voice, may God be
gracious to you, my dear children. Walk in the footsteps of your father.
474 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
Early in life may you manifest the religion which he chose, and may these
sons be the sons of God. May the Spirit of God rest upon them, and save
them from the snares of the wicked one. And these daughters, may they
grow in loveliness, and may the spirit of Christianity be manifested in all
their lives.
Christian friends, with these weeping ones, this widow and mother, and
brothers and sister, and children, may we covenant with God to be more
faithful than ever. And may this church, that has echoed with his voice,
witness a glorious revival of religion ; and may his teaching bring forth fruit
to the honor and glory of God ; and when we come to die, may we have a
peaceful hour in which to pass away, and may we mingle with that glorified
company around the throne of God.
REV. WILLIAM MCDONALD'S REMARKS AT THE FUNERAL
OF REV. ALFRED COOKMAN.
I was never more profoundly impressed with my almost utter inability to
discharge a duty than I am to present to you the character of our dear
brother. I confess that since I first heard the announcement of his death, I
have scarcely been able to control my feelings sufficiently to collect any
thoughts for this occasion. My purpose is, in the very few words I shall
address to you, to speak of our dear brother in his relations to the doctrine
and experience of Christian holiness. I am sure, if he were permitted to
speak about it, and to express a wish in that regard, it would be that this
subject in which his soul so much delighted, and upon which his heart so
often dwelt with joy should be made very prominent about his mortal re-
mains. He was, in the first place, a consistent exemplar of the doctrine and
experience of Christian holiness none was more so. In casting my thoughts
over the Church, I declare to this immense congregation that I can select no
man in the ministry, that rises before me, that sheds forth a clearer light, or
who spake more definitely and instructively upon this great theme than did
he. He had a very definite experience upon this grace. * * * I think I shall
not forget, either in time or eternity, the expression he made at the Round
Lake camp-meeting two years ago, when he arose, and in a very modest
manner said " Alfred Cookman, washed in the blood of the Lamb ;" and
that experience was repeated over and over again with great distinctness
and force. Not only did he declare an experience on this subject, but he
was able to stand in the defense of this doctrine. Wherever he went the
people expected to hear the doctrine of Christian perfection, as held by the
PRE-EMINENCE IN HOLINESS. 475
Methodist Church. They expected words of power from his lips, and they
never failed to be gratified in this respect.
When at the first there was a call for a National camp-meeting for the
promotion of holiness, he accepted the position, and from that moment he
has been one of its most earnest and loved promoters. He was with the
brethren in this work at the first National camp-meeting at Vuieland. He
was at Manheim, at Round Lake, at Oakington and Desplaines, and then
again at Round Lake, and then at the last at Urbana. And who will ever
forget the sermons he preached at these camp-meetings ? Such power, such
thrilling pathos, such mighty influences, and such a divine unction as were
manifest under the preaching of our dear Brother Alfred Cookman, I never
witnessed elsewhere. There were hundreds of ministers, and I have no
doubt thousands of members, who will thank God for those sermons he
preached at Urbana, Ohio.
I can not realize that my dear Brother Cookman is dead. I can not re-
alize that I shall see his face no more a face always wreathed with heaven-
ly smiles, a face always indicating a blessing to those to whom he preached.
I can not realize that I shall never hear that peculiarly sweet-toned voice,
urging the sacramental host of God to " be holy," and to " be filled with the
Spirit ;" and those prayers offered to the Throne of Grace that bore him up
to the very third heavens. It seems to me it can not be so yet it is. It
does not seem to me that in the work laid out for the National Association
for the coming year that our dear Brother Alfred will not be there. Oh,
how his presence ever cheered us ! how his voice ever thrilled us ! how his
prayers and sermons and exhortations enriched us ! He will not be there ;
and yet I am expecting he will be there ; unless there is something very im-
portant to prevent it he will come and linger around those scenes. A wife
has lost a very loving husband ; these children have lost an affectionate
father ; this Church has lost an honored pastor ; and the Church at large a
worthy minister but there are mourners here other than these. The mem-
bers of the National Association for the Promotion of Holiness mourn as
few others mourn. This dear brother has been with us in the days of our
toil and affliction. Had you been with us as he has been with us, you
might know of ties that do not bind many hearts together. A number of us
are here, and we feel our loss deeply, and we know not how his place can
well be supplied.
LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
MR. COOKMAN AS A CHRISTIAN MAN.
BY THE REV. ANDREW LONGACRE.
There can be no doubt that Mr. Cookman's personal character entered
largely into the elements of his power. It was the substratum on which his
ample influence securely rested. It is difficult, however, to distinguish in
him the simply natural endowments from the precious gifts of divine grace,
since grace began its work so early in him. But it is not necessary to make
the distinction. As we knew him, he was a thorough Christian gentleman,
and the outward grace in him was but the gleam of the light of the gentle
spirit and fine feelings within. To many of us he was what Tennyson calls
his friend
" The sweetest soul
That ever looked through human eyes."
He was magnanimous in every instinct, never little or mean, incapable of
detraction himself and unsuspicious of it in others. His soul moved on the
high plain where all is broad and liberal and unselfish.
He was honest to his convictions at every cost ; and there were votes in
Conference that did cost him something in other days, as there were convic-
tions as a teacher of the truth more recently that were not unattended with
trial and alienation of friends. But nobody had ever to doubt where Alfred
Cookman stood on a question of conscience. And this was with no shadow
of bravado or self-assertion, but in the "meekness of wisdom," with the very
"meekness and gentleness," the "sweet reasonableness of Christ."
His character was rounded and well poised, and there was with it also a
deeper underlying wisdom than many who knew him well imagined, because
it was always perfectly unobtrusive. Altogether he was peculiarly a man
made to be loved. Unselfish in his friendship, his quick sympathies and
warm interest were freely given in return for the love we gave him. Few
men have ever been so widely or so greatly beloved. In the churches he
had served, and I speak undcrstandingly, for I have twice followed him at
considerable intervals, his name is embalmed in a deep and peculiar affec-
tion, as one dearer and better than other men.
Higher than all else was his character as a man of God. It was because
we saw and felt the holiness of his life that his influence was so strong with
us. His mind was drawn to the subject of entire sanctification in the very
beginning of his ministry by Bishop and Mrs. Hamline, then visiting New-
town, one of his appointments. For a number of years, however, his views
were undecided with respect to this doctrine. But about thirteen years ago
his conscience was awakened to it again, and he entered into the clear en-
A MODEL METHODIST MINISTER. 477
joyment of it as a personal experience. His convictions on this subject be-
came from that time the profoundest of his mind and heart ; and he never
failed, on all fitting occasions, to let his belief and his experience be well
understood. Yet I need scarce remind you that his confession had in it
nothing of self-exaltation. He never failed to disclaim all goodness in or
from himself; but he rejoiced always, and with an exultant faith, in the
power of the blood of Jesus to cleanse him from all sin.
His own faith and experience never seemed to separate him from others
who did not think or feel as he did. No one felt at a distance from him by
reason of his holiness. It was a holiness that attracted, not one that re-
pelled.
He has supported this scriptural teaching with all his consecrated abili-
ties. To it he has given the most cogent of his arguments, and still more
effectively his almost irresistible powers of persuasion.
But his life has been more powerful still. Men might, if they pleased, op-
pose his arguments with doubts and objections ; they might even turn away
from his burning appeals ; but no one could question the living purity of
the man, the practical embodiment of holiness in his life. In the shadow of
approaching death he expressed his joy and gratitude that he had been per-
mitted to experience and to uphold this great salvation, the fullness of the
power of Jesus Christ to save.
And he has gone. In the golden prime of his days, in the fresh maturity
and plenitude of his beautiful life, he has gone from his work, and from us,
who have loved him so well.
Recollections of Alfred Cookman, as a preacher, by the Rev.
James M. Lightbourn, of Baltimore, Md. :
"Alfred Cookman was the best model of a Methodist preacher I ever
knew. He was, in the highest and strictest sense of the word, a gentleman.
True politeness springs from the heart such was his. He was as gentle
and respectful to the humble poor as he was graceful and polite to the most
refined and cultured. With suavity of manners he united firmness of char-
acter. While his spirit was most loving, and his nature gentle and extreme-
ly sensitive, he was a hero in the cause of truth, both aggressively and de-
fensively.
" As a camp-meeting preacher, Alfred Cookman was a prince among his
brethren. An announcement that he would preach always insured a large
congregation. A sermon preached by him at the Camden camp, upon the
478 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
subject of entire sanctification, will never be forgotten by those who heard
it. It was the clearest exposition of the great doctrine I ever heard. His
appeals were irresistible, and swept all hearts. The fire which he kindled
that day he drew from heaven. The Spirit of the Lord God was upon him
his face was like that of an angel, and his voice rang over the vast audi-
ence carrying conviction to many Laodicean hearts. Revivals have been
known to follow his camp-meeting efforts."
A tribute from the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, D.D. :
" The Rev. Alfred Cookman's life comes back to me like the sound from
a church-bell embowered in trees on a soft June day. It was nothing so
much I ever heard him say, or any thing I ever saw him do, that so im-
pressed me as himself. He was the grace of the Gospel impersonated. I
met him often on the platform of religious and philanthropic meetings. To
be with him was to be blessed. The more I saw him the more I loved him.
His preaching was not made up of ten grains of metaphysics and nine grains
of German philosophy to one grain of Gospel, but with him Christ was all
and in all ! Sweep a circle of three feet around the cross of Jesus, and you
take in all that there was of Alfred Cookman.
" It is not so much the Methodist Church that suffers from his departure
as all Christendom. Oh, that we all might have more of his spirit, and die
at last his beautiful and triumphant death !"
The Rev. E. Wentworth, D.D., editor of The Ladies' Reposi-
tory, writes :
" Alfred was the most thoroughly religious man of my acquaintance re-
ligious beyond suspicion of cant, hypocrisy, or profession.
" In social life his religion was never obtrusive, but you felt its perpetual
presence and abiding power. This was not Sunday religion or pulpit piety,
camp-meeting fervor or revival fire. His devotion was a living flame, his
example a shining light, his influence a genial glow, his eloquence genuine,
his zeal the offspring of his deepest convictions unsparing. The only
drawback to the pleasure and correspondent profit of listening to his pas-
sionate appeals and sublime outbursts was the conviction that he was using
himself up, and that he would die a martyr to his own fervidness before he
reached middle life. It was even so. He belongs to the class of early mar-
tyrs geniuses like Mozart, Mendelssohn, Summerfield, and F. W. Robert-
son whose passionate souls made an early holocaust of the physical man.
He has gone sweeping through the gates, as he went sweeping through life,
and as he will go triumphantly sweeping up the streets of the New Jertisa-
REFERENCES TO HIS CHARACTER. 479
lem, attended by the thousands converted through his powerful ministry,
saying ' Here am I and the children which God has given me.' "
The Rev. Dr?W. M. Paxton's estimate of Mr. Cookman's
preaching :
" As a preacher, I always regarded him as remarkable. His sermons
were solid, able, experimental, instructive, and sometimes brilliant, glowing,
eloquent. His pulpit power, as I estimated it, consisted largely in two
things :
" i. In the happy faculty which he had of giving an experimental cast to
all his thinking. Few men have been as successful as he was in imbuing all
their preaching with their own rich experience.
" 2. In a singular capacity for pictorial illustration. This, I presume, was
in a measure a natural gift, inherited from his distinguished father, who, I
am told, was in his day unrivaled in this species of eloquence but when his
voice was silenced, the gift was reproduced in his son. I remember to have
listened, or rather to have looked with great delight at his beautiful pictures,
for they were so graphic that they passed like panoramic paintings before
my view. I presume, of course, that a volume of his sermons will be pub-
lished ; but permit me to suggest, also, that a small volume of pictorial il-
lustrations, gathered from his sermons, might do great good. It occurs to
me, however, that it is quite probable that many of his finest things were
never written. The faculty being a gift, and not an acquirement, I can well
understand that it would be fettered rather than assisted by the pen."
From the Rev. George S. Hare, D.D., the successor of Mr.
Cookman at the Central Church, Newark, New Jersey :
" I first met Alfred Copkman in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was very
open and frank, and went at once to a warm place in my heart. The thing
that struck me, outside of himself, at Pittsburgh, was that he was so entirely
loved, and almost idolized by his people. I could easily tell why, from the
impression he had made on myself. I met him again soon after in New
York, where I was a pastor, and he had come to speak at an anniversary.
I do not remember to have had any further intercourse with him until he
succeeded me as pastor of the Central Church, in New York. I had re-
moved to Trinity, in the same city, and of course we saw much of each
other. I think the relations of an old pastor and his successor were never
more delightful. Knowing the Church by heart, I had an opportunity to
observe his influence upon it to see how quickly he won all hearts, and
how entirely they came to confide in him as a friend and teacher. He fol-
480 LIFE OF ALFRED COOKMAN.
lowed me also at Trinity, and our relations remained the same. We were
true friends and brothers in our work, and Alfred Cookman never impressed
me but in one way as the gentlest, purest, and most sincere of men. I am
again his successor, but never more will he succeed me. I came here under
the shadow of his death to a broken-hearted people. It is doubtful if he
ever accomplished more for a Church in any full term of service than for
this Central Church of Newark in the few months of his pastorate here.
He was ripe in his holiness, and his influence fell like a power of God on all
around him. His triumphant death sealed it all, and left the Church so
chastened in spirit, so in love with goodness, so aspirant toward purity, that
it has been but an easy and joyful task to lead it on to good and noble
works. His memory here is as sweet and precious as the memory of mortal
man can be. I attempt no estimate of his character, but I give these few
impressions of an influence which has fallen like sunshine on my way, with
gratitude to God that He gave me Alfred Cookman for a friend and a
brother."
I can not more appropriately close these testimonials to
the worth and usefulness of Mr. Cookman, nor the history of
the life which it has been my pleasant task to record, than by
quoting the reference made to his character and death by
the Rev. W. M. Punshon, in the memorable address delivered
by that gentleman before the late General Conference of the
Methodist Episcopal Church in the city of Brooklyn. After
eloquently characterizing Bishops Baker, Clark, Thomson, and
Kingsley, the Rev. Drs. Mattison, Sewall, McClintock, and Na-
dal, all of whom had died since he came to America, he said :
" And then I think of a later loss than these a blameless
and beautiful character, whose name had a hereditary charm
for me, whose saintly spirit exhaled so sweet a fragrance that
the perfume lingers with me yet, and who went home like a
plumed warrior, for whom the everlasting doors were lifted, as
he was stricken into victory in his prime, and who had nothing
to do at the last but mount into the chariot of Israel, and go
' sweeping through the gates, washed in the blood of the
Lnmb.' "
THE END.
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